#osanwe

-- @apoloadonisandnarcissus X

Chapter 12 of @runawaymun's To Partake is now available for your weekend listening needs!

(and might I add how thrilled I am with the osanwe bits? because I am)

✨ - Worldbuilding or background story elements.

oooohh ok this is another one I have a lot of, so I think I'll go with my ósanwe headcanons.

Basically, because of ósanwe, I assume all elves have the equivalent of a shitty cellphone. Like a cellphone they both a) need the other's number b) need reception and c) need the phone to be charged, but if all of those elements are in play I assume important information has been shared from one to another.

So, to get more specific:

a) need the other's number: they need a fairly close relationship to assume there's ósanwe between the two. AKA Fingon might tell Maedhros about his badass dragon battles, but Finrod is only going to find out through conventional channels.

b) need reception: there are places ósanwe does not work! Nan Dungortheb is an ósanwe dead zone (hence why Celeborn couldn't sext Galadriel in my most recent fic), as is Nan Elmoth and Angband. This has no basis in canon BUT doesn't everything make so much sense if there are just some locations where ósanwe is impossible because of psychic vibes?

c) need the phone to be charged: this is more about ósanwe ability. Some elves have the equivalent of my 4 year old phone battery *cough*Nolofinwions*cough* where they need to be in excellent mental shape in order to use ósanwe , and even then once they do it's hard to communicate more than concepts. Other elves *cough*Finrod*cough* use ósanwe effortlessly and can yap at you almost like an actual conversation. It might be awkward next time you run into them, but it is VALID and really the only thing you can do sometimes to unsubscribe to the Arafinwion group text.

Ósanwë is weird to think about because it's only ever mentioned briefly in NoME, and just like some other statements in these HoME essays, it's cool but potentially breaks Silm canon.

Within the Silmarillion, there are a few scenes in which ósanwë would have been REALLY USEFUL, and two of these scenes involve Maedhros: when Fingolfin and his host arrive at Angband, and during the Fifth Battle when Uldor delayed Maedhros' attack.

Maedhros is said to have cried out for Fingolfin and his host when he heard them arrive, but they couldn't hear him. Why couldn't he use ósanwë to ask for help? Two of the things mentioned about ósanwë are 1) that it's strengthened by kinship and urgency, and 2) distance doesn't weaken the connection. Considering how much he was being tormented (urgency), and that he and Fingon were very close (kinship), it should have been feasible to use ósanwë to call for help, right?

Well, it is also mentioned in NoME that Elves preferred to use vocal language to communicate, and therefore their ability to use ósanwë was neglected and became more difficult without practice. And since Fëanor was extremely good with words and language, I can't help but wonder if the Feanorians especially were bad with ósanwë because they'd never used it.

Some highlights:

I didn't read the first part in detail, I've had enough with the later parts (yes, I read it out of order)

ósanwe is not clear mind-reading! It's much, much less. This solves so many problems! I love this idea and will accept it (this was the pleasant part and now it ends)

yes, gold is a particularly evil element

Hiding of Valinor was a bad idea, but not really. Huh. Professor, I think you're trying to have two things at once again but ok… So it is a bad idea as written in the Silm, but this is the fault of the narrative frame, and also Manwë is much wiser than the book makes him look. Huuuh. There is a limit to how much authorial intent I can take. I am not buying it, I am sorry, I just can't wrap my mind to it. I love the guy, but I can't agree that he made no mistakes, and it's just Pengolodh or whatever. Doesn't work for me. Sorry.

I am sad. Yes, I know, I know. I know. And I am sad anyway. Call me dumb. I don't care. I am frigging sad.

Yes this is the part I am ignoring (well ok one central part of it and basically the whole background he is putting into it, the datails are optional to ignore)

This makes me sad. It makes no sense. (Not very sad, just… idk. I get it, just… idk. I guess I prefer my extremely weird hc. Also, again, if Tolkien's writing style and characterisation was more coherent, maybe. Idk. Idk. )

Oh, and also Void is not outer space, it's out of spacetime, but was Morgoth really thrown there, or is it just Pengolodh saying things? Tolkien won't tell us.

(And yes, that's the version where Námo actually executed him, I'm glad it was Námo, not sure why. He can handle difficult stuff?)

iirc in all my research about óswanë I either couldn't find a range limit, so to speak, or Tolkien basically said that distance has absolutely no effect on it. This is with the caveat though that I still have yet to get my hands on a full copy of HoME so I don't know if there's anything in there that might inform my answer better! In Osanwe-kenta Tolkien does say that all Ainu and "Children of Illuvitar" are capable of Osanwe, but ease and skill are (presumably) another matter entirely.

I have this vague idea that it is a trained skill with varying levels of aptitude. I headcannon Elrond has increased aptitude due to the ainur genetics. Ainur exist like, mostly as ideas, right? They can choose to take on fana but they're basically just spirit and idea, so it makes sense to me that communication via thought would feel the most natural to them.

Galadriel does seem to be the most skilled from what we see in the books, and we know that she learned a lot of her arts from Melian.

Tolkien also does mention (iirc) that a person cannot be communicated with if they don't want to be. So there's no forced óswanë within canon. Like, Sauron can't just break into someone's mind even if he wanted to. I tend to fudge that a lot for fun plot and whump purposes. I think it's more entertaining if óswanë boundaries can be crossed without a person necessarily consenting, but this seems to explicitly be something that Tolkien said doesn't happen within canon. Tolkien also writes that there are specific criteria that need to be met for communication to be possible. Affinity between minds is a factor, whether through closeness, love, intimacy, etc. The urgency of the matter to be discussed is a factor, and authority is also a factor (like if a person is trying to communicate to their subjects, or if someone has a duty to another person, stuff like that). If the criteria aren't met then communication can be 'fuzzy', essentially.