#*prosthetics

For each day of September (which is disability pride month in Aotearoa) I'm sharing a Tolkien fanfiction with disabled characters.

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Day 22/30: Celebrindal by @factorialrabbits

Fandom: Silmarillion

Rating: T

Disabled character: Idril (foot amputation)

Warnings: ableism

Summary: Eärendil helps his mother pick her outfit for the day.

Alternatively

Idril learns to create, to live, and to wear beautiful things.

[Image: a sword held in a left hand with the words “... and he lived to wield his sword with left hand more deadly than his right had been.” in white font. Beneath is the sigil of the House of Feanor.]

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The Hand Problem

Let’s talk about Maedhros! Or more specifically, about his hand. Yes, you all know which one.

Maedhros loses his right hand fairly early in the story when Fingon cuts him down from Thangorodrim. I’ve seen fans engage with this in a lot of different ways, including some incredibly insightful and nuanced discussions. But there’s a troublingly common trend of portraying Maedhros with a fully-functioning prosthetic.

Why is this a problem? Prosthetics exist, and real people use them. Why shouldn’t Maedhros?

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Hand Prosthetics

Let’s start with the basics about hand prosthetics. There are four main kinds;

Passive Prosthetics don’t have moving parts, although sometimes they can be manipulated into different shapes. They’re often used for aesthetic purposes, but they’re also useful for purposes like carrying, pushing, pulling or supporting things. They’re very common! About 1/3 of all upper-limb prosthetic users have a passive prosthetic.

Body Powered Prosthetics are attached to the rest of the body via harness and use those muscles to move the prosthetic. So for example, bending your arm might close the fingers of your hand. These provide some limited movement.

Myoelectric Prosthetics are the modern kind that use the electrical signals in surviving nerves to trigger movements in the prosthetic. These are the most elaborate and realistic prosthetics. They are also the heaviest and most complicated, requiring a lot of training before they can be used properly. Most require regular recharging. They still don’t replicate all of the functions of a living hand, especially finger movements. However, this area is advancing rapidly and more sophisticated myoelectric hands may be available very soon. 

Activity-Specific Prosthetics are designed to carry out certain tasks, for example prosthetic hands made for boxing. You can also have activity specific attachments such as knives or forks (or, say, short swords...)

Prosthetics aren’t always hand-shaped. Hooks are also quite common, although I’d be very careful about writing these because there’s a lot of problematic tropes around characters with hooks; particularly villains. Murderer Maedhros with a terrifying hook may sound tempting, but it fuels stigma and fear of disability.

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So What Would Maedhros Have?

Within the fantasy setting of the Silmarillion, myoelectric prosthetics are pretty much immediately ruled out as likely candidates. We have no evidence of any culture in Arda using electricity and the other kinds of technology associated with myoelectrics.

On the other hand (the left one), given the skill of the Noldor and especially the Sons of Feanor, they would certainly be capable of developing a passive or body-powered prosthetic. Such prosthetics have existed throughout history, as far back as Ancient Egypt.

So it’s completely possible that Maedhros would have some kind of prosthetic, whether for functional or aesthetic reasons. But it probably would have limited or no movement given the practical limits of the setting. Also, I’d argue that the “lived to wield his sword with left hand more deadly than his right had been” quote suggests pretty strongly that if he had a prosthetic, it wasn’t particularly functional / practical for sword-fighting.

But finally and most importantly, many upper limb amputees don't use any prosthetic at all. You can play around with lots of potential reasons Maedhros might make this choice, such as the general unwieldiness of prosthetics, a political desire to have his amputation visible, or pain at the amputation site. Personally, I think Maedhros might be deeply uncomfortable with having any kind of restraint around his wrist after the trauma of Thangorodrim.

Of course, this is all leaving out the one kind of prosthetic that we haven’t discussed. Magic.

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The Magical Cure Trope

It happens disturbingly often in fiction; a character is disabled or becomes disabled, but then through magic or some fantastical feat of science their disability is no more. Sometimes this is a very literal cure where a blind person gets their sight back or a paralysed wheelchair user can suddenly walk. Sometimes they’re given something that completely compensates for or negates their disability, like magic eyes that also have X-ray vision. But if our heroes become disabled, the message is clear; they have to regain their lost abilities before they can be a true hero again.

This is what we as fans are doing when we give Maedhros a perfect prosthetic. We hide his stump and we erase his disability, turning him effectively able-bodied again for the comfort and convenience of abled fans.

This happens because so many of us are stuck on the idea that disability needs to be 'fixed'. People are uncomfortable with disability, or they find it difficult to imagine a one-handed character being a fulfilled person living a competent happy life just as they are. If the option for two hands is there, people jump at it, because surely two hands would be better than one. But not everyone sees it that way.

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Arda’s Bodies Are Full of Diversity.

Consider the variations in height and strength, hardiness and lifespan, and all of the other traits that differ between the races. When we think about how many characters in the Silmarillion lose hands (Maedhros, Beren, Gwindor) and the war raging on around them, there must be hundreds of amputees and other disabled people across Beleriand who all need accommodations and respect. So rather than saying that their bodies are lesser or thinking about a magic hand, why not think about real societal change across the cultures of Arda? How do all of the different peoples deal with their sick and disabled kin?

I’m not saying that you can’t give Maedhros a magical metal hand. But you should ask yourself why you’re doing it and if that reason is a good one.

There’s a great deal of stigma around amputees and how their bodies look, and I think sometimes this can make fans reluctant to portray Maedhros’s stump or uncomfortable talking about it. But when we get those feelings that make us uncomfortable, we need to stop and look at them head on. We need to work out why. It’s not about making people feel shame or guilt, but we do need to put effort into recognising and confronting our biases so that we can work to be better people.

Please let me know if you think there’s an error in this post, I’m not an amputee or prosthetic user myself. And if you have questions I’m always happy to talk 😊

Thank you!! I’m very glad you liked the post. Your headcanons sound great to me. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with giving Maedhros a prosthetic, so long as it’s not magically a perfect replacement. Having limited mobility is very realistic and so is the idea of it being painful or unpleasant to wear for long periods of time, particularly if it’s metal. Him having different tools for everyday tasks vs battle is also great!

I do think that Maedhros’s prosthetic(s) would be likely to be more painful than modern day prosthetics for a number of reasons, such as the material involved, a messy and traumatic amputation, or the fact that many people headcanon the prosthetic as being made by Curufin or Celebrimbor and they’re unlikely to have had much practice making prosthetics. I think I’ve also read a fic (I think it might have been @nikosheba?) that mentioned Maedhros's hand being more difficult to wear in the cold, both because freezing metal directly painful and because the cold causes it to shrink and pinch. I really adored that idea and it’s stuck in my head ever since.

Thank you! I appreciate that 😊 I have many many thoughts so get ready for a long post :P I like your suggestion about him associating his amputation with his rescue, like a physical mark of how much Fingon loved him and how far he was willing to go. I have some similar thoughts about that and how Maedhros actually ends up feeling quite good about his stump. I’m going to break this up so that it’s not all a gigantic wall of text.

This is all personal headcanon, and it overlaps with some of my favourite Celebrimbor headcanons too!