Míriel
Serindë; the Needle-woman; mother of Fëanor
Serindë
Names and Title
Míriel — Serindë (“the Needle-woman”), the most skilled of the Noldor in embroidery and weaving; the first wife of ‘’‘Finwë’‘’ and mother of ‘’‘Fëanor’‘’.
The mother of Fëanor
The
Quenta records how she gave birth to the greatest of the Eldar: “her strength was spent in the bearing of Fëanor, and she wearied of life”. She “laid her down to sleep”, and though her spirit (fëa) lingered for a while in the house, she would not return to her body; at last she passed to the Halls of Mandos — the first of the Elves to “die” in Aman — and there she dwelt, spinning the tapestries of the weaver Vairë.e first of the Elves to “die” in Aman, releasing her body and passing to the Halls of Mandos. There she dwelt (ë), and there — in Tolkien’s fullest account (Morgoth’s Ring, the Athrabeth and “Laws and Customs”) — she was a special case: the Valar permitted her… counsel — she had given birth to the “Spirit of Fire”, whose coming had consumed her, and she judged it just to remain apart.
Significance
Míriel’s fate is the hinge of two doctrines of the mythology:
- The uniqueness of Finwë’s remarriage: because Míriel would not return, Finwë took a second wife (Indis) — the first and only (lawfully) such case among the Eldar, the cause of the estrangement of the houses.
- The tragedy of Fëanor: the mother-son tie — she had spent herself for his fire — accompanied the prophecy that his flame was the doom of the Noldor. Her song and story, woven in Mandos, is one of the quietly devastating pages of the legendarium — the mother who laid down the weight of the world rather than raise the child who would break it.