Aredhel died in the year 400 of the First Age. Maeglin was only 80 years old at the time (which is actually pretty young for an elf – according to “Laws and Customs Among the Eldar”, elves reach physical maturity around 50, but aren’t considered emotionally/mentally mature until 100.) Idril’s trickier – we don’t have an… Continue reading How old were Idril and Maeglin respectively when Aredhel died?
Tag: aredhel
Wait a- hold on. Was Aredhel in an abusive relationship or did she love Eol? I read that elves married once and once only (save Finwe) but why would Aredhel want to leave with Maeglin?
Sadly, those two options are not mutually exclusive. Eol was definitely abusive, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Aredhel didn’t love him, at least for a while. This site has a great list of warning signs for domestic abuse, and if you go down the list you’ll see a lot of similarities with Aredhel and… Continue reading Wait a- hold on. Was Aredhel in an abusive relationship or did she love Eol? I read that elves married once and once only (save Finwe) but why would Aredhel want to leave with Maeglin?
Names in the House of Fingolfin
First of all, if you haven’t read this post about elvish naming customs, you’ll probably want to, since the rest of this won’t make too much sense otherwise. Also, I’ve got the Feanorian version of this post here. Fingolfin Father-name: Nolofinwe (“Wise Finwe”), sindarized to “Fingolfin”, with an extra “fin” prefix that you can read… Continue reading Names in the House of Fingolfin
Anonymous asked: “hi! i am rereading the silmarillion after many years and i’m having some trouble with the noldorin royal family’s relationships. do you know a chart that shows who was on especially good terms with who and who disliked who? or if it interests you can you talk a bit about it? i love your blog!”
Oh boy, Anon, you said the magic words: Noldor and chart. So have four! First a family tree to help keep the relations straight. Then a chart showing members of the family described by Tolkien as being on especially friendly or unfriendly terms. Then a chart showing everyone’s reaction to the Oath of Feanor, and finally one showing the lineup for the departure of the Noldor from Valinor.
If you’d like to read more about the Noldorin royal family and their complicated relationships, I’ve got plenty more posts for you:
Just wondering if Eol killing (albeit inadvertently) Aredhel counted as a Kinslaying. It doesn’t seem like he meant to kill her specifically, but he did try and kill Maeglin, so would her death, as well his subsequent execution, count as Kinslaying to the Elves?
You bring up an excellent question, Anon. Even more so when you consider that Eol was then executed by Turgon – does that count as kinslaying as well? Tolkien often has events that stand apart more because of cultural significance than true historic accuracy. For example, he mentions a couple times Aragorn and Arwen was… Continue reading Just wondering if Eol killing (albeit inadvertently) Aredhel counted as a Kinslaying. It doesn’t seem like he meant to kill her specifically, but he did try and kill Maeglin, so would her death, as well his subsequent execution, count as Kinslaying to the Elves?
Timeline of Gondolin
Hope you don’t mind, but I expanded this a bit to make it a more general timeline of events in/concerning Gondolin. All dates take place in the First Age. 50: Ulmo sends his vision to Turgon and Finrod, encouraging them to build hidden kingdoms. 53: Turgon discovers the valley of Tumladen, the future site of… Continue reading Timeline of Gondolin
Hello! I was wondering if you have any Face Claim suggestions for Aredhel? I was thinking Katie McGrath, but she’s slightly over used in the Tolkien Fandom so I was hopping I could figure out someone else to use :/
Personally, I really like Kristen Stewart for Aredhel.
Multicultural Elvish Marriages
An interesting question! Difficult to answer, because our examples are few and often affected by strange circumstances. Below is a chart of cross-cultural marriages among the elves (let me know if I forgot one) (They’re color-coded by culture: red=Noldor, purple=Vanyar, blue=Teleri/Sindar, grey=Avari, green=multicultural) As you can see, in most of these relationships the wife goes… Continue reading Multicultural Elvish Marriages
In the Silmarillion I remember that it said something about elves expecting that Aredhel would marry one of the sons of Feanor, but she never did. But they were half cousins. Was that considered acceptable for some reason? As opposed to full cousins
I think you probably just misinterpreted this quote, which is our introduction to Aredhel in the Silmarillion: She was younger in the years of the Eldar than her brothers; and when she was grown to full stature and beauty she was tall and strong, and loved much to ride and hunt in the forests. There… Continue reading In the Silmarillion I remember that it said something about elves expecting that Aredhel would marry one of the sons of Feanor, but she never did. But they were half cousins. Was that considered acceptable for some reason? As opposed to full cousins
askmiddlearth 