Marie thank you for your considerate response.
I just don't believe that only 7 years later, less than a Valinorean year, Angrod is going to say any more to a total stranger than he absolutely has to. Which is "Our road was woeful and I shall not speak of it." He's an Elf. Even referring to the memory likely means reliving it in vivid living detail -- all the thousands of friends and maybe distant family he saw die horribly, all the many times he almost died himself... Not that nobody would ever speak of it, but 7 years would be too soon.
Telling of the Helkaraxe, when the Sindar know there were ships, is also inviting the Sindar to figure out about the Feud, and the arson by Feanorians (not the Kinslaying, but the other stuff). Angrod does eventually bring it all up, but he says at the time (year 67) they "forgave it. For this we are named tale-bearers to you and treasonable to the Noldor: untruly as you know, for we have of our loyalty been silent before you,". Fingolfin can't logically say "Nobody should talk about the Kinslaying, or the burning of the ships, and we are officially putting the feud behind us. But the Helkaraxe is a safe subject which has nothing to do with those other things." That... wouldn't actually work. And when Angrod brought it up in the book, Thingol had no idea about any of that. He thought Finrod and Angrod were Kinslayers, he hadn't known they had come separately from Feanor.
Tolkien didn't see a problem with Noldor not wanting to talk about it for several decades. As a veteran he may have understood something about shell-shock, as they called it. Maybe Elves don't have the same exact PTSD symptoms as Humans, but they can't be unaffected.
And... um, I'm not sure how to say this, but if the Sindar say "Look at those Noldor, so courageous and strong, talking about this in public." then what does that inadvertantly say about real survivors who don't want to talk about their trauma?
How would moving the dreams from Ulmo earlier, and spreading out the building of Nargothrond and Gondolin over multiple episodes, affect how much time we have to either 1. Show the rumors spreading, or 2. Show tension before the Battle, if we do it Ange1's way?
I acknowledge that shared traumas are not necessarily the same as personal traumas. But your examples are of people sharing with their own countrymen, a subject which was already widely known from textbooks and TV. That isn't entirely comparable to people without mass communication telling it to strangers outside of their own culture, who haven't shared their experience or anything like it. Your examples also appear to be all people who went public "eventually", not 5 years later.We are talking about having an official ambassador to Thingol (Angrod) acknowledge how the Noldor reached Middle Earth maybe 5 years after it happened. He doesn't have to go into any detail, merely saying that the Noldor gained passage across the Grinding Ice with much loss and hardship, or something vague like that. Enough to paint the picture without volunteering any personal details. I don't think this is too much to ask, and if any Sinda tries to casually bring it up in an insensitive manner (such as over produce at the marketplace), a Noldo can shut the conversation down by saying that it is a painful subject and they don't wish to speak of it just now.
I just don't believe that only 7 years later, less than a Valinorean year, Angrod is going to say any more to a total stranger than he absolutely has to. Which is "Our road was woeful and I shall not speak of it." He's an Elf. Even referring to the memory likely means reliving it in vivid living detail -- all the thousands of friends and maybe distant family he saw die horribly, all the many times he almost died himself... Not that nobody would ever speak of it, but 7 years would be too soon.
Telling of the Helkaraxe, when the Sindar know there were ships, is also inviting the Sindar to figure out about the Feud, and the arson by Feanorians (not the Kinslaying, but the other stuff). Angrod does eventually bring it all up, but he says at the time (year 67) they "forgave it. For this we are named tale-bearers to you and treasonable to the Noldor: untruly as you know, for we have of our loyalty been silent before you,". Fingolfin can't logically say "Nobody should talk about the Kinslaying, or the burning of the ships, and we are officially putting the feud behind us. But the Helkaraxe is a safe subject which has nothing to do with those other things." That... wouldn't actually work. And when Angrod brought it up in the book, Thingol had no idea about any of that. He thought Finrod and Angrod were Kinslayers, he hadn't known they had come separately from Feanor.
Tolkien didn't see a problem with Noldor not wanting to talk about it for several decades. As a veteran he may have understood something about shell-shock, as they called it. Maybe Elves don't have the same exact PTSD symptoms as Humans, but they can't be unaffected.
And... um, I'm not sure how to say this, but if the Sindar say "Look at those Noldor, so courageous and strong, talking about this in public." then what does that inadvertantly say about real survivors who don't want to talk about their trauma?
If the rumors get started before the Dagor Aglareb then the consequences might already start before the battle... or perhaps we can build tension among the Noldor as they worry how long they can hide the Kinslaying from their new allies, among the audience as they watch the demons spying on the Noldor while they ask each other that... it'll be apparent they can't hide this forever.When the Kinslaying is finally revealed to the Sindar, it *won't* feel as though the consequences to the Noldor/Sindar relations came out of nowhere - that threat has been hanging over their heads from the moment they met the Sindar. It should feel a natural consequence of that action. I also don't think it would be viewed as a piling on or 'can't catch a break' moment.
How would moving the dreams from Ulmo earlier, and spreading out the building of Nargothrond and Gondolin over multiple episodes, affect how much time we have to either 1. Show the rumors spreading, or 2. Show tension before the Battle, if we do it Ange1's way?
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