#[it's because I haven't written curufin in literally 4 years and am a little out of practice]

[cyrefinn]

On passion and calculation

Headcanon time! I was thinking earlier about how I wrote Curufin four years ago and how to hit my stride with him again. At my peak activity level, it felt natural to write in his voice. I felt I knew him well. I’ve been revising the canon and revisiting also my old threads and headcanons, and I came up with this as a corollary to a few of my previous headcanon posts in which I speak of Curufin’s as being crafty (outside of the forge), thoughtful, deliberate, manipulative, etc. (e.g. here) And yet, this is not entirely accurate.

This is only part of the picture. For is not Curufin his father’s son, most like him in temper, as well as look and appearance? And is Fëanor not known to be passionate?

Curufin consciously tries to come off as always in control, and often he does act in a cold and calculating way. He certainly spends a good deal of thought and energy on thinking what roads to take, how to optimize his choices to most efficiently achieve his goals, how to influence the things and people around him that he can to help himself. He is crafty...

But he has many strong passions, as well. His interest is easily diverted, and he loves to learn and to experiment. He will often do things out of curiosity. He will do things just because they feel good. Because he wants to. It’s the centuries-old Noldorin equivalent of considering something and then just being like, “Fuck it,” and going for it, just for the hell of it. Sometimes these things will set him back, and he will acknowledge that, and he’ll do them anyway. If asked to explain something like that, Curufin would probably say some version of that the utility he derives from the activity offsets, or even outweighs, the disutility of the strategic setback. (There’s always a logical explanation.)

And he can be moved to anger, hate, and malice much more easily than he lets on, and himself believes. Again, take Fëanor, the one who cursed and insulted Morgoth and slammed the door in his face (ref. the immortal quote, “Get thee gone from my gate, thou jail-crow of Mandos!”), the one who swore that infamous Oath, the one who burned the ships, who (to his downfall) was so eager “to come at Morgoth himself” that in battle he pressed beyond his vanguard alone and fought a bunch of Balrogs like it was his day job (“long he fought on, and undismayed, though he was wrapped in fire and wounded”).

A note in particular about the burning of the ships at Losgar. There’s a quote from The Shibboleth of Fëanor I’ve always found interesting for a number of reasons but here the only relevant part is the detail about the relationship between Fëanor and Curufin: “In the night Feanor, filled with malice, aroused Curufin, and with him and a few of those most close to Feanor in obedience he went to the ships and set them all aflame; and the dark sky was red as with a terrible dawn.” Here Curufin is the only son of Fëanor mentioned by name to participate in the burning of the ships. That’s no accident. Although in my RP I subscribe to the Silmarillion version (in which all the sons but Maedhros participate), I do draw upon the Shibboleth’s version for inspiration and information about who Curufin is.

Curufin is his father’s son. In Fëanor’s place, Curufin would likely have felt the same malice and done the same thing; in helping his father burn the ships, he probably felt some version of that malice because he loved his father and sympathized and was affine with him.

I like to think of Curufin’s conversation with Eöl as well, in which he is said to be “of perilous mood.” I always read this as “of perilous mood at the time” but it’s still interesting. Curufin is somewhat rude to Eöl in this interaction, laughing at him and giving him to understand in no unclear terms how much he dislikes and distrusts him. (Yet I note that, despite his dislike of Eöl and disapproval of his choice in spouse, Curufin nonetheless grants Eöl his life (when he might have taken it easily with impunity), his leave, and a warning: “This counsel I add: return now to your dwelling in the darkness of Nan El-moth; for my heart warns me that if you now pursue those who love you no more, never will you return thither.”) This is sloppier work than I would normally ascribe to Curufin, and it serves to underline that, when he’s in a mood, Curufin can be careless and say/do things that might be better left unsaid/undone. 

All this is to say I wonder sometimes if I focus too much on the “crafty” aspect and not enough on the fact that he is like Fëanor and, like his father, has a fire in his spirit that often masters him. I do love me some complicated characters (the more complicated, the better!), so I may start exploring this aspect of Curufin a bit more going forward.