to one of the Children of Iluvatar is very problematic to me as it plays out in
the Sil. We have seen a lot of questions during the recent discussion as to
what Melian's powers were, and how much of them Luthien would have inherited,
as it were. "Luthien was a half-Maia, why didn't she just use her Maia
powers to blast Sauron to smithereens and so advance to level 8?" etc.
I don't think Tolkien ever thought it through, because 1) the original tale,
which we see here, was very dear to him; and 2) his conceptions about Elves,
Maiar, etc. were constantly changing on a much higher level, and never settled
out completely.
What I notice here is how much more inconsequential Gwendeling/Melian seems in
this early tale. Really, what it seems to be is the old story of a mortal
marrying a fairy - only the "mortal" is an Elda, or what we (but not Tolkien
back then) would call an "Elf". But in this tale they play the role of Men
(Beren is also an Elf at this point; there are no "Men").
When Tolkien brought Men into his tales, the ante was upped all along the line.
"Sprites" as children of the Valar became the angelic Maiar; the Eldar became
Elves; and Men became the Mortal saps who become ensnared in Faerie. Now there
were two layers of intermixing possible, and so it comes out as rather
confusing in the "published"
Silmarillion.
"Wake up and smell the coffee."
squire online:
Footerama: "Tolkien would have LOVED it!" (improved!)
The Valaquenta discussion
