nelya-finwe

[nelya-finwe]

Not the Galadriel anon but I would love to know your thoughts on her character evolution ❤️

LOL ok so Galadriel's character evolution is one of the most standout Pure IdeologyTM parts of the legendarium, where you can see Tolkien actively struggling to reconcile the fact that she's meant to be a) faithful to the Valar with b) the fact that everything she does between the First Age to the beginning of the Third is a fuck you to the Valar and c) this completely upends his neat little moral ordering of the world in which faithful to the Valar = ontologically good and rebellious against the Valar = ontologically bad. (There is also the Pure IdeologyTM of "women are faithful to the Valar and therefore are spiritually good" v. "men are unfaithful to the Valar and therefore do evil")

At a higher level its also about resolving Tolkien's own internal narrative tension between "the Valar are good and incapable of evil" and "the Valar are consistently making mistakes that fuck up the lives of others". I don't think the two are necessarily irreconcilable, but if you couple this with the second theological construction on which Tolkien hinges his world, "faithful to the Valar = ontologically good" and "unfaithful = bad", you do end up in a situation where the Elves cannot actually, at any point, meaningfully disagree with the choices of the Valar, or contradict them, without becoming "bad" or "evil", even when the Valar are making choices that either cause them harm or which generate pain/dissension/upset.

These contortions reach their max. with the way Galadriel evolves from having taken part in the rebellion against the Valar, to "well she did, but she fought against Feanor in the Kinslaying" (Shibboleth) to "well she didn't do anything bad at all and she was actually opposed to Feanor all along" (Unfinished Tales). However, this all bumps up against the fact that in LOTR itself, Galadriel mentions she has "passed the test" and now she can return to the West. What is this test? Otherwise, we must accept the possibility that Galadriel is not contiguously good, but a character who passes from being morally wrong into being morally good - while Galadriel herself (and also the reader) rebels against this framing, because Galadriel can in no way be said to bear the same ethical/moral responsibility or guilt as Feanor and his sons.

Its a fascinating Gordian knot and one that is simply resolved if you abandon the Catholicism analogy, but unfortunately, I don't think Tolkien ever got there and so Galadriel's backstory is him just sort of, putting his finger on the scales over and over, to make these religious contradictions work, and being unable to do so. He should have just had a crisis of faith like the rest of us, realised this is impossible, and then said God is dead.

[nelya-finwe]

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring dir. Peter Jackson (Released 19 December 2001)

[nelya-finwe]

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring dir. Peter Jackson (Released 19 December 2001)

[nelya-finwe]

laura’s endless list of favourites ● movies ➼ lord of the rings: the two towers "What are we holding onto, Sam?" "That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it's worth fighting for."

[nelya-finwe]

how i felt finding anastasis @chthonion

the holy grail types of fanfic

[nelya-finwe]

Your new Tolkien OTP

Spin twice to get your new OTP

Tell me about them <3

[nelya-finwe]

Fëanor, Lord of the Lights

[nelya-finwe]

[nelya-finwe]

I think Maglor should have a voice like a choir in a cathedral. Grand and lovely and utterly boneshaking in its loudness to the point it is entirely impossible to ignore. He sings with the voice of fifty in registers that others cannot possibly reach by themselves.

When Elrond sings with the voices of his people everyone likes to assume it is because of his blood and not his teacher.

[nelya-finwe]

𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐎 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐌 𝐀𝐒 𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐒 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐍𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐅

first scene in the fellowship of the ring.

[nelya-finwe]

Nine companions, so be it. You shall be the Fellowship of the Ring.

[nelya-finwe]

Sauron and Melkor crafting Maedhros' manacle

Full credit to @solsolange who created this gorgeous masterpiece, and who gave me permission to post it here.

Fanart of Weep and Be Burned, ch8

[nelya-finwe]

*voice of son who had no idea where feanor was going with the oath* uh hey dad what was that last bit about the everlasting darkness

[nelya-finwe]

if i participated in arafinwëan week in january...what kinds of fics would people want to see?

i'm not planning on participating every day (my poor adhd couldn't handle it) but the prompts for days 2 (finrod), 4 (galadriel) and 6 (gil-galad and celebrían) are tempting.

by and large i'll still end up writing whatever i want to write and what motivates me, but is there anything in particular about these characters that people are interested in?

[nelya-finwe]

Welcome to Arafinwëan Week! This is a new event following in the footsteps of @arafinweanweek, last run in 2019. This event celebrates the House of Finarfin and all of its descendants.

The event will run January 5–11 and accepts all types of fanworks. There is an AO3 collection for the event here.

Below are some suggested prompts for each day of the week. They are not mandatory; feel free to combine them or disregard them entirely.

Day 1: Finarfin | Eärwen | pre-Darkening | family, duty, and kingship Day 2: Finrod | Darkening and Flight of the Noldor | oaths, loyalty, and sacrifice Day 3: Angrod | Aegnor | Crossing of the Helcaraxë and the War of the Jewels | lordship, allies, and vassals Day 4: Galadriel | Second Age | choices and regrets Day 5: Orodreth | Finduilas | textual ghosts | Third Age | heritage, history, and heirlooms Day 6: Gil-Galad | Celebrían | Arafinwëan OCs | Valinor and re-embodiment | future and legacy Day 7: Later generations | free choice

Please mention @arafinwean-week (mind the dash! arafinweanweek is the old event's blog) in the body of your post and tag #arafinweanweek and #arafinweanweek2025 in the first 10 tags. You may also submit a post. Please place any NSFW content beneath a read more/link to AO3.

For more information, please see the FAQ. If you have any questions, drop them in the ask box.

Art is by @wanderer-clarisse.

[nelya-finwe]

[nelya-finwe]

Aaaaaand that's a wrap! I'm done with drawing the Fëanorians; at least in the same style and as companion pieces.

Here's Fëanor, on his way to commit the crime he's so infamous for. And I am so incredibly happy with my progress. Because, um, when you look at my art of Maedhros and the others, they all look incredibly... thin. So either advanced stick figures or disturbingly underfed elves... I will leave it to your imaginations.

Edit: Also, I just realised "Trouble" by Adam Jensen goes with this perfectly

P.S. Guys, thank y'all for all these nice tags you reblog with; if they were comments, I would've responded😭 but as it is, I can only say I am reading all your commentary with a face-splitting grin and clapping my hands from giddiness-overload. Your responses always make my day, even if it already is great!