#turgon

Turgon + purple!

Sorry it took so long, inspiration was very fickle, to put it mildly 🥲

§12 Yet it is said that Maeglin loved his mother better … ‘Turgon … had no heir; for Elenwë his wife perished in the crossing of the Helcaraxë’: here A has ‘Turgon … had no heir: for his wife, Alairë, was of the Vanyar and would not forsake Valinor’. On the page of jottings that concludes the abandoned later Tale of Tuor (see Unfinished Tales p. 56) a note which I did not include says that ‘Alairë remained in Aman’. That this was the case because she was a Vanya is reminiscent of the story of Amárië, beloved of Felagund, who was a Vanya, ‘and was not permitted to go with him into exile’ (p. 44, §109). The typescript B as typed has Alairë, but on both A and B(ii), not on B(i), my father corrected (presumptively in 1970) the name to Anairë. The substitution of Elenwë in The Silmarillion was based on the Elvish genealogies of 1959 (see pp. 229, 350), where Anairë (defined as a Vanya ‘who remained in Túna’) was later corrected to ‘Elenwë who perished in the Ice’; on the same table at the same time Anairë was entered as the wife of Fingolfin, with the note that she ‘remained in Aman’. In a note added to the typescript of the Annals of Aman(X.128, §163) my father said that in the crossing of the Helkaraxë ‘Turgon’s wife was lost and he had then only mained in Aman’. In a note added to the typescript of the Annals of Aman(X.128, §163) my father said that in the crossing of the Helkaraxë ‘Turgon’s wife was lost and he had then only one daughter and no other heir. Turgon was nearly lost himself in attempts to rescue his wife – and he had less love for the Sons of Fëanor than any other’; but Turgon’s wife is not named.

- The War of Jewels: Maeglin

The passage in question:

All these things he laid to heart, but most of all that which he heard of Turgon, and that he had no heir; for Elenwë his wife perished in the crossing of the Helcaraxë, and his daughter Idril Celebrindal was his only child.

So, the published Silm was a mash-up of separate sentences and notes. It seemed that when Tolkien changed the backstory of Turgon's wife, from Anairë to Elenwë, Idril was implied to be the heir of her father: No [other] heir. In fact this was directly pointed out in the Shaping of Middle-earth: Quenta Noldorinwa, a earlier version written in 1930:

The heart of Idril was turned to him, and his to her; at which Meglin ground his teeth, for he desired Idril, and despite his close kinship purposed to possess her; and she was the only heir of the king of Gondolin. Indeed in his heart he was already planning how he might oust Turgon and seize his throne; but Turgon loved and trusted him.

However, the matter seems to be complicated. In the published Silm, it's also said that:

And that was seen in after days: for when in the dread year of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad Turgon opened his leaguer and marched forth to the help of Fingon in the north, Maeglin would not remain in Gondolin as regent of the King, but went to the war and fought beside Turgon, and proved fell and fearless in battle.

Does it mean that before Maeglin entering Gondolin, Idril was the indisputable heir, but after it, her heirship wasn't so ensured? I think Tolkien's wording is worth examining per no other heir and the only heir. When a king/lord/chieftain's only child is a son, he never emphasized his "only" status, because a son is automatically the heir of his father in a patriarchal society. So the sense I get from it is that Idril was Turgon's heir because Turgon had no son.

Furthermore, It was written in the earliest iteration of the Fall of Gondolin in the Book of Lost Tales:

Now for his skill and his great mastery over all lore and craft whatsoever, and his great courage of heart and body, did Tuor become a comfort and stay to the king who had no son; and he was beloved by the folk of Gondolin.

The king hearing of this, and finding that his child Idril, whom the Eldar speak of as Irildë, loved Tuor in return, he consented to their being wed, seeing that he had no son, and Tuor was like to make a kinsman of strength and consolation.

The fact that Turgon had no son was a point repeatedly emphasized throughout the construction of the tale. First, in relation to Turgon's welcome to Tuor; then in relation to Maeglin's desire for going to Gondolin. On a tangent, I think Maeglin's jealousy of Tuor was rooted in being replaced as a "son" by him.

In the Nature of Middle-earth: Time Scales, written in 1959, Tolkien discussed about the number of children the Eldar had:

The children numbered usually 2, 3, or 4. One was exceptional, and could be due to different causes: for instance, the separation of the spouses, as in the case of Idril, daughter and sole child of Turgon of Gondolin whose wife Anairë of the Vanyar would not go with the Ñoldor into exile, but remained with Indis (also of the Vanyar) widow of Finwë.[8] In other cases the spouses (one or both) might not desire more than one child.

I know a few people wanted me to try Eöl or Maeglin, but I was already working on this as a way to distract myself from the nightmare of a bigger project.

*Fingon walks by in a pair of booty shorts*

One evening at dusk, Fingon and Turgon decided to pay Feanor a visit. They had been admiring their Uncle Finarfin’s new ring. It was made with silver and golden threads entwined, and set with a round, shiny emerald. But while marvelling at the design, a question had arisen. One that the firebug brothers needed to know the answer to immediately.

“...I wonder how Uncle Feanor does it?” Fingon was saying, as he and Turgon flew towards the copper kettle. “I do hope he will tell us”.

“So do I,” Turgon added. “I would think that something so simple could hardly be considered a great secret”.

“Good evening nephews!” Feanor called out from within his forge. It appeared he was just about to start work, as he was tying his apron into place.