Authorial Detachment or "The Vanishing Harper"

[Anguirel]

Consider these three (sort of) ends:

Originally Posted by Of Beren and Luthien

And it is told that in that time Daeron the minstrel of Thingol strayed from the land, and was seen no more...he wandered upon strange paths, and came into the East of Middle-earth, where for many ages he made lament beside dark waters...

Originally Posted by Of the Voyage of Earendil

...thereafter he wandered ever upon the shores, singing in pain and regret beside the waves. For Maglor was mighty among the singers of old, named only after Daeron of Doriath; but he never came back among the people of the Elves.

Originally Posted by Book of Lost Tales 2

But none could say where Salgant was, nor can they now. Mayhap he was whelmed by fire upon his bed; yet some have it say that he was taken captive to the halls of Melko and made his buffoon - and this is an ill fate for a noble of the good race of the Gnomes.

So pass three minstrels; and the linking of their fates are surely not coincidental. Each are quite deliberately separated from their own people, alienated from their race, set apart and lost. Maglor's end is clearly supposed to recall the eerie similarity of Daeron's, with Daeron mentioned in the same clause.

Salgant, Lord of Harps at Gondolin, a rather less celebrated musician, meets a less ethereal and fey fate; the rumour of his survival as Morgoth's fool is well suited to his description of a fat and craven courtier. He is a comic character, a clown who makes young Earendil smile; as such this burlesque harper's end is not tragedy, but black comedy. But it is equally distinctive and mysterious!

What have we proved so far? That if you're an Elf, playing an instrument isn't that great an idea after all? I would suggest that this them can be applied a little wider. Maglor's Noldolante and Daeron's paeans to the beauty of Luthien are almost certainly major sources for the eventual Silmarillion, which some take as Bilbo's "Translations from the Elvish" (though I think a lot of it is rather dark for the old chap...perhaps we should give Elrond, Erestor and Lindir some credit for the legacy...) Salgant, to a lesser extent, may have left some record in song of Gondolin's glory. Yet the chroniclers of the Elves are all exiled from among the Elves.

Any other chroniclers separated from their race? Well, I thought of the Hobbits at once. Bilbo, Frodo, and even Sam eventually go over Sea to Valinor, choosing to die among Elves, not Shirefolk. Really, it seems that working on one's book has a certain inevitable result. (Does this mean that Maglor, Daeron and Salgant are hanging out in the Shire? Whoa, I'm slipping into fanfiction again...)

At last it struck home. All these assorted bards and scribblers seem to me to be one, huge, fascinating authorial metaphor. From here stems the apparently omniscient perspective. All characters in the Legendarium are, of course, extensions of Tolkien; but these sub-authors occupy a middle ground, a twilight world. They have to depart to obscurity to represent the distance the author must, in the end, maintain between himself and his creation. Even Tolkien has never walked the streets of Minas Tirith, or wondered at the glades of Doriath. Regretful he might be, but Maglor cannot come back among the people of the Elves-he has his story to tell, to lament in song, and must remain detached. Likewise the others.

Even the varying styles Tolkien indulged in are reflected in these "mediums", these guides, these historians, these lost wanderers. Salgant and Bilbo, I am sure, would happily cooperate on many a comic scene; Maglor and Frodo would be "high, purged of the gross"; while love scenes and tender romance falls to Daeron's flute...

So listen to the note of the harp or the squeaking of a quill. Their importance is paramount. Eru has bestowed the power of creation upon them; they preserve with more eficacy than any Elven ring; but in the end, they must always elude both author and subject.

What do you think?

Thanks to the "Not all those who wander are lost" thread, and to this story at the Henneth-Annun archive, which brought the connection to me in a flash: Quo Vadis?