Birth dates of Fingon and Maedhros

[mirien]

Alright, I'm asking for people's theories on this. I have an idea for a fic, but I need their relative ages and after scouring all the sources I know, I still can't pin it down. I have my own theory, but I'm curious as to what other people think. I'm also too impatient to start comparing their parents' marriage dates and speculating. So, anyone got

Comments

[fanged_geranium]

I wrote an essay a while back that considered all the possibilites for birth dates of elves in the Ages of the Trees, and I think I found that (using Tree Years) Maedhros would have been born sometime between 1191 and 1300 and Fingon between 1195 and 1240 - but that gives you a lot of leeway!

If you use the ages of the trees as Sun Years (as most people do), it narrows it down a lot. Fingon would almost certainly have been born very soon after 1240, and Maedhros between 1220 and 1300.

I also have a pet theory that it was Fingolfin announcing that his wife was preganant that made Feanor decide it was time to have kids so his half-brother wouldn't out-do him!

[mirien]

*sits down to think* Alright then, well, my theory is that they are relatively close in age, with Maedhros being older by a bit. Normally I'm not so closely concerned with it, being happy with my somewhat vague theory, but for this fic, I need dates. Soooo, I think if I have Maedhros being born around 1225 and Fingon in about 1250, that should serve my purpose and stop my head hurting!

Thanks!

[fanged_geranium]

Glad I could help! Oh, I take it you are using sun years? That usually avoids headaches - and the 'so what did they all do for 3000 years?' thing!

[mirien]

Yes, I think so, it makes things more clear cut. *sigh* I just had another thought. Maglor's birth date. Still, for this fic, it's not so important.

[enismirdal]

I think I heard somewhere that Maedhros was likely to be closer to Fingolfin's age than Fingon's, i.e. a lot older. I guess this sort of makes sense, considering Feanor married young so could have produced Maedhros soon after, whilst Finwe had to remarry, produce Fingolfin-the-sprog, Fingolfin had to grow up and marry himself before Fingon would have arrived on the scene.

Alas, I can't back this up with source material unless there's something on the Tolkien Timeline that I missed!

[mirien]

Hmmm, damn, you could also be right. But I have to admit, I'm leaning toward them being closer in age here, mostly because it suits my purposes for the fic.I suppose that's one of the advantages to Tolkien's sometimes notorious information gaps!

*huggles you anyway in thank you*

Eru help me I'm going to write the Fëanorians without any angst. *wibbles*

[fanged_geranium]

Maedhros is definitely younger than Fingolfin (b. 1190) and probably younger than Finarfin (b. 1230). There is a possibility that he is younger than Turgon (b. 1300) but that only occurs in HoME IV, and may well refer to Fingon rather than Turgon because Fingon was high king for such a short time.

[enismirdal]

Maedhros is younger that Fingolfin for when he turns over the kingship of the Noldor to Fingolfin he calls him "the eldest of our house and not the least wise".

Ellie