Did Maedhros kill Laughter?

[Blind Guardian]

What is a mirth?

Gladness and gaiety, especially when expressed by laughter.

Doesn't make sense. Sorry

[the phantom]

Anyone up for a challenge? Let's try to turn this into such a discussion that they will have to move it back into the books forum.

Tolkien discusses Lalaith's revised role in the tale, HoME XVI, sec A, vii Narn i Chîn Húrin early drafts and revisions-

Lalaith was problematic in the early versions of "Narn i Chîn Húrin", as the younger sibling already provided the necessary final tragedy. It was an essential element that both Húrin and Túrin be isolated from the family, thus interaction with Lalaith was certainly not an option. The only place left for her was in the company of Morwen and Niniel, but Morwen also needed to be separate in the end. For a time I paired Lalaith with Niniel, placing them both under the dragon's spell, but upon reaching Brethil I could not shake the feeling of redundancy, as only one sister was necessary to provide the horrific finale.

In later drafts I omitted Lalaith completely, as it seemed the most obvious answer, but later I was struck by the idea that an early death would be more in harmony with the sort of tale I wished to tell. My first solution was for the dragon to cause her death at Nargothrond, adding another layer to his rivalry with the house of Húrin. However, such an event would not impact Túrin at all, as there was no logical way for him to receive such news while maintaining his ignorance of the identity of Niniel. It was most important to me that Túrin, as the primary character of the tragedy, experience this death if it was to be included. In the end I settled upon a childhood plague, simultaneously writing in the special relationship between Lalaith and Túrin, which had not been necessary before. The end result was to my liking, for it also served to make Lalaith more tolerable, as in the earlier tales she was somewhat annoying as an adult, with her incessant laughter and cheeriness through such awful events.

[Lalaith]

I've been trying to keep a lofty Manwe-like impassivity over this discussion...I even bit my tongue into silence over this

Lalaith is actually a Warg

but now even Tolkien himself is joining in....

she was somewhat annoying as an adult, with her incessant laughter and cheeriness through such awful events.

Well....REALLY.

[Loslote]

...*giggle*

Anyway. *cough*

Yes. He did kill her. It's a little-known, VERY little-documented fact, but he had a grudge on Turin and so sneaked all the way over to his house to kill his baby sister. A cos he's just awesome that way.

Really, though, Lalaith's death had nothing to do with the Feanorians. For one, why in the world would Maedhros have wanted to kill a little girl? For two, Maedhros (while awesome) did not have the ability to predict the future or to read Morgoth's mind. How was he to know a) that Morgoth would send a plauge or b) that it would kill this one little mortal girl in particular? He wouldn't have known a) and he probably wouldn't have cared about b) except in the context that she was one of many. I think, in order to say that he "killed" her, he had to have actually cared/known about her death.

[Urwen]

Oh,yes. "Bye bye Lalaith I never liked you!"

Don't you care about her just a little?! For I do!!!!!

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Urwen

Oh,yes. "Bye bye Lalaith I never liked you!"

Don't you care about her just a little?! For I do!!!!!

Sure, it's a very sad part of Turin's story (as are most of the other parts). But I believe seven people now have already given serious answers to your original question. To quote just one:

Originally Posted by Eomer of the Rohirrim

It doesn't make sense to arbitrarily assign responsibility to some agent down the chain of causation on the basis of some positive, yet entirely unrelated, consequences of a later date.

Since your only counter-arguments have been that a.) Maedhros killed other people, b.) Lalaith might have been awesome had she lived to grow up and c.) she was cute, I don't think you can blame the rest of us for turning it into a joke.