![]() Police questioned the mother and son separately. Lori Lavoie called 911 after the shocking incident on May 19. Lavoie was shocked to find him engaging in sexual activity with his mother, Cheryl Lavoie. Also the LOTR Appendices.The wife of Tony L. ![]() Personally, I just add it the pile of things that make me go “wow Tolkien was really committed to world-building even when it means acknowledging that the world is kind of a strange, imperfect place.” And part of it is artistic because of the influence European (especially Germanic) mythology had on Tolkien, or because it’s a plot device, and part of it is just practical because that’s how royal families work, and part of it is just weird. Yes, there is a lot of incest in Middle Earth. And many of them (mainly the mortal ones) are so distantly related that most people today wouldn’t even call that related, not really. The thing to keep in mind, if this all starts to weird you out a bit, is that any of these relationships (these distant ones, not the first three I talk about) would be accepted in most of today’s societies. Other, more closely (but still distantly) incestuous relationships abound: Elrond and Celebrian were third cousins, Nimloth and Dior are second cousins once removed, both Eomer and Lothiriel and Eowyn and Faramir were distant cousins (how distant is unknown, since Eomer and Eowyn’s genealogy is incomplete.) Ar-Gimilzor and Inzilbeth (another Numenorean couple) were sixtheenth cousins twice removed, etc etc. (Though don’t quote me on that, as I can’t remember where I heard it.) I’ve heard it said that that’s actually less related than the average two members of the same ethnicity. I say it’s ironic because they’re pretty much the least related “distant incest” couple in Middle Earth - they’re cousins 63 times removed. Ironically, Arwen and Aragorn receive the most attention for their “technically incestuous” relationship. And honestly, it’s no worse than we see in “real world” cultures (sometimes even still today, but especially in our past - European royal families, anyone?) ![]() Though these three stories are the only cases of “legal” incest in Middle Earth, there are dozens of cases of “distant” incest in Middle Earth - but it’s never considered an issue, and, as far as the rules of Middle Earth go, it’s not wrong at all. There’s no mention of whether or not they ever consummated their marriage (had sex), though - the two pretty much hated each other, and even though they were married 64 years, they didn’t have any children. Tar-Miriel was set to inherit the throne of Numenor, and by forcing her to marry him, Ar-Pharazon essentially stole her place as Numenor’s leader. This is sort of a weird case, though, because the marriage was completely political. The Numenoreans used the same incest taboo as the elves (as in, second cousins are okay, but anyone closer than that is a no-no.) This didn’t stop Ar-Pharazon from marrying his cousin Tar-Miriel, though. Idril didn’t even like Maeglin (mostly, I’m sure, because she was sensing his inappropriate feelings for her.) Second cousins were okay, though (there’s a great explanation of all these cousin-terms here, by the way.) Maeglin’s inappropriate desire for his cousin was said to be a result of the Doom of the Noldor, and was also part of his motivation for betraying Gondolin to Morgoth. This was a serious problem, since the elvish rule on such things was that you could not marry brothers/sisters, aunts/uncles, nieces/nephews, or cousins. While nothing ever actually happened between the two, Maeglin was said to be in love with his cousin Idril. In fact, Tolkien basically says that it’s the evilest thing that Morgoth ever did (and that is really saying something.) And let me emphasize that it’s very very tragic. And it did not end well (they both end up killing themselves.) The entire relationship is the extra-tragic ending of a really tragic story (honestly, the Children of Hurin should come with the subtitle “Death, Dragons, and Incest.”) It’s also one of the greatest cases of dramatic irony in all of Tolkien’s works - though Turin and Nienor don’t realize what’s happened, the reader knows the entire time that they’re siblings. I don’t want to get into the details, but basically they’d never met, and didn’t realize they were related until Nienor was already pregnant with their child. Brother and sister, through a long series of events that are mainly Morgoth’s fault, the two sort of accidentally ended up married and pregnant. ![]() Sometimes it’s not even all that distant.Ĭhronologically, Tolkien kicks off the history of incest in Middle Earth with it’s most extreme case: Turin and Nienor.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |