Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitchwife
. Why not discuss his shortcomings as well as his merits?
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In my case, the article author said to read the letter, so I'm holding fire until I can.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pitchwife
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It's undeniably true, I think, that Tolkien's work is short of a Crone - an elderly female fgure of wisdom and power who could hold a candle to men like Théoden, Denethor, Gandalf, heck, even Saruman.... Apparently a woman past childbearing can only be an important figure in Middle-earth if she's still physically attractive. That's really sad.
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Mostly true for LotR (and of course for Hobbit!), but there more in the First Age:
- Andreth is 48 when she holds what I think is the longest single dialogue in Tolkien. The elves, including Finrod, literally call her "Wise-heart".
- Morwen is in her early 50s when she flees to Doriath and when she loses Nienor, and her late 50s when she dies. Not necessarily wise, but strong-willed, although ultimately she just ups and dies without doing anything.
- Aerin's age is unknown, but I'm putting her here because being more than her physical attractiveness is her whole point. She was forced into marriage for Brodda to make an heir on her, but ended up burning everything down.
- Gilraen, I think I said above, has two appearances in her old age. She's specifically noted as having some measure of the foresight of her people.
What's striking about this list is that three of them succumb to some form of despair and die. Lobelia does the same, so I feel like Tolkien's
portrayal of elderly mortal women is that they can often be wise or foresighted (include Ioreth or not as you choose), but they are (almost) always struck by melancholy or grief. Andreth has that in spades - and, of course, so do Galadriel and Melian, by the end of their tales. (And Arwen...)
And that's because he makes them *lose everyone*. Andreth, Morwen, Aerin, Gilraen, Lobelia, Melian, and Arwen are all shown after they lose the most important people in their lives (Andreth and Gilraen by giving them up to a different fate). Tolkien kind of writes like "grief at losing your family" is a specific affliction of elderly women - in men, it seems to often come up as anger instead (looking at you, Turin and Hurin and Maeglin), while other times it's brushed off (does Theodred even get a *mention* from Theoden? Do Frodo, Eomer, or Tuor really notice their parents being dead?). Occasionally you get a Denethor going mad, but it's a very different grief to Morwen, or Gilraen.
hS