Q: Who Impersonated Amlach at the Council of Estolad?
ANSWER: In The Silmarillion the Edain dwelling in Estolad (primarily Marachians and Beorians) hold a great council in the First Age year of the Sun 470, at which they debate whether they should remain in Beleriand or flee back into the east (to escape the wars with Morgoth).
One of the leaders of dissent is named as Amlach, son of Imlach, son of Marach. According to the story, someone impersonates Amlach and speaks against aiding the Eldar. When Amlach learns of the impersonation he repents of his dissent and immediately take service with Maedhros to fight against Morgoth’s forces.
Readers occasionally like to speculate who might have been the impersonator. Some people suggest it could have been Morgoth. However, much earlier in The Silmarillion the narrative states that Morgoth was never able to change his shape again after imbuing so much of his strength into Ungoliant and subsequently fighting with her. He would remain in the form of a gigantic dark humanoid until he was captured and executed by Manwe and Namo (aka Mandos).
Although Morgoth had many Umaiaric servants who may have been capable of impersonating Amlach, Sauron strikes me as a reasonable candidate for two reasons. First, he retained his ability to change shape and had a reputation for being a master of shapes (a fact confirmed by his frequent shape changes in his battle with Huan). Second, Sauron was also a master of phantoms, and he could create convincing illusions that deceived people into thinking they were interacting with real people. By one such deceit was he able to snare Gorlim the Unhappy, the companion of Barahir (father of Beren) who betrayed Barahir and his men to Sauron’s forces.
Nonetheless, J.R.R. Tolkien seems to have left this question unanswered for none of his point-of-view historians (the putative sources for the various stories) would have known exactly who the imposter was or how he pulled off the deception.
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Michael
After following your post for a short time, I’ve come to believe short of Tolkien telling his side….you ARE the most knowledgeable person on all things Tolkien. I AM purchasing your book but, I’d really like to know, besides your love of Sci-Fi, just what captured your attention and created this drive to know all about Tolkien’s letters and his books? Lastly….I’m thinking Sauron too.
I just sort of fell into it. There was no one thing. Other than that I tend to be argumentative, I suppose. 🙂
Well I think it’s reasonable to assume that there were also other Maiar (maybe even lesser in stature or similar in power and skill to top ranking ones) who could do the work. We have reference to spies who assumed fair forms, so Sauron is not the only option, Balrogs and Sauron were not the only of the divine Ainur who served Morgoth. But this deceit is something Sauron would be proud of 🙂 so maybe it was him.