Did the Dunedain Have Marriage Customs Concerning Close Kin?
ANSWER: J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about many generations of Elves, Men, Dwarves, and Hobbits but he wrote relatively little about their marriage customs. In a few stories, such as “Narn i Hin Hurin”, Tolkien explored the theme of marriage between relatives and non-relatives. The marriage between Turin and his sister Nienor/Niniel is unintentional, the result of Glaurung’s mischief in stripping Nienor of her memory and bewildering Turin. But there are references to other marriages between people of relatively close kin, especially among the Dunedain.
For example, among the long-lived descendants of Elros Tar-Minyatur the prospect of marriage “outside the royal line” presented complexities that might lead to grief. There was no way the early generations could avoid marrying outside the Line of Elros — they had no choice. But in the story of “Aldarion and Erendis” their differences in heritage becomes an issue as Erendis waits for Aldarion through many years. He finally weds her somewhat reluctantly though in spirit he is not ready to settle down because her youth and vigor will not last as long as his.
Tolkien implies that many Dunedain made similar marriages when they intermingled with the peoples of Middle-earth. In fact, the Gondorian civil war known as the Kin-strife erupted because of concerns over the “dilution” of the royal bloodline. The social pressure to preserve the purity of the Numenorean heritage is closely associated with a mythological or perhaps superstitious belief that “as the royal bloodline goes, so go all the Dunadan bloodlines”. That is, so long as the kingly family retained the gifts of the ancient Numenoreans, there was hope for the rest of the Dunedain.
This implicit belief underlies many of the concerns of the Dunedain in Middle-earth with “waning”. Through each generation they gradually lost the gifts that the Valar had bestowed upon their ancestors because of the rebellion of the majority of Numenoreans and because they were no longer living in the special land of Numenor but rather had returned to the lands of mortal men.
However, as the populations of the Dunedain dwindled the pressure to preserve their bloodlines became more a necessity and less a social or political interest. For example, the Dunedain of the North were fewer in number than the Dunedain of Gondor. By Aragorn’s day they may all have shared close kinship with each other, as is implied by Aragorn’s naming of Halbarad as a kinsman. Aragorn’s parents, Arathorn and Gilraen, were both descendants of Aranarth, allowing for some distance in their “cousintry” but still implying that members of the royal line had plentiful opportunities to marry each other.
Tolkien would have been aware of ancient traditions among certain Egyptian dynasties for siblings to marry. He also would have been familiar with the complex genealogies of European nobility. Many of the kings and queens of Europe in his day were closely related to each other. The idea of a special royal caste that favored marriages within its own ranks to preserve the rights and privileges of the caste would have been quite familiar to Tolkien and his contemporary readers. He challenged that idea in many ways, by telling stories of Elves marrying Men, Dunedain marrying non-Dunedain, and so forth. The marriage of Faramir and Eowyn is one such example, although Eowyn was also descended from a high family of the Dunedain through a grandmother.
In fact, the marriage of Eomer and the Lothiriel, the daughter of Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth, suggests that the practice of intra-caste marriage continued despite the apparent “mingling” of Dunadan and Rohirric bloodlines. The blending of families and cultures had begun long before.
So far as we know Tolkien did not write an essay on laws and customs among the Dunedain. We must infer what the Dunedain considered to be appropriate or inappropriate from their deeds in the stories and the few details provided by their genealogies.
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