rocky41_7

Relationships I want to know more about:

1. Turgon and Maeglin. What’s up with these two? Turgon took him in and accounted him among his house, and I can easily imagine putting a lot of effort into out of love and grief for Aredhel, even when it became apparent his own daughter did not get along with Maeglin. He even trusted Maeglin’s advice when shit started to go sideways for Gondolin--and Turgon’s not an idiot, so either Maeglin worked very hard to deceive Turgon as to his true intentions, or the job was easier because Turgon already trusted him. Did Maeglin feel guilty for what he did? Did he regret? Did Turgon feel he had failed his nephew if Maeglin had been turned to the service of Morgoth?

2. Finwe and the other grandkids. I’ve seen a fair bit of speculation of Finwe’s relationship with Maedhros and I tend to agree Maedhros takes a lot after him, but what about the others? Finwe’s whole thing with marrying Indis was out of a desire for more kids, so I have to assume he was a very involved grandfather. What did he talk about with Maglor? With Finrod? With Aredhel? I can totally see him as the type of grandparent to want to have a special little activity for each of his grandkids that was “their” thing, but then he ended up with 16 and started running out of time in the day lol

3. Fingolfin and Lalwen! We know almost nothing about Finwe’s daughters (they don’t even appear in The Silmarillion proper), but Tolkien elsewhere says that Lalwen went to Middle-earth because Fingolfin, her favorite brother, went. That’s a lot of love. Fingolfin and Feanor have the most prominent and explored relationship among Finwe’s kids, and not without cause, and we know that the Nolofinwean and Arafinwean families were very close, but please I really want to know more about Fingolfin and his little sister.

4. Fingon and Finrod. The text doesn’t give us much explicitly on their relationship, but we know the Nolofinweans and the Arafinweans are very close, and I firmly believe that even if these two were not particularly close back in Tirion (Fingon being closer with Maedhros, Aegnor, and Angrod, and Finrod being closer with Turgon), that changed on the Helcaraxe. I think the Helcaraxe changed the relationships for all of them, and made them far closer than they ever might have been otherwise, but for Finrod and Fingon, who both essentially operated as Fingolfin’s second-in-command, I think there would have been a particular sense of sharing responsibility. How did that impact their relationship and their interactions later on in Middle-earth? And what did they talk about on the Helcaraxe?

5. Tar-Miriel and Sauron. We can assume, I think, that Tar-Miriel does not get along with her husband Ar-Pharazon, but what was her take on Sauron? Did she also buy his claims of repentance and servitude? Did she think serving her husband a fitting fate for someone who had caused so much trouble in Middle-earth? Or was she skeptical of his intentions? We know she tried to flee the sinking of Numenor, and that her father had been devout, but we know very little about Tar-Miriel’s own beliefs. Did she follow her father’s path and resent Ar-Pharazon for his blasphemous acts? Or was she indifferent, merely seeing that as another part and parcel of Numenor’s cultural and intellectual decline? Did she foresee anything from Sauron’s arrival at court? Or was it just one more thing Ar-Pharazon did that she didn’t approve of? Did her opinion of him change over time--was there a moment she began to see him as a threat? Or did she overlook him until it was too late?