altariel | He Who Laughs (Reply)

seasalt asked about He Who Laughs, a piece about Túrin Turambar.

I don’t know The Silmarillion very well, and certainly don’t know much about its evolution as described in HoMe. But the one story that has stuck with me is the story of Túrin Turambar. More particularly, the version of the story from UT, in which we learn about his little sister Lalaith (laughter) and her early death. (And get the final meeting of Morwen and Hurin.) I must have read this when I was about 12 or 13. Someone should have been giving me happy books, I think.

What an absolutely bloody miserable life Túrin has! Cursed by Morgoth, instrumental in the ruin of Nargothrond, fails to prevent the death of Finduilas, and ends up unwittingly getting his sister Nienor (which means ‘mourning’) pregnant before finding out and (perhaps understandably) topping himself.

Right back in its early days, there was a discussion on the Henneth Annûn list about Túrin, in which we wondered whether or not he could ever have been happy. At least one other story emerged from this discussion, concerning his childhood, before Lalaith died and Húrin is taken captive. I wanted to write a piece too, so I started doing some further reading – going back to the story in The Silmarillion and, more importantly, the Narn I Hîn Húrin in UT. And I looked up the relevant bits in HoMe. (This rereading all reminded me of the horrible bit where he is unable to prevent the taking of Finduilas into slavery, while Glaurung watches on and mocks him.)

I found out all manner of interesting things that I’d forgotten in the 20 years since I’d read the story. About how, when he was a child, he would try to make things, but his hand would slip and ruin them. About how he pushed for the building of the bridge that was the reason that Nargothrond would eventually be destroyed. That the curse upon the children of Húrin effectively left Túrin without free will, and living a pre-determined life. I rapidly came to the conclusion that Túrin really couldn’t ever be happy until he was dead, and that suicide was really the logical end to the story. Of course, when reading Tolkien, we are meant to see death as Gift, not Curse. Túrin’s life was certainly a curse. Death would definitely feel like a gift.

I also found out some other things – particularly the legend that on his death Túrin is transformed into a constellation, the Swordsman (Orion), and that, at the end of the world, he will fight the Last Battle against Melkor. This is how Túrin will get his revenge for the curse. (The red star in the constellation, our Betelgeuse, is called Borgil, which means something like ever-star, I think, in the sense of enduring star.)

So, how to write a fic about this? The themes that emerged seemed to be about fate, and predestination, about choice and lack of choice. So paths and ways and fates. ‘Laughter’ and ‘mourning’ seemed important too, as the bookends of his life. I was stuck on it for a while (weighty themes!), and also a bit blocked around the time I wrote it. It got shorter and shorter as I wrote. And I didn’t know whether I’d managed the source material OK or whether I’d made a mess of it. When it was done I stuck it in a drawer, until I mentioned it in email to someone, and she read it and encouraged me to post it.

This post is now almost three times as long as the piece, so I’ll stop.

Yes, this is much better than making notes on flexible specialization.