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Fantasy » alt.fan.tolkien » Re: CotW Silmarillion 6 - Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor
Re: CotW Silmarillion 6 - Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor [message #210261] So, 22 Januar 2006 21:15
Troels Forchhammer  
In message <news:MPG.1e1e0ffd620010ae989db6 [at] news.individual.net>
Stan Brown <the_stan_brown [at] fastmail.fm> enriched us with:
>
> Tue, 27 Dec 2005 11:55:46 -0800 from R. Dan Henry
> <danhenry [at] inreach.com>:
>>
>> On 11 Dec 2005 16:33:17 -0800, "RoRowe"
>> <rorowe-501 [at] sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> Míriel was consumed in body, mind and spirit by the carrying
>>> and birthing of Fëanor. She said that the strength needed to
>>> nourish the life of many went forth into Fëanor. [2]
>>
>> So... this just doesn't seem like a full explanation, given that
>> other elven-women do have many children without turning into
>> mopey languishers who die without seeming to even try to recover.
>> Could Miriel have had some vague foreknowledge of the doom
>> awaiting her descendants? That might have been cause to head for
>> Mandos.
>
> I read her decision as simple stubbornness, and she just dug in
> her heels when all the great ones practically begged her to return
> to her body and her husband.

As you note, that would seem to be a common thing in the family :/

I am sure that Míriel's languor was real: carrying Fëanor really did
sap all power from her, and she did lose her will to live.

Nonetheless, the older opinion was not wholly void. For
all the Eldar, being aware of it in themselves, spoke of
the passing of much strength, both of mind and of body,
into their children, in bearing and begetting. Therefore
they hold that the fëa, though unbegotten, draws
nourishment from the parents before the birth of the child:
directly from the fëa of the mother while she bears and
nourishes the hrondo, and mediately but equally from the
father, whose fëa is bound in union with the mother's and
supports it.
[Morgoth's Ring 3,II 'Laws and Customs among the Eldar']

Though /Laws and Customs/ cannot be relied upon in all details (it is,
for instance, speaking of re-incarnation through rebirth rather than
reconstruction of the hröa by the Valar -- an idea (re-birth, that is),
which was later rejected.

However, it is not all that there is to say about this. In /Laws and
Customs/ there is a long passage about this. The passage is only in the
earliest version (A manuscript) of the text.

The story is much expanded upon, and we get a doom from Mandos about
the whole matter of the severance of marriage,

[It is recorded by the Eldar that the Valar found this
matter of Finwë strange, and debated much concerning it.
For Finwë they could not accuse of any guilt, and the
Statute that had been made for Finwë and Míriel was just
and reasonable. Yet it was clear that many evils would
have been avoided, [if either Míriel had been less faint,
or Finwë more patient >] if it had not been made, or at
least had not been used. This passage was later replaced
as follows:]
[ibid.] The replacement is quite long and contains a debate among the
Valar, of which the important arguements seem to be:

Manwë: 'you deal with Arda Marred [...] in Arda Marred Justice is not
Healing. '

Aulë: 'Must it not be thought that the greatness [of Fëanor] and the
cost come not from Arda, Marred or Unmarred, but from beyond Arda?'

Ulmo: 'Nonetheless Míriel died. And death is for the Eldar an evil,
that is a thing unnatural in Arda Unmarred, which must proceed
therefore from the marring.'

Yavanna: (Aulë is wrong) '[...] so the Shadow worketh not only upon
spirits, but has marred the very hrón of Arda, [...]' and 'Míriel, I
deem, died by necessity of body, in suffering [for] which she was
blameless or indeed to be praised, and yet was not given power to
resist it: the cost of so great a child-bearing. [...] Death is indeed
death and within the Great Theme cometh from the Marrer and is
grievous; but Eru in this death had a purpose of immediate good,
[...]'

Vairë: 'The fëa of Míriel is with me. I know it well, for it is small.
But it is strong; proud and obdurate. It is of that sort who having
said: this I will do, make their words a doom irrevocable unto
themselves.'

Ultimately, I think the conclusion is that Míriel's decision not to
return to life was less in accord with Arda Unmarred and the will of
Eru, that it it was a rejection of Hope (as in trusting Eru), and
therefore a fault.

> It's at least arguable that if she had come back, the Doom of the
> Noldor wouldn't have happened.

She said herself, 'But hold me blameless in this, and in all that may
come after.'

However, as said above, the Valar and Eldar appears not to hold her
entirely blameless. Blameless, perhaps, in the initial death, which was
the result of the Marring (which, as Yavanna noted, was in the very
substance of her body), but that she was to blame for not returning
sooner. She also holds herself at fault in the tale of her meeting with
Finwë after he was killed by Melkor, 'I erred in leaving thee and our
son, or at the least in not soon returning after brief repose; [...]'

> Fëanor would probably have had full siblings, not half siblings,
> and that source of distrust would have been removed. He himself
> would have had the softening influence of his mother,

'[...]; for had I done so he might have grown wiser. But the children
of Indis shall redress his errors and therefore I am glad that they
should have being, and Indis hath my love.' is how Míriel continues.

Whether he would have had siblings or not (Finwë certainly wanted that)
is, I think, not the important issue here.

It is interesting how it is implied here the redeeming influence of the
love of a mother -- Rowling would have rejoiced had she read it (which
I don't think she has). It is also in accord with the later statement
about Manwë not perceive 'that all love had departed from [Melkor] for
ever.' This implies, I think, that the absence of love is a clear
indication of irredeemable evil, and thus love as the (potential) of
redemption.

Fëanor, however, did have love from his father and though they grew
estranged, he must have loved Nerdanel at some point, but apparently
the lack of his mother's love (or rather her being present to show it)
did do a difference.

> But as I wrote under CotW 7, Fëanor actually seems to have
> inherited willfulness from both parents. Both Finwë and Miriel
> disregarded the earnest advice of the Valar -- she refused
> reincarnation, and he refused to live as a widower.

I think that that is what is implied in the earlier version -- before
Tolkien decided to let the Valar discuss the issue at length.

In message
<news:1134412322.645252.111530 [at] g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>
nanderson [at] transact.bm enriched us with:
|
>> [5] Why does Fëanor bear grudges against Fingolfin and Finarfin?
>> Was it simply sibling rivalry?
|
| Feanor seems to have basically resented his father remarrying,
| and transferred his feelings to his half-brothers.

That does seem the case. Fëanor had dwelt with, and been raised by, his
father alone, and a great love there was between them. Fëanor also
'became ever more like Finwë in stature and countenance, but in mood he
resembled Míriel rather.' Since Indis was 'in all ways unlike Míril'
(and in many ways her antithesis), that might help explain some of the
enmity.

I seem to recall from elsewhere (the Shiboleth?) that their enmity
spilled over into matters of speech. The Eldar, and Fëanor more than
most, were very conscious of speech and IIRC Fëanor opposed something
about Indis' speech because of his general animosity to her.

| I believe that this is a very complex subject, and expanded on
| more fully on HoMe. From memory, much (if not all) of the
| problems that befell the Noldor came about because Miriel wanted
| to die, given the exhaustion she felt after bearing Feanor - a
| thing never conceived of by the Valar. Can someone with more
| knowledge of the relevant passages in HoMe expand on this?

I've been trying to look into the history of this part of the story,
though I am hampered by not having HoMe5 (/The Lost Road and Other
Writings/, LR), where is given the last version of the Quenta
Silmarillion that preceded the writing of LotR.

The character of Fëanor, most skilled of the Noldor (Gnomes, Noldoli),
maker of the Silmarils, father of many sons and whose father was killed
(as the first to be murdered in Aman), and subsequent swearer of a
mighty oath, is present already in the first versions in BoLT. There,
however, Fëanor's father is Bruithwir, not the King of the Gnomes,
Finwë Nólomë (who fathered Turgon Turgon's sister, Isfin) who died in
the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

Christopher spends some space in the HoMe series on the evolution of
Fëanor's and Finwë's family through the various versions. Fëanor
becomes the the second son of Finwë (to use the familiar name), emended
to the first etc. I'm not sure exactly at what point Fëanor's mother
became different from the mother of Finwë's other sons, though I don't
think there was any indication of this in the first Annals of Valinor
and other writings from the early 1930s[I].

There are hand-written emendations to the Annals of Aman that
Christopher describes in /Morgoth's Ring/ (HoMe10) including the death
of Míriel and Finwë's re-marriage, which leads me to think
(tentatively) that the two marriages didn't enter until post-LotR,
though I'd like confirmation of this from someone with /The Lost Road/.

I'm afraid that a detailled account of the evolution of the family
relations of Fëanor and of the royal house of the Noldor covering all
the steps is beyond the scope of this post (which, even trying to be
brief, is already beyond 200 lines).

However, tracing the emergence of the story about Míriel and Indis
might be possible.

In MR there is an interesting note by Christopher Tolkien (CT) to the
Annals of Aman (the year of 1179).

1179
§78 Fëanor, eldest son of Finwë, was born in Tirion upon
Túna. His mother was Byrde Míriel.[1]

[1] This annal is an early replacement; the original annal,
concerning the marriage of Finrod and Ëarwen Olwë's
daughter, reappears in very similar form in the manuscript
as originally written under the year 1280. Later, in ball-
point pen, my father changed the date of this annal to
1169, and added new annals for 1170, 'Míriel falls asleep
and passes to Mandar' (on /Mandar/ see p. 205), and 1172
'Doom of Manwë concerning the espousals of the Eldar.'

[/Morgoth's Ring/ (MR), HoMe10, 'The Annals of Aman', Fourth Section]

And CT's commentary to §78
§78 Earlier in AAm, under the year 1115, appear rejected
insertions (see p. 87, notes 3 and 5) in which are
recorded the birth of Fëanor to Finwë's wife Indis in
Middle-earth in the course of the Great Journey, and her
subsequent death in a fall in the Misty Mountains.
Written in ball-point pen these insertions would appear
to be relatively late; here on the other hand, in what
seems to be an early addition (written carefully in ink,
and see note 1 above), Fëanor was born in Tirion, and his
mother was Míriel, called Byrde Míriel (Old English byrde,
'broidcress'; see pp. 185, 192). In late insertions
(notes 1 and 4 above) it is recorded that in 1170 Míriel
'fell asleep' and passed to Mandos, and in 1185 Finwë
married Indis of the Vanyar.

So, it would seem that CT isn't sure about the sequence of corrections,
but we have apparently two different scenarios, which are finally
merged into the story we read (a fraction of) in Silm.

This final version apparently worried Tolkien somewhat -- in particular
the remarriage of Finwë (which was to provide the motivation for the
enmity and the split in the Noldirin royal house), which he spent a lot
of work on justifying and explaining.

[I] <http://www.forodrim.org/daeron/md_hmch.html>

--
Troels Forchhammer
Valid e-mail is <t.forch(a)email.dk>

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded
gold, it would be a merrier world.
- Thorin Oakenshield, /The Hobbit/ (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Re: CotW Silmarillion 6 - Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor [message #210287 ] Mo, 23 Januar 2006 19:32
RoRowe  
Troels Forchhammer wrote:
> Whether he would have had siblings or not (Finw=EB certainly wanted that)
> is, I think, not the important issue here.
>
> It is interesting how it is implied here the redeeming influence of the
> love of a mother -- Rowling would have rejoiced had she read it (which
> I don't think she has). It is also in accord with the later statement
> about Manw=EB not perceive 'that all love had departed from [Melkor] for
> ever.' This implies, I think, that the absence of love is a clear
> indication of irredeemable evil, and thus love as the (potential) of
> redemption.=20

Are you referring to J. K. Rowling here?

RoRowe
Re: CotW Silmarillion 6 - Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor [message #210288 ] Mo, 23 Januar 2006 19:41
Steve Morrison  
Troels Forchhammer wrote:

> I've been trying to look into the history of this part of the story,
> though I am hampered by not having HoMe5 (/The Lost Road and Other
> Writings/, LR), where is given the last version of the Quenta
> Silmarillion that preceded the writing of LotR.
>
> The character of F=EBanor, most skilled of the Noldor (Gnomes, Noldoli),
> maker of the Silmarils, father of many sons and whose father was killed
> (as the first to be murdered in Aman), and subsequent swearer of a
> mighty oath, is present already in the first versions in BoLT. There,
> however, F=EBanor's father is Bruithwir, not the King of the Gnomes,
> Finw=EB N=F3lom=EB (who fathered Turgon Turgon's sister, Isfin) who died =
in
> the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.
>
> Christopher spends some space in the HoMe series on the evolution of
> F=EBanor's and Finw=EB's family through the various versions. F=EBanor
> becomes the the second son of Finw=EB (to use the familiar name), emended
> to the first etc. I'm not sure exactly at what point F=EBanor's mother
> became different from the mother of Finw=EB's other sons, though I don't
> think there was any indication of this in the first Annals of Valinor
> and other writings from the early 1930s[I].

I've checked LR. Both the /Quenta Silmarillion/ and the later "Annals
of Valinor" list Finwe's sons as Feanor, Fingolfin, and Finrod. The
QS also says Feanor was the eldest -- but I can't find any reference
to their mother(s). It doesn't appear that there was any development
of this part of the family tree between HoME 4 and HoME 5. (And I
haven't found any reference to the mother(s) in HoME 4, either.)
Re: CotW Silmarillion 6 - Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor [message #210290 ] Mo, 23 Januar 2006 20:26
Troels Forchhammer  
In message
<news:1138041152.125933.99070 [at] g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> "RoRowe"
<rorowe-501 [at] sbcglobal.net> enriched us with:
>
> Troels Forchhammer wrote:
>>
>> It is interesting how it is implied here the redeeming influence
>> of the love of a mother -- Rowling would have rejoiced had she
>> read it (which I don't think she has).
[...]
>
> Are you referring to J. K. Rowling here?

Indeed I am -- there is, IMO, a parallel in Rowling's depiction of
Harry's mother saving his life through love and sacrifice to the
failure of Míriel to do the same for Fëanor (without any intention of
comparing the two authors in other respects).

--
Troels Forchhammer
Valid e-mail is <t.forch(a)email.dk>

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement.
But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another
profound truth.
- Niels Bohr
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