Dior's Twins and the Problem of Pengolodh and Doug's Doriath account

 A few days ago, I shared this picture of man who had recently lost his twin newborns.

At the time, I had primarily used this as a wink relative to the Twin concept of Dior himself, but also inserted the following brief comment, that was almost more of an afterthought, relative to Dior's own twins:  

Dior himself was also the father of Twins, and he lost them in the events at Doriath, by the way, also at the hands of Brigham Young-Dairon.  That just came to my mind, and I thought I should note that here as well.

This picture and that thought has stayed with me a bit, and the more I look at that picture I see a bereaved Joseph, who lost (and may still be missing) his Twins.  I mean, this is literally a picture of a father, with a shirt showing the name Dior, in mourning for his lost twin children.   I am not sure on their current situation or fate, which is why I added that parentheses about them potentially still be missing, but my current guess is they do remain separated from Asenath and Joseph.   And my guess it this image, or at least my perception of it when I saw it and wrote about it, pointed in some fashion to Joseph and these Twins.

So, I thought I would put some thoughts down relative to them, but also about the events that led to whatever happened to them, specifically the attack on Doriath.  

In Tolkien's stories, the Sons of Feanor demanded that Dior give them the Silmaril that was in his possession.  These Sons had taken an oath to reclaim all three of these Jewels (which had been taken by Morgoth-Melkor in his and Ungoliant's assault on Valinor, where the Two Trees were killed).  The oath had unforeseen consequences, as it seemed that no matter who possessed the Silmarils - whether a Good or Bad Guy - they would have some compulsion come over them to take the Silmarils from whatever unlucky soul possessed them.  The sole exception was Luthien and Beren, who they didn't dare outright attack, for whatever reason.

Dior inherited the Silmaril that his father Beren gained from Morgoth in his effort to with Luthien's hand.  That retrieval of the Silmaril was also where we first meet Dairon, in Tolkien's account, as he was in love with Luthien, and was trying to get Beren out of the picture - he was the one who actually snitched on Beren to Luthien's father, Thingol, when Beren first came on the scene.

In Tolkien's story, the Sons demand the Silmaril, Dior refuses, and they end up attacking Doriath, killing both Dior and Asenath, and of their 3 children, only Elwing is known to survive.   The twins are said to have been left in the forest to die.  However, Tolkien leaves the door open to them having survived, citing some rumors or tales that they hadn't actually perished.  Thus, their fate in that account is left somewhat mysterious and it is not definitely stated that they are dead, only believed to be so.

Pengolodh and Doug take on the events at Doriath and give their own spin or details as to what occurred.  Notably, they assert that the Twins did indeed survive, though they remained separated from their family.  In addition, rather than Asenath being killed, she also survives, though a detail is added that she was sexually assaulted by someone as part of the raid, though the name is left out.  The individual is only described as being "blackest, basest", and we are left to wonder at what evil Being would have committed the crime.

However, most surprising in Pengolodh's telling is that Dairon and his wife Irime make a surprise entrance during the raid.  Dairon is completely absent in Tolkien's account (who actually gives sparse details of the assault), but takes a leading role here.  As they gain control of Menegroth, Dior, Asenath, and their children are herded into the throne room, where the Sons of Feanor make their demands for the Silmaril.  It is into this scene that Dairon appears, and attempts to disarm and distract the situation using his singing and apparently some jokes.  While this doesn't ultimately work, it does distract the Sons long enough for Irime, who had snuck into the room unseen, to untie the children without anyone noticing.  Ultimately, chaos ensues, and both Dior and Dairon die in the event, with Dairon's death being portrayed as an act of self-sacrifice.

I will leave the crime scene as it is there, and will simply state my opinion that Dairon's role in that tale is completely unbelievable.  I've invoked Encyclopedia Brown's sleuthing analogies before, but I don't think it takes even his abilities to deduce something is wrong with this story once you get into the details.  Let me share my thinking about this, and then we can get to the Twins.

Before doing so, and as a quick example as to what I am attempting to do here in this post (and what I am not), readers familiar with Tolkien's stories might be surprised to see Irime's name attached to Dairon (or any of this mess) in that paragraph above briefly summarizing events.  In Tolkien's stories, Dairon goes out in search for Luthien after she follows Beren, and is pretty much never heard from again.  And Irime's story is pretty much never told.  

In Pengolodh's rewrite of Dairon's character, however, he never was in love with Luthien and ends up marrying Irime, who is the daughter of Finwe.  So, Dairon marries into Finwe's House, according to Pengolodh.  I will not take the matter up here (though you can maybe guess as to how truthful I find this tale).  Rather, my objective is to use Pengolodh's own story - as he tells it - to illustrate that the events at Doriath make no sense if you want to keep Dairon as a Good Guy.  Meaning, if he says Dairon is married to Irime, I will use that in the story, without assuming one way or the other its veracity.  My guess (and experience) is that some consider Pengolodh's writing to be pretty much scripture and not to be questioned.  So rather than trying to take that head on, I will show that in this case the story he tells, even assuming everything he says is correct, doesn't add up.

OK, with that said, let's evaluate the crime scene.  In doing so, we should start by asking a very simply question that, as you will see, will break down into nonsense rather quickly if we are being asked to believe the Dairon-as-would-be-hero story.  That question is "What is Dairon even doing there in the first place?".

There are several details that suggest it is odd for him to be there.  

First, it is at night.  The family is sleeping.  There aren't any visitors at this time.  We know the Sons are there, but they are taking part in a surprise raid to get the Silmarils, which definitely explains their presence.  But what about Dairon and Irime - what could possible lead them to be there at Doriath at the exact same time as the Sons' raid in the middle of the night?

Second, Dairon has recently been banned from Doriath by Dior.  Dairon had previously returned to Doriath in an effort to patch things up or offer assistance to Dior.  Dior would have none of it, and blames Dairon (rightly, in my opinion, though perhaps not fully knowing how right he was) for the death of Thingol at the hands of the Dwarves.  He banishes him not only from Doriath, but in so doing, also refers to him as a "not-kin" and a "stranger always".  I think Dior was pretty clear about how he felt about Dairon.  Even taking Pengolodh's tale at face value, we have to understand that Dairon is not welcome in Doriath at this time.

Pengolodh will attempt to smooth this account over by suggesting that Dior was confused by grief, but even if so (and I don't agree with the assessment), at this point Dairon has been banished.  He will be offered to take one thing from the treasury, apparently, and this is where he will actually take two things, stealing a sword.

But combining those two observations together - that it is night time, and thus no visitors, and Dairon has been banished from Doriath - there is quite honestly no reason for Dairon to be there.

Unless.

Unless Dairon knew of both the plot that the Sons were developing AND he knew the time that they would be there.  We will take that on first, and then determine motive about what he would do with that information if he had it (and I suggest he did).

Knowledge of the attack, or at least the way to get it, is in fact what is alluded to in Pengolodh's account.  Dairon returns home after pinching the sword and being panished by Dior, and has a conversation with Irime.  There are some revealing things from the conversation.

First, it is mentioned that in Irime's mind, no one deserves the Silmaril more than Dairon:

... and her knowing, too. that of all his [Thingol's] heirs, to whom that gem ought fall, none more suited Thingol's holding it than Beren, and if he discards it, to Dairon alone should it come, and yet could not

Beren as gone and had already relinquished the Silmaril to Dior.  However, in Irime's opinion, the gem ought to have gone to Dairon.

Earlier, we learn that Dairon is not above justifying taking something so long as he can convince himself it belongs to him.  In stealing the sword, this is how his thoughts are described:

Heirloom or his house, broken if it be, and he alone to carry that sword should be, he told himself; departing a thief of his own house's goods...

In other words, Dairon can rationalize a theft as good as anybody, and he has at least one sympathetic voice in his life, that of his story-wife Irime, who believes the Silmaril ought to belong to Dairon, and not Dior.

We learn, or are reminded I guess, in the discussion between Irime and Dairon that Irime is related to the Sons of Feanor.  Remember, Pengolodh has positioned Dairon as now marrying into Finwe's House, and Irime is the half-sister of the Sons of Feanor, the guys who are plotting to get the Silmaril from Dior.  Irime is portrayed, in fact, as having an internal struggle, because in her thinking that Dairon is the most suited for the Silmaril, this means his claim supersedes even her half-brothers' claims to the gem.  It ought to go to Dairon, she thinks, even though she knows the Sons are tortured in their Oath to claim it.

At the end of the conversation, Irime asks about the Sons, and what the next move is, given that Dior will not give up the Silmaril.  To this, Dairon replies:

They [the Sons of Feanor]?  I cannot see any way now, but by force, retaking.

So Dairon knows what the next move is.  There will be an attack on Doriath in order to retake the Silmaril.

And that is what we see happen, although, as mentioned, not only do the Sons show up, but we have Dairon there as well.

We have established that Dairon and Irime suspected that an attack was coming.  We have also established Irime's own relationship with the Sons of Feanor.  And, importantly, a detail is slipped in Pengolodh's account that the Sons of Feanor knew what had transpired between Dior and Dairon, when Dior called him not-kin and banished him.  In fact, they used that detail as additional justification in attacking Dior.  Here is the rationalizations Pengolodh has them expressing:

And telling those brothers of the contempt of Dior for his own kin, and of their own efforts at peaceful resolution - thus to make their inevitable course the lighter to yoke themselves to, and easier to travel - hoping in the end for some slip of fate, to bring that gem to them, without elda-slaying elda.

It is expressed that at least some of the Sons did not want to attack Dior, but if forced to, they had their own justifications:  i) they tried peacefully and Dior refused, and ii) Dior hates even his own family, as evidenced by his treatment of Dairon.

That situation with Dairon is the only instance we have of anything even remotely supporting a preposition that Dior has 'contempt' for his own kin.  So, our question here should be how did the Sons of Feanor know about it?  Dior wasn't in the habit of talking with them about his personal life, obviously, or sharing such an event.  My view is the Sons would have learned about it from either Dairon or Irime, or both.  They would have been the only ones both positioned and with motive to do so (I will get to motives in just a bit).

I have already given my point of view that Dairon may have earlier shared information with the Dwarves that made them retain the Silmaril from Thingol, and that this may have been part of a plan for him to ultimately possess it, and it may be that we see a similar 'leak' of information to drive a desired outcome here.  This additional information was likely shared by Dairon or Irime, and it may have been given to drive or accelerate the result they wanted - which was an attack on Dior.

So, we have established that Dairon and Irime suspected an attack and that information the Sons had to justify such an attack could have (likely did) come from either of them, as they were the only two people positioned to do so.

How do they then end up in Doriath on the very night of the attack?

There are multiple explanations pulling all of the above together, but really only two major buckets of options or motivations to choose from, and both involve Dairon knowing the timing of the attack in advance.  Remember, he has been banished - he has no reason to be gallivanting about Doriath in the dead of some random night as the story has him doing.

The first bucket of motivations bestows on Dairon more noble and good intentions, and has him there to help Dior and Asenath and fight off the Sons.  This is the angle that Pengolodh tries to sell or imply in his story, though he leaves the matter of why they were there in the first place unanswered (which is the very reason I am tackling it).

In this account, Dairon and Irime would have found out about the timing of the attack and would have been there to assist, as Pengolodh writes of them doing.  Irime will end up saving the Twins, but become separated from Elwing, who will suppose that her family, including her brothers, has died.  Dairon will die in a final act of heroism, by kicking some hidden lever (remember Dairon knows these halls inside and out, a point I will get to also in just a moment) that ends up killing both him and Celegorm.  

That is the first bucket, and again, is part of this overall rewrite of Dairon.  He is found at the crime scene (and I am guessing Pengolodh places him there because he has to - because Dairon really was found there and it has to be explained), but he was there to help save Dior and his family.  A critical question remains unanswered in this bucket, and I will get to that after I tee up the other option for evaluation Dairon's actions.

The second bucket is not so nice, and has a couple flavors to it.  At its most benign, it suggests Dairon obviously knew the timing of the assault, and showed up during it in hopes to use the situation to his advantage.   Basically, that during the melee and confrontation between Dior and the Sons, he could abscond with the Silmaril, since both he and Irime believed it ought to have been given to him after Beren.  This was his opportunity.

The darker story or flavor to this second bucket is even worse, in that it assumes that Dairon was an active participant in fueling the Sons' attack on Doriath.  We know he or Irime already shared his mistreatment by Dior.  We know he understands Doriath and the halls of Menegroth (Dior's home - a series and maze of caves) better than anybody not then living there.  This is an crucial detail. The Sons of Feanor have never been inside Menegroth.  Never.  They would not know how to get around, or where to go.  They had killed Thingol's kin back in Aman (the Teleri) and as such Thingol never let them enter his domain on Middle-earth.  Yet, in Pengolodh's tale, they sneak around Menegroth as if they know exactly where to go and where to find what they need.  How could one of the unnamed sons sneak off to Asenath's room if they hadn't been informed where it was?  How could they surprise the guards and find their way to Dior, and navigate their way around with such skill if they didn't know or had been informed where everything and everyone was, and even the best times to attack?

These are questions that anyone should ask in reading Pengolodh's tale, and the answers point back, in my opinion, to Dairon.  He could have told the Sons timing, how to get in, where to go, everything.  He knew.  And he could have positioned it all and staged it to get what he wanted - a double set up where he walks away with the Silmaril.

Far-fetched?  Only if you don't want to think through motivations and implications.  Otherwise, in any assessment of this situation, these are the questions and the potential motives one should evaluate in answering the most critical and basic of question:  What was Dairon doing there?

Pengolodh is spinning a tale, and that tale relies on some underlying foundation of truth to be believable.  All good counterfeits do, and it could be that there was no way to write Dairon out of the events of Doriath.  He had to be there (because he was), but that presence could be explained and spun in a way as to make him innocent - a hero even - while placing or insinuating perhaps undue or unnecessary blame on the Sons.

And this gets me to an important question for those inclined to believe that Dairon's presence at Doriath during the attack falls under the first bucket, that he was trying to help.  If Dairon knew the attack was coming, and the time he needed to be there, why didn't he warn Dior and Asenath first, before the attack even happened?  Why show up right in the middle of it - in the middle of the night - even necessitating the heroics?  There isn't any good reason I can find for this, and thus that first set of motives which gives Dairon innocence is just not believable to me.  At all.  The only way I can believe Dairon wanted to help, is if he shows up beforehand and warns them.  That didn't happen, and thus no spin or explanation of a story that has Dairon physically at Menegroth during the attack allows me to believe that Dairon was there to help. 

Why is this important to mention?  I am not completely sure, other than to me this story has never added up.  I can suspend my disbelief to a great degree (obviously!), but I have never been able to do so in this story.  The picture of the man bearing the name of Dior on his shirt holding the certificates of his lost twins reminds me of this, has stuck with me, and I am not sure exactly why.  It is said that "wrongs will be made right" in a story yet to come (and which I believe will come from the Rose Stone) and I am guessing a clarification of the account of that assault on Dior, Asenath, and their family is one such wrong.

Further, it may matter because Doug invokes the names of those Twins in his writing, specifically his third book called "Words of them Liberated".  It seems that Doug will, at some point, write some things that will be purported to come from those Twins, or at least in some way attributed to them, and that these writings will be joined with Pengolodh's words as written by that girl named Moira.  Moira' words (channeled from Pengolodh in the same way Doug currently does) are considered the Brass Plates in Pengolodh and Doug's book.  Pengolodh tells Doug that his own writings that come from or is sourced to these Twins will be added to the Brass Plates, in what is perhaps (though I do not know, or had a chance to check into deeply enough) a reference to their own version of the Two Sticks prophecy.  Here is what Doug writes relative to the Twins and a story:

So those Brass Plates (of Nephi's circle retaking) had originaled (a second time!) in this little hovel, poorest maid, alone nearly. And to it (in time) shall be added thy own [Doug's] inscribed, what Hythiach and Hygelac cared to encumber in their long ago realms, hidden; and more also, was appended, here and thereto (too).

The Twins are named Ellurin and Ellured in Tolkien's stories, and although called that in Pengolodh's tale as well, they are also given these other names in his story:  Hythiach and Hygelach, and that is who we see referenced above.  Apparently, Doug will either have written at some point (and they will then be revealed or channeled) or will yet write an account that points to the Twins as his primary source.  Again, I don't know what is intended here or what expectations are concerning this.

And so maybe this is also driving some of my thinking here, in that we should potentially question any account that comes from someone using their names.  As demonstrated above, Pengolodh's account of events that led to their disappearance is just not believable as told or implied, and as such we should seriously question any such account that might appear bearing their names.  And that doesn't mean it would be fabricated or wrong, it just should mean that we have some healthy skepticism in accepting such a story at face value, both with respect to any origin story as well as to its contents.

As I said earlier, it may well be that the Twins remain separated from Joseph.  When the Germans (Glorfindel, Gildor, and John) arrived on our world (at least according to my interpretation of those words in 2019 and 2020), they remarked that they could both see "Aus" (who is Joseph-Dior) and his "Kinder".  That means "Children".  I took a pretty broad view of that phrase in first evaluating it, but perhaps there was also some specificity in it as it relates to Dior's lost Twins.  I mean, my son came home with a golden baseball with the word "Twins" on it just last week, and I had these Beings arriving on our Earth with a Golden Ball of their own (the Anor Stone) remarking that they could look at it and see children.   Perhaps the baseball was a wink that it was the Twins that they saw.

Again, I am not sure what that looks like or what that means, but just throwing it out there that it seems until their fate is settled, and quite frankly until I was assured that they were back with Dior and Asenath, I would treat any words attributed to them with caution.  And I don't even know how relevant that will be, or even if I understand what Pengolodh and Doug mean in relation to their writings (I may have bungled that or not fully understood), but that is my prevailing thought right now, sparked to write about it by the picture of that man who lost his twins, but not a wholly new suspicion for me, and what I wanted to at least capture it.