eri-pl

[eri-pl]

Hmm, "bēag"? I feel like "Baggins" may be related to this word—

I was reading earlier today about how, in Scandinavian folklore, the nomenclature that's usually rendered as "ring" in modern English can variously refer to bracelets, armlets, or torcs as well as to finger rings. It's usually clear from context which is intended, though there are some legendary "rings" whose form is not specified in surviving accounts.

This ambiguity is, of course, not present in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings; though the work and its titular object are inspired by these sagas, the One Ring is clearly described as a finger ring. However, my brain has seized upon the finger-ring-or-bracelet ambiguity and spontaneously produced an anachronistic 1990s teen movie version of The Lord of the Rings in which the One "Ring" is a cursed slap bracelet.

[eri-pl]

Reasons why Sauron, especially his whole ring thing makes me angry, part n+1:

Because being found and gathered is actually a great thing to be, even being rules is... well, it's a "it depends" kind of thing. if it wasn't for the "in the darkness bind them" part :/

[eri-pl]

Please don't delete this!

It's that Lúthien with a sword (which would be cool)?? Or someone else (which would also be fine)? Anyway lovely picture.

[eri-pl]

Hurin and Morgoth

[eri-pl]

or maybe Manwë is a chocolate chip and Melkor is a raisin

[eri-pl]

or maybe Manwë is a chocolate chip and Melkor is a raisin

[eri-pl]

can’t stay mad at older brothers 

[eri-pl]

Like this (I'm not home, so ballpoint pens and grid paper it is)

Wait no

Manwë is the peanut M, Melkor is the chocolate M, because then we can have Sauron as a Skittle that looks just like Melkor (yes my brain works on very normal ways )

Ok maybe Manwë is an almond that looks like peanut, almonds are good

[eri-pl]

Wait no

Manwë is the peanut M, Melkor is the chocolate M, because then we can have Sauron as a Skittle that looks just like Melkor (yes my brain works on very normal ways )

Ok maybe Manwë is an almond that looks like peanut, almonds are good

[eri-pl]

Hmm I would suspect that neurodivergent (well, the Ainuric analogue) Mairon is a common take on this site (based on the demographic)

Ok so we all know Mairon the mighty, greatest of all the Maiar of Aulë (basically the frustrated class president).

But.

The book doesn't say that. (It generally says very little of him)

We need to explore more alternatives.

Mairon the Admirable And Cute, the youngest (regardless whether this term makes sense), sweetest, most innocent, everyone's favorite baby brother. Aulë"s most beloved. Having ideas. Cute, childish ideas like "perfect order". Dismissed by everyone, because the adults are busy repairing everything. Infantilised. Seen only as a mascot. Until he rebels and Melkor treats him seriously. As a tool, yes. As potential rival. As an obstacle. But not as a child, never as a child. (He doesn't know what children are anyway, he forgot)

Or maybe

Mairon the Just A Guy. Yes, he's got a cool name, but who among the Maiar if Aulë does not? He's got some strange ideas, but why would anyone listen to them as more than a curiosity. He's unique, sure. Just like every diamond is different. But he feels just a part of the crowd. And that's good, that must be good, right? Wouldn't it be great if everyone was the same? But how to make improvements when you're just one of the many small Maiar? He needs to be more.

Or maybe something entirely different

[eri-pl]

Xddd

Re: tags. Thank you. I also rant whenever someone tries to paint the Valar as the bad guys :| (there aren't many takes in the fandom that make me rant more). And Aulë is great and very kind and nice, at worst he might be bad at recognizing others' emotional states and that they have a problem.

Yes, the guy turned evil because he wanted. Yes, the guy turns not-evil again because he wants. What's so difficult in this???? (Yes, part 2 is not canon but I love when they do it anyway)

Also especially with 2 all the drama is in everybody loving him back when he was good. Just... Not necessarily having a high cognitive empathy.

Ok so we all know Mairon the mighty, greatest of all the Maiar of Aulë (basically the frustrated class president).

But.

The book doesn't say that. (It generally says very little of him)

We need to explore more alternatives.

Mairon the Admirable And Cute, the youngest (regardless whether this term makes sense), sweetest, most innocent, everyone's favorite baby brother. Aulë"s most beloved. Having ideas. Cute, childish ideas like "perfect order". Dismissed by everyone, because the adults are busy repairing everything. Infantilised. Seen only as a mascot. Until he rebels and Melkor treats him seriously. As a tool, yes. As potential rival. As an obstacle. But not as a child, never as a child. (He doesn't know what children are anyway, he forgot)

Or maybe

Mairon the Just A Guy. Yes, he's got a cool name, but who among the Maiar if Aulë does not? He's got some strange ideas, but why would anyone listen to them as more than a curiosity. He's unique, sure. Just like every diamond is different. But he feels just a part of the crowd. And that's good, that must be good, right? Wouldn't it be great if everyone was the same? But how to make improvements when you're just one of the many small Maiar? He needs to be more.

Or maybe something entirely different

[eri-pl]

Ok so we all know Mairon the mighty, greatest of all the Maiar of Aulë (basically the frustrated class president).

But.

The book doesn't say that. (It generally says very little of him)

We need to explore more alternatives.

Mairon the Admirable And Cute, the youngest (regardless whether this term makes sense), sweetest, most innocent, everyone's favorite baby brother. Aulë"s most beloved. Having ideas. Cute, childish ideas like "perfect order". Dismissed by everyone, because the adults are busy repairing everything. Infantilised. Seen only as a mascot. Until he rebels and Melkor treats him seriously. As a tool, yes. As potential rival. As an obstacle. But not as a child, never as a child. (He doesn't know what children are anyway, he forgot)

Or maybe

Mairon the Just A Guy. Yes, he's got a cool name, but who among the Maiar if Aulë does not? He's got some strange ideas, but why would anyone listen to them as more than a curiosity. He's unique, sure. Just like every diamond is different. But he feels just a part of the crowd. And that's good, that must be good, right? Wouldn't it be great if everyone was the same? But how to make improvements when you're just one of the many small Maiar? He needs to be more.

Or maybe something entirely different

[eri-pl]

Ok. So I don't think the Valar were oppressive. I don't think Aman had PRL, or Soviet Union or any other pretending-to h be-happy-dystopia vibes.

I think the Valar did their best, but yes, Valinor was not entirely unmarred and Finwë was in sorrow — and we can see the narrator being unreliable just there, because Feanor was clearly deprived of joy (of having a mother, which is an important joy, both in the version where he was just a tiny baby then and in the version where he was a young adult). So no, not the only one.

But back to the other Elves.

Yes, I think they were legitimately happy. There might have been other cases of sorrow, but probably lesser than Finwë and rare. (I think that Elves don't get depressed without a significant trauma, because their bodies cooperate with their souls much better than it's the case for Men. They don't do the "sad for no reason because brain chemistry").

And again, I think the Valar treated them legitimately well.

But yes, taking them to Valinor, building Valinor at all... Was not the best choice. Was like Finwë marrying India. Not evil but not the best.

And (as a result of that, and of the marring maybe) the other elves just could not understand Finwë and he was... Not ostracized maybe, but kept at a distance.

Not consciously, not to keep any facades. Just because they could not understand, and didn't know how to help, and he behaved strangely and not always kindly... If you've ever been the one deeply sad/ struggling/ neurodivergent / etc person in a group of happy people who were well-adjusted but not skilled in dealing with ones like you — you probably know the feeling.

Well ok, also some elves might have pressured him to not spoil the vibe. But I think it would be a few, ironically probably the ones who suggested most during the Journey, because seeing Finwë's suffering triggered them. But not any Ainur.

Seriously, the inability to avoid being corrupted by a rulership position is a human thing, and even there is not universal. The Ainur are not like that. (I mean sure, you can read them as tyrants, but then you're reading an entirely different book than I am reading, and many other people, and I daresay it's far from what Tolkien wrote)

Tldr: yes-ish, but sometimes the problem is not in the system, just in people being people.

Currently thinking about this quote from "A world apart" by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński in the context of Valinor.

"In a normal state, men are free to be contented, fairly contented, or discontented. In a state in which all are supposed to be contented, the suspicion arises that all are discontented. Either way, we form a solid whole."

There is something in this. There is something in this and the play of this against the Silm quote:

Then Finwë lived in sorrow; and he went often to the gardens of Lorien, and sitting beneath the silver willows beside the body of his wife he called her by her names. But it was unavailing; and alone in all the Blessed Realm he was deprived of joy.

I am having Thoughts.

@balrogballs, @eri-pl I think you might also have some Thoughts.

[eri-pl]

:)

*thinks about finrod*

...*why finrod not real* :(

[eri-pl]

Or at least after the War for Elves, I don't remember whether there were flowers already. There's also that part of FA where he goes out to talk to Men I'm sure there was grass there

@winds-of-zephyr416 you may like this post, it will make you sad.

Sauron was not a beginner of discord; and he probably knew more of the ‘Music’ than did Melkor, whose mind had always been filled with his own plans and devices, and gave little attention to other things. The time of Melkor’s greatest power, therefore, was in the physical beginnings of the World; a vast demiurgic lust for power and the achievement of his own will and designs, on a great scale. And later after things had become more stable, Melkor was more interested in and capable of dealing with a volcanic eruption, for example, than with (say) a tree. It is indeed probable that he was simply unaware of the minor or more delicate productions of Yavanna: such as small flowers.

Melkor never went out to touch grass. [CONFIRMED]

It's entirely possible the first time he saw a flower was when he was finally brought to his knees in the fall of Angband.

[eri-pl]

Don't worry, I figured out it was Curumo and so did 27% people. Sauron is just so much more popular. But Curumo is the mechanical guy. If anything made me question this, maybe the lava.

(Also you could now do an art of Sauron yelling at him for stealing his looc XD)

PS: this reminds me: have you ever done Saruman (either in Maia or Wizard form) on the smol blog? It would be nice.

(All art used with EXPRESS permission from the artist)