Silmarillion Sunday: Another Day, Another Ruin
In "Of the Ruin of Doriath," we learn that the Eagles are fallible. They go looking for Hurin, but the world is too big, and they never find him after Morgoth lets him go. The Silmarillion continues to be a wall of sadness and bad decisions, and maybe some decisions that are not obviously bad but just kind of mistaken in retrospect. Thingol's long career ends in a stupid fight with some dwarves over his jewelry, Melian, who was always the voice of reason and whose magic protected the region from invasion, is defeated by sadness and leaves the world; Hurin leaves Morgoth's prison but not his shadow, everything is either smoldering or on fire again, and time pushes blindly on like a refugee through empty hills.
Morwen's reunion with Hurin is terribly sad, but by Silmarillion standards, it's practically a happy ending: she knows her son and daughter are dead, but she hasn't been crushed by the details of how they died and everything they went through. Hurin knows, but he doesn't tell her, and she doesn't push the issue, and what else is there to talk about? Hurin came back, anyway: too late, but back: the thing she hoped for, empty of all she hoped for. So they just sit by the grave of their children for a while until Morwen dies. Well, everyone dies, if you're mortal, and you could do a lot worse in this book.
Later, Tolkien brings Beren and Luthien back for a little while, and I'm always happy to see Beren and Luthien! I hope we can infer that they had some good times in between tragedies. But because this is the Silmarillion and no one can be happy for long, we mostly get to hear about how their son was murdered by Feanor's sons and their grandchildren were left in the woods to starve. TOLKIEN, NO >:(
I mean, no one can be happy for long, can they? Even the most peaceful and productive life is bound to come to some kind of end, and maybe that's the point? The Elves suffer for their immortality, and probably Luthien suffers less by locking hersef into a human lifespan and a human death. Hurin and his family aren't any happier for being dead, but at least they won't be miserable forever. Galadriel, for example, never gets that option. Everything she knows she has to live with. But maybe that's just a thing humans tell themselves, I don't know.
I hope there are therapy dogs in the Halls of Mandos.
Morwen's reunion with Hurin is terribly sad, but by Silmarillion standards, it's practically a happy ending: she knows her son and daughter are dead, but she hasn't been crushed by the details of how they died and everything they went through. Hurin knows, but he doesn't tell her, and she doesn't push the issue, and what else is there to talk about? Hurin came back, anyway: too late, but back: the thing she hoped for, empty of all she hoped for. So they just sit by the grave of their children for a while until Morwen dies. Well, everyone dies, if you're mortal, and you could do a lot worse in this book.
Later, Tolkien brings Beren and Luthien back for a little while, and I'm always happy to see Beren and Luthien! I hope we can infer that they had some good times in between tragedies. But because this is the Silmarillion and no one can be happy for long, we mostly get to hear about how their son was murdered by Feanor's sons and their grandchildren were left in the woods to starve. TOLKIEN, NO >:(
I mean, no one can be happy for long, can they? Even the most peaceful and productive life is bound to come to some kind of end, and maybe that's the point? The Elves suffer for their immortality, and probably Luthien suffers less by locking hersef into a human lifespan and a human death. Hurin and his family aren't any happier for being dead, but at least they won't be miserable forever. Galadriel, for example, never gets that option. Everything she knows she has to live with. But maybe that's just a thing humans tell themselves, I don't know.
I hope there are therapy dogs in the Halls of Mandos.