naruthandir

[naruthandir]

I really think that for me I’m always going to choose the silmarillion interpretation that gives me the most interesting narrative. I refuse to let moral quantities or questions of who was objectively correct skew my interpretation of a narrative. In fictional not real land, the most important question is whether what I’m reading is interesting or not. I don’t care who had property rights to the silmaril. Maedhros isn’t going to the federal courts on union ave.

Anyway, this is all to say that I’m interested in the recent arguments over whether alqualonde was a massacre or not or whether the teleri were on equal playing fields with the exiles. I also think I’ll make a post soon about the property rights argument because I find it fascinating that that’s as big a discussion as it is

Anyway! So alqualonde! Alqualonde is such a huge narrative turning point in this story. Up to this point we have a very clear delineation between hero and villain. Morgoth as the big bad, the noldor as the freedom fighters who very understandably want to avenge finwe. The valar don’t want them to go to beleriand but that’s not a moral wrong whether they do or not. They’re desperate, the light have gone out in the world. No one has ever died before

So to go from that to marching into alqualonde, where they’re fucking relatives live, and murdering them over their life’s work that’s the original sin that overshadows the rest of the book. Everything that they do afterwards starts here.

It’s a betrayal on so many levels because these are craftsmen who know the value and attachment of a maker to his creations. The desperation with which they go about this completely skews their ability to see the horror of what they’ve done until they are literally doing it. But then there they are with their swords and more mastery of a killing weapon than the teleri would have had fully intent on killing them for their boats. Sure the teleri have their fish hooks and spears but I don’t think they were at all on equal ground with these burgeoning soldiers and i don’t think anyone can really make the argument that the teleri should have just given their boats, not with any real rationale anyway.

The oath is mostly said to be what curses feanor and his sons but I think this is really what changes them and poisons their hearts. Anything they were before now doesn’t really matter anymore, now they are killers. Now they have betrayed themselves for nothing and any allies, any understanding that they might have gained in Beleriand or valinore or anywhere is gone. And it’s because they murdered the teleri to take what is essentially the heart of their people, the swan ships! It obviously parallels morgoth killing finwe for the silmarils, I think that must have been purposeful.

So was this an equal fight? I doubt it. And anyway it doesn’t matter, because what they did was a curse on their souls that follows them for thousands of years after, repeating over and over again until the silmaril that they killed for rejects them entirely.

[naruthandir]

New Sauron/Gorthaur! :D

[naruthandir]

Source: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Sauron

dude thats sick. thats rad

[naruthandir]

Elvis was a hero in motion 🕺

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Me, at the end of Return of the King, before reading the Silmarillion: Noooooo! Galadriel, don’t leave Middle Earth! Why can’t her realm be restored as well?

Me, now: Girl, congratulations. Can we get a standing ovation for this lady please!? 9,000 years on Middle Earth WITHOUT a little Valinor pit stop, looking at you Glorfindel, OR a even remotely chill job. We love you Cirdan, but ruling the fairest and most powerful Elven Kingdom during TWO wars against Sauron is not comparable to making boats. Now, if you’ll excuse us, the Lady of Lorien has tea to spill. MELIAN! You won’t BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED!

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One-year (ish) redraw of this!

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how the hell did jrrt write the silmarillion without tolkien gateway

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My relationship with the hobbit films is complex because it’s hard to explain to normal people that “I’m not necessarily a fan of the films but I am a HUGE fan of the fanon universe a bunch of us terminally online gay tumblr users collectively hallucinated around them in 2014”

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Maglor during his wandering by the sea years but less sad seaweed soul and more “incredibly tanned older dude you meet at the local surf pub who has circumnavigated the globe in a kayak and needs you to hear about it”. Let me find my giant pencil. This portrait needs a home.

[naruthandir]

I actually like the idea that maglor was very much against all the kinslayings before they happened, each time fighting against it as hard as he could before capitulating in the face of his brothers' determination. I think his tendency towards despair and his avoidance of death actually helped him out at that point, the oath couldn't pull at him as hard because he was fully convinced there was no chance anyways and he didn't want to die.

I like to think each of the brothers had their own reasons driving them forward actually (yknow beyond the soul binding oath and the looming threat of the super-void and all). Maedhros did it because he couldn't see any other way out after fingon. He had played every card in his deck and it all turned to dust, now he was simply in too deep. The sunk ship fallacy at its finest. Celegorm was the most genuinely consumed by the oath towards the end, giving himself over to it entirely like an animal becomes consumed when rabid. Curufin wanted to save their father and the more the others started resenting feanor, the more he felt it was up to him to stay loyal and true. Caranthir was the most like maglor, but also had a closer connection to life and feared what would come if they didn't succeed. Ambarussa wanted to protect each other—the others too ofc but each other most of all.

And maglor? A lifetime of being someone else's second, of playing the caretaker, of repeated attempts of leadership that were ultimately miserable experiences—he gave himself over. Not willing to lose more, he clung onto what he had left no matter what. I think maglor represents how sometimes compliance and loyalty are violent—that standing aside and letting others dictate your life is ultimately also a choice you make with consequences attached.

I also don't think this side of him softens his character at all. Because the crux of the matter is, he still did them. Yes, the first one was out of confusion and loyalty towards his father. Yes, the others were commited only for the sake of his brothers. Yes, it was all because he refused to betray his family. But do any of his victims know that? Do they care? Did he kill any less because of it? Or did loyalty drive him to fight even harder? The act of it remains, even if his reasons were different and even if he was reluctant. And no matter what their reasons were, senseless slaughter is the act all the sons of feanor commited. I think giving them individualized reasons just sweetens the pot and brings more color to his later actions

[naruthandir]

inspirational quotes from the professor … he wrote this to me in a letter

[naruthandir]

Daeron of Doriath with his flute and fern crown 🌱

(I like to imagine he and Maglor have run into each other amidst their angsty wanderings)

[naruthandir]

My favorite personalities: Tall, Singer, Hot, Angry, Looks like dad and Twins

[naruthandir]

[naruthandir]

[naruthandir]

Or as Strunk and White said in Elements of Style (to the best of my memory), "Feel free to ignore everything in this book rather than write something inelegant."

[naruthandir]

If we’re being honest these titles pretty well embody the plots of the books.