Quote:
Originally Posted by Andsigil
Perhaps generations of living on Dol Amroth had a similar effect on Imrazor.
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This sounds all the more plausible in light of Tolkien's note (in UT):
They were a family of the Faithful who had sailed from Númenor before the Downfall and had settled in the land of Belfalas, between the mouths of Ringló and Gilrain, with a stronghold upon the high promontory of Dol Amroth (named after the last King of Lórien). If Dol Amroth was a pre-Downfall settlement, it could reasonably claim to be 'more Numenorean' than Gondor proper, which was after all settled by Gondorian
refugees. I can certainly imagine a certain amount of isolation - and, heck, why not occasional (during times of weak kings) interbreeding with the
other pre-Downfall Numenorean state, Umbar? They're both maritime nations ("oh, pardon me, Your Majesty, I mean of course 'loyal subordinate princedoms of Gondor'"), so they had a fair amount in common, at least when they weren't actively killing each other.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivriniel
Is that Mithrellas with a union of elf and man an indication that somehow he was exceptional? Or does the converse apply? I've often wondered about what was at work when it was a union of the two races, and why it was always, in the first generation of them, that always a female of Elven race was with a male of the Second Born.
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I vaguely recall a statement that the bodies of mortal women wouldn't actually be able to bear a half-elven child. I... have no idea where that came from, though.
There is, of course, the case of Aegnor and Andreth, where she was the mortal. Aegnor refused to wed her due to there being a war on (even if it was a cold war at that point), but there's no indication that there were more serious problems.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivriniel
Though with Imrazor, not a very happy union, it seemed, and he seemed to have a controlling temperament, from memory. Makes me think of Maeglin and Eol, with the entrapping lair of the treehouse, and as such, perhaps it was the case that Imrazor was a captor of a vulnerable woman, of the First Born.
I'm not sure he was an exceptional Numenorean, therefore, if it is the case that you infer that, from the little we know about his temperament.
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And
that... makes a worrying amount of sense. Mithrellas, along with Aredhel, is I think one of only two wives to actively run away from their husbands in Middle-earth (plus maybe Miriel, if 'I'd rather stay dead/oh, now you're dead I'll go back to living' counts). That says pretty terrible things about Imrazor, and the idea that she was pretty much a captive rings true.
Over in
another thread you made mention of Gilmith, daughter of Imrazor, and that set me to thinking: did the children of Imrazor have the same Choice as Elrond, Elros, Arwen and her siblings? We know that Galador was mortal, but his sister could well not have been.
How is that Choice made, anyway? Indications from the canon seem to be that 'you get what you marry' - Arwen accepted mortality when she married Aragorn, Elros of course married a mortal, while Elrond and his sons apparently put off marrying for quite some time, and Celebrian was an elf. So could Gilmith have simply remained unwed, and attained immortality that way?
(Line of thinking partly inspired by the lovely image used for Gilmith on Tolkien Gateway,
taken from Lady Elleth of deviantArt.)
hS