Those annoying Elven issues

How did the line of Dol Amroth contain Elven blood?

During the First Age, there were three sets of marriages in which the blood of the Eldar became mingled with the blood of both Men and Maiar. These were:

– the marriage of Thingol (elf) and Melian (Maia)
– the marriage of Lúthien (elf) and Beren (mortal)
– the marriage of Idril (elf) and Tuor (mortal)

From these three unions we get every case of Elven interracial character – with one exception, the Elven line of Dol Amroth.

Right. So where do *they* come from? Well, a fourth pairing is mentioned, in passing in TFotR and in more detail in Unfinished Tales. It seems that there was an ancient Elvish settlement near Dol Amroth, inhabited by Silvan elves from Lórien, and among the people of Dol Amroth there was a legend that one of the earliest members of the princes’ line married an elf-maid, even maybe Nimrodel herself. However, from UT, it seems that the union was actually that of Imrazor and Mithrellas, one of Nimrodel’s handmaidens:

“According to the same traditions Galador was the son of Imrazor the Numenorean, who dwelt in Belfalas, and the Elven-lady Mithrellas. She was one of the companions of Nimrodel, among many of the Elves that fled to the coast about the year 1980 of the Third Age, when evil arose in Moria; and Nimrodel and her maidens strayed in the wooded hills, and were lost. But in this tale it is said that Imrazor harboured Mithrellas, and took her to wife. But when she had borne him a son, Galador, and a daughter, Gilmith, she slipped away by night and he saw her no more. But though Mithrellas was of the lesser Silvan race ( and not of the High Elves or the Grey) it was ever held that the house and kin of the Lords of Dol Amroth was noble by blood as they were fair in face and mind.”
(Unfinished Tales, The History of Galadriel and Celeborn)

So, it is clear that there were more elven-mortal unions that just the “big three”, this presumably just being one example recorded because of the lineage of Dol Amroth princes.

So what makes the “big three” more important? Well, they were from the First Age, and affect the lineage of many important characters in Middle-earth. They also involved Elves of importance themselves, and of Elven royalty, rather than simply a Sinda companion.

Reference

– Unfinished Tales

Bibliography

– The Silmarillion

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