Feanor's False Teeth

From a subthread of "Tolkien is a religion" in rec.arts.books.tolkien by Andy Johnson <dogvo@enid.com>, Gwidon S. Naskrent <naskrent@ananke.amu.edu.pl>, and William Hsu <w-hsu@ai.uiuc.edu> dated 04 Jan 1997 - 05 Jan 1997.

For half a century, Tolkien linguists have pored over many a tome of notes and scoured through the most obscure of the late Professor's letters, trying to glean a bit more information about the origins of Quenya and Sindarin. Recent breakthroughs by some scholars have produced evidence that many of the burning questions now extant in the field of Tolkienian language studies can be answered by simply examining the speech impediments and dental records of certain prominent Elven kings and princes of the First Age - not to mention some of the visual impairments of members of their retinue...

Posted by Andy Johnston <dogvo@enid.com>:

P.S.:  I heard that Feanor had false teeth.

Posted by Gwidon Naskrent <naskrent@ananke.amu.edu.pl>:

I have heard that he had a speaking defect, too. See TolkLang volume 21
for explanations.

Posted by William Hsu <w-hsu@ai.uiuc.edu>:

This is apocryphal.  The Noldor of Maedhros's house explain:

"Our Master, to whom the sword of his father passed after he fell upon
the field of Dor Daedeloth, kept it as an heirloom of the heirs of Finwe.
It was mate to Ringil and named Anganaur [Q. `Iron of Fire'], and a heavy
curse lay upon it since that dark day in Tirion when Feanor drew it in
anger against his brother.  Because of this curse and because of the loss
of his right hand, our Master chose a lesser blade and forbade any to
bear that one.  Daeron of Doriath, however, being somewhat nearsighted
[*], transcribed its name as Ancanaur [Q. `Jaws of Fire'], so that the
rumor arose among the enemies of the Noldor that our late King required
the use of dentures..."

(Besides, the Silmarillion says: "... so fiery was his spirit that
as it sped his body fell to ash, and was borne away like smoke", without
any modifier such as, "except for his teeth, which were crafted of a
substance so durable that not until Feanor returns shall it be revealed
how they were shaped".)

[*] See the story of how he mistook Beren for a Petty-Dwarf.