Celebrimbor: 30-Day Character Study by cloudyhymns

Day 11: Drop Everything and Read, Part Two

Notes and thoughts on three works of scholarship on Celebrimbor--two papers and one meta analysis.

Well, I went down a rabbit hole on this one! For now, I'll focus on three main readings, and will likely stumble upon more or write up notes for the others that I read for today.

Celebrimbor, as I'm sure nobody will be surprised by, is rarely the primary focus of research. Far more is dedicated to Sauron and the Ring-bearers, as they are more directly involved with the Third Age storylines in which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are told. I ruled out over fifty of the initial papers that I found, as they mentioned Celebrimbor in passing only. I also excluded papers discussing Celebrimbor as he appears in Middle-earth: Shadow of War, since the game is a) not canonical and b) very far outside of the scope of my research. Unfortunate, really, because Shadow of War!Celebrimbor did have some papers on him.

The three writings that I selected are: Ok_Bullfrog_8491's meta analysis "The Many Versions of Celebrimbor," Ricardo Victoria's paper "Celebrimbor: a cautionary tale," and Mercury Natis's paper "Sauron, Seduction, and the Queering Mechanism of the Ring." The latter focuses primarily on Sauron and the Ring-bearers, but Celebrimbor is mentioned with enough consideration that I have chosen--very happily--to include it.

1. "The Many Versions of Celebrimbor" - Ok_Bullfrog_8491
I was referred to this meta analysis by perchingpasserine. Thanks, Perching!

In this post to r/tolkienfans, Ok_Bullfrog details many of Celebrimbor's "origin stories," including the Teleri and survivor of Gondolin ones. I won't cover all of those again, as I discussed some of them in my Day 1 post and Ok_Bullfrog does an excellent job (go read the post!), and instead focus on what Ok_Bullfrog takes away from the many crossed plotlines.

Ok_Bullfrog merges the "Descendent of Fëanor" and "Survivor of Gondolin" lines with what is certain--that Celebrimbor lived in Nargothrond--by having him fight in Gwindor's company under Fingon, and somehow survive long enough for Turgon to reach him ("The Many Versions of Celebrimbor"). As Ok_Bullfrog says: "However, I can see a situation where Celebrimbor, who is not an Elf of Nargothrond and might not have ever met Gelmir, wouldn’t join Gwindor in his suicidal charge" ("The Many Versions of Celebrimbor"). Do I find this believable? Yes!

While it's not the direction I'm personally taking with my Celebrimbor, I think it's a very reasonable one, and the logic seems sound. I don't place my Celebrimbor in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, but if I did, that might be roughly how it'd go.

 
2. "Celebrimbor: a cautionary tale" - Ricardo Victoria

Victoria lists Celebrimbor as present at the Nirnaeth and the Sack of Nargothrond, and I would love to find out where he got that from, because it would really help to clear up his timeline! What stands out to me from his paper is his determination of Celebrimbor's greatest failing: "But it was in this quest that he fell prey of deception because he never stopped to consider one of the fatal flaws of his kin: it is not a question of whether you can do something, it’s a question of whether it is a good idea to do so" (Victoria).

I'd argue the same thing can be asked about Fëanor, and about the creations of both the Rings and the Silmarils. Should Art be created for Art's sake, when it can have very real consequences?

3. "Sauron, Seduction, and the Queering Mechanism of the Ring" - Mercury Natis

This is a title that made me stop and stare. I had to read it twice to be sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing; I was. Shockingly, at least to me, Celebrimbor is given his just deserts! (Well, Natis treats him nicely, I suppose, but also doesn't hesitate to call out his failings, particularly when it comes to Annatar.) As Natis says, "Yet even as Sauron plays the feminine role, Sauron does not balance the masculine in others but uses his own femininity to consume their masculinity to his own ends. Celebrimbor and Ar-Pharazôn are seduced by a masculine character playing the feminine role in their relationship dynamics not as a genuine position of femininity, which would balance, but as a tool for their destruction with power as the driving motivation for these manipulations" (Natis, 5-6). This destruction is more than physical--it is largely psychological, with Sauron's victims unable to separate themselves from what Natis calls his "lie": "This inability to reintegrate is founded on the same seductive mechanism as Celebrimbor and Ar-Pharazôn’s falls: the lie that without Sauron, they are nothing and they are no one. Celebrimbor is just the last in a failed line of Fëanorians" (Natis, 11). And isn't that something?

If Natis's line of reasoning is followed, the lie spreads into "All Celebrimbor accomplished with creation of the Rings of Power, with his smith-craft rivaled only by his grandfather's, is nothing without the one who guided him," which I personally believe he would find far more world-shattering than any character assassination. Because Celebrimbor's work is his character, just as the Ring is Sauron's in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and he cannot be separated from it while still being Celebrimbor.

That's a topic for another day, I think, that he would be so strongly defined by his work that he could consider himself nothing without it--I'm not sure I have the emotional strength to handle that tonight! Tyelpë, why?? Emotional damage!

Anyways, I strongly recommend that you go read that post and those papers, since I quite enjoyed all of them, and there's never enough suffering Celebrimbor in the world. :P

[A/N 8:57pm January 29, 2025: Only Natis provided a preferred citation style, so that paper is the one with a full citation; I'll update the others from links to full citations when I'm not at the edge of a medical crisis LOL. Could be a bit before I get around to it. For now, the links are all over here, and I can send them to you should you like them directly.]

Ok_Bullfrog_8491: "The Many Versions of Celebrimbor" https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienfans/comments/129jpo6/the_many_versions_of_celebrimbor/?rdt=58580

Victoria, Ricardo: "Celebrimbor: a cautionary tale" https://ricardovictoriau.com/2021/10/21/celebrimbor-a-cautionary-tale/

Natis, Mercury (2024) "Sauron, Seduction, and the Queering Mechanism of the Ring," Mythopoeic Society Seminar Proceedings: Vol. 2024: Iss. 1, Article 6. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythpro/vol2024/iss1/6