Elwing - Tumblr Posts
Elwing (2017)
that day, elwing saw something truly terrifying
@tolkienvillainsweek
The Third Kinslaying inspired from this story by @crackinthecup
Parental communism
Sauron : *took elrond as a hostage*
Gil Galad : let go off my Elrond!
Maglor, Maedhros, Galadriel, Celeborn, Eärendil, Elwing : our Elrond.
Sauron : the fuck?!
elrond, while being held hostage in sauron's arms : well at this point, I have too much of a parents
Oropher: Where the hell did we find this fuckin' kid, man?
Elrond: My mom threw herself off a cliff because she thought that my 'adoptive' fathers were after the rock she loved more than us and then you kinda just picked me up
Elrond: I remember that very vividly.
Gil-Galad: *Mildly horrified laughter*
I just wanna remind y'all real quick that it is only the post-War of Wrath half elves who got to choose mortality/immortality. The only (known) half elves at this time were Earendil, who became a star and possibly a Maia immediately after, Elwing, who would rather abandon her children to die than die herself, and Elrond and Elros.
There was no precedent for the choice. Of course they didn't have time to think it through and consult one another, Elwing and Earendil were completely separate from their children, who were separate from one another.
This also means that no other Half Elf would get the choice. Dior, Elured, Elurin and the potential children of Haleth and Caranthir (you can't tell me they weren't a thing) all did not choose. The grandchildren of Elros did not choose. No one but those four, and later Arwen, Elladan and Elrohir, Vardamir, Nolimon, Manwendil, Atanalcar and Tindomiel got the choice, and we don't even know if the last five actually did or were simply counted as mortal because of their father.
i have decided to go ahead and make a long post about elrond's feelings towards his parents because i feel like it's a very complex situation and changes a lot over time? i like both elwing/earendil and the feanorians a lot, so hopefully this will be fairly nuanced and not make anyone Red With Rage.
Childhood:
No point in mincing words: I think when Elrond was very young he felt a lot of resentment towards his parents (edit: or at least earendil, depending on whether elrond knew what happened to elwing). Of course Earendil and Elwing had good reasons for sailing away/birdifying respectively, but those reasons are hard for a six-year-old to comprehend. Unfortunately, to tiny Elrond, it just seemed like abandonment. Maedhros and Maglor were criminals, and often terrifying, but they were also there. Is it any wonder Elrond started to see them as family?
(It should be noted that Mae and Mags genuinely did try their best to be good dads to the kids, particularly by emphasizing NO OATHS whenever possible)
Adolescence:
Even Elrond had his edgy-teenager phase, and this manifested itself strongly when he and Elros were taken in by Gil-Galad. People would tell him how lucky he was to have escaped those horrible kinslayers, and he would tell them to shut their damn mouths because those horrible kinslayers raised him and where the hell were his birth parents, anyway? Not around.
That said, he also became very close to Gil-Galad around this time and was able to learn a bit about his birth parents (Gil having met Earendil and the family a few times, and having been very fond of them) and started to realize that perhaps he'd judged his family too harshly.
Young Adulthood:
I think Elrond went through a phase, though I'm not sure how long, of genuinely resenting the Feanorians for all the chaos and bloodshed they caused and how this caused his mother's disappearance. All perfectly understandable emotions. Underneath it all, though, he still missed them--and was often ashamed of himself for this.
During this time he was also extremely homesick for Elwing and Earendil and thought a lot about the few, vague childhood memories he had of them. Like the time Earendil tried to give him a pet lobster, and the bedtime stories Elwing would tell.
Adulthood:
After living through goodness knows how many battles, and getting married and becoming a dad, Elrond reached a point where he was able to reconcile his feelings towards both sets of parents. He didn't know Earendil and Elwing well, but he knew they were good people who loved their kids and didn't really want to leave-- circumstances just forced it. He also knew that Maedhros and Maglor had done their best to be good parents despite the weight of the oath (and all the crimes) and didn't beat himself up for loving them. And of course whenever Mags showed up to Rivendell, looking like a feral hobo, he was welcomed with open arms. That's how we treat family in Imladris.
Maedhros: Where is the Silmaril?
Elwing: 🎵Have you checked your butthole?🎵