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Meril-i-Turinqi

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While the subject of this article is based on official information, it was replaced or emended in later stages of the legendarium. 		!


This article is about the the Lady of Tol Eressëa. For the mother of Gil-galad, see Meril.

Meril-i-Turinqi was the Lady of Tol Eressëa according to an early version of the legendarium in The Book of Lost Tales.[4]

Meril dwelt in a white house inside a great korin of ancient elms, near Tirin na Gilweth in the region of Alalvinórë. She was of great beauty and accompanied by Elven maidens.[2]

Biography

Early life

Meril was one of the Inwir, the royal clan of the Teleri,[5] being a great-granddaughter of Inwë, the King of all the Eldar. However, she was also akin to the Solosimpi, and had long ago seen the Bay of Faëry.[6]

Following the March of Liberation and the war with Melko, Ingil, her grandfather, led the remaining Elves and Gnomes to Tol Eressëa, where they built the city of Koromas, later known as Kôrtirion due to the great tower that Ingil built.[1] Later, Ingil returned to Valinor,[6] and eventually Meril became the Lady of the Isle.

At some point after the March of Liberation, when the Olórë Mallë was blocked and the children of Men could no longer visit Valinor in their sleep, one man nonetheless managed to find his way to the West and sought the Elves' help, to which Meril responded by asking Lindo, an Elf of Tol Eressëa, to devise a plan.[1]

Afterwards, Lindo and his wife Vairë built the Cottage of Lost Play in Kortirion, from which the remaining children of Men that stayed with the Elves went to the Great Lands and comforted the Mannish children living there.[1]

Arrival of Eriol

Around the 5th century AD, Eriol, a Mannish mariner, arrived to Tol Eressëa. After visiting many places on the island, including the Cottage of Lost Play, Littleheart, the son of Voronwë brought him to Meril's house, where Eriol requested to taste limpë, a magic Elven drink, seeking kinship and fellowship with the Elves.[6]

Meril denied, telling him that it is dangerous for a mortal Man to do so, as Ilúvatar made his Children different, and drinking limpë would erase his old desires but awake new ones; she also warned him that he would one day long for his lands again.[2] To explain better she told him the stories of The Chaining of Melko[2] and The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr.[6]

Some time after, Meril visited the Cottage of Lost Play during a festival, before Eriol went to Tavrobel, where Littleheart told the tale of the Fall of Gondolin.[7]

The Faring Forth

According to one outline for the continuation of the Lost Tales, the disastrous Faring Forth, the great expedition to the Great Lands for the rescue of the Lost Elves, was instigated prematurely by Eriol himself against Meril's command, who, longing for his home, returned to the Great Lands and "preached" of the Faring Forth. Thus, due to Eriol's impatience and recklessness, the Faring Forth was doomed to fail.[8]

Nothing else is known about Meril, or her fate after the Second Faring Forth.

Etymology

Meril-i-Turinqi is a Quenya name meaning "Queen of Flowers", being a combination of meril ("flowers"), i ("the"), and turinqi ("queen").[9]

An alternative spelling of the name was Meril-i-Turinqui.[2]

An earlier Qenya form of the name was Veril-i-Turinqi.[10]

The Gnomish cognate for Meril-i-Turinqi is Gwidhil-i-Durinthi[11] (changed from Gwedhil) or Gwithil-i-Durinthi.[12]

Earlier Gnomish versions of the name include: Miril-i-durwin,[13] Gwedhil Turlin,[14] (Gwedhil Turlin was changed from Turlith to Turing to Turingwith to Gwethil Turingwith and then to the final form) and Gwidhil (Gwedda) Durinthir[15] with Gwedda being a diminutive of Gwidhil, later changed to Gwetha.[12]

In other versions

In an earlier text in the Qenya Lexicon, the role of Meril-i-Turinqi was instead given to Erinti, at that time imagined as the Vala of love, music, beauty and purity who, like Meril in the later texts, lived in a korin of elms in the center of Tol Eressëa.[16]

According to John Garth, the character of Galadriel from The Lord of the Rings might have been inspired by Meril-i-Turinqi.[17]

In one text from the later legendarium, the name Meril appears as the name of the mother of Gil-galad.[18]

Translations

Foreign Language Translated name
Danish Meril-i-Turinqi (dronning af Tol Eressëa)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, I: "The Cottage of Lost Play", pgs. 16, 19-20
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, IV: "The Chaining of Melko", pgs. 95-8
  3. ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, Index
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, chapter VIII: "The Tale of the Sun and Moon", pg. 175
  5. ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, II: "The Music of the Ainur", Commentary on the Link between The Cottage of Lost Play and The Music of the Ainur, pgs. 50, 51-2
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, V: "The Coming of the Elves and the Making of Kôr", pgs. 113, 129
  7. ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. II: The Book of Lost Tales Part Two, III: "The Fall of Gondolin", pgs. 144-5
  8. ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. II: The Book of Lost Tales Part Two, VI: "The History of Eriol or Ælfwine and the End of the Tales", outline "14", pg. 294
  9. ↑ "Meril-i-Turinqi" on eldamo.org
  10. ↑ Parma Eldalamberon XII, pg. xx
  11. ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. I: The Book of Lost Tales Part One, Appendix: Names in the Lost Tales – Part I , entry "Meril-i-Turinqi"
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Parma Eldalamberon XI, pg. 46
  13. ↑ Parma Eldalamberon XIII, "Heraldic Devices of Tol Erethrin", pg. 95
  14. ↑ Parma Eldalamberon XIII, "Early Chart of Names", pg. 99
  15. ↑ Parma Eldalamberon XV, "Names and Required Alterations", pg. 7
  16. ↑ Parma Eldalamberon XII, pg. 36
  17. ↑ John Garth, Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth, Part three, 12: Tol Withernon and Fladweth Amrod, pg. 228
  18. ↑ The History of Middle-earth, Vol. XI: The War of the Jewels, Part Two: The Later Quenta Silmarillion, "Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin (Chapter 15)", pg. 242