"Kidnap Fam" and the Living Legendarium by polutropos  

Video

Click to view the video.

Transcript

The presentation slides can be found here.

Slide 1

So, thank you all for sitting through 11 wonderful presentations and still being here for me! Jumping in. 

Love it, hate it, or avoid it – if you are engaged in the Silmarillion fandom, you cannot escape the “kidnap family” – a moniker lovingly, ironically, and resignedly – or resignedly adopted by fans as shorthand for the relationship of young Elrond and Elros and their captor-guardians Maedhros and Maglor after the third kinslaying –

“The last and cruellest of the slayings of Elf by Elf–”, in which the sons of Fëanor attack the people of the Havens of Sirion, and though victorious, suffer great loss:

Slide 2

“Alone they now remained of the sons of Fëanor, for in that battle Damrod and Díriel were slain; but the folk of Sirion perished of fled away, or departed of need to join the people of Maidros, who claimed now the lordship of all the Elves of the Outer Lands. And yet Maidros gained not the Silmaril, for Elwing seeing that all was lost and her children Elros and Elrond taken captive, eluded the host of Maidros, and with the Nauglafring upon her breast she cast herself into the sea, and perished as folk thought.”

So if you noticed something off about the passage I just read – very well done! This account of the third kinslaying is from the 1930 Qenta Noldorinwa, which is the first “Silmarillion” in the historical narrative ‘Quenta’ style that Tolkien ever wrote - the first and last he ever completed right through to the end.

So when Christopher Tolkien set about editing a Silmarillion for publication, he had heaps of materials from the 1950s, so after the publication of Lord of the Rings, for most of the story. But for the last chapters texts from the 1930s were the best source available – meaning that he, with the assistance of Guy Gavriel Kay, had to make creative editorial choices to bring the texts in line with the later development of the legendarium.

Slide 3

So let’s look at what happens in the passage that I just read, the 1930 one:

• The people of Sirion (who did not die or flee) join with Maedhros
• Maedhros claims the lordship of the Elves
• Explicitly states that people believe Elwing has died

All of this makes sense in the world of the 1930 Qenta Noldorinwa. But in the post-Lord of the Rings world, someone is missing.

[Reveal Gil-galad on Slide 2]

High King Ereinion Gil-galad – this is a guy first mentioned in the 1936 – six years later – “Downfall of Numenor”, who went on to become an important background figure to the events of the War of the Ring. So, as you saw in Maglor's presentation, the presenter, not the character I'm going to talk about. Gil-galad was never quite integrated into the story, leaving dozens of possibilities for his story open. So I believe that Christopher Tolkien, faced with that free real estate as we were calling it, did just like what we fans do, and got creative.

Slide 4

So let’s look at what he did. Here is the Qenta Noldorinwa alongside the published Silmarillion.

Both open similarly, and then there’s an insertion:

[Read from slide] Too late the ships of Círdan and Gil-galad the High King came hasting to the aid of the Elves of Sirion; and Elwing was gone, and her sons. Then such few of that people as did not perish in the assault joined themselves to Gil-galad, and went with him to Balar [End read from slide]

→ So, now we have Círdan and Gil-galad come (too late) to the aid of the people of Sirion, and the people of Sirion who did not die or flee join with Gil-galad, not Maedhros

[Read from slide] and they told that Elros and Elrond were taken captive, but Elwing with the Silmaril upon her breast had cast herself into the sea. [End read from slide]

→ So now the loss of Elwing and the Silmaril, and the captivity of her sons are indirectly reported by the survivors, which opens possibilities for uncertainty and unreliability.

[Read from slide] Thus Maedhros and Maglor gained not the jewel; but it was not lost. For Ulmo bore up Elwing out of the waves… [End read from slide]

→ And here we see the narrative elements have been reordered, with the new phrase “but it was not lost”, suggesting to some a closer temporal connection between loss and miraculous recovery and, perhaps, Maedhros and Maglor actually witnessing it.

And then what follows from here is relatively unchanged from the Qenta Noldorinwa to the published Silmarillion: Elwing’s flight over the sea, her coming upon Eärendil, their fear for the deaths of their sons – but, of course, “It was not so–”

Slide 5

“For Maglor took pity upon Elros and Elrond, and he cherished them, and love grew after between them, as little might be thought; but Maglor’s heart was sick and weary with the burden of the dreadful oath.”

There it is — the sentence about which millions of words of transformative fiction and billions of pixels have been painted.

And in a world, like that of the 1930 Quenta, where Maedhros is now lord of all the Elves remaining in Middle-earth, where the remnant of the Sirionites has joined with him, where Elwing is thought dead – it’s not so hard to accept. There’s no one else left. How eucastrophic then that the perilous kinslayer has had a change of heart and been moved to affection for two orphans.

But with Gil-galad and Círdan in the picture and with greater ambiguity around who knows what, it gets complicated. We readers have questions.

Slide 6

[Read from slide] Did Maedhros and Maglor know the Silmaril had survived?

That Elwing had survived?

That Gil-galad was coming?

And wouldn’t Gil-galad or Círdan have been better guardians?

And what does it say about Maglor that he kept them anyway? [End read from slide]

[Reveal question on slide: A mess… or an opportunity?]

So some might say this reveals the sort of imperfections and inconsistencies arising from the editorial process that make the Silmarillion a challenging book to subject to serious literary study.

I disagree. I believe it reveals exactly what makes the Silmarillion such a compelling and engaging work of literature – it is part of a storytelling tradition, “a living legendarium”, from Tolkien (and let’s not forget how heavily he was inspired by other traditions), to his son as editor, to the “other minds and hands” of us, the readers, interpreters, and creators.

Slide 7

What have we created? Kidnap Family.

Kidnapping, according to Merriam Webster, is “to seize and detain or carry away by unlawful force or fraud and often with a demand for ransom.”

As we saw in that passage I just quoted, the Silmarillion does not talk about any of that with regard to Maglor and the twins.

And yet the element of kidnapping, of some sort of hostage situation, figures prominently in many fans’ imaginings. I was curious if that element had its origins in the editorial interventions we’ve just seen.

Slide 8

So I conducted a survey: which garnered a whopping 284 responses. Thank you. I gathered both quantitative and qualitative data on 1. What readers imagined the characters knew and, 2. Why, given what they knew, did they act the way that they do in the story.

Slide 9

One of the key questions to the analysis was: "What do you imagine motivated Maglor (and Maedhros, if you include him) to take Elrond and Elros into his/their care?” Respondents had the opportunity to select as many answers as they liked.

So the top three reasons, in green on the bar graph, align well with the tone and circumstances of the Qenta Noldorinwa: Because it would not have been safe to leave them; emotional reasons; and because he/they believed no one else was left to care for them.

But the fourth most common reason – “to use as hostages to barter for the Silmaril” – can only be inferred from the events surrounding Maglor’s act. As one respondent said, “I thought the hostage thing was canon for a while because it's so common in the fandom [...] but after rereading the text I don't agree with it at all anymore.”

I suspected that interpretation came down to what readers believed people knew – people being characters in the story.

Slide 10

So on the question of Gil-galad and Círdan, the majority of respondents believed Maedhros and Maglor were not aware that they were coming to the rescue – which is a perfectly plausible reading of the text.

Slide 11

But of those who imagined that they were aware – that Maedhros and Maglor were aware of the rescue, hostages is the top reason they give for Maedhros and Maglor taking the twins – 62%. And the starkest difference of opinion – in the second black circle on the question of “no one else to care for them" – 36% difference – between whether they believe Gil-galad and Cirdan are coming which makes sense because Gil-galad and Cirdan are other people.

Slide 12

Now, when it comes to what people believe Maedhros and Maglor knew about what happened to the Silmaril – which I’ve hinted/suggested is made more ambiguous by the reordering of narrative elements in the published Silmarillion – a solid 75% of survey respondents imagined that the brothers were not aware that the Silmaril had survived.

Slide 13

But among those who imagine they were aware of the Silmaril’s recovery from the sea, the motive of hostage-taking is even more common, with 67% giving this as a reason – but it’s still not the top choice as it is with the “knew about Gil-galad” group.

Slide 14

And in this question, I asked respondents what they thought the brothers should have done: opinions were divided, as you can see from the many colors, but a majority – 56% – believed they should have left Elros and Elrond with Gil-galad and Círdan. The imaginative explanations respondents gave when asked to expand on their answer further demonstrated how Gil-galad and Círdan’s presence complicates the morality of Maglor’s choice in a way that isn’t so stark in the 1930 Quenta.

Slide 15

So enough of data. I’d like to shift now – although I got so much more and I'm going to share it later; it's just going to take me a while – I'd like to shift now to fanworks and another major issue of interpretation: Is Maedhros part of the family? 

So in the Silmarillion, Maglor alone takes pity upon Elrond and Elros; and yet only 18% of survey respondents did not think that Maedhros also acted as a guardian to Elrond and Elros.

So let’s look briefly at how some creators have interpreted the issue of Maedhros’ involvement.

Slide 16

In – really? Okay, I'm not going to have a chance to read this, but this is one of the earliest kidnap fam stories that I could trace that's online still, there are probably ones from before that. And Maedhros is treated quite cynically, he's suggesting taking them as hostages in that.

Slide 17

Here we have a fancomic by Idahlrillion, which shows an example of the “found family” trope that pervades many interpretations of the kidnap family.

Slide 18

And this is a quote from grey_gazania’s story “And They Looked up and Saw a Star” – which is one of the first fanworks on Archive of Our Own to have the tag “kidnap family” – Maedhros works through some of the very same questions that we readers have:

"All I know is that Elwing is likely dead, and that if Círdan or Gil-galad find the Silmaril, they are more likely to be willing to trade it. [...] But if the Silmaril is truly lost…" He trailed off, glancing back at the tent with unease. "I don't know what we will do with the children — only that I will not see them harmed like their uncles. But they're terrified of us, and I cannot fault them for it."

Slide 19

So these passages are representative of dozens of fanworks I read. In all of them, we see characters from the kidnap-quartet themselves to Gil-galad, Galadriel, and Celeborn in Grundy’s “Its Glory Is All Moonshine”, to complete outsiders like the Easterling follower of the Feanorians in Heget’s “In the camps of the Bór” grapple with why the sons of Fëanor took, and kept, the sons of Elwing in their custody and what exactly is meant by: “and love grew after between them, as little might be thought.”

Slide 20

In reviewing the qualitative data from my survey, I quickly realised I made a significant omission in my list of motives, which was mentioned by at least 38 percent – 38, 38 respondents in their freeform answers: that is the regret and grief surrounding Elured and Elurin – Dior’s sons and Elwing’s brothers – whom the Silmarillion tells us were left to die by the cruel servants of Celegorm and whom Maedhros repenting could not find.

You may have noticed they were mentioned in the passage I just quoted from grey_gazania – don't want to see them end up like their uncles.

Now, the symmetry of Elured and Elurin & Elros and Elrond has an interesting relationship to the editorial process as well.

I'm going to go a minute over.

Christopher Tolkien’s guiding editorial principle seems to have been to use his father’s most recently written prose narrative source whenever possible, drawing on other sources only to fill in the gaps and inconsistencies. But so much had changed around the events of the fall of Doriath that not even the 1930 Quenta could be repurposed – instead, the fall of Doriath was pieced together from many drafts spanning many years – and Christopher Tolkien made the – make no mistake! – creative decision to include the detail about Maedhros repenting and searching for Dior’s sons.

And what a difference its inclusion makes to the way one interprets and imagines both motives and the later shape of the “kidnap family”. As one survey respondent wrote,

“The idea that they would leave Elrond and Elros to an uncertain fate in a ruined city after they had already tried to find two other lost children doesn’t make sense.”

And:

“I cannot imagine Maedhros wouldn’t have been involved in raising the children, when he was the one who looked for Elured and Elurin.”

I would be curious to know if there’s any correlation between those who see Elured and Elurin as motivating the Feanorians to take Elrond and Elros and those who consider Maedhros, as well as Maglor, to have played a caregiver role in their upbringing. But that will have to be another survey.

Slide 21

I’ve only been able to graze the surface of the reading I did and the data I collected for this project – but I hope I’ve ignited your curiosity about the ways that Christopher Tolkien’s editorial modifications to the 1930 Quenta – and beyond – add layers of complexity to the relationship between the sons of the Fëanor and the sons of Elwing; buried treasures in the imaginative sandbox of a “living legendarium”. And the tale does not stop with the published Silmarillion: it carries on as a thriving storytelling tradition in the imaginations and creations of fans of the work.

Slide 22

And I'll leave you with a little song from kidnap dad Maglor.

And a plug! Thank you. Thank you for your patience.