#and elrond is a victor since he survived every shit imaginable

[eccentricmya]

I had this sudden thought... What if the bits about kidnap fam in the silm were added because Elrond is actually delusional and desperate for parental love?

Nobody found the twins in the cave. They grew into this feral eldritch abomination, cut off from civilization and given up for dead by everyone. During the war of wrath, they stumble out of their nomadic dwelling and are discovered by the host of Aman. They are told of the third kinslaying (after they learn spoken language, since they communicated mostly through images and feelings sent via osanwe) and the fate of their kinsmen and ultimately, taken under Gil-Galad's wing.

Years later, when Elros has chosen to masquerade as a normal mannish creature and swanned off to his island, Elrond encounters a wandering Maglor. He recognises the lament he sings, the Noldolantë, and the ruined hand he connects to the Thieves of the Silmaril he was told about. Elrond is tempted to punish this kinslayer for all the grief he has caused him, but pity stays his hand. They spend some months together, Elrond trying to bring back Maglor to his right mind. But the Noldo speaks of nothing but his overwhelming guilt — for the ones he killed, for the ones he orphaned, and for the brothers he could not follow in death. Elrond feels like they are kindred spirits, forsaken by their family, doomed to a lonely existence.

Yet one winter eve, Maglor disappears in the dead of the night. Leaving behind a song of apology whose notes linger in the air long after he is gone.

Elrond is devastated. He cannot survive another leaving him. So he builds this fantasy in his head. Where he and Elros were found by Maglor in their little cave, years ago when they still wished to be found. And Maglor would take the twins with him to Maedhros, the brother whom Maglor loved like Elrond loves Elros, yet still lost to death, just like Elrond would lose his own. The four would dwell together for long years to come and love would grow between them.

And this fantasy is what history recorded. So that Elrond and Elros would grow up loved, and Maglor would still have family on the shores he wandered.