The Book of Short Tales by Lyra

B2MeM '13 - March 12 - Broader Minds

Started for a couple of B2MeM '12 prompts (O65: Women of the Silmarillion: women of Gondolin, Scientific achievement: statics, Smells: soap, TvTropes: Overshadowed by Awesome and O62: Women of the Silmarillion: Passing the Bechdel test), finally finished for one of the B2MeM '13 prompts for March 12 (Idril's feelings concerning Maeglin).

Idril disliked Maeglin before she even found out about his obsession with her. Here is why.

Most children learned the craft of their parents – smithcraft, the study of language, administration, public speaking, herb-lore – but Elenwë had chosen not to follow that tradition; instead, her daughter had gotten a taste of everything, learning the theory and the basics of a variety of Noldorin crafts and sciences.
Idril had not been happy with that. "Everyone else gets to do what they want," she had complained. "Why do I have to study such useless things?"
"The knowledge of statics is not useless," her tutor had said. "If you want to build a house, you have to know these things so the structure is sound."
"But I don't want to build a house."
"Maybe you will want to do so in the future. Even if you merely supervise the construction, you can use your knowledge of angles and loads and forces."
Idril complained to her mother, too.
"No one else has to learn all that if they don't want to be builders. All the other children only have to learn the one thing they care about."
"Life is long," Elenwë had said. "If you learn many things in your youth, you have a broad base on which to build your later studies."
"The others don't need that, either."
"The others don't know what they are missing," her mother had said, decisively. "When I was young, it was clear that I would become a singer, so I have only ever learned singing. I regret that, now that I live among your father's crafty people. Maybe I could have been a good craftswoman, or a councillor, or a farmer. But I did not learn the necessary skills, and nobody will teach a grown woman. So you must use the opportunities your youth offers. Whatever path you later decide to follow, at least you can make an informed choice."
Idril had not understood what her mother meant at the time. Still, she'd had to learn statics, and all the other sciences that she found abstract and useless. She knew that she would never become a master craftswoman or a master rhetorician or even a self-sufficient farmer, for her knowledge was broad, not deep.

- - -

Yet it came in handy: When Gondolin was built, Turgon's young daughter had a good basic knowledge about building, statics, logistics, about the practicalities and needs of a city. She could thus take an active part in the building of his city, mediating between the craftspeople and the king's learned councillors. It was her responsibility to keep track of the progress, to ensure the flow of goods and materials, and to explain what was possible and what was not. She shouldered the responsibility easily: She did, after all, have the necessary skills.
It had been easy to overlook her mother next to the charismatic leaders of the Noldor, Idril thought while she walked with her aunt Aredhel along the as-yet-unpaved street towards the as-yet-unfinished great fountain. But just because she did not shine and dazzle everyone around her with the flame of her intellect, just because she did not display power and cleverness, she had been no less brilliant. Elenwë never came out of the forge, smeared with soot and smelling of scorched skin or burnt hair, with some unique creation; nor did she deliver rousing speeches in the market-place until she was covered in dust and hoarse as a raven. She was always immaculately dressed, always smelled of soap, and always spoke in a soft, polite voice. Yet Elenwë's ideas about a broad basis of knowledge, Idril thought, had in their own way been as revolutionary as the ideas that led to the creation of Silmarils or the Crossing of the Ice.
If I ever see her again, Idril thought, I must remember to thank her.
Out loud she told her aunt, "I think we should build a school."

- - -

She was full member of the royal council, secretary of education and sciences, and the patron and headmistress of Gondolin's ground-breaking Academy of General Knowledge. These were her duties, and she embraced them; they never felt like a burden to her. She did them well, and they gave her a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Maybe it was Maeglin's refusal to understand that, his insitence that her offices must be a load and a nuisance upon her fragile female shoulders, that first led Idril to resent him. He certainly gave her no other cause for resentment in the beginning, being ever courteous and obliging – almost too much so – towards her. But his company constantly set her teeth on edge, even before she realised that he desired more than her company, that merely being her cousin did not satisfy him.
"If I had a daugher," Maeglin would say, glancing at Turgon, "I would not make her strain her mind to grasp subjects beyond its horizons!" And Idril thought, You mean, beyond your horizons.
"How unnatural it is to expect so much work of you, when your mind could be at peace in your household, with no care greater than fashion or the upbringing of your children," he would tell her, and she thought to herself, You would know all about 'unnatural', of course.
Out loud, she said, "It is none of your concern."
"It is, for I love you, and you know that," said he.
"Even if you were not my cousin," Idril said, "I would never be able to love a man so narrow-minded."

Chapter End Notes

Yeah, I shamelessly made that stuff about Idril's education up. Come on, they have to do something with all that time!