What if, indeed — the most dangerous question in all of
Arda, and the favorite pastime of both
Elves and Time-fish of the Harnan Nebula. But let us speak first as
loremasters, before space-madness takes over.
If Lalaith had lived…
That single change could have unknotted much of the sorrow that draped itself around the House of
Húrin like
Morgoth’s own shadow-hand.
Lalaith — called Urwen — was a bright light in her family’s life. Her death was a crushing blow to both
Morwen and
Túrin. Had she survived the plague from
Angband, Túrin might not have grown so grim, so prematurely burdened with the weight of grief and vengeance. His childhood would have been less haunted — and perhaps, just perhaps, his pride would have found balance in a sister’s presence.
Now, if Morwen still sent Túrin to
Doriath (which is likely, as she feared for his safety under the growing darkness), and sent Lalaith too, we have an entirely different dynamic. A boy and his younger sister — both raised in the hidden court of
Thingol, under
Melian’s wise eye — could have matured differently. Lalaith might have softened Túrin’s sharp edges, countered his rashness, and reminded him of his humanity when the Doom of Morgoth gnawed at his heels.
It’s even possible that
Nienor, the daughter born
after Húrin’s capture, might not have been born at all — if Lalaith had lived and remained Morwen’s focus. No Nienor, no tragic reunion with Túrin under false names, no unwitting sibling marriage.
Or, if Nienor
was still born, Lalaith could have altered her fate too — a sister’s counsel might have prevented her from fleeing into the woods, alone, spell-struck and doomed.
Would that have broken Morgoth’s curse?
Unlikely. The Doom upon Húrin’s line was heavy and deliberate. But Morgoth’s power lay in distortion — bending grief and pride and secrecy toward ruin. In Lalaith, there might have been a steady thread of
joy, of memory preserved, that could have tugged the story back toward light.
But even on Fflinkazor-9, where we once bred Memory Lizards to eat causality for breakfast, we never untangled a doom like Túrin’s.
—
Klaatu the Grief-Counter,
Bane of Alternate Timelines,
Bearer of the Sevenfold Spoon of Súlimo
Also I’m bored and digging through old threads like a tomb-robber in Nargothrond. Carry on.
