Noldolantë – Maglor’s Lament by oshun

Fanwork Information

Summary:

This is an micro-essay and a banner created as an extended introduction to a fic-rec list pulled together to celebrate Maglor’s Day on the Fëanorian Week celebration on Tumblr and initially inspired by the SWG Strength and Beauty March 2017 challenge.

Major Characters: Maglor, Noldor, Sons of Fëanor, Uldor

Major Relationships:

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Nonfiction/Meta

Challenges: Strength and Beauty

Rating: General

Warnings:

This fanwork belongs to the series

Maitimo and Findekáno
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 672
Posted on 21 March 2017 Updated on 21 March 2017

This fanwork is complete.

Chapter 1

Read Chapter 1

In her summary introduction to the first story on the list below, Dawn Felagund writes: “The Noldolantë seems to be one of those Must-Write Silmarillion Stories.” Here is my quick and dirty effort to collect a random selection of fanfiction featuring the Noldolantë.  The Noldolantë is, of course, Maglor’s famous epic work of the Fall of the Noldor, beginning with the first Kinslaying at Alqualondë. One usually presumes it continues through the building of the kingdoms of the great Noldorin princes in Middle-earth and their heroic feats against Morgoth in the North, their tragic defeats, and perhaps unconscionable missteps on the part of the Fëanorians in their attempts win back the Noldor’s greatest artifact the Silmarilli, created by Fëanor and stolen by Morgoth.

There is no reason to presume, however, that the tale could not have started much earlier, even in the Golden years of Valinor with the seeds of that tale, or that the story we know lacks certain key aspects that call into question our most common assumptions about that history.

A Tale Written from Strength Rather Than Weakness?

"Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony,
but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly beautiful,
strength has much to do with the magic." ~Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Tolkien names it a lament. A lament can be a song or poem of grief, anguish, anger, or pain. It does not necessarily mean an acknowledgement of wrongdoing and expression of guilt. It might be a railing against the gods in outrage at being falsely accused. You decide. A lament might be sung more in anger than in sorrow.

Maglor is the guy who sought out on the field of battle and personally killed Uldor, the one who had betrayed them at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. These characters are complex. One ought not assume too quickly that Maglor is the sweet, gentle Fëanorian. Most importantly, Tolkien wrote the story of the Noldor at length in The Silmarillion but from other points of view. Yet, he gave us not a line, not a word of the Noldolantë, despite the fact that it was composed by the greatest singer of the Noldor and the one loremaster in a position to have had the most intimate familiarity with the facts of their history.

We know there is another perspective on this history. History is usually written by the victors and yet the Noldolantë tantalizingly enough contains the version of that grand history as experienced by the vanquished, through the words of its greatest bard. It is the ultimate challenge for a Tolkien fanfiction writer to take a stab at writing any small part of this chronicle.

A few stories concerning the Noldolantë (The Fall of the Noldor).

Noldolantë by Dawn Felagund–For Oshun, how Maglor devised the Noldolantë. (2008)
Noldolantë by Nelyafinwe Feanorian–In poetic form. (2004)
Noldolantë by Epilachna–From a longer story, this chapter recounts a performance in Valinor by Maglor of the Noldolantë. (2008)
The Artistic Temperament by tehta–They don’t all have to be somber; the Noldolantë with humor. (2013)
The End of All Things by Marta–They don’t all have to accept the  Silmarillion view, but this one more or less does, with a special twist. (2013)
Faraway Voices by ncfan–Nerdanel becomes aware of the Noldolantë. (2013)
The Tale Of The Telerin Flute Player by Himring–Maglor’s wife becomes aware of the Noldolantë. (2012)
Bard Rising by Rhapsody–Maglor picks up the Noldolantë and decides to write a more personal prequel. (2007) Unfinished but reads well as is.

How do you imagine the Noldolantë? What are some of your favorite fan fic versions of this epic? Do you intend to write a Noldolantë story? I suppose I do. Actually, I imagine that is more or less what the body of my Silm fic is as a whole (with a few exceptions)—the story told from the perspective of the Noldor. Aside from that, I mention it from time to time in the context of my other stories. In my ongoing interpretation, Maglor’s brothers and cousins have been hearing bits of it from him since his adolescence.

Comments

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One ought not assume too quickly that Maglor is the sweet, gentle Fëanorian.

THANK. YOU. This fanon is one of my pet peeves. I remember it being practically canon when I was new to the fandom. In fact, I would have sworn that Maglor was described as gentle, or as the son most like Nerdanel.

When I actually collected all that is said about him in the Silm--maybe for Seven in '07? Remember the little essays we wrote for that?--I realized that there is nothing backing that claim and he's actually quite the badass. He sought out Uldor. He took the geographically perilous Gap of Maglor for his home. When it was overrun with lava during the Battle of Sudden Flame, he went north, to Maedhros, to continue the defense of the realm. (The 3Cs went south and hid away in Nargothrond/Ossiriand!) And, well, he survived: lots of wars and three kinslayings. I don't see how it's possible to read what is actually said about him and conclude that he's soft or weak, or even particularly gentle (even if he didn't raise the sort of hell that some of his brothers did).

I can only conclude it's because he's a musician, and in modern imagination, that makes him a doe-eyed emo pining over his regrets. I'm not sure that the cultures Tolkien studied would have seen his role in that way: the maintainer of the oral tradition, the one who records and remembers important deeds, namely in battle, and whose words were taken as counsel as much as entertainment.

(A little more conjectural, but he's also the only son identified as possessing an artistic genius comparable to that of his father, which I've always taken to mean that he has more of Feanor in him than most fans want to credit him for. In my verse, it's part of why they lock horns sometimes: They're a lot alike!)

I may have written a review longer than the essay, but I loved it. Also, thank you for including my story among your recs. :)

I may have written a review longer than the essay, but I loved it. Also, thank you for including my story among your recs. :)

Don't worry. I have already decided I am going to write a real essay based on these points--with real footnotes and "stuff." I am already chewing on it and one of the things I am chewing on is your point above, "the maintainer of the oral tradition, the one who records and remembers important deeds, namely in battle, and whose words were taken as counsel as much as entertainment." I'm going to hark back to both the northern tradition that Tolkien loved so much and also to the use of laments in the classical world, which Tolkien knew quite well--and, as I have learned, one cannot unlearn what is beaten into one's head from childhood. It's still there whether one choses to acknowledge it or not.

Tolkien Gateway cleaned up their Maglor entry quite a bit with more and better cites, but still starts it with the gentle-one business and no direct citation. That is just one among many places where I have seen it. Of course, it was pervasive as fanon in the peak of post-LotR movies' fanfic! Maglor's music is not of the late 1990s--what Laura calls the Golden Age of Emo--but is something far more robust and tougher.

Your story was a gift to me--a treasured one I might add! And I tried to give a smattering of approaches also.

What I'd like to see is someone write the actual work, perhaps in the style of the Lay of Leithian. That's what you should aim for when you write it. You could do that really well.

As for Maglor being the gentle one, I can see him having a duality where he's a demon in battle but a gentle personality and has an appreciation and mastery of music his brothers didn't share. I see his power as in the ability to subtly influence and thoughtful reflection rather than in bold speeches and rash deeds.

That's what you should aim for when you write it. You could do that really well.

Are you serious or are you pulling my leg here? I couldn't write something like that! I stopped writing poetry when I was about 20. And anyway, I cannot do the archaisms of "the style of the Lay of Leithian." Maybe YOU could do that. I think you are pulling my leg! I am having a hell of a time with a few thees, and thous and thines in a few lines of dialogue my Goblin Emperor story.

I think you seriously should write a Maglor story. He's been in a lot of mine, with the exception of drabbles, I don't think he ever got one of his own.

Thanks for reading and commenting!

This essay has made my desire to delve more deeply into the story of the Feanorians told by the Feanorians greater than ever before.  It made me realize that until now my stories have been shallow in the extreme, mainly because I used to be concerned only with writing the hottest slashfic I could come up with and that was about all.

But lately I've been reading the Silm again, starting at the beginning (and only skipping a few places) because I want to gain a much more complete view (as much as possible) into the Oath and the Doom.

My Strength and Beauty story was about Melian and while reading all I could about her (from the Silm only) I found what might be many inconsistencies, and that might be because of Christopher Tolkien's editing and the pieces he decided to put in the Silm from the massive amount his father had written.  I didn't have time to refer to Melian's story from any other source but I'd like to look into it more, since it does greatly concern the Oath and the Doom.  I was interested in how she dealt with it.

Anyway, thanks for those recs!  I want to read them all.

I like what you said about a lament and that it does not necessarily have to mean it's an admission of guilt.  I'd like to delve into Maglor's story more deeply as well, since I've only used the poor guy as a vessel for slashfics in the past.

I love that you pointed out that these are complex characters and that Maglor is not the "sweet and gentle" Feanorian.  But the best thing was that the Noldolante is the only piece of information written by one of the Noldor, from his point of view.

I think that it's too often overlooked (and I am guilty of that) as a source of information.

Thanks for writing such an informative and provocative essay!