#Maybe with the Vanyar

[shrikeseams]

Thinking about some of the meta I've seen about the flight of the Noldor (and I'm not vagueing anyone, I've seen this kinda thing a few times and from folks I don't follow, so they've already trickled out of my head, sorry, bit it's not personal)--ANYWAY. The thing is that there's an underlying assumption that the noldor should have trusted the valar, because the Valar told them that the Oath couldn't be fulfilled and that they couldn't win against Morgoth, and that was ultimately proven correct.

But like. The thing is. The Valar had just proven to be incredibly fallible.

The wonderful Light that drew the elves on to Valinor? That they built their lives around? That's gone. And it's gone because the valar just very publicly screwed up. It's gone because the Valar released Melkor, and fucking told the elves that he was trustworthy, and they were extremely wrong. The Trees are dead because they couldn't bring Melkor back into custody in a timely manner. None of this inspires confidence in their ability to deal with Melkor in the future.

Finwe is dead because the Valar were wrong.

Valinor has been proven to be unsafe because the valar were wrong.

(Arguably the kinslaying at Alqualonde is further proof that the Valar can't keep Aman safe against elves, let alone one of their own number.)

Feanor called it on Melkor. Feanor was proven right to build fortifications, even in Aman. Feanor was proven right to make back-ups of the Light, even if it was stolen. (Just because he wasn't going to hand them over for Yavanna to crack like eggs doesn't mean they wouldn't have been put to good use.) Feanor has been trying to leave Aman for a long time, and right at that crisis point he looks like a great bet. It would have looked like he'd seen it all coming, and that the Valar had invited disaster into their own home.

Hindsight is 20/20, and during the Darkening Feanor looks like a damn oracle. Why would they believe the Valar at that moment? The Valar have just lost an INCREDIBLE amount of face and authority. Trust is very easy to break and very difficult to rebuild.

[eri-pl]

So, Vanyar are the good guys, right?

The boring, faultless Elves?

...except that part where Ingwë (that's the Vanyar king, right? I tend to mistake him with the Teleri one) plays matchmaker so that his sister could marry Finwë despite the fact that Finwë has a wife (who is dead but anyway) and we all know how it ended.

Seriously. In one of the alternate tellings of the story, he knows Indis loves Fnwë, he invites Finwë for a visit and tells Indis to go sing on (the mountain? a balcony? anyway somewhere) and Finwë falls in love and this looks very much planned.

Which is just

just

it was even before the Valar said that Finwë can divorce, that this is even a possibility.

Since I learned about that I have a strong hc that many Vanyar are very "letter of the law", "if it's not forbidden, it is ok" kind of persons, while simultanously blaming the Teleri for not going to Aman fast enough and the Noldor for leaving (I'm not even talking murder, just leaving would be enough) and if they got whatever terrible order signed by the Valar, they would do it without question.

[victorie552]

Ok, I checked with the Book, and Silmarillion clearly states that Finarfin ruled over Noldor who stayed in Aman, and that these Noldor went to Middle Earth with Vanyar during War of Wrath. So this is absolutely an AU but imagine:

Vanyar took over Noldor lands, assimilating the leftover Noldor into their numbers.

It wouldn't even be that much of a stretch. Silm said that only every 1 in 10 elves stayed in Tirion and I doubt numbers got that much bigger when Finarfin and his people came back. Tirion definitely became a ghost town after The Flight. They had to rearrange everything! And there was a lot of grief among the Noldor: over Finwe, over family members who decided to go to ME, over the Trees (still no Sun and Moon), over the happy times that are over.

Who would want to be a ruler in this situation? Not Finarfin, that's for sure. But he's Finwe's son, so he has the bloodline. He has a bloodline, so he has a duty, and if he has a duty, there's nothing to be done. He's stuck with the job.

Then Indis/Ingwion/Ingwe himself offer to come to Tirion and help him with his kingly duties. Finarfin feels grateful, feels guilty over what Noldor did at Alqualonde (coming from a guy who Actually did nothing wrong), his wife left (him?) his side to go help her father and her people, his children Definitely left him. He accepts the help.

And Vanyar are helping! With administration and practical concerns, like where everyone should live now when a single Noldo living in their old house can have 3 streets to themselves each. But more importantly, they are messengers between Noldor and Teleri, who Finarfin Has to make amends to even if he doesn't know how. Teleri don't want to see any Noldo in their lands, so Vanyar messengers it is (Valar are unresponsive, thinking up the Sun and Moon).

Finarfin is doing a good job, but depending on what is practically another country to solve your problems is always tricky, and he isn't ambitious. Noldor are NOT doing well and are grateful for help, even if Before it would have hurt their collective pride (but then again, pride in what? Inventing murder? The morals are low). Ingwe is suggesting a deeper collaboration between their people and an general overlook over Noldor.

Why not? Finarfin is of Finwe's line, but he's also of Ingwe's. And wasn't Ingwe always the High King of all the elves in Aman? And he's feeding them cause his brothers' forces took most of their provisions and it's still dark and it will take a while before they relearn how to harvest under the stars. So while Noldor figure that out, why not give over some administrative power to Vanyar? Noldor judgement is probably still clouded by Morgoth's lies.

Things of course change when The Sun and Moon finally happen but the change happens, again, in Vanyar favour - they trusted the Valar who salvaged and restored The Light! They get things Right! Noldor want to get things Right too! (Vanyar clothing and customs become fashion with the same intensity as when Indis wed Finwe. Noldor are ashamed of themselves still. Teleri fashion is really not an option).

So by the time War of Wrath happens, Finarfin is not a High King, but a vassal to High King. And everyone is really cool with that.

Noldor of Middle Earth find that insane in a polite, half condensending and half betrayed way (like they can talk). Then Finarfin is the brother who, you know, actually DEFEATS Morgoth, so everyone has to reconsider their opinions on the matter.

Noldor who come back to Aman, by sailing or by reembodiment, experience a bigger culture shock than expected. Because even in the Blessed Realm, things change.

[cosmic-walkers]

funny thing about my re-written gondolin au is that each cousin wants what the other has. idril wants to be her own knight in shining armor, she wants to fight, she wants her father to not see her as a helpless girl who must be guarded, or for her life to resort around being a wife and a mother. idril also has gender envy tm and sometimes wants to be perceived as something other than a woman. and maeglin wants to settle down, he wants to marry the tall blond prince. he wants to be seen as desirable. and even if he can fight and defend himself extremely well,  he wants to be saved and not be seen as a threat to people. Since for a while they cannot talk to anyone about it and their desires, they talk to one another. 

[musingsinmiddleearth]

The Darkening of Valinor is, I think, maybe the scariest single thing to do with light and darkness in the entire Quenta Silmarillion.

Here are the Eldar, still in their youth and naivety, in the paradise of Aman. Spirits are high, the weather is fair, and they are brought before the Valar for the celebration of harvest. Fingolfin and Fëanor have made amends (as much as Fëanor is able to). Telperion and Laurelin, the Silver and the Gold, are mingling in their twilight over the land; all is perhaps at its most beautiful and auspicious.

And then: darkness. Not a simple decay as light fades away, but the spear of Melkor driven deep into the heart of illumination. Blackness, swift and unyielding. Like a light switch, the garden of the immortal is made void. And it was not as simple as an absence of light, Tolkien emphasises to us, but Ungoliant's unlight that actively hides all brightness and snuffs the spirit.

Remember that the Eldar had arisen in Cuiviénen under the stars of Varda Elbereth. None of the Eldar, not the Noldor nor the Teleri nor the golden Vanyar, none of them had ever seen pitch-darkness. The stars have forever been the guiding light of the Eldar since the very beginning of their existence, now stolen wholly from sight.

The fear must have been incomprehensible. These people had rarely felt fear, never seen pitch darkness, and never had cause to distrust the sanctity of Aman. I think every heart that witnessed it must have felt unto death. The stuff of darkness that Melkor and Ungoliant together weaved must have choked at their throats and crushed their chest until it passed, and at last the stars could be seen again.

I think it's no wonder that the Eldar forever after spoke highly of the stars, revered and hallowed them, and invoked the name of Varda Elbereth in their hour of need. What a token of comfort it must have been that the light of a Silmaril, undiminishable, was set into the sky later.

It's no wonder, either, that Morgoth was after named the Black Foe of the World. There is no greater enemy of the Eldar than he who would stifle the stars, first among the sights and named things of the Quendi.

[sesamenom]

Ringlord High King of Everything Elrond, inspired here

(@the-writing-goblin)

I imagine in this situation elrond would have been partially tempted by boromir's declaration, but instead of trying to fight sauron with it (because even in the weirdest crack au i can think of elrond is still too genre-aware to try that) he tried to use it to supercharge his use of vilya and protect everyone.

basically Ringlord!Elrond turned the entirety of Eriador into a mega-gondolin situation: massive walls (courtesy of numenorean/eregion tech) around the regions bordering the north or Mordor, fortresses along the mountain range and several layers of gates along every road in or out. Everybody goes in; nobody goes out; everyone is safe.

and he ended up claiming the kingship to give him more authority in the process - he's High King of the Noldor and Sindar and King of the Edain (given that there are like three half-vanyar in middle-earth, he's more or less king of all children of iluvatar) and so he can have command over the entirety of the West.

and with the help of the Ring, this actually works! but the corruption starts to show eventually

he uses his kinship to Gondor to forcefully drag them into his neo-gondolin-empire-creation so he can ensure none of his great-nephews will ever have to face sauron. he extends the walls to encompass Mirkwood, because he's the high king of the sindar and has a duty to protect thranduil's realm, and unleashes the full might of his melian-lite powers to purge Sauron's Shadow and the spawn of Ungoliant from the now-Greenwood.

Galadriel and Glorfindel very much see where this is going and are very very worried. galadriel won't let him build walls around lothlorien (because she lives next door to a balrog and knows exactly what happened to gondolin) but celeborn thinks it's a good idea, since after all Doriath wouldn't have fallen if Melian's girdle had still been up. glorfindel tries to talk him out of it but the ring has taken hold

the Ring's power also enhances all his natural weirdness and powers - he has his wings and maia markings permanently activated now, with or without finwean anger. he can fully shapeshift, and he goes from raising waves in the bruinen to raising tsunamis in the great sea.

except the finwean anger seems to be permanently activated now, too, and anyone who harms someone he's deemed under his protection finds themselves the target of a rather ironic vengeance quest. the shapeshifting is looking weird now - his teeth are always sharp now, and his eyes have gone fully inhuman. sometimes he has claws and his wings look more like bats than eagles. and his water powers are more like osse's- he can't calm the waters now (goldberry is the first to notice something's up) and can only stir them into massive ship-sinking storms and tsunamis.

this progresses until he's basically Evil Luthien ruling over a continent-wide Mega-Gondolin, slaughtering orc-hordes before they even reach the white walls and sinking any naval fleet Sauron tries to send around the coast. Everybody is brought in; nobody leaves; everyone is safe...?

he figures out that the dwarven legend of "Durin's Bane" has to be one of the few first age balrogs thats still unaccounted for. and well, it's living right on his border, and he can't risk another fall of gondolin, right? so he leads a small force in there to clear moria, and they shove the balrog off the edge, but it takes one of his captains (except glorfindel) with it (maybe erestor?) and he uses the ring and saves erestor, (and maybe floods the balrog for good measure), and glorfindel is sure he saw elrond's eyes go yellow for a moment.

and even fully corrupted, he knows he can't take the ring directly into mordor. but he can wipe out sauron's armies outside the walls, to protect his kingdom - because turgon's mistake was thinking he was safe even when there were balrogs and dragons and orcs outside, right?

somewhere along the way, arwen realizes what's happening and goes to live with galadriel. one of the twins goes with her; the other stays out of loyalty but eventually follows.

elrond's kingdom has become a cross between doriath and gondolin now, with all the surrounding lands warped by ring-magic to hide it, and layers of stone walls and iron gates preventing anyone from leaving. because everyone is here; nobody leaves; everyone is... safe?

[skyeventide]

taking a stab at the whole valinor trauma rebirth tragedy thing

without getting into the various iterations of mandos throughout its development, the fact that it shares the etymological root with angband (angamando in quenya) or its use as both a prison/punishment place and as the temporary "afterlife" of elves, I think it should be obvious why "mandos cures everything" doesn't work for most people. it's simply narratively unsatisfying. we know that, technically, spirits are solitary in mandos and don't tend to interact with each other, and we know (iirc) that nienna does most of the healing work, when those spirits don't reflect on things by themselves.

healing in complete isolation might work one rare time, but it's otherwise simply not how healing works, how adjusting to a new life works. being way too in your own head is discouraged. healing all your traumas because a goddess did it via magic counseling gives, at best, uncanny vibes, at worst erases the struggle and journey of adjusting, with help, into the life you're actually living. so people either say that spirits can actually meet in mandos and figure things out among themselves, or subvert the narrative and have people come out of mandos either not truly healed or only partially so, and needing the real living feedback of society to exist within it again. a reading which allows mandos to still function as a recovery, but whose achivement is to "prepare" for the journey of spiritual healing, to bring elves back to a stage where they're able to face the circumstances that generated their trauma (aka the living, embodied world, and maybe more precisely even the people involved in it).

this barely touches on the grievances that dead elves might have with the guys who are running this show. this isn't just feanorian followers (or the exiles more at large) who renounced the valar's authority, it can also be the avari, who now either get valinor or they get valinor. it can be the falathrim, who wanted to go to valinor and lost the chance. it can be those sindar who were waiting for a full intervention from valinor, and it didn't come until earendil came around. it's hard to envision healing within a system when the system itself is what you take issue with. it requires a personal compromise, or an acceptance of the system's authority, and that's simply not always possible, nor can fanworks always easily tackle it — which is also why I think fics where living relatives "bully" or like, strongly entreat, the valar into releasing specific elves from death are popular. it's one way of giving that specific problem a solution, though it may in effect be unrealistic. it's less about realism (I for one don't believe the Valar would ever do that) and more about trying to find a way through wanting to see those characters heal without having to bend and accept the system and its authority.

which also brings me to what comes after and the necessary divide, real or perceived, between people who were always in valinor and people who returned to life after conflict.

to put it simply, making sweeping statements about whether amanyar elves can understand the trauma of exiles and other reborn elves is not possible and in itself pretty silly. even the amanyar themselves don't perceive their experiences of trauma and the darkening in the same way! the teleri refuse to set foot in beleriand despite their own kin being there, and despite the fact that noldor and vanyar embark on a valar-sanctioned war. it's pretty obvious that their own internal experiences and cultural understanding of the darkening or of valar authority is still vastly different, that even going by the imprecise and generalising divide of clan, that trauma was processed differently. or not processed at all.

and then, would those who fight the war of wrath understand the trauma of a continent-wide collapse? yeah, surely in a sense they can, they live through it. but can they understand it from the point of view of a sinda who had lived in beleriand all their life and didn't simply come here with the understanding that this was war? who saw their home be destroyed slowly and painfully, and in the end, when the saving arrives, it's a saving with such an immense and heartbreaking price? maybe they can empathise, maybe they can't. the darkening, by the time of the war of wrath, is no viable term of comparison. even among the living, this isn't cookie-cutter.

so what of those who die and return? I think it's obvious, in the text itself, that someone can go through a death, real of metaphorical, return to their old home which has itself gone through some considerable trauma, and realise that no matter if both you and your home have changed, both have bled, you're still unable to readjust to it the way others can. other people who were with you in your journey can integrate, they find old friends and loves who help them in this. you can't. I'm obviously talking about frodo.

it's not the same for everyone and it will never be. and I do feel as though the reading of valinor being in itself unable to take back people who went through trauma is a push-back against the idea that valinor must inherently be blissful, healing, and perfect; but the text presents us many situations where the environment of valinor plants the seeds of dissatisfaction; the fact that it doesn't work as neatly as it seems is at the core of the early conflict in The Silmarillion (even without pointing out stuff like: troubled people, Frodo included, go to the gardens of Lorien in search of that healing and peace of mind that the rest of the land can't actually provide. it's just a land. it's mostly free of toil because there's literal gods providing things, but it's just a land). valinor is not perfect, but its status as blessed realm invites a certain unease in many readers. I believe this unease leads easily to cotradictory and equally extreme positions, ranging from "no one would or should feel out of place after rebirth" to "actually no one would understand the trauma of someone who died and returned".

plus, of course, the obvious: someone's trauma, collective or individual, and how people process it, doesn't somehow erase someone else's and how they process it. the two things can come in conflict with one another, but they're not, like, mutually exclusive.

[edennill]

A young Amarië, based on this

Idk, it somehow fits with me that the Vanyar do a lot of shepherding and such. The good old classical influence of the Arcadia motif maybe...? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Don't ask me what's going on with the bottom of the dress, it was like this in the reference image. That said, bright colours and little-to-no jewelry is pretty much how I do imagine Vanyarin fashions.

Mixed media (colored pencils and alcohol markers); pencil-only version under cut

[domini-porter]

can’t sleep because I am once again obsessively wondering how there were so many elves in Aman when they started from a total of 144 elves—72 breeding pairs, assuming 100% gender parity and exclusive heteronormativity and no problems conceiving or producing young—and also the elves are monogamous, bear children extremely early in their lifespans, and average what, two kids? three? (not including outliers like Fëanor’s meathead sons) and just sort of chill forever after that; that’s maybe reaching replacement levels (they’re immortal, yes, but they get mowed down in wars, like, all the time and then hang out on a magic island with the god of death waiting to respawn at some point?) but tens of thousands of elves? after like six wars, including one against the devil himself??? especially the Vanyar, of whom there were initially seven monogamous breeding pairs and they were huge on racial purity. again: yes elves live forever(ish) but 99.5% of it does not involve making more elves. and even if the math maths, it seems like there haven’t been any elf kids for a long time, because everyone stopped fucking like 4000 years ago??? like, I’m fine with a child-free society and I know the Age of the Elves is diminishing and soon will come the Age of Man but it bothers me so much

[nerdylizard5]

REDNECK LEGOLAS: the peak of my artistic career in terms of absolute lore pedant gremlinry

The Redneck — in relation to the other Elves and especially in view of those such as the Noldor, the elves of Mirkwood are rather likely seen as “backwoods redneck hicks”. “Y’all” vs “unto” — Legolas spoke both Sindarin and Silvan, the former being more “high” Elvish and the latter being seen as more “common”. It is quite likely he would have used colloquial terms from both, represented here in a more relatable English version. The Baldness — one of the more niche and pedantic lore debates is the color of Legolas’s hair. Some say because Thranduil was blonde, Legolas must be as well. Others say that Tolkien wrote Sindarin Elves to all be dark haired, with blonde hair only being in Vanyar lines, and as the Hobbit was grandfathered into the lore later, Thranduil’s hair should have been changed and Legolas’s mom would be dark haired anyway, so he should be as well. But as his hair (either the color or its existence) is never mentioned in any books, it is possible to drive both camps of this debate crazy by arguing that he could easily be canonically bald. The Ears — another somewhat pointless pedantic debate is the shape of Elven ears. Tolkien never specified and there are arguments for and against pointed ears, but one argument that can be interpreted for either side is that the words related to ears and hearing are related to the word for leaf and thus Elven ears are leaf shaped. This can be argued rounded or pointed, but I present a third solution: maple-leaf shaped! In short, this is why you should never (or maybe why you should) let a lore nerd with a chaotic sense of humor do art

[feanoryen]

Even though I’ve said in the past that I HC Feanor never befriended anyone in his youth

…admittedly I think Feanor & Ingwion being frenemies has amazing angst potential.

It would be kind of sad if Feanor actually got along with everyone including the Vanyar before… Indis decided her creepy obsession with a married man was more important than Miriel’s choice to ever come back & Finwe decided having more children was more important than giving his wife a choice to ever come back.

Ingwion might be a lot older than Feanor, who knows honestly? But if they were somewhat close in age, I don’t see why they wouldn’t have had a ton of opportunities to interact. They're firstborn princes, they might have bonded over that.

And then Ingwion's awful cousin & Feanor's selfish father decide to ruin Feanor's life. The Valar support them in ruining Feanor's life. The Vanyar never go against the Valar.

Feanor probably pleads with Ingwion to ask his father to reason with the Valar, they love Ingwe, if he says it's wrong they'll consider it right? Maybe Ingwion reluctantly talks to Ingwe about it and his dad's like "the Valar have made their choice, and who am I to deny Finwe & Indis their happiness".

Ingwion chooses to respect the Valar's choice, Feanor sees this as Ingwion supporting his horrible blonde homewrecking cousin (he kind of is, but he's supporting the Valar more than Indis herself. If the Valar disagreed, he would've as well since he believes the Valar are always supposed to be right)

RIP their friendship. Feanor cuts him out of his life & never forgives him or anyone else who accepted his dad's remarriage.

And then Ingwion becomes close to his horrible cousin's children & Feanor just doubles down on his dislike of him. Feanor's like "Of course he'd choose his kin over me, I shouldn't have expected anything better of him." and Ingwion is saying in his head "You dumb bitch I'd choose you first if you didn't cut me off".

[glorfindel-of-imladris]

Glorfindel Week | Day 1: Valinor Headcanons

Glorfindel headcanons for his time in Valinor for @glorfindelweek 💛✨

I primarily write in the Second/Third Age, but I do have headcanons for Glorfindel in his youth and in Valinor that do influence my writing. I thought that today's prompt gives me a good opportunity to share them!

Born after Turgon, around Galadriel and Aredhel’s age. Glorfindel's actual age has never actually come up in my writing (other than he's Very Old), but the idea of it does influence his dynamic with other characters. He is younger than Turgon, and in a way defers to him beyond Turgon just being his king. Turgon is like an older brother to him. Ecthelion is slightly older, but barely; Egalmoth is a little younger, but also barely. Glorfindel treats them as peers as well as his best friends. Galadriel is also a peer and so he interacts with her as such, especially after his return in the Second Age and well into the Third Age. Glorfindel's age also somewhat affects his dynamic with Erestor, whom I of course write him with plenty. While I also now mostly write Erestor as having been born during the Years of the Trees, he is always specifically younger than Glorfindel. I don't think I ever mention it though and I'm not even sure if the effect is noticeable, but it's there. 🤭

Mostly Ñoldorin, but part-Vanyarin, cousin of Elenwë. This is an old but popular headcanon for Glorfindel, considering how: 1) it was said that Glorfindel crossed the Helcaraxë out of his kinship with Turgon; and 2) he has golden hair. I adopted it very early and just ran with it all these years. One thing that has changed over the years is that although I have written him as a pure Vanya before, I have now resolved to have him as part-Ñoldorin because, while, yes, there is support in the text that he is also a Ñoldo, my personal reason is that Glorfindel was the only one among Fingolfin’s host that canonically didn't take part in the kinslaying at Alqualondë. I dislike the idea that some clans are better than others, that violence was a mark of the Ñoldor while “goodness” is ascribed mostly to the Vanyar, who happen to be the whitest of the white among the races in Arda.

Has sisters (and maybe one brother). I imagine Glorfindel as having siblings; he just has that vibe about him. I usually place him around second out of five children, with the older sibling to him being always a sister. The placement sometimes changes, and sometimes there isn't even a brother at all (or if there was, Glorfindel hasn't met him before he left with Fingolfin's host), but somehow key to my idea of Glorfindel is that he has sisters and he has a good relationship with all of them. He is therefore comfortable with women, is gentle with them, and relates with them easily. He does, however, stand a bit independent of his sisters, who share a close bond among themselves, and he is the only one in his family to join the hosts crossing to Middle-earth.

Bonus: Valinor, post-death

He has returned to Middle-earth at least once before the Second Age, by fighting in the War of the Wrath. According to The History of Middle-earth, Glorfindel was reimbodied shortly after his death, within the First Age. Given that he already was there when Eärendil arrived asking the Valar for aid, you cannot convince me that Glorfindel wouldn't have gone. There was hardly anyone in Valinor more motivated to help Eärendil than Glorfindel himself, Eärendil’s savior in Gondolin, and you can take this headcanon from my cold and dead fingers.

Emissary of Manwë, learned from Nienna. It was also said that Glorfindel became a follower and friend of Olórin (Gandalf) in Valinor, so this isn't much of a stretch considering Olórin's alignment as well as a Maia. Given also how Glorfindel was returned primarily for his "goodness", and the fact that he was steadfast against the kinslayings, and his care and love for people, Nienna as the Vala he most aligns with also is not a stretch.

[dfwbwfbbwfbwf]

Thranduil's mother, Oropher's wife, was a Vanya.

In The Hobbit, it mentions that the Elvenking has golden hair, a trait that is explicitly mentioned to belong only to the Vanyar. (Most Sindar look like Noldor with dark hair; silver is an exception that Þingollo, Míriel, and Círdan are noted with.)

We could say "oh, this was before Jirt had all the world building straightened out", but where's the fun in that?

So picture this: Oropher has brown hair. He either woke up at Cuiviénen, or he was born there. He married a Vanya (or a Minya at the time), and they had Thranduil, who inherited his mother's golden hair, either at Cuiviénen or on the journey westward. Maybe she died, or was captured by orcs, or continued to Valinor when her husband and son decided to stay in Beleriand.

(But even if Thranduil had blond hair from a Vanya mother, I still think Legolas would have brown hair.)

[actual-bill-potts]

I think the silm fandom as a whole does not lean in enough to the weirdness of elves.

Like for instance. Tolkien never said elves have sclera did he? Elves already have reflective glowing eyes, now make them more like cats’ eyes: all one color with a pupil in the middle. The Noldor have huge grey eyes; the Vanyar warm-brown; the Teleri bright blue. Maybe the light of the Trees shows up as flecks of living color. Imagine Maedhros with huge silver eyes, dotted with gold because of all the time he spends under Laurelin with Fingon.

And their proportions! Elves are tall - hugely tall! Think a two-foot/60cm difference at least between Beren and Lúthien, or Finrod and Bëor. No one said they were proportioned the way humans are. Maybe their arms are extra long, for added balance. Maybe they carry fat differently from humans.

And just…idk there’s so many cool possibilities. Maybe their hair is sticky, like spiderwebs, rendering extremely fancy styles possible and necessitating extremely careful hair care regimens. Maybe their joints are all looser than humans’; they can bend their fingers backward and forward in an extremely alarming way. Maybe their eyelashes are so long they dust their cheekbones. Maybe their nailbeds are naturally glittery. Who can say. Tolkien didn’t!!

Also. we as a fandom are sleeping on Lúthien’s hair cloak. That thing is so god damn cool. I need to do better about this myself. Where are the fics about it! Where is the art! She grew a midnight cape out of her own hair and it made everyone it touched fall asleep!!!!

That is all, thank u and goodnight.

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Everyone talks about Namo's "Not the first" like it's referring to Finwe but maybe the first elf that got slain in Valinor was some unfortunate Teleri elf got dragged down to the bottom of ocean playing with Osse's whirlpool

The book says Teleri loved Osse but did not trust him and I wonder where this came from

Did Ainur remember elves need to breath?

Also might as well be some Vanyar elves that got eaten by a T-Rex. It's canon that Valinor kept all the species ever existed, and really a lot of them disliked city and scattered in the wild of Valinor (aside from Ingwe who had huge crush on Varda.)

Some Maia of Yavanna or Orome might just want to introduce their new elf friend to some of their "old friends" and then their old friend just bit off the elf's head