Triangle Tolkienists

Let’s dip back into The History of Middle-earth, this time Vol. 10: Morgoth’s Ring.

This reading, which is also titled Of Death and the Children of Eru, and the Marring of Men, describes a discussion between Finrod Felagund and a mortal woman, Andreth, concerning the differing fates of Elves and Men.

Andreth was a woman of the House of Bëor who fell in love with Aegnor, son of Finarfin. The two were unable to be together because the Eldar do not marry during times of war. They remained unmarried and childless, and Andreth became a wise-woman of her people. Aegnor’s eldest brother, Finrod, befriended Andreth and spoke with her regarding the wisdom and lore of Men, which often differed from the beliefs of the Elves. The Athrabeth is one such conversation.

In his notes on the text, Christopher Tolkien wrote: The Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth perhaps marks the culmination of my father’s thought on the relation of Elves and Men, in Finrod’s exalted vision of the original design of Eru for Mankind, but his central purpose was to explore fully for the first time the nature of ‘the Marring of Men’.

The Athrabeth can be found in Morgoth’s Ring. The later volumes of HoME currently seem to be available new only as a boxed set in the US, but you can purchase this volume by itself as an ebook, order the paperback directly from the UK, or find a secondhand copy.

Quick rundown of how our virtual book club meetings work:

We meet on Discord – click here to join.

Before or during the meeting, submit your questions or topics for discussion in the designated Discord thread (which is separate from the discussion channel). Throughout the meeting, the moderator will pull from the submitted questions and invite attendees to ask their own questions.

You don’t need a camera or a microphone to participate – most of us prefer to type. If you want to hop into voice chat during the meeting, you are welcome to do so, but the voice channel will not be moderated.