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

5. What’s On The Menu?

What’s On The Menu? Your character’s food choices will be influenced not just by taste, but by their culture, environment and circumstances. Try to find out about what foodstuffs might typically be available to your character. What would be their everyday fare? What would be a special treat? Where does it come from? Who does the cooking?

I have been looking forward to this one!  

Being in the center of multiple cultures and on the periphery of multiple more, means that Finrod has learned to eat pretty much everything that is edible, and a few things he suspects really aren’t.

Noldor tend toward inland fare - a variety of meats, whether wild or domestic, would include deer, elk, boar, fowl, sheep and goat, hare, and fresh-water fish.  They would have also eaten extensively of vegetables and fruits, again whether wild harvested or farmed, along with nuts and seeds of all kinds.

The Teleri had a far more sea-based diet: fish of all kinds, shellfish, octopus, urchins, and sea vegetables.    Occasionally they eat shore birds, seals, or other sea animals, but these are more rare and some look down upon the practice. They also cultivate herbs and vegetables, some fruits, and gather wild berries and other wild foods.  

Through his grandmother, some Vanya dishes have come into the family with more grain and vegetable heavy diet, not necessarily different fundamentally from the foods the Noldor eat, but often prepared differently, in thicker sauces and with a greater emphasis on the senses: color, presentation, and fragrance in addition to taste.

Nargothrond would have drawn heavily from all these sources, with extensive arable lands to the south, trade with the Falas for sea produce, and later trade with Estolad and eastern Beleriand for sheep and goat.  Wild game could be hunted or trapped in the forests, and domesticated herds had ample grasslands.

I picture Doriath as probably less of a trade partner in that I see them as less inclined to produce excess for export, and the bulk of their land within the girdle is forested.  The Sindar in general probably lived far more by gathering and hunting wild rather than cultivating.

Nargothrond would have been one of the better situated realms in terms of abundance of food and goods, which helped him support Minas Tirith and supplement Dorthonion as well.

From the Dwarves he would have come to greatly appreciate the many types and preparations of fungi, and a wider variety of ales, and the delight of hand-pies stuffed with all manner of deliciousness.  He was willing to try the various grubs and insects that they insisted were fine delicacies, but he has never quite decided to introduce these into Nargothrond’s standard fare.

The Edain introduced him to many edible flowers and varieties of herbs and wild greens brought with them from over the mountains, such as nettle and dandelion, as well as their particular choice of spices, including heavily spiced drinks, and a variety of both culinary and medicinal herbal drinks.

Finrod very much loves seafood.  While trade brought dried or preserved goods to Nargothrond, he would have enjoyed visiting the Falas for fresh when possible.  Anything that could not be properly conveyed overland would have been a rare delight.

Some of his favorite foods are seaweed soup (which reminds him of his mother), fresh berries (and when he gathers them himself they’re even better), and honey-roasted almonds, one of his father’s favorites also.  Spiced ciders, introduced by Bëor, became a staple at Nargothrond alongside the traditional meads, wines, and ales.

Finrod is not a cook.  Finrod not only has no interest in cooking, he has very little skill at it, either.  His brothers used to tease him that he could not even properly grill fish.

In this, Finrod is very much of the noble class and appreciates having others cook for him.