#gilrean the baby bat maia

[squirrelwrangler]

Million Dollar Question: The bats that crowded Tol Galen, you mentioned in the notes there was some deal involving Thuringwethil. Could you elaborate on that?

Yep! It's a headcanon more than a fic at the moment because I haven't had any fic with the opportunity to use Gilrean the Bat Maia, but it's quite simple. Thuringwethil was a former Maia of Varda and when she defected she took with her other later gathered to her a bunch of other Maia would delighted in the nighttime and/or flight and thus took bat forms. Core to my headcanons is that the Maiar range from power and cognitive reasoning almost on par with the Valar - your Saurons and Eönwë down to single tree nymphs and will o'wisp faeries. Thuringwethil was a less than Melian but not too much less but most of her children/followers/flock are very weak and shallow Maiar. In the Lay of Leithan we learn how Drauglin died but when Huan fetches both Drauglin and Thuringwethil's pelts for the sneak into Angband disguises, her part is off-screen and glossed over. And the concept of Morgoth or Sauron using bat messengers only shows up in the Lay of Leithian, implying that post-Silmaril theft they were no longer used in service. And Morgoth is a bad boss anyway that hates failure, as seen by Sauron hiding out in the Nightshade after his defeat until Morgoth is recaptured by the Army of the Valar. I made some quick and natural assumptions, so it does something like this.

Quickly after Tol-in-Gaurhoth falls, Thuringwethil runs into Huan as she's dithering on if to report back to Angband how Drauglin is dead and Sauron majorly fucked up and has gone into hiding. She knows if she goes with the bad news that she'll also be the only remaining lieutenant of any command authority within Morgoth's reach that was connected to this fiasco and thus bear the brunt of the punishment for everyone's failures. She puts up only a token fight against Huan and then hands over her intact bat-fell on the condition that Huan (and by proxy Lúthien and Beren) do whatever they can to shield the bat-Maiar to whom Thuringwethil is liege-lady and mother. Morgoth is especially wroth with Thuringwethil and anythign associated with her because Lúthien was wearing Thuringwethil's skin when Lúthien embarrassed and stole from him in his own throne room. Cue every bat, Maiar or otherwise, flying as far south out of Morgoth's reach as possible. Thuringwethil herself is dead and in the Halls of Mandos going through penance and detox, but her minion-daughters know the deal made with Huan and B/L. They can't get through Melian's Girdle, so for a few months they're awkwardly haunting the woods of Brethil (the Haladim called this that Winter of the Forest Chock Full of Bats) until Lúthien and Beren are reborn. The two lovers walk out of Doriath heading south to Ossiriand and are immediately swarmed by a giant flock of bats.

Tol Galen has a large flock of giant talking bats. Some are elevated to the position of foster-daughters. That's Gilrean, who is about the scale of Goldberry and while usually a giant fruit bat can give herself a mroe-or-less elven form. She thinks of herself as Dior's older sister/nanny and self-appointed babysitter. When Thingol died, Melian started to unravel and lose herself and her grip on a corporeal body in the grief and strain of holding the Girdle. Before Melian completely lost it, she delivered the Silmaril to Lúthien. In return, Lúthien asked Gilrean, as a (flying) Maia not under the Ban, to carry Melian back to Valinor. Gilrean carries her foster-grandmother to Valinor and the Gardens of Lórien and begs clemency for herself, the other followers of Thuringwethil, and Melian.

The bat Maiar might have originally been Maiar of Varda or Melkor, but most end up hanging out in the entourages of a combination of Nessa or Estë.

Dior loves his sister Gilrean.

Beren has a bat phobia. He tries not to be too freaked out by all the girls and he loves Gilrean despite it, but it was an adjustment, and he was relieved when Gilrean figured out how to shapeshift.