Today is day two of Diverse Tolkien Week and the topic is disability, so here are some of my disabled post-Thangorodrim Maedhros headcanons:
After his rescue Maedhros has to use a wheelchair for a while since being hung over a cliff for what according to the Annals of Beleriand was around two whole years made him lose much of his upper and lower body strength. Fingon takes turns with his brothers to wheel him around.
A few months later he starts physical therapy with the help of the elven healers in Himring, and he’s very determined to get his old strength and balance back, mostly so he can go to war again and kick orc ass personally but shhhh he’s motivated and that’s what matters
Since Fingon isn’t king yet and Maedhros abdicated to Fingolfin, Finno spends as much time as his princely duties allow him to help his queer-platonic partner (Maedhros) recover by being with him during physical therapy and helping him do his exercises at home.
Since Mae lost his right hand he obviously has to learn how to write again with his left hand now. Maglor teaches him how to write Tengwar script all over again as he dictates him his songs so he can practice.
When Fingon finally has to go back to Hithlum because his father gets on his arse and needs him to do his princely duties instead of being all mushy with his QPP Mae now can practice sending him letters as he’s still learning how to write with his left. His penmanship obviously doesn’t start very good, but he improves drastically as he keeps writing to Fingon. Fingon cherishes every letter and saves them in a special place, even framing some of his favorites around his chambers.
He also has to learn how to fight, obviously, which is where his brothers come in. At this point Fingon is gone, again, so he practices with them as he learns how to fight with his left hand. Celegorm and Curufin are dicks, like always, but their attitude just motivates Mae even more until he gets to the point that he can kick their asses when they’re being little brats.
Celebrimbor, with the help of his father, makes him a prosthetic. It’s mostly just to alleviate the feeling of the hand being gone since he still has to use his left hand for everything, but then Caranthir, who as we all know has a lot of $$$ and bling, gets fancy and adds a ton of gemstones and gold onto it to the point where it looks even fancier than Thanos’ gauntlet.
He also needs psychological therapy, OBVIOUSLY. Since therapy was unheard of in the Middle Ages and middle earth wouldn’t be too far from this time period, this would be tricky because it’s not like he can see a licensed therapist. But he gets the next best thing, which are long talks with Finrod aka Nom “the wise,” and he helps him process his trauma when Mae goes to visit Nargothrond to see his brothers and nephew.
Bonus: Ambarussa (or just Amras depending on which version but I’m gonna go with the twins because Mae doesn’t deserve to lose a brother on top of his father) insist on spoon-feeding him for the longest time, finally getting the opportunity to baby their oldest brother. At first Maedhros is extremely annoyed by this but appreciates the gesture regardless, and obviously this stops once Mae is as good with his left hand as he was with his right.
