Silmarillion Sunderings

When Tolkien wrote The Silmarillion, one of the things he really discussed a lot was the way in which communities of peoples (elves, men, dwarves) would be sundered apart and then reunited later, only to find their once-common languages had changed. 

JRRT loved languages and the evolution of them. He loved the idea of relics of the past ages being found and examined. I love this too. In fact, one of my earliest memories of complete delight was when my mom read to me about the Fellowship finding the journal while in Moria, how it was bloodstained and tattered. That just thrilled some part of me and the memory of that moment has stayed with me since. I think it was in that very second that I fell in love with like 75% of the stuff I love now. 

The thing is, in order to have this kind of sundering of languages and groups of people, you also, clearly, have to have movement of said people. So a large part of earlier stories deal with people being torn apart from one another, having to see refuge in places, having to find new areas to settle after their cities have been destroyed, or finding themselves in exile after their angry king goes crazy because someone killed his dad and stole his jewels. You know, as one does. 

Tolkien also has people who have to immigrate after environmental disasters. Large landmasses fall into the ocean on occasion. People have to seek safety, rebuild, try to keep a level of memory with the places they lost. 

I think this idea reaches an even greater level of poignancy when it comes to the elves. People like Cirdan or Galadriel or Elrond find themselves living with thousands of years of memory full of other places, other lands, other homes. And while it is interesting to see how well people can regroup and rebuild, the sadness of what has been lost never really goes away. Then again, how could it?