Quote:
|
Originally Posted by davem
Let's look at the Silmarillion - put together by Bilbo: his 'Translations from the Elvish'. His main source? The Elves & books at Rivendell. Now, in the Sil, the Feanoreans don't come off very well. Not quite the villains of the piece, but hardly the heroes.
But can we trust what we're told about them in a work based on the the library & inhabitants of Elrond's House? Would Elrond have been entirely unbiassed as regards the Feanoreans? Would his Mother-in-law, given that she & their father were 'unfriends for ever'?
Both books & memories are consciously or unconsciously biassed, no less in Middle-earth than here, but memory, being a living process, is more malleable.
|
davem, while you're asking exactly the right question, opening up fascinating lines of thought, I think that your example is perhaps a bit flawed. If I wanted to find an unbiased commentator on the War of the Jewels, I could scarcely do better than Elrond, who is committed personally to every camp involved except Morgoth's.
Remember that though he might have been Earendil's son, he was Maglor's foster-son from a young age, and after his early childhood never saw, well, never encountered, his true father again. (I use the distinction because I can well imagine him gazing sadly at the Evening Star...) The path Elrond took, as a lormaster and one of the Wise rather than a great warrior, shows far more of Maglor's influence than Earendil's. In any case, his personal reactions to much of the deeds of Feanor's sons would undoubtedly be complex.
It is in other areas we should look for bias. You were spot on when you spoke of Eol, who is given a lot of stick for his status as an outsider; similarly Mim. Both stand for oppressed races, incidentally, the wild Teleri and the Petty-Dwarves...
I always imagine the Silmarillion as solid evidence that Elves were loremasters and scholars. One of the most clear points of Elven authorship can be found by comparing two groups of heroes, to my eyes:
Beren's outlaws. Each one of them is named, as if to save their memory from oblivion. It is mentioned that songs of their deeds are still sung by Elves.
and
Finrod and Beren's companions, apart from Edrahil entirely anonymous. Because they're Elves. They have not died as mortals do, and there is no need to urgently preserve them.