#mithrim

Aegnor, Angrod

council in Mithrim

graphite, sketchbook A5 centerfold

MAJOR SETTLEMENTS OF THE NOLDOR IN BELERIAND

"'But if any will come with me, I say to them: Is sorrow foreboded to you? But in Aman we have seen it. In Aman we have come through bliss to woe. The other now we will try: through sorrow to find joy; or freedom, at the least.’" - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor"

[ID: seven banners showing different landscapes, most in shades of grey, white, and brown. Each has white text in the center; the top line in a larger, thin, swirly font stylized in all caps, and the bottom in a much smaller lowercase serif.

Continuing my flower based world building from last year! More in the spring flower game tag though this is meant to be a late summer/ autumn entry! I did also include corn marigold which shares a family and used to be considered within the chrysanthemum genus but no longer is.

Requested by @erumelde

Chrysanthemums are a genus of several dozen flowering plants in the daisy family. Their highest center of diversity is in China. Most have the distinct shape the genus is known for and many species do not have separate common English names as a result.

Chrysanthemums are notable for being among the latest blooming flowers in temperate Beleriand

In Hithlum and the Ered Wethrin, they are associated with late autumn and collected in October and November and are used for the harvest celebrations in both Barad Eithel and for the Sindar of Mithrim. In Mithrim, blankets of chrysanthemums are laid out and a ceremonial dance about rising from the dead involves dancers jumping up from these blankets.

Chrysanthemums represent fate and prophecy in Gondolin and in some other Noldorin communities.

The Silvan elves of Ossiriand and the regions east of the Ered Luin cultivate chrysanthemums for tea, sometimes sweetened with honey (note: I talked about different plants for honey in Ossiriand here!). For chrysanthemum teas, thyme honey is the most treasured.

Despite the name, entire leaved daisy is a species of chrysanthemum which in Beleriand is primarily found in the March of Maedhros and to the north. It is one of the few species to grow in the foothills of the Ered Engrin though pollution from Angband heavily affects its population there

But what makes Fingon’s heroism massive to me has nothing to do with the personal and everything to do with the politics at Mithrim. The fact that had he not gone to Thangorodrim, the Noldor in Beleriand would find themselves at literal war against each other.

This little passage from the Silm really deserves a lot more attention:

No love was there in the hearts of those that followed Fingolfin for the House of Fëanor, for the agony of those that endured the crossing of the Ice had been great, and Fingolfin held the sons the accomplices of their father. Then there was peril of strife between the hosts

Years later, when Fingon decides to look for Maedhros, the conflict between the hosts comes back as a primary reason behind his decision:

Then Fingon the valiant, son of Fingolfin, resolved to heal the feud that divided the Noldor, before their Enemy should be ready for war

This makes me conclude that the three years between Fingolfin’s arrival at Mitrhim (FA 2) to Fingon’s rescue mission (FA 5) must have been a continuous civil crisis. The hosts are in close proximity, a single lake dividing them, Fingolfin on one side, Maglor on the other, and for three years they cannot find a compromise. This crisis must have gotten pretty bad for someone to decide that braving Thangorodrim might be worth it.

And to me, this is Fingon's greatest contribution he ever made, not his battles, not his chasing of dragons, but preventing civil war among his people.

Of all the children of Finwë he is justly most renowned...

Yes, indeed, he is. Because without Fingon’s deed, there would be no victories for the Noldor, no Long Peace, no meeting of the Edain and Eldar. They would have fought each other endlessly until one group obliterated the other, or alternatively, Morgoth used this division (as the book seems to imply) to destroy them all swiftly. 

Fingon effectively accomplishes what Fingolfin and Fëanor never managed: peace, at least for a good while. Maedhros of course contributes in return by giving up the crown. He meets Fingon halfway, and they stay true to this alliance until Fingon’s death. They cross an impossible bridge no matter how you read their relationship. 

OR

More of your marvelous Feanorions! What happened to Curvo's firecracker of a wife?

❤️

@sallysavestheday || I wish you would write a fic... || accepting

You know, now that you mention it, I've never actually written anything from Annael's POV! He's not as fully developed in my mind as some of the other characters I write about, but the general backstory I've imagined is that he's been the leader of the people of Mithrim for about a hundred years prior to the First Battle. After Thingol and his host had retreated behind the Girdle, but before Fëanor's host arrived and defeated Morgoth's forces in the Dagor-nuin-Giliath, he and his people were in a rather dire situation, because Morgoth's orcs had unfettered access to most of western Beleriand, apart from Doriath and the Falas (and the Falas itself was under siege).

When Fëanor and his followers arrived in Mithrim, after several long months of the Northern Sindar being assailed, welcoming the Noldor seemed like a logical idea. They were fellow Eldar and capable of battle, and maybe their leader was a bit intense, but when Morgoth's orcs came pouring over the Ered Wethrin in a surprise attack, the Noldor were indispensable in achieving victory in the resulting battle. And yes, Fëanor did get himself killed through a mix of rage and recklessness, and his heir did end up being captured by Morgoth, but more warriors are more warriors, and the second son took over and was competent enough.

This was, I think, the beginning of Annael's break with Thingol. He never renounced Thingol as his king, but the fact remained that Thingol had retreated behind the Girdle in the First Battle and left the people of Mithrim to fend for themselves, despite being their king. Between that and Thingol's known disdain for the Northern Sindar (as laid out in "The Problem of Ros" in The Peoples of Middle-earth, for those of you who are curious where that particular detail is coming from), Annael was feeling a bit bitter, and he and his people, I think understandably, judged the Noldor to be more reliable allies than Thingol and the Iathrim.

(Side note, but I think this bitterness toward Thingol was not uncommon among the Elves of Mithrim. Annael certainly passed it on to his daughters, and Ianneth in turn passed it on to Ereiniel, in whom it was reinforced by Doriath's refusal to join her father in assailing Angband, the battle in which Fingon was killed and in the aftermath of which the majority of the Elves of Mithrim -- Annael included -- either were slaughtered or were driven from their home. Sixteen years passed between the Nírnaeth Arnoediad and Annael's arrival to the settlement on Balar, and that was an agonizing length of time to not know what had become of him (and his wife and younger daughter) for both Ianneth and Ereiniel. I think, in the Second Age, some of what Oropher perceives as Noldorin arrogance in Gil-galad is actually an echo of the inherited anger of the Northern Sindar.)

The arrival of Fingolfin and his host did make the situation rather fragile, but Annael had enough experience leading his people that he was able to successfully take a neutral stance and maintain friendly ties with both groups, favoring neither one nor the other. Still, though Fingon's rescue of Maedhros was quite astounding, Annael and his people's prior experiences with escaped thralls left them deeply wary of Maedhros, and they were quite relieved when Maedhros ceded the crown to Fingolfin, who seemed an altogether wiser and more stable choice for the role.

Fingolfin's fortitude in leading his people across the Helcaraxë, too, left Annael feeling more inclined towards the Fingolfinians than the Fëanorians, as he felt that Fingolfin had proven himself to be made of similar stuff to the Northern Sindar, who had been living on Morgoth's doorstep under constant threat for hundreds of years. Fingolfin and his children had faced and overcome a long, dire hardship in a way that Fëanor and his sons had not, and Annael had no qualms about building a stronger alliance with him.

Little bit of a ficcish thing:

He says nothing to Fingolfin, nor to his son, but the truth is that the rescued prince -- the one the followers of Fëanor's sons in the settlement on the other side of the lake call king -- worries him. While he has offered the aid of his people's healers to assist Fingolfin's own in treating the man, as befits an ally, what neither Fingolfin nor Fëanor's sons know is that the healers sent have been selected not solely for their knowledge of illness and injury, but also for their ability to defend themselves. Mithrim's Elves have lost too many of their own in the past to the sudden violence of thralls who had escaped Angband with their bodies, but had not escaped Morgoth's control over their minds.

Still, he cannot deny that there have been some benefits to the prince's rescue. The tension between Fingolfin's people and the people of the Sons of Fëanor has dropped to a low simmer rather than the rolling boil it was three weeks ago, and Annael no longer feels that maintaining his people's peace with both camps is like walking a tightrope of spun cobwebs. If the Noldor can unite under one king, they'll be a stronger ally to his people, and his people are in need of allies. They have seen that they cannot rely on their own monarch.

"Of course, one cannot consider Moriquendi doing anything to be inherent proof of its worth, and the inverse would not hold true, but we can consider this a testimony in our favour."