Finrod: 30-Day Character Study - Study Days by cuarthol

4. Home Sweet Home, Part One

Home Sweet Home, Part One. Think about a geographical location where your character lived. Learn more about what life in that location might have been like: the climate, topography, seasonal changes, flora and fauna, or anything else related to that physical location.

As with all of the Exiles, the place they lived varied both in Valinor and in Beleriand.

As a Noldorin Prince, Finrod would have lived in Tirion, a city first built with the Vanyar and then later held by the Noldor.  As the son of Eärwen he would likely have often been at Alqualondë, where the light of the Trees did not fully reach.

The two cities would have been very different in terms of climate, culture, and environments, and while we do not know which he preferred, it is pleasant to think he found comfort in both places.

Tirion would have been very green - grasses, plants, trees - and I don’t remember if there was said to be a river but I imagine there was at the base of the hill, and many little streams coming down from the surrounding mountains.

Herds of deer, wildfowl, an abundance of wild fruits and berries, and other edible plants.  Many who grew weary of the city might live in the wider lands around, more at ease in the forests.

For the city itself was stone, though beautifully chosen - not just drag grays and browns, but marbles, granites, precious stones and inlays.  There were cobbled roads and wide squares with fountains, and cultivated gardens where nature were guided and restrained.

The climate would have been fairly mild with winters that did not see snow and summers that still had occasional rains.  Perhaps the buildings were created to channel the water into decorative spillways or across metal tubes to make music that was never the same twice.

Alqualondë, meanwhile, was wilder - cut into the cliff face, with the shining white sands all along the sea.  The towers were crafted of pearl and seemed to flow as if molded like clay, with organic curves rather than sharp edges.

Sea-berries made for a treat, and shallow roots could be dug up and chewed like candy.  Birds were ever in the skies, in the water, upon the sands or nesting in the rocky cliffs.  Never did their seem to be a day without birds.  But other creatures, also, like crabs and sealife which could be found in rockier areas away from the main harbor.

Otters would occasionally come to steal from the daily catch of seafood, and when aship, the mariners would sing with the whales out at sea.

When Ossë was having a wild day, the swells could lap at the foundations of the palace and the winds would send wooden chimes dancing.  Sometimes the many birds would find refuge within the halls of the Teleri until the storm had passed.  

When they came to Mithrim, and even for the settlement that the Fëanorians had built before them, there was less focus on beauty and more on practicality.  They needed homes, defenses, stables and forges, granaries and halls for the production of textiles.

When Finrod built Minas Tirith he had a number of aesthetics he might have drawn on.  The stone would have been a familiar building material for the Noldor, but his shining white tower would have echoed Alqualondë as well.

But of course, Finrod’s most famous home is Nargothrond.  Nargothrond was put in Finrod’s heart by a vision from Ulmo, guided there by Thingol, delved with the aid of the Dwarves, and home to both Noldor and Sindar.  Nargothrond stands as a product of all the ways in which Finrod straddled lines of division, seeking to bridge rather than create chasms, forming bonds rather than severing them.

Nargothrond’s gates were hidden and well guarded, built significantly further south than most of the other Noldorin realms, which likely meant he had a great deal more of… everything.  More food cultivation, more resources to harvest, more trade with his neighbors.  The realm itself was far larger than merely the halls, for Thingol gave him rule of all of west Beleriand save for the Falas, which meant he had extensive hunting grounds, fertile soils for farming or gathering wild, plenty of wood and stone, likely domesticated herds of sheep and cattle for leather and wool.  The speculation can go on and on, given his secure situation.

While Dorthonion would not have been barren by any means, I picture Finrod regularly sending wagonloads of goods to his brothers and their people, for they were busier with war and defenses and Finrod's station as King also of these lands would have made them his responsibility as well.

The weather we have some insight to from the Children of Húrin, for Túrin was not far off from Nargothrond during his time at Amon Rudh.  The autumns would have been cold and rainy, the winters bringing ample snows.

Talath Dirnen might have been heavy with underbrush given the climate but it does not seem to have been, as it is referred to as a forested plain, so perhaps the summers were dry and hot, or the Elves kept it clear so that enemies could not approach under cover.

Whatever the case, Nargothrond seems to stand apart from all the other realms of Beleriand - even Doriath seems small by comparison.