# Perilous and Fair  ## Metadata - Author: [[Janet Brennan Croft and Leslie A. Donovan]] - Full Title: Perilous and Fair - Category: #tolkien #feminine-power ## Highlights - women fulfill essential, rather than merely supportive, roles in Middle-earth and in his life. Certainly, Tolkien’s primary female characters are fair in ways identical to those of earlier fantasy heroines: they are beautiful, unblemished, courteous, and kind. Nevertheless, many of his women are also perilous in ways earlier literature generally attributes to villainous or evil women. ([Location 125](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=125)) - Although such female characters typically require the aid of male heroes, it is equally significant that the male heroes require the efforts of these women to achieve their victories. ([Location 130](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=130)) - “the choice of love over pride, reflective of the Christ-like inversion of power rooted in Scripture, and ultimately more powerful than any domination by use of force” ([Location 653](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=653)) - Éowyn not only “embodies the full-blooded subjectivity that Tolkien posits as essential for peace,” but is the most complete example of that ideal (43). ([Location 662](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=662)) - arguing that she “was created in the first united music of the Ainur before Melkor tainted the music,” before the creation of Elves and Men (which came with the third theme). She is associated with water which still contains “the echo of the Music of the Ainur more than in any substance else that is in this earth” ([Location 718](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=718)) - In Arda, the prime feminine characteristic is understanding. The prime masculine characteristic is power. Out of their understanding of the nature of beings and things, feminines give counsel; out of their power, masculines act. ([Location 2201](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2201)) - “advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise, and all courses may run ill,” says the elf Gildor Inglorian, when Frodo asks for his counsel (LotR I.3.84). ([Location 2276](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2276)) - Gandalf, who was Olorin in Valinor, is a student of the feminine Vala Nienna of whom, it is said, he learned pity and patience. ([Location 2280](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2280)) - All creation comes into being because of the power of song, as is told in the “Ainulindalë,” the creation tale. That God, Eru Ilúvatar, uses song as His primary mode of creation signals that the Feminine Principle lies at the heart of all creation and has done so from the beginning. Eru is both feminine and masculine: omniscient—all-knowing—and omnipotent—all powerful. ([Location 2290](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2290)) - It should be noted that by the Third Age, the most powerful Elves are not warriors but are conservationists and counselors. ([Location 2314](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2314)) - She falls in love with Faramir, who wins her through feminine tenderness and understanding, and not through his masculine prowess as a warrior. Wise and kind Aragorn knows that this is what she needs; he is aware all along that she is originally drawn to him for all the wrong reasons—for his warrior magnificence and worldly position. ([Location 2380](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2380)) - The Feminine Principle shapes individuals. The Masculine Principle shapes events. But as individuals are shaped by events, so are events determined by individuals: there is no escape from the complementarity of these polar principles. ([Location 2408](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2408)) - consuming, a negative-feminine trait, rather than giving, a positive, outer-directed hence masculine trait. ([Location 2413](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2413)) - Yet all too often the heroines of modern fantasy and science fiction are simply males in drag. They are given swords and guns, phallic implements of the hand, and sent out on warrior-sagas. They are little different in motivation, activity, reaction and basic character from the male warriors. ([Location 2496](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2496)) - The sexual activity of these “liberated” Amazons—meaning liberated from the direct control of men—has taken on some of the more unappealing aspects of our macho male characters: unrelated to bonding or procreation, and exploitative, self-indulgent, serial, and random. This is enantiodromia with a vengeance. ([Location 2498](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2498)) - In short, too many writers appear unable to conceive of how women can be distinct from men without also being a version of, subordinate to, an appendage of, or in competition with men. The presence of women raises serious questions: Who is woman? What is woman? ([Location 2501](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2501)) - Is Lúthien mannish? No. Without recourse to such masculine appurtenances as swords or rayguns, she nevertheless outperforms in courage, daring, resourcefulness, adventure, and sheer power most of our weapon-brandishing heroes and heroines. Her deeds are masculine—active and outer-directed—but her methods are not, and she has not been turned into an imitation male. ([Location 2514](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2514)) - Is Elrond effeminate? No. He embodies characteristics we most often associate with women, for he is hearth-centered, intuitive, caring, and introspective. But we know that Elrond is a match for any he-man type who comes along, for he is neither dependent and passive, nor ineffectual, characteristics also commonly associated with femininity. He is a powerful, respected figure in Middle-earth histories. ([Location 2517](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2517)) - Tolkien’s female characters epitomize his critique of traditional, masculine, and worldly power, offering an alternative that can be summed up as the choice of love over pride, reflective of the Christ-like inversion of power rooted in Scripture, and ultimately more powerful than any domination by use of force. ([Location 2548](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2548)) - “the ability to understand the necessity for locating a ‘paradise’ within” turns out to be “the greatest power of all” ([Location 2554](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2554)) - In The Lord of the Rings, the female characters, in their inversion of power, exhibit a virtue that, in Tolkien’s view, is crucial to salvation—the choice of love over pride—a message central to the novel and one that transcends all gender roles. ([Location 2595](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2595)) - Goldberry is, in fact, mythologically similar to a water nymph or a dryad. ([Location 2608](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2608)) - As the hobbits look at Goldberry upon their leaving, she stands “small and slender like a sunlit flower against the sky” (I.8.136). Despite her lack of overt physical strength, she represents the power of nature, ancient and renewing. ([Location 2616](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2616)) - It is the thought of Arwen that comes to Aragorn at moments offering him a release from the burdens he must carry and allowing him to seem to the eyes of Frodo “clothed in white, a young lord tall and fair,” speaking words in Elvish to Arwen, though she is not physically present ([Location 2637](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2637)) - But what is most crucial about Arwen is her renunciation of Elven immortality for love. ([Location 2643](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2643)) - Even more so than Elrond’s, Arwen’s loss is personal and profound. She herself must suffer separation from all her kindred and experience personal mortality. Of all the characters in The Lord of the Rings, Arwen is the one who makes the Christ-like choice of taking on mortality out of love. ([Location 2646](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2646)) - “Arwen was the first to observe the disquiet growing in him, and gave him her jewel for comfort, and thought of a way of healing him” ([Location 2664](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2664)) - “with the passing of Evenstar no more is said in this book of the days of old” (App.A.I.v.1063). As an Elf-Human, Arwen provides a bridge between the Third Age and the Fourth, and in renouncing her Elven heritage, she embodies in her loss the sacrifice the Elves, in general, willingly endure in accepting with the destruction of the Ring, the end not only of Sauron’s evil, but of all that belongs to “the days of old,” the world of Elves and Dwarves, as well as Orcs and Nazgûl, a world that is being turned over to human beings. ([Location 2682](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2682)) - The kind of power described here is the alternative to traditional, male-oriented power. ([Location 2692](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2692)) - And she tells the Fellowship that she is the one who first summoned the White Council and, “if my designs had not gone amiss, it would have been governed by Gandalf the Grey, and then mayhap things would have gone otherwise” (II.7.357). Clearly, Galadriel is important, not only as a queen among Elves, but as a mover and planner of the great things in Middle-earth, affecting all its peoples. ([Location 2700](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2700)) - Galadriel is willing to endure personal abdication of power out of love, and it is this renunciation that reveals her spiritual and moral strength. ([Location 2716](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2716)) - However, in the same letter, Tolkien says that Galadriel “was pardoned because of her resistance to the final and overwhelming temptation to take the Ring for herself” (407). ([Location 2735](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2735)) - Frodo, in his victory over Sauron, is a prime example of the power of moral and spiritual strength and courage overcoming physical strength. It is fitting that Arwen and Galadriel, being female and therefore (like the hobbit) outside the Man-dominated world of physical prowess, understand Frodo better than do many other characters. They empathize with his suffering and his sacrifice, offering help and consolation through the wisdom and power they possess. ([Location 2777](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2777)) - A key concept involved in eucatastrophe, in a fairy story or its gospel prototype, is the transformation of death. Linda Greenwood argues, “In Tolkien’s work, love motivates faith to reach beyond the boundaries of the known, to rekindle hope in the midst of the uncertain. Love turns death into a gift and transforms defeat into victory” (171). In other words, characters who are ultimately most powerful are those, whether male or female, who willingly lay down their own power and even, in some cases, their lives for others. ([Location 2798](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2798)) - Through Gandalf, Tolkien is expressing a perspective on gender which, while it may not be called explicitly feminist, is certainly sensitive to the pain felt by a woman such as Éowyn living in a male-dominated world; as a woman, Éowyn has been patronizingly kept from activities that she proves herself to have been more than capable of performing. ([Location 2820](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2820)) - Her personal healing involves not only being open to love, but a movement from a desire for power and domination (i.e. as a queen) to the desire to heal and to help things grow. ([Location 2853](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2853)) - “Humility in Tolkien is always ultimately successful,” ([Location 2867](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2867)) - In The Lord of the Rings, the kind of power associated with masculine strength and physical prowess is subverted through female characters who lay down their own power in Christ-like renunciation, part of the eucatastrophe that overturns the strongest evils in the world. ([Location 2878](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2878)) - Tolkien exhibits attitudes toward power that are quite compatible with, if not identical to, the attitudes of many who define themselves as feminists. ([Location 2957](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2957)) - Although he may give pride of place to the male, Tolkien has also given us a number of powerful female characters among the Valar. Varda, for example, although technically second to Manwë, actually has a greater presence in Middle-earth (especially in The Lord of the Rings) due to the reverence in which the Elves hold her and their tendency to call upon her frequently. She is the closest thing Arda has to a Goddess. ([Location 2978](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2978)) - A suggestion of her power and significance is the intriguing fact that Melkor “feared her more than all others whom Eru made” (S 26). ([Location 2983](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2983)) - Yavanna is very much the Earth Mother: her Eldarin surname, Kementari, means Queen of the Earth; her role as the source of growing things is suggestive of Ceres or Demeter. ([Location 2987](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2987)) - The Valier associated with giving rest and healing to the hurt and weary (Estë) or with the Halls of Mandos where the dead wait (Nienna and Vairë) suggest the aspect of Goddess as Crone: that aspect associated with the end of life rather than its beginning. ([Location 2991](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=2991)) - This female restraint of male misuse of power has a precedent among the Maiar: Uinen, Lady of the Seas, not only “can lay calm upon the waves, restraining the wildness of Ossë” her spouse, but she even kept Ossë from succumbing to the temptation of Melkor (S 30). Fëanor, alas, was not so wise. ([Location 3012](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=3012)) - “When Manwë […] ascends his throne and looks forth, if Varda is beside him, he sees further than all other eyes […] And if Manwë is with her, Varda hears more clearly than all other ears” (S 26). ([Location 3019](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=3019)) - We learn that her mother’s name for her was Nerwen, or “man-maiden”: that “she grew to be tall beyond the measure even of the women of the Noldor; she was strong of body, mind, and will.” Her depth of knowledge comes as no surprise, but we also learn that she was “a match for both the loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar” (UT 229, emphasis added). ([Location 3040](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=3040)) - In another description of the people of Haleth, Tolkien states: “One of the strange practices spoken of was that many of their warriors were women, though few of these went abroad to fight in the great battles. This custom was evidently ancient; for their chieftainess Haleth was a renowned Amazon with a picked bodyguard of women” (UT ([Location 3070](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B00SDKSDDK&location=3070))