mirkreadssilm - Tumblr blog

[mirkreadssilm]

Did someone say FLOWER CROWNS?!

I have two -- one's made of catkins and the other of nail-polish flowers and turtle vertebrae. 

GO TEAM DORIATH

[mirkreadssilm]

This week gives us death, chaos, and the swearing of a terrible oath. The Noldor say farewell to bondage, and to ease, and swear to become lords of the unsullied light. I’m celebrating with a cocktail as red as blood, my version of the classic Manhattan. This one comes with a twist worthy of the spirit of fire - the flaming, volatile oils from an orange skin. 

Note: Like the Oath itself, a Manhattan is not a thing to take lightly. It’s strong, and not sweet. You can add a dash of sugar syrup if you like, but I think the more ass-holeish of Feanor’s sons would make fun of you for it. Bitters can be expensive, but they last forever and you will literally never use up a bottle, so they can be worth buying. 

THE OATH ( Serves One.)

1 shot whiskey

0.5 shot red vermouth

3 drops orange bitters

Orange

Lighter

Cut a large, wide slice of orange peel from your orange. Shake the whiskey, vermouth, and bitters over ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Hold your lighter over the glass, and hold your orange peel with the curved side facing it. Spark the lighter into flame, and grab the orange peel on the side that is not facing the lighter. When you squeeze and crack it, volatile oils will burst out, sparking in the lighter’s flame. After this theatre, drop the singed orange peel in the drink, and propose a toast to new things, strange countries, and the world’s end. 

Photo Source: http://www.scienceofdrink.com/2009/12/langswitch_lang/en/

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Once upon a time on a bright and sunny day in Alqualondë. :)

…soon.

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teamedain more like team dragon food amirite? *turns into cloud of malice and flies away*

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Then Anar arose in glory, and the first dawn of the Sun was like a great fire upon the towers of the Pelri: the clouds of Middle-earth were kindled, and there was heard the sound of many waterfalls. Then indeed Morgoth was dismayed, and he descended into the uttermost depths of Angband, and withdrew his servants, sending forth great reek and dark cloud to hide his land from the light of the Day-star.  

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So I went on the Game of Thrones sigil generator intending to make a reasonably serious sigil for the House of Feanor. Instead this happened.

Whoops?

I’m not particularly happy with any of them except Maglor’s. But oh well.

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Iavanna creating the trees of Valinor

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"Isolationism is the best -ism"?

"Badass lady central"?

"Save a house, build a cave"?

Has anyone thight of a motto like Team Edian has?

Not to my knowledge! Great idea though. Anyone have any suggestions for a team motto?

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I started a discussion about Valinor in teamdoriath's chatroom! We talked about why the Valar settled there as opposed to elsewhere in Arda and geographical features that might account for Middle-earth having older forests than Aman, among other things.

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what have i done

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bold what you prefer

ainulindale or valaquenta or quenta silmarillion or akallabêth

two lamps or two trees or sun and moon

valinor or middle-earth

elves or men or dwarves

sindar or teleri or noldor or vanyar

fëanor or fingolfin or finarfin

gondolin or doriath or nargothrond

haladin or bëorians or hadorians

orcs or balrogs or dragons

thuringwethil or melian or sauron

andreth/aegnor or beren/lúthien or tuor/idril

túrin or niënor or beleg or finduilas

lúthien or dior or elwing

maedhros or fingon or finrod felagund

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derisolierte reblogged your post and added:

Well, i just don’t want to believe that the mighty elfs can be turn into such things as the orcs and having into account that Aulë created a race by himself (the dwarves i mean) i prefer to believe that Morgoth did the same and created his own evil race

And that's fine, if you leave out the fact that Dwarves were incapable of independent thought until Eru gave it to them. Which, y'know, people much smarter than me have brought up the concept of The Silmarillion being an unreliable source, so if what you want to believe is that Morgoth spawned some hellbeasts up in Utumno, go for it. :)

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Pretty solid actually! I said this in chat too, but I like the flashback idea.

so I was hanging out in the team gondolin chat and i accidentally a silm tv show

ereboreanbadger : OH MAN A SILM TV SHOW WE THINK ALIKE 

ereboreanbadger: i’ve been wishing for a silm tv show for ages 

jabber: I WOULD LOVE IT

jabber: BUT LIKE 

jabber: SET IN THE SECOND AGE 

jabber: with flashbacks to the first age 

ereboreanbadger: yesss

jabber: (like, nearing the end of the second age, but it starts far back enough that events can be explained well)

jabber: so that people aren’t thrown in completely out of their depth

jabber: and it doesn’t get too boring or confusing 

jabber: and there’s actually character development 

ereboreanbadger: i would reblog all the gifsets of luthien 

jabber: I’M SORRY I HAVE SO MANY FEELS 

jabber: BUT IT’D NEED TO BE WRITTEN BY FANS AND NOT SOMEONE LIKE PJ 

ereboreanbadger: ofc 

jabber: BUT YEAH SO IT’S SET BETWEEN RIVENDELL AND POSSIBLY MITHLOND

jabber: AND THERE’S ALL SORTS OF COURT INTRIGUe

jabber: THE FIRST EPISODE IS SET IN IMLADRIS, WITH A WAR COUNCIL 

ereboreanbadger: Ooooooh 

jabber: TO GIVE VIEWERS A FAMILIAR SETTING 

jabber: imsorryivethoughtaboutth​iswaytoomuch 

ereboreanbadger: haha I haven’t thought that far I got about to the point of “A SILM TV SHOW WOULD MEAN THERE WOULD PROBABLY BE GIFSETS OF LUTHIEN” 

jabber: AND IT INTRODUCES THE MAIN CHARACTERS THAT WAY: elrond, gil-galad, galadriel and celeborn, oropher etc 

jabber: TO BE FAIR, GIFSETS OF LUTHIEN WOULD BE AWESOME 

ereboreanbadger: and then I got distracted by how much I would love to be able to reblog actual gifsets of someone actually playing Luthien 

jabber: but everything is relevant, there are no random flashback bits - it all ties together 

ereboreanbadger: OROPHER 

jabber: the first season deals with what happens in eregion 

jabber: and it hints at the past, with melkor and valinor and everything (and 99% of everything is subtle references) 

jabber: and ends in the founding of imladris, and possibly elrond getting vilya 

ereboreanbadger: i also want gifsets of Nienna, because lbr she’s the patron vala of feels 

jabber: and the last scene is that war council again, but it’s extended now - there were parts in the original scene that were skipped because it wouldn’t be understood 

jabber: and it ends with gil being like “this needs to stop, or it’ll be the battle of unnumbered tears /the entire First Age all over again” 

jabber: SO THEN SEASON TWO (from this point on it’s not so concrete)

jabber: IS SET MOSTLY IN THE FIRST AGE 

jabber: BUT THERE ARE STILL SOME OF THE CHARACTERS WE KNOW AND LOVE FROM THE FIRST SEASON

jabber: AND THERE ARE STILL MOMENTS IN THE “PRESENT” aka the war council, and mobilising the armies and stuff 

jabber: but now it all has more significance 

jabber: and each season deals with the death of each high king 

jabber: SO THEN THE LAST SEASON 

jabber: IS DAGORLAD. 

ereboreanbadger: OH NOOO 

jabber: AND THE END OF THE SECOND AGE

jabber: SO YAKNOW 

jabber: WE’RE AT THE GOT POINT OF “”EVERYONE I LOVE DIES WHY” 

ereboreanbadger: all the fans are going to have their hearts ripped out

ereboreanbadger: GIL GALAAAAAAD 

jabber: AND EVERYONE KNOWS AT THIS POINT THAT A KING DIES AT THE END OF EACH SEASON 

jabber: SO THE FINALE IS THE LAST BATTLE 

jabber: AND YEAH GIL DIES AND IT’S HORRIFIC 

jabber: and then there’s a ten minute special covering the last three or so pages that deal with lotr at the end of the silm 

jabber: except i wouldn’t want it to end there 

ereboreanbadger: this is definitely a show that, like Game of Thrones, the people who’ve read the story are watching their friends watch the show 

jabber: because you need the SA/TA equivalent of the scouring of the shire 

jabber: YEAH IT’D BE GREAT 

jabber: “wait no but, turin and nienor, aren’t th-“ 

jabber: “FINGON TOO?” 

ereboreanbadger: hahahahaaaa 

jabber: “NO FINROD DON’T G-“ 

jabber: “They all get out of there, right?” 

ereboreanbadger: “Earendil just LEFT?!” 

jabber: BUT YEAH so i’m not sure how it works  from this point onwards because it’s not a happily ever after? but the last episode(s) (because it wouldn’t really be a season without a proper antagonist) deal with them coming home and setting things up 

jabber: and dealing with things like the crown and who gets it

jabber: and then, if the show keeps going, there’s something dealing with the second siege of rivendell 

jabber: and the redhorn pass incident, amongst other things 

jabber: BUT IT ENDS WITH AN EPISODE IN VALINOR. 

ereboreanbadger: man everyone’s gonna be expecting another elven high king to die at the end of the fourth season 

jabber: yeah 

jabber: YUP THE FEANORIANS TOTES MESS STUFF UP AGAIN 

jabber: IT’S A VICIOUS CYCLE

jabber: i dunno we could let pj write the last episode 

jabber: i don’t have everything plotted out yet 

jabber: it’s definitely tauriel that takes the throne next tho, what with her being maedhros’s kid and everything i’m sure pj could work something out

[mirkreadssilm]

Eru Illuvatar: I love all my children equally.

Eru Illuvatar (earlier that day): I don't care for Melkor.

[mirkreadssilm]

Archive Monday

Happy Archive Monday! There are lots of “repeat questions” below, so if you’re waiting to see a question answered be sure to check below the cut!

Otherwise, enjoy this week’s batch from the archives - today’s theme is The Ainulindale:

Origin of the Valar

Why is Manwe King of the Valar?

Why Follow Morgoth?

The Timeless Void

Sea-Longing

more links here!

Read More

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derisolierte reblogged your post and added:

Well i just going to comment this last part about the orcs. Lets say that morgoth (and then sauron) made the orcs by torturing the elfs. I think they would have run out of elfs to torture after a while, even if they become something else, the will still be in essence elfs, and if they were able to reproduce themself and have children, they wouldnt be born as orcs. But know that i say that he could take the elf sons of the orcs and torture and have more orcs but i dont really think they would be able to reproduce. In other hand if you see in the lotr movies that sauron created the uruk hai (i dont really remember if it’s as in the books, i would have to go and check on the book) and they are basically orcs , well i would say that morgoth created them (as sauron did) and are not tortured elfs

You have a point there, but I believe the Uruk-hai were supposed to be bred of orcs and humans, so clearly the orcs can breed. Which seems to imply that whatever he did to the elves (if he did indeed torture elves to make orcs) was at such a deep level that it affected them genetically. 

But then, here's the deal -- we don't know. Maybe all orcs give birth to classically elven babies who are tortured into orcs themselves, but that seems an awful lot of trouble to go to. Morgoth likely has enough power and sheer evillness to twist the DNA of his strain of orcs - heck, he somehow created dragons and gradually improved their design until they went from Glaurung to Ancalagon - but we'll never find out because we never got a look into Morgoth and Sauron's process. 

Basically, go with whatever theory seems best to you. I know people who think that the Eagles were a euphemism for "actually helpful orcs," but no one wanted to record that in history because it was easier to see all the orcs as villains. Whatever floats your boat, man.

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Hi there! I think your analysis is pretty good!

Re: the first bolded section, I think what Tolkien is  trying to convey here is that the Valar have enough power to shape mountains and valleys, but also to create the detail of every tiny leaf, and that the detail of the smallest things is as great a part of their power as the shape of the terrain.

As to the second point, I don't think any of the Ainur ever made a choice to be male or female -- Tolkien is saying that they were male or female even when they were incorporeal. He says in the same chapter that their forms are to them like clothes are to us; they can take them off and put them on without any loss or gaining of self. I think they choose what their embodied forms look like, to an extent, but as we see later on (hu hu hu, foreshadowing), things that affect the spirit of Valar also affect what physical forms they wear. So since Ulmo is the Vala of the ocean, and also a male, on the rare occasions when he takes physical form, it's the form of an ocean-themed male (like this). He never takes on the form of a woman -- in fact I don't think any of the Valar ever appear as any gender but their own? Or at least not that I'm aware of -- because he himself is a male, and in all likelihood, Tolkien wasn't taking into account the idea of dressing outside of one's own gender, as that wasn't a common thing in his day. Am I making sense? I feel like I'm not making sense.

The Music of the Ainur: notes / Melkor's music

So, I love the musical aspect of this creation myth :)

The excellent Sil Reader’s Guide tells us not to ‘break our brain’ over the Sil. However my brain did get broken – in a good way – by this bit here:

And this habitation might seem a little thing to those who consider only the majesty of the Ainur, and not their terrible sharpness; as who should take the whole field of Arda for the foundation of a pillar, and so raise it until the cone of its summit were more bitter than a needle; or who consider only the immeasurable vastness of the world, which still the Ainur are shaping, and not the minute precision to which they shape all things therein.

I’ve been doing OK with my mental imagery, but that, in bold, I just can’t fathom. Clues anyone?

Brain also broke slightly on this bit:

But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby.

I think what Tolkien might be saying is that the Valar were able to choose their gender, and their temperament lent more to one than the other. However with us mortals .. just because someone dresses as a woman doesn’t necessarily mean they are a woman.

Clearly I am over-thinking, but that’s the FUN of it! I promise I am not going to be continually this anal …No wait – I can’t promise that at all….

I was recalling some “music” made by some friends/housemates a few years ago. This consisted of three guys with guitars and amps making the most discordiant, unharmonious, feedback-laden noise they could summon up, having an insanely good time doing so.  When I read about Melkor’s music, “Calero Drive” came to mind immediately. Today I compared it to some death metal on Sound Cloud – which was actually quite rhythmic and even melodious compared to Calero Drive. If I had a digital copy, I would inflict this on you all now as my ‘Melkor soundtrack’. You wouldn’t enjoy it. That’s the point.