Jaynaé Marie

Newsfeed #41 April 18, 2016

I Keep My Promises, For Now: The Mirkwood You Never Knew You Needed

Keeping up with Mirkwood is a little harder than I thought it would be for a kingdom so vaguely described anywhere, it has more secrets than even I realized. It is as winding as the hall of the elven king.

Coming up with a “way” to explain the elves of the Woodland Realm is becoming the biggest challenge due to the sheer numbers of them (with names). Even today’s post just added three elven children–one being the son of Gil-galad’s Council and Commander (both perished in the War of the Last Alliance). 

One thing I learned so far about writing TKWR, if you like me and anal about detail, you end up wondering “how the heck did Tolkien do this?” Trust me, doing it “his way” requires more than imagination–it requires patience and remembering to write down who does what, when, where, why and how as well as whom they are related to. Then there is the detail of elven types, so to speak.

Mirkwood isn’t made up of Grey-Elves and the Silvan. In fact, in actual Tolkien, not every elven kingdom is made up of just one type of elf. Celeborn is a Sinda (like Thranduil) as his uncle is Elu Thingol. Celeborn’s brother Galathil would be Sinda as well. Galathil is the father Nimloth, wife of Dior (son of Lúthien and Beren) and the mother of Elwing, wife of Eärendil, the parents of Elrond and Elros. Since Eärendil’s mother Idril (wife of Tuor), daughter of Turgon, brother of Fingon (father of Gil-galad) is Noldor, Elrond is technically Sinda/Noldor/Human or a peredhel (half-elven) from two sides of his family. This also makes Elrond’s wife Celebrían (daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn) a Sinda/Noldor and cousins (and this was the simple explanation).

Trust me, no one in Mirkwood marry cousins (to my knowledge) but there are a lot of families related by marriage–then again, it is said that Thranduil is kin to Celeborn (another mystery to be solved as it was not explained).

(Trust me, if you can follow that, the generations of Mirkwood will be a cakewalk through a fire pit. And I have to know this AND Mirkwood).

So no, not every elf in Mirkwood is a Sinda or a Silvan (which is a misnomer, really seeing as Silvans are thought to be Nandor elves that decided not to follow Denethor, son of Lenwë into Ossiriand. Think of them as Sindarinwa wannabes, so to speak as what ended up in Eryn Galen following a Sinda (Oropher) before heck broke loose. That is not important. Just know the elves of the Woodland Realm make up Noldor, Nandor, Sindarinwa (Sindar) and if you must, Silvan elves. The Tawarwaith (Silvan) are described as forest people. The irony of that is so are the Danwaith (Nandor). “Now these were a woodland people and had no weapons of steel, and the coming of the fell beasts of the North filled them with great fear as the Naugrim declared to King Thingol in Menegroth.” (Silmarillion, 104-5)

In conclusion, getting the elves out is taking slightly longer than originally thought as knowing who is “what” is like playing pin the tail elf that could be a mix of anything depending on his/her parents.

Things are not always what they seem or what we thought we knew–or wanted to know. Trust me, the force couldn’t help you.–J.

😆😂😛 Good luck with this...😋

Yo…what up?

I could not help it...crying...😂