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Qitian — 'Go astray, go wild astray'
Published: 2011-11-11 14:28:12 +0000 UTC; Views: 1827; Favourites: 35; Downloads: 9
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Another charity commission, this one done for Lanyon. Note the entirely different background style. I'm much happier with this (though it isn't perfect). Look! There's something akin to a colour scheme!
Lanyon asked for something with Celegorm and Aredhel, for whom she harbours a soft spot, in a friendly context. As I rather like the supplementary canon information according to which they were good friends (but never lovers -- this may be the only Silmarillion couple Tolkien ever explicitly said "nay" to!) back in ye olde days in Valinor, I liked that prompt! Add to this the fact that Aredhel was a huntress and voilà! You get the following scenario:
Aredhel and Celegorm are out in the woods for a friendly (as friendly as it gets between their houses) archery competition. They're almost done, and Aredhel is likely to win - only if her last arrow doesn't even touch the target, Celegorm will lead by one point. So while Aredhel is getting ready to hit that target one last time, Celegorm is trying to hypnotise the arrow, thinking "Go astray! Go wild astray!"
(It won't, of course. Aredhel is totally going to win. Sorry, Celegorm, but that's how it goes when I come up with this stuff. You'll have better luck some other time, I'm sure.)
So there you go! Friendly context. Whether or not the story ends with some bantering, a proper argument, or *gasp* romance after all - you choose for yourself!
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Comments: 19
I prefer no romance since they were cousins, and I really like the Eöl/Aredhel pairing. And yay, another person who see Celegorm as blonde!!! I read somewhere Tolkien was going to give him 'gleaming golden hair' and that just supports my vision of him. Besides with him being called 'The Fair' I can't really picture him as anything else.
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To be fair (hah!), "fair" in many of Tolkien's sources just means "handsome", not necessarily "light" - that meaning only really came into being in Middle English. So whether "the Fair" really alludes to Celegorm's hair or rather to his face is open to debate.
However, I believe it's the "light" version as well.
They're only half-cousins. I really have to dig out my HoME books again to make sure, but I think I recall that's precisely why Tolkien made explicit that they were friends, not lovers: Because by the marriage laws of the Eldar, Celegorm and Aredhel would have been permitted to marry, had they wanted to.
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All the same I don't like the pairing Celegorm/Aredhel. It can sometimes be done tastefully, but most of the time it makes out Eöl to be a bad guy, which I don't believe he was. Eccentric, a bit of a control freak, and racist against Noldor (though he had very good reason to be) yes, but not some horrible abusive rapist. She wouldn't have pleaded on his behalf to be spared if he had been cruel.
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In the real world, victims of abusive husbands regularly defend said abusive husbands, to the point of painting themselves somehow responsible. Add Stockholm syndrome and the fact that Aredhel certainly loved her and Eöl's son, and her pleading for Eöl makes perfect sense despite his nature.
According to the book, he appears to have forced her to marry him/ sleep with him ("I'll let you go if you give me a son" is not exactly the nicest way of wooing someone), which is certainly duress if not outright rape.
So sorry, but in my understanding, Eöl is an abusive rapist. AND an eccentric racist control freak who takes revenge on his idea of the Noldor in everything he does to Aredhel (and to some extent, Maeglin, who is after all half-Noldo).
My personal thoughts on the matter notwithstanding, any romance between Celegorm and Aredhel could well have happened long before Aredhel ever met Eöl. I'm pretty sure that after Losgar, any feelings Aredhel may have had for Celegorm - friendly or romantic - would've turned cold...
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the thing is, if he had forced her to have sex with him, she would have died. And Elves have to both choose to conceive a child, as well.
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If you do some research, you'll find that the former is not quite as clear, and the latter is an entirely fanonic assumption based on the fact that Elves celebrate the begetting day of their children, not the birthday. The assumption then goes that as they know the day on which their child was begotten, they must either not have sex very often (so there's only one feasible date) or both choose (so they'll know just when they did that) or feel the moment an egg is fertilised (so, again, they'll know) . However, neither of these interpretations are offered by Tolkien, who instead says that an Elven pregnancy lasts precisely one year, so you know the begetting day by the birth day. (We can then safely assume that in "reality", there may well have been a span of days or even weeks around that day for the actual begetting, just as you'll rarely get the actual begetting day of a human child by going "birthday - 40 weeks", but the Elves just didn't care enough.)
Also, since he forced her by saying "I'll let you go if...", she would have agreed, though under duress. Not the most violent way possible, I'll grant you that (and thus possibly exempt from the "fading" route), but certainly forced intercourse by any modern and sensible interpretation of the term.
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Point granted. I just like Eöl and I don't know why.
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Perfectly ok. I mean, I like Fëanor. We've all got our weak spots.
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Also, I'm sending you an essay that sums up my view of Eöl quite nicely.
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"Go astray! Go wild astray!" What a line! This is really fantastic. Both characters are well-envisioned and I love Celegorm's unimpressed expression. I love Aredhel's slight Grecian air, and it's so nice to see natural-looking, practical Elves. Love it. 
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Thank you so much! I'm thrilled you like my version of these characters.
Well, the HoME offer a throwaway line about Aredhel and Celegorm being good friends, but never lovers, in Aman. That's about all the canon material there is. All the rest is up to our imagination...
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All the rest is up to our imagination...
Which makes the whole process so much fun
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I'd have to dig out the books to check for certain; I think it was The Peoples of Middle-earth though.
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Phew! I always feel that I don't give my Elves sufficiently elaborate hairstyles (& clothing). PJ has raised expectations so insanely!
All the better if you like it.
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Daww. :3 That's cute. The world needs more "still in Valinor" fanart, I think. My favorite part is definitely her lovely flowing sleeves tied back. 
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Completely stolen from the ancient Japanese, I must admit - that's how you tie kimono sleeves back if you have work to do or just generally have to get those long sleeves out of the way. 
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Nice! I should do more research on Eastern stuff, apparently. They had /lots/ of good ideas.
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