30-Day Character Challenge: Celebrimbor, Day 1

[cloudyhymns]

This is part of an ongoing challenge for SWG's Jubilee: 30-Day Character Study. Cross-posted to the Silmarillion Writer's Guild at Celebrimbor: 30-Day Character Study.

Prior days: none.

Prompt 1: Drop Everything and Read, Part One. Take at least a half-hour to read what the texts say about your chosen character.

Notes and thoughts on Celebrimbor's mentions in-text.

On textual timelines and events as are known: The Nature of Middle Earth, or NoME, indicates that Celebrimbor was a Teler and followed Celeborn across the sea (NoME, 178). If this is true, then Celebrimbor was born to the Teleri; I would therefore assume, although it is not specified, that this was before the Exile. Therefore, Celebrimbor must have been born when Curufin was relatively young, before the killing of Finwë and theft of the Silmarils (Y.T. 1495/V.Y. 4995).¹

Celebrimbor's time in Nargothrond is (frustratingly!) not precisely defined. Curufin and Celegorm arrived in Nargothrond from F.A. 455, so it is possible that Celebrimbor arrived with them (The Grey Annals: will update when I have my book unpacked from moving shipment). Celebrimbor stayed with Orodreth in Nargothrond (The Silmarillion, 176), and may have remained there until its destruction in F.A. 495 (The Children of Húrin, 495). One omission of note on Tolkien's part is that Celebrimbor is not listed as part of the company Gwindor took to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad--and he could not have participated at all, since only one member returned (The Silmarillion, 188-189).

Celebrimbor was therefore the only living Fëanorian to not participate in the Union of Maedhros and not fight in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, and I find this a fascinating aspect of his history as a character. Does this reflect his eventual downfall? Much to think about!

As expected, Celebrimbor's later life is glossed over in The Silmarillion, pages 286-288. He is mentioned a handful of times, largely with respect to his smith-craft.

The Silmarillion, The Nature of Middle Earth, and other works don't go into much detail about Celebrimbor's origins and backstory. I puzzled thorugh the pre-Eregion chronology a bit, but there's a lot that's unclear still. I'm looking forward to going through the rest of HoME over time to pick up more references to him, but I'm not sure how many others there are!

¹ Interestingly, Amazon's Rings of Power seems to allude to this with their Celebrimbor. He is portrayed as significantly older than most depictions of Celebrimbor, and often is a foil for RoP's Círdan--I do not think this is a mistake, and I suspect they were going for the "born under the light of the Trees, half-Teleri Celebrimbor" angle that I ran into in my research here.