Strength of a different kind.

Hey guys I just wanted to let you know that I moved blogs!

Peregrintook was a sideblog before, but it’s my main-blog now. 

Hey guys I just wanted to let you know that I moved blogs!

Peregrintook was a sideblog before, but it’s my main-blog now. 

ELF WEEK | Day four: Elven Realm 

 and recently I saw it presented to a mostly non-Silmarillion audience as an authoritative characterization and now I am seething 

Maglor personally killed Ulfang’s sons when they betrayed his cause 

Maglor held the most dangerous and exposed territory save Dorthonion

Maglor participated at Losgar and in all three Kinslayings

there are literally no instances of Maglor holding back when his siblings went to war

if anything he did far more evil than Celegorm, Curufin and Caranthir

(who skipped the ‘sacking a refugee camp’ part because they were dead)

 regret doesn’t erase that

there’s something really messed up about acting like mass violence doesn’t make you less of a good guy if you’re sufficiently sorry about it 

and the main justifications for it seem to be that Maglor was musical, which is sensitive and pacifist (and, let’s be honest here, often coded feminine)

which is a total misreading of the role of music in Tolkien’s world and of Maglor specifically 

nb: I love Maglor

I’m sympathetic to the sacrifices he and his brothers made during the war 

I understand what drove them even in their lowest points

 but he’s not a paragon

he’s not the nice one

he went to war reluctantly, he looked back on it regretfully

but he went to war

tell the dead they were killed by the ‘token good teammate’, by the ‘nice son of Fëanor’, by ‘the sensitive one’

actually don’t

don’t.

The OATH was very complicated. Did it make them do what they did? Did they THINK it made them do those things or did they use it as a justification?

I can understand that people would like to imagine the Oath made them do those things and that Maglor being “the gentlest” somehow snowballed into him being the sole nice guy of the group is also understandable.

However, the word “repent” was used most often in connection to MAEDHROS! If you read the Silmarillion Maedhros was actually the only one who fully expected they were gonna pick up the rest of their people and the only one who stood aside when the ships were destroyed. Not Maglor. Maedhros!

Maedhros was probably the one who had the most common sense in that family. Hell, he was probably the sanest person in the room when all eight were together.

Maedhros was the one who abdicated in favour of Fingolfin to assure they didn’t start warring amongst each other and took his brothers - ALL OF HIS BROTHERS - away to prevent open hostilities. Maedhros was the one who promoted unity among the Noldor and it was outright stated that he alone was on good terms with the Houses of Fingolfin and Finarfin. It was also Maedhros who went out to look for the twins after Doriath.

None of the Fëanorians is a textbook good guy and depending on whether you see the Oath as a shackle or an excuse, they can be outright bad guys.

But just because Maglor liked music and raised Elros and Elrond (after abducting them, mind you) and regretted his actions doesn’t make him suddenly the nicest in his family. He still participated.

To make it easy: Arda, the world, was sung into existence the whole world and happenings of the world are all musik.

Finrod almost defeated Sauron through Song, they battled with Song of Power.

Luthien brought down a whole fortress with her singing.

 "The most improper job of any man ... is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity."

I don’t think it was even 6 months later that he contracted trench fever and was sent home. 

His entire command was wiped out in one charge shortly after, the majority of a whole countryside’s youths slaughtered while he survived. Youths who were brave and steadfast, but thought of as lesser than their superior officers while still being the ones carrying the actual battle. Youths who deserved fellowship, respect, and above all to go home and dance with their own Rosie.

But there is a soldier in Lord of the Rings who does not come back, and I don’t mean Boromir.

I mean the being who was a common hobbit, but who became corrupted by darkness and poison, who’s face is described in ways reminiscent of a gas mask.

The soldier who doesn’t come home, who is poisoned by gas and stress and insanity.

Aragorn's entire arc isn't to be the steadfast hero saving the day, it's to hold the line in terror and horror and blood while the overlooked folk are the people who save the world. And then, what makes him a king, is not his skill in battle, but his healing hands.

Which then ties into both Eowyn and Faramir's arcs. Eowyn goes into healing not because she's a weak and meek woman, but because war is horrible and saving lives is better than taking them. Aragorn is glorified within the text for his healing, and so is Eowyn.

Also, tying into the common man thing, in the movies it's Faramir but in the books it's SAMWISE who questions what brings a man so far from home to fight in a war and if he is really so different.

LOTR is anti-war propaganda.