#nan elmoth

[thelien-art]

Aredhel; Huntress of the Noldor

I am so happy with how this turned out, especially her bow and the background!! This makes me want to draw a Maeglin to go with her...

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[nevui-penim-miruvorrr]

Eöl

[mag-lore]

Maeglin with his glorious mama Aredhel for mother's day🤍

[riding-with-the-wild-hunt]

"Thus it chanced in the waning of the year that Aredhel came to the south of Himlad, and passed over Celon; and before she was aware she was enmeshed in Nan Elmoth. In that wood in ages past Melian walked in the twilight of Middle-earth when the trees were young, and enchantment lay upon it still. But now the trees of Nan Elmoth were the tallest and darkest in all Beleriand, and there the sun never came; and there Eöl dwelt, who was named the Dark Elf." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, "Of Maeglin"

@esotolkienweek day 3: forests, get lost ⇢ AREDHEL IN NAN ELMOTH

[ID: a moodboard made up of nine images in shades of cool green, mostly dark in hue.

1: A misty forest, the floor covered in green moss / 2: A painting of a bow and quiver of arrows lying on the ground / 3: A crescent moon and bright star or planet between trees / 4: The soaring ceiling of a cave. Uneven light shows hanging mineral formations / 5: South sudanese-austrailian model Adut Akech lying down as if collapsed in a long, pale pink dress. Green draperies surround her / 6: Small white flowers blooming amid shrubbery / 7: A stone torii gate, grown over with moss and surrounded by trees / 8: A painting of a deer surrounded by three white hounds. Although all looks peaceful, the dogs are attacking the deer, whose expression is calm and resigned / 9: Adut Akech, this time wearing a green dress with long puffy sleeves and sequins on the front, and covered with a netted veil. She has dark brown skin and short hair, and looks at the viewer with a neutral, serious expression //End ID]

[my-deer-legolas]

[rittare]

Aredhel and Maeglin escaping from Nan Elmoth.

[tolkien-povs]

POV:

A very pretty girl who is the kin of the clan you hate the most gets lost in your forest, so while she asks for directions, you marry her.

[firefly-artwork]

✨ Standee Reveal ✨

You shall be my guide, and I will be your guard, Aredhel and Maeglin escaping from Nan Elmoth.

Pre-order open on my ko-fi shop in an hour

[rana-temporaria]

Ok so like you know mega flora like red woods or sequoias GIANT TREE

What if Beleriand had that but like BIGGER FREAK GIANT TREE

Like suped up miles high trees, specifically in Nan Elmoth, like what if thats that no sun reaches Nan Elmoth cause they have giant freak nightmare trees, Doriath too

And what if trees are so big they still stick out of the water when Beleriand sinks like imagine being an elf sailing to Valinor and you pass by sunk Beleriand and you're like woah trees?? and you look down and theres no land just WATER and SUPER TREES and like whatever was going on in Nan elmoth is still going on and its really fucked up and cool

Like just imagine Legolas and Gimli exploring sunk Beleriand before reaching Valinor, like they've seen Tol Morwen, went to Tol Fuin (It was evil) and saw Tol Himling and now they see ANCIENT GIANT TREES and MAYBE FISTFIGHT EOLS GHOST

Idk I think its fun

[thelien-art]

Eöl, son of Thingol

I love Maia Eöl but Thingol and Melian´s son Eöl is growing on me...

COMMISSIONS OPEN - Support me on Ko-Fi - get early access drawings + WIPs

[nevui-penim-miruvorrr]

I want to make another drawing of this scene for so long

This is from 2017

This one from 2016

And this from 2015

[outofangband]

Nan Elmoth in the days of Melian and Thingol

Special edition to my forests of Beleriand series! The ecology of pre sun and moon Beleriand is so fascinating to me

x x x x x x x x

[celebenarinya]

SILMARILLION: BUT IT'S A MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT

EOL AND AREDHEL

Hmmm. I'm not sure she likes what he's proposing.

Oh well, it can't end THAT badly.

[tar-thelien]

Explayining my Eöl is a Maia propaganda because @dfwbwfbbwfbwf told me to go for it and it made my head do a happy flip!!

Going to keep it to topics so it´s easier to read :)

Kin to Thingol & Residence/Friendship/Smith/Sorcery & Enchantments/Aredhel & Maeglin/Gondolin

Kin to Thingol & Residence:

We know Eöl is a dark elf who´s also a smith and kin to Thingol, who somehow knows a lot more sorcery than any other elf. That could be because he decided to live in an already enchanted forest but with that logic, Aredhel would become known in sorcery too so there got to be more to it.

He was said to be "restless and ill at ease in Doriath" when Melian raised the griddle, might be that Tolkien seems to have Maia be slightly territorial towards each other.

Kin can mean someone married into the family, and if Eöl and Melian is as close as they seem in the books they probably think of each other as some kind of siblings.

Friendship:

Eöl doesn't really seem to mind of the other races, he´s close friends with the dwarves, it only seems to be the Noldor he has beef with, for the kinslaying.

I think the note about the sun is important as a lot of the Sindir seem to like the stars better, although the comment about his servants strikes me, they are said to be similar in nature to him after him being described as a borderline evil wizard, which could either be, if you took a dark turn, that he enchanted them he pulled a Sauron or he somehow "blessed" them by sharing some of his Maia magic or them themself are some sorts of weaker Maiar.

Smith:

He was a smith and he created a new form of iron that was the strongest ever found - "as hard as the steel of the Dwarves", he was not messing around AND he made to TALKING swords out of a fallen star!! Tolkien never again mentioned stars as anything you could hold if you were not of the Ainur, and Aule had a tendency to lose his Maiar... just saying

Sorcery & Enchantments:

In some versions, Eöl is said to rape Aredhel which elvers die from just as a violation of their Hröa, yet she lives on, just as the orcs did when Melkor violated them.

Eöl seems to control Nan Elmoth to an absolute, and not only with what magic reminds from Melian, but he also seems to control growth light and roads as well as openings.

He can also hold stars and give metal it´s own soul.

Aredhel & Maeglin:

It could be he was evil or the Sindir/Avarin has other naming ritual (I do believe that and I have a page here I need to rewrite about it) but he seems to have no idea about elven costumes except from what he has observed Thingol doing.

When Aredhel nears Nan Elmoth Eöl commands the forest to separate her for her company luring her into his forest because he likes her look (maybe he´s just autistic??) where he shows himself and welcomes her to his home which she accepts and then chooses to stay, of her own will or under magic depends on the version, he later takes her as a wife and "they wandered far together under the stars or by the light of the sickle moon" even after he gets angry when she asks if she can see her kin again (not leave him just see her family) where he tell her to "shun sunlight" and after that, it sounds as if Nan Elmoth grows darker.

Note that Eöl too bans Quenya and only names Maeglin after 12 years, for his sharp eyes. And not sharp as in they see things, probably that too, but sharp as in "more piercing than his own" we know of two other characters with piercing eyes, and one of them is a Vala, Melkor, who if you look into the eyes of you go insane soooo...

When Maeglin near the years of an adult he requests to visit Celegorm and Curufin which sets Eöl off he threatends to "set him in bonds" if he does, and tells him he is the "house of Eöl", not Thingol, which seems a bit weird when he does a lot of other things alike to Thingol, as if he´s almost worshipping him, or looking at him to know how to act. If he was as loyal to Thingol as his action is (he lives in the place where Thingol first went on a date at) he would probably had said house of Thingol, as again he is KIN to Thingol.

We also know that Maeglin is really skilled in sorcery and Ósanwë, which some of the Valinor elvers are too, namely Idril, and his skill seems to be hinted to come from Nan Elmoth, a Maia-

Gondolin:

We know no one could find Gondolin, yet Eöl does it by tracking his wife and kid who left a week before him if not more?? there has to have been magic in over that, also he convinces Curufin to let him go - note that Curufin did tell that he thought Eöl was trying to deceive him by magic or just words we know not, I also think it funny that Eöl briefly calls Curufin kin because of Aredhel, but it makes me feel like it´s more to honor a smith than marriage.

Note that Eöl did not find his way into Gondolin, as it likely had enchantments on it, but he knew the way at first guess, and he´s fast enough to catch up to Aredhel and Maeglin when they are entering, even if Aredhel and Maeglin left before him and likely with the fastest horses and wasn´t stopped like he was.

When he cosses death for him and Maeglin he makes it seems as if he´s convinced they will survive, as if he dosne´t care for Aredhel here or that he wants her to live on, but he cares for Maeglin in a corrupt way and wants his son to die with him or he simply knows they will serve where Aredhel will not.

All in all I think it would make perfect sense if he was a Maia of Aule who either followed Melian to Beleriand or Melkor - if he followed Melkor who would later decide he wanted to go solo

[toastedbuckwheat]

Nan Elmoth but they've got żubry there. My other piece for this year's Tolkien Reverse Summer Bang!

[welcomingdisaster]

Maid in the house of darkness  [general eol & aredhel warnings: sexual assault, abuse]

Again our lord has ridden away,  Beyond the pale summer fields ill-treated,  The black-barked trees, fields of gray,  His wings of rage of a man cheated, 

Not long, it seems, since the fateful day,  When home he came in different spirit,  His temper even, his dark eyes gay His laugh as loud as we’d come to fear it.

He lead her forth in ghostly white,  Her hair laid with pearl and bone,  A fair bride for the lord of night,  Who dwelled in darkness all alone 

Some called him then a changed lord,  Altered by love, softened at heart,  My spirit played a different chord,  I saw; he only played a part 

Still I was nursemaid to his son,  A clever boy, and sharp of eye,  Still I breathed word of it to none  I was a maid, what choice had I? 

He came to me quite often then,  As she paced, wept, and rocked the child,  I cursed her as he took my hands,  And as he kissed me, mean and wild 

I scrubbed their floors and washed her dress,  I laid the table, swept the hall,  I felt his hand upon my chest,  I spoke no word at all. 

His were the land, the hounds, the men,  The maid in wife, ghost made wife,  And none could leave the forest then,  His was the thin strand of my life, 

The summer has sung her song and gone,  The spring, too, long finished her dance, I sit and watch white winter dawn  She too will flee, given the chance. 

The men have gone; the dogs run loose,  At night I haunt the halls alone I make excuse after excuse,  Leave prints on dirty cobblestone 

Still, so my lord will not be wroth,  I light the hearth of Nan Elmoth