ringadondillo

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lotr ‘78 gimleaf you are so so so dear to me

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❋ After the Journey ❋

Decided to make a finished piece from an old sketch I had sitting around of these two ♡

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he talks to trees

+ doodles

^ pre-lothlórien gimleaf (i will explain this one day)

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Long day on the road, long night off the road 🍁

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i always really loved the scene in the fellowship where legolas realises mid-council that gollum having escaped is Really Bad, Actually, it's one of my favourite moments in the book. stoic movie legolas is fun but nothing beats an elven prince jumping up to confess his people's massive fuck-up to the smartest and best of middle earth

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Every time I look at Aragorn I'm like "I bet he has a really great favourite herb" I cannot explain it, that's all I can say.

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Some people say that there is a veil over Mirkwood. That it hides the beings in its folds, keeps you from noticing the odd appearences of the elves there by focusing on all the other wrong wrong wrong things.

Some elves claim that those of the silvans do not understand the beauty of their folk, that they scorn the generous beings that watch over them by hiding themselves from the light, from the valars’ grace.

Some dwarves will tell you that, while the elves of greenwood are as otherworldly as their Noldor and Sindar cousins, it is different. That it always seems that, for all they have working eyes, that they aren’t seeing all of the elves.

The silvans will tell you that it is not a veil that falls over their beloved forest, but the lack of one. They tell you that those elves exposed to the valar and maiar have lost the ability to see what is. That the humans and dwarves lacked the ability in the first place.

That it is only in Greenwood, and the other places claimed by the Avari all those millennia ago, that you can see the world for what it truly is, instead of the way the valar want you perceive it.

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Oil on canvas

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Look I know everyone who’s ever read lotr has said this, but it is so deeply funny how often Sauron has an incredibly powerful item or minion that should 100% ensure that Middle Earth is his, and that item or being has like 1 weakness that is inadvertently exploited by a hobbit and/or their companion.

Oh? You have a magic ring designed to corrupt the hearts of elves, men, and dwarves? It’s being carried by a hobbit, known for their insane mental and physical resilience, and more specifically, the single most resilient hobbit on the face of the planet.

You have a giant spider afraid of nothing but the most pure light? Great, have a hobbit with the light previously preserved in a silmaril.

An immortal witch king that cannot be killed by any living man? Surprise, he’s currently facing the only two non-human-man soldiers on the battlefield, and they’re armed with a blade designed to cut spells.

I cannot fathom the number of mirrors Sauron had to have broken in his lifetime for his luck to be this bad. Four leaf clovers must uproot themselves and run away when he approaches.

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It’s really beautiful how Tolkien takes the time to honor the dead. After Gandalf’s death, they take the time in Lothlorien to deal with their grief and sing their laments, but as there is no body, that’s all they can do.

But when Boromir dies, even when Aragorn has to make the decision to either pursue Frodo or Merry and Pippin, and both are rapidly growing farther from the three left, they take the time to honor their friend. They don’t leave immediately, even though efficiency would dictate otherwise. No, instead they take the time to decide how to “bury” him (quotations only because it’s not burying in the strictest sense of the word, but rather reverently dealing with Boromir’s body). And then they gather trophies of his last stand and arrange them in the boat with him, taking time to “[comb] his long dark hair and [array] it upon his shoulders.”

How many times have other adventurers dedicated valuable time to honor the bodies of fallen companions, specifically to this extent? More often than not, they have to leave them behind, or only take the time to fold their arms or close their eyes.

Occasionally, they’ll build a pyre or bury them or whatnot, but it’s always after the battle that they set aside a significant chunk of time, or they live up to the term of fantasy (which isn’t a bad thing!) and there is no time wasted in building a cairn or burial or what-have-you.

My point is that time is spent, time that could be used for more “productive” things, such as, I don’t know, pursuing Merry and Pippin whose lives are at stake. And it isn’t framed as a bad thing, because it isn’t! Each life is precious, even when only the body is left. And they take the, well, the time to acknowledge this, in a reasonable and conservative way. (And when I say conservative, I mean that they pick the burial most fitting for their running clock, balancing both their need for a grieving period as well as the haste that the hobbits will require.)

I can’t speak to the rest of the deaths in the books as I haven’t caught up and refreshed my memory, but I will touch on another death, this time in the movie, that shares the same theme.

Theodred.

While he certainly hasn’t been totally forgotten by the fandom, I believe it is fair to say that he gets less discussion. Which is fair, considering he gets almost no active dialogue that I can remember and he is unconscious for most, if not all, of his screen time (and book time) before dying shortly after.

And one could say it’s because he’s a prince, one could say it’s because he was the heir, etc., etc. But it honestly makes no sense to dedicate all that time to preparing and putting on a large funeral when Saruman is right at Rohan’s door and there are so many bigger and more impactful decisions to be making now that Theoden has his mind back.

But, again, it isn’t criticized in the movie. It isn’t treated as the wrong decision. The people, included Theoden, needed time to mourn and Theodred deserved to be honored, even in death, even as the great forces of orcs and Uruk-hai were marching across Rohan.

Time is valuable, time is precious, and it should be wasted, especially when you’re trying your hardest to make sure you and yours survive. But time is meaningless if you don’t use it to live and subsequently honor those who have lived.

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'but whyyy would tolkien shoehorn sam into a romantic relationship with rosie when it's so obvious that frodo's the most important person in his life?'

hear me out, what if...and this is a long shot...tolkien had lived through some deeply harrowing experiences that emphasised that people can love each other in different ways and they're all equally important? and that the strongest bonds you form aren't always explicitly romantic? what if everything in tolkien's work (eowyn's different loves for faramir and aragorn, boromir having no interest in romantic relationships and putting everything into his love for his city) fairly dripped with the idea that romance isn't the only important sort of love? what then?

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It’s been said before, but it must be repeated until the end of time:

- If you think that Frodo Baggins was useless…

- … If you think that Frodo Baggins did nothing…

- … If you think that Frodo Baggins is a failure and traitor for being unable to destroy the Ring…

- … If you think that Frodo Baggins is not a hero…

…then you have fundamentally misunderstood The Lord of the Rings.

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breaking up a close knit group and community of friends and sending them their separate ways 4ever is one of my least favorite tropes and I’m glad jrr tolkien could relate. he tried staying strong but just had to throw in the fact that samwise set sail for the undying lands when rosie died and that legolas smuggled gimli in. ty king

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more baby legolas doodles requested by my best friend (ft. thranduil)

he’s speedy

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