#if anyone else has any ideas for maedhros-hamlet; i'd love to hear them!

[thevalleyisjolly]

what, in your opinion (or the opinion of anyone reading this after you answer) would a Maedhros Hamlet AU require? snappy lines, character parallels, etc... right now I'm thinking the setting is Formenos, with Fëanáro dead and all of the Valar as the people fëanor is encouraging Mae against

First of all, absolutely fantastic ask, thank you!  Formenos is a good place to start, I think my brain went towards Maedhros at Himring, sometime before the Nirnaeth, hearing his soldiers talk about a ghostly apparition on the ramparts that looks like his father. So he goes to investigate, and lo and behold, a spirit that resembles Fëanor appears and reminds him of his (Fëanor's) death and his (Maedhros') Oath.

Now Maedhros is very far from stupid, and does not immediately take the apparition at face value. This could be a trick of Morgoth or his servants, sent to sow terror and discord among the Noldor. Nevertheless, the reminder of the Oath begins to press in upon him...

Noldorin royal politics (aka the usual completely functional Finwëan family dynamics) happen. Perhaps with the memories of old tensions brought up again by the apparition of Fëanor, Maedhros is a little more tense than usual, something which does not go unnoticed by his allies. Old grudges and whispers start to simmer again, of Losgar and the Helcaraxë, even of Alqualondë. 

Meanwhile Celegorm and Curufin, as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-esque figures, are very transparently pushing to do something about the Silmarils.  Maedhros is onto their game and tells them off for trying to play him like a flute (I just love that line too much) and Maglor (a much less helpful Horatio) plays the flute because of course he does, this is what happens when you have bards in the family.

With all of this happening, Maedhros devises a plan that surely cannot go wrong.  Tensions boiling under the surface and fathers in need of avenging?  Time to stage a show of force and unite against a common enemy!  Fingon (as a sort of Ophelia role) is worried about this sudden aggression from Maedhros, who’s always been the more diplomatic and rational among the whole House of Finwë.  He tries to check in on him, but Maedhros is consumed with his plan and sweeps Fingon along in it, even as the pressure takes its toll and he starts wondering to be or not to be...

(As a side note, the “to be or not to be” monologue translates surprisingly well, especially with the Everlasting Darkness as the undiscover’d country)

The Union takes shape.  The Nirnaeth happens.  Fingon, now taking Polonius’ role, is slain rather than Morgoth.  Maedhros flees the battlefield with Maglor and joins up with his other brothers.  There’s a little bit of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff here; pretend Lúthien and Beren has been happening in the background and they’ve recovered a Silmaril.  Maedhros hears of their death; in a terrible place mentally and emotionally after the Nirnaeth and Fingon’s death, he is convinced by Celegorm and Curufin to fulfill their Oath and attack Doriath.  “O, from this time forth/My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!”

The attack fails in its main objective and they don’t get a Silmaril.  Celegorm and Curufin (and Caranthir too of course, can’t think of a good character equivalent for him) are dead.  Meanwhile, something is rotten in the continent of Beleriand.  It’s not going great for the Noldor!  Nearly everyone is dead, insert graveyard scene here.  This here is where we diverge from the play a little; there is obviously no Claudius or Gertrude or Laertes, but Maedhros-Hamlet still sends his letter to Sirion, portending his arrival.  The Third Kinslaying happens, lots of bodies everywhere but still no Silmaril. 

At this point, Maedhros knows that he has succumbed to the genre, that there is only one way this ends.  The Norwegian army Host of the West arrives and defeats Morgoth, taking the Silmarils; Maedhros prepares to make his last stand despite Maglor’s best efforts to convince him otherwise in a version of the closet scene.  Instead of a poisoned blade in a duel, it is the hallowed light of the Silmaril that seals his fate; he feels its burn and he knows.

He doesn’t fight it.

“O, I die, Makalaurë; The potent jewel quite o’er-crows my spirit: I cannot live to hear the news from Aman; But I do prophesy the Silmaril lights On Eärendil: oh! Middle-earth rejoice; So tell them, with the occurrents, more and less, Which have solicited.  The rest is silence.”

(I know it doesn’t quite scan, shhhh)

And Maglor lives to sing in regret the tragedy of Fëanor and Fëanor’s kin.

Idk, that’s all I got off the top of my head ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  Would love to hear anyone else’s thoughts!