Tolkienic hereticism, ignore at will

[oloriel]

TWO THINGS.

1) Ok, this is something that you wise people and experienced heretics may be able to help me out with.
Look. This is something I knew but completely forgot about, and now I randomly remembered and can't keep it to myself.
We all know how Lúthien is basically Edith Tolkien née Bratt, right? Self-insert, Mary Sue, what-have-you. I mean, Tolkien even had the name put on her grave. So yeah. The thing is, WHAT OF LÚTHIEN IN HER FIRST INCARNATION? Because some early draft had Her robe was blue as summer skies,
but not so blue as were her eyes;
'twas sewn with golden lilies fair,
but none so golden as her hair.* or somesuch.
Compare that to the later descriptions (Her robe was blue as summer skies,/ but grey as evening were her eyes;/ 'twas sewn with golden lilies fair,/ but dark as shadow was her hair.*), and, indeed, to dark-haired, (presumably) grey-eyed Edith and it's obvious that Lúthien initially was somebody else (or no-one in particular). At any rate, Lúthien wasn't always Edith.
So here's the question: Is anything known about that? Was golden-haired, blue-eyed Proto-Lúthien someone specific, or just a generic fairy-tale princess that later got rewritten, or what? INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW.

(I can't believe I only remembered that now. When I was relatively new to Tolkien, I regretted that he ever changed the description of Lúthien because I wanted to cosplay her, and I'm blue-eyed and blonde. I mean, you can hardly say "I'm cosplaying Lúthien from the first drafts of the Leithian", can you? And when I dye my hair black, it actually comes out aubergine. Been there done that. Well, I'm not exactly Most-beautiful-woman-alive material, either, but that's a different matter. Edith Tolkien ain't no Halle Berry either. (I made the robe anyway, too.) Point is, I knew there once was a blue-eyed, golden-haired Lúthien. And then I went and completely forgot it and lived the "Lúthien was inspired by Edith, duh" lie. Bzuh!)

- - -

2) Fantastic something that's come to my attention thanks to my cooperation with gwailome. I love this and it's giving me plotbunnies without end. Namely:
HOW DID FINGOLFIN "KNOW THAT HE WAS BETRAYED" WHEN HE SAW THE SHIPS BURN?

Correct answer: He didn't. He might have guessed it, but he might just as well have believed that the servants of Morgoth did it. ("OH CRAP WE HAVE TO GO AND SAVE MY HALF-BROTHER'S ASS! AGAIN!") Or that it was an accident. I mean, those boats were made of wood. Caulked with (presumably) flammable material and sealed with pine or birch tar. That stuff burns like a treat. Now, combine that with people carrying torches and lanterns and hurrying to get ashore...
It could've been lightning. Or, well, Orcs. Or vengeful relations of the Teleri.
As we know, the Silmarillion was recorded in retrospect, and by predominantly anti-Fëanorian chroniclers. So of course by the time they wrote it, them bloody traitors did it. But at the time it was happening? THEY VERY LIKELY DIDN'T KNOW.
Actually, what with oral history and unreliable narrators, maybe it actually was an accident. (Fëanor: "I'm gonna unload my portable forge now." GM: "Roll please." Fëanor: "CRAP. FUMBLE.") And later the Fëanorians told themselves they totally meant to do that, good riddance. And by the time the Fingolfinians reached the shore, they actually believed it? LOOK, I DON'T KNOW. But it's a wonderful little twist for head-canon. Isn't it. I want to play with it forever!

And that concludes today's heretic geek-talk. Probably.

- - -

*Somewhere in the History of Middle-earth 3: The Lays of Beleriand. I'm too lazy to go and get my copy right now. And no, I don't know the entire Lay of Leithian by heart. Just a few lines. *shifty eyes*

Comments

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Well, I am no expert for Luthien and who was the inspiration for the first Luthien. But I definitely agree with you on the second - Fingolfin couldn't have been sure that he was betrayed.
And it's not the only inconsistency in LotR and Silmarillion...

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Which is perfectly fine, as long as fans remember that these inconsistencies exist - some of them are intended, too, because of course Tolkien meant his work to be the work of (biased) chroniclers whose personal sentiments and education coloured their records. It just shows again that those people who brandish "canon" as some sort of sacred truth are completely missing the point...

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

I am reminded of a story from running a game of Top Secret in the late '80s. Two guys playing spies, driving a car, being chased by other guys in other cars. The guy in the passenger seat says "I'm pullin' out a grenade, poppin' the pin, and tossing it over my shoulder." And he mimes all this. Only he mimes tossing it over his left shoulder. So I ask him, "You do what, now?" And he does the whole thing again. Including tossing it over his left shoulder. Now, they were not in Japan. Or the UK. So I ask him, "You sure about that?" And he says, "Yeah," and goes through the motions again, and for the third time, mimes throwing it over his left shoulder.

"Okay," I said. "It lands in the back seat and goes off. Roll your damage."

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Ouch XD Did he forget that he was in the passenger seat?

[hhimring]

As far as I can make out Tinuviel was originally dark-haired (in the Tale of Tinuviel in BOLT II). Draft A of Canto I of the Lay in which she is golden-haired seems to be later than that and show a number of experimental innovations which were quickly abandoned again: Tinuviel's name is temporarily Melilot, etc. Christopher Tolkien is puzzled by the golden hair and points out that it wouldn't have gone all that well with the sleep-inducing properties of the hair later in the tale. But it seems quite possible, now that you point it out, that the golden hair was introduced in the Draft A to make her less like Edith and more of a conventional fairy-tale princess, but that this was a very temporary notion of Tolkien's.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

That sounds sensible. I'll have to look it up after all!

[hhimring]

Oh, and I rather like the idea of Feanor torching the ships by accident and then convincing himself he meant to do it all along--it would go quite well with the earlier hints of Feanorian klutziness!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

I also love the idea of Fingolfin seeing the distant flames and being all "They were waylaid by Orcs! Oh no! We have to get there as quickly as possible to help ~~~"
I mean, honestly, why would this decent fellow immediately figure out that "They torched the ships! We are betrayed!"? It should be more like Manwë's incapability of fathoming evil, right?

Must have been all the nastier to arrive in Middle-earth only to learn that oops, no, they're fine and they did that on purpose. MOAR DRAMA! *gleefully rubs hands*

[sermanya.livejournal.com]

hihihi :)

wheeeee!

[ext-1795689.livejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

sorry, that's all i can think of right now...

and: more please! *giggle*

your tolkienrelated stuff always has that effect on me ^^'