Unfinished Tales - Part Two - II - Aldarion and Erendis

[Dilettante]

Thinlomien stated....

There's one thing that bothers me in all the stuff about Númenór. As a woman who loves the sea, I find it annoying most of the women hate or dislike it, or at best they have no feelings towards it. It's difficult to say why exactly it's so annoying. Maybe because it kind of restricts women to their homes and gardens and makes it seem none of them ever felt any longing to be elsewhere, to see the world, to be free.

I wonder about this myself. One would think that as much as the sea is emphasized among the Numenoreans, and that they are renowned as great seafarers and even called Sea-Kings if I remember correctly, that their women would like the sea as much as they do. Perhaps this is the providence of the Valar, knowing that if both men and women loved the sea they would all go out roaming and abandon Numenor entirely. Perhaps the women desiring to stay on land keeps their men coming back to the Land of Gift. Just a thought.

Still, it does seem strange that all the women hate and fear the sea. Certainly at least one or two women every generation or so would like to be a seafarer and adventurer as well? Tying into this is the fact that the women of Numenor also make no music. "For in Numenor in those days it was the part of men to play upon instruments." So, women don't go to sea and they don't play music? What's left for them to do then? Tend sheep (there appear to be a lot of shepherdesses) and garden and knit I suppose. Seems kind of a boring life. I know I would be bored.

What I find interesting is that Erendis surrounds herself with women. Her house in Emerie has no male servants and the closest man is several miles away, so it appears. She then proceeds to teach her daughter that men are evil, vile creatures and all females are better off without them. If this were a modern story, the first thing Erendis would do after Aldarion had been gone for a year would be to start an affair with one of the household staff or a handsome squire from the estate next door. Instead here, she turns her hatred of Aldarion into a hatred of all men in general.

As for the elven birds, I find them most interesting. They are truly the opposite of Aldarion and Erendis. They cannot bear to be apart and will only sing if they are together. Did the Eldar give them to Erendis in hopes that the two of them would be like these birds? Or perhaps to be a lesson to both of them: You should be like these birds, not happy unless together.

One more thing that perhaps should be touched on. Erendis seems to often, if not always, dressed in white and is called "the White Lady of Emerie." Is there a significance to this white? Is she in white because she is cold? Rather like Eowyn being the White Lady of Rohan and she is also as a frosted flower.

[Guinevere]

Though tragedies are usually just too sad for me to read, I have become fond of this story. Aldarion and Erendis seem very much alive and "real" for me!

The story of their relationship in its "other time" setting, contains much timeless truth. And here again we find many poignant quotes and applicable wise sayings, coming from both sides of the conflict.

Same as Thinlómien said, in the beginning my sympathies are more on Erendis's side, but towards the end more on Aldarion's.

It also struck me, like Formendacil said, how much time was “frittered away” because of the longevity of the Númenoreans . All those years that Erendis spent waiting for Aldarion to make up his mind, and when he finally wooed her in earnest, she “held back nigh twelve years”! She had a lot of patience and forgave him many times, but how could she believe he would stop voyaging after they were married? I think those two were just too different from each other, had hardly any common interests and failed to make compromises. Though they were in love they did not really understand each other.

I cannot relate to Erendis anymore in the end, how she retreated completely from society, and hated not only her husband but all men (why?) and what is worse, how she isolated her child from all normal company and taught her to despise men. (Though that example of her teaching that is preserved has a lot of insight!)

My favourite character in this story however, is king Meneldur! I can relate very much to his conflict after reading Gil-Galad’s letter.
"When either way may lead to evil, of what worth is choice?"

And I was so thrilled when I first saw Gil-Galads letter! Up to now he had only been the mythic Elven King "of whom the harpers sadly sing" – and here we get to read a letter from him! Such a pity there was not more about him!

I see the birds that were given by the Elves of Eressea as a symbol of conjugal love.

I also think that the different attitudes of Men and Elves towards the tree that the Elves gave at the wedding are typical! Aldarion said "The wood of such a tree must be precious." And the Elves answered "Maybe, we know not. None has ever been hewn. It bears cool leaves in summer and lowers in winter. It is for this that we prize it."

Originally posted by Thinlomien:
As a woman who loves the sea, I find it annoying most of the women hate or dislike it, or at best they have no feelings towards it.

We know only about Erendis and queen Almarian. Were there any others mentioned?

As far as I recall, in medeaval times, sailing was an exclusively male domain. Were there any woman actively sailing in medeaval times ? I can only recall male Vikings for example.

Originally posted by Galadriel55
"Erendis threw herself into the Sea (right?)"

That’s not exactly what was stated. In old age she longed once more for Aldarion and went incognito to Rómenna to seek him.
"There, it seems, she met her fate; but only the words "Erendis perished in water in the year 985" remain to suggest how it came to pass."

Btw I just remembered a statement that Philip Pullman made some years ago (and that enraged me)

“Tolkien is not interested in the way grownup, adult human beings interact with each other. He’s interested in maps and plans and languages and codes.”

If Pullman had read "Aldarion and Erendis" he would have had to revise this opinion!!