#galadhon

My chara-designs for the Teleri Royalty : Part 6

Galadhon & Galathil

Here is some progress on my family tree project.

It is a shame we don't know the names of so many of the wives and mothers in these elven lines, but instead of neglecting them I usually draw them, just so we can see the traits passed down through time.

in patriarchal settings, when it comes to marriage there's an element of the woman being "given away" from her father's household to her husband's household; she joins her husband's family and is thus expected to act with his family's reputation and dignity -- as well as her own family's -- in mind. dior and nimloth though are already part of the same wider family, so like, nimloth in marrying him is being "given away" to... the same dynasty she already hails from. granted they're hardly the only couple in the tolkienverse with some habsburgism going on, but what adds an extra twist of flavor to me is that dior's connection to their dynasty -- the ancestry from thingol, and to a perhaps lesser extent, from olwe and elmo -- comes from his mother. by contrast, nimloth gets her connection to their dynasty from her father. dior is a man but he's thingol's descendant through a woman; nimloth is a woman but she's thingol's descendant through a man. there's not really a point i'm trying to make with this, it's just something that makes me think about what it might mean for their relationship. one can say that dior maybe doesn't have the best claim to doriath's throne -- after all the argument can be made from this patriarchal context that luthien has joined beren's family by marrying him, and thus what dior should be is the next head of the house of beor, not the next king of doriath. but then you look at his marriage with nimloth and you see how they're reuniting the diverging branches of their family tree...

on the other hand though -- under the assumption that thingol's children were considered next in line to the throne over his brothers or their descendants -- by having no other children besides luthien, a daughter, thingol and melian already set the expectation that thingol's line, the main branch of the dynasty, would inevitably continue from a woman. they've already -- i suppose rather anomalously considering as far as the elves go i can't think of a single instance of a woman being considered her father's heir -- broken the agnatic-cognatic succession. in which case dior's claim to the throne coming from his mother rather than his father would have had precedent to back it up and thus would have engendered less controversy. alternatively, if doriath had been viewing elmo's sons (galadhon and celeborn) as having a better claim than luthien due to her being a woman, that could have led to some disagreements about the next in line to the throne. which brings us back to where i started about the political implications of dior/nimloth -- reuniting the branches of their family tree through marriage. i do have to wonder where celeborn would fit into that though, as galadhon's brother and nimloth's uncle.

evranin - daeron - elwë - galadhon - lúthien

Okay but one headcanon that my head has developed is the following; Celeborn and Galathil are cousins of Thranduil and Maeglin.

They are grandsons of Elmo, who had as sons Galadhon, Oropher and Eöl. They belong to the elven nobility of Doriath.

Galadhon, Oropher and Eöl were in fact close, although the youngest of them used to move away a little from his two older brothers to the point of going as far as Nan Elmoth where he finally settled and betrothed (spell) Lady Aredhel years later. This act was not consented by his brothers, widening even more the abyss between them. However, this does not prevent them from visiting their nephew accompanied by their own children, because Eöl is reluctant to leave home, they do not really comment on the subject because they want to avoid arguing and just look at the baby (Lómion) and keep Aredhel company.

Celeborn, Galathil and Thranduil wish to see the new baby as well as their uncle whom they say they miss. Lómion is extremely sweet as well as small, besides having the dark hair inherited from his mother, which in their eyes makes him even more special as it is a strange color among the elves of Doriath.

As time goes by. Only Celeborn and Thranduil visit Nan Elmoth. Not often but they try to do it near the onomastic of Lómion, being that the twelfth he already had the name Maeglin which turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

However, the meetings diminished when Celeborn married Galadriel while fulfilling an active duty in the court of Thingol.

Thranduil, on the other hand, began to form like his father. With this they also reluctantly distance themselves, Galathil still frequents them both however.

Thranduil was in with the refugees of Doriath, Celeborn was visiting him when Galadriel informs them of the fall of Gondolin and the death of Lómion. They both look at each other and soon after Galathil arrives.

They have lost too much if it, Doriath was destroyed, Elmo and Galadhon himself are dead, even Thingol was no more. They know the pain, but still they are unable to deal with the pressure in their chests as they shed tears for their little cousin whom they unwillingly stopped visiting.

That night turns out to be colder for them. They gaze at the stars as they recall their few memories they have with Lómion, his sweet smile as well as his born curiosity. He may be the traitor of the great Gondolin, but in their eyes, he was nothing more than the elfing they left behind.

Aww, thank you so much Anon! That's very kind of you. <3

Goodness, the mental gymnastics it takes to fabricate family ties for both canons and OCs while avoiding incest! I did draw up plenty of family trees to do it, but it's all on scratch notes now, and it was impossible to produce one whole clean copy!

Most of the genealogy work I did was to develop the family histories of my two OCs, Elvenqueen Maereth and Crown Princess Itarildë, wives of Thranduil and Mirion, respectively. Eryn Galen did not have a Ring of Power to preserve their realm, but they had a powerful royal family that worked together to act as a shield against Sauron's evils. The Queen and Princess are direct descendants of legendary Elves and carry greater "magic" in their blood than their husbands, fortuitously providing what the Woodland Realm needed to endure.

But I digress! Here are some of the other family connections I fabricated for the SotWK AU:

Glorfindel's wife, Elemírë (oc), is the twin sister of Elenwë, making Turgon and Glorfindel brothers-in-law.

Cirdan's wife, Eäriel (oc), is a granddaughter of Olwë, making her a niece of Eärwen and cousin of Galadriel.

Itarildë's mother, Nimeithel (oc) is the younger sister of Queen Nimloth of Doriath, making Itarildë Celeborn's grand-niece.

Beleg Cuthalion is Thranduil's uncle; the brother of his mother, Meluiel (oc).

Thus, in summary:

Maereth descends from Fëanor (maternal side) and Círdan (paternal side). She is essentially half Noldor, half Teleri.

Itarildë descends from Glorfindel (paternal side) and Galadhon (maternal side). She is roughly half Sindar, a quarter Noldor, and a quarter Vanyar.

SotWK Fancast: Michael Fassbender as Fëanor; Jennifer Connelly as Maereth; Ben Daniels as Cirdan; Patrick Wilson as Glorfindel; Teresa Palmer as Itarildë; Dougray Scott as Galadhon (father of Celeborn)

by Castile181

Elwing was not the first Sindarin woman to abandon her children. A story about Celeborn's mother, inspired by the Legendarium Ladies textual ghosts, women who exist but never appear in Tolkien's works.

Mature, Graphic Depictions of Violence