Míriel and Finwë: Lessons in Love, Justice & Healing

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I would dearly love to discuss in more detail the stories of Míriel, Finwë and Indis and the Laws and Customs of the Eldar, which are printed in Morgoth's Ring pp. 205-271. There is so much rich material in these passages that contain some of Tolkien's most profound thoughts about love, death, marriage, fate and related subjects. Very little of this material found its way into the published Silmarillion but much of it was clearly intended to, and I think it is terribly important to understanding Tolkien's work.

I'm not going to make a long post now; I'm hoping that people will take some time to (re)familiarize themselves with the material before I jump in with any extended observations, and I am just going to quote one brief passage, which documents Míriel's words to Finwë when she met him again in Mandos after he is slain by Melkor:

And when she learned of Finwë all that had befallen since her departure (for she had given no heed to it, nor asked tidings, until them) she was greatly moved; and she said to Finwë in her thought: 'I erred in leaving thee and our son, or at the least in not soon returning after brief repose; for had I done so he might have grown wiser. But the children of Indis shall redress his errors and therefore I am glad that they should have being, and Indis hath my love. How should I bear grudge against one who received what I rejected and cherished what I abandoned?

[Primula Baggins]

I bought Morgoth's Ring in order to read "Of the Laws and Customs of the Eldar"—and I have read it, though it's been a while. I will be back here later.

[Athrabeth]

Four more days, my friend........four more days.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

No hurry, Ath, I purposely started this thread slowly, partly with you in mind.

And I do hope that you make your post in the Sil thread first.

[Athrabeth]

But of course!

The Sil thread is my number one priority.......after writing these last three report cards.......and preparing a "graduation" speech for the year end assembly (my kids are moving on to the Middle School in September)....and putting all their files together for transfer......and other stuff.

Roll on June 28th!!!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

[MithLuin]

Completely sympathetic to the trials and tribulations of a teacher at the end of the year . We got out June 13th, and that was none too soon....

See you on the 29th (you get a day's grace )

I love the debate of the Valar in considering Finwë's request. After all....they find many sides and nuances to the issue, and we get a better feel for the personalities of these (often remote) beings. "Tell Finwë to be content with his son," is the most reasonable response, but they don't let it rest there. They consider Indis, and what they may and may not do to help. I like how bringing people back to life is not a problem, but having 2 wives is strictly impossible .

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

I just finished reading HOME X on Friday. There was definitely some interesting material in there.

The whole concept of Elven reincarnation was an eye opener and no mistake! There's no "'til death do us part" with the Elves. They remain married to their partners even in their new bodies.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Before turning to the debate of the Valar, I wanted to comment on the beautiful scene of how Finwë and Indis came together, which is not in the "Laws and Customs" but rather is actually in the final version of the text that Tolkien had written to be included in the Quenta Silmarillion, but was nonetheless not actually included by CT.

Finwë was understandably despondent over losing (as it seemed) his wife in the midst of the bliss of Aman. His friend Ingwë (Indis' brother) tried to console him by inviting him to leave the city of the Noldor and spend time with him in the full light of the Trees. But Finwë did not go at first while he still hoped that Míriel would return.


Meanwhile, Indis

loved Finwë dearly; for her heart had turned to him long before, while the Vanyar still dwelt with the Noldor in Tuna. In those days she had looked upon the Lord of the Noldor and he seemed to her fairest and noblest of the Eldar, dark-haired and white of brow, eager of face but with eyes full of thought; and his voice and mastery of words delighted her. Therefore she remained unwedded when her people removed to Valinor, and she walked often alone in the friths and fields of the Valar, filling them with music.

But after the doom of Mandos was spoken and it became clear that Míriel would not return, Finwë decided to take the counsel of Ingwë and travel to his house.

His coming was unheralded and unforeseen; and when Indis saw Finwë climbing the paths of the Mountain, and the light of Laurelin was behind him as a glory, without forethought she sang suddenly in great joy, and her voice went up as a song of the lirulin (the lark) in the sky. Then Finwë heard that song falling from above, and he looked up and saw Indis in the golden light, and he knew in that moment that she loved him and had long done so. Then his heart turned at last to her; and he believed that this chance, as it seemed, had been granted for the comfort of them both. 'Behold!' he said. 'There is indeed healing of grief in Aman!'

It is really quite amazing that Tolkien, who so far as I am aware had only one great love in his life - Edith - could write so movingly about love could strike someone a second time. I particularly love the vision of Indis "without forethought" suddenly singing with joy at the unexpected sight of he who she had loved without hope for long.

Turning back to the Laws and Customs for a moment, I am reminded of Mandos' words at the end of the debate, when he foretells to the rest of the Valar "things both near and far":

Behold! Indis the fair shall be made glad and fruitful, who might else have been solitary. For not in death only hath the Shadow entered into Aman with the coming of the Children destined to suffer; there are other sorrows, even if they be less. Long she hath loved Finwë, in patience and without bitterness. Aulë nameth Fëanor the greatest of the Eldar, and in potency that is true But say unto you that the children of Indis shall also be great, and the Tale of Arda more glorious because of their coming And from them shall spring things so fair that no tears shall dim their beauty; in whose being the Valar, and the Kindreds both of Elves and of Men that are to come shall all have part, and in whose deeds they shall rejoice. So that, long hence when all that here is and seemeth yet fair and impregnable shall nonetheless have faded and passed away, the Light of Aman shall not wholly cease among the free peoples of Arda until the End.

'When he that shall be called Eärendil setteth foot upon the shores of Aman, ye shall remember my words. In that hour ye will not say that the Statute of justice hath borne fruit only in death; and the griefs that shall come ye shall weigh in the balance, and they shall not seem too heavy compared with the rising of the light when Valinor groweth dim.'

'So be it!' said Manwë.

I'll come back to these words, once we have discussed the debate that precedes them .

[MithLuin]

The other case of "second love" is of course Finduilas' love of Túrin, after her first love (for Gwindor) cools. But just as she is not Lúthien, and is not able to win the love of her man, she is not granted the joy of Finwë, who enjoys love after loss.

At least seemingly.

Of all the wives of the leaders of the Noldor, few seem to take part in Fëanor's rebellion. Fëanor and Nerdanel were of course already estranged, and Turgon's wife did, at least, attempt the Helcaraxë. But the others? Can they really be said to have had enduring joy? Indis did not go with Finwë when he followed his oldest son into exile, and thus was not with him when he died. I think the restless shadow that crept over the Noldor affected them all.

That is why I like the debate so much - they acknowledge that Finwë should be content with one wife, and one son...and yet they realize that they cannot force him to be content, and that even if he does cause some discord and grief by taking a second wife, good may still come of it - good that otherwise would not have been.

And as Mandos points out, this is far-reaching.

Eärendil, son of Idril, daughter of Turgon, son of Fingolfin, son of Indis would never have been. And same with Gil-galad! Most of the great deeds in Middle Earth are accomplished not by the Feanoreans, but by the children on Indis. (Though of course Beren and Lúthien remain mostly seperate from that - Finrod enters their tale, but only briefly).

[Cerin]

It hadn't occurred to me when reading this chapter in the Sil, that Míriel really had a choice to go on living. Calling the departure of her spirit 'abandonment' seems rather harsh.

It says that in bearing Fëanor she was consumed in body and spirit and yearned for release from the labour of living. Finwë is sad because he won't have more children; it doesn't indicate that he grieves simply for Míriel's sake, to have been reduced to the condition that life has become such a labour that even the prospect of loving her own child is not enough to revive her. She is so weary she can't even weep about it! Finwë grieves for the child who won't initially experience his mother's love, but not for Míriel, who will miss the joy of motherhood. He then sends her to Aman to rest so that she can afterwards go on bearing children for him, so it doesn't strike me as any wonder that that prospect doesn't seem appealing to her after her first experience.

She then asks to be held blameless in these events and those that are to follow after (or alternately, states that she is blameless).

So if the quote you set out in your first post reflects Tolkien's (later?)thoughts on the matter, I find that rather disturbing. I think they reflect a harshness on Míriel's part and perhaps even a revisionist history of events, if she can qualify her actions as rejection and abandonment. How was she to go on living if she was consumed in body and spirit? How was she to cherish what she later says she rejected, if she has nothing left to give?

[Primula Baggins]

In a more prosaic way, women in some cultures or subcultures in our world are often expected to devote all their physical and creative energy to family and children, no matter the cost to themselves. People admire such women's selflessness and nobility even as their souls are dying. A woman who breaks out of the mold and demands anything at all for herself, for her own well-being, is seen as selfish, often even by her own family.

But was this the ideal in Tolkien's time? Women of Tolkien's class usually had at least some help at home from servants, and there was the convention of sending children to boarding school.

When I first read this story it had the feeling for me of a working out—as if Tolkien was not telling a story with a didactic purpose, but exploring the effects and ramifications of "loving twice" for his own intellectual satisfaction. The fact that there would have been good and bad consequences, no matter which choice Míriel made, gives the whole tale a kind of reality, for me. Life is so often like that.

[Cerin]

What I object to is the idea that she had a choice at all. She was consumed in body and spirit, not through lack or fault of her own but because of the nature of the child she bore. If she was consumed, she had no more to give. Yet this passage above seems to fault her for being too tired to continue.

I find it makes me kind of angry.

[Primula Baggins]

That she really was consumed and had no more to give—I don't think Finwë believed that was true or could be true, at first. And maybe Míriel, once she had recovered some strength, came to doubt it as well.

Even now it's sometimes hard for people struggling wiith mental illnesses, who have genuinely hit a wall and cannot do what is expected of them any longer, to be believed. People want the familiar roles to be filled and they want not to have to think about it. "Everything is perfect—why do you have to ruin it?" I have been one of those people, at least in terms of my initial reaction.

I think Finwë in his disappointment could not believe she had no choice.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Hmmm, difficult to respond. Cerin, am I assuming correctly that you have not read the material in Morgoth's Ring on Finwë and Míriel? The issues are a bit more complex then perhaps they seem at first blush, as may become apparent if this discussion continues in any depth.

[Cerin]

Yes, that's correct, Voronwë. I was responding to what seemed to be the disparity between your first quote, characterizing Míriel's actions as a choice representing abandonment and rejection, and the information that was given in the Sil.

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

I would withhold judgment until reading MOME X, Cerin. Tolkien's writings cover both sides of the issue really well in the form of the debate between the Valar.

Given the circumstances, I think things worked out satisfactorily for Finwë, Míriel, and Indis. However, the resolution of the predicament did not work out well for Fëanor and those who fell under the Doom of his oath.

[Lidless]

...which included almost everyone in ME.

[Old_Tom_Bombadil]

...which included almost everyone in ME.

Not everyone, just most of the Noldor who left Aman and many of the Sindar in Beleriand and the Silvan Elves that joined them. The only man that I can think of is Beren. Oh, and the Dwarves who worked for Thingol. Well, at least the hobbits were unaffected.

On the bright side, Indris got to marry the Elf she loved and bore him two fine sons.

[Jnyusa]

It affected Men (and Hobbits) peripherally in that Morgoth was able to sow distrust of the elves among Men, building on Fëanor's treasonous behavior toward his brothers. Tolkien does not tell us exactly what lies were told to me, but says several times that Fëanor's oath served him again and again to divide the peoples of Middle Earth from one another.

Elrond (iirc) makes a similar comment during the Council (?) ... the power of the enemy is seen in the distrust which divides those who oppose him ... something along those lines. So I think that in a way it tainted every adventure until the Noldor themselves departed forever.

There is a sort of interesting lesson in all of that, that if you are too focused on your hatred for your enemy, you become more and more like him/her. The whole Ring trilogy is sort of about that ... any obsession - certainly any negative obsession but possibly positive ones as well - will twist the soul.

Jn