XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: Troels@ThisIsFake.invalid   
      
   In message    
   Stan Brown  spoke these staves:   
      
   > On Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:14:25 -0400, Chris Hoelscher wrote:   
   >> when Bregolas ( who seemingly was "leader/king" of the House of   
   >> Beor) died in 455 First Age, it appears that the   
   >> leadership/kingship passed to Barahir. My question is: why?   
   >> Bregolas had two living sones at the time of his death:   
   >   
   > In our world, the Germanic tribes and pre-1066 kingdoms of England   
   > did not follow primogeniture.  Generally the successor was a near   
   > relative of the late king, but an adult was almost always   
   > preferred over a child.  So if the king left sons who were still   
   > boys, and an adult brother, the brother was more likely to be   
   > chosen.  But that's the key: kings were chosen, always in theory   
   > and usually in fact.   
      
      
      
   > Tolkien seems to have adapted elements of the culture of the   
   > Anglo- Saxons not only for the Rohirrim but also for the Edain of   
   > the First Age.  I don't know if he ever discussed it in writing,   
   > but it seems quite reasonable to me that the headship of the house   
   > of Bëor would be elective, and that a adult brother would be   
   > chosen over a minor son.   
      
   Just to get the chronology in order, Bregolas and Barahir are the   
   fifth generation after Bëor (in the pre-LotR versions, they had been   
   sons of Bëor, but in the later versions a couple of centuries and   
   four generations were inserted), and their sons, then (obviously),   
   are the sixth generation. According to the genealogical table in /The   
   War of the Jewels/ their birth years were   
      
   393: Bregolas, son of Bregor   
   400: Barahir, son of Bregor   
   420: Baragund, son of Bregolas   
   422: Belegund, son of Bregolas   
   432: Beren, son of Barahir   
      
   In the four hundred and fifty-fifth year of the Sun was the Battle of   
   Sudden Flame in which the leaguer of of Angband was broken. At that   
   time Bregolas would have been 62, Barahir 55, Baragund 35, Belegund   
   33 and Beren 23. This is described in the published /Silmarillion/   
       But when the sixth generation of Men after Bëor and Marach   
       were not yet come to full manhood   
   This seems to bear out Stan's suggestions, though at 35 and 33 I   
   would have thought that Baragund and Belegund would think that they   
   had come to 'full manhood' (in particular when thinking of their   
   wives and daughters at home: Morwen was 12 and Rían 5).  However, it   
   may be that this statement in the Silm is intended to strengthen the   
   case of Barahir by emphasizing the youth (not to say immaturity) of   
   the sons of Bregolas.   
      
   The death of Bregolas and Barahir's lordship is described in this   
   paragraph from the published Silm:   
         The sons of Finarfin bore most heavily the brunt of the   
       assault, and Angrod and Aegnor were slain; beside them fell   
       Bregolas lord of the house of Bëor, and a great part of the   
       warriors of that people. But Barahir the brother of   
       Bregolas was in the fighting farther westward, near to the   
       Pass of Sirion. There King Finrod Felagund, hastening from   
       the south, was cut off from his people and surrounded with   
       small company in the Pen of Serech; and he would have been   
       slain or taken, but Barahir came up with the bravest of his   
       men and rescued him, and made a wall of spears about him;   
       and they cut their way out of the battle with great loss.   
       Thus Felagund escaped, and returned to his deep fortress of   
       Nargothrond; but he swore an oath of abiding friendship and   
       aid in every need to Barahir and all his kin, and in token   
       of his vow he gave to Barahir his ring. Barahir was now by   
       right lord of the house of Bëor, and he returned to   
       Dorthonion; but most of his people fled from their homes and   
       took refuge in the fastness of Hithlum.   
   (/The Silmarillion/, part 3 QS, ch. 18 'Of the Ruin of Beleriand and   
   the Fall of Fingolfin')   
      
   While it is true that Tolkien needed the ring given to Barahir to   
   pass on to Beren, this could have been achieved also by a genealogy   
   that would seem (by modern standards) to let Barahir be before   
   Baragund and Belegund in the order of succession. That Tolkien did   
   not choose such a course may imply that he thought rather along he   
   lines that Stan suggests -- that he was the oldest surviving male-   
   line descendant of Bëor and therefore the lordship was, by right,   
   his.   
      
   If further strengthening of Barahir's claim is needed, I would remind   
   you of the meaning of the word /Bëor/ in the tongue of Men: vassal.   
   It would seem to me that the king has some say in who gets to be the   
   lord of the house of vassals, and in this case the king was Finrod   
   Felagund, and so that the right by which Barahir became lord of the   
   house of Bëor also derives from the favour that Finrod Felagund   
   bestowes upon him in gratitude.   
      
   --   
   Troels Forchhammer    
   Valid e-mail is    
   Please put [AFT], [RABT] or 'Tolkien' in subject.   
      
       The "paradox" is only a conflict between reality and your   
       feeling of what reality "ought to be".   
    - Richard Feynman   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)