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I love these two guys so much in this. Maedhros has always felt to me in the hints we are given of his personality in canon to have such a strong element of idealism, sacrifice and self-effacement, proud still and with plenty of that Feanorian arrogance, but always something more--but for little tricks of fate and genetics, he could have been Tolkien's biggest hero and Fingon, of course, demonstrates all the energy and passion one could want in any epic action hero. I have often wondered if Tolkien realized how attractive he made almost all of his flawed Noldor.

Interestingly enough, I was reading the first book of Milton's Paradise Lost last night after not looking at it over a long period. I remembered how I thought of Milton the entire first time I was reading the parts about the Noldor in The Silmarillion, I thought that Tolkien in all his well-intentioned piety had made me love his anti-heroes so much more intensely than I could ever hope to love the characters he wanted me to love as heroes.

None of this rambling may seem to be much about your story, but actually it is. The strength of your continuing arc of Maedhros and Fingon is that it is so evocative for me. Loved the sphere that Maedhros's subconscious created in his dream and loved how Fingon says that his story made him love the intent of giver far beyond how he might have loved any intact gift.

Thank you very much! I'm glad that you find this story resonating with your thoughts on Maedhros and Fingon. I do think that Tolkien must have been fond of them himself, if perhaps not throughout the time of his writing (and perhaps sometimes rather guiltily so), as he seems to have changed his mind about so many things from time to time. That bit of the Quenta Silmarillion you quote at the end of your biography of Fingon brought a lump to my throat. I can't pin it down exactly, but it somehow reminds me of the last lines of Beowulf. And unless that is a simply a completely fanciful association of mine, that would surely mean a lot, given what Tolkien thought about the significance of Beowulf. (My own interpretation of what Maedhros's Feanorian arrogance actually entails, is not quite canonical, though, I'm sure.)