Unfinished Tales - Part Two - II - Aldarion and Erendis

[Estelyn Telcontar]

This story is full of interesting details, and I'd like to continue the discussion for another week before we move on to the next. Here are some things that stood out to me:

Aldarion's father, Meneldur, also longed for something beyond his kingdom, and his great passion was astronomy. However, he did not let that keep him from being "a good and wise king", and (at least in the beginning) he let his son follow his own very different interests despite his prophetic misgivings. The later estrangement came when he lost interest in his son's endeavours, to the point of actively opposing them. The communication between them stopped.

Lack of ability to compromise has been mentioned as a cause of the tragedy of Aldarion and Erendis' marriage, and I find one passage particularly interesting:

Never would Erendis take less, that she might not lose all; and fearing the Sea, and begrudging to all ships the felling of trees which she loved, she determined that she must utterly defeat the Sea and the ships, or else be herself defeated utterly.

That shows her pride, and as so often in Tolkien's stories, pride brings downfall.

Another interesting detail - Erendis is called "the Lady of the Star-brow" - Smith of Wootton Major is also called "Starbrow"! I'm not sure there's a connection, but the word made me pause and think.

What do you think was the significance of the Elven birds? They are quite the opposite of Erendis and Aldarion:

...if one were separated from the other, at once they flew together, and they would not sing apart.