Míriel

The Broideress

Míriel was a lady of the Noldor in Tirion, famed for the work of her hands. Her surname Serindë, the Broideress, was given because she surpassed every other Elf in needlework and weaving; it was said that any piece of her embroidery was finer than the armour of Men. She had silver hair, unusual among the Noldor, and a quiet voice. She married Finwë, the king, and was loved by him above all things.

Fëanor and departure

Míriel bore one child, Fëanor, whom she named Curufinwë and Finwë named for his spirit of fire. Bearing him drained her; the Elves said that she had poured so much of her strength into her son that nothing was left. She grew weary of life and asked to be released from it. Finwë took her to the gardens of Lórien, hoping the Valar could heal her, but there she lay down to sleep, and her spirit left her body and went to the Halls of Mandos. Her body did not decay, tended by the maidens of Estë, and Finwë visited it often.

The judgement

An Elf who dies is expected in time to return, but Míriel refused. When the Valar debated Finwë's plea to marry again, Míriel was asked whether she would come back and would not. So it was judged that she should remain in Mandos for ever, and Finwë was free to take Indis. This was the first death among the Eldar in Aman and the first case in which the fate of Elves after death was decided by the Valar. In one account she afterwards entered the service of Vairë and wove the histories of her people; the published Silmarillion says only that she stayed in the house of Mandos.

Legacy

Míriel's choice mattered more than her life. Fëanor never forgave his father's remarriage or accepted his half-brothers, and the division between the sons of Míriel and the sons of Indis became the division of the Noldor in exile. Fëanor's skill of hand, which made the Silmarils, was his mother's gift; her surname was also the occasion of a quarrel about the pronunciation of a Quenya sound that Fëanor took up against the house of Indis.

Her spirit went to Mandos and by her own choice never returned to life.