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It's All in the Family: The Finweans - Page 10

© Michael Martinez

Fingolfin's wife was Anaire. She was a Noldo but all we are told of her is that she was a friend to Earwen (Finarfin's wife) and that she refused to follow Fingolfin into exile "largely because of her friendship with Earwen". Earwen was the daughter of Olwe of Alqualonde. She had silver hair like other members of her family. In an early history of Galadriel published in Unfinished Tales, Tolkien wrote that Finrod "had also from his Telerin mother a love of the sea and dreams of far lands that he had never seen". It is not clear if Earwen was old enough to have been born in Middle-earth, but the text seems to imply that the Teleri of Alqualonde (or at least Earwen) were not wholly alienated from Middle-earth. The Teleri had spent a great deal of time living on the isle of Tol Eressea before Ulmo commanded Osse to teach them the craft of ship-building so they could finally sail to Aman and join the other Eldar there. Feanor and Nerdanel had seven sons, as The Silmarillion tells us: Maedhros, Maglor, Celegorm, Curufin, Caranthir, Amrod, and Amras. The Shibboleth says their father-names (given in Quenya) were Nelyafinwe ("Finwe Third", as in Finwe III, Finwe the Third), Kanafinwe, Kurufinwe (spelled Curufinwe in The Silmarillion), Morifinwe, Pityafinwe ("Little Finwe"), and Telufinwe ("Last Finwe"). Maedhros is said to be the most handsome of the sons, and Curufin was their father's favorite because he was most like Feanor in spirit and skill. Curufin also resembled his father more closely than the other sons. Their mother-names were Maitimo, Makalaure, Tyelkormo, Atarinke ("Little Father"), Carnistir ("Red Faced"), Ambarusso and Ambarusso. The two Ambarussos were twins and Feanor asked Nerdanel to give one of them a different name. She chose Umbarto ("Fated"), which Feanor changed to Ambarto ("Exalted"), and he gave that name to the youngest. "The Shibboleth of Feanor" says that Nerdanel asked Feanor to leave her the twins, or at least one of them, when he was preparing to lead the Noldor into exile. He refused, rebuking her for following Aule's advice instead of her husband's will, and Nerdanel foretold that one of the sons would not reach Middle-earth. When Feanor burned the stolen ships at Losgar, he assembled his sons on the shore and only found six of them. Then Ambarussa told him that Ambarto had slept on his ship. "That ship I destroyed first," Feanor replied. "Then right you gave the name to youngest of your children," Ambarussa replied, "and Umbarto 'The Fated' was its true form." An end note says that Ambarussa's name became Amros in Sindarin (not Amrod, as recorded in The Silmarillion). Wherever The Silmarillion speaks of Amrod and Amras after the burning at Losgar, it is more correct to understand that only Amros was present.

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