Sunday Scriberies by Elleth

Morgoth's Elvish Thralls and Slaves

Written for the question: We know that Gwindor was an escaped slave of Morgoth, and in the Lost Tales Rúmil was also captured as a slave by Morgoth and escaped later. Do you know of any other elves that were captured and escaped alive from slavery? And what about men?

Read Morgoth's Elvish Thralls and Slaves

While slavery as a practice of the forces of evil is a widespread and sadly common phenomenon in Tolkien’s legendarium and finds its echo numerous times in different versions of the texts, it is not usually touched upon in much detail.

Gwindor and Rúmil are some of the few named Elves suffering this particular fate. One of the most prominent captives of Morgoth, Maedhros, is often understood by fans to have been forced into slavery, but although the plot point of his captivity goes back to the earliest extant texts, there is very little evidence speaking toward the further interpretation. The early idea that he was put to torture to reveal the secrets of jewel-making was abandoned in favour of making Maedhros an important political hostage in order to pressure his brothers into renouncing their quest. Risking his escape via the mines (as in Gwindor’s case) prior to his torment on Thangorodrim seems unlikely to me personally.

However, Fingolfin’s challenge to Morgoth, describing him as “Lord of Slaves” appears more substantial considering the sheer numbers of unnamed Elves and Humans Morgoth must have enslaved. Not only the Sacking of Nargothrond and the Fall of Gondolin as well as the destruction of the Falas saw survivors taken into captivity: One of the central disasters of the Silmarillion, the Dagor Bragollach, caused widespread captivity of Noldor and Sindar who were forced to put their skills and knowledge into Morgoth’s service (Gwindor’s brother Gelmir was taken captive during or after this battle, but there is nothing in the texts indicating whether or not he was forced to work), and the Nirnaeth Arnoediad likewise saw the enslavement not merely of the remaining free Eldar of Hithlum to Angband, but also of the House of Hador at the hands of the Easterlings who were settling into their newly assigned fief. Morwen’s household was one of the few that remained untouched (although her concern that Túrin might be enslaved prompted her send him to Doriath). A kinswoman of Húrin called Aerin was married to and mistreated by an Easterling called Brodda, and Tuor was taken captive and held as thrall to a high-ranking Easterling named Lorgan for three years; however he was able to free himself and escape, eventually, to Gondolin under the guidance of Voronwë.

Gondolin as one of the few remaining strongholds may be a remnant of earlier textual versions, in which Morgoth’s victory after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad as far more decisive and the Noldor in total (excepting only the Gondolindrim) subjugated and called Thrall-Noldoli. They were not completely captive and in fact were allowed to move through Beleriand, but put under the so-called “Spell of Bottomless Dread” that left them under Morgoth’s control and in constant fear and disquiet of him. Voronwë, before he was re-imagined as one of Turgon’s mariners but already Tuor’s guide, may have been one of them, and so were a number of the Gondolindrim, for the most part in the House of the Hammer of Wrath under Rog. His name, noted as unusual by Christopher Tolkien because of its meaning (‘demon’), may be a hint that he himself used to be an escaped captive – such a moniker seems more like a degrading title than a legitimate name of an Elven nobleman, but that is again guesswork. Maeglin was subjected to the same spell after his betrayal of the city, though seems to have been able to mask it outwardly, and at least at one point Tolkien toyed with the idea of having the association with Morgoth run in the family; Eöl was then understood to be a slave who did not escape from Angband, but was “released to do mischief among the Elves”, and also seems to have gained much of his smithcraft from captivity.

Eöl was not the only released slave either. Again, no other particular Elven names are known, but the Curse of the Noldor made the free Elves among them wary of betrayal, and they became aware of Morgoth’s spell on his captives and the fact that they were often sent to do his work, thus “if any of his captives escaped in truth, and returned to their own people, they had little welcome, and wandered alone outlawed and desperate.” Why Gwindor proved the exception here is hard to say. Although Finduilas’ favour and his previous high standing may have played a role, he was even re-instated into the King’s Council, and that appears equally strange given the distrust stated prior, similar to Húrin’s admission into Doriath after his release and the shunning he himself experienced elsewhere, and the general distrustful stance of Thingol toward the Northern Sindar, who, due to their proximity to Angband rather than any real suspicion, were often counted as in league with Morgoth by the people of Doriath. 

However, even the slaves who did not manage to free themselves were eventually released – either in Lúthien’s overthrow of Tol-in-Gaurhoth (in an earlier version Beren – then still a Noldo – was likewise put to work as a kitchen slave under Tevildo, a forerunner of Sauron) or in the defeat of Morgoth in the War of Wrath, after which many slaves and captives were freed.

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Chapter End Notes

Sources: The Silmarillion (mentions and excerpts: Morgoth captures Elves as Spies and Slaves)

The History of Middle-earth vol. I & II: The Book of Lost Tales I & II (Gilfanon’s Tale: The Travail of the Noldoli, The Tale of Tinúviel, The Fall of Gondolin)

The History of Middle-earth vol. III: The Lays of Beleriand: (The Lay of Leithian), 

The History of Middle-earth vol. VI: The War of the Jewels: (Maeglin; Quendi and Eldar [summarized here]).

Meril-i-Turinqi

Written for the question: Could you please tell me about Meril-i-Turinqi? Thank you so much!

Read Meril-i-Turinqi

Meril-i-Turinqi is a character exclusive to the framework-story that justifies the narration of the Lost Tales, the earliest conception of what would later become the published Silmarillion. As such she occurs only in the two parts of the Book of Lost Tales, even though there are conceptual echoes and parallels that occur in other notable figures of Tolkien’s legendarium.

As per the Book of the Lost Tales, she is the Queen of Tol Eressëa. Her name, taking into account some linguistic difficulties and shifting concepts, probably translates to Rose-the-Queen in a mix of Sindarin and Qenya (the forerunner of Tolkien’s later and more fully developed Quenya), and as such can be assumed to be both royal title and personal name, similar to the naming customs of the Númenoreans much later (e.g. Tar-Míriel). In the text she is often merely referred to as Meril.

Her royal station derives, for the most part, from her descent from In(g)wë, the leader of the Vanyar and the High King of all Elves, and this particular fact may also explain the curious one-time address of her as the Queen of the Eldalië, a term encompassing the entirety of the Elves that departed from Cuiviénen. The degree of her descent from In(g)wë shifted even in those early works; in the first drafts of the story she refers to Ingwë as her grandfather, in the published text she states that “In[g]wë was my grandsire’s sire”, but both versions allow her rulership over Tol Eressëa in spite of others’ majority in terms of age. In addition to her Vanyarin heritage, she also claims descent from the Shoreland Dancers, the later Teleri, but this is not elaborated upon.

Her precise date of birth is uncertain, but the fact that she places special emphasis on the tale of the Coming of the Eldar to Valinor and admits that “I have lengthened the tale too much for love of those days” seems to imply that she was in fact alive to see what would in the later Silmarillion become Valinor before the Darkening. It is likewise probable from hints in the texts that she came to live in Kortirion in the center of Tol Eressëa due to Ingil (later Ingwion) the son of In(g)wë summoning the more exceptional of the Eldar to help prepare the island for the returning Exiles, after he himself had returned from the textual forerunner of the War of Wrath. 

Despite the quaint, fairytale notions of her dwelling in an overgrown house in a circle of elm-trees and flowers at the foot of Ingil’s tower, her station is not merely that of a figurehead or ornament. She seems to wield executive power, devising and ordering, for example, the building of the Cottage of Lost Play. She is widely acknowledged as very wise, and given the stories that she narrates (The Chaining of Melko and the Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr, is strongly linked to ideas of peace and order. She is also stated to preserve knowledge of the Tongues of the Gods in her house, and thus can be assumed to speak, or at least have linguistic knowledge of, Valarin.

Most important for the stories that she features in, however, is her function as the keeper of limpë, the drink of the Elves that in this early version of the story both preserves their strength and grants them talents of song and poetry. She is the one the mortal traveller Eriol asks for a draught of it in order to attain immortality and live among the Elves of Tol Eressëa forever. He finds his request met with conditions to learn more about the Eldar first in order to fully understand their history and mindset, and the fact that his choice, once made, cannot be revoked and will have consequences:

”[…] hearken, O Eriol, think not to escape unquenchable longing with a draught of limpë — for only wouldst thou thus exchange desires, replacing thy old ones with new and deeper and more keen. Desire unsatisfied dwells in the hearts of both those races that are called the Children of Ilúvatar, but with the Eldar most, for their hearts are filled with a vision of beauty in great glory.” 

While the later parts of Eriol’s story for the most part are only sketched out rather than written in-detail, it must be assumed that he has met Meril’s conditions, as he is in fact allowed to drink limpë and even go so far as to marry an elven woman. But the story is abandoned soon after and Meril does not reoccur as herself (the name Meril does once, as the wife of Finrod and mother of Gil-galad, but this likely was a case of recycling rather than a link; Meril-i-Turinqi is never so much as implied as having gone into exile or even having a spouse, in fact dwelling alone with her handmaidens), though as noted above, there are similar developments in the later texts. Tuor as a mortal Man enters into Valinor with Idril and is made immortal, though how this occurs is not described in detail. It is doubtful that his change, given the ideas of the later Silmarillion, can be brought about simply by means of a drink rather than direct interference of Eru, though the quality of a foodstuff inducing longing in humans to become immortal and remain among the Elves is not wholly abandoned, especially regarding lembas. Rather than the somewhat un-serious treatment it received in the movies, Tolkien conceived of it as a near-religious food of great potency:

For it is said that, if mortals eat often of this bread, they become weary of their mortality, desiring to abide among the Elves, and longing for the fields of Aman, to which they cannot come.

Notably, lembas also was said to be in the keeping of the highest-ranking of elven women of their respective people, even so far that their title became that of Bread-Giver or Massánie/Besain in Quenya and Sindarin. The main occurence of lembas in the Silmarillion lies with Melian, who shows Túrin especial favour in granting him use of it, and in the Lord of the Rings it is Galadriel, herself a student under Melian’s tutelage, who grants it to the Fellowship when they set out from Lothlórien. Galadriel, as a relative of both Ingwë of the Vanyar and Olwë of the Teleri, who herself comes to live on Tol Eressëa after the end of her exile in Middle-earth, is likely the conceptual descendant of Meri-i-Turinqi. In fact, John Garth, author of Tolkien And The Great War: The Threshold Of Middle-earth, comes to a similar conclusion concerning their parallels:

Both elf-queens are repositories of ancient knowledge, but each also is the source of a supernaturally enduring vitality: Meril through the marvellous drink limpë that she dispenses, Galadriel through the power to arrest decay in her realm. It is symptomatic of both the fluidity and the stability of Tolkien’s mythopoetic conceptions that, while names evolved and the interrelationships of individuals and peoples changed almost beyond recognition through years of writing, rewriting, and recasting, these embodiments of quintessential elvishness - […] the queen of trees – recurred.

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Chapter End Notes

Sources: The History of Middle Earth vol. 1 (Book of Lost Tales I, Ch. 4,5)

The History of Middle Earth vol. 2 (Book of Lost Tales II, Ch. 6)

The History of Middle Earth vol. 12 (Of Lembas)

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

John Garth: Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth

Merpeople in Middle-earth

Written for the question: Were merpeople ever included in the Middle Earth mythopea [sic]? My Quenya dictionary has oarwen as mermaid.

Read Merpeople in Middle-earth

Given the linguistic foundation of Tolkien's legendarium, many words in his Elvish languages hold significance due to their existence in the stories, rather than as mere exercises in language-making. Merfolk definitely had their place in the early versions of Middle-earth, even so far that Tolkien devised several different names (and probably different concepts) for them: The Book of Lost Tales lists "Oarni and Falmaríni and the long-tressed Wingildi" as the followers of Ossë and Uinen, and describes them as "the spirits of the foam and the surf of ocean". The name-list of the Lost Tales lists Oar as "child of the sea, merchild", from a Qenya poetic word Ô for water, Falmaríni may translate to "women of the foam(ing waves)" and Wingildi is glossed as "nymph(s), foam-fays, foam-maidens", with the element wingë, "foam, spray, spindrift, crest of wave". There also are Oaris and Oarwen, both listed as "mermaid", and Uinen of the Lost Tales also bears the name Ui Oaritsa, "Queen of Mermaids", though this concept seems to have abandoned early on, and the Oarni especially are then associated with Ossë.

This may imply a certain delight in wildness, if not violence, but in addition to tremendous power that enables the Oarni to drag the Valar to Valinor on an island after the destruction of Almaren, the Lost Tales also depict them as lovers of music and dancing. Especially in connection with Eärendel at the Mouths of Sirion they are described as benevolent, love him because of his beauty, give him gifts, teach him sea-craft, ship-building and swimming. In numerous outlines of the same story they even act in spite of Ossë and save Eärendel (and Voronwë) from drowning after they are ship-wrecked on their journeys.

But a later concept of the same story lists Oarni and mermaids as different creatures, and Tolkien expresses some insecurity as to what the latter are: "The fiord of the Mermaid: enchantment of his sailors. Mermaids are not Oarni (but are earthlings, or fays? - or both).' In [earlier text ouline] D mermaids and Oarni are equated." Fays, here, are the predecessors of the later Maiar, but to my knowledge nothing more was explained. It may be Tolkien's first stages toward abandoning his dainty Victorian fairy-lore and the idea of "foam-fays like butterflies" and "foam-maidens with blossom-white hair" of the 1920s and early 1930s, and even the whimsical but anachronistic descriptions that can be found in Roverandom. The 1925 book shows clear connections toward Middle-earth with figures and places from the Lost Tales, but its 'canonicity' is doubtful, seeing how the story Tolkien tells his sons subsumes Middle-earth into a larger idea of Faerië that is populated by figures from Norse, Greek and Roman myth alongside speaking toys and creatures from Tolkien's own imagination – but despite the difficulties to abstract "valid" concepts for Middle-earth, these are the most substantial descriptions of merfolk that we have.

In Roverandom most merfolk belong to the common fish-tailed variant, have either dark or golden hair, live in a a domed palace at the bottom of the sea (see Tolkien's own rendering of the Mer-king's palace as illustration), enjoy music, dance and laughter, are described as graceful and beautiful, but also imbued with a sense of unrest and mild danger – there exists an ambiguity whether they saved or drowned a shipwrecked sailor, and they vehemently protest developments in the plot of the story, and are even capable of "witchcraft" that does not always seem benign. Other creatures such as "sea-goblins" are also mentioned (very much the equivalent to the land-creatures of the same name insofar that they are mischievous and evil) and "smaller sea-fairies" that ride crabs or fishes or walk along the sea-bed.

But Tolkien, by his own admission, soon came to despise the dainty in favour of a "higher" mode of stories, which was also reflected in the linguistic evolution his languages passed through: They retained many words out of the earlier Qenya Lexicon, but the concepts changed. While a later reworded poem still had "Foam-riders [wingildi] with hair like blossom / And pale arms on the sea's bosom / Chanting wild songs" Tolkien translates it with a title that is later given to the Amanyar Teleri, while a simultaneous kind of earlier "fay" creatures is rather translated as "Wood-Elves". The explicit involvement of merfolk in the legendarium disappears as much as Andersen's Little Mermaid dissolves into sea-foam.

There is a fair amount of leeways to retain the idea of merfolk in Middle-earth, however. To the best of my knowledge and research Tolkien never explicitly contradicted the concept, even though other people came to inhabit their storylines in the published Silmarillion. Instead of the Oarni, Círdan and his people teach Eärendil ship-building and help him with the building of Vingilot. His journeys are not recorded in detail, and only an oblique mention is made toward his adventures in Bilbo's Lay of Eärendil that contains no mention of a shipwreck. However, there are echoes from the earlier legendarium: Ulmo and his servants ferry the Vanyar and Noldor across the sea on an island from the Bay of Balar, Uinen's hair like that of the Wingildi is given special mention, and there exists a description of the Ainur associated with the sea in the published Silmarillion:

But Ulmo was alone, and he abode not in Valinor, nor ever came thither unless there were need for a great council; he dwelt from the beginning of Arda in the Outer Ocean, and still he dwells there. [...] Salmar came with him to Arda, he who made the horns of Ulmo that none may ever forget who once has heard them; and Ossë and Uinen also, to whom he gave the government of the waves and the movements of the Inner Seas, and many other spirits beside. (Of the Beginning of Days; emphasis mine)

In my opinion, given the common association of the Valar's servants with their chosen elements or spheres (e.g. Ilmarë, "Starlight", the Handmaiden of Varda, and Fionwë/Eonwë, "Hawk", the Herald of Manwë), the existence of merfolk (if not necessarily of the same description as above) as a backdrop to the published legendarium still seems possible, even probable. Water-spirits do exist, at any rate, considering Goldberry and her mother, River-woman. Given the fact that Tolkien did indeed consider himself 'bound' by published material, they may be a glance into the less diminutive ideas that could be used to construct a fannish interpretation of his more mature concepts.

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Chapter End Notes

The Book of Lost Tales I:

Chapter III: The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor

Chapter V: The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr

Chapter IX: The Hiding of Valinor: commentary

Appendix: Names in the Lost Tales Part I

 

The Book of Lost Tales II:

Chapter V: The Tale of Eärendel

 

The Silmarillion:

Chapter I: Of the Beginning of Days

Chapter V: Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië

 

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring:

Book I, Chapter VII: In the House of Tom Bombadil

Book II, Chapter I: Many Meetings

 

The Monsters and the Critics: On Fairy-Stories

The Monsters and the Critics: A Secret Vice

 

Parma Eldalamberon 14

Parma Eldalamberon 16

 

Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull: J.R.R. Tolkien. Artist and Illustrator

 

Ardalambion Quenya Wordlist: http://folk.uib.no/hnohf/quen-eng.htm

Victorian Fairies and the Early Work of J. R. R. Tolkien: https://repository.cardiffmet.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/10369/3458/1/Fimi_31_05_06.pdf

 

Elves and Horses

Written for the question: Here is what may be a silly question, but it's important to a story I'm writing. Can Elves talk to animals? And in particular, horses?

Read Elves and Horses

To be straightforward – yes, Elves very likely could talk to animals, especially their horses. The books offer relatively little evidence of that directly, though enough to make the educated guess that they did not adopt animal speech for their own use (though were capable of learning it) but had animals capable of understanding verbal speech rather than mere commands they might have been trained to react to. In part this may derive from the close connection of Elves to nature (both animate and inanimate) around them. Consider, for example, the statement that they were capable of understanding the Music of the Ainur from the water, but also Legolas hearing the lament of the stones of Eregion and his understanding of the Huorn host that had come to Helm's Deep, or even the early Elves waking trees and teaching them (and potentially the Ents) their speech, as Treebeard reports. The Laiquendi (Green Elves) of Ossiriand are commonly perceived as coexisting peacefully with nature, neither hunting animals nor cutting down trees.

One clear case of an Elf in close connection with animals is Celegorm, the third son of Fëanor and a follower of the Vala Oromë in Aman. He is explicitly stated to have "great knowledge of birds and beasts, and all their tongues he knew." Celegorm also is described as both a great hunter and horseman. I am excluding Celegorm's dog Huan from the consideration here only because he could actually speak with words (though only was permitted to do so three times) and thus probably was not a real dog, but rather one of the less powerful Maiar who had assumed dog form, which would explain his unusual gifts, his power, and his longevity. No other speaking animals (apart from some fairytale-like plot points in the Hobbit) are described in the texts, but especially elven animals are shown to possess extraordinary closeness to their people (I hesitate to say "owners" given the mostly harmonious portrayals in the texts) as well as an understanding of speech, and indeed both concepts seem to be linked.

Elves in general were able horsemen who also employed cavalry in battle, and both the Houses of Fëanor and Fingolfin of the First Age owned horses brought from Valinor on the swanships. Rochallor, the horse of King Fingolfin either was one of them, or descended from them. He was a gift from the Fëanorians and carried Fingolfin to Angband. After Fingolfin's death in combat with Morgoth, Rochallor stayed by his side until he was forced to flee by the wolves of Angband. He returned to his homeland Hithlum, and there died of, reportedly, a broken heart. Nothing more is reported in this case but it is important to remember that the Silmarillion and the texts that contributed to it were intended to be historiographic rather than a novel and are necessarily less detailed. It is easier to glean some information from the Lord of the Rings.

It can be understood from the narrative that Elves in general rode without bit and bridle, and potentially even bare-back (or merely with a saddle blanket). Glorfindel's horse Asfaloth merely wears an ornamental plumed headstall; this was a conscious emendation by Tolkien after the incongruency between Glorfindel's and later elven horsemanship was pointed out to him by a reader. He also stresses "the natural ways of Elves with animals" in the same response. Asfaloth certainly also was able to understand Glorfindel, reacting not only to Glorfindel's speech, actions and ordinary commands, but also seems capable of discerning intent. As Glorfindel states when he readies his horse for Frodo to escape the Nazgûl, "But you need not fear: my horse will not let any rider fall that I command him to bear." (A theory on this below.)

Legolas surprises the host of the Rohirrim when he effortlessly tames Arod, the horse Éomer grants him. It appears that even animals not trained in an elvish way, as Asfaloth likely was, respond well to such treatment:

"A smaller and lighter horse, but restive and fiery, was brought to Legolas. Arod was his name. But Legolas asked them to take off saddle and rein. 'I need them not,' he said, and leaped lightly up, and to their wonder Arod was tame and willing beneath him, moving here and there with but a spoken word: such was the elvish way with all good beasts."

Legolas later also refers to Arod as "my friend" and calms him by covering his eyes and singing to him before they enter the Paths of the Dead, which he initally refuses. The horses of the Grey Company in the same scene (considering the association of the Dúnedain and Elves of Rivendell, also likely trained in an elvish fashion, perhaps even of an elven breed) enter the Paths willingly due to the great love they bear their riders and the steadiness of their hearts in face of danger, as inspired by Aragorn. While I am no rider myself and cannot assess from experience how much the emotions of a rider will influence a horse toward overcoming instinctive flight behaviour, the incident described here seems rather more extraordinary than common behaviour. Faramir is later described as possessing the same kind of skill over the hearts of humans and animals alike, and it may be worth noting that both he and Aragorn are descended, at least in part, from Elves (Aragorn from the line of Elros, and Faramir from the Princes of Dol Amroth, whose founding mother was the Silvan Elf Mithrellas from Lothlórien), and may have inherited some of their talents from this ancestry.

The most spectacular horses of Middle-earth, however, are the Mearas, which may have surpassed even some elven horses. While we know that the Elves of Mirkwood owned horses, Legolas professes to never have seen one like Shadowfax. As the Old English name of the Mearas implies, they are a horse breed of Rohan, but interestingly also derive their ancestry, ultimately, from the horses of Oromë and thus share a Valinorean ancestry with the horses of the High Elves. Being a Sindarin Elf of the Woodland Realm, the horses of Legolas' people likely were descended from ones found on Middle-earth rather than ones brought from Valinor; this idea is guesswork, but would fit with the more "rustic" lifestyle of Thranduil's realm. The origin of the Mearas is initially described as a belief in the Appendices, but later confirmed as fact by Tolkien himself in a letter regarding the departure from the Grey Havens: "Shadowfax came of a special race [...] being as it were an elvish equivalent of ordinary horses: his 'blood' came from 'West over Sea'. It would not be unfitting for him to 'go West'."

The founder of the Mearas line, Felaróf (Anglo-Saxon for "very valiant, very strong") was not tamed but rather submitted to Eorl, himself the ancestor of the Rohirrim, out of his free will as payment for the life of Eorl's father, who died after the horse had thrown him. Felaróf was ridden in elven fashion (without saddle or bridle), understood the speech of Men, and was as long-lived as they were. The horses descended from him were ridden exclusively by the Kings of the House of Eorl until Gandalf tamed Shadowfax. Given the closer narrative focus here, some of the characteristics of earlier horses of Valinorean descent (as Shadowfax is described by Théoden as "one of the mighty steeds of old [...] returned") may be assumed as similar, even though Gandalf is no Elf.

There is a strong, and by all appearances equal relationship between Gandalf and Shadowfax, and a bond of great love between the horse and his rider. Shadowfax is not merely far stronger and swifter than ordinary horses (so, likewise, is Glorfindel's Asfaloth, easily outrunning the Black Riders who ride horses stolen from Rohan), he is wise and loyal, bears Gandalf into great danger, and seems to do so of his own volition. As an interesting aside, he not only understands Gandalf, but also appears to understand Pippin and reacts with enthusiasm to the announcement of battle; in my opinion a rather impressive display of sentience. Most remarkable, however, seems to be Shadowfax's ability of mind-to-mind communication. As Gandalf describes summoning him: "'I bent my thought upon him, bidding him to make haste; for yesterday he was far away in the south of this land.'"

Gandalf being a Maia is capable of this, but the so-called ósanwë-kenta, or mind-speech, is a talent that Elves also naturally possess, and while we have no direct evidence of this ever being used in elvish communication with animals, only among "Incarnates" (Ainur, Elves and Men), and the essay on the topic is primarily concerned with this group, it is nonetheless an idea that might deserve consideration. We certainly see no verbal order of Glorfindel's to Asfaloth to let him bear Frodo. The essay likewise describes that a bond of love or affinity will make such a thought-transmission stronger and more easily understood (and so will urgency), and it has been established by now that this love is the case between many horses and riders in Tolkien's works.

Ultimately, I think there is plenty of poetic licence that can be used to describe the interaction between Elves and their horses in either direction. There are cases even of elven horses being overmastered by fear, for example when riders of Doriath come upon the dragon Glaurung and the host scatters in a panic (notably, the horses of Fingon's mounted archers are not described as encountering the same problem when they are ridden to attack Glaurung, but at the time of that incident he was not yet fully grown, and we have, again, the difference between Wood Elves and High Elves), or of Celegorm's horse refusing him service when his evil intent to attack Lúthien becomes clear. Huan defends her, and the horse shies away, the text again hinting not only at natural fear, but also at a bond of understanding with the rider's heart.

As long as that is considered, it seems rather hard to me to go entirely wrong in terms of creating interaction between an elven horse and a rider, verbal communication itself becoming, probably, secondary.

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Chapter End Notes

Sources:

The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien:Letter 211 to Rhona Beare, Letter 268 to Miss A.P. Northey

The Silmarillion: Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië (Ch. 5), Of Beleriand and its Realms (Ch. 14)

The Unfinished Tales: The Tradition of Isildur (Note 28)

LotR: The Two Towers: The Riders of Rohan (Ch. 2) The White Rider (Ch. 5), The King of the Golden Hall (Ch. 6), The Palantír (Ch. 11)

LotR: Return of the King: The Passing of the Grey Company (Ch. 2)

LotR: Apprendices: The House of Eorl

The History of Middle-earth Vol. 11: The War of the Jewels: The Grey Annals

Vinyar Tengwar Vol. 39: Ósanwë-kenta or Enquiry into the Communication of Thought

Elvish Physical Death

Written for the question:

Have you written about what happens to elves if they die? (their physical remains, I mean.) I've been reading LOTR since I was a kid, but The Silmarillion, etc, weren't published til I was much older so I have not read them as often. I thought I remembered reading in the Silmarillion or the Histories that the bodies of Elves would sort of dissipate and blow away but lately I've been thinking about poor Celebrimbor, whose body was used as a banner by Sauron.

Read Elvish Physical Death

It is widely known in fannish circles that Tolkien imagined his Elves and Men to possess fëa and hröa, spirit/soul and body, and it follows that their life required a close conjunction and interdependence of both. However, one of the chief differences between Elves and Men was the nature of that interdependence: Contrary to Men, whose spirits were largely ruled by their bodies, elvish fëar were able to exercise voluntary control over their bodies far more easily, which explains part of the resilience of the Elves, allowing them to survive trials like the crossing of the Helcaraxë or Maedhros' torture on Thangorodrim, but their quicker spiritual maturation also allowed Elf-children to talk, walk and even dance around one year of age, protected them against wounds that would kill a Man, and might also in part be responsible for the ease of elvish ósanwë-kenta, mind-speech. On the other hand, the strong dependence of the elvish body on the spirit also allowed phenomena like fading, which was the eventual fate of all Elves who did not depart for Aman after their prime; their spirits would consume their bodies and become truly 'immortal' within Arda insofar that, lacking a body, they could not be killed.

However, especially in the period documented in the Silmarillion, from the Awakening of the Elves to the Third Age, they had not yet achieved that state, possessed bodies, and thus could be killed, that is that the body would be hurt in a degree that no longer made it pleasant to inhabit, and the fëa would depart:

If then the hröa be destroyed, or so hurt that it ceases to have health, sooner or later it 'dies'. That is: it becomes painful for the fëa to dwell in it, being neither a help to life and will nor a delight to use, so that the fëa departs from it, and its function being at an end its coherence is unloosed, and it returns again to the general orma [substance] of Arda. (Laws and Customs of the Eldar, some linguistic notes redacted)

Despite the frequency of elvish death in the Silmarillion – all but a handful of the Elves introduced in the book die – there is surprisingly little information about their physical remains. What is certain was that they did not immediately dissipate: Finwë's body was discovered by Fëanor's sons after Morgoth had killed him, Turgon built a cairn for Fingolfin, as did the survivors of Gondolin for Glorfindel, and Finduilas, similarly, was laid in a burial mound by the Men of Brethil. Finrod and Beleg were buried, and while it is uncertain what happened to Thingol eventually, we know that he was laid in state for a while, and Melian kept vigil over him. All this implies some funerary custom(s) that imply the body persisted for at least a while. For the Noldor in Exile and other Elves who had not departed to Aman, death was as permanent a separation as it was for Men, unless they themselves died (their loved ones, even when re-embodied, would usually remain in Aman), so a parting ceremony seems in order, quite aside from questions of general hygiene. Another hint in that direction is Morgoth ordering the piling-up of all the dead Elves and Men after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the so-called Hill of the Slain or Haudh-en-Ndengin. Likely Fingon, after his death in that battle, eventually came to rest there. Celebrimbor was already mentioned (although if I were to indulge in speculation here, I might consider the Ring as a preserving influence of sorts, considering the physical endurance it granted to Gollum and Bilbo, and Sauron's necromantic powers might likewise trend in the same direction).

There are, however, two Elves who do not quite fit the bill: Fëanor, in all ways exceptional, died without having a tomb or burial. He had been named Spirit of Fire by his mother, and apparently Tolkien intended for the reader to take that literally:

The he died; but he had neither burial nor tomb, for so fiery was his spirit that as it sped his body fell to to ash, and was borne away like smoke; and his likeness has never again appeared in Arda, neither has his spirit left the halls of Mandos. (Of the Return of the Noldor)

 This probably is the incident that led to the question in the first place, I'd assume, since it fits the idea of quick dissipation and scattering in the wind.

 Míriel, the mother of Fëanor, is another unusual case. Her physical and spiritual exhaustion after Fëanor's birth made her wish to lay down her life in order to rest, which she did despite the attempts to heal her. She passed to Mandos and her body remained in the gardens of Lórien, where, instead of decaying, it was tended to and thus preserved (likely the same was true for Lúthien's body when she died to follow Beren to Mandos; it is described as lying unwithering for a while). When she is later permitted to exchange places with Finwë in Mandos and return to life, she is described as taking up her body again and waking like someone who returns from sleep, but this is explained, rather, as a natural process being detained rather than the ordinary fate of an elvish body. This piece of information (from the Laws and Customs of the Eldar) is later contradicted in another version of the text; in the Shibboleth of Fëanor Míriel's body is threatened to "swiftly wither and pass away, and the Valar will not restore it" as per the decree of the Valar when Míriel refuses life and allows Finwë's remarriage with Indis. It is not described (though implied) whether her body actually does fade, as the treatise continues to consider linguistic questions.

In general, however, likely based around the preamble of the physical and spiritual connection of the Elves, it is true that Tolkien did envision elvish corpses to disintegrate more swiftly than human or dwarvish ones. As this was part of Tolkien's Last Writings, it must be considered as final and evolved a version of the story as we are likely to have. Unfortunately it is treated in a footnote only: The flesh of the Dwarves is reported to have been far slower to decay or become corrupted than that of Men. (Elvish bodies robbed of their spirit quickly disintegrated and vanished.) Where that leaves the rest of the legendarium is hard to answer, but considering that Tolkien's world was in a constant state of rewriting and reimagining, the usual caveats about 'canonicity' apply.

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Chapter End Notes

Sources:

The Silmarillion

The History of Middle-earth: Morgoth's Ring: Laws and Customs among the Eldar

The History of Middle-earth: The Peoples of Middle-earth: The Shibboleth of Fëanor

The History of Middle-earth: Last Writings (Footnote 24)

Michael Martinez: Did Elves Fear Death at All?

Valarguild: Death, Reincarnation, Fading (lists additional earlier concepts)