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Tumblr is basically the flooded wwi shellhole we all come to huddle in. No one likes it but its better than standing in view of the snipers (twitter). Every once and a while someone gets a package from home and we all get a chunk of stale and slightly muddy sponge cake to nibble on.

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I just saw Elrond described as Fëanor's "shoplifted grandson" and I just...I mean yes? I guess?

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He's completely fine, thanks for asking

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Gil-galad Variations, featuring all the gil galad theories i've encountered.

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Thought about the silmarillion a little too hard tonight and started crying

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i’ve never ignored a piece of canon more than i ignore the “the elves who return all live on tol eressëa” thing, because a) it fucking sucks, b) what makes the return to aman so beautiful is the possibility for reunion, for meetings between elves who haven’t met before, who’ve come back to life, etc., whereas the tol eressëa situation actively hinders that, and b) it’s confusing and paradoxical, because why would a re-embodied elf be allowed to live in aman proper, whereas an elf who happened to survive everything middle-earth threw at them and returned by boat would not be?

in MY book, the elves can live wherever the fuck they want, and there’s a lot of commuting and sea traffic between aman and tol eressëa

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Obsessed with the fact that this really happened😳

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Digging through my WIP folder and I found notes for a story idea I had about a dragon adopting a human.

Not on accident, mind you, the dragon doesn’t just stumble across a human infant and adopts it. The dragon decides it wants to adopt a human.

The dragon explains this to its lich friend: “I want someone to take care of me in my old age! A human would be great! Imagine how easily it could talk the other humans into leaving me alone! And– and it might decide to grow up and become a goldsmith, right? Some humans become goldsmiths. My human might decide to go into goldsmithing too!”

“I think you’re overestimating the percentage of humans who become goldsmiths,” replies the lich friend, who is not terribly discouraging of the idea, but also not particularly invested in it at this point. It seems like a plan with a lot of potential points of failure.

The dragon is undeterred, mostly because it has a whole hoard of gold coins and goblets and jewelry and trinkets that seem to indicate to it that there must, in fact, be a great number of humans who know goldsmithing to have produced all that.

Anyway, the dragon decides to shapeshift into a humanoid form, go into a city, and adopt a human child. It needs the lich’s help, because it doesn’t know anything about human fashion. The lich’s knowledge on the subject is a few centuries outdated, but they attack a few fancy carriage on the road and reverse-engineer an outfit from what the humans inside them were wearing. (Those humans were nobles, it’s fine, it’s a victimless crime)

The lich fusses a lot with the humanoid appearance of the dragon until everything looks just so.

(“Am I actually doing it wrong, or are you just making me shapeshift into something you find more attractive?” the dragon asks.

“If you want me to pose as your husband, this is the price to pay,” the lich replies.)

They go into the city, anyway, and they find an orphanage on the shady side of town, where the tired, overworked and underpaid matron clearly sees there’s something not right about these two, but not in any obvious way she can put her finger on. She’s just happy to have one less mouth to feed.

Anyway, child get! 

She comes along quietly, and doesn’t even comment when she’s taken to a dragon lair.

The dragon is ecstatic with its new acquisition.

(“Does it know any commands?” the dragon wonders. “Sit! Stay! Roll over?”

“You may be thinking of dogs,” the lich points out. “Children do not perform tricks.”

They both looked at the human child, trying to figure out how to approach her.

“So, what scam are you running here?” the little girl asked suddenly, startling both the dragon and the lich.

“I was wrong,” the lich says, “they’ve definitely been teaching children new tricks since I was alive.”)

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Thought I'd share this meme that has been developing on the r/lordoftherings subreddit over the last couple days. Enjoy!

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There's a superstition among the Noldor that it's an ill omen if none of your children are at least proficient at your craft.

Curufin becoming a smith was an ideal scenario. Still, he needs more siblings, since none of his brothers show the slightest inclination towards Nerdanel's craft.

Fëanor refuses to learn to sew because he refuses to admit Míriel isn't coming back. He'll get a younger sibling who can sew and weave one day.

Anairë was the first architect in the family; Turgon just followed in her footsteps. Argon showed every sign of having his father's knack for politics but died too soon.

Eärendil became a sailor like his father. Elros became the King of a nation of seafarers and commanded ships personally.

Most Noldor try very, very hard not to think about how Elros has Maedhros' knack for strategy and Elrond is an excellent singer (if rather shy about it).

Everyone looks at Elrond with pity when Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen all prove hopeless at healing. Elrond isn't worried. He's raised countless generations of Men and loved them as his own children. When you count them, he's had generations of children go on to be skilled healers.

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📂 Tolkien?

here are some facts (which i made up) about the customary Fëanorian hiking trips to the edge of creation.

- if Nerdanel doesn’t come with them, she runs her craftswomen’s circle out of the house while they’re away. Eärwen, a mosaicist, is a regular attendee.

- some forest Maiar are obliging hosts. but some came out there for peace and quiet, and they will tell the family to get off their lawn, and the creeks will rise with indignation, and there will be acorns pelted at retreating heads at high velocity.

- Nelyo, i’m tired. Nelyo, i’m hungry. are we there yet? Nelyo, look at this leaf! do you think we could see our house from here, Nelyo? Nelyo, please make them be quiet. Nelyo, we tried to play hide and seek but we lost Telvo! ow! Nelyo, Moryo bit me! Nelyoooooo -

- Fëanor’s lapidary instincts refuse to let him pass up any sites of geological interest, so they have to sit and stare at rocks a lot. luckily, the edges of the world get a sort of... mild Minecraft Far Lands effect, so the rocks are quite interesting.

- Huan comes along, of course! the youngest brother gets Huan Riding Privileges, but must also deal with it if his goodboye steed bolts into the woods after a squirrel or something.

- even as young adults, Amrod and Amras like to climb trees. it’s dark all the time out there and foggy too, so they can’t see far, but the stars look very close. anything could be hiding in those gullies, they say, and laugh to themselves, because they haven’t ever met real monsters. yet.

- Maglor always found himself drawn to the Outer Ocean.

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So apparently there's an official Gallifreyan translator now.

On the one hand, I'm really excited that Sherman's Circular is becoming more and more canon. On the other hand, it feels weird that such major part of the fandom is now being kinda... corporatized. But this blog isn't for my opinions and I don't want to influence yours. All I will say with conviction is that I really hope they credit the original creator.

However, for those who want some more info, I did a comparison between the new "official" translator, the old translator that most people just getting into Gallifreyan probably used, and my own style.

The first image in black is the old translator, the second in yellow on blue is the new one, and the third in blue is my style from two years ago, and all of them say "Never Give Up, Never Give In". (Though only mine includes punctuation). The first and biggest difference between the computer-translated ones and mine is that mine has the various words interlocked. This is something that anyone can do when they write the Gallifreyan on their own, little practice required, but it cannot be done by the computer translators. They only ever put the words in fixed, equidistant positions. Another major difference is the curve of the connecting lines -- this is another thing that neither translator will do for you. The old translator does allow you to curve the lines yourself, but is very finicky about it. The dots are worth noting as well -- in both translators, they are quite small, while I make them big and pretty separated, for ease of reading. In other words, in terms of style and readability, these computer translators will never replace those created manually.

However, there are clear benefits to the translators. They are extremely helpful for those who are just getting into Gallifreyan and want to double-check their work. So long as you remember that what really matters for readability -- the shapes and positions of the circles and the number of lines and dots -- the rest is just stylistic flourishes. And both allow you to download the Gallifreyan as a .svg so that you can edit it in Inkscape or Illustrator or whatever vector editing software you prefer. As for the comparison between the two translators, the new one has more color customization, and will probably better match how Gallifreyan appears on-screen (though I find it interesting that the Gallifreyan on the new Sonic has the starting point of each word be at the furthest point from the center of the circle, while this translator has them at the usual bottom), but the old one allows for more in-engine editing, and as the lines actually connect to somewhere and the dots are slightly larger, it is easier to read.

TL,DR: Manually-made Gallifreyan still allows for far more stylization and is generally the most easily readable, but both translating websites can be useful, especially as both can be downloaded as editable .svg files. The old one is more readable and has in-engine editing capabilities, but the new one allows for color customization and may be more accurate to what is seen on-screen. And Sherman needs to be credited for its creation.

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russingon I guess?? 🍃 sweetest babes and fathers of kaeluc/j

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Are fedoras really that bad?

YES YES THEY ARE

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There is something I have termed The Maedhros Effect: something about him makes everyone obsessed with him and or crushing on him. I literally lent my copy to a friend who had never heard of the Silmarillion before, and once he finished the book, he said to me "I think i have a crush on Maedhros."

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Apparently doing metal or polish work turns you into a piece of coal, didn’t know this until recently so here we go

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Bonus