Elladan and Elrohir - Elrond's family

Rachel Port

Well-Known Member
In class, the question was raised whether Elladan and Elrohir were part of the early story, or later additions like Arwen.

In early drafts, Elrond doesn't have wife or children. Celebrian doesn't exist since Galdriel doesn't exist. Lorien isn't inhabited, then is inhabited by unnamed elves who help the travellers. When Galadriel comes into existence, there is a question whether she might be Elrond's wife, though living apart from him. (In some versions of Galadriel's story, she and Celeborn spend long periods living apart.)

I looked them up in the index of The Treason of Isengard. They weren't listed, but under Elrond one reference was to the sons of Elrond, but that was only to notice that they were not mentioned in the draft telling of the scouts setting out after the Council of Elrond.

In the finished book, it is strange that Elladan and Elrohir are not in the Council. Aragorn missed the feast the night before because they had returned unexpectedly from their errantry (which they pursue because they remember the torture of their mother), and he wanted to hear what they had to report right away. Yet they are not mentioned in the Hall of Fire or the Council. Yet it would make sense that they would have reported to the Council, and if they had done so, they would have been named, and probably quoted. So could Aragorn's reported meeting with them have been added after the Council was in or close to its final shape? And like Arwen, we see them throughout through Aragorn's thoughts or words, not as actors. Even when they come to Aragorn's aid with the Dunadain, they deliver messages from Elrond and Arwen, but I've often wondered that they get no special notice from Theoden and Eomer. They are not as sketchy as Arwen, but not by much.
 
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