Celebrian's Misfortunes

[Estel the Descender]

In the Lays of Beleriand it does say that raping was an Orcish SOP:

"the Orcs went forth to rape and war. . ." (from line 3516)

Admittedly, this is the old Lay of Leithian and not the recommenced version, but after reading Fordim Hedgethistle's EDIT in Post # 16 I am led to consider the possibility that Celebrian was indeed raped.

But then again, the word "rape" may just simply mean "capture", as in The Rape of The Silmarils. In that sense, Celebrian's "rape" may merely mean her capture, and the Orcs in LB might probably be just stealing. Yet the psychological wounding of Celebrian which caused her to leave Middle-earth does seem to imply that the word "rape" means more than mere capture. But, as others have already noted, if she was really raped in the sexual sense, why didn't she die outright? Unless, just as Mister Underhill noted, Tolkien changed or modified this.

But what if the "rejection of bodily life and passing on to Mandos" did not happen as an immediate occurence but as a gradual process? Then Celebrian could have survived long enough to be rescued and Elrond would have artificially preserved Celebrian's bodily life through Vilya. But the fea of Celebrian would still want to leave Ennor and so she left.

It is also possible that the reason why Elladan and Elrohir are so bitter about their mother's "torment" is because, assuming that the rape was sexual, they felt themselves also disgraced. If it was a mere capture, their bitterness may be a tad bit overreacting. Still, I may be wrong. . .