Interview with JazTheBard by Maglor by JazTheBard

At Mereth Aderthad 2025, JazTheBard will be presenting a paper titled "Twilight, Child Of: Comparisons Between Tinúviel, Lómion, and Undómiel." Maglor spoke with Jaz about her paper, her love of music and its connections with the legendarium, and the role of gender in Elven society.

Maglor: We're sitting down today to discuss your upcoming Mereth Aderthad presentation, "Twilight, Child Of: Comparisons Between Tinúviel, Lómion, and Undómiel." But before we talk about your upcoming work, are there any previous works—scholarly, fannish or both—you want us to highlight?

JazTheBard: My only other scholarly work is an IEEE conference paper, which isn't super relevant here, but I'm very proud of two fan-songs I wrote and translated into Old English, "Lay Me Down, Lover/Lege Mé Luflice" and "Upon a Time in Valinor/Æðeltungolum Onmiddan".

Maglor: Ohh! Having heard some of your other Tolkien-related music, I can confirm that it is indeed excellent, and I am very intrigued by the songs you mentioned! Do you have any links to them, or other works of yours, you would like us to share?

JazTheBard: Sure! Æðeltungolum Onmiddan is on Ao3, but "Lege Mé Luflice" in Old English isn't posted anywhere yet. The modern version is here.

Maglor: Wonderful, thank you! I adore music fanworks, especially since Tolkien's work is itself so full of music and poetry—what draws you to his work? Are there any favourite parts of the legendarium you would like to share with us?

JazTheBard: One of my favorite things about Tolkien's writing is his poetry and songs. As a musician, I always love a good lyric and times when music is important in a story, but his poems are particularly evocative. Also, I grew up performing Shakespeare, so the intentional semi-archaic style of a lot of the legendarium writing feels like home to me.

My favorite part of the legendarium is Elrond specifically (and Elros too, of course). I have a pretty small set of characters I'm really interested in reading/writing/thinking about, and then usually in specific contexts, but Elrond and Elros are my eternal favorites no matter the situation.

Maglor: Yes, Elrond and Elros are delightful! And as the title of your presentation suggests, there are some other characters that interest you. Why have you chosen those as your topic in particular?

JazTheBard: At one point I noticed that the three of them (plus Tindómiel) have, sort of, the same name, and then I brought out the red string corkboard! I've been putting off actually writing my thoughts on them for ages, and when the call for presenters went out I knew it was time to get my ideas out of my head and onto some slides.

Maglor: The parallels there are definitely fascinating, and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on that! Do you think Tolkien was aware of these connections he was drawing between those characters, especially Maeglin, whose role in the narrative is so different from Lúthien and Arwen's?

JazTheBard: Since he's the one who defined "Lómion" as "child of twilight" when "lómë" is usually "night", I would have to suppose so, but he probably wouldn't agree with the conclusions I'm drawing from it!

Maglor: Well, he can't stop you! I, for one, am quite intrigued by your conclusions and excited to hear more.

Speaking of different roles in the narrative, do you have any thoughts on how gender factors into the parallels and differences between these characters, with Lúthien and Arwen being female and Maeglin being male?

JazTheBard: For sure! Tolkien does tend to write his women pretty differently than his men (mainly by not writing them), but I'm always interested in the weird relationship that Elven society seems to have to gender. One thing that stood out to me when I was rereading "Of Maeglin" for research was that we're first told that Turgon has no heir because Idril is his only child, implying that women can't inherit, but in "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin" it's said that Idril is the "only heir of the King of Gondolin," which says instead that gender isn't a factor, only the lineage. Similarly, while we never get any discussion of inheritance in Doriath (presumably because Thingol doesn't think it'll ever be relevant), there's never any question that Lúthien's descendants aren't the uncontested heirs, even in versions where Daeron is her brother, and she's the one her descendants trace descent from, not Beren. I'm realizing this isn't exactly what you asked, but it's definitely something I think about a lot!

Maglor: When did you first notice the parallels between Lúthien, Maeglin, and Arwen? Was there a specific moment it "clicked" for you or was it more of a gradual realisation?

JazTheBard: Honestly, I don't even remember haha. I think it might've been from poking at how Elrond manages to hit all the motifs of First Age characters but not get doomed by it, and finding some other parallels!

Maglor: That's the fun of Tolkien's universe—there's so much to think about and discover! I'm looking forward to hearing all about your discoveries in July—what is the one thing you hope listeners will take away from your talk?

JazTheBard: That I'm very good at improvising music to random pieces of poetry! (I have quotes from some of the Lays in my presentation, and I will probably sing them.)

Maglor: I've heard you sing, and I'm certain it will be amazing! Thank you so much for sitting down with me to talk about your presentation, I can't wait to listen to it!