Yes! Almost everyone who writes about it seems to picture a traditional European castle with a tower, from which Elwing can leap dramatically! The most I could manage was perhaps a slightly higher promontory at the mouth of the river, with deep water along the coast.
Also, Amrod and Amras never seem to have had a major base, the way the other sons of Feanor did (and Maglor didn't either, though I assume that his people had horses- perhaps with wagons in the Sarmatian style). I think of them as having gone pretty native in the Laiquendi way from the start, with a semi-nomadic lifestyle even before the Siege was broken, and even more so after the Nirnaith Arnoediad.
Perhaps something like Hereward the Wake's haven on Ely.
The map of Beleriand is unclear about the terrain in between forests. If one assumes that it approximates Western Europe, then the whole of Beleriand should have mostly been forest. I think of Amrod and Amras as having a series of bases throughout their territory, and moving among them on a regular rotation.
Well, you do need to explain somehow why Maglor and Maedhros didn't just wade in right after and drag Elwing back out of the sea again. People usually do it by assuming that she's cast herself either off a cliff or a tower, even if neither of them are particularly canonical. But you do have a point and, in fact, I've seen one or two other people arguing similarly, recently. (My headcanon has a tower. It just can't be helped, now, because the fic exists, even if it's only in my head.) I do not really get the impression that after the arrival of those waves of refugees, the Havens of Sirion were still particularly hidden. Both Morgoth and the Feanorians seem to have known quite well where they were, at any rate, unlike with Gondolin or even Nargothrond. But I suppose the protection of Ulmo could be taken as meaning some kind of concealment, still.
Oh, but that's so easy! All you need is a spur of rock and a suitable current and tide, maybe with a squall or something coming up at the right moment to drive the message home. I can think of a few places along our coast here where on one side there is a gentle wooded slope down to protected river water, and on the other side there is a sea that no sane person would jump into because it really wants to kill you.
Even our tame little River Tamar, at the right time of tide you'd have to be mad to jump in, you can see logs whirling past faster than you can easily run along the bank.
... thanks for this thought. I obviously need to describe my ideas more carefully. I'm just struggling with Dead Feanor again, I'll revisit the Havens section.
I'm not against a small stone tower, there could reasonably be one of those near the wharf, perhaps as a lighthouse built by Cirdan in the early days. I just don't think the whole place would have been a stone city.
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Also, Amrod and Amras never seem to have had a major base, the way the other sons of Feanor did (and Maglor didn't either, though I assume that his people had horses- perhaps with wagons in the Sarmatian style). I think of them as having gone pretty native in the Laiquendi way from the start, with a semi-nomadic lifestyle even before the Siege was broken, and even more so after the Nirnaith Arnoediad.
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I like the idea of Sarmatian-style wagons!
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The map of Beleriand is unclear about the terrain in between forests. If one assumes that it approximates Western Europe, then the whole of Beleriand should have mostly been forest. I think of Amrod and Amras as having a series of bases throughout their territory, and moving among them on a regular rotation.
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But you do have a point and, in fact, I've seen one or two other people arguing similarly, recently.
(My headcanon has a tower. It just can't be helped, now, because the fic exists, even if it's only in my head.)
I do not really get the impression that after the arrival of those waves of refugees, the Havens of Sirion were still particularly hidden. Both Morgoth and the Feanorians seem to have known quite well where they were, at any rate, unlike with Gondolin or even Nargothrond. But I suppose the protection of Ulmo could be taken as meaning some kind of concealment, still.
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Even our tame little River Tamar, at the right time of tide you'd have to be mad to jump in, you can see logs whirling past faster than you can easily run along the bank.
... thanks for this thought. I obviously need to describe my ideas more carefully. I'm just struggling with Dead Feanor again, I'll revisit the Havens section.
I'm not against a small stone tower, there could reasonably be one of those near the wharf, perhaps as a lighthouse built by Cirdan in the early days. I just don't think the whole place would have been a stone city.
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