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Fantastic Feanors and Where To Find Them

Prologue: Stepmothers Are Evil and That Is All

Chapter One: The Outer Reaches of Valinor Because I’m Staring at Stars

Chapter Two: The Forge Wherein We Shall Make Many a Shiny Thing

Chapter Three: Dragging My Sons Away From Their Traitorous Cousins Once Again

Chapter Four: GET THEE FROM MY DOOR THOU JAIL CROW OF MANDOS

Chapter Five: No You May Not Have My Shiny Things I WANT MY FATHER BACK

Chapter Six: These Boats Ain’t Gonna Steal Themselves

Chapter Seven: Haha Try and Follow Me THIS Time Fingolfin (Where’s Amrod?)

Chapter Eight: Bold of You to Assume I WON’T Attack Your Fortress You Wretched Thief

Chapter Nine: Mistakes Were Made But I Refuse to Accept Responsibility For Any of Them

Chapter Ten: I’m Not Pleased to See You Either, Mandos

Epilogue: Well Here We All Are In Hell, Including Those Nephews I Hate (Wait, I Had Seven of You; WHERE’S MAGLOR?!?)

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Curufin and Celegorm, lords of Himlad ✨

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Arwen Evenstar by Achen089

[ettelenethelien]

It really puts into perspective what sort of a person Finrod was, the way any sort of diplomatic relations between the peoples of Beleriand went crashing down after his death. Turns out he was the only one among them to be on good terms with all the various factions.

The Bragollach marked the begging of things going south but the real head-first slide into disaster began with the Nargothrond debacle (and their aftermath). It was there that the ball was pushed past the tipping point...

Do I think the Noldor would have obtained victory in the Nirnaeth Arnoediad if things had gone differently then? Not really. They were never going to win on their own -- though, if the Sons of Feanor would have relinquished their oath, who knows...? (Look, I have complex and not fully-formed views on the mechanisms of their defeat but it's never really about force of arms)

But the Nirnaeth would have been a more salvageable defeat if Finrod had lived (perhaps not even a true lost battle). Nargothrond would have come to fight. Doriath maybe even. And -- maybe the betrayal of Ulfang and his sons would not have happened.

They were tied to Caranthir after all, "of the sons of Feanor the harshest and most quick to anger" (I personally think he was far from being the worst of them -- not as bad as Celegorm and Curufin, with whom he's often lumped together, certainly -- but not too kind and definitely in possession of a difficult temper). Not someone to inspire loyalty as a liege. Now, if they had somehow found themselves with Finrod... I'm not saying he's impossible to betray (*cough* events *cough*), but it would have been a little less likely.

And then Fingon's killed. Fingon, who at least could keep Sons of Feanor in check. The last dam is breached, and the ensuing chain of bloodbaths only ends something over half a century later with a young queen of a ramshackle group of survivors jumping of a cliff.

[ettelenethelien]

you know what, after númenor, the idea of burning a body or burning someone alive I mean must have been the greatest desecration possible to the dúnedain. like, 'you could feed someone's corpse to the dogs and it would be better' level awful

and then there's denethor

[ettelenethelien]

favorite order <3

[ettelenethelien]

both have dark colouring

both can be mistaken for elves when dressed up nicely

inversely, when they look scruffy, they do look scruffy

Turin looks very typically bëorian, and aragorn very typically dúnedain. the faithful númenoreans -> dúnedain are mostly descended from the house of bëor

and I don't know who said that, but turin is like the anti-aragorn. or vice versa. they're almost foils in a way.

it just struck me that there is actually enough evidence for aragorn looking a lot like turin.

I'm pondering the implications.

[ettelenethelien]

it just struck me that there is actually enough evidence for aragorn looking a lot like turin.

I'm pondering the implications.

[ettelenethelien]

hmmm... he's not exactly how I imagine him, but he's not bad either. Definitely closer than the Rings of Power version:)

(Source: https://vk.com/album-136197983_296893064)

[ettelenethelien]

Why would "male" and "human" be the same word in Middle-Earth? - and how Glorfindel's prophecy can still work:

There is, I think, a moment when every Tolkien fan begins to ask himself about the feasibility of the linguistic quirk on which Glorfindel's foretelling hinges existing in a land where sentient peoples go far beyond humans only. There are, as far as I can see, three possible ways to go around it:

The thing makes no sense in-world; it exists as a Doylist response to the "no man of woman born" prophecy in Macbeth, the fulfillment of which Tolkien deemed disappointing - this is, needless to say, a wholly unsatisfactory answer.

Some Middle-Earth languages do in fact have this homonym. Perhaps Glorfindel's prophecy was made in Westron and Westron has this; perhaps it was mistranslated in-universe, possibly more than once.

My proposition: The Quenya word "nér" meaning "male elf, mortal, etc" was at one point glossed by Tolkien as "warrior". This translation was quickly again changed to "male" - but what if the word - and its Sindarin cognate - indeed had two meanings? This would allow for Glorfindel's prophecy to be read as "He shall not fall by the hand of a warrior" making the Witch-king's self-confidence seemingly even more justified.

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Fall

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the fact that i'm no longer the same age as the protagonists of novels and films i once connected to is so heartbreaking. there was a time when I looked forward to turning their age. i did. and i also outgrew them. i continue to age, but they don't; never will. the immortality of fiction is beautiful, but cruel.

[ettelenethelien]

Where's that ask game that goes "send me a random word and I'll try fo find a quote from my WIPs that includes it"?

Anyway, send me a random word and I'll try fo find a quote with it.

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Where does this extremely pervasive piece of fanon that Fëanor put pieces of his soul in the Silmarils come from though?

I get why it's so popular -- people want to excuse the Fëanorians somehow, and after all, we do not deal out death penalty in disputes over property, stolen or otherwise, so their actions will always be overkill if the Silmarils are just special treasures. But there is zero things pointing towards it in the books.

In fact I would argue that canon actually provides evidence against it, given how the catholic understanding of the soul holds it to be indivisible, and I'm quite sure a statement to similar effect is available about the fëa somewhere*. So you cannot "put a piece of your soul in something", unless metaphorically.

I feel like Fëanor probably was connected with the Silmarils on some deeper level -- but they can't have been made of his soul. It doesn't work like that.

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*"The fëa is indestructible, a unique identity which cannot be disintegrated or absorbed into any other identity" - HoME X

[ettelenethelien]

For assorted reasons, we generally associate Tolkien-esque Dwarves with Scottish accents. But Middle-earth is loosely based on the British Isles as a whole (sorta, it was originally meant as a "mythology for England"). That brings us to an obvious question:

If you are unfamiliar with what a Welsh accent sounds like, a video of Michael Sheen has been provided below the cut.

[ettelenethelien]

Long time not drawing Olórin, there's no much of him as I would like :')

Also first drawing portraying Curumo! I think I really like this look for him, it's always fun to imagine Silmarillion characters ☺️

[ettelenethelien]

so watching fotr with my roommates made me want to reread the book, so I checked out my university library’s 30-year-old, stained, extremely beat up copy when I went to get the two towers movie for us to watch on friday night (bc we’re such party animals) and I came across this while reading the prologue

and my question is: who are “The Authorities” (with a capital A no less)????

Is it the Valar??? I mean they note that these kinds of deals were “held sacred” in the old times. It could be the Valar. It seems like they would preside over metaphysically binding promises. are the Valar holding council over riddle games??? Does Aulë have an Opinion ™️ on “what is in my pocket?” has this debate given Manwë a headache that he as one of the ainur is not supposed to be able to get

I need answers Mr. Professor Tolkien Sir