What Became of Maglor?

[latner3]

Whatever became of Maglor? The Sil says that "he came never back among the elves..."
He was an elf, so he didn't die.
Is he still around?
What happened to him?

[Finwe]

It's another classic case of probably-wandering-about-in-the-wilds-somewhere-or-might-have-been-eaten-by-some-nasty-thing. We just don't know what happened to him. He might have wandered back to Cuivienen or something, and just stayed there, singing, but that's just a guess.

[lore_master]

Tolien never states what hapeens to him after he threw his silmaril into the sea and he goes of wandering.

my guess is that he probably eventually comited suicide, or that he put himself in danger and was killed by a beast or something

[Firefoot]

Is he still around? I would say no. I had assumed that he did die, whether because something killed him - an orc or some other wild creature - or he committed suicide. Drowned himself maybe? I was under the impression that he was near the sea. I don't have my copy of the Sil around right now so correct me if I'm wrong.

[The Saucepan Man]

The Sil says that "he came never back among the elves..."

But, if he died, wouldn't he have "come back among the elves" in the sense that his spirit would have gone to the Halls of Mandos? Or perhaps he would be confined there like his father and so, in a sense, not back amongst his people.

[Scott]

My thoughts were that Maglor's suffereing and sorrow led him to eventually either a. commit suicide (as was already mentioned), or b. fall victim to all of his suffering and fade out of existence as a result of losing the silmaril.
I too don't have my copy of the Sil. on me, so my analysis isn't too scholarly. Darn far away universities.

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

I never thought that he would commit suicide. Certainly he would have to live with the sorrows of the past like all Elves, but he would no longer be tormented by the Silmaril.

Saucepan Man raises an interesting point that I had not previously considered. Pehaps he is still wandering about in Middle-earth. He could even be going about incognito. smilies/wink.gif

[Lyta_Underhill]

Even if Maglor had stayed among the living for many many years, wouldn't he eventually have faded as is the wont of the Elves? I seem to recall that if an Elf stays corporeal for long enough, he or she will eventually fade and become insubstantial--I always imagine Maglor wandering the shores of Middle Earth, ever singing, but being mostly faded, he would sound more like voices on the wind and would be seen by none who lived. Of course I have not read all the histories, so this may be covered in something I haven't seen. In some ways this legend falls under the heading of those explanations that Tolkien gives for the particular characteristics of a given place, such as the echoes of the Lammoth...maybe the sounds of the Sea are mixed with Maglor's lament and whoever listens closely could make it out...

Cheers!
Lyta

[drigel]

I always thought that fading was figurative and not literal. Moving out of the realm of civilization (world of men) doesnt mean your walking around like a wraith...

[Finwe]

I don't think his fading would be literal. I think that a parallel can be made between his fate and the fate of Echo, the nymph in Greek mythology. It was said that she was so lovelorn that she faded to nothing, and only her voice was left, faintly echoing what others said. What if Maglor's fate was something like that? He could have become a "creature" of the deep forest, never truly seen, but his voice would sometimes be heard by those who took care to listen to it.

[Guinevere]

I like your theory very much, Lyta, and agree with you!

About the "fading" :in the Silmarillion it is written about the Elves:
Their bodies indeed were of the stuff of the Earth, and could be destroyed; and in those days they were more like to the bodies of Men, since they had not so long been inhabited by the fire of their spirit which consumes them from within in the courses of time.

And in the curse of Mandos it is said, that the Elves "that endure in Middle-earth (.....) become as shadows of regret before the younger race that cometh."

Galadriel says that " We must depart into the West, or dwindle to a rustic folk of dell and cave, slowly to forget and to be forgotten".

And in "Farewell to Lorien" Frodo looks at Galadriel: "Already she seemed to him, as by men of later days Elves still at times are seen: present and yet remote, a living vision of that which has already been left far behind by the flowing streams of time."

As far as I can remember I have read somewhere that in HoMe it is actually stated that the remaining Elves become invisible or only visible to Men if they will it, and don't have a proper body anymore. (I'll try to search for that...)

[Sharkû]

<font size="-2">"On earth [sc. as opposed to Aman. Sharkû] the Quendi suffered no sickness, and the health of their bodies was supported by the might of the longeval fear. But their bodies, being of the stuff of Arda, were nonetheless not so enduring as their spirits; for the longevity of the Quendi was derived primarily from their fear, whose nature or 'doom' was to abide in Arda until its end. Therefore, after the vitality of the hroa was expended in achieving full growth, it began to weaken or grow weary. Very slowly indeed, but to all the Quendi perceptibly. For a while it would be fortified and maintained by its indwelling fëa, and then its vitality would begin to ebb, and its desire for physical life and joy in it would pass ever more swiftly away. Then an Elf would begin (as they say now, for these things did not fully appear in the Elder Days) to 'fade', until the fëa as it were consumed the hröa until it remained only in the love and memory of the spirit that had inhabited it." (HoME, X,5,xi 'Aman')

More fanciful accounts of dwindled Quendi are given in the earlier incarnations of the Lost Tales. Naturally these have to be handled with care in a discussion.

Suicide does not seem an option for one who is already struggling with the guilt he accumulated in his past.
Anything else appears as idle speculation.