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elesianne · 8 years ago

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Fëanor headcanon: Fear of loss

I've been thinking a lot lately about Fëanor and his behaviour in the good happy days of Valinor before everything went to bits, because I've been having some trouble figuring out exactly how he should behave in my Caranthir-woos-a-Vanyarin-girl story. Obviously he is not going to be happy about Caranthir's unexpected courtship, given his attitude to his father's second marriage to a Vanya, but just how much of a jerk should I write him? I don't want him to be a one-dimensional antagonist in my fic, or a bad father – that would be the easy route to take but it wouldn't make for a story I could be satisfied with.

(This headcanon is only partially about the fic so it can be interesting also to those who aren't interested in that story.)

I've come to the conclusion that Fëanor's behaviour in my fic should spring from his fear of loss, the loss of a loved one specifically. Pretty much the first thing Fëanor ever experiences is losing his mother (I know there is a version where Míriel dies later but that doesn't really fit in with other bits of the timeline so I'm choosing to ignore it).

In Valinor where more or less nobody dies, Fëanor is the only child who grows up with only one parent. It is considered a great misfortune, and Fëanor must feel that way too, no matter how much his father loves and cares for him. And Finwë really does try his best, and Fëanor loves him more than any other son loves their father – but the shadow of that early loss lingers over them both, and it informs Fëanor's later relationships.

Finwë marries Indis perhaps trying to banish the shadow of losing Míriel, perhaps because he falls in love with Indis, perhaps because he wants more children – I'm not sure for which reason, perhaps for all of them. In any case the result is that Finwë does find a new happiness, but Fëanor doesn't. In The Silmarillion it is said that 'the wedding of his father was not pleasing to Fëanor'.

My take on this: having always been the only one who receives Finwë's love and attention, the centre of his world in a way, Fëanor sees his father's remarriage not as gaining more family – a stepmother and eventually stepsiblings – but as losing the only family he has ever had. This is not true, of course; Finwë will always love his firstborn the most and take his side in later arguments (relinquishing the crown to Fingolfin's keeping and going to Formenos with Fëanor is a very drastic show of support).

The feeling of losing his father both has its origins in and greatly strengthens Fëanor's fear of losing those he loves.

The one who Fëanor 'loses' his beloved father to is a Vanyarin woman. Because Fëanor is prone to having strong emotional reactions that make him forget his formidable intelligence and draw overgeneralisations, his attitude to the Vanyar as a people is rather negative from then on.

I imagine he got on with them as well as anyone until that point and probably had dealings with the Vanyarin loremasters who were considered the highest authority on questions of language, questions which Fëanor himself was passionate about. But now he might begin call them useless theoreticians who never create anything useful and are limited in all their pursuits by their proximity and loyalty to the Valar. These attitudes are obviously in contrast to his own combining of theoretical learning and skill of hand, and his independent spirit.

Now, back to my fic: Fëanor doesn't really have anyone to blame for his mother's death, but he definitely blames Indis for the loss of his father's undivided love and attention. Thus just hearing the rumour of Caranthir being seen smitten with a Vanya is enough to make Fëanor see red – a Vanyarin maiden being something terribly dangerous in his subconscious.

It triggers his fear of loss, this time for his son. If he thought about it logically, he would realise that even if Caranthir ends up marrying this girl, it won't mean he never sees him again. After all Maglor is already married [in my 'universe'] and Fëanor didn't feel this way about his marriage and indeed doesn't feel like he has lost his second-eldest son. But Maglor's wife isn't a Vanya, and in any case Fëanor, as we know, doesn't think logically when he is angry or scared. Amidst his irrational anger and fear he doesn't manage to be the actually pretty good father that he is most of the time.

On some level he is also genuinely convinced, though probably only after some mental acrobatics and self-deception, that it will make his son unhappy if he marries a Vanya – because Fëanor himself was made unhappy by a Vanya. So he thinks he is being a good father when he warns Caranthir about it being a bad decision to court Tuilindien, and he is determined to prove this to Caranthir. Which is why he is being a jerk in the newest chapter of Your spirit calling out to mine (wow I really need to create an abbreviation or something for that) and… well, no spoilers!

Nerdanel has of course been telling Fëanor that he is being an idiot if not quite that bluntly, not at first at least. That is the only reason he hasn't been more of a jerk. Even with Nerdanel's advice and Caranthir's angry and heartfelt objections to his father's attitude, it's not easy for Fëanor to change his mind. Because he is notoriously bad at doing just that.

(As an aside, Caranthir's jealousy in the latest chapter of YSCotM (a terrible abbreviation) is an echo of a possessive way of loving which he has inherited and learnt from Fëanor, if not in quite the same proportions.)

A final note – not about my fic:

What’s absolutely heart-breaking is that in the end Fëanor's worst fear comes true: he loses his father, and it happens through a horrible act of violence, one which he (delusionally) imagines he could have stopped if he had been there and not summoned to Taniquetil by Manwë. This is a good vantage point, I think, from which to understand his later actions: his mad grief and fury, his rebellion against the Valar, his pursuit of revenge against Morgoth.

#i know none of this is super original but it's the first time i really sat down and thought about fëanor this much #fëanor is a great character but for me at least an absolute bastard to write #fëanor #silmarillion headcanon #tolkien meta #yscotm meta #my tolkien headcanons

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galadhremmin · 3 years ago

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We have derived Caranthir liking the Dwarves (and vice versa) because apparently, Finrod succeeds in every field Caranthir fails, and at this point it's clear this derives from the in-universe writer of the Silm and his own biases. Think about it: "Dark Finwë" , a grumpy, prejudiced lordling, and "Hair Champion", most handsome, noble king, have met with the same people!! Yet the king of the first secret kingdom is everyone's friend, but the prince that trades with them regularly is not... seems sus.

Hence, Caranthir is friends with the Dwarves. (But that is just an interpretation, so you're free to think what you wish, I just have several opinions on in-universe prejudice and the almighty narrative.)

I think that 'we' might actually have been Dawn Felagund years ago. Maybe this reading existed even before that, but I doubt that-- she's been very influential in silm fandom and was long before tumblr was much of a thing. https://dawnfelagund.com/caranthir-the-slandered

I wouldn't say it's 'clear' that what amounts to Caranthir's entire documented personality derives from the bias of the in-universe narrator, though as you can see from Dawn's writing it's a reading you can argue for. There are a number of different approaches you can take to the Silm and its biases anyway. One of the few times when it's absolutely clear the text isn't telling the entire story is when it talks about the Easterlings. I've posted about this before but the recorded names are, uhh.... the ones to betray the elves are unlikely to actually have been named things like 'ugly lord' and 'ugly beard.' 'Dark Finwe' on the other hand is a documented reference to his haircolour being dark like Finwe's own; hardly a negative judgement!

I personally think Caranthir can be exactly as ill-tempered and prejudiced as the Silm paints him without becoming an unsympathetic character. If a writer cannot make a moody, deeply prejudiced man an interesting character that is a failure as a writer; there are after all enough books who manage exactly that. That is not to say choosing not to write him that way is a failure (obviously not), but it's not necessary in order to make a reader feel for him at all.

Just going by the text, I think it actually might make for a more interesting narrative to explore in fic to me. Because he does change his mind about something, and at a very specific moment; when he meets the Haladin. That is much less dramatic if he secretly been as nice and popular as Finrod, and got along with everyone all the time already. He's been raised by Fëanor, who said things like 'No other race shall oust us!' and rallied the Noldor not motivated enough by vengeance for Finwë alone by playing on their deep-seated fear of being replaced by the Secondborn. Very unlikely that had no impact. At best it has made him uninterested in humans in his area (while they're not much of a threat to ruling instead of the elves anyway). The text says they paid them no heed.

And yet! Caranthir sees how brave Haleth and her people are. He 'does her great honour.' He changes his mind and offers them lands. His tragedy to me is not that of a slandered figure, but of this deeply, deeply prejudiced person raised to distrust the motivations of human beings -- who overcomes those beliefs, offers friendship, is rejected! then extends that same trust to the Easterlings anyway... and it's those specific Easterlings, not the ones who ally with his brothers-- who betray them all. And cause the disastrous ending of the Nirnaeth. It's the 'to evil end shall all things turn that they begin well' part of the curse hitting him in the least fair way possible. Someone finally changes for the better, and the outcome is treason and destruction.

That is a very good character arc to me, actually. His aesthetics-based scorn for the Dwarves is reprehensible but strikes me as deeply Elvish, and part of his prejudices. Naugrim is too unflattering a name for them for it not to be common. His temper-- well why can't he have one? Sure there's only one recorded instance -- but that's imo because there are hardly any conversations in the Silm! Anyway I like some people with tempers well enough. Personally I think people are missing out on opiniated grouches.

Obviously the biased anti-Feanorian Pengolodh reading is a nice one, and I have enjoyed a lot of stories written based it. But it's not at all a reading that is necessary for me to read Caranthir as a flawed but sympathetic character. He can have serious faults and still, ultimately, be someone I feel for.

What I was asking though was if I overlooked any canon evidence of Caranthir being particularly, personally fond of the Dwarves; and it seems I did not. Also; there is room for Caranthir growing to like the Dwarves over centuries without an anti-Feanorian bias reading this strong, there is simply no evidence for friendship in the rather barebones narrative (I'm not interested atm because it's wildly overdone to me & I like variety).

That said, in my opinion making Caranthir the hidden, slandered Feanorian Finrod equivalent with a dash of Curufin's Dwarf affection is not as enjoyable as simply working with what little canon character is actually there. Because there is one (and it's not the greedy tax collector of some fanon depictions either imo)

1. To start with, wrt Caranthir as the anti-Finrod, I don't think it works that well. Sure sure dark/light, open/prejudiced, repressed/shouty, but different motivations, different locations, plus they meet very different peoples even if both are Edain-- besides, Caranthir's own older brothers do successfully ally with the Easterlings without betrayal, while Curufin (much more so than Finrod! no Khuzdul for Finrod!) is the Dwarves' Friend(tm). Also, a flawed Finrod already exists. That's just the regular edition. He has his own faults and (very different) tragic arc.

If Finrod never seems to have strong prejudices to overcome, and if he's not confrontational (which... look he's a diplomat. Make of that what you will. Pretty awkward there in Doriath, buddy!) he does have trouble facing his own complicity (he wanted to sail those ships despite the murders) until Sauron beats him to death with it. He leaves Valinor with the idea of ruling but he has to give up the crown. He's ambitious, he seems emotionally repressed, he's.. possibly paying the greater Dwarves to drive the Petty Dwarves out of their ancestral home to build a city? Oops. Depending on the version you go with in that case, of course; there's also ones where he's free of the blame of that one. Not of wanting to sail those ships and being uneasy with the guilt wrt wanting to do so despite their being stolen and murdered for though. No he doesn't kill; but he wants to use the result of it anyway, and to make it worse he is actually half Telerin.

There's also (to be fair, only for sure after the disaster of the Sudden Flame because that's the recorded instance) his guards killing random innocent trespassers to keep his kingdom hidden -- yes, that's right there in Silm, yes he's still King at the time. Beren has to wave that ring. People just seem to miss that he'd be killed without it somehow.

I think it's just too easy to reduce him to the golden perfect opposite of Caranthir. Yes he's described more positively; he's also just mentioned more because unlike Caranthir he rules an actual kingdom, the greatest and richest in Beleriand in fact; and does things that have a lot of very longterm effects, like helping B&L steal a Silmaril. They don't 'meet the same people' anyway -- the Haladin have a different culture from the Beorians which contributes to their reaction to Caranthir (and iirc their later fate).

Sidenote: Dawn's essay attributes the Green Elves helping the Feanorians at Amon Ereb to Caranthir's diplomatic skills; but why not to those of Amras or Amrod? This is the quote; 'Caranthir fled and joined the remnant of his people to the scattered folk of the hunters, Amrod and Amras, and they retreated and passed Ramdal in the south. Upon Amon Ereb they maintained a watch and some strength of war, and they had aid of the Green-elves' -- nothing here indicates it was Caranthir who got them that aid. In fact A&A are the hunters, i.e. more likely to have roamed in various forests where they would have encountered Green Elves, imo.

There's also the very desperate times to consider in which this aid takes place. This is just post Sudden Flame, and even if the Green Elves didn't like Caranthir they probably liked him better than Morgoth. Also, speaking of cosmopolitans, Maedhros allies with, yes, Dwarves (Azaghal), Grey elves, Easterlings (and you might say: Fingolfinians); even part of the remaining people of Dorthonion rally to Himring post sudden flame (that means Edain and Arafinwean followers in Himring, at least for a time), and he manages to be friendly with Felagund despite calling him a badger. ;)

Finrod is not the only other leader to forge diverse alliances, and though B&L ends happily his people mostly do not. Caranthir's not much like Finrod in any way. Not in motivations, temperament, tragic arc. That's fine. No hidden kingdom for a dragon to eat either. Finrod could probably do with being a little less like Finrod sometimes, though he's well-intentioned and likable. Caranthir loves to shout and isn't sneaky. Good for him.

2. Curufin also already exists. His love for Dwarves is one of his defining and redeeming characteristics and boy does he need them. He's daddy's favourite, a sneaky overambitious bitchy bastard who is also a talented smith and linguist, and truly considered a Dwarf friend, which is apparently exceptional. He's quite flawed; tries to help Celegorm force a political marriage, laughs with a bruised mouth, seeming to lose his mind while attempting and failing murder after first losing his own stronghold and then the city he tried to take from his cousin. He's just... a personality. Mostly a bad one! You can feel for him though, because he seems like an utter mess. Many 'i would love to study you' feelings on my part. Would hate for him to be real but also I'd pay to be his therapist.

3. And then finally there's Canon Caranthir. A difficult, prejudiced person who despite that (which doesn't at all have to mean there is no despite, the despite is what makes it juicy)

- seems to be responsible for re-establishing (large scale?) trade with the Dwarves, whatever he might think of them (and they of him) to their mutual benefit. I don't think he's greedy either. It seems like a mutually profitable situation. Access to Dwarvish goods seems pretty vital to Beleriand, and facilitating trade is a real service.

As someone pointed out in the replies, the Silm does mention Dwarvish companies travelling east to Nan Elmoth and menegroth various times, but quote wrt Caranthir says 'Caranthir’s people came upon the Dwarves, who after the onslaught of Morgoth and the coming of the Noldor had ceased their traffic into Beleriand' and 'when the Dwarves began again to journey into Beleriand.'

They stopped at some point and Caranthir's people made it happen again.

- which means he's practical. He seems like he's good at organising, and setting his own feelings aside if necessary despite his prejudice and temper (which is an achievement it wouldn't be without his, hm, everything). Also he and his people as well as the Dwarves work together well because ''either people loved skill and were eager to learn,' despite their (initial?) mutual dislike. Those aren't bad characteristics; seems like it was an exchange of skill as well as goods and possibly providing safe travel opportunities.

I don't like the 'greedy Caranthir' fanon and don't think it is even that easy support entirely with canon. 'They had of it great profit,' the text says-- both Caranthir and the Dwarves. They exchanged skills and knowledge and Caranthir seems to have helped them start trading in Beleriand again. That's hardly Scrooge Mcduck.

- Another thing we can say about canonthir (lol) is that he apparently attaches a lot of value to aesthetics (was he a visual artist? is a he a sculptor like Nerdanel? WORSE: AN ART CRITIC?! Feanorian art critic is truly nightmare fuel) and that's why he dislikes Dwarves (of all things...). Either way points to 'aesthetics' as something apparently important to Caranthir. Which makes sense given who his parents are. What is interesting to me is that this apparently DOESN'T matter to Curufin, who is a lot like Feanor in most things. That's interesting!

I've never, never seen this but I think it would be very funny to attribute his aesthetic prejudices to Nerdanel. I love her; but why should her opinions be perfect? I know she wasn't considered beautiful herself, but she's an artist. She's got to have had some strong opinions on aesthetics anyway. I doubt it's the beards; Mahtan had one as well. And 'stunted'...at least some of this comes down to the Elvish obsession with height yet again. Hm.

- eventually Caranthir overcomes what have to be some very deeply held beliefs about human beings and their place in the world, and offers what for all intents and purposes looks like real friendship, not the ruling over Men Feanor seems to have had in mind at best. He's capable of real change!

Anyway his character works just fine to me from canon, and what he achieves and the ways in which he fails are more interesting that way rather-- neither slandered Feanorian Finrod 2.0 nor Curufin 'Dwarf Fan' Feanorion without the sneakiness and murder attempts pack the same punch as a stupidly prejudiced grouchy man doing his best anyway for centuries in this stupid ugly cursed land, eventually changing for the better, opening up-- and being brutally punished for it by the Doom.

Dammit. I hope there's therapy in the Everlasting Darkness.

hm a bit long but that's what I get for trying to gather my thoughts wrt why after considering it a bit transferring Curufin's love for Dwarves to Caranthir is a bit boring to me personally. Though there are still stories that still do it very well.

#no one asked including me but there you go anyway #that's what you get when i wake up at nearly 3 in the morning and thnk. FUCK i can't sleep #caranthir

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