A Beleriand Treasury of Childish Tales by Clodia

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A Correspondence Concerning Fëanor

 

"A Correspondence Concerning Fëanor"

selections from

The Nargothrond Dossier

a collection of documents discovered in the ruins of Nargothrond by

Erestor and Melinna of Ered Luin

(edited and translated by C.S. Lewis)

 

 

PREFACE

WE HAVE no way of knowing how the correspondence which we now offer to the public came into Finrod Felagund's hands.

Readers are advised to observe the stylistic elements which characterise these letters as a composition of the early First Age at the latest. We think it very likely that the correspondence was produced by an unknown member of Fëanor's household, perhaps even while the Noldor were still in Aman. It seems that satire can provide a means to offer disguised warnings even in the Blessed Realm.

No effort has been made to attach dates to the letters. Number I appears to have been composed after the fabrication of the Silmarils; but in general the Ainurin conception of time appears to bear no relation to any Eldarin chronological system and we have not attempted to elucidate it. We think that the broad outline of events as they unfolded in Aman is clear from the content of the letters.

E. & M.

EREGION
July 5, 1341 T.A.

 


 

I

 

MY DEAR THURINGWETHIL,

What you tell me about this man's relations with his brothers and their mother is very promising. The cultivation of domestic hatred is an old textbook method of temptation and one that often produces very pleasing results. To be sure, we have little hope of the brothers themselves. There is a streak of pride in the elder of the two through which our colleague Gothmog may yet gain a foothold, but the younger is disgustingly insipid and his mother is no better; indeed, I find from the record office that all attempts to convince her to resent her husband's affection for your patient have been in vain. But your patient is fortunately unaware of this and can quite easily be persuaded that his stepmother and her sons devote their every waking moment to turning his father against him. If you can only get him to be sure that the Enemy intends them to usurp his father's crown, the rest of your task will be delightfully straightforward.

Remember, he has not, like you, experienced the might of the Enemy. Never having faced the hosts of the Enemy in war (Oh, that abominable episode!) he doesn't realise what it would really be like to be imprisoned by Them in Valinor. I once had a patient, a simple Quendu, who used to sing under the stars by Cuiviénen. One day, as he wandered along the shore, I saw the shadow of Oromë looming up over the hills. If I had lost my head and fled for safety, I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck at once and reminded him of the tales of dark Riders and shadowy beasts that roamed through the hills above Cuiviénen. The patient presumably caught sight of the light of Aman in Oromë's face, for when I said "Quite. No doubt He carries fire and intends to use it", the patient became appreciably more nervous; and by the time I had added "Of course more of Them will certainly appear in short order", he was already half way to the woods. Once he was among the trees the battle was won. I showed him an owl's eyes gleaming in the dark, and the branches rustling frightfully above him, and before he reached the deep bushes I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, of all things, the sound of Oromë's Valaróma was the most to be feared. He knew he'd had a narrow escape and has since become one of the founding members of Our Father's armies.

You begin to see the point? Thanks to the limitations of their corporeal form, they are vulnerable to fear and doubt on precisely those points where they should be most inclined towards trust. Keep pressing home on him the deceptiveness of things. Tell him that weapons and armour might one day be useful; do not allow him to consider what they might be useful for. Above all, do not urge him to foment rebellion (I mean, obvious rebellion) among the Noldor as a whole. This will positively encourage him to think about the realities of the situation. If it ever occurs to him that the Enemy could crush him and his people in an instant if They chose, he will realise at once that Their aim cannot possibly be imprisonment (a game in which They are indeed mere amateurs).

Do not misunderstand me. It is quite impossible that Their cock-and-bull story about disinterested love can be anything more than mere propaganda. But it is manifestly obvious to anyone who cares to consider the matter dispassionately that Valinor is not a prison and the Enemy are not holding the Elves captive, and so the trick is therefore to be sure that the patient does not consider this (or any other) matter dispassionately. The best thing to do is to let him obsess over his imagined grievances against his brothers and his stepmother until he is quite certain that the whole world is against him. At that point he should fall into your hands like a rotten apple.

I haven't yet got a report from you on his latest project. I should like it at once. Our Father is very interested in those jewels,

Your affectionate uncle,
GORTHAUR

 

 

II

 

MY DEAR THURINGWETHIL,

So you "think it will turn out to Our Father's advantage in the long run", do you? I always thought you were a trifle too naïf for your own good, and now I am sure. Have I not repeatedly impressed upon you the importance of secrecy?

As you ought to have known, even the vaunted liberality of the Enemy could not survive your patient drawing his sword on his brother. It was entirely predictable that They should summon him to the Ring of Doom, and unless you have him very much in hand They will certainly extract the truth of the matter from him. How can you fail to see that this is the last thing Our Father wants? Can't you foresee that laying all of the patient's complaints out in the open will just disclose the falsity of the grudges which you have been so laboriously teaching him to cherish? And that exposing your own activity to the Enemy is the most dangerous thing of all? That They will realise that your patient's resentment of Their rule by no means springs straightforwardly from his own pride, and that Our Father is likewise less amenable to Their dominion than He has been at great pains to appear? In order to detach the patient from the Enemy, you wanted to keep him and his people away from Them, and had so far managed with some adroitness to do so. Now, all that is undone.

Of course his relations with his family have deteriorated, but that was not the point of the exercise. Remember always, that your ultimate aim is to convince the patient that the Enemy hold his people captive in Aman, and that They plan to rule over Men in the kingdoms of Middle-earth. You want to isolate the patient from his family as a means to this end, not the other way around! Hence, while your work in this respect has certainly born fruit, the results may turn out to be perfectly disastrous. You have observed the punishment meted out in the dungeons of Udûn to those who fail Our Father, I hope? I enclose a set of woodcuts on the subject for you to study at your leisure; the detail is quite exquisite and you will profit greatly from a close examination of them.

You report that his wife has left him. That is good. She was a bad influence and could usually be counted upon to bring a positively unpleasant degree of rationality to bear on any given moral dilemma. But this alone cannot redeem the situation. We shall have to wait on the outcome of your patient's audience with the Enemy.

Do keep a close eye on what he does with those jewels,

Your affectionate uncle,
GORTHAUR

 

 

III

 

MY DEAR THURINGWETHIL,

So! All is revealed – and in the worst possible way – and the patient has gone into exile at Formenos with the jewels. I hope you have taken careful note of those woodcuts of Udûn. Unless we can retrieve this disaster, you will have ample opportunity to experience the delights they depict at first hand.

You can at least take comfort that the fictions you have been spreading among your patient's people have now (as it will seem to these creatures) been confirmed: your patient's father, by following his son to Formenos, has yielded his kingship to his second son. Our colleague Gothmog is exploiting this opportunity to spread further discord even now. Meanwhile, Our Father has determined that your incompetence obliges Him to involve Himself directly. Do not indulge the hope that you will avoid the usual penalties,

Your affectionate uncle,
GORTHAUR

 

 

IV

 

MY DEAR THURINGWETHIL,

Our Father is most displeased by your failure to convince the patient that co-operation would be in his best interests. You may be interested to learn of the importance that He places upon extending the dungeons beneath Udûn and Angband, when He returns to Middle-earth. For the moment, remain in place and concentrate your attentions upon exacerbating your patient's resentment of his brothers and of the Enemy's rule in Aman. Work on persuading him that he has been the victim of a great injustice, rather than the architect of his own downfall,

Your affectionate uncle,
GORTHAUR

 

 

V

 

MY DEAR THURINGWETHIL,

I am delighted to hear of the patient's reaction to his father's death. The best thing would have been for him to die at Formenos alongside his father, but this outcome is certainly the most useful alternative. He is now wedded to the idea that the Enemy intend to steal the jewels from him, and that Their summons cost him his father's life – whereas we know that the summons actually saved his life, since it would certainly have been forfeit to Our Father had he been present at the sack of Formenos. These creatures can never see when they are best off. At any rate, you want to encourage him in this belief. Do not let him recall how the Enemy indulged his selfishness when he refused to turn the jewels over to Yavanna, before anyone knew they were lost. Let him think that They hold a bitter grudge against him, and that he must strike out for freedom before They move to take Their revenge. Your time with the patient is strictly limited – Our Father will summon us all to prostrate ourselves before Him in Middle-earth soon enough – and we had better make the most of it. The Enemy's pretty idyll has been cracked; we want to leave it spoilt beyond repair.

Persuading the patient and his sons to take that Oath was a master stroke. That they could ever harm Our Father is all but impossible; that they can (and will) do great damage to anyone who stands in their way is very likely. Our Father was most amused by the news. You may even be excused one or two of your earlier failures, if the implications make themselves felt in a timely fashion. It is rather awkward that the patient has united with his brother Fingolfin, but that can be dealt with in due course.

Pray do not fill your letters with gossip about the creature's abuse of Our Father. I am not in the least interested in knowing by what name your patient has decided to address Him today. No doubt the matter is of some small significance to the patient, but it matters not one bit to Our Father, Who alone will ultimately decree His Own infernal and abominable titles when the final moment comes,

Your affectionate uncle,
GORTHAUR

 

 

VI

 

MY DEAR THURINGWETHIL,

This is the last letter you will receive from me before we meet again in person. I must commend you on your brilliant success at Alqualondë. The patient reacted better than we could have hoped to the merest hint that his quest might be thwarted. Now that he has once shed Elvish blood, it will be much easier for him or his sons to do so a second time when (as it so appears to them) acquaintances, friends, or even kin seem to stand in their way. The more atrocities they can be persuaded to commit in the name of their Oath, the more they will feel themselves to be driven by it, when in fact it is only their own stubborn pride that drives them. And in the long run, such victories will be claimed by Our Father alone.

There will not be enough ships for the patient to ferry all his people across the ocean. I don't suppose you can persuade him to abandon his troublesome brother in Araman?

Until our paths cross once more before Our Father's throne, I remain

Your affectionate uncle,
GORTHAUR

Chapter End Notes

This draws on C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. I owe this story to Gogollescent, in gratitude for TEH LINK (this being http[:/]members[.]fortunecity[.]com[/]phantom1[/]books2[/]c._s._lewis_-_the_screwtape_letters[.]htm, for anyone separated from their own copy of the book).

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