Transcript: CCT#3

Coming at you live from the Mirkwood racquetball court, this is Crystal Clear Tolkien.

This is Silime. Welcome to Crystal Clear Tolkien. For today's show, I'm going to address two topics, since they're relatively short and easy to cover.  First of all, we're going to talk about the common misconception that Thranduil was a cold, abusive drunkard.  Then, we're going to learn about who the hell Gildor Inglorion was.

Thranduil, as you probably know, was King of Mirkwood throughout most of the Third Age.  Most of what we know about Thranduil comes from The Hobbit, as he plays an important role in the goings-on in that book.  Because he is something of an antagonist toward Bilbo and his party, there are a lot of people who paint him in their essays and fiction as a tyrant.  But this doesn't tell the whole story.

The Hobbit is not the only place Thranduil is mentioned.  He is also spoken about in Unfinished Tales under the Appendix of Of Galadriel and Celeborn(1).  There it speaks of Oropher, of the War of the Last Alliance, and what followed.  It tells that the Silvan Elves were a hardy and valiant lot, independent of Gil-galad (which was what caused their great loss in the war)(2).

It also speaks of what followed the war, how Thranduil and his Elves were anxious and unquiet, feeling the change to the world that the Third Age would bring.  Men were growing in numbers and slowly spreading, closer and closer to Lórien and Greenwood. Thranduil also knew that the Wild Men -- Men of the east -- were now restless.  They were free of Sauron's rule, but the evil still held them captive, and they waged cruel wars; they kept moving westward, slaying anything in their path.  The last sentences dealing with this change following Sauron's defeat in the Second Age shows a foresight and sorrow in Thranduil that is given nowhere else:

"But there was in Thranduil's heart a still deeper shadow.  He had seen the horror of Mordor and could not forget it.  If ever he looked to the south its memory dimmed the light of the Sun, and though he knew that it was now broken and deserted and under the vigilance of the Kings of Men, fear spoke in his heart that it was not conquered for ever: it would arise again."

The Histories of Middle-earth also discuss Thranduil's retreat as the Shadow fell upon Greenwood; how he finally settled in the north-east of the wood and delved his halls there.  The writings give a reason for his hatred of the Dwarves -- he was related to Thingol.  He built his halls in the way Thingol had created Menegroth, and for those who have not read The Silmarillion, Thingol was slaughtered by the Dwarves after they created the Nauglamir for him out of a Silmaril.  It created great enmity between the Sindar of Doriath and the Dwarves forever more. When Oropher brought his son and the handful of Sindar with him from Lindon, they adopted the language of the Silvan Elves, names, mannerisms, and culture -- they wished to never leave Middle-earth, or to be merged with the Sindar of Beleriand (which was dominated by the Noldorin Exiles, whom the Sindar of Oropher had no great love of). They wished to become Silvan and "return to the simple life natural to the Elves before the invitation of the Valar had disturbed it(3)."

So, Thranduil's reaction toward the Dwarves in The Hobbit is not representative of his attitude as a whole.  He had very personal reasons fuelling his dislike for Dwarves.  In no way should this be translated to the way he treats his own people or even other races.

A second major mischaracterization of Thranduil is that he is a drunkard.  Those who put forward this view point to a line in Chapter 9 of The Hobbit.

"Wood-elves, and especially their king, were very fond of wine..."

Now, let's face it.  Many humans out there can be described as being "very fond of wine," but that doesn't make them drunkards.  They simply enjoy wine.  There is a fanon assumption that Thranduil had to be this mean, hateful drunk because he enjoyed wine and collected treasures. The more complete picture, though, is that he merely follows the example Thingol himself set for his people long before the Exiles returned to Middle-earth and the Moon rose for the first time.  And no one accuses Thingol of being an abusive drunk.

Tolkien himself stated the Elves were his perfect beings -- they were far above the crudeness of Men.  They had long, long lifespans, great knowledge, foresight, and talents Men were never able to mimic.  Very few of them exhibited the failings of Men, and those failings they did exhibit were such great feats that they were written into legend.  Among Tolkien's Elves, you won't find pickpockets, muggers, wifebeaters, rapists, paedophiles, or any of those seedier sides of humanity that we'd just as soon forget.  What few notable villainous characters we find are merely the exceptions that prove the rule -- such acts are so rare and unheard-of that those few times they occur are noteworthy.

Another major sticking point about Thranduil concerns his relationship with his son, Legolas.  There exists any number of fanfics out there that show Thranduil as being a seriously abusive father, either verbally or physically, or both.  And while we have no specific instances that ever show Thranduil and Legolas together, we can infer from elsewhere in the Histories of Middle-earth that child abuse just isn't something that happens among the Elves.

The biggest piece of evidence we have comes from the Laws and Customs of the Eldar.  Now, I could do an entire show that does nothing but points out inconsistencies between the Laws and Customs of the Eldar and the actual examples we are shown throughout the rest of the canon... and maybe I will sometime soon.  But, for now, there are some points to be made about children that <i>are</i> borne out by the examples we have, and they are particularly relevant here.  Let's look at some quotes.

"The Eldar wedded for the most part in their youth and soon after their fiftieth year. They had few children, but these were very dear to them. Their families, or houses, were held together by love and a deep feeling for kinship in mind and body; and the children needed little governing or teaching."

Granted, saying that in general, children were very dear to their parents doesn't prove that every single child was adored by their parents.  The same can be said of humans -- that, in general, parents love their children.  But there are a saddening number of exceptions to this.  However, we have to go back to Tolkien's intent for the Elves to be ideals, to be what humans could only aspire to be without the trappings of vice and villainy that weigh us down.  Even Eöl, arguably the most villainous figure among the Elves, is never shown to be abusive to his son(4).

Perhaps a better point for discussion, though, is this quote a little further down.

"Also the Eldar say that in the begetting, and still more in the bearing of children, greater share and strength of their beinzg, in mind and in body, goes forth than in the making of mortal children."

When Elves have children, they don't just pass on their genes, but they also imbue their child with a piece of their own spirit.  In Míriel's case, she imparted so much to Fëanor that it left her own spirit too weakened to fully recover.  So, among the Elves, having a child is a serious commitment.  Elves never conceive unless both parties are willing and make the active choice to make that kind of sacrifice to create a new spirit.  There are no accidental or unwanted pregnancies for them.

Put all this together, and the possibility of child abuse by Elves seems remote.  Every child born to Elves is not only wanted, but was actively sought.  They are reflections of their parents in more than just genetics; they represent the merging of the best parts of husband and wife.  This isn't to say that family life was always the idyllic Norman-Rockwell-Ozzie-and-Harriet picture of perfection.  Disagreements, even arguments, were not necessarily uncommon.  But actual abuse?  Highly, highly unlikely.

"Oh-ho-ho!" I hear you naysayers.  Or I would if this were a two-way broadcast.  "What about the Kinslayings?  They prove that Elves have a dark side.  If they can do that, why can't they be just as bad as us in everything else?"

So, okay, let's talk about the Kinslayings for a bit.  The first Kinslaying was driven not by evil or malice, but by one Elf's grief over the murder of his father and the anger he felt at the Valar's refusal to act.  Not right by any definition of the word, but hardly the kind of deep-seated villainy that can condemn an entire race.  The other two Kinslayings were driven solely by the Oath that the Valar enforced upon the sons of that one Elf who, after Fëanor's death, continued to uphold his legacy even to their doom.  If anyone has a dark side in this story, it is the Valar themselves, who chose to "teach a lesson" to the Fëanorians, and so to all Elves.

Outside of the Kinslayings, did you ever see Elf raise arms against Elf again?  After the destruction of the Silmarils, it ended.  The Valar set into motion the events of the history of Middle-earth.  Had they acted against Melkor after the death of Finwë and the destruction of the Two Trees, the Kinslayings would never have occurred.  (But of course, neither would anything else of import.)

Bringing this back to Thranduil, what have we worked out?  The way he treated the Dwarves is not the way he treats everyone; liking wine doesn't make you an alcoholic; and Thranduil had to have actively desired to have Legolas, so the idea of him abusing his son is hard to swallow, especially in light of the inferences we can make about Elven family life and Elven attitudes in general, both from the Laws and Customs of the Eldar and from Tolkien's letters and other writings.

So, moving on.

Let’s talk about Gildor.  In The Fellowship of the Ring, we – in the form of Frodo and Sam – meet an Elf heading for the Grey Havens(5).  Gildor Inglorion, of the house of Finrod is how he introduces himself.  Which poses a really interesting conundrum.

You see, the '-ion' ending to that name means 'son of'.  Gildor Inglorion is therefore Gildor, son of Inglor.  The problem with this is that there is no Elf named Inglor.  At least, not anymore.  Now, in the original drafts of Tolkien’s works, Inglor's full name was Inglor Felagund -- that's right, Felagund. During one of Tolkien's revisions, though, Inglor Felagund became Finrod Felagund. Presumably, all references to Inglor therefore should now refer to Finrod. Similarly, that same initial draft referenced an Elf named Finrod, who, in this same revision, became Finarfin.

Christopher points out that "Gildor Inglorion of the house of Finrod" is an anomaly -- the only remaining anachronistic reference to Inglor-who-is-Finrod and Finrod-who-is-Finarfin. By this reasoning, the passage should read, "Gildor Finrodion, of the house of Finarfin".

So, Gildor is actually supposed to be Finrod's son.  Case closed, right?  Well... yes and no. The Histories of Middle-earth also say that Finrod had no wife and no child. However, if references to 'Inglor' became references to 'Finrod', then clearly, Gildor was intended to be Finrod's child.

The other major piece of data that can be used to help (or hinder) us is when Gildor was born. Many people assume he was born in Aman and fled with the Noldor after the Darkening of Valinor. However, in The Lays of Belariand, there is recounted the tale of how Barahir saved "Inglor Felagund" (who, as we know, became Finrod Felagund) during the Dagor Bragollach. One of Barahir's companions was a mortal named Gildor. Tolkien was very good about not reusing names without a purpose. So, is it merely coincidence that Inglor (who is Finrod) had a son named Gildor and then, many years later, was saved by a Man also named Gildor? Or, was he saved by a Man named Gildor, and then, to honour that deed, named his only son -- who was born perhaps some years later -- after the brave Man?

I tend to go with the latter theory because the first theory is just too... un-Tolkien-like. The coincidence of the same name existing at the same time in members of different races just doesn't sit well with me. So, by my reasoning, Gildor Inglorion had to have been born after the Dagor Bragollach, in Middle-Earth.

Therefore, four main schools of thought exist that you can use when approaching the topic of Gildor.

1. Gildor is Finrod's child, of the house of Finarfin. (This discards the concept of Finrod having no children, and recalls a little-recognized footnote that gave Finrod an unnamed wife in Middle-Earth following the Return of the Noldor(6).)

2. Gildor is Inglor's child, of the house of Finrod. (This, too, discards the concept of Finrod having no children since "Inglor" would have to have been Finrod's child or descendant to begin with.)

3. Gildor is Inglor's child, of the house of Finarfin. (This avoids the Finrod problem altogether, but requires the creation of an Elf named Inglor somewhere in the line of Finarfin who was born before Elrond and Elros -- because it is explicitly stated that they were the last of the house of Finwë born during the Eldar Days.)

4. Gildor just is. (This chucks the whole mess out the window and just hangs Gildor out in some long-forgotten branch of the Eldar.  Also known as the "la-la-la not listening" defence.)

All right.

This brings us to the conclusion of this show. I know it's late, but I hope it was worth waiting for! Remember, if you have comments or questions about this episode, or if you have a question about Middle-Earth that you'd like me to address on a future episode, then please drop me an email at [e-mail].  That's S-I-L-I-M-E at gmail dot com.

Until next time, I'm Silime and this is Crystal Clear Tolkien.  Namarie.

References

1. Unfinished Tales, Appendix B, The Sindarin Princes of the Silvan Elves pg270-273
2. Unfinished Tales, Appendix B, The Sindarin Princes of the Silvan Elves pg271
3. Unfinished Tales, Appendix B, The Sindarin Princes of the Silvan Elves pg272
4. The Silmarillion, Of Maeglin pg133-134
5. Lord of the Rings, 1994 ed., Fellowship of the Ring, Three Is Company pg79
6. History of Middle-Earth: Volume Twelve, The Peoples of Middle-Earth, Of Dwarves And Men pg317-318
History of Middle-Earth: Volume Twelve, The Peoples of Middle-Earth, The Shibboleth of Fëanor pg350