Don't regret enthusiasm. I was thumping myself over the head all afternoon because in 20/20 hindsight I realized how this flood of canon-geekery would seem - and I didn't have access to the comp till just now. *forgive?*
It's just that the relationship between Aldarion and Erendis is one of those real relationships, unlike the fairytale feel we get with couples such as Aragorn and Arwen, Faramir and Éowyn, and even, in it's limited scope, Éomer and *gulp* Lothíriel. That's one reason why I devoured The Mariner's Wife (that was the first thing I read in UT after absorbing the description of Númenor - which was the reason I got UT in the first place). It's a very complex relationship, with wrongheaded decisions on both sides (and no small amount of parental interference). He has a passion, a sense of mission, and she... well, she's in love, but in the real world, love ain't always enough. Not by itself. And not if it's a selfish love. That's what I see in Erendis. as her mother Núneth said, with her it was all or nothing.
I really think you should pursue Aldarion a bit more. Not as a resentful man. Sure, he resented the imperative to wed that Meneldur issued. but I do believe he honestly loved Erendis. He just didn't love her the way she wanted (and perhaps needed) to be loved. I've often wondered if Aldarion ever thought about Erendis on those long voyages. Following another voyage on the Palarran (when he was gone for fourteen years - if my math is correct :-p) Tolkien wrote that:
Aldarion was grieved to find Erendis gone from Armenelos, but he was too proud to seek her; and indeed he could not well do so save to ask for her in marriage, and he was still unwilling to be bound.
Yet later, when he saw her riding in the Westlands forest:
... then suddenly he knew in himself the love that he bore her, and he felt the emptiness of his days.
That sounds like a man who had been thinking about her at least sometimes during that long absence.
I'd love to get inside his head on one of those early voyages and know what he was thinking about. I bet there was a lot going on inside that head. did he see young couples among Gil-galad's people who were courting, and think about the beautiful young woman who had risked his father's displeasure to bring him the oiolarië (or to send it to him on subsequent voyages)? Perhaps watching the stars, which must have seemed different viewed from M-e, he would think of her.
Sorry. Rambling again. But as I said, these two are real, with all the complexities of a real couple to explore.
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regna
Re: addendum to addendum
Date: 2004-07-28 12:56 am (UTC)It's just that the relationship between Aldarion and Erendis is one of those real relationships, unlike the fairytale feel we get with couples such as Aragorn and Arwen, Faramir and Éowyn, and even, in it's limited scope, Éomer and *gulp* Lothíriel. That's one reason why I devoured The Mariner's Wife (that was the first thing I read in UT after absorbing the description of Númenor - which was the reason I got UT in the first place). It's a very complex relationship, with wrongheaded decisions on both sides (and no small amount of parental interference). He has a passion, a sense of mission, and she... well, she's in love, but in the real world, love ain't always enough. Not by itself. And not if it's a selfish love. That's what I see in Erendis. as her mother Núneth said, with her it was all or nothing.
I really think you should pursue Aldarion a bit more. Not as a resentful man. Sure, he resented the imperative to wed that Meneldur issued. but I do believe he honestly loved Erendis. He just didn't love her the way she wanted (and perhaps needed) to be loved. I've often wondered if Aldarion ever thought about Erendis on those long voyages. Following another voyage on the Palarran (when he was gone for fourteen years - if my math is correct :-p) Tolkien wrote that:Yet later, when he saw her riding in the Westlands forest:That sounds like a man who had been thinking about her at least sometimes during that long absence.
I'd love to get inside his head on one of those early voyages and know what he was thinking about. I bet there was a lot going on inside that head. did he see young couples among Gil-galad's people who were courting, and think about the beautiful young woman who had risked his father's displeasure to bring him the oiolarië (or to send it to him on subsequent voyages)? Perhaps watching the stars, which must have seemed different viewed from M-e, he would think of her.
Sorry. Rambling again. But as I said, these two are real, with all the complexities of a real couple to explore.