Maedhros

feanoriansappreciation:

easterlingwanderer:

alia-andreth:

easterlingwanderer:

alia-andreth:

I think what interests me most about Maedhros as a character is how he has traits that would make any other character heroic, but in his case, actually make him something close to a villain.

I don’t let him off the hook for the kinslayings, and on top of that I have Theories about the conquest of Beleriand in which he and the rest of the Noldor exiles don’t come off so hot, but I do believe that Maedhros has a conscience.  Cf. the part where he stood by while Dad and the bros burned the ships, the part where he looks for the El Twins, First Edition, and on top of that Fingon clearly cares deeply for him, interpret as you will; people don’t climb up cliff faces to rescue total assholes.

But Maedhros’ conscience is the problem.  He’s loyal.  He’s honorable.  He loves his family more than anything.  He’s so much of all of these things, that when Dad makes him swear a stupid oath and sends him on a pointless quest, he can’t walk away.  He values people’s lives (see again the Elured and Elurin part) but when forced to choose between keeping his word and not killing people, he takes the first option.  No matter how much destruction it causes.

This isn’t a mustache-twirling villain.  This is someone with some kind of moral code, put again and again in positions where he has to violate at least one tenant of a moral code.  And despite being tested over and over again, he chooses to keep this code.  He doesn’t become Celegorm or Curufin, screwing around Beleriand figuring out how he can get what he wants and damn the torpedoes.  Maedhros is honorable to the end, see his last conversation with Maglor, when he tries to convince him to give up the oath.  But Maedhros won’t–I believe because doing so would admit that all the killing and destruction he caused were pointless, and Maedhros wouldn’t be able to live with himself.  He wasn’t able to live with himself as it is, hence suicide by lava.

Props to Tolkien for creating such a complicated character.

I agree 100% on this, but I would add: there is a real possibility that the Oath actually compelled the people that made it, much like the Doom of Mandos. 

There is a level of… agency that the people of the Silmarillion and, in a more hidden way, LotR, simply don’t have. They can’t not-follow their Oath. The Doom of Mandos doom the Noldor *no matter what they do*.

It is a strange concept for us, but it was predominant in pre-monotheistic european societies, from Ellenism to Paganism and everything in between.

My only counterpoint to that is: then why does Maglor try to persuade Maedhros to give it up? He obviously thought there was some way out of it.

Then again, Children of Hurin was all about a guy who tried to fight fate and failed miserably. So we’re in a situation where you can try to fight your fate (or Doom, for the dramatically inclined among us) but it won’t do any good.

🤔

My point is that probably, in some way, Maglor’s plan wouldn’t have succeeded. I don’t know how, but they would have found themselves in the same situation.

Take Turgon. He tries to avoid the Doom of Mandos, sure of the security of Gondolin. But it didn’t work. It couldn’t work. He was Doomed, and so was Gondolin. Maglor, like Turgon, hopes he can go against his Doom/Oath (both of them in his case) but he can’t. It wouldn’t have worked.

Exactly as in Children of Hurin, the concept of freedom is… non-existant in Tolkien’s world. The only so-called freedom is Death (as Hurin himself says to Morgoth)

Cheerful place, isn’t it?

To make this post even worse:

“The only freedom is death"as Hurin puts it, is true for him. It is not, however, true for the elves.

Elves don’t die. They are immortal. When they “die”, they go to the Halls of Mandos and sit around, regretting their life choices and waiting to be reborn. But once they are reborn, they are back in Valinor. And Valinor is ruled by the Valar, who we know, for all their greatness and wisdom, are…. kinda flawed. (Looking at you, Manwë)

Now, concerning the Doom Of Mandos; among other things it states that the Exiles will NOT be reborn (fanfictions and headcanons aside). This means that they will stay forever in the Halls. Forever dead, we could say. They will be dead (technically) so free, right? They don’t have to worry about the Valar, and their honor and stuff; why would that matter to a dead person?

BUT, the only purpose for the Halls’ existance, is that there elves will wait their rebirth, dwelling on previous deeds of their past life and regretting some (in the feanorians case, most) of their life-choices. So, technically, they are not free. And they will never leave, so they will never be free. In the Halls their are slaves of their own mind, imprisoned within walls and forever forced to rethink and regret everything they did. (We are talking about the Noldor here, they had some pretty bad life choices)

Maedhros decided that he couldn’t live with himself anymore, couldn’t deal with all the guilt and self-loathing, and so killed himself by jumping into that volcano. BUT THAT DIDN’T MAKE ANYTHING BETTER. He wasn’t FREE, as he so desperately wanted to be. Now he is forced to stay forever in the Halls of Mandos, and instead of getting away from everything in his life that ultimately destroyed him, he is forced to gO OVER THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN, for all eternity.

And it just breaks my heart, because Maedhros just wanted to make his father proud, avenge his grand-father and keep his word, and now… Now he has deal with everything he did, everything he regretted. Now he has to keep dwelling on the things that ultimately destroyed him and it kills me.