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

[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!