Challenges: 30-Day Character Study by oshun

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Fanwork Notes

Fanwork Information

Summary:

I am going to use this space for my contributions: meta, notes, links to stories, and to artwork. Rating will be teens or lower.

Major Characters: Lúthien Tinúviel

Major Relationships:

Genre: Adventure, Experimental, Nonfiction/Meta, Romance

Challenges: 30-Day Character Study

Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate

Warnings:

This fanwork belongs to the series

Stories of the Sindar
Chapters: 4 Word Count: 5, 564
Posted on 21 November 2017 Updated on 13 February 2018

This fanwork is complete.

Drop Everything and Read, Part One.

Read Drop Everything and Read, Part One.

Lúthien

Take at least a half-hour to read what the texts say about your chosen character.

Picked up the book Beren and Lúthien and started crawling through it again. I had no warning first time around that it was 1) not a somewhat novelistic treatment like Children of Húrin, nor 2) a definitive study of the texts on Beren and Lúthien. I do not have a problem, am just mildly disappointed. I was hoping for a definitive collection of stuff scattered throughout all of the texts, including ones that are not easily accessible. I appreciate what I have and do not blame Chistopher Tolkien—he is in his 90s!

It is good to have most, if not all, of the HoMe stuff in one volume. But the illustrations which I have heard are lovely are totally inaccessible on the Kindle version to any one with vision problems. They are tiny and not zoomable. SHAME ON AMAZON! It’s scandalous that they can widely market something which should be a real live-changer for people with vision impairment and then market its content without any warning that the illustrations will not be usable for them. Rant, rant, rant!

I was not satisfied, reading hours beyond my ½ an hour for this day, that I had a real sense of what Beren and Lúthien meant to Tolkien. It ranks near the bottom for me amongst his major story lines—maybe at the bottom! So, I decided, since I was finding no answers, in the texts I would go outside of the canon texts. I opened up John Garth’s Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth (an excellent book and one I highly recommend) which covers his early work. I am halfway through it for the second time and there is hardly a mention of Edith Tolkien yet. Sigh. That has been futile so far relating to my subject area.

Finally, ETA:

‘In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing – and dance,’ he wrote to their son Christopher after her death in 1971. When duty permitted, they would stroll in a nearby wood, which Roos tradition identifies as Dents Garth, at the south end of the village, beside the parish church of All Saints. Here, at the feet of the ash, oak, sycamore, and beech trees, tall flowers with white umbels burst into bloom from mid-April until the end of May. The flowers, Anthriscus sylvestris, are what books might call cow parsley, wild chervil, or Queen Anne’s lace . . . . Among these cloudy white heads, Edith danced and sang. The scene fixed itself in Tolkien’s mind. It could have come from fairy-tale, a vision of sylvan loveliness glimpsed by a wanderer returned from war. When he next had the leisure to compose at length, Tolkien put the scene at the heart of just such a tale. --John Garth. Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth.

 

Down Memory Lane, Part One.

Read Down Memory Lane, Part One.

“Think about your character’s childhood (or the early days of their existence if they had no childhood). What was the environment and daily life of their formative years like? Did they have siblings? What was their relationship to their family like? Who were their friends? What made them feel sad/angry/frightened? What made them feel content/excited/happy? Who were their teachers?”

Born to Thingol and Melian the Maia. Have to do more research on her birthdate/place. Was she born within the Girdle of Melian or before?  (What was the environment and daily life of their formative years like? Insert more on this later when I get the time-frame sorted out.)

No siblings. She was apparently highly valued, cosseted, and controlled by her parents. This is clear from Thingol’s belief that he had a right to make demands upon her relating to her relationship to Beren and her desire to choose her own spouse. The texts do not make her sound sad or frightened in her childhood—all that dancing amongst the flowers sound pretty idyllic.

Her only friend mentioned within the texts is Daeron. She liked to dance and was apparently fairly happy until she met Beren. Now the fact that she considered Daeron a good friend and companion, and yet he was dissatisfied (the grumpy friend-zoned guy in the text, given that he stalked her and later betrayed her to her parents), means it was not all sun-dappled forests and flowers for her. One could do a lot with that in fanfiction--the conflict between Daeron and our Elven princess could provide some tension in the story, even if one sticks very closely to canon.

I would like to assume that Daeron was a teacher as well as companion (since he was skilled in music, a loremaster, and invented an alphabet, so he was literate as well). Because she manifests all kinds of preternatural skills/magic/sorcery later in her story one might assume that she was under the tutelage of her mother as well.

She seems to have some admirable and well-developed physical capacity also, which is shown in her superhero activities. She might have been trained in martial arts by Mablung and/or Beleg Cúthalion. Tolkien does discuss Elf-women and warrior's skills in Laws and Customs Among the Eldar where he notes that,

“. . . in dire straits or desperate defence, the nissi fought valiantly, and there was less difference in strength and speed between elven-men and elven-women that had not borne child than is seen among mortals.”

On the other hand, without any skills, she would have had some issues with some of the derring-do assigned to her in various versions of the texts.

Response to Character Visualization - digital art

Read Response to Character Visualization - digital art

Photoshop art by me. First posted on Tumblr 20 December 2017.

Ficlet - Strange Magic

Read Ficlet - Strange Magic

See ficlet about Daeron and Lúthien here: Strange Magic by oshun

Comments

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I have to admit that I was surprised by your choice--never disappointed! I'm always interested to hear what you learn/think about any character in Tolkien.

I haven't started the new B&L yet. In fact, I just put it up on my Tolkien shelf while giving the desk in my study a much-needed cleaning in preparation for doing some research this weekend. I had just returned from the library and thought that maybe I should have skipped that errand and read B&L ... but frankly, yes, it is one of the less-intriguing stories for me too in the legendarium. I think it's too starkly good-vs-evil: one of the things I love most about the Silm being the moral/implied psychological complexity of the characters (as you know!)

I am fortunate in being eagle-eyed somehow out of a myopic family ... and I know how fortunate I am. I share your disappointment that the Kindle version didn't include the illustrations. I detest that my genetic luck gives me access to content barred from others.

Hopping all over the place like a frog on caffeine ... the potential conflict between Daeron and Luthien is an interesting possibility. I don't know why I always read it (or assumed it) as Luthien oblivious and Daeron suffering in silence. Bringing out that tension could add some conflict and complexity to a story that really needs it to work for me. (I love "the grumpy friend-zoned guy." OMG.)

I'd never thought much about Luthien's lack of a social circle in the texts. Tolkien does take pains to establish friendships for most of his Silm characters, possibly hinting at the value he saw in his own friendships. So Luthien was either a serious introvert and really didn't care, or she did have circles of girlfriends and guyfriends we just never hear about, or she was more unhappy than the texts suggest.

Anyway ... you clearly got me thinking! And I will buzz off and hold my thoughts if it's distracting or not useful at this phase of research ... I was just SO psyched to see a 30-Day entry already up! And from you! I was just doing my daily check-in, but you pulled me right in.

You are such a support to me! You probably don't even realize. (Or maybe you do!) I feel guilty that you spotted this--I was supposed to be pulling the history of the Tolkien fandom together for you. I will send you something tonight or early tomorrow!!

I am wondering if Edith Tolkien did not have many friends--or if they were simply "not important." No one's friends could ever be as important as Tolkien's friends--yeah, not right! I was married to a guy like that.

I've been reading a lot about Edith in recent days thinking about what she really was like. Brilliant pianist, apparently more intellectual than I would have assumed reading his letters, and apprently people liked her! Ha! She sounds a bit like James Joyce's wife who one might think from certain quarters was barely literate, barefoot, pregnant, and happy that way, but recent reading or her as well indicate otherwise. No where near done with my detective work yet. Just beginning.

Thank you for looking at this. I didn't expect any reactions. But, like Tolkien, I love feedback!!

Awww ... you're kind. I worry I am sometimes not supportive enough. I have missed too many stories over the years that you've written. I will catch up someday (and that constant assurance feels increasingly like an excuse as time goes by. Meh.) So anyway--not feeling like a failure = awesome! :D Thank you!

I am also supposed to be working on that paper. ;) I shared it with your Google account. I'm just pulling together stuff from the NYTC paper right now and angsting over the 7000-word limit. (JTR was like, "We're digital--fuck it! Make it as long as you want!" I loved that.)

But the reason I commented again ... I seem to recall (from Tolkien's letters? Cindy would know too because most of what I know about Edith I learned from her ...) that Edith felt unhappy at Oxford because she didn't fit in with the other wives? I don't think I'm wholly imagining this. But that strikes me as someone who ends up in a place where it is hard to make friends. Which I can appreciate because I've lived most of my life in a place where it was almost impossible for me to make close "IRL" friends (probably part of the reason this website exists LOL*cry*) because I felt like such a weirdo and people frankly weren't interested in what I wanted to do/talk about. The difference in moving to a place where there are other weirdos like me has been transformative--kind of the opposite of what I expect Edith experienced.

Of course, JRRT was in his element at this point, making friends left and right if the Inklings are any evidence. Which probably made it hard to relate (and probably all the more galling for her, stuck at home, friendless, while he cavorted about with his buddies).

It occurs to me that a fun little numerical/statistical/infographical investigation would be friendships in the Silm. Who has friends identified in the text and who doesn't? My hypothesis would be that the "elevated" characters--the Valar, Luthien--would have few attested friendships.

I know from what I have read that she did not like the faculty wives' teas and also was physically isolated in the suburbs without a car. I would have probably felt estranged from those wives' gatherings myself at that time, although considerably more comfortable sitting around in pubs pontificating about my interests and avocations with the "boys." I had very few girl friends myself growing up--although I did have four sisters (so I did have intense connections with them, which continue). Most of my closest buddies in high school were nerdy intellectual boys (while my boyfriends were jocks). In college I had more women friends (the 1970s' women's movement changed that balance for me--women with similar stories!), but the balance still favored men, which continued throughout my life until I encountered fandom! That certainly tipped the scales overwhelmingly in the other direction.

I've read numerous tidbits by authors who visited Tolkien and they found Edith welcoming, a good conversationalist, and fairly outgoing. An introvert? who knows--those cough, cough can be quite talkative also. And she produced what Tolkien called fair copies of his early manuscripts until she started having kids. We've read a lot about Tolkien's famous bedtime stories, but I bet he did not change many diapers. Also, they were short on cash all the time, which means (I know because I grew up that way and am in a similar situation now) that the woman at home throws time into balancing the lack of money. Keeping a household running without a lot of money has always been more expensive in effort expended.

I've read too many Dorothy Sayers novels and too much Virginia Woolf not to have picked up upon the not-so-subtle looking down the nose on women as primary caregivers vs. women following academic pursuits. But my mother, even in those benighted days, was a good example of how one did not have to make an exclusive choice as a stay-at-home mom between intellectual discussion, literature, and politics, and keeping a house. But, unlike Tolkien, my dad carried out those pursuits not in a pub, but in our home. Which meant everyone profited from being exposed to those kinds of friends and also hearing polemics amongst my father and his frenemies! (He had a few of those--fur and feathers flew in some of those discussions and my mother always participated.)

Edith played piano well enough that she had been expected to pursue a career as a concert pianist. She did not grow up thinking, 'Oh, I wanna clean my house from my hubbie and chase babies! Yay!'

Research on attested canon friendships--I could crawl all over that idea! I think you are right about who had and did not have them. I think the one's among the Valar who did have attested friendship just happen to be the one's I like the most--Aulë, Oromë, and Ulmo and Ossë.

Interesting musings, Oshun.

One does rather wonder what Edith thought about being Luthien, later on.

I think that all that dancing in the forest would itself develop a lot of physical capacity. And it may be, as some fan writers suggest, that dancing was the means by which she was learning to channel her Maiarin talent, so it may not all have been fun and games.

<i>And it may be, as some fan writers suggest, that dancing was the means by which she was learning to channel her Maiarin talent, so it may not all have been fun and games.</i>

I never heard that one; but then I haven heard more than a half-dozen Luthien fics in a decade.

Thanks for reading.

Oh, so random: I'm so disappointed that Garth identifies the "hemlock" as Anthriscus sylvestris! I always thougt hemlock was a great choice for the Girdle of Melian (and might have actively contributed to its efficacy), since it's seriously poisonous, and if people err through that forest for days and get hungry, they might be tempted to eat it (it smells like mouse piss, but it looks a lot like wild carrots!). Oh well, maybe it was actual hemlock in Doriath and just cow parsley in RL. ^^

Concerning your question to Dawn below, according to the Carpenter biography Edith was in fact somewhat isolated during the Oxford years. IIRC, she felt out of place in the academic environment/ hadn't been brought up to move in that sphere and was too shy to make up for her lack of experience; at any rate, people knew that "Mrs Tolkien never calls back" and so they stopped initiating contact. There must have been acquaintances but by no means a circle of friends as tight-knit as the Inklings. Tolkien seems to have felt guilty about it, which is why after his retirement they moved to Bournemouth which he hated but where Edith felt happy and well-integrated. So he may have been aware of the problem enough to work it into B&L, too. A sense of isolation would be as good an explanation as any for why Lúthien would fall so deeply for some straggly human that crosses her path! And also why she'd tell her plans of trying to rescue Beren to Daeron of all people. On the other hand, she may also simply have been bored or frustrated, and perhaps she really was oblivious to Daeron's feelings. Not every detail in the story has to be autobiographic, I suppose!

I really appreciate your thoughts on the new B&L, btw! I have still not bought it and I'm feeling a bit guilty about it, but the way you describe it, I figure I genuinely don't need it.

Oh dear, this is more a ramble than a review! I apologise. It's cool to have the beginnings of your research here - both to guilt me into action myself (hopefully!) and to see what's going on before you get to the actual writing. Spying on your trade secrets! ;) Oh, and also to get me think some more about the unmentioned stuff in B&L, like Lúthien's social life. ^^

I was feeling grumpy when I wrote that! I might have been a little hard on Tolkien. On the other hand, I myself have always considered that I needed friends who shared my intellectual interests and, coming of age into the period in which I did, I had no guilt about making my family adjust to that. Laura dad--we were married for over two decades--shared the same interests--intellectual and political. Which might have been why I never encountered anyone else I was willing to marry after he and I split up.

Tolkien seems to have felt guilty about it, which is why after his retirement they moved to Bournemouth which he hated but where Edith felt happy and well-integrated.

Yes. He did do that and she had earned it in my opinion!

Not every detail in the story has to be autobiographic, I suppose!

True, but I think the dancing and musicality in his description of Luthien reflect Edith; and she certainly was beautiful. I love that famous portrait of her as a young woman--striking eyebrows, dark hair, and truly lovely bone structure. And she was enough older than him at that age that she must have seemed a reach for him on many levels--so he fit the Beren role when they fell in love. I think he felt lucky in love.

I really appreciate your thoughts on the new B&L, btw! I have still not bought it and I'm feeling a bit guilty about it, but the way you describe it, I figure I genuinely don't need it.

I am happy to have what is collected into the book in one place, but I admit I have to admit there were some unfinished texts and more of sense of continuity (like Children of Hurin). I have other Kindle books with lousy reproductions of illustrations, but I was truly hoping they would surpass that very low standard for graphics in this one. For a Kindle Book it is not in the lower price range. I am happy to have it, just not thrilled.

Oh dear, this is more a ramble than a review!

The tenor of your remarks makes youe thought interesting and provocative to me. Make me think. I have a lot of contradictory feelings about their marriage. I would have been pulling my hair out at that distance from the city center without more companionship and home alone with kids while he was out forming such close bonds and getting constant intellectual stimulation and support at the Eagle and Child (!), while I did not even have a refrigerator! I got around that issue by bringing our collaborators into our home. There was no division of intellectual and personal life. (My kids love to talk about our constant "open house" and all of the intense discussions they listened to growing up. It was great for their vocabulary and their manners!)

In the biography, Carpenter notes that they did have joint friendships also, but gives an example of "Ronald discoursing on an English place-name apparently oblivious that the same visitor was simultaneously being addressed by Edith on the subject of a grandchild’s measles." I question that impression and, if it is true, how that dynamic might develop. I have some theories.

 

Ohhh, I must have missed this art when you posted it on Tumblr (not surprising, I either miss things or find them a week later when everyone has moved on. :P). I quite like it, especially the one center left image.

Going backwards in both your chapters and the comments, I've always had Lúthien (and the rest of Doriath's named female characters) at least somewhat skilled in some weapon, since the Girdle didn't come up until after Denethor's death. I don't think they were under constant attack, but at the same time, it couldn't have been exactly the same as Valinor - and besides Thingol and Melian, none of the original founders of Doriath would have known what that percieved kind of safety in a settled area was really like.

Related to Himring's much earlier comment, I've seen both Lúthien's dance as a way of expressing her Maiarin talents and dance as a main form of art and expression among the Sindar (this is the one I use, to be clear of my biased tendencies towards it :P) - but I started in fandom reading more Sindar fic than Noldor! There's really not much canon support for either, of course, so it probably is as simple as Tolkien just borrowing from Edith's talents.

Thanks for looking/reading and commenting.

There's really not much canon support for either, of course, so it probably is as simple as Tolkien just borrowing from Edith's talents.

I know that a lot of elements which become part of my personal canon when writing particular characters of elements of Tolkien legendarium grown out of an impulse or almost a throw-away bit of description or dialog and once set down on paper are adapted and expanded to be more complex and begin to affect my story-verse as I move forward also.

Other elements I include or expand may be very consciously worked out and developed before I ever touch hand to keboard.

The one thing we know for sure is Edith was the inspiration for Luthien. That wonderful description of her dancing for him. She also was an accomplished and talented musician. Maybe she was happy to settle into the role of mother and housewife! But I always think that in different era or with a different husband she might have continued to pursue a career in music--then, like now, the majority of people who are able to do that within the context of a limited income are a tiny minority in any case.

I can see why you would assume that all of the Sindar, prior to holing up behind Melian's girdle, had at the very least defensive military skills if not offensive combat skills. That had to have been true for all of the Eldar who made the trek across the mountains to the sea before the exodus to Aman as well.

Everyone is eager to write warrior women now as a reflexive response to gender limitations. But they Eldar did have children and those who had been injured so not everyone was necessarily rushing into the front lines of battle either. It could not have been a soft life with a whole category of able people with no concept of self-defense.

You're welcome!

But I always think that in different era or with a different husband she might have continued to pursue a career in music--then, like now, the majority of people who are able to do that within the context of a limited income are a tiny minority in any case.

I think the same! Or at least pursued it as a more serious hobby throughout her adult life like some people do now, which it doesn't seem like she had the real opportunity to. :/ (The idea she could have had it as a serious hobby frustrates me even more than the job, tbh, because obviously Tolkien had his hobbies he spent decades on and that we're still enjoying the results of today.)

I can see why you would assume that all of the Sindar, prior to holing up behind Melian's girdle, had at the very least defensive military skills if not offensive combat skills. That had to have been true for all of the Eldar who made the trek across the mountains to the sea before the exodus to Aman as well.

I just hate the idea that boom! they settle in Doriath and immediately give up on defensive skills - it doesn't seem realistic based on real world people (hell, real world people in perfectly safe places often don't do so). The idea that without a girdle they're all just going to sit there and hope that wild animals or orcs don't attack seems weird.

Everyone is eager to write warrior women now as a reflexive response the gender limitations.

I actually hate writing warrior women or men. :P Mainly because writing battle scenes bores me, but most of my elves have the basic ability to hit something with a sword or arrow long enough to scurry the other direction and get away. That's common sense when half your family has now been killed.