By Dawn Felagund
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To this point, the only biography of Amrod and Amras on the site was a very brief biography created for the Seven in '07 event. Both biographies are being left on the site, but this one expands considerably on the earlier effort.
The seven sons of Fëanor, who emerged in some of Tolkien's earliest writings, are among the Silmarillion characters who most capture the imaginations of fans and fanworks creators. Simultaneously endowed with distinctive traits and yet with the bulk of their characterizations and histories all but undeveloped, they occupy the golden mean for a fanworks creator: firmly rooted in the canon but given ample room for creativity, interpretation, and development in the imaginations of fans.
Without a doubt, the least firmly rooted of the seven sons of Fëanor are the youngest, the twins Amrod and Amras. Mentioned just six times each—a quarter of the mentions given to the next least-mentioned son of Fëanor, Caranthir—and only ever together, the twins often seem the tag-alongs within their family. Their popularity as subjects of fanfiction perhaps mirrors their role in the canon: Amrod and Amras appear respectively in 126 and 125 stories on the Silmarillion Writers' Guild as of 30 January 2021, the least of all their brothers.1 Truly, to understand them as active agents within the canon—especially compared to characters like Maedhros and Celegorm, who dominate the storyline at points—requires a bit more inference, a bit more creative embellishment. Furthermore, like many of Tolkien's seemingly minor characters, they underwent a surprising amount of evolution across the decades, first contracting from two distinct characters to a single composite before beginning to assume identities independent of each other.
Tolkien's legendarium is peppered with more than the expected number of twins (assuming a rate of twin births similar to the human population of our own Modern-earth2 ), especially among the nobility of the Elves and Peredhil, where there are four canonical pairs of twins: Amrod and Amras, Eluréd and Elurín, Elrond and Elros, and Elladan and Elrohir. As is often the case, the legendarium mimics mythology, where twins play a formative role in myths and folklore found on every inhabited continent.
Writing specifically of twins in creation myths, David A. Leeming notes that, "Either the twins are opposites in terms of their relation to creation—one constructive, one destructive—or they work in tandem as a sacred pair."3 While paired opposites of characters—not necessarily twins in the genetic sense but often functioning as such in the divine or literary sense—have been touched upon in Tolkien's works,4 the topic of twins more generally in Tolkien's works is surprisingly unexplored, especially given their prevalence and mythological resonance. Leeming's second type of twins, those that "work in tandem"—where most5 of Tolkien's Elvish and Peredhil twins best fit—receives less attention.
Leeming describes this type of twins in mythology as "more esoteric, more mysterious, perhaps representing a hope for unity in the human psyche—a transcendence of opposites in a single unified force."6 Within The Silmarillion, Amrod and Amras—as least in the published text—seem to function similarly. Though two separate characters, they act as a composite, never appearing in the published Silmarillion apart from one another (although Tolkien's earliest writings and some of his later revisions on the Silmarillion materials, as discussed below, show a shift away from this mythic-style unification of a single spirit or personality within two bodies). Fanworks about the twins often actualize the "esoteric and mysterious" the Leeming identifies and Tolkien begins to develop in his later work about them. Amrod and Amras in fanworks are frequently depicted as having an almost supernatural bond: an ability, for example, to know each other's thoughts or act in concert with one another, often appearing enigmatic to others as a result.
As noted above, the published Silmarillion mentions the twins only six times and never apart from each other. Nonetheless, within those six bare mentions and especially within the larger context of the Fëanorians and the Noldor, it is possible to infer much about them that goes unwritten.
They are first introduced, along with Fëanor's other sons, as "twin brothers, alike in mood and face. In later days they were great hunters in the woods of Middle-earth."7 They next appear, again listed along with their brothers, at the Oath of Fëanor.8 Both will prove essential details to their later roles in the story.
Through the tumults that followed—the first kinslaying, the theft and burning of the ships, the death of their father—the twins go unmentioned (although this changes dramatically in some of Tolkien's later reworkings of their story, as we will see). When next mentioned, Tolkien firmly sidelines the twins from the martial deeds of their kin, noting that the people of the sons of Fëanor mostly settled in the north of Beleriand, nearest to the conflict with Morgoth, and "southward they rode only to hunt in the greenwoods. But there Amrod and Amras had their abode, and they came seldom northward while the Siege lasted …"9 It is difficult not to note—and wonder at—the contrast here: the eagerness of the Fëanorians to occupy the literal front lines of the war with Morgoth while the twins reside in a land that, for the rest of their kin, serves as a place of holiday and respite. These other Elf-lords, we are told, "would ride at times, even from afar, for the land was wild but very fair."10 They are later, again, mentioned in conjunction with their lands, when the people of Bëor settle there after being pressured by the Green-elves to move on from Ossiriand.11 Again, after the Battle of Sudden Flame, "Caranthir fled and joined the remnant of his people to the scattered folk of the hunters, Amrod and Amras …"12
Here, the close association with the twins and the lands they occupy emerges as an essential motif in their characterization. Introduced as hunters, their close connection with lands "wild and fair" dovetails with this singular character detail we are given. This association also contributes to the otherworldly feel of the twins, already presented as composite beings. The characterization of their lands—described simultanously as a place of sojourn and peace relative to the rest of Beleriand at the time and a realm untamed—projects onto the twins as well, giving them a sense of apartness from the rest of not just their kin but the Eldar as a whole, whose concerns are more worldly and political. If their brothers represent civilization, both the good and the bad, the twins seem to occupy the opposite pole, standing for wilderness unconstrained by geopolitical boundaries, diplomatic allegiances, and war. The twins show little concern about the doings of others who occupy the lands near to them or, at times, even share their lands. Although neighboring groups are clearly identified—the Green-elves live nearby and the people of Bëor occupy the twins' own lands—the lack of reported interaction between Amrod, Amras, and their neighbors again contributes to the sense of apartness and alignment with the natural world than with the churning tumults of human concern.
Here, one might inquire why the twins were set apart so. Certainly, their close association with nature and the land suggests it might have been contrary to their nature to ask them to assume the same martial, political roles as their brothers. Here, it is worth returning to the discussion above, about the enigmatic role played by twins in myth. Whether there was an element of protectiveness to the twins' exclusion as well—being as they were the youngest in their family—is purely conjecture. It is far less conjectural to infer that, no matter the reason, their brothers did not see fit to push them beyond their natural inclination as stewards of the land on less urgent occasions (for certainly there is nothing to suggest that they did not join their brothers at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, where the sons of Fëanor are mentioned several times).
The twins' relative isolation makes their eventual succumbing to the Oath all the more tragic. It also speaks to the Oath's relative power, when even holding the line against a terrible enemy cannot entice them forth but they will join their brothers in pursuit of the Silmarils and the fulfillment of their oath. The twins' final mention is when they die in the third kinslaying at Sirion, a sad coda to lives lived in far more peace—and lost in far more infamy—than others of their kin.13
Amrod and Amras, along with the other sons of Fëanor, emerge in a rudimentary form very early in Tolkien's work on the legendarium, as part of the expansive Lost Tales made in his twenties. Their first appearance is in The Nauglafring, the tale of the necklace made by the Dwarves for Elu Thingol, for the purpose of holding the Silmaril. This story was written sometime in the years 1917 to 1919, making it part of the earliest written Silmarillion.
Given the context of the fall of Doriath, it is perhaps not a surprise that Amrod and Amras make their debut into the legendarium rather ignominiously. Called at this point Damrod and Dinethel (later Díriel), they are summoned by Maedhros to pressure and, when diplomacy fails, attack Dior in Doriath to regain the Silmaril: "Now Maidros, whom Melko maimed, was their leader; and he called to his brethren Maglor and Dinithel, and to Damrod, and to Celegorm, Cranthor and to Curufin the Crafty …"14 I provide the wording of the passage here because two observations come immediately to mind. First is that, even so early in the textual history, nearly all the Fëanorion names are recognizable with their final forms, except for Amrod and Amras. (Damrod, one could say, is fairly close, though the change in initial letter still makes it feel not as recognizable as the elder Fëanorions.) Epithets like "the maimed" and "the Crafty" further suggest the identities of some of the sons of Fëanor were already beginning to crystallize; one might infer this was less so for "Damrod and Dinithel," about whom we are told nothing.
Perhaps more importantly, though, is the fact that the twins are not paired together here. This again becomes salient later in the passage, where the Elves of Doriath "would not hearken to Maidros the maimed, nor to Curufin and Damrod who had slain their lord."15 Again, the twins are presented apart from each other—in fact, Dinithel's fate isn't even mentioned here. (Celegorm and Cranthor are mentioned as having perished in the fight; one can assume the same of Dinithel, though it's also not unlikely that Tolkien simply forgot to include him at all.) Again, this suggests that their identities were not firmly fixed yet in Tolkien's mind compared to their brothers. Very possibly, he did not yet imagine them as twins.
But Damrod and Díriel are here to stay. They would again resurface in The Lay of the Children of Húrin of a catalogue of the sons of Fëanor recited by Flinding (who would later evolve into Gwindor):
To Nargothrond
. . .
my feet would fain wander,
that Celegorm and Curufin, the crafty sons
of Fëanor founded when they fled southward;
there built a bulwark against Bauglir's hate,
who live now lurking in league secret
with those five others in the forests of the East,
fell unflinching foes of Morgoth.
Maidros whom Morgoth maimed and tortured
is lord and leader, his left wieldeth
his sweeping sword; there is swift Maglor,
there Damrod and Díriel and dark Cranthir,
the seven seekers of their sire's treasure.16
Again, I provide the full text to show the evolution of these characters, this time as they appear in a text begun in 1918 and completed no later than 1925.17 The other sons of Fëanor have all been assigned at least one notable trait, most of which persisted through to the published text—all except for "Damrod and Díriel." However, they are here named together, a change—which would persist hereafter—that Christopher Tolkien interprets as suggesting that his father may have begun to view them as twins.18
In the 1930s, Tolkien began to work in earnest on the text that would later become The Silmarillion, including the only complete version of the Silmarillion that he ever wrote. It is in this time that the characters of Amrod and Amras—still Damrod and Díriel—began to take shape as distinct characters, although in composite. Their affinity as hunters emerged,19 and they were assigned their territory in eastern Beleriand.20 Importantly, this is also the point where their lack of involvement in the conflicts in the north that consumed their kin is established.21 They are definitively stated to be twins.22 Finally, their fate at Sirion was cemented: They were slain there in the final and most horrific of the kinslayings.23
On the latter, the story diverges from the published text in a surprising way. Damrod and Díriel "emerge as the most ferocious of the surviving sons of Fëanor"24 during the third kinslaying, primarily, it seems, to serve as a foil to Maedhros and Maglor, who only "gave reluctant aid" after being goaded to action by Damrod and Díriel.25 This plot point repeats across several texts produced during the 1930s, though Tolkien would later, and again, change his mind.
Tolkien's intensive efforts on The Silmarillion ended in 1938, as he commenced work on The Lord of the Rings. He would not resume his work on the Silmarillion material until LotR was finished. He was not, however—and here, no fan of Tolkien's Silmarillion materials will be surprised—finished with making changes to the characters of Amrod and Amras.
Where he last left them, they had settled more or less into their final forms, with the exception of a bloodthirstiness that—given their diminished martial roles in the published text—always feels surprising to me. However, it seems evident that he hoped to develop the internal conflict of Maedhros and Maglor with regards to their oath, and the twins serve as a convenient device in achieving that aim. In a reversal dramatic even for Tolkien and his constant fiddling with this characters, post-LotR, the twins would not only lose their ruthless aspect but emerge as characters both lovable and pitiable.
Post-LotR, the twins finally received their names Amrod and Amras, although in amusingly typical fashion—given how slow he was to provide them with characterizations in the first place—Tolkien crossed out their names but did not replace them. (He did replace the names of other sons of Fëanor whose names he wished to change.)26 They finally receive their names in The Later Quenta Silmarillion I, written in 1951-2.27
It was in the very late (1968) text The Shibboleth of Fëanor that the twins' story underwent its most consequential—and controversial—revision. Shibboleth sought to identify the linguistic roots of the conflict within the House of Finwë and to illuminate the meanings of the names of various persons within that House. Unfinished, it never provides more than a brief explanation of the names of the sons of Fëanor, save for a lengthy excursus about the names of Amrod and Amras.
Tolkien first assigns them the father-names of Pityafinwë and Telufinwë, meaning little and last Finwë, respectively. These names are—perhaps typically, given the twins' history within the texts—not terribly illuminating, illustrating only their birth order. They do, however, serve to shift the emphasis towards the twins' status as the last and youngest of their family, perhaps worthy of sheltering in a way that the older brothers would not consider towards each other. As names, they are hard to reconcile with the warmongering brothers who began to emerge in the 1930s work on the Silmarillion materials.
It is with the twins' mother-names,28 however, that their story veers away from anything intimated in Tolkien's early work on their characters. At the twins' birth, Nerdanel gave them both the same name, Ambarussa—meaning top russet and an allusion to their red hair—because they were so alike in appearance. Fëanor asked that the twins be given different names, so Nerdanel declared that one should be called Umbarto, meaning fated, even more ominously stating, "but which, time will decide."
There is not consensus as to whether Fëanor—disturbed by the portentous name—changed the name to Ambarto or simply misheard Nerdanel. It mattered not, she stated: "It will make no difference." The meaning of the name becomes clear when Fëanor orders the burning of the ships at Losgar:
Then Ambarussa (6) went pale with fear. 'Did you not then rouse Ambarussa my brother (whom you call Ambarto)?' he said. 'He would not come ashore to sleep (he said) in discomfort.' But it is thought (and no doubt Fëanor) guessed this also) that it was in the mind of Ambarto to sail his ship back [?afterwards] and rejoin Nerdanel; for he had been much [?shocked] by the deed of his father.
'That ship I destroyed first,' said Fëanor (hiding his own dismay). 'Then rightly you gave the name to the youngest of young children," said Ambarussa, 'and Umbarto "the Fated" was its true form. Fell and fey you are become.' And after that no one dared speak again to Fëanor of this matter.29
According to Christopher Tolkien, "it was only as my father worked on [the twins' names] that the strange and sinister story emerged."3 It seems somewhat extemporaneous, although there is little evidence that it was something he intended to reject—in fact, to the contrary, a note attached to the essay The Problem of Ros describes the story of Amrod and Amras as "desirable to retain."31 In fact, there was some effort to integrate it into earlier drafts. In the text Maeglin, for example, Christopher Tolkien notes that his father three times refers to the five sons of Fëanor and wonders if he "had come to believe that both Amrod and Amras died in the burning ship." In the same text, Christopher Tolkien also notes a penciled addition to the Annals of Aman (§128) about the Amrod story.32
Further pointing to the spontaneity with which this story was likely produced is Tolkien's own confusion over which twin perishes on the ship. While the story begins with Ambarto, the elder twin (Amrod), he later shifts to regarding the younger twin (Amrod) as red-haired and especially dear to his mother, and the twin who therefore edges closest to repentance and loses his life for it.
It is difficult to know the weight to assign this story. Certainly, Christopher Tolkien did not find it adequately established to include it in the published Silmarillion. Among fans, it is polarizing, simultaneously an oft-explored plot point in stories about Amrod and Amras and an interpretation that many readers actively avoid. Within the larger context of Tolkien's late work, however, it is not necessarily unusual. At this point in his work, he often contemplated radical changes to the legendarium. A decade before, for example, he had contemplated both the overthrow of the longstanding "flat-earth" cosmology and shifting the mode of historical transmission from the Elvish to the Númenórean.33 These two instances have far-reaching consequences for the legendarium compared to the Legend of Amrod, yet similar to Legend of Amrod, while Tolkien wrote in some detail about his intended changes and even began to make some early notes of areas requiring revision, he never undertook those revisions in earnest.
Whether one accepts the Legend of Amrod as canon or not, it has the effect of characterizing the twins completely opposite to the bloodthirsty warmongers of the 1930s drafts. The Shibboleth of Fëanor is one of the more intimate, humanizing texts where the Fëanorians are concerned, bringing them down from the level of epic heroes to people who fight with their spouses, mishear names, and have favorite children (and parents). Amras's partiality to his mother and questioning of his father's rebellion seems to negate entirely the earlier characterization of one who incited an attack on defenseless civilians.
The Legend of Amrod also unravels the composite into which Amrod and Amras had been bound, by that point, for nearly four decades. Not only are the twins at last distinguished from each other, both in temperament and appearance—of Amrod, Shibboleth says that he "grew darker in hair, and was more dear to his father"34 —but the story forces, irrevocably, a separation between them. In a story where characters tumble into death at every turn, this particular death nonetheless feels weightier, more wrenching. Partly, it is the inconceivable agony of a parent who accidentally immolates his child, but I suspect that much of it lies in the supernatural bond that many fans perceive between the twins (and which Tolkien himself, as noted above, leans on as well): the sense of sundering something unnaturally that was never meant to be broken, a grief that seems unsurvivable.
Amrod and Amras emerge as a case study in how the published Silmarillion—cobbled as it was from the various drafts under discussion here, some of them decades old and some of them (like the Legend of Amrod) rejected entirely by Christopher Tolkien—can be variously interpreted depending on the relative weight given to supporting texts. For example, take the question of the twins' lack of involvement in the wars that so occupied their brothers and cousins. Early characterizations of the twins as hunters can lead us to understand this disconnect as a product of their attachment to their lands, a supernaturality enhanced by their status as twins. But as Tolkien developed their characters further, and they stepped to the fore in their incitement of violence against their kin, we perhaps read the same lack of involvement less as indifference. Perhaps they were overcompensating for their prior lack of involvement? Perhaps their lack of involvement was an intentional, diplomatic choice on the part of Maedhros and the other brothers?
Bringing in The Shibboleth of Fëanor, the twins emerge as especially cherished by their parents, defined in a large part by their status as the youngest and perhaps subject to special protections as a result. Yet this very late text draws this inference upon details first set to paper more than three decades earlier. Would this have been in Tolkien's mind, even as he turned the twins toward an increasingly martial aspect? Yet fanworks involving the twins will show that many readers perceive it nonetheless.
Furthermore, I cannot help but to return to Tolkien's relative indecision where the twins were concerned. Whereas their brothers' traits emerged early in the history of the legendarium, the twins remained uncharacterized and for a while unnamed. Given the scarcity of their appearances in the texts, their characters also vacillate wildly compared to their brothers. I cannot help but to view, ultimately, Amrod and Amras as a tabulae rasae whose traits shift to accommodate the stories in which they play a supporting role.
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Dawn Felagund is the founder and owner of the Silmarillion Writers' Guild and has written about one hundred stories, poems, and essays about J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion, some of which have been translated and published in fan magazines around the world. Dawn is a graduate student in the humanities, and her academic work on Tolkien's cosmogony and the Tolkien fan community has appeared in Mythprint and Silver Leaves (in press) and has been presented at Mythmoot II, Mythmoot III, and the New York Tolkien Conference. Dawn can be emailed at DawnFelagund@gmail.com.
History of Middle-earth Summaries. The History of Middle-earth project is an ongoing attempt to summarize the entire book series and put together the many ideas, commentaries, and footnotes of the series into easy-to-follow summaries.
Silmarillion Chapter Summaries. Designed as a resource for leading readings of The Silmarillion, the chapter summaries are also a nice review for those returning to unfamiliar sections of the book or who would like guidance while reading it for the first time.
A Woman in Few Words: The Character of Nerdanel and Her Treatment in Canon and Fandom. A review of the canon facts available on Nerdanel and discussion of why she remains so popular with fans despite her scarce appearances in the texts.
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