Odola
Well-Known Member
The standard assumption in fandom seems to be that the Eldarin prohibition on remarriage applies universally to all elves. I think applying it as a blanket rule to Silvan and especially Avari populations actually breaks the internal logic of the world rather than upholding it.
The prohibition makes coherent sense for the Eldar. The fëa of the dead spouse persists in Mandos, the bond endures, reunion in Valinor is a genuine prospect. Remarriage would create a acute metaphysical and societal problems: two simultaneous spouses, one embodied and one waiting, ultimatelly resulting in bigamy. The rule has theological basis, institutional backing from Valinorian authority, community enforcement, and personal motivation for the individual elf who knows all this. It holds together.
Now consider the Avari. They refused the Great Journey, have no systematic knowledge of Mandos or reembodiment, never meet any reembodied elf, face chronic existential pressure from the dangers of Middle-Earth, reproduce slowly, and cannot replenish their numbers from Valinor. A widowed Avari elf has no theological framework telling them the bond persists, no prospect of reunion ever, embodied or otherwise, and belongs to a community whose long-term survival depends on its members remaining viable. The environmental and demographic pressure against permanent widowhood is immense and cumulative across thousands of years. Tolkien later declared most of the Avari older elves post the Time of Children, whose children were the ones who had answered the call to Valinor. Still this resolves the issue only partially, as it suggests basically no new bounds being created among them, which would soon lead to progressing societal disintegration; and it does not at all apply to the Silvan elves.
The Silvan peoples are somewhat better positioned than the Avari regarding Eldarin contact and cultural influence, but they face the same underlying pressures and share the same basic absence of the theological infrastructure that gives the rule its meaning.
Here is what I find decisive though: Finwë. He is the single canonical case of an elf seeking remarriage, and he had every possible advantage: full theological knowledge, direct Valinorian contact, a living community enforcing the norm, and a highly specific justification in Míriel's voluntary permanent withdrawal. Despite all of that, his desire for companionship and further children overrode the prohibition. The Valar had to formally rule on it. The rule did not hold by itself even under maximum favorable conditions!
This seems to me to demonstrate that the prohibition is not grounded in elven nature as such. It requires external knowledge and support to function, and even then it can fail. If Finwë could not hold under the most favorable circumstances imaginable, on what basis do we expect Silvan and Avari elves to hold under far worse ones, with none of the supporting structures, and no theological reason to even try?
The texts are simply silent on Avari and Silvan marriage customs. That silence is usually read as confirmation that Eldarin norms apply universally. But I think the honest reading is that it is an unexamined gap, a part of the world Tolkien built the conditions for but never looked at directly.
Filling that gap with Eldarin law requires overriding the internal logic of everything surrounding it.
Tolkien built a world where different elven peoples have genuinely different cultures and relationships to Valinorian authority, where environmental pressure shapes cultures across vast timescales, and where elves are ancient rational beings capable of reasoning about their own survival. All of that pushes toward divergence in Silvan and Avari customs, not uniformity with Eldarin law.
My conclusion is that the Avari almost certainly developed their own marriage customs adapted to their actual situation, and that Silvan populations likely diverged significantly from strict Eldarin norms under sustained pressure.
Imho this is not a departure from Tolkien's world-building logic. It is what that logic actually generates when one follows it honestly into the parts of the world he never examined himself.
What do you think?
The prohibition makes coherent sense for the Eldar. The fëa of the dead spouse persists in Mandos, the bond endures, reunion in Valinor is a genuine prospect. Remarriage would create a acute metaphysical and societal problems: two simultaneous spouses, one embodied and one waiting, ultimatelly resulting in bigamy. The rule has theological basis, institutional backing from Valinorian authority, community enforcement, and personal motivation for the individual elf who knows all this. It holds together.
Now consider the Avari. They refused the Great Journey, have no systematic knowledge of Mandos or reembodiment, never meet any reembodied elf, face chronic existential pressure from the dangers of Middle-Earth, reproduce slowly, and cannot replenish their numbers from Valinor. A widowed Avari elf has no theological framework telling them the bond persists, no prospect of reunion ever, embodied or otherwise, and belongs to a community whose long-term survival depends on its members remaining viable. The environmental and demographic pressure against permanent widowhood is immense and cumulative across thousands of years. Tolkien later declared most of the Avari older elves post the Time of Children, whose children were the ones who had answered the call to Valinor. Still this resolves the issue only partially, as it suggests basically no new bounds being created among them, which would soon lead to progressing societal disintegration; and it does not at all apply to the Silvan elves.
The Silvan peoples are somewhat better positioned than the Avari regarding Eldarin contact and cultural influence, but they face the same underlying pressures and share the same basic absence of the theological infrastructure that gives the rule its meaning.
Here is what I find decisive though: Finwë. He is the single canonical case of an elf seeking remarriage, and he had every possible advantage: full theological knowledge, direct Valinorian contact, a living community enforcing the norm, and a highly specific justification in Míriel's voluntary permanent withdrawal. Despite all of that, his desire for companionship and further children overrode the prohibition. The Valar had to formally rule on it. The rule did not hold by itself even under maximum favorable conditions!
This seems to me to demonstrate that the prohibition is not grounded in elven nature as such. It requires external knowledge and support to function, and even then it can fail. If Finwë could not hold under the most favorable circumstances imaginable, on what basis do we expect Silvan and Avari elves to hold under far worse ones, with none of the supporting structures, and no theological reason to even try?
The texts are simply silent on Avari and Silvan marriage customs. That silence is usually read as confirmation that Eldarin norms apply universally. But I think the honest reading is that it is an unexamined gap, a part of the world Tolkien built the conditions for but never looked at directly.
Filling that gap with Eldarin law requires overriding the internal logic of everything surrounding it.
Tolkien built a world where different elven peoples have genuinely different cultures and relationships to Valinorian authority, where environmental pressure shapes cultures across vast timescales, and where elves are ancient rational beings capable of reasoning about their own survival. All of that pushes toward divergence in Silvan and Avari customs, not uniformity with Eldarin law.
My conclusion is that the Avari almost certainly developed their own marriage customs adapted to their actual situation, and that Silvan populations likely diverged significantly from strict Eldarin norms under sustained pressure.
Imho this is not a departure from Tolkien's world-building logic. It is what that logic actually generates when one follows it honestly into the parts of the world he never examined himself.
What do you think?
