Making some connections between Omar-Dairon and Brigham

While it may be fairly straight forward to see Omar-Amillo in Dairon (or at least not have too much difficulty in noticing the similarities), connecting these characters to Brigham, in terms of character traits, might seem more difficult.  I will highlight a few possible connections, however, that I see to demonstrate that while we may not be dealing with a master minstrel or loremaster, on the surface, with Brigham, yet there are some fairly striking interests and character traits that connect them.

The connections are not made easier when one has a typical image of Brigham in your mind.  Here is one just as an example:

It is the aged, very serious Brigham, and just looking at this photo makes it harder for me mentally to imagine a dancing, singing, lore-dispensing Vala or Elf master. I can make the imaginative connection from this picture to Laban and Noah (very clearly), and even Wormtongue, but not his earlier incarnations - again, at least visually and imaginatively. It gets even worse as you see the later images of a fairly large, tired, and grumpy looking guy.

But Brigham wasn't always old, and when I pull up a picture of him in his younger days, my imagination at least doesn't rule him completely out.  Here is a younger Brigham:

This is the image of Brigham I can work with mentally in finding our Omar - if images really matter.  They do, though, sometimes when considering a new thing, which is why I guess I went initially down this picture path.  It is not aged, bearded Brigham that I picture doing the most damage and exerting his largest influence and delay on Heaven's plans.  When called as an Apostle, he would have been around 34 years old, and when Joseph died he would have been 43, just a few years older than Joseph.  Much closer to this second picture than the old figure we typically remember (or at least that has been burned into my memory from Sunday School).

Back to things that do matter.  There are two connections I want to highlight here are i) alphabets and ii) voice/ persuasive power, in looking for traces of Omar in Brigham.

First, alphabets.  It may surprise those who are not extremely familiar with early Mormon history that Brigham Young invented a new alphabet.  I say 'invented' rather loosely, as he actually commissioned others to do so, but it was of particular importance to him and it was his idea.  He would take the Latin script and replace it with what was called the Deseret Alphabet, which consisted of a 38-letter, phonetically-based script.  The idea for a new alphabet struck him, apparently, after he took a shorthand class from George Watt, and it was Watt who would go on to create the alphabet, which I guess was based on a system by Isaac Pitman.

It is the idea - the spark for it - that I am looking for here, as well as the subsequent desire to bring this alphabet into being.  I think he came up against a long-forgotten memory, something very deep down in him, that generated this idea.  As he did as Dairon, he would try to replace (at least for his own people) an alphabet system that everyone seemed to be just fine with.  And the results were largely the same.  The alphabet was never adopted enough to replace our English/ Latin one, and unfortunately for Brigham there were no Dwarves loitering about the desert mountains who would recognize him for his great idea.  But this time he was the 'king', and not just an advisor, so he could still keep the idea from completely dying, and ensure it was used in various settings.  Once Brigham died, however, everyone could breathe a sigh of relief on the matter, and the alphabet was dropped like a sack of rocks.

Again, it is important here to note the basis for the idea, rather than its execution.  It is the desire to have done this thing which indicates some bond or connection with Dairon (who had the same desire), and not the fact that in his current incarnation, Brigham lacked the power or knowledge to actually do it himself.  Although, who knows, maybe Dairon had someone else put together his alphabet also, and he just took credit for it.  I wouldn't be surprised.

Even Beings who were of great power now come into this world at this stage of history largely powerless.  We all now come into a world significantly changed from earlier ages, inhabiting bodies that are significantly less suited to us in pretty much every way.  So the ability to execute or follow through on our desires may be much lower than they were, or even completely gone.  But, the desires still remain, even if forgotten for a time, waiting to be activated.   I think this is the story of Brigham and his Deseret Alphabet.

On to his voice and persuasion ability.  For this topic, I will just focus on the succession crisis Mormonism went through after Joseph and Hyrum's murders.  Below, I am going to paste in a statement of what happened, or what was recalled as happening, when Brigham spoke during a meeting which was held where the Mormons would vote on who ought to lead.  Brigham's position was that he and his fellow apostles (and really just him, though he hadn't gotten to that part yet), and not Sidney or anybody else, ought to fill the leadership vacuum. 

The following statement or recollection is from a William Watkins, who was present and 17 years old at the time:

A meeting was appointed for August 8th [1844] by which time Brigham Young and most of the other apostles had returned home. It was at this meeting Sidney Rigdon made a lengthy and tedious speech presenting his claims, telling the people what wonderful things he had planned for them.

. . . The darkness was soon dispelled, for Brigham Young explained before the people on that day, the order of the Priesthood. He was filled with the power of the Holy Ghost. He stood before the people as the Prophet Joseph Smith often had done and we heard the voice of the true shepherd, for he spoke with the voice of Joseph. His manner and appearance were like unto Joseph’s and it was manifested to all those present upon whom the responsibility rested to carry on the work of God and lead the Saints

I should note something pretty important here.  Although there are many other statements like this, there are no contemporaneous journal entries that corroborate that this was actually experienced by those in attendance.  These types of statements were made many years after in recollection, and for that reason should be taken fairly skeptically.  Nevertheless, whether actually experienced or perceived later that it was experienced, something happened in the minds of those who would follow Brigham that made them see him as the heir of Joseph.

For a collection of the written testimonies of Brigham Young's transformation, as well as a discussion about it from an LDS source, follow this link:

https://byustudies.byu.edu/article/the-mantle-of-the-prophet-joseph-passes-to-brother-brigham-a-collective-spiritual-witness/ 

Lets be clear about something:  Joseph and Brigham could not be more different, both in their character and in the way they operated.  I don't think this would be disputed by anybody, even for people who don't believe Brigham is evil like I do.  So, to transform Brigham into someone like Joseph, to hear Joseph's voice in Brigham's, even if only in recollections many years later, is quite the trick!

This experience - Brigham's speech at that meeting - is still taught as a faith-promoting story of one prophet's authority or 'mantle' falling onto another, though I think it may be less emphasized these days (both as a result of people understanding there are no journal entries that day to support it, as well as the LDS Church moving away from all things Brigham, even if almost involuntarily).  To a Brigham follower, then and today, it is a sign that Heaven's approval was on Brigham, and spoke through him that day.

Unsurprisingly, I will argue something very different.  To make my point, or at least show that this event could have been a sign of something very different, I will use the example of Saruman, and the confrontation of Gandalf, Aragorn, Theoden, and company with him at Isengard.  I actually think it is a perfect example of what I am putting forth as an alternative explanation.  To anybody who wants to read or refresh their memory on the encounter, it is found in The Two Towers, in the chapter "The Voice of Saruman".  I won't summarize it anymore here, other than to say that in this example Saruman uses the power of his voice to (almost) convince Theoden and others that he was in fact Good, and that Saruman's voice and person was literally transformed in their eyes as he spoke.

It is in this light that the Brigham Young transformation ought to be considered.  Far from a sign of Heaven's approval, I view it as the work of evil Beings using their own powers to persuade others that Evil is Good.  Whether this transformation occurred at the time of Brigham's speech, or in the ensuing years of being a cursed people under a cursed ruler in a cursed land, the mechanism is basically the same.  Brigham was, in the minds of the people, made to be Joseph, though the truth was as far from this as could be.

Saruman still haunts the Earth, I think, and for all I know he was also involved in adding his own power to the spell that Brigham-Omar-Wormtongue would cast on these poor people.  It is said in folklore that Joseph Smith said Brigham would lead the church into hell if he ever became its president, and that is exactly what he did.  Although there is likely no love between Saruman and Brigham-Wormtongue based on events of the LOTR, still evil Beings seem to find mutual cause and temporary partnerships when it suits their purposes.

Alas, there was no Gandalf or Theoden present for these early Mormons to look to for aid.  Joseph-Pippen and Hyrum-Merry were gone, Brigham had effectively neutralized any influence from Emma, and would have time to counter any claims for her and Joseph's children in the ensuing years.  And so a spell was cast over these people, perhaps similar to the one King Noah held over his people, or Wormtongue held over Theoden, or even that Dairon held over Thingol for a time.  But, again, no servants were sent this time to remove the snake - in this way, Brigham is probably most like Dairon, in fact, who was allowed to betray both Thingol and Dior, to their deaths, with no help provided to those great Beings, just as no assistance was provided to Joseph and Hyrum to remove this scourge.  

Am I saying that Brigham betrayed Joseph and Hyrum?  Yes.  And in more ways than one.  With this statement, people might instantly go to Carthage and ask whether Brigham's hand was in that.  I am not sure.  He did, however, set the wheel in motion through the actions that he already been undertaking with polygamy and his web of deceits that he had been weaving.  And he did take advantage of the ensuing leadership vacancies to his own advantage and ability to now implement and perform evil deeds.  And this is the biggest betrayal of all - Brigham's own evil actions, and what he caused to be done among the Mormons openly in the years following Joseph's death, were all put onto the name and reputation of Joseph wrongfully.

But this is the situation I do not think will last.  Someone or some group of messengers will be sent - finally - and people who have been held under Brigham's long reach and influence, a literal spell, will be freed at last to reconsider some things.  And others who have been kept from the truth, either wanting nothing to do with Joseph Smith due to the lies Brigham placed at his feet, or having left and abandoned Brigham's web of confusion, will perhaps find some things worth exploring.

Brigham is responsible for evil things, going all the way back to Omar, and these will be fully made known.