|
I would add Dior and Nimloth to the list. NoME makes it clear (1.XVIII, "Elvish Ages & Numenorean", dated ca. 1965) that the Half-Elven were natively mortal, though living five times as long as regular mortals. Elros lived and died Half-Elven; Elrond was made Elven by the Valar; therefore Dior must have lived and died (untimely) Half-Elven and mortal too.
I think Turin and Finduilas are also worth considering, as a second 'failed relationship'. The Athrabeth makes it clear that Aegnor never married Andreth because he was afraid of her aging when he did not, but I don't remember that coming up in the Finduilas case.
I vaguely recall one in-universe explanation holding that a mortal woman wouldn't be strong enough to bear a half-elven child (think the death of Miriel), but that might have been a fan-theory. Another possibility, which spans the border between internal and external, is that a woman can endure the loss of her husband because of her children, whereas fathers do not have the same attachment. (Not true, but Tolkien might have considered it to be.)
I think the strongest explanation is purely external: most of these stories are of a mortal man wandering or being led into a realm of Faerie, where he wins great renown and the love of a fairy princess. It's basically the same tale as Smith of Wootton Major, though there's no relationship in that one. I think it's just a story Tolkien really liked writing!
The Mithrellas story is then a deliberate inversion of this: an elvish maiden wandering into a Mannish realm. And... obviously not a marriage, but the strong friendship of Legolas and Gimli, which ultimately leads to them sailing West together, is founded when they pass into each other's worlds (Moria and then Lorien), and confirmed when they agree to deliberately return to the same (the Glittering Caves and Fangorn). The 'part of your world' theme shows up again and again when Tolkien is creating relationships - and, in Tolkien's writings, lone wanderers are almost exclusively male.
hS
|