By Oshun
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Last month we discussed how Melian and Thingol met in the forests of Middle-earth and fell in love (or did she entirely enchant him?). He was progressing ever-so-slowly westward with a large portion of his people (the Teleri--the most numerous, self-identified grouping among the Eldar). His purpose was to bring them safely to the sea and, once there, cross over to Aman with the aid of Oromë to live thereafter in the lands of the gods:
Now when their journey was near its end, as has been told, the people of the Teleri rested long in East Beleriand, beyond the River Gelion; and at that time many of the Noldor still lay to the westward, in those forests that were afterwards named Neldoreth and Region. Elwë, lord of the Teleri, went often through the great woods to seek out Finwë his friend in the dwellings of the Noldor.1
Once the two lovers had awakened from their trance, Thingol sought out his long-neglected people. It is not clear to me from the various versions of the tale if they actually missed the boat or simply decided their union would not fit into the original plans for Thingol to leave Middle-earth and establish his followers in Aman. Verlyn Flieger opines that Thingol both "forgets" what he had once yearned for and/or at the same time is enchanted by this being he encounters along his way:
In the course of his final journey toward the light, Elwë hears the singing of Melian in Nan Elmoth, the aptly named Valley of Star-dusk, and following the sound, sees and falls in love with her. Forgetting his journey, he stays with her in a trance of love "while long years were measured by the wheeling stars above them" (55). Although for a while the Teleri search for their lost leader, most of them eventually continue without him. They complete their journey. He does not. Forgetting his desire for the light, he stays in the starlit dusk of Middle-earth. 2
Flieger goes on to note that Thingol and Melian returned to Eglador to rule as King and Queen of all the Elves in Beleriand. The reader is immediately aware that Melian is not, however, a beautiful trophy wife who does nothing. She is eager and able to share her more extensive knowledge of the world they live in—Middle-earth and beyond—with her husband and his people: "Melian suggests to Thingol that they consider the defense of their sprawling kingdom. This lovely peace they've been enjoying for thousands of years isn't going to last. She knows that while Melkor has been locked up, he'll be tried again soon enough." 3 They need a safe stronghold.
As mentioned in the first part of this biography, this is one suggestion that Thingol chooses to accept, and he engages the Dwarves who have somewhat recently made an acquaintance with the Elves: "[A]lready the Dwarves wrought great works, for even from the first days of their Fathers they had marvellous skill with metals and with stone." 4 Melian rolls her sleeves up and assists these strong and skillful workers in the planning and construction of this underground fortress. The Dwarves are surprisingly eager to work so hard to build this structure of amazing size and intricate design. It is said that Thingol paid them in part with pearls, which he had acquired from Círdan. But more interestingly, we read that they worked most willingly because "they were unwearied in those days and eager for new works." 5 Although the Dwarves were known, even in the Elder days, to demand "a price for all that they did, whether with delight or with toil, at this time they held themselves paid. For Melian taught them much that they were eager to learn" (emphasis added). 6 The Dwarves are not the last to make good use of the tutelage of Melian. It bears repeating some of the marvelous details that Melian had helped accomplish in collaboration with the Dwarven craftsmen and Thingol's own people:
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. . . .and there were fountains of silver, and basins of marble, and floors of many-coloured stones. . . . the fairest dwelling of any king that has ever been east of the Sea. 7
To call this construction "the fairest" is no small thing when one considers that it is being compared here to Finrod Felagund's awe-inspiring caves at Nargothrond and Turgon's high terraces constructed upon the slopes of Mount Taras looking out over the sea at Vinyamar in Nevrast8 as well as his spectacular, hidden, seven-gated city of Gondolin. 9
Lúthien Tinúviel, the one and only child to come out of the union of Thingol and his queen, was born "[a]t the end of the first age of the Chaining of Melkor, when all the Earth had peace and the glory of Valinor was at its noon … ." 10 Melian is the only Ainu known to have coupled with one of the Children of Ilúvatar and produced a child. Lúthien Tinúviel is repeatedly named throughout the texts as the fairest among the Firstborn ever to have lived. Writing of those early years before the return of the Noldor to Middle-earth, Jeff LaSala explains that
it might be worth noting that this is the first time we observe a Maia having offspring. The Valar themselves do not have children together, and Maiar who are married to one another (like Ossë and Uinen) do not. But here Melian's union is with one of the Children of Ilúvatar—so together they can reproduce. Yet Lúthien will be an only child. 11
Before tackling the question of Melian as a mother, it seems practical to further examine her role in what one might be able to classify as a co-monarchical position in Doriath. In comparison to other characters both within and outside of Tolkien's world, she is less of a coruler than Galadriel is with Celeborn. Neither is she one half of a pair of coequal monarchs as could be found, for example, in the real-world marriage of Isabel of Castile to Ferdinand of Aragon, which unified Spain in the fifteenth century. In the case of that famous union, each brought a hereditary claim to a preexisting realm to their political partnership. In the Third Age of Middle-earth, Galadriel rules over and defends the land of Lothlórien in co-regency with Celeborn, unifying a diverse people composed of Sindarin and Nandorin Elves, who might more naturally look to her spouse for direction, but have learned over time to respect their Lady's powers as well.
Although Melian is stronger and higher within the hierarchy of beings found in Tolkien's legendarium, she often appears in the texts as less a coruler than the much beloved classic personage of fantasy literature: a magical adviser or house wizard to a king. In many ways, she is more Merlin than Guinevere to her sovereign. But even with her unique qualities of seer and magician, she treads lightly with her king. In First Age Beleriand, Melian advises and assists but only expresses herself publicly at the sufferance of Thingol, always deferring to him. In comparison, Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings, with her own not inconsiderable wizardly powers--largely although not entirely learned from Melian--seems to subtly assert precedence over Celeborn within their shared realm. 12
Although she exercises far more agency than is frequent for a queen in a fairytale, she never tries to rule in her own right. She remains the perfect highly skilled queen consort albeit with near immeasurable skills. Tolkien does not discuss any rules, restrictions or limitations upon how she may use her preternatural skills. It might not seem out of place to imagine that Melian does restrain herself. She understands that she is in, but not of, this world. She is one of its lesser gods existing within an Elven-like body. Her role could be seen within Doriath as being similar to that of the Istari in Middle-earth. However, she was not sent to do a job but chose of her own will to become a figure within the history of the Sindar. Furthermore, she chooses to limit herself to gentle persuasion alongside the much-revered King of the Sindar. She assists her partner with a much lighter touch than the manner with which her brethren of the Ainur tried to exert their wisdom and guidance over the Eldar in Aman.
As the wife and consort of Thingol, Melian is heartbreakingly reminiscent of Cassandra the Trojan prophetess whom nobody ever believes. Melian has the magical prescience (and at times ordinary common sense) that enables her to see the future. She additionally has the ear of one who could make use of this information for the good of himself and his people but, all too often and tragically, he does not listen.
We do not receive a novelistic description of the mother/daughter relationship Melian and Lúthien. What we do see in the texts are the ways in which Lúthien could not have been the daughter of anyone else but Melian. She is simply not ordinary. Melian has produced a half-Elven/half-Maiarin creature, preternaturally gifted and repeatedly referred to as the fairest of them all. Pure fairytale magic! Of course, such a fairy-story creature might be expected to attract the attention of a humble but heroic lad. The underlying assumption as the story of Lúthien unfolds is that, faced with greater and greater challenges in her life and her shared quest to steal a Silmaril, she is no ordinary Elf, but an astonishing and unique individual, truly her mother's daughter. I will discuss later how Melian contributes to the success of the quest of Beren and Lúthien and is an impressive mother-in-law.
Before leaping into a discussion of Melian's role as teacher and mentor of Galadriel, one needs to return the immediate aftermath of the First Battle of Beleriand. Thingol's realm of Doriath has been secured momentarily, at the cost of great losses to the neighboring Nandor and due to the magical crafting of Melian's powerful fence. The dust barely begins to settle, however, when their world is turned upon its head again (not in a bad way) by the appearance of the Sun and the Moon. Almost simultaneously, Thingol hears the news of the return of the Noldor to Middle-earth. The Noldor are numerous, disruptive, and heavily armed and cannot tell a coherent story of why they have come. If Thingol was ever a trusting individual he no longer is by this point.
He refuses to welcome any of the newly arrived Noldor into Doriath, with the notable exception of the children of Finarfin and Eärwen, whom he acknowledges as kinsmen through his long-departed brother Olwë. Finarfin is the youngest son of Thingol's dearest friend of old, King Finwë, while Eärwen is Olwë's daughter.
Simultaneously, unbeknownst to both Thingol's Sindar and the newly arrived Noldor, the race of Men, Eru Ilúvatar's so-called Second-born, have awakened in the east. They have begun to spread and wander "and their joy [is] the joy of the morning before the dew is dry, when every leaf is green." 13
But at that moment in time, Thingol and Melian are focused entirely on the newcomers from across the sea, since "all the Elves of Beleriand were filled with wonder and with hope at the coming of their mighty kindred, who thus returned unlooked-for from the West in the very hour of their need, believing indeed at first that they came as emissaries of the Valar to deliver them." 14 Jeff LaSala describes the Noldor in his typically humorous way: "The Noldor—the best-armed Calaquendi in existence—are actually at the top of their game. Heck, no Elves in the history of Arda are probably more on top of their game than the exiled Noldor, truly superheroes among Eldar." 15 Or, one might describe them where this writer grew up in semirural Indiana as "full of piss and vinegar" and "loaded for bear." No wonder Thingol is a little put off by his first reports of them and Melian is feeling cautious as well.
But the Noldor do indeed fight back against Morgoth's forces, pushing those marauding Orcs and monsters back into the north, liberating Círdan's people besieged in the Falas, and ushering in the period of the watchful peace of the Siege of Angband that lasts roughly four hundred years. That, however, does not stop the Noldor alienating Thingol. Thingol only welcomes his brother's close kinsmen into his protected realm, although he still does not know the reason why they have left Valinor: "Now King Thingol welcomed not with a full heart the coming of so many princes in might out of the West, eager for new realms; and he would not open his kingdom, nor remove its girdle of enchantment, for wise with the wisdom of Melian he trusted not that the restraint of Morgoth would endure." 16
Thingol does grow particularly fond of Finrod, the eldest among their newly met kinsman, and Melian befriends the youngest, his sister Galadriel. There is a noteworthy affinity between Galadriel and Melian, which becomes important later in the tales. Galadriel herself shows a natural talent for some of the types of magic that Melian practices. Like Melian, she has studied under Yavanna in Aman and also, interestingly, with Aulë as well. 17 Melian, as we discussed above, worked with and shared knowledge with the Dwarves in constructing the Halls of Menegroth. Melian, of the kin of Yavanna, was able to continue to hone Galadriel's abilities and teach her many new things. We know that Galadriel learns to make the Elven waybread (lembas), which she shares with Fellowship in The Lord of the Rings. In the SWG Character Biography of Galadriel, one may find numerous examples of skills that she shares with Melian:
Melian's protection of the lands surrounding the Thousand Caves of Menegroth may be reminiscent for the reader of the type of protective power Galadriel used to defend and isolate the Golden Wood of Lothlórien. The point for Galadriel was that Melian had an enviable store of knowledge and skill. For Galadriel, a Noldo through and through, knowledge is power. 18
One cannot help but compare Galadriel's skills and magic used in her role as the Lady of the Golden Wood to Melian as Queen of Doriath, guardian of the Land of the Fence: "And at times Melian and Galadriel would speak together of Valinor and the bliss of old; but beyond the dark hour of the death of the Trees Galadriel would not go, but ever fell silent." 19 Galadriel keeps secrets, like the rest of her clan, while Melian is well aware that she is withholding vital information. When prodded, Galadriel tells of dramatic events: the strife in Valinor, the making and the theft of the Silmarils, and how Finwë was murdered. But she withholds crucial parts relating to the goal of the Fëanorions, the events in Alqualondë, and the crossing of the Helcaraxë. Melian does not see the past in this instance, but she recognizes a lie of omission when she hears one.
'Now much you tell me, and yet more I perceive. A darkness you would cast over the long road from Tirion, but I see evil there, which Thingol should learn for his guidance.'
'Maybe,' said Galadriel; 'but not of me.'20
Eventually, all of the prevarications and secrets are revealed and Thingol explodes in anger and disappointment, enraged at being deceived. He holds a grudge like a champion (which will cost the Noldor and all of the free peoples of Middle-earth grievously when they are in desperate need of allies and Thingol refuses to participate in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears). But interestingly enough, Galadriel remains in Doriath and Melian continues with her tutelage.
A careful look at the texts relating to the day when Beren is first brought into the Hall of Menegroth by Lúthien allows the reader to observe ways in which Melian shows sympathy for Beren at a point when Thingol would have rather seen him dead on the spot. One could do far worse than having Melian as a mother-in-law. She certainly is useful to him and never buys into her husband's vengeful hostility. Tolkien scholar Christina Scull points to Melian's immediate positive response to her daughter's mortal lover:
In the Quenta Silmarillion it is said that Beren could not have found his way through the Girdle of Melian "if his fate had not so decreed. Neither could he have passed the mazes that Melian . . . wove about Doriath, unless she had willed it; but she foresaw many things that were hidden from the Elves" (V, 299). Indeed it would seem that she may have encouraged Beren to demand the hand of Lúthien from Thingol, for it is said that "his glance went also to the face of Melian; and it seemed to him that words were put into his mouth. Fear left him." 21
Whether Melian's foreknowledge revealed to her that the fate of Beren and Lúthien is inevitable and, thus, she might as well assist in making the process simpler if she is able or whether she is moved by compassion, she does continue to help them until they reach their goal. She also scolds and warns Thingol against his ill treatment of Beren, telling him that "not by you . . . shall Beren be slain; and far and free does his fate lead him in the end, yet it is wound with yours. Take heed!" 22
It is easy to be ensnared by the popular fanon which paints Melian as a mysterious otherworldly character, with little about her reminiscent of warmth and compassion (I may have fallen into this trap myself at times in my own fiction, although I might instead plead a case of using an unreliable narrator). Tolkien's texts, however, show that she actually mentored and mothered more than her single natural child. The more one reads about her, the more examples one finds of her as a nurturing teacher and surrogate mother. Not only did she mentor and tutor Galadriel, she accepted and assisted her future son-in-law Beren in his celebrated quest, but she also helped look after Túrin son of Húrin when he was adopted by Thingol.
Melian shows concern for the welfare of Túrin, a uniquely bright, talented, handsome, and strong--although extremely traumatized--mortal child. He is left within their care by his desperate pregnant mother and if all that were not bad enough, Melian recognizes at once that poor little Turin has been cursed by Melkor as well.
Morwen, heartbroken and at her wits' end, decides to send her son, the heir to the House of Hador, to Doriath, the only place where she believes he can be safeguarded. Her husband had gone off to the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, hale and determined, and never returned. Morwen, at the point in the tale where she sends Túrin to Doriath, has heard no tidings of Húrin. She insists upon waiting for her husband's possible return, while their lands are being devastated and overrun by Orcs all around her. Even before Húrin's departure she had considered Doriath as a possible last resort, telling him, "[T]o me now comes the thought of Doriath. Last of all defences will the Girdle of Melian be broken, I think; and the House of Bëor will not be despised in Doriath." 23 Morwen also is of the House the Bëor which, of course, has links to Doriath through Beren.
Although Túrin's mother appeals to Thingol to protect her son, Melian, sensing the doom hanging over the boy, nonetheless tries to remain positive and does not assume there is no way out for him. She seeks to look after him:
In the years of his childhood in the kingdom of Doriath Túrin was watched over by Melian, though he saw her seldom. But there was a maiden named Nellas, who lived in the woods; and at Melian's bidding she would follow Túrin if he strayed in the forest, and often she met him there, as it were by chance. 24
Thingol raises Túrin as his foster son and Melian attends quietly to his education and general well-being. But he grows up and his ill-fate follows him despite everything that Melian does to watch over him.
The following citation from the story of Turin is of interest relating to Thingol and Melian because it shows how after all that they have endured together for good and ill, and despite all of the mayhem and madness surrounding them, they remained a loving couple and retained the habit of seeking to spend quality time together:
But it chanced in the third summer, when Túrin was twenty years old, that desiring rest and needing smith-work for the repair of his arms he came unlooked for to Menegroth in the evening; and he went into the hall. Thingol was not there, for he was abroad in the greenwood with Melian, as was his delight at times in the high summer. 25
Author's Note: Before finishing our discussion about the most significant elements relating to Melian the Maia's life and times, I would like to emphasize that the tale of Beren and Lúthien is too long and detailed to rehash within Melian's biography, although perhaps it is the most important part of her story. But that material is available here. Over the course of the last several months we have published biographies of these two key characters. For more information about this central story of Tolkien's legendarium, please consult the three-part Biography of Lúthien Tinúviel and the two-part Biography of Beren.
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Oshun's Silmarillion-based stories may be found on the SWG archive.
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