#melian

this is a post about the evolution of Tolkien’s conceptions of the forces protecting Doriath, from the earliest versions of the legendarium to the one implied by the final Silmarillion, but before I talk about that I just want to share the delightful tidbit that in the Book of Lost Tales, Melian’s name was Wendelin.

Isn’t that excellent? I feel like my initial perception of a character named Wendelin is profoundly different from a character named Melian. Melian gets at the divinity, the angel-in-temporary-Elven-form, but Wendelin gets at the inhumanity, the incomprehensibility, the ways that the Maiar are profoundly different from us and anything we can imagine.

Thingol, in that version, is called Linwe Tinto.

Anyway, about that girdle.

In the earliest imagining, Thingol never returned to his people:

beguiled by the fair music of the fay Wendelin, as other tales set forth more fully elsewhere, their leader Tinwe Linto was lost, and long they sought him, but it was in vain, and he came never again among them. (Book of Lost Tales I, 125.)

and:

Linwe Tinto King of the Pipers who was lost of old upon the great march from Palisor, and wandering in Hisilome found the lonely twilight spirit (Tindriel) Wendelin dancing in a glade of beeches. Loving her he was content to leave his folk and dance for ever in the shadows, but his children Timpinen and Tinuviel long after joined the Eldar again, and tales there are concerning them both, though they are seldom told. (BoLT I, 112.)

I sort of want to read something with this version of Lúthien (and Timpinen, who became Daeron): born to parents who’ve abandoned the world forever, and joining the Eldar to be welcomed as the children of their long-lost King, would be a fascinating character arc. But we lose Thingol as a King, which is most of what makes Thingol an interesting character, so I’m not too sad Tolkien revised this. 

By the first telling of the story of Beren and Lúthien, Doriath already begins to take familiar form: 

Now in the after-days of Sunshine and Moonsheen still dwelt Thingol in Artanor and ruled a numerous and hardy folk drawn from all the tribes of ancient Elfinesse – for neither he nor his people went to the dread Battle of Unnumbered Tears – a matter which toucheth not this tale. 

Yet was his lordship greatly increased after that most bitter field by fugitives seeking a leader and a home. Hidden was his dwelling thereafter from the vision and knowledge of Melko by the cunning magics of Melian the fay, and she wove spells about all the paths that led thereto, so that none but the children of the Eldalie might tread them without straying. Thus was the king guarded against all evils save treachery alone; his halls were builded in a deep cavern, vaulted immeasurable, that knew no other entrance than a rocky door, mighty, pillared with stone, and shadowed by the loftiest and most ancient trees in all the shaggy forests of Artanor. A great stream was there that fared a dark and silent course in the deep woods, and this flowed wide and swift before that doorway, so that all who would enter that portal must first cross a bridge hung by the Noldoli of Thingol’s service across that water – and narrow it was and strongly guarded. (BoLT II, 8).

Major differences: in this telling Thingol is a lord of all peoples, with some of the Noldor responsible for building a bridge to Menegroth, while in the Silmarillion the Noldor, and most of the northern Sindar were forbidden from entering Menegroth. In this telling Doriath was accessible to all Elves, but no others. 

And Doriath was much much smaller. Chris Tolkien comments:

But the description of it in the Tale of Tinuviel as a ‘northward region of Artanor’ clearly does not imply that it lay within the protective magic of Gwendeling, and it seems that this 'zone’ was originally less distinctly bounded, and less extensive, than 'the Girdle of Melian’ afterwards became. Probably Artanor was conceived at this time as a great region of forest in the heart of which was Tinwelint’s cavern, and only his immediate domain was protected by the power of the queen. (BoLT II, 56.)

At first I was confused by the idea Thingol was a lord of many of the Noldor and they built the city’s defenses for him, because this is also the version where Beren is a Noldo and Thingol opposes the marriage out of his hatred for the Noldor. But this is clarified in the text: “the Elves of the woodland thought of the Gnomes of For Lomin as treacherous creatures, cruel and faithless,” we’re told, and “Dread and suspicion was between the Eldar and those of their kindred that had tasted the slavery of Melko”. So Thingol didn’t mistrust and keep out all Noldor, just the ones who’d been enslaved by Melkor (which is most of them, in this version, where the Noldor lost the war much sooner). 

The Lay of the Children Of Húrin describes Túrin’s arrival at a Doriath not much changed from how it was imagined in the later Book of Lost Tales:

Later they wakened and were led by ways
devious winding through the dark wood-realm
by slade and slope and swampy thicket
through lonely days and long night-times,
and but for Beleg had been baffled utterly
by the magic mazes of Melian the Queen
To the shadowy shores he showed the way
where stilly that stream strikes 'fore the gates
of the cavernous court of the King of Doriath.
O'er the guarded bridge he gained a passage,
and thrice they thanked him, and thought in their hearts 'the Gods are good’ – had they guessed maybe
what the future enfolded they had feared to live. (Lays of Beleriand, 16.)

So the same elements are present: magic mazes of Melian, which Men could not navigate. There’s a guarded bridge to the entrance of Menegroth. And, despite the existence of Melian’s protection, Beleg and Túrin are needed on the borders, and it’s said of Túrin that “for by him was holden the hand of ruin
from Thingol’s folk, and Thu [Sauron] feared him”. This makes sense if Melian’s powers are in devising mazes and labyrinths. It would make the borders easy to defend, since your enemies would wander around hopelessly lost and be easily trapped, but you couldn’t afford to ignore them entirely, or eventually someone would find a way through. 

I find it vaguely implausible that Doriath would have fallen to Morgoth if not for Túrin, because Túrin runs off shortly thereafter and Doriath fails to fall. But I’m sure he was very heroic. 

And now we reach the modern conception, with three major changes: firstly, that Melian’s power now reaches all “the fastness of Neldorest and Region”, secondly that “mazes” and “labyrinths” are replaced with “an unseen wall of shadow and bewilderment” (which could still describe mazes, but to me implies additional enchantment) and thirdly that no longer can all Elves walk the paths: 

And when Thingol came again to Menegroth he learned that the Orc-host in the west was victorious and had driven Cirdan to the rim of the Sea. Therefore he withdrew all his folk that his summons could reach within the fastness of Neldoreth and Region, and Melian put forth her power and fenced all that dominion round  about  with  an  unseen  wall  of shadow   and   bewilderment: the Girdle of Melian, that none thereafter could pass against her will or the will of King Thingol (unless one should come with a  power greater than that of Melian the Maia). Therefore this inner land  which   was long named Eglador was after called  Doriath, the guarded kingdom, Land of the Girdle. (War of the Jewels, 17).

The guarded bridge of Menegroth may still exist (“the gates of Morgoth were but one hundred and fifty leagues distant from the bridge of Menegroth”, Tolkien notes) but no longer is mentioned in connection with Menegroth’s security, and apparently is of no aid in the two Kinslayings; it’s Nargothrond, a late development in the stories of the collapse of the Elven kingdoms, where a bridge becomes of strategic significance. 

The larger kingdom makes it less plausible that Doriath could have been protected by force of arms alone; the enhancements to the Girdle mean that they would have been less necessary. The more powerful Melian was imagined, then, in creating the protections that encircled Doriath, the more vulnerable it was when she fell. 

And Melian by the telling of the Silmarillion, was very powerful indeed: no one could pass through the Girdle unless their power was greater than hers, and we know “…Ungoliant fled from the north and came into the realm of King Thingol, and a terror of darkness was about her; but by the power of Melian she was stayed, and entered not into Neldoreth…” (Silmarillion,  88), so it’s a mistake to imagine her as anything less than one of the major powers of Arda. Wendelin, fay and terrifying kidnapper of Elf-kings, is almost entirely absent from the wise and lovely Queen who kept the whole of central Beleriand in her power - except, I guess, in how little I’d like either one as an enemy.

absynthe–minded:

as much as I appreciate the fact that there are people in the Silmarillion fandom who are willing to see Melian as more culpable and responsible for various ills than the text seems to indicate, I feel like this comes at the expense of an aspect of Elu’s character that I wish more of us would explore

namely, Elwë Singollo, Monster Fucker

this guy comes upon a minor god in the woods, a god that we aren’t even told is in a recognizable human form, and his innate reaction is “I’d tap that”

then once the enchantment lifts (over them both, not just him) and his free will is back in action they immediately get to babymaking and kingdom building

not only that, it’s his descendants that are interested in interspecies romance

he’s the equivalent of a Tumblr blogger crushing on Venom, only he got his wish

you go, Elu

never stop for anything

Nightingales went always with her, and she taught them their song. Melian for “Song” week in Tolkien sketch challenge.