By Oshun
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Most readers first encounter Melian the Maia in the Valaquenta section of the published version of The Silmarillion as edited by Christopher Tolkien. There, she takes her place within the pantheon of the demigods of Tolkien's legendarium. The greatest of these are called the Valar but included among them are "other spirits whose being also began before the World, of the same order as the Valar but of less degree. These are the Maiar, the people of the Valar, and their servants and helpers."1
Many readers, like this writer, enjoy physical descriptions. I stumbled across this stunning portrait of Melian in The Book of Lost Tales and I cannot resist opening with it:
‘Slender and very dark of hair . . . her skin was white and pale, but her eyes shone seeming to hold great depths. Clad she was in filmy garments most lovely yet of the hue of night, jet-spangled and girt with silver. If ever she sang or if ever she danced, dreams and slumbers passed over the heads of those that were nigh, making them heavy as it were with a strong wine of sleep. Indeed she was a sprite that, escaping from Lórien's gardens before even Kôr was built, wandered in the wild places of the world and in every lonely wood. Nightingales fared with her singing about her as she went—and 'twas the song of these birds that smote the ears of Thingol as he marched . . .2
Within the hierarchy of Tolkien's gods and demigods, Melian the Maia is named as a helpmate of the Valar Vána and Estë in the Garden of Lórien in Aman. She is known for bringing comfort to those who visit the gardens of Lórien seeking solace there. This comfort was sought by all the peoples of Valinor, including even the Valar, where they found rest and renewal under the trees and flowers tended by Melian while listening to the sounds of its fountains. It is said that Melian cultivated "the trees that flower in the gardens of Irmo, ere she came to Middle-earth. Nightingales sang about her wherever she went."3 There she taught the nightingales, legendary across cultures and traditions for the beauty of their song. The Valaquenta notes that among the Maiar "there were none more beautiful than Melian, nor more wise, nor more skilled in songs of enchantment."4
Nightingales always accompany Melian wherever she goes. She is said to love most the deep shadows of the great trees in the forest: "It is told that the Gods would leave their business, and the birds of Valinor their mirth, that Valmar's bells were silent, and the fountains ceased to flow, when at the mingling of the light Melian sang in the garden of the God of Dreams."5 In an article about Melian on the Tor website, Megan Fontenot notes that Melian's "voice is so beautiful that all of paradise leaves off its normal activities just to listen to her. She's the Orpheus of Arda."6
In early versions of this appealing wonder tale, Melian works under the tutelage of Estë the Maia of dreams in Valinor. Dawn Felagund notes in her character biography of Estë published herein, that "Melian's own potency and agency within the story" suggests that Estë herself is an important character—the case of a student's glory reflecting positively upon a tutor. Dawn adds that "we see in her relationship with Melian her role as a teacher of other women in her arts and power. Estë's role in mentoring so powerful a character as Melian implies a similar—or greater—power within Estë herself, even if this implication never bears out in the text of The Silmarillion."7
Melian is destined to play a central role in Tolkien's legendarium as the wife and helpmate of the ruler of the Sindarin Elves Elu Thingol and the mother of the legendary Lúthien Tinúviel. One of the original three Elven ambassadors to venture to Valinor and the king of the Dark Elves, Thingol never returns to Valinor, choosing to remain in Middle-earth with Melian. She enters into the political life of Thingol's Sindar as he and his people embark upon a period of tremendous change. As the wife of the king, possessing extraordinary gifts and powers, she takes upon herself personally the role of protector of the realm of Doriath in Beleriand when it is threatened by the encroachment of the Dark Vala.
The Silmarillion version of their story relates how Thingol disappears while leading his people in the midst of their epic trek over mountains and rivers to cross over the sea to the western lands of the Valar: "Long and slow was the march of the Eldar into the west, for the leagues of Middle-earth were uncounted, and weary and pathless."8 Thingol often went off for a while on his own to visit his closest friend Finwë, the king of the Noldor. The different peoples of the Eldar shared with Thingol's people a somewhat less-than-urgent approach to that long trek. The Teleri/Sindar by far the largest grouping, moved forward in the most erratic and leisurely manner. The Silmarillion notes that they did not "desire to hasten, for they were filled with wonder at all that they saw."9 It, therefore, is understandable how Thingol's disappearance did not raise an immediate cause for alarm among his people.
In a reference to be found in The Shaping of Middle-earth, the first meeting of Melian and Thingol is recounted in a tone of high fantasy, leaving the small details to the reader's imagination:
The nightingales of Melian Thingol heard and was enchanted, and left his folk. Melian he found beneath the trees and was cast into a dream and a great slumber, so that his people sought him in vain. In after days Melian and Thingol became Queen and King of the woodland Elves of Doriath; and Thingol's halls were called the Thousand Caves.10
Christopher Tolkien chooses a less vague tone and more specific details in the description of the meeting of Thingol and Melian in The Silmarillion:
. . . he came alone to the starlit wood of Nan Elmoth, and there suddenly he heard the song of nightingales. Then an enchantment fell on him, and he stood still; and afar off beyond the voices of the lómelindi he heard the voice of Melian, and it filled all his heart with wonder and desire. He forgot then utterly all his people and all the purposes of his mind, and following the birds under the shadow of the trees he passed deep into Nan Elmoth and was lost. But he came at last to a glade open to the stars, and there Melian stood; and out of the darkness he looked at her, and the light of Aman was in her face.11
Verlyn Flieger explains that only Thingol and Melian among his people have seen the light of Aman. And she opines that "Melian is the greater of the two, for she is a Maia, one of the lesser Ainur, and thus has lived in the light of the Trees. Like Varda, she is a bringer of light, and like Yavanna, a singer of songs." Thingol's attraction to her is based primarily upon the presence of this light in her face. Flieger anchors this attraction within the larger symbolic function of light in the legendarium, noting, "The association with both light and song sets Melian very near the primacy of creation."12 Thingol cannot look away. The enchantment he falls under is profound as one might well imagine. Melian has been credited, as is mentioned above, with the ability to captivate even the Maiar and Valar back in Lórien. In the first encounter of Thingol and Melian in the forest, as detailed in The Silmarillion, their fascination is mutual:
She spoke no word; but being filled with love Elwë came to her and took her hand, and straightway a spell was laid on him, so that they stood thus while long years were measured by the wheeling stars above them; and the trees of Nan Elmoth grew tall and dark before they spoke any word.13
Melian's famous nightingales play a big part in both the earliest version and the later ones of her tale (and are picked up again in the story of her daughter Lúthien as well). The nightingale and its enchanting song have played a featured role in folkloric storytelling throughout history. Around the world, they have featured in such diverse settings as traditional spoken narratives to written poetry from Africa, East Asia, to Ancient Greece, and, much later, Tudor and Regency England. In the nineteenth century, this symbol was featured in Hans Christian Andersen's much-translated short story The Nightingale.
One of my favorite of Tolkien's references relating to making use of enduring inspirational themes and subjects is the expression "the cauldron of story." He uses this to describe iconic story components that have passed across diverse cultures, geographic locations, languages, and periods of history: "Speaking of the history of stories and especially of fairy-stories we may say that the Pot of Soup, the Cauldron of Story, has always been boiling, and to it have continually been added new bits, dainty and undainty."14 While the nightingale as a symbol might be considered dainty, elegant and sweetly enchanting, the women associated with nightingales in Tolkien legendarium are compelling but also powerful, contributing greatly to the robust flavor of his soup.
One might also hold in mind that Aesop's fable of The Nightingale and the Swallow is poignantly reminiscent of later aspects of Melian's tale:
A Swallow, conversing with a Nightingale, advised her to quit the leafy coverts where she made her home, and to come and live with men, like herself, and nest under the shelter of their roofs. But the Nightingale replied, "Time was when I too, like yourself, lived among men: but the memory of the cruel wrongs I then suffered makes them hateful to me, and never again will I approach their dwellings."15
We will discuss later herein how Melian chooses a cage of her own making and yet finally ends her voluntary exile to return to her place of origin with a broken heart. Another tragic symbol related to the nightingale in literature and folklore is the concept of the caged bird. A Dictionary of Literary Symbols defines the significance of this motif and draws an example from Classical mythology: "A bird in a cage, or hooded or clipped, might stand for any trapped or exiled person. Ovid in exile likens himself to a nightingale: 'Though the cage might be good for the confined daughter of Pandion,16 / she struggles to return to her own forests.'"17
Both Melian and her illustrious daughter Lúthien are compared in the texts to nightingales in their ability to attract and enchant: "Like her mother, Melian, and like Yavanna, whom Melian served, Lúthien has as one of her chief attributes the gift of song. Her namesake, the nightingale, is a night bird, a singer of twilight, of lessened light."18 They cast their enchantments through song much like the ubiquitous nightingales mentioned above. Author Martha Sammons in a book comparing the contrasting points of view of fantasy as propounded by C.S. Lewis and Tolkien explains the importance of enchantment in Tolkien's analysis:
In Faerie there is also enchantment or magic. Enchantment (casting under a spell) is what primarily distinguishes fairy stories from other types of tales such as traveler's tales, dream stories, or beast fables. Fairy tales are appealing because of their age and because they free us from time. Successful fantasy allows the reader to go into another time outside our own, or even outside Time itself.19
Enchantment is a major trope which propels the story of Melian and informs her character, dating all the way back to her days in Valinor even before the event of unparalleled importance for her: the awakening of the Elves in Middle-earth. This event triggered her departure from Aman: "[A]nd in that time when the Quendi awoke beside the waters of Cuiviénen she departed from Valinor and came to the Hither Lands, and there she filled the silence of Middle-earth before the dawn with her voice and the voices of her birds."20 So enamored is she of the forests of Middle-earth and their denizens that she all but abandons Valinor to make her home there. And it is in the period after Thingol, the leader of the great host of the Teleri, returns from his voyage to Valinor with Oromë that Melian meets him, the one and only love of her life, in her much-adored forest.
The meeting of Thingol and Melian and their reign in Doriath plays a major role in several story threads in The Silmarillion. As a result of Thingol falling under the enchantment of Melian, a large part of his people refuses to continue their journey to the sea. They are waylaid to search instead for their missing and much-beloved leader. Eventually, Thingol's brother Olwë leads a large number of them to cross over the sea into Aman, to at last make their home in the land of the gods, but many stay behind.
Finally, Thingol returns to his people bringing Melian with him. She becomes his queen and the mother of his child. The Silmarillion account notes that Melian elevates her husband beyond what he might ever have reached on his own. In the words used to describe him, he sounds closer to one of the Maiar than to the king of the most populous among the three groups of the Eldar:
In after days he became a king renowned, and his people were all the Eldar of Beleriand; the Sindar they were named, the Grey-elves, the Elves of the Twilight, and King Greymantle was he, Elu Thingol in the tongue of that land. And Melian was his Queen, wiser than any child of Middle-earth; and their hidden halls were in Menegroth, the Thousand Caves, in Doriath. Great power Melian lent to Thingol, who was himself great among the Eldar; for he alone of all the Sindar had seen with his own eyes the Trees in the day of their flowering, and king though he was of Úmanyar, he was not accounted among the Moriquendi, but with the Elves of the Light, mighty upon Middle-earth.21
But time does not stand still for Thingol and Melian. During what are called the three ages of captivity of Melkor,22 important events reshape Arda in the absence of his interference. Great numbers of the Eldar of all three peoples have been able to reach the sea and cross it into the land of the Valar, where they establish themselves and built cities. Across the sea, under the protective watch of the Valar, a great flowering of creativity relating to art, letters, and technology flourishes among the Eldar.
Meanwhile, "the power of Elwë and Melian increased in Middle-earth, and all the Elves of Beleriand, from the mariners of Círdan to the wandering hunters of the Blue Mountains beyond the River Gelion, owned Elwë as their lord."23 Despite the period of relative peace, Melian with her formidable Maiarin gifts of foresight senses that this tranquility cannot last forever. She advises Thingol that they should build themselves a protected refuge and adds her magical abilities to the Dwarves' highly skilled labor in stone to produce the first major work of construction initiated by the Eldar in Middle-earth—the famous Menegroth, an underground fortress hewn out of stone.
So, simultaneous with the explosion of creativity amongst the Eldar in Aman (referred to as the Noontide of Valinor), the Sindar flourish in Middle-earth, building and developing art and architecture. And, perhaps most significantly, Melian bears Thingol's child—a half-Elven/half-Maiarin marvel—and names her Lúthien: "In Beleriand . . . the Elves walked, and the rivers flowed, and the stars shone, and the night-flowers gave forth their scents; and the beauty of Melian was as the noon, and the beauty of Lúthien was as the dawn in spring. In Beleriand King Thingol upon his throne was as the lords of the Maiar."24
During that same period, the children of Aulë—the Dwarves—awaken and cross the Blue Mountains into Beleriand and learn how to mine ore, achieving great skill in metallurgy and working with stone: "Themselves they named Khazâd, but the Sindar called them Naugrim, the Stunted People, and Gonnhirrim, Masters of Stone."25
However, Melian's foresight of coming danger is accurate. This period of peace in Middle-earth and the flowering of accomplishments and resourcefulness of the Eldar in Valinor is not to last. At least she is able to convince Thingol to gain the assistance and collaboration of the Dwarves and construct the marvelous Thousand Caves of Menegroth as a refuge:
The pillars of Menegroth were hewn in the likeness of the beeches of Oromë, stock, bough, and leaf, and they were lit with lanterns of gold. The nightingales sang there as in the gardens of Lórien . . . . Carven figures of beasts and birds there ran upon the walls, or climbed upon the pillars, or peered among the branches entwined with many flowers. . . . Melian and her maidens filled the halls with woven hangings wherein could be read the deeds of the Valar, and many things that had befallen in Arda since its beginning, and shadows of things that were yet to be. That was the fairest dwelling of any king that has ever been east of the Sea.26
Meanwhile, back in Valinor, when Melkor has finished serving his original sentence, Manwë finds it in his all-too-forgiving heart to trust the Dark Vala again and releases him—a failure of judgment which will have terrible consequences. After sowing contention and dissent amongst the Noldor while fomenting simultaneously bitterness and mistrust of the Valar's paternalism, Melkor makes his first full-out onslaught against the peace of Valinor. And that is only the beginning:
Melkor slew the Trees of the Valar with the aid of Ungoliant, and escaped, and came back to Middle-earth. . . . the great cry of Morgoth echoed through Beleriand, and all its people shrank for fear; for though they knew not what it foreboded, they heard then the herald of death. . . . Morgoth, as has before been told, returned to Angband, and built it anew.27
Now the Orcs that multiplied in the darkness of the earth grew strong and fell, and their dark lord filled them with a lust of ruin and death; and they issued from Angband's gates under the clouds that Morgoth sent forth, and passed silently into the highlands of the north. Thence on a sudden a great army came into Beleriand and assailed King Thingol.28
The danger that Melian had foreseen falls upon Thingol and his people living sheltered within the walls of Menegroth. But the scattered peoples who dwell outside of that stronghold find themselves in far greater danger. The first battle of Beleriand is fought by the Sindar with the invaluable assistance of their allies of the Laiquendi/Nandor, who are tasked by Thingol to hold back the ravaging Orcs sent against them by the newly returned Melkor. Under the leadership of Denethor, they hold back the eastern host of the Orcs. (See the character biography of Denethor of the Nandor for details of that First Battle and the terrible cost to the people of Denethor.) Denethor, however, "was cut off and surrounded upon the hill of Amon Ereb. There he fell and all his nearest kin about him, before the host of Thingol could come to his aid."29 The Orcs had also been victorious in the west, cutting off Thingol from Círdan, whose people had been driven to the edge of the sea.
Since Thingol and his surviving forces are unable to defend themselves and their people from Morgoth and his minions, Melian takes upon herself the tasks of expending her considerable power to create an invisible wall of shadows and enchantment around the lands surrounding Thingol's cavernous stronghold of Menegroth. This land, previously known as Eglador—the kingdom of Thingol and Melian in the forests of Neldoreth and Region, ruled from Menegroth on the river Esgalduin—becomes known as Doriath. It is also referred to as the guarded kingdom, the Land of the Fence,30 and the Land of the Girdle,31 among other names. After Thingol withdrew all of their people that he could reach
within the fastness of Neldoreth and Region, and Melian put forth her power and fenced all that dominion round about with an unseen wall of shadow and bewilderment . . . . none thereafter could pass against her will or the will of King Thingol, unless one should come with a power greater than that of Melian the Maia. . . . . Within it there was yet a watchful peace; but without there was peril and great fear, and the servants of Morgoth roamed at will.32
The capacity to create a protective barrier of such size and enduring strength sets Melian apart from all other powerful women in Tolkien's legendarium, arguably even Galadriel. And she does this without breaking a sweat, raising her voice, or picking up a weapon. The contemporary desire for a so-called "strong female character" in fantasy literature and film pushes some writers, illustrators, or film directors to almost reflexively dress a powerful woman in armor and put a bow and arrow or sword in her hands.
This is a quick and easy way to signify strength in such narratives. Tolkien does not do this in the cases of Melian, Lúthien, Galadriel, and Andreth, arguably four of his strongest women characters. Although, after the death of her father and brother, Haleth leads her people in battle against overwhelming odds until Caranthir appears and rescues them from absolute annihilation. Haleth's martial skills and determination doubtless make a huge impression upon Caranthir—no man can call her a sissy.
Strong women characters in Tolkien, however, are a far more diverse cast than women simply dressed in a man's armor and handed his sword. One could argue, for example, that Andreth, who debates Finrod Felagund to a win or at very least a draw, might be considered as strong if not stronger than characters like Haleth, who embody a more typical martial definition of "strength." Likewise, I recently posited in my character biography of Lúthien that she is the true superhero of Tolkien's legendarium. Her power comes from a much broader slate of accomplishments than her ability to whip Sauron's butt at Tol-in-Gaurhoth.
Éowyn hides behind the armor of a man in order to accompany the Riders of Rohan to Minas Tirith to face death as a warrior rather than remain behind keeping the home fires burning and protecting the women and children. In contravening a direct order from her sovereign, she, however, fulfills her fate and an ancient prophecy by bringing down the Witch-king. As scholar Phoebe Linton notes, this "act immortalizes Éowyn in fulfillment of Elven prophecy, and in the history of Middle-earth."33
Few viewers of Peter Jackson's film The Two Towers forget the scene wherein Éowyn takes a sword from a chest in an armory and balances it before her, running her hand down the blade. Éowyn takes a few practice swipes with it and then reacts with speed and precision when Aragorn sneaks up behind her and challenges her with a knife. She stops his blade, causing him to say, "You have some skill with a blade." She then schools him in her history: "Women of this country learned long ago: Those without swords can still die upon them. I fear neither death nor pain." When he asks her what she does fear she tells him, "To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them. And all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire." The scene works for Peter Jackson. But while Jackson and his screenwriters revere Tolkien and know his work well, they chose to reveal more about their presumed audience than about Tolkien's view of what makes a strong woman.
The use of Peter Jackson's form of indicating a woman of strength is not unusual for a contemporary filmmaker. Medievalist Virginia Blanton points out how in Jerry Bruckheimer's production of King Arthur (2004) the strength of women characters is "measured entirely in terms that are coded as masculine illustrates how the film's version of history depends very much on a masculinist account of history."34 It is a shortcut or a cheat, if you will indulge me, similar in type to the one Peter Jackson used to define Éowyn. Tolkien's version of Éowyn is far more complicated than can be demonstrated by simply dressing a woman in armor or showing that she knows how to handle a sword without cutting herself.
Melian does not need suit of armor, nor do Galadriel or Lúthien, to be terrifyingly strong women. Whatever complaints one may have about Tolkien's interpretation of women or lack of female characters, one has to acknowledge that his notable women have depth and complexity. To present us with a strong woman, Tolkien does not simply put a pair of trousers on her and call it done! Or hand her a traditional weapon. His heroines and wise women are as richly complex and multifaceted as the women who have moved our real-world history, but marvelously Tolkien's characters have additional tools at their disposal which exist only in the world of Faerie. Melian stands tall among those magical women of skills reaching beyond the ordinary into the deific.
Tolkien scholar Melanie Rawls includes Melian among her list of women of great power.35 According to the definition of masculine vs. feminine strength in Rawls' essay, Melian would as much as any positive woman character in The Silmarillion appear to be largely but not entirely feminine in her strengths. Professor Rawls notes that
The wise counselors of Arda are often feminines or protégés of feminines. Melian, Galadriel and Idril all function as counselors, though they are sparing in their advice: "advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill," says the elf Gildor Inglorian, when Frodo asks for his counsel (LotR I.3.84). All are careful to avoid coercing the will of other persons.36
The above paragraph fits Melian like a bespoke pair of gloves. She is best known as a counselor. She advises Thingol time and time again and yet she does not push or demand but offers insight and, at times, positive solutions. Melian plays the role of instructing and/or mentoring two of the most potent women characters in Tolkien legendarium: Lúthien and Galadriel.
As the mother of Lúthien, Melian's gifts to her are twofold. The first and most obvious is a physical one. Lúthien is not merely a noblewoman among her people, a princess, the daughter of the King of the Sindar in Middle-earth, but she is half-Maiar, the daughter of one of the most venerated and powerful of that caste of angelic beings. As the child of such a powerful being, Lúthien receives by nature attributes and gifts which raise her in potential well above even the quasi-immortal Eldar who appear to the first mortal Men they encounter as nearly divine creatures. Secondarily, one assumes that Melian offered Lúthien a pedagogical enhancement of that inherited magic, much in the same manner that Melian tutors Galadriel. Rawls states that "[i]n Arda, the prime feminine characteristic is understanding; the prime masculine characteristic is power. . . . Action without understanding is rashness; understanding without action is impotence."37 Lúthien's mastery of both understanding and action places her among the principal heroes of the legendarium.
Rawls goes on to explore in greater detail what being strong or powerful means for significant female characters in The Silmarillion. For my own purposes, I seek to apply her reasoning to Melian in particular. She and some others (e.g., Lúthien, Galadriel, and Andreth) seem not to focus on stereotypical male manifestations of strength but feminine ones: understanding vs. physical power; counsel vs. force. There is no question in my mind that Melian is one of Tolkien's most powerful characters but that she uses feminine methods in large part.
Even more significantly perhaps is that Tolkien often gives his important male characters traits of feminine strength: insight, healing magic, empathy, compassion, and dreams of foresight. There are male heroes who necessarily find themselves warriors and martial leaders, but who are far more attracted to intellectual pursuits than the sword (like Finrod Felagund in The Silmarillion or Faramir in The Lord of the Kings). Marjorie Burns in her work on Celtic elements in Tolkien's works notes that his "praiseworthy females serve as magical, queenly figures [like Melian] endowed with Celtic enchantment, figures that represent the highest and best of Middle-earth and sometimes inspire reverence of a nearly religious kind." She goes onto note that "[a]ll of Tolkien's Elves, in fact, show characteristics often ascribed to women."38
The story of Melian is long and complicated, so this might be as good a spot as any to stop for now. The next section will contain her role in greeting and hosting Thingol's long-lost kinsmen from Valinor. Her insight and foresight are called upon to attempt to advise her husband when the exiled Noldor turn his world upside down. She plays important roles in the adventures of Beren and Lúthien and even gets drawn into the misadventures of the ill-fated Túrin, the world's worst foster child.
The role of seer is rarely a happy or pleasant one. Melian sees dark things and Thingol brushes her off increasingly. As the story progresses she warns Thingol multiple times of impending doom but he stops listening when what she sees contradicts what he wants to do. Next month, we will conclude the story of one of the strongest and most intriguing of the women in Tolkien's legendarium.
I want to thank IgnobleBard who read a very long and unwieldy draft, containing much of what will be Part II of the bio. Most of all I need to acknowledge Dawn Felagund's final edit which beat this version, kicking and screaming, into something readable. Thanks again, you two, for once again making me look better.
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Oshun's Silmarillion-based stories may be found on the SWG archive.
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