HoMe Rants, Part I

[saelind]

LOOK TOLKIEN I know that age differences were more accepted of a thing way back in the day and I, usually, do not have a problem with major age differences! Mostly because it would be vastly hypocritical of me to say otherwise, because let's be real, if 87-year-old Aragorn were to drop on my doorstep and propose marriage to 23-year-old me I would accept in a heartbeat.

BUT. IT ONLY WORKS IF BOTH PARTIES ARE EQUALLY INTERESTED. And I'm re-reading the "Making of Appendix A" right now for my B2MeM fic, and he implies quite heavily that Gilraen actually had no interest in marrying Arathorn because she was so young, and went to her parents for advice and Ivorwen convinced her to do it because ~destiny~. Which I just CANNOT ACCEPT, SO CREEPY, WHY WOULD YOU EVER, thank you for actually keeping that out of the Appendices Tolkien aaaagh. Also that makes Ivorwen the worst advice-giver ever and not the greatest mom, which is the EXACT OPPOSITE of my characterization of her lolol.

At this point I am going off the "take what you like and ignore the rest" rule in terms of using HoMe to dictate my own fic construction, i.e. I am fully accepting everything he tells us about the Dunedain because I like it and it jives well with what I've already envisioned but COMPLETELY DISREGARDING his expanded description of Arathorn's courtship of Gilraen because it's not in the actual Appendices, i'm allowed to make my own interpretations, and JESUS. H. CHRIST.

The only way that love story is acceptable to me is that a mature hot scruffy Ranger drops on Gilraen's doorstep and she's like "HELLO SIR YOU ARE ATTRACTIVE, OH WAIT YOU'RE PROPOSING MARRIAGE TO ME OH SURE WHY WAIT YOU'RE CUTE LET'S MAKE BABIES"


ETA: zopyrus has way better reading comprehension than me and pointed out that there are absolutely two ways to interpret the statement that "Gilraen did not yet desire to be a wife." It never says she's not interested in Arathorn (It also never says she is, but still.), it just says that she sensibly doesn't want to rush into marriage, regardless of her feelings for him. She doesn't turn him down, she goes to her parents for advice, because she feels conflicted. SO none of this in fact does counter my interpretation of the situation/necessarily create a creepiness factor, so I retract some of my capslocked ranting :P

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

I've never envisioned Gilraen as in love with Arathorn but feel she grew to love him later in the marriage. Have you read my two stories about them? I believe Ivorwen sensed that everyone's future hung on the marriage of these two and for that reason she encouraged her daughter to accept Arathorn. I would imagine that a 67 year Dunedain would be like a 35-40 year old in our society. It would be wrong and creepy if Gilraen were forced, but I believe she chose freely.