#iathrim

Elwing, age 13 and rebellious, spent the subsequent summer constructing very secret, increasingly elaborate fantasies about how she would mend all the hurts of the Eldar by marrying the last, un-Marred scion of her family’s sworn enemies, and then naturally together they would lead all the people of Beleriand in a great war upon the Enemy, whom she would in the end cast down herself like if Lúthien had been armed with a Silmaril from the start…

I wanted to make this post because I’ve had some things drawn to my atttention that I hadn’t noticed before, and I see a lot of misconceptions around this. Doriath is not nearly as closed off from the rest of Beleriand as is often assumed.

Who Is Not Allowed In

The starting point for this is Thingol’s statement to the Noldor:

“Into Doriath none shall come to abide but only such as I call as guests, or who seek me in great need.”

This is often taken as meaning that no Noldor except Finarfin’s children are ever permitted into Doriath, but the latter part specifically does allow for the possibility of war refugees ‘in great need’ entering Doriath, and as we will see, this is followed up on later.

Men are also forbidden from entering Doriath, and this is a blanket statement. However, Finrod does later convince Thingol to let the Haladin settle in Brethil, which is considered part of Doriath but is outside the Girdle of Melian, and Doriath provides military support to the Haladin during the Dagor Bragollach.

We have, that I am aware of, only one specific described instance of an elf seeking entrance to Doriath and being refused: Aredhel.

Aredhel seeks to travel through Doriath to reach the lands of the sons of Fëanor so she can visit them. She is not allowed in, as being used as a cut-through for her to visit people whom the Doraithrim already dislike is really not considered sufficient reason. Now, Aredhel has other options - either go the long way around to the south of Doriath, or go north and cross Ard-Galen or northern Dorthonion. The latter is how the Men of what will later be the house of Hador get into western Beleriand:

Most of these took the long road northward, until the ways became well known to them…some came to Hithlum, but Magor son of Aradan and many of the people passed down Sirion into Beleriand and dwelt a while in the vales of the southern slopes of the Ered Wethrin.

Aredhel instead chooses the most direct but much more dangerous route through Nan Dungortheb. But that isn’t a decision Doriath is forcing on her, and they in fact warn her of its dangers.

Likewise, Haleth leads her people through Nan Dungortheb “without help or guidance of the Eldar,” and thus may not have known that there were safer routes available.

Who Is Allowed In

Doriath is open to all of the Sindar (Círdan’s people come and go freely, and it’s from them that Thingol first hears the rumours about the Kinslaying); to Dwarves, who trade with the Sindar; to the refugees of Nargothrond; as well as to the children of Finarfin and to the family of Húrin and any househokd retainers who come with them. Additionally, there is no mention, anywhere that I am aware of in The Silmarillion, of elven refugees of war, Noldor or Sindar, being refused admittance to Doriath, and the examples from both the Bragollach and the Fall of Nargothrond indicate that refugees who came there were admitted.

Dwarves continue trading with Doriath throughout the bulk of the First Age. In the years after the Nirnaeth:

In those days the Dwarves came still on their journeys into Beleriand from their mansions in Ered Lindon, and passing over Gelion at Sarn Athrad, the Ford of Stones, they travellee the ancient road to Doriath; for their skill in the working of metal and stone was very great, and there was much need of their craft in the halls of Menegroth. But they came no longer in small parties as aforetime, but in great companies well armed for their protection in the perilous lands between Aros and Gelion…

So the Dwarves have been coming to Doriath over a long period of time, in small companies during the Long Peace and in larger groups after it ended.

Refugees specifically come to Doriath after the Dagor Bragollach. I know there’s material in HoME about Thingol mistrusting the Northern Sindar, but irrespective of that, it is very clear that they were allowed in:

The most part of the Grey-elves fled south and forsook the northern war; many were recieved into Doriath, and the kindom and strength of Thingol grew greater in that time.

There is no mention, anywhere, of the Fëanoreans seeking entry to Doriath after the Bragollach, and given their pride and their open contempt for it, it would be rather uncharacteristic of them to do so. Instead we are told Celegorm and Curufin went south and west, suggesting first south, and then west, around the south borders of Doriath. They could have joined up with Caranthir and the twins on Amon Ereb, but for whatever reason chose to go to Nargothrond instead.

There don’t appear to have been many in the way of elves of Dorthonion, Angrod and Aegnor’s people, left to seek refuge anywhere; it was sparsely populated (their people were few, “Of Beleriand and its Realms”) bore the brunt of the attack, and few survived.

After the Nirnaeth, Elves who participated in the battle (apart from Mablung and Beleg) seem to fall into three groups: those who died on the battlefield (the vast majority), those who retreated to Gondolin (Turgon’s forces, and any remnants of Fingon’s forces they could gather), and the Fëanorean forces who fled south to Ossiriand. There’s not really any Elves who would be seeking admittance to Doriath; certainly not the Fëanoreans, who have openly threatened to murder them all!

And after the Fall of Nargothrond, refugees from there come to Doriath and are admitted - it’s how Thingol (and Morwen) learn of the kingdom’s fall in the first place:

Now new tidings came to Doriath concerning Nargothrond, for some that had escaped the defeat and the sack and had survived the Fell Winter in the wild, came at last to Thingol seeking refuge, and the march-wardens brought them to the King.

This is even more significant given, well, Nargothrond’s complicity in the whole kidnapping-and-attempted-forced-marriage-of-Thingol’s-daughter thing.

the peoples of middle-earth ✧ iathrim, people of the fence

Iathrim were called those of the Sindar that dwelled under the protection of Melian and Thingol in the kingdom of Doriath

[ID: an edit consisting of 12 images.

@tolkienofcolourweek day six | multicultural identities ● migration ● time | the sundering of the teleri

The Nelyar were the third clan of the elves, the largest and most fractured. A third refused the Journey west to Aman, and along with half the Tatyar became known as the Avari. The remaining two-thirds of the Nelyar were the last and slowest host of the Eldar (those who embarked upon the Journey), and were named by the others the Teleri, the Last, though they called themselves the Lindar or Lindai, the Singers.

Though all the Minyar-Vanyar and Tatyar-Noldor who took the Journey arrived in Aman, the Lindar were greatly sundered along the way. In the fertile vales of the river Anduin, many Lindar abandoned the Journey and remained there under the leadership of Lenwë, known also as Dan or Denweg. These were named by the other hosts the Nandor, those who went back, but they saw themselves as closer kindred to the Avari, and in time would merge with the Penni tribe into one people, the Tawarwaith or Silvan elves, dwelling mostly in the forests of Eryn Galen and Lórinand.

The Lindar who marched onward were sundered again upon crossing the Blue Mountains into Beleriand. There a group of them forsook the Journey and traveled northward to the grey lands of Hithlum, and became known as the Mithrim, the grey folk. The rest of the Lindar lingered in Beleriand, some waiting by the shores of the sea to be taken to Aman and others exploring the vast forests. It was at this time that their king, Elwë, was lost in the wood of Nan Elmoth, and could not be found. Many of his folk searched for him, and when it came time for the Lindar to leave, they would not go for love of him.

Thus Olwë brother of Elwë took kingship of his people and took those who would across the sea to the Blessed Lands. These were the shore-dwellers, who boarded Tol Eressëa the Lonely Isle and sailed across the waters; but Ossë, Maia of Ulmo, loved them jealously, and broke off a small piece of the island near Beleriand’s shores, leaving many of them stranded from their kin. These Ossë taught to build and sail ships, and they returned to Beleriand under the leadership of Círdan the shipwright, though they mourned their separation from their departed kin. Tol Eressëa did not return again, and thus those Lindar who remained called themselves the Egladhrim, the Forsaken, for the Valar and their kindred had abandoned them to the wilds of Middle-earth. Those who made it at last to Valinor became known as the Falmari, the people of the waves, for they dwelt ever by the shores of the sea.

The Egladhrim were further divided into two groups: the Falathrim, the folk of the waves, who like their kin the Falmari made their home along the coast, though on the opposite shore; and those who remained faithful to Elwë, who at last emerged from Nan Elmoth and took the name Elu Thingol. Slowly the language of the Lindar of Beleriand changed, and they called themselves the Edhil, people of the stars, whether they were Mithrim or Falathrim or Elurim. In this time also Denethor son of Lenwë who had stayed by the Anduin took a group of his father’s people into Beleriand, calling themselves the Laikwendi or Laegrim, and settled in Ossiriand in the shadows of the Blue Mountains.

When the Dark Rider returned and attacked the Edhil, Denethor was slain in battle upon the lonely hill of Amon Ereb, and his people fled back to Ossiriand, taking no other king and fighting no other wars. He was avenged by Thingol, and a small portion of the Laikwendi chose to follow him back to Menegroth, his city of caverns; ever after they were known as the Guest-elves, for they were yet a people apart from the Elurim. At this time Melian, wife of Elu and a Maia of great power, brought up a Girdle about the forests of central Beleriand, and the realm within it was called Doriath, the Land of the Fence, and its people were named the Iathrim, the folk of the fence.

Later, when the Noldor would return to Middle-earth in exile, the Lindar of Beleriand would be called in their tongue the Sindar, the Grey-elves, which in their own tongue was Thinnedhil. But to themselves they were always the Edhil, divided into Mithrim and Falathrim and Iathrim and Laegrim; and Elu Thingol claimed kingship over them all, though many found greater friendship in the Noldor than with him.

[transcript of image text & graphic flowchart of the Sundering beneath the cut]

(There are benign explanations of this, which I think had their role: an island has limited space to house everyone, and the people on the island and by the bay need crops (re: limited island space); also, the Silm says that “it seemed to [the residents of the Havens of Sirion] that in the Silmaril lay the healing and the blessing that had come upon their houses and their ships” so they might've thought they were protected.) 

As I need to make up my mind about them for my next fanfic(s), I thought I’d share them with you. That’s still a process, though, so my headcanon might still change. 

I think there would have been quite a difference between the different sindarin peoples, the Falathrim would place the bodies of their dead on narrow rafts made of reed or something similar and row them out to sea, until they reach currents that’ll carry them away from the shore, then lowered the rafts into the water. Maybe that rite was older, but I rather think it would really have been established during the besiegement of Eglarest and Brithombar, where they would certainly have suffered losses but had no way to bury their dead. The sea was always safe (from Morgoth, at least), so that was the logical option. Those of the Sindar who lived nomadic all over Beleriand would probably have been quite pragmatic about it and buried their dead in simple graves that remained unmarked so that it would not be obvious to anyone unknowing that someone was indeed buried there. The Iathrim would take more time (as they had fewer dead and a safe environment around them), raising small burial mounds over the bodies and put up stones on which was marked who was buried there- usually by the device of the house the person belonged to, sometimes also by art done by the dead’s family Sometimes, when there was no body to be buried (something especially true for those who lost their lives in the first battle), they would only put up the stones as a place of remembrance. The graves would be scattered throughout the woods, though, so even after the dwarves ransacked Menegroth, there would not have been something like a graveyard.

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