Saeros
the haughty counsellor of Doriath; the enemy of Túrin's youth
Name and Office
Saeros — a councillor of Thingol of Doriath, “of the Nando” — he was of an Elvish house (of the Green-elves’ kindred by blood — one tradition of the Nandor), proud and bitter, “shrewd-tongued”, and he held the mortal fosterling Túrin in contempt.
The Shame and the Death
- The taunt: In the hall of Menegroth, Saeros, mocking Túrin’s Mannish wildness before the court (“the Mortal”), taunted the foster-son of the king so cruelly that the boy (drawn by the “curse” of his temper) struck; and in the flight that followed, Saeros, pursuing with his people, was stripped and chased naked by Túrin through Doriath to a ravine, where “fleeing madly… he fell… and was dashed to death” — a death by the mere terror of the hunt, which Túrin had not slain (the Quenta: — the boy was innocent of the actual blow).
- The flight of Túrin: Fearing (despite Melian’s intercession) the doom, Túrin chose the self-exile and fled Doriath into the wild — “the deed of the curse” — the first great turn of the tragedy set in motion by the taunt of the proud Elf.
Significance
Saeros is the provocateur of Túrin’s youth — the haughty, teasing courtier whose death (accidental in the chase, self-inflicted in his terror) drives the foster-boy into the wilds and begins the long chain of the curse: a small, ugly, unnecessary hatred at the heart of a great tragedy.
Related
Werke: die Quellen sind seitenübergreifend die Bücher von J.R.R. und Christopher Tolkien (Silmarillion, Hobbit, Herr der Ringe, Unfinished Tales, History of Middle-earth, Nature of Middle-earth u. a.) — eigene Zusammenfassung. Siehe die Concordance und den README der Quelle für die Einzelbelege.
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