#the shibboleth of fëanor

[beatx-mavie-archangelx]

"pronouncing 'Þerindë' as 'Serindë' is not that big of a deal" just say you've always been called right your whole life.

[sauronnaise]

I've never read 'shibboleth' properly. My brain resorts to 'chipotle', or, in worst cases, 'shitpotle'.

Lo and behold:

The Shitpotle of Fëanor

[middle-earth-press]

Breaking News: Grey-Elves Use Þ

"Of course, one cannot consider Moriquendi doing anything to be inherent proof of its worth, and the inverse would not hold true, but we can consider this a testimony in our favour."

Mithrim Temporary Dispatch

[anghraine]

The rivalry between Fëanor and Fingolfin is honestly kind of funny to me, because ... I mean, Fingolfin can't really compete with Fëanor in terms of either Finwë's love or Tolkien's more loosely defined sense of greatness. But there is someone who can, at least on the latter point. It's just someone else entirely.

"Galadriel was the greatest of the Ñoldor, except Fëanor maybe, though she was wiser than he ..."

"Her mother-name was Nerwen 'man-maiden', and ... she was strong of body, mind, and will, a match for both the loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar in the days of her youth."

"He [Fëanor] begged three times for a tress, but Galadriel would not give him even one hair. These two kinsfolk, the greatest of the Eldar of Valinor, were unfriends for ever."

And she's not even Fingolfin's daughter, lol. Her father is Finarfin/Arafinwë, who has to be one of the least threatening people the line of Finwë ever produced, and who has little taste for Noldorin drama. Tolkien says, "She [Galadriel] was proud, strong, and self-willed, as were all the descendants of Finwë save Finarfin."

IDK, there's something deeply entertaining to me about Fëanor seething over Fingolfin while their niece is the real threat to Greatest Noldo Ever supremacy.

[sirioniel]

'Fingolfin's wife Anaïre refused to leave Aman, largely because of her friendship with Eärwen wife of Arafinwe though she was a Noldo and not one of the Teleri. But all her children went with their father.'

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Shibboleth of Fëanor. In: Christopher Tolkien, ed.: The Peoples of Middle-Earth. London 1996.

Illustration titled Evening Star published in: Camille Flammarion: Astronomy for Amateurs. New York 1904.

[urwendii]

OK but it's canon Fëanor has adhd 🤷‍♀️

[cirrdan]

So much linguistic drama in Shibboleth of Fëanor.

That one th/s sound change that Fëanor cared about because the th appeared in his mother's name...I adore this detail, so decided to sketch Fëanáro teaching his children to pronounce correctly xD

[eglerieth]

On the Fëanorian accent

There is a great deal of fandom content on the subject of people like Elrond being said to have a “Fëanorian accent” which is based solely on use of the Thúlè. This is a bit ridiculous, as that is the deliberate pronunciation of a single letter, and therefore hardly an accent.

However, I do think that the Fëanorians probably did have their own accent, one that had nothing to do with the Thúlè and everything to do with the fact that they spent thousands of years exploring Valinor with only each other for company, and hundreds more years in Beleriand more or less shunned from other elven peoples. That’s literally how accents form, people.

the list of people who spoke with a Fëanorian accent is as follows:

• Fëanor

• his sons

• (nerdanel?)

• celebrimbor

• the people who followed Fëanor the closest in the flight of the Noldor

• the people of Himring

• Elrond and Elros

• Aradhel. It was a quirk that her many fans easily accepted while in Valinor; in Vinyamar and Gondolin, people diplomatically pretended not to notice

• because of that, Maeglin had a Fëanorian accent when speaking Quenya when he first arrived at Gondolin, but he quickly picked up on how it made people uncomfortable and learned to speak in a Gondolinian accent so as not to associate himself with their bad memories.

• Fingon is an interesting case. He speaks with the most classically mainstream Noldorin accent imaginable. It’s more perfect and precise than even that of Finwë or Fingolfin. His accent is the one actors study when they want to play a Noldo; you know the type. But when he spends too much time around Maedhros, their accents sort of meld into a weird mainstream/Fëanorian hybrid. No one else experience this. Whenever they returned home after time spent together, there’s a lot of drama, especially in the Fëanorian household. Fëanor freaks out every. Single. Time. “WHY DOST THOU SPEAK IN THE SUBPAR MANNER OF HE WHO IS MOST CERTAINLY NOT MY BROTHER?! HAVE I RAISED YOU TO SULLY THYSELF IN SPEECH?! WHY DOTH MY FIRSTBORN REJECT HIS FAMILY SO?!” And then poor Maedhros is like, “Sheesh, Atya, I just spent some time with my dear friend and cousin. I’m not abandoning our family!” The accent wears off a few weeks later anyway. Every time. When the Ambarussa were innocent little elf-lings, they used to tease Maedhros about it, mocking him in an awfully exaggerated Nolofinwëan accent. He would generally slap them upside the head for it, but he took it in good fun. But after a while Fëanor got more obsessive and the twins got older and wiser, and they stopped. Soon after it became a moot point anyway, as the lies of Melkor had started sowing discord and Maedhros stopped spending time with Fingon. Later, in Beleriand, they never resumed teasing him even after Fëanor died and Maedhros and Fingon reconnected, because after Maedhros’s time in Thangoridrim, no one, not even his brothers, dared tease him about anything to his face, partly out of pity and partly because he was now terrifying. But he and Fingon still had that weird hybrid accent every time they spent time together, which is why Thorondor’s first exposure to Quenya was with an accent that only two people in the world had only some of the time. Much like with Aradhel, the people of Gondolin diplomatically overlook the faint Fëanorian accent the King of Eagles occasionally speaks with.

whoever wants to add, feel free!

@nerdy-catfish, @rouxelf

[hes-a-plant]

Pro tip for the Fëanorians out there:

Do you find yourself typing þ so often that copy and pasting it is a hassle?

You can use the text replacement function on iPhone to make it much faster! Pick something, maybe (thorn), that will be a stand-in phrase, and you can make it autocorrect to þ each time!

Thorn is also on the Norwegian keyboard, but I find it’s quicker to do it with Text Replacement, since if you already have multiple keyboards, adding more can make it harder to find the one you need.

[shiroandblack]

I know I tease Fëanor a lot for being Fëanor in general and his whole Shibboleth. But I do understand where he's coming from when he says that people calling Míriel 'Serindë' instead of 'Therindë' (I'm sorry I don't have the thorn), are dishonouring her.

Iirc Míriel made it clear that she preferred the 'Therindë' pronunciation and it's technically just being respectful and polite to call someone the way they prefer their name to be pronounced. When the transition happened from the thorn to the 's' sound, I imagine that people started recording Míriel Therindë in history books as Míriel Serindë. In Fëanor's perspective, his mother is dead and people can't be bothered to pronounce her name the way she wanted. And as someone who clings so desperately to any thing that remains of his mother, Fëanor likely sees the transition as his mother being forgotten in favour of Indis.

While Indis is certainly not to blame the whole transition as she is a foreign queen trying to ingratiate herself to her husband's people, Fëanor immediately blames her despite the Vanyar not getting rid of the thorn. While it might seem that this is an instance of Fëanor being petty despite the Vanyarin dialect, perhaps in his mind it only fueled his idea. To Fëanor, despite her marriage to his father the High King of the Noldor, Indis was of the Vanyar and the Vanyar had not abandoned the thorn and yet Indis had. While I do not think that slighting Míriel was any objective of Indis at all, Fëanor perceives Indis changing her dialect to match the Noldor's as encouraging the wrongful pronunciation of Míriel's name.

It certainly does not help that Finwë seems to do nothing to correct his son's perception of events. And it is certainly a blow to Fëanor when Finwë does not correct their people when it comes to pronouncing Míriel's name. Because Finwë made no comment on the subject (that I remember of), it would not be an illogical leap for Fëanor to assume that this is due to the influence of Indis.

[fil3t]

[Míriel] was a Ñoldorin Elda of slender and graceful form, and of gentle disposition, though as was later discovered in matters far more grave, she could show an ultimate obstinacy that counsel or command would only make more obdurate. - The Peoples of Middle-Earth, "The Shibboleth of Fëanor"

Tolkien in Color: The House of Finwë (part 2/x)

[polutrope]

Why Amrod, not Amras, is Telufinwë (and why this is so confusing)

Right, in the Silmarillion "Amrod and Amras" always are listed in that order and the family tree at the back lists them in that order, so we assume Amrod is the older twin and Amras the younger.

We therefore assume that the Quenya fathernames Pityafinwë (Little Finwë) and Telufinwë (Last Finwë) belong to Amrod and Amras respectively. Fair enough.

But! The names Pityafinwë and Telufinwë are not published Silmarillion canon. They come from The Shibboleth of Fëanor, and in that essay Amrod is the younger twin.

And it's not just arbitrary. The fact of him being youngest is a significant detail about the tragic story of his death at Losgar, also in that essay. Amrod is the Sindarisation of Ambarto, which is the name Fëanor (wilfully?) misheard when Nerdanel said Umbarto (Fated). He's the precious baby twin, the Last Finwë, the one she begs Fëanor to leave with her, and who burns.

Does it matter if you're not following Crispy Amrod canon? I mean, not reeeeally... but it matters to me because the source of the Quenya names does reverse their birth order. And he's my Telvo.

[gwaedhannen]

Funky AU ideas that Tolkien already wrote for us that I feel like I don't see much at all:

Amroth as the son of Galadriel and Celeborn. (Unfinished Tales: Concerning Galadriel and Celeborn)

Nimloth survives the Second Kinslaying, escapes to Ossiriand with Elwing and the Silmaril, and goes to the Havens after the refugees of Gondolin settle there. (War of the Jewels: The Tale of Years)

Orodreth, Angrod, and Aegnor go across to Beleriand on the Swan Ships along with the Fëanorians due to their friendship with Celegorm and Curufin. (The Shaping of Middle-earth: The Earliest Annals of Valinor)

Míriel survives until Fëanor is fully grown, but he still ends up Like That. (The Peoples of Middle-earth: The Shibboleth of Fëanor)

Celebrimbor as a Sindar descendent of Daeron. (The Peoples of Middle Earth: Of Dwarves and Men)

Celegorm and Curufin found Nargothrond after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad. (The Lays of Beleriand: The Lay of the Children of Húrin)

Amanyar Noldor Eöl and Maeglin, with them and Aredhel being extremely attracted to Melkor's lies. (The Nature of Middle-earth: Ageing of Elves)

Teleporno.

In all seriousness, Amanyar Teleri Celeborn where he's also a grandchild of Olwë, and he and Galadriel sail separately to Beleriand after fighting for the Teleri in the First Kinslaying. (Unfinished Tales: The History of Galadriel and Celeborn)

(and this isn't even getting into BoLT funkiness)

[anghraine]

My Rings of Power re-watch is continuing slowly now that I have more time (though not always more attention span for anything except games, thanks dissertation -> my mother nearly dying -> getting COVID). But one of the things I'm really enjoying about Galadriel in ROP is that it doesn't always frame her as the wisest and most insightful person in every interaction she has, and in fact it is clear that she's fucking up in very significant ways because of how hard and relentless she's become through her eons of suffering and her determination to exact a price for it. She is not well!

However, she is nevertheless right about some very important matters that most people don't want to see, and she's being condescended to by men of her people who are much younger, less experienced, and less correct than she is, and it's continually emphasized that she is the most individually powerful and competent Elf around regardless of any of this and that her fuck-ups, while disastrous, are cool and sexy of her also.

So many male action heroes are troubled men haunted by whatever their particular tragic pasts are, but these men are also super impressive and badass (often to a degree far beyond all probability) in a harsh, capable way founded on never giving up ever, so while they are permitted to make major errors, it's in a cool and sexy way that just makes them more appealing.

This isn't a condemnation of that; there's a place for that kind of action hero and I tend to enjoy them when it's not copaganda or something. But I like women, and I like women to benefit from a full package of tropes that are often watered down when female characters get any part of them at all, so I enjoy a female character in something that historically has been such a dudefest getting full unhinged brooding hypercompetent action hero treatment.

I even fully support the show prioritizing Galadriel getting the good wig. Her hair flowing dramatically in the wind is actually more important than someone like Celebrimbor getting dramatic impractical action hair (with love, he's an arts and crafts nerd hung up on his academia celebrity grandfather, nothing about this demands good hair).

But I also like it not only in general and not only for a female character, but also for Galadriel specifically. I was just re-reading the description of her in the Shibboleth of Fëanor, and (Teleporno aside) it tracks pretty well. The whole thing about young Galadriel's burning determination to pursue Fëanor to the ends of the earth and thwart him in whatever ways she could seems exactly the sort of thing ROP Galadriel would do, and while ROP is set much later, the Shibboleth suggests that Galadriel was still recognizably that person for long afterwards:

"Pride still moved her when, at the end of the Elder Days after the final overthrow of Morgoth, she refused the pardon of the Valar ... It was not until two long ages more had passed, when at last all that she had desired in her youth came to her hand, the Ring of Power and the dominion of Middle-earth of which she had dreamed, that her wisdom was full grown."

There's a lot of Galadriel material that Tolkien wrote and he continually overhauled, revised, discarded, and amended the Galadriel backstory to such an extent that her history is one of the most chaotic, tangled, and irreconcilable zones of Tolkien lore. I don't think anyone is obligated to prioritize Shibboleth Galadriel if they have a different preferred version. But I really love that version of Galadriel and it does make her seem like probably the best canon female character option of this era for Action Hero Disaster Area (In A Cool and Sexy Way).

[echo-bleu]

Psst what if Caranthir’s “red face” is from a lupus butterfly rash?

HELL YES anon I see your vision

Disabled Tolkien characters series

Assorted headcanons under the cut:

Elves, especially in the Years of the Trees where their conception of disability is... nearly non-existent (I have loads of headcanons about that and I'm writing a whole fic) don't really know about the immune system and autoimmune diseases.

Caranthir starts having symptoms very early in childhood, at first mostly anaemia and some joint pain, and skin issues. His butterfly rash is near-constant, though much worse during flares. Nobody flags this as a single issue, especially since he's also having other troubles (he's autistic, and he has pretty severe IBS-like symptoms).

Celegorm (starting to show symptoms of EDS, which they do know of because Míriel had it first) and Curufin (much more visibly/loudly autistic) are both a good deal more worrying to Fëanor and Nerdanel at that point, so Caranthir's issues tend to be, if not swept under the rug, at least not truly addressed. The parents are doing their best, but raising seven children is a lot, and Caranthir unfortunately gets all the Middle Child Syndrome.

(though in the Shibboleth, it's mentioned that Nerdanel named him Carnistir because he "had the ruddy complexion of his mother." Nerdanel with lupus, anyone?)

Once he's an adult, the symptom that bothers him the most is joint pain in his hands. His craft and his interests are in books, both writing them (he's a historian and economist) and bookbinding. He needs his hands.

Caranthir and Celegorm, because of their otherwise rocky relationship, swing wildly between curling up together for comfort and warmth during flares and shouting at each other because pain makes them both extremely bad-tempered.

The facial rash/lesions remains Caranthir's most visible symptom, and in a society where everyone is beautiful (especially his family), it's not an easy burden. Someone else made a wonderful post about this that I'll just link, rather than paraphrase.