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Lhunu Elessariel's
Twin fascination:
"Two tall men, neither young nor old. So much alike were they, the sons of Elrond, that few could tell them
apart; dark haired, grey-eyed, and their faces elven-fair, clad alike in bright mail beneath cloaks of silver grey"
~ROTK- The passing of the Grey Company~
My love for the Elves, even as I count myself a fully fledged Rohirrim, started in the chapter Flight to the Fords in
The Fellowship of the Ring. The encounter with Glorfindel, the Elven Lord of Rivendell, struck me like lightning. Unlike the
Elves of Gildor Inglorion, who seemed rather cold and distanced to me, here was an Elf pure gold. He was genuinely concerned
about Frodo and far from aloof. The danger of the darkness was well known to him and he was willing to fight to bring the
darkness to an end. Glorfindel was yet still joyfull and bright and he still cared for the lands he would soon trade for the
Undying Lands.
I was mesmerized by this Elf, who was so unlike any other Elf I had read about and have since read about. At the time
I was a twelve years old girl, who was having a terrible period in her life, and since Glorfindel saved the injured Frodo
and was sort of a hero thus, he became one of my heroes. He has been ever since.
Through Glorfindel I was brought into contact with Elrond the Half Elf, who was counted among the Eldar, but had mortal
blood rushing through his veins. He was connected to both Elves and Men and concerned about both of their worlds.
Once you meet Elrond, you also meet his children. Of them Arwen is the better known one, but I was never interested in
her. Rather found her a painting on a wall.
"But her brothers, Elladan and Elrohir, were out upon errantry; for they rode often afar with the Rangers
of the North, forgetting never their mother's torment in the dens of the Orcs"
~FOTR - Many Meetings~
There it began, the first mention of the brethren in the story. I wanted to know more of them and eagerly read further.
It turned out that the brethren were not mentioned often. They were not present at the council of Elrond,
but they did ride off with Aragorn to visit an unknown land far away (which might have been Lorien) and come back with tidings
they only wanted their father to hear.
And then I saw nothing of them until the third book: The Return of the King, The passing of the Grey Company,
to be precise.
"But the brethren Elladan and Elrohir have ridden with us, desiring to go to war."
~ROTK - The passing of the Grey Company~
At first I wondered why they would care to join such a war. After all, they had been living like Elves their
entire life and the Elves were leaving Middle Earth and showed little interest to many of the events of Middle Earth. It wasn't
after having read the appendixes until I understood that.
The twin sons of Elrond felt very attached to Middle Earth and had become the companions of the Rangers of
the North throughout most of their lives. Plus I also think they rode along because they wanted to prove their qualities as
warriors in the ways of war and it was the only great war they could participate in. They wanted to follow in their father's
footsteps and this was the only chance they got. And it was to be the largest battle in the Third Age. The twins know
what is at stake and like all of their kin they are willing to risk everything to destroy the Dark Lord.
When Elladan and Elrohir are having the last debate in Aragorn's tent at the Pelennor Fields, along with Gandalf,
Aragorn, Eomer and Imrahil, Elrohir says words I could not agree with more and what makes their intentions clear.
"From the North we came with this purpose, and from Elrond our father we brought this very counsel.
We will not turn back."
~ROTK - The Last Debate~
Elladan and Elrohir are aware of the fact that the Army of the West will only serve as a distraction and bait
for Sauron, so the Ringbearer can fulfill his quest without having the Eye of Mordor on him. And by saying that they will
not turn back, they are willing to sacrifice their lives for Middle Earth. It shows how much they love Middle Earth and how
attached they are to it. It also explains why they delayed their choice of mortality or immortality for so long after their
father departed.
This act also shows of their nobility. And that touched me. These beings are willing to die to save Middle
Earth and at that moment I realised that if they would be willing to die for it then they would have love their world very
much indeed. They had come so far to protecting their world and they would not turn back. I had come so far with reading,
I would not turn back either.
"Less
sombre is their gear than the others, and they are fair and gallant as Elven-lords; and that is not to be wondered at in the
sons of Elrond of Rivendell."
~ROTK
- The Passing of the Grey Company~
From
the start it was also clear to me that the sons of Elrond should be two of the most beautiful beings Middle Earth had conceived.
If even Legolas admired them, then that should be enough word about this subject.
They
have sprung forth from a Half Elven and an Elven princess. But they are not just some beautiful Elves. You have to take a
very close look to see that they are partially elven, though they might seem like Elves for those who aren't. This makes
them all the more appealing and real to me. They have to be broader in stature, heavier and stronger built, like the Edain.
A perfect combination, if you ask me.
The
fact they are always seen together fascinates me. The bonding between these two siblings most be so great that they can endure
each other for 24 hours each day. It must also be in the fact they are twins, genetical copies of each other and the everlasting
love they have for one another. To them it must feel like they are complete when they are together and that they do not need
anything more.
That
might explain why there is never told if they got married, like their sister. And though some fanfiction writers might see
this as material for their slash orientated stories, I do not see it that way entirely. I am not against slash, not at all,
but I have always viewed their bonding as different. The twins have ever been restless since their mother was attacked by
the Orcs and left Middle Earth. Their ever ongoing hunt on the Orcs proves this as well as that they probably did not really
need any other person besides each other. Not needed or did not wish for any other engagement with a person. But we'll never
truly know.
I thought
it was cool when I read that Elladan and Elrohir taught Aragorn the ways of the wild, how to hunt and how to fight. Because
with being nearly 3000 years old and having spent most of their lives in the wild, the twins are already great warriors. Who
could teach Aragorn, the greatest human warrior of his time, better how to fight than the sons of Elrond?
From what I can see
Elladan and Elrohir respect their foster brother a lot and they see the leader in him and treat him as such too and to them
he is also a comrade in battle, seeing as to the fact that they journeyed together after the council. But he must also pain
them, since he is the one they lose their sister to. For it is also clear that they must have loved their sister greatly.
And perhaps she was
also one of the reasons why they delayed their choice, next to their restlessness and their attachment to Middle Earth. Perhaps
they also feel now that their father has left Middle Earth they have to discover their own identity. For while Elrond
was still there, they were like Elves. What are they now, when he is gone? Who do they want to be? That also takes an important
part in their choice, I believe.
That they also loved
their mother dearly shows how they hunted the Orcs down for centuries, to avenge her torment. They must have been really torn
apart between two worlds as is quite usual I think for people who have grown up in two cultures.
Whatever choice they
would make, we will never truly know as it is not written down anywhere. But what we do know is that they would make their
choice together. And that is... fascinating.
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Elveanná
Then said Elrohir: From the
North we came with this purpose, and from Elrond our father we brought this very counsel. We will not turn back.
(Elrohir in The Return of
the King)
That struck me. We will not turn back. How much I wanted to be there and
say the same words to Aragorn! We had come so far, now we had to go all the way. At this point of Tolkiens Return of the King, I had already entered this story so deeply, felt with these people, shared their despair and
their joy and although I had known of the book before, felt the same fear that perhaps not everything would have a good ending.
Yet I had to agree to the words of Elronds sons and even Legolas admired them:
Less sombre is their gear than the others, and they
are fair and gallant as Elven-lords; and that is not to be wondered at in the sons of Elrond of Rivendell.
Since reading The Fellowship of the Ring, I admired Elrond. I still do,
for all what he represents for me. He combines aspects of both elves and men and although he seems to be what one could call
the best of both worlds, I always knew that he was not, meaning this in a positive way. For me, Tolkien did not create another
elven character who was perfect, combining the best features of both races. I more saw him as a man who had to bear the burdens
of both worlds, immortal, but with a human soul. Not able to turn his back to Middle Earth like so many of his people before,
who had departed over the sea or gone to secret and hidden places, he still plays an active part in the events taking place
in The Lord of the Rings. Some may say, that Elrond still displayed a certain snobbishness
when dealing with men, but I never saw that in his character, more an effort to draw the line between what he had decided
to be his people and the others, who were not.
Since his own brother has chosen to be counted among men, Elrond knows what it means to lose dear ones to old age and
death. More a reason for him to not be happy about his own daughters engagement with the mortal Aragorn. But he loves him
like a son, for Aragorn is a descendant of Isildur, who descended from the house of Elros Tar-Minyatur and thus loosely related
to him. Elrond loves the human race, although he prefers not to let it show too openly. But human blood also runs through
his veins, and as much as he tries to give mankind the responsibility for what has been done, or more so: not been done, he still feels for them and knows that he also is a part of their world and that through his children,
their fate is connected with his own.
My admiration of Elrond has so many more reasons I am not able to give here, for that would exceed this webpages space.
But what has this got to do with Elladan and Elrohir? For me, the answer is easy. They are Elronds sons
and whatever I admire in him, I also admire in them, with a few differences.
At my first reading already, I was fully convinced, that the two men who joined Aragorn here had to be two of the most
beautiful beings Middle Earth had ever brought upon.
two tall men, neither young nor old. So much alike
were they, the sons of Elrond, that few could tell them apart: dark-haired, grey-eyed, and their faces elven-fair, clad alike
in bright mail beneath cloaks of silver-grey.
Tolkiens description of Elladan and Elrohir makes it clear for me that these two, result of the marriage of Elrond,
the half-elven with the elf Celebrían, are not just another pair of beautiful elves. Tolkien says men, the watcher has to
take a closer look at them to see that they are elves. Their faces are elven-fair,
Tolkien emphasizes this, but due to their human heritage, they must be broader in stature, heavier, stronger built, more like
men. Not like the slender and delicate elves, sometimes described as almost female-looking. This makes them more real to me
than all the other elves.
Another aspect of their physical attraction of course has to be the twin factor. The identical looks of Elladan and
Elrohir are only a visible sign of what really is the most intriguing feature of twins: the (supposedly) absolute similarity
of two beings. Where this is only true to some limits, it always has fascinated me. How can someone live with the knowledge
that there is another person who bears exactly the same features as one self? The characters might be as different as night
and day, but a twin can never deny family relation to his sibling. An interesting fact also is, that twins, despite an occasional
childhood aversion against their mirror image, soon share a very strong bond and some even invent their own language only
they can understand, to tighten the bond even more.
The closeness of the brethren Elladan and Elrohir has long since inspired writers of fan fiction, mostly slash orientated
authors, to views on their close relationship. Although not against slash, my view on their strong bond always was a different
one. It is not heard of one of the twins that they ever got married. But I see the reason for this more in their restlessness,
their ongoing and desperate crusade against orcs to avenge their mother Celebrían and the simple fact that together, they
completed each other and did not seek nor wish to be further engaged with another person. But who knows?
At the time of The Return of the King, Elladan and Elrohir are already worn
warriors. They have had their share of fights, mostly against orcs. They have spent years with the rangers of the north, with
Aragorns kin, showing that to them, he is not only a family member, but also a trustworthy leader of his people, a comrade
in battle.
But even more than their father Elrond, they show how attached they still are to Middle Earth and its people. How much
they care for mankind, and for its future. They are not ready to join their father when he finally decides to leave. Is it
because they are still unsure of their own identity after all these centuries fighting side to side with both men and elves?
Or is it because of their love for their sister Arwen, that they find themselves unable to leave? Only one thing is sure:
if one of them decides to stay or go, the other will follow. And of their final fate, nothing is known. And so they remain
a mystery, the Twin Stars of Imladris.
~Elveanna~
Thanks to J.R.R. Tolkien for inventing El and E-dan and for being such an isnpiration. Thanks to Lhunuial for making
me write this and getting my thoughts into an order. It helped me to finally make it clear for myself why I love the twins
so much. Thank you, Lhunu, for making such a beautiful site, they well deserve it. Elve.
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