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Old 10-05-2005, 11:33 AM   #42
Formendacil
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Numenorean
In Beleriand there are also individual Elves who seem to be borderline traditional Faerie if not wholly so. Eol, Maeglin and Saeros all pervade an aura of darkness, a sense of mystery and of unfathomable hostility towards change as it were, and Men folk particularly.
And interestingly enough, Eol, Maeglin, and Saeros all have Dark Elven roots, as it were, by which I mean non-Calaquendi, and non-Sindarin.

Saeros is very specifically said to have been of the Green Elven people, of the ones who removed to Doriath after Morgoth's return and the death of Denethor. Is his distaste for men connected to that of the other Green Elves you mention?

Eol is not said to be thus in the Silmarillion, but in Tolkien's writings he speculated a great deal about his origin, and one theory, which seems to have had the most weight, is that he was one of the Avari (of Tatyarin (ie. Noldorin) origin), who eventually came west to Beleriand. And even his main alternative origin, as a kinsman of Thingol, makes him sound as much a Green Elf as a Grey...

Maeglin, of course, is connected to the Dark Elves via his father's blood, and his upbringing.

And this is beginning to make me wonder... Did Tolkien envision two "faeries" as it were? Did his Translator's Conceit give him the idea, within Middle-Earth anyway, that the more historical view of a malevolent faerie was a distortion by Men in later times of the "real" faerie (Valinor) and the attitude of those Elves most likely to meet Men (the Avari)? In other words, is an internal (in-story) reconciling of the "real world" conception of Faerie and his own, Valinorean, conception of Faerie made possible by Avarian attitudes mixed with fading knowledge of Valinor?
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