Fair vs Fair: A Meta by StarSpray  

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Fanwork Notes

The same post but with pie charts can be found on my Dreamwidth.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

A look at Tolkien's use of the word "fair" as a descriptor in The Silmarillion.

Major Characters:

Major Relationships:

Genre: Nonfiction/Meta

Challenges: Solve a Problem

Rating: General

Warnings:

Chapters: 1 Word Count: 1, 057
Posted on Updated on

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Comments on Fair vs Fair: A Meta

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very interesting, i took a screenshot :) 

fair analysis... 'fair' is an overworked word, like 'mind'. it can also mean 'accurate' or 'just' or 'mediocre' or 'sunny'... Sauron the mediocre, Turin the sunny, Fëanor the just...

re Numenor, the House of Hador were blond, and they had input into the population of Numenor, so there’s a strain of blond in the family tree. 

re the children of the redhaired Nerdanel, my grandad was a redhead, he had three kids, a brunette, a redhead and a strawberry blond (blond with a reddish hint) so in humans at least, it can be a lucky dip.

nice work, thanks for that :)



Thank you. (:

And sure, "fair" can mean those things, but that isn't how /Tolkien/ uses it--his use is for physical description. Sauron is many things, but mediocre is not one of them--he appears "fair and wise" to the Elves in the Second Age, and after Numenor sinks he loses his ability to take on a "fair" appearance; Turin "grew fair and strong" in Doriath (and is canonically rather gloomy, iirc); Feanor is "fair of face," etc. 

I am so happy you did this. I always wished I had the energy and I never did and never would have either. I love to use "fair" in my fanfic vocabulary because it is so very Tolkienesque. I was also one of those who allowed myself to be drawn into discussions of Celegorm's hair color back in the olden days. I had my cake and ate it too! I picked blond for purely aesthetic reasons and nothing to do with vocabulary and chose to think he had a remarkable pretty face even among the Feanorian brothers! I loved the idea that the one who was the least delicate little flower in his personal habits might be the one who had the maiden of Tirion swooning, "Look at that face!" 

It's great to have the numbers if ever I should need them! Thanks!



You're welcome! I'm glad you liked it. Tolkien definitely likes this word a lot! I had quite a lot of fun actually, and might do it again if another word jumps out at me.

I like a silver-haired Celegorm myself, if only because it's nice to think that at least one of her grandchildren inherited something of Miriel's looks.

As I said on DW, the only certainty is that the word doesn't refer to Celegorm's mindset! *g* Again, thank you for looking up all these references - it's useful to see them in numbers, whatever one decides to do with the information. In Tolkien's writing as in history, the true meaning of a word sometimes remains mysterious and open to interpretation... which is part of the fun, even if we as readers sometimes wish he'd given us a more definitive description.