Caranthir the Slandered: Narrative Bias, Cross-Cultural Alliances, and Fëanor’s Angriest Son

Published on 26 July 2018 | Essay

Caranthir is relentlessly described in The Silmarillion as dark and harsh and haughty, yet these descriptions bear little resemblance to his actual deeds. Instead, I argue in this essay, Caranthir serves as one of the rare cosmopolitans of the Noldor and is deliberately cast by the Silmarillion's pseudohistorical narrator as a foil to the equally cosmopolitan Finrod Felagund in order to elevate the reputation of the latter.