#and when they think of their parents they think feanor and Nerdanel fine

[victorie552]

I don't know when exactly Nerdanel left Feanor, so I am choosing to believe that they 'divorced' when Feanor was banished from Tirion and Nerdanel refused to go with him and their sons to Formenos. But I also headcannon that things between them were bad long before that. As in, Amras and Amrod suffered from "Our Parents Should Divorce Already" situation.

[annoyinglandmagazine]

I’ve been thinking about Miriel and her impact on the House of Feanor on the whole, as you do, and I was thinking what if she haunted the narrative even more? I think it’s pretty well established that she was depressed in some shape or form, that there were mental health problems contributing heavily but there were definitely physical aspects as well, ‘But in the bearing of her son Miriel was consumed in spirit and body; and after his birth she yearned for release from the labour of living.’ And I know that Feanor being Feanor was ascribed as a huge cause of this, that he was just so much stronger than the average elf that his birth was particularly taxing but I’m going to go ahead and assume that even if Feanor had been a perfectly normal baby Miriel would have been impacted. It just feels almost like this infant is being blamed for his mother’s death which, while definitely plausible as something that happened in universe, doesn’t really feel fair to him.

I’m theorising Miriel had underlying conditions from long before she became pregnant that made her prone to things like fainting, exhaustion, chronic pain and that in all honesty her having a child was never going to be a good idea. But they wanted a family together and where could be a safer place to raise one? Everything was perfect and safe, why shouldn’t they be able to overcome this little obstacle to doing what everyone else seemed to be doing without issue? Towards the end she was entirely bedridden, not even strong enough to sit at her loom.

Finwë was relieved beyond measure when Feanor seemed to grow almost exceedingly strong and healthy, as if he’d gotten all the strength Miriel had been missing, and he thought that was the matter laid to rest, Feanor was fine and any children of his would be as well. Except they weren’t. Nerdanel’s pregnancies were always a time of great panic, not for her health really because it wasn’t Feanor’s genes they were worried about it was Miriel’s. And Nerdanel was nothing like Miriel but her children…..

Ñolofinwe watches Feanor pacing the palace in a frenzy while a crowd of healers stream in and out of a room down the hall, some five times the standard amount, and he wants to try and reassure him but knows he, with his perfectly healthy baby boy, delivered with no fuss by one midwife just like his two perfectly healthy sons beforehand, to go home to, is the last person in Arda his brother could stand to converse with right now.

The sons and daughters of Fingolfin and Finarfin grew swiftly, strong and athletic with hearty appetites and bright dispositions. Feanor could not bring himself to hate children so he settled for hating his brothers instead. He does not envy them their children, he loves his more than he could ever have loved anything and that’s the problem right there, he loves his sons and he’s absolutely terrified that he’s going to lose them if he lays them down too long. They’re so small and as soon as they leave his or Nerdanel’s arms they seem to tremble with cold so he sleeps with them against his chest for more of the first years of their lives than was usual. After those many sleepless nights he always finds it hard to sleep without being able to feel the rise and fall of their breathing.

Their cousins often do not understand what the difference between them and the Feanorians is, most of them have vague memories of getting scolded within an inch of their lives for fighting one back when they got into childish arguments. Mostly they just resented it or assumed it was favouritism if it were by Finwe or fear of Feanor’s wrath if by their own parents. Angrod did not think too long on how easily Caranthir crumpled to the ground at an unexpected shove, after all he was the older wasn’t he? Surely the rules about being gentle shouldn’t apply? He was equally puzzled when Fingolfin came running and scooped Caranthir into his arms, pale and panicked as Maedhros assured him he’d make certain Feanor wouldn’t hear about the matter if he was alright.

They train and become agile and skilled with blades and bows if not physically broad and strong in the way of their cousins but no matter how their health improves there are always concerns and during their approaching adulthood it becomes clear their worries are not only in body. There are migraines that leave them in dark rooms unable to bear even the sound of footsteps outside, days where Curufin and Maedhros struggle to allow any food past there lips, days where Caranthir sobs for hours with some inexplicable ache, weeks where Maglor cannot find rest no matter how much exhaustion he feels, little cuts and gashes on Celegorm’s arms that seem too frequent to be fully accidental.

If you were to look at this from a modern perspective it would probably be some genetic tendency to bipolar disorder and major depression but they wouldn’t have that kind of language because in my headcanons about Valinor they have very little experience with mental illness and no idea how to respond to it. I’m citing the whole Miriel incident to back me up there.

And just to make this even more angsty have a Tyelko quote from the fic of this I may or may not write ‘Amme always said we were her miracles, that our survival and strength was a blessing from the Valar. I was lucky to make it to my first winter. I wonder now if things wouldn’t have been better for everyone else if I hadn’t.’

[yourlocalnetizen]

Tolkien elves and who they trauma dump on

Finwe - His whole family but mostly Indis.

Ingwe - Doesn’t trauma dump. Manwe can tell when he needs to talk about his feelings though and offers to be his moral support.

Thingol - Melian.

Cirdan - Doesn’t trauma dump but managed just fine.

Miriel - Mandos and Vaire are her go too Valar if she needs to talk about her feelings but she rarely does.

Indis - Tries to avoid trauma dumping but she needs to every once in a while and uncle Ingwe is always there for her.

Feanor - Nerdanel and sometimes Mahtan. He refuses to talk about his feelings with the Valar. Manwe & Namo tried though. Nienna almost succeeded. In Mandos he trauma dumps on Finwe, like he should have a long time ago because no one else can get him open up about his feelings.

Nerdanel - Her dad.

Findis - Avoids trauma dumping but she goes to her mom when she needs too.

Fingolfin - His mom but after he goes to middle earth it’s Irime.

Irime - Fingolfin because he was her best friend from the start. She knew Indis was more reliable but thought her mom had enough to worry about already.

Finarfin - Doesn’t ever trauma dump but he’s always open about his feelings, including the negative ones, with Earwen, as is she with him.

Maedhros - Never had the need to trauma dump when he was in Valinor. In middle earth probably Maglor. I can’t see it being Fingon because the last time he got Fingon involved in his troubles, he turned Fingon into a kinslayer and I bet he felt very guilty about it.

Maglor - Maedhros, a very bad choice given how traumatized his elder bro is but M&M are clearly super codependent.

Celegorm - In Valinor, Orome. In Middle Earth, Huan and Maedhros. After Huan leaves him, no one because he doesn’t get along with Maedhros anymore and no way is he willing to push his feelings on his little brothers. (I think he always tried to be a dependable big bro to his little sibs because he looked up to Maedhros when he was younger and Maedhros was always a dependable big bro to him.)

Caranthir - He doesn’t trauma dump and he doesn’t have to. He does have trauma but he deals with it in healthy ways. Like screaming in his soundproof room.

Curufin - Feanor, back when Feanor was alive. It was not helpful since his dad was the most traumatized elf alive at that point. After Feanor dies, he goes to Mae & Mags. He never actually listens to their suggestions though.

Amrod & Amras - Each other. Who else?

Fingon - Fingolfin back when he was alive.

Turgon - Doesn’t ever talk about his feelings but it worked out for him because Glorfindel always knows what he’s feeling.

Glorfindel - Open about his feelings with everyone he’s close to.

Idril - Tuor.

Maeglin - Thanks to his dad and latter Turgon, he didn’t realize it was okay to talk about your feelings. Also if anyone knew about his feelings, they would be ultra judgmental.

Aredhel - Fingolfin. Later Turgon, who isn’t a great choice but she lives with him so her options are limited.

Luthien - Beren.

Finrod - His parents in Valinor. In middle earth, it’s Beor for a bit. After that, no one because he doesn’t have any more trauma to dump.

Angrod - His bros. Maybe his wife.

Aegnor - Finrod and Angrod.

Galadriel - Finrod, but she quickly grows out of the need of having to trauma dump.

Celeborn - His wife.

Celebrimbor - After he ditched his dad, probably Galadriel and Celeborn. Later Sauron, but that didn’t work out did it?

Gil-Galad - Cirdan. His true dad. (Not by blood since he’s Finwean obviously, but he did raise him.)

Finduilas - Her dad.

Orodreth - Whatever elder family member is emotionally available at the moment. It’s been Finrod, his parents, and Finarfin at some point.

Earendil - Elwing.

Elwing - Earendil.

Elros - Elrond.

Elrond - Elros initially but stopped trauma dumping after his twin died. Fortunately, it’s okay because Glorfindel knows what he’s feeling and knows how to help.

Celebrian - Her mom. Probably uncle Finrod in Valinor.

Thranduil - Doesn’t trauma dump. Oropher’s death probably traumatized him but I don’t think he had the chance to talk about his feelings being a king and all. Somehow he was able to overcome his grief though. (Maybe the birth of Legolas?)

Legolas - Gimli.

[moonwalker750]

Sometimes back, I was flipping through Tolkein's fic, focusing on Elrond(He's my favorite character). They were varied and interesting. However, after finishing them, a consistency (there were exceptions) was present in the description of the twins' backstory.

Elwing had not much interaction with her children, the twins were largely left to their own devices and ignored by other people. She was a horrible mother obsessed with Silmaril. Earnedil was pretty much a deadbeat father, by the way, the authors sound, went on a cruising vacation.

Maedhros and Maglor were perfect parents for twins. The twins loved them and considered them their actual parents. Elrond (even in the middle of the 3rd age) and Elors were very critical of their biological parents and viewed them in a bad light. Elrond was a raging Feanorian (the very same person who recited his ancestry on his mother's side in LoTR) and indifferent to his Sindarin ancestry and that side of the family. When he goes to Valinor, he didn't even want to see his biological parents, he considers Nerdanel as his grandmother. And, in some, Feanor is the grandfather. (no problem, but stop hating on Idril and Tuor.)

While reading, I had no particular thoughts on this subject. I was much more interested in 'what happens next?

Afterward, my stupid brain kicked a gear and was like, WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE! THEY WERE PRINCES! (Often I forget, since 'Lord' is pretty much attached to Elrond's name, in my head).

Dude, how can you sell this shit? Moreover, Have we not any critical? To accept it (Well, I did, so I'm an idiot, too).

The twins were princes on both sides by their parents. Heirs. Are you telling me that the people of Sirion, refugees of two fallen kingdoms, would not have loved these two little children to bits and pieces?

They were descendants of Turgon (King of Gondolin and later the fucking High King of Noldors) and were of the line of Melian and Elwe, Luthien and Beren, then Dior and Nimloth. How is this believable? Granted the elves would be busy with their lives. But you cannot tell me, the twins had no line of Uncles and Aunties to look after them.

Those who were close to Turgon (lord or captains, a few did make it to Sirion) had supported Idril and Tuor on their journey to safety and had watched Earendil growing up. Would they truly not have cared enough about the sons of their golden-haired prince? (Idril and Tuor, by all accounts, journeyed alone. Whereas Earendil has a small crew to man Vingilot.) What about Doriathians? Those Doriathians that knew the royal family and served their Kings and Queens. Friends and servants who knew Nimloth and thought these are her grandsons, who remembered another pair of twins-now dead, who raised their baby Queen and looked after her. Are you telling me they wouldn't help Elwing to teach her, raise them, and look after them?

We don't know their age when the Sack of Sirion happened, but they were probably children at that time. As children, then as young adults, they have every right to be angry at their biological parents. Reach their conclusion. And, it is fine. Because emotions at that age are a ball of twisted yarn. Emotions rarely followed logic. But these emotions grew from hurt. But do we think Elrond would beholden to the similar reasoning in the middle of the Third Age (after the alliance)? His epithet is 'Wise'. He had seen the wars and seen the world. He had faced choices and made them. Known the helplessness and hope. He had been a victim of wars and a general in the war. He had been free and carried the burden of lives in his hand.

A disquiet would always be there, but that inferno of anger and betrayal? No, he would understand, he would accept and make peace with it.

Their life among Fenaorians was not sunshine. They were held hostages, at the start, by people who are referred to as vile, as kin slayers. The Feanorians were as much of the monster to them as Melkor. They were terrified, alone, and abandoned in an enemy's land. And Feanorians? Maedhros and Maglor had lost the last of their brother(s). Thrice, they had slain elves. They were empty-handed of their salvation, again. They had lost their chance to retrieve that Silamaril. The Enemy was growing powerful by second, and the clutch of Oath was a noose around their neck. Do you think the loss of Ambaruss would not affect them? That they would not be affected by kin slaying, as fruitless as the last one? That it had not pushed Maedhros's metal stability down? That they and their warriors could love unconditionally, to forget their hardship? (People of Sirion had hope. However, the hope of salvation and a voidless death was slipping past Fenorians). That there aren't more people like the servants of Celegorm who left a pair of children in a forest to die? Lost, broken, and filled with rage at Dior and Elwing and their damnation? Willing to harm children when they had killed children before? That Maedhros and Maglor aren't weighed down by the death of their family and that the twins are the grandsons of the elf(man? half-Maiar?) who killed their three brothers? (Not consciously, but subconsciously yes.)

Despite everything, there was still humanity (elvenity?). The Feanorians had committed atrocities, but they were not atrocious people. Not most of them. Their choices and actions imprisoned them. Still they tried to raise the twins. Elrond could remember a dozen warm memories with Faenorians. They were young and at a formative age, so they latched on to the brothers (On Maglor mostly. Maedhros was more of a silent shadow in the back). Maglor did try. He taught them what he could. Activities that befitted their ranks and being kind to the twins. But he was a Lord with duties that took him away from children.

Would being a raging Feanorian stan would be in Elrond's character? With age, our opinions change, even toward our closest. Would he not remember Sirion? (even if it is screaming and blurred dreams) Would his feelings be so black and white?

What I am trying to say is, that it cheapens their (the twins) backstory and their character. To paint one in gold and another a dull brown.

Okay phew my rant has ended. Please be polite if you wish to comment!

[galadhremmin]

silm asks - 1, 9, 13, 22

1. Favorite Section (Ainulindalë, etc.)? The end, because it breaks my heart! The sense of loss is so palpable. You really experience a feeling of mourning for the destruction of a world that never existed in a way I have never experienced with other fantasy. I do love the Ainulindale because the idea of a world made of music and responsive to it is incredible appealing to me. ‘Is that not a silmaril,’ or! that sentence about the death of Miriel...  ‘ and the sky reeled, and the hills slid, and Númenor went down into the sea, with all its children and its wives and its maidens and its ladies proud; and all its gardens and its halls and its towers, its tombs and its riches, and its jewels and its webs and its things painted and carven, and its lore: they vanished for ever. And last of all the mounting wave, green and cold and plumed with foam, climbing over the land, took to its bosom Tar-Míriel the Queen, fairer than silver or ivory or pearls. Too late she strove to ascend the steep ways of the Meneltarma to the holy place; for the waters overtook her, and her cry was lost in the roaring of the wind.’ Painful; beautiful. But yeah, I can’t really choose. Though I’d still say the end.   9. What Age of Arda would you like to live in? I love reading about heroic and tragic events and enjoy dramatic irony, but I want none of those things in my own life! Years of the Trees in Valinor. Every time I try to think about what Valinor would be like in a slightly more concrete way it grows stranger and more intense in my imagination. Even if it would speed up my death-- fine. See Valinor And Die. ‘ And tales and rumours arose along the shores of the sea concerning mariners and men forlorn upon the water who, by some fate or grace or favour of the Valar, had entered in upon the Straight Way and seen the face of the world sink below them, and so had come to the lamplit quays of Avallónë, or verily to the last beaches on the margin of Aman, and there had looked upon the White Mountain, dreadful and beautiful, before they died.” -- That’s the spirit. If it actually existed I’d swim upstream towards the blessed realm like a salmon in season, right here right now.   13. Would you want The Silmarillion to be made into a film or tv series? Only if it was animated, and only if it was done by people like the ones who made Song of the Sea, The Red Turtle or similar. I don’t think the entire thing would really work in the same style; an anthology of separate stories by different creators might work best. The only live action version of a Silm story I’d like to see would be Del Torro in the spirit of Pan’s Labyrinth. But overall I think the Silm material and the way people interact with it would suffer from a big studio laying claim over it. Copyright and capitalism don’t go well with this sort of story.  22. What is your opinion of Fëanor? He’s interesting. This is getting a bit long, so cut.

I think it doesn’t do the character or the story justice to make his conflict with Fingolfin entirely about his father’s affection; there’s a interesting sentence in one of the versions of the stories that indicates Fingolfin was at least perceived as threatening not just Feanor’s but also Finwe’s authority, in favour of the Valar;  Whispers came to Feanor that Fingolfin and his sons Turgon and Fingon were plotting to usurp the leadership of Finwe and of the eldest house of Feanor, and to supplant them by the leave of the Valar-- for the Valar were ill-pleased that the Silmarils lay in Tuna, and were not given in their keeping. [..] on the high day of the Valar Feanor spake words of rebellion against the Valar, crying aloud that he would depart back to the world without, and deliver, as he said, the Gnomes from thraldom, if they would follow him. And when Fingolfin sought to restrain him Feanor drew his sword. ' Combined with from yet another version; 'said Finwë: ‘While the ban lasts upon Fëanor my son, that he may not go to Tirion, I hold myself unkinged, and I will not meet my people.’ ... I think there’s room for more than just a narrative about a child insecure about his father’s love. That is also there; and it is fascinating all on its own, because he is the first person in Valinor to lose a parent, the first for so many things. But this is there, too; a potential politico-religious conflict about authority supported by Noldorin tradition vs. the Valar. Given that Ulmo called Feanor’s birth a result of Marring and Indis line the good to come of it I think this makes sense on both levels.  Anyway, aside from that I think his devolving into a state of horrible, selfish paranoia and grief leads him to do entirely awful things in an interesting way. I don’t read the character as a parallel for real world fascists/nationalists because that just doesn’t make sense in context of, well everything. Being a King in a feudal society is only the start of it... But given Tolkien’s life experiences I’d say when he uses a sentence like ‘no other race shall oust us’ the wording is deliberate, and you’re supposed to feel those associations; the way his spirit starts to twist, the wrongness of the words he uses to motivate those not convinced by the need for vengeance etc. Feanor is a character who often plays the oracle without knowing it. He predicts his own son’s final fate (Maglor) without realising it. When he sees the future he doesn’t know it, and when he is justified in his emotions or even opinions he reacts in the worst possible way. It makes him fascinating. He is too much of everything, and you get the distinct sense that he doesn’t truly understand himself.  Aside from that; well, the slender dexterity of Feanor’s fingers... haha. He was Tolkien’s favourite, clearly, and it shows. I really love what seems like his intense curiosity and need to engage with the world he lives in. I love that his heraldry seems related to the spectrum of visible light, when so much about him is about light. I think Nerdanel might be the only woman in Tolkien’s work who is not loved for her beauty but her spirit, and that in turn tells me something about Feanor’s spirit. I could go on, probably verging into headcanons. I enjoy the character; I think of his actions and eventual implied ideology are indefensible. I also think that the circumstances being what they were (no one born in the blessed realm truly understood loss, or having to let go of a possession, for one) and with the qualities ascribed to him his choices make sense. 

[procrastinationonvacation]

I loved your Angband answer! I would love to keep hearing your thoughts (they’re really interesting!), so could I possibly ask about your opinions on The Wives (Nerdanel, Anairë and Eärwen)?

- Captain Anon (I like the name :))

Hello Captain anon!! I’m glad you like it :)

ok I think it was @feanorianethicsdepartment who came up with this: but they all suffer from being Chaotic as hell. To sum up what the post was, these three Voluntarily chose to be in this family, where no one has had a “chill” day in their life. (as usual im putting the bulk of this under a cut cause it got long)

The one exception in this family *might* be Arafinwe bc 1.did not join this life voluntarily and 2.seems pretty chill. So fine maybe Earwen isn’t That chaotic. They do have the most operative children after all.

-

anyways:

Nerdanel: “the wise.” pfft yeah right. The only person crazier than her is feanor and I say that endearingly. Arguably worse when it comes to crafting. Listen, Feanor is in part the way he is about his creations because he’s angry at everyone and generally has unresolved issues with his parents. The guy is like “my motivation is to be better than everyone. Because I hate everyone.” That’s our boy. Nerdanel has none of that, she wants to be better than everyone because she is. It’s pure hubris, unchecked ambition and “what even is that, how can I make it Cooler (more sparkly).” Mahtan and Finwe should run.

Obviously this gets a little toned down when her husband goes crazy over his three shiny-s. Obviously she realizes that considerations should be made before just rampantly making a thing when she sees what swords have done to her friends. I’m imagining it kind of like Walton in Frankenstien listening to Frankensteins story and thinking “ok it’s time to go back to my community because all consuming ambition has some pretty shit consequences”

Remember in some appendix some place they’re like “oh we mean wise but like,, only in being technically smart,,, these people were legit idiots” when talking about the Noldor? Yeah.

-

Anaire: Look at their kids and her husband and just TRY and tell me she was a normal person. Like yeah they all pass for normal, especially considering their relations, but the moment things start going south they go straight to eagle flying and morgoth challenging. Anyways I never rally say Fingolfin as an aggressive influence so I guess what I’m trying to say is it had to come from somewhere and Anaire will wreck your shit. Like at elven thanksgiving dinner, when the whole family gets together, if there’s a fight theres a 90% chance it’s Feanor and Anaire going at it, 10 seconds away from the first kinslaying at all times.

Also this is a complete reach, but her name means holy or something like that, so I imagine she’s pretty tight with the valor. And she and Earwen are friends, so all I’m saying is that they are the Worlds Best Gossips and have shit on Manwe himself.

Please understand I say this all affectionately.

-

Earwen: the one for who’s sanity a case could actually be made. She and Arafinwe are generally pretty removed from the drama, but that doesn’t mean they dont get visits. just imagine Anaire showing up to their house like “Arafinwe, you’ll never guess what your dumb brother is up to now. “ and then it’s time to play “is she mad at Feanor or Fingolfin” (plot twist it’s Findis’ husband)

Also I’m assuming she’s pretty forgiving because Arafinwe came back from the revolt of the noldor, and no one said anything about them having a divorce or something sooooooo… 100% uses it to get him to do stuff in later ages tho: “hey can we watch star wars” “no we watched it last week” “wow you’re really killing my dreams. Just stabbing them through-“ “star wars! such a great movie!! we should do a marathon!”

-

Thanks for the ask!!! I really enjoyed it!!

[lendmyboyfriendahand]

Headcanon: Maedhros and Finarfin grew up playing together.

Feanor never particularly loved his step mother and half siblings, but he didn’t really dislike them either until Fingolfin grew old enough to be a political rival. He mostly viewed them as "people who are also frequently at many of the same places I am", like workers in a different department of the same  business in a small town. You nod and acknowledge them, but don’t think about them the moment they leave sight.

Finarfin is 61 years younger than Feanor, and we know that Feanor married young. Given how many kids he and Nerdanel ended up with, I assume they started soon.

So when Finarfin was born, Feanor thought “Huh, this acquaintance (Indis) has a kid only a year younger than mine. If we take turns watching the babies, I can get a lot more work done.” Indis figured this was a good way to get Feanor to spend time at least near his siblings, and hopefully work up to “interacting with them on their own merits.”

By the time Fingolfin was an adult, Maedhros and Finarfin were already close friends. And it’s not like the tension appeared overnight, so there was a while where Finarfin and Maedhros just kind of ignored that their parents knew each other at all.

(Fic under the cut for length)

Maedhros and Finarfin were lying in the garden.

“So, what are you going to be when you grow up?” Maedhros asked

Finarfin replied immediately with, “The most emotionally well adjusted child of Finwe.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

”I like it as a goal.”

 “But it’s not a life path, like smith or parent or farmer or embroiderer or king.”

“Well, I’m not going to be king, that’s for sure.”

“Well I mean, of course neither of us will be. Finwe is king, and if he falls headfirst off the palace roof my dad would be king for a month or two until he returns from Mandos.”

“Don’t even joke about that!”

“Why not?”

“How would you like it if I said that if your dad died, we would all have a month or two of quiet?”

Maedhros sat up sharply and opened his mouth to yell, then carefully relaxed again. “I would be very angry, but I understand how annoying brothers can be.”

“Oh? What did Maglor do now?”

“It’s not Maglor, it’s Celegorm.”

“Isn’t he still a baby? What trouble can he be getting into?”

“He's into climbing things now. He got on top of the china cabinet the other day and pushed a plate onto my head.”

“Did he fall after he pushed the plate down?”

“No, not even when I yelled because it hurt.”

“That’s honestly impressive at his age. Maybe he’ll be an acrobat.”

“What do you know about babies? You’re the youngest brother.”

“Lots. Fingolfin has been reading all sorts of baby books since he got married, and brings up random fact every conversation. Did you know that eighty percent of infants calm down when shown the stars, and only thirty percent do if you point at the Tree-lit sky?”

“I did actually, my dad says it’s more ‘proof that the Valar are not infallible.’ He’s got a list going, you know.”

“I don’t want to the see the list, because then I’d have to get in a shouting match about my mom. I think it’s just proof that it’s a smart idea to raise babies in Aqualonde.”

“That would make it easier. Is Fingolfin going to go there?”

“No, he thinks it wouldn’t be living up to our royal titles to run away. Besides, he likes Tirion, and so does Anaire. I’m surprised your dad doesn’t go though.”

“He’s got at least as much of a royal title to live up to.”

“Yeah, but he mostly shows up to the feasts and ignores public opinion the rest of the time. If it’s better to raise kids in Alqualonde, I’m surprised you’re still in the city.”

“They said easier, not better, and my dad doesn’t do things just because they’d be easier.”

“Not usually, but I thought babies might be a different matter for him.”

“We’ll be safe and my mom will be safe; if there was any question of that he’d make the whole city move out of tree-light if he had to.” Finarfin nodded, and Maedhros continued. “Besides, he likes to think his kids are smarter than the average baby, obviously too smart to be subdued by a panacea.”

“Well, I like having you around, so I certainly don’t your dad staying here. But when I have kids, I want starlight available.”

“Taking shortcuts?”

“Not denying myself useful things for the sake of pride. Most emotionally stable child of Finwe, remember?”

“That’s still not a job.”

“Oh, like you have one either.”

“I’m going to be Duke of Formenos.”

“Isn’t your dad supposed to rule that as crown prince?”

“I mean yes, but he doesn’t want to because it’s out in the middle of nowhere. So he said he’ll give it to me when I’m grown.”

“I’m pretty sure that only the king can redistribute governance.”

“Technically yes, but he’ll give it to me if my dad asks and it keeps him nearby.”

“Thank you so much for reminding me which kid is my dad’s favorite.”

“I mean, if you wanted to give a title to someone I bet he’d do it too. You just don’t have any kids who like politics yet.”

“A title maybe, but not a real responsibility. I don’t even have any real responsibilities to fob off on future kids.”

“I bet Finwe is just out of ideas. Five kids is too many to come up with great purposes for all of them.”

“So how many would you have then?”

“I’ve got little brothers, I think I’m fine without more babies in my life.”

“Not even if your wife wants one?”

“If she is truly my other half, she know babies are annoying. What about you?”

“Four or five, I guess. Depends on what they’re like.”

“So if the first three are no good, would you try for more to make up for it, or assume you’re terrible at making kids and stop?”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“It’s what you said!”

“Even if it was, I’m not going to tell you the plan. The kids would feel terrible if they ever found out!”

“But you admit there is a plan.”

“Fine. The plan for if the first couple kids are terrible is to drop them off on you, and start fresh with the fourth Arafinwion.”

“That is a terrible baby name, you should know.”

“Oh shut up, third prettiest one in the family.”

“Make me, tall brunet.” Maedhros said, pulling Finarfin’s golden hair over his eyes.

The conversation quickly devolved into a wrestling match from there.

[avantegarda]

Hey @nerdanelparmandil, I’m your Secret Santa for @officialtolkiensecretsanta!

You asked for something Feanor/Nerdanel and what happened was this: I had one modern-au Feanorians joke that I felt I absolutely had to share with the world and I used your poor unfortunate fic as the vehicle for it. I hope that’s okay. Here’s the Feanorian gang in Modern Times. Happy Holidays!

In Feanor and Nerdanel’s household there was one phrase that prompted immediate action, and that phrase was “the boys are home.”

Not that it was terribly uncommon for some of the boys to be home. The youngest four, after all, were still technically living with their parents, though Caranthir and, increasingly, Curufin tended to disappear for what seemed like days at a time, caught up in school and a dozen other activities. The ten-year-old twins, Nerdanel often lamented, were the only ones who really seemed like children anymore.

But children or not, three days before Christmas, everyone was back under one roof again. The younger ones were off school, Maedhros and Celegorm had earned a reprieve from their studies (law school and first-year animal science, respectively), and Maglor was back from a tour opening for a band that no one in the family had ever heard of. The family was together again, and that meant chaos. It meant buying presents and doing laundry and going to the grocery store every other day.

And by Christmas Eve, when the thrill of seeing each other for the first time in months wore off, it meant arguing.

--

From her position in the kitchen, where she was decorating cookies, Nerdanel had a direct line of sight into the living room. She and Feanor had meticulously decorated the Christmas tree with the help of the younger children, but as lovely as the tree was it was a considerably less entertaining sight than the argument currently going on between her second and third sons.

“What is this?” Maglor wrinkled his nose as he scrolled through Celegorm’s phone. “Your top 100 songs of the year are just Flo Rida and whale noises? No, I’m wrong, there are some dolphin noises on here too. This is what you listen to? You know I have an entire new album on Spotify now, right?”

Celegorm rolled his eyes in exaggerated irritation as he snatched back his phone. “Well, excuse me if I’m not listening to your hipster garbage every minute of every day. You know what, maybe you should listen to whale sounds more often. Might help you stop being such a high-strung weirdo.”

“I genuinely don’t understand how we’re related.”

“Those two at it again?” Entering the kitchen, Maedhros laughed and shook his head fondly, putting an arm around his mother’s shoulders. “Man. Is it weird to say that I’ve missed this? I know how annoying they are, but...it feels right, having all of us home. No matter how much bickering goes on.”

“Don’t I know it! You can’t imagine how quiet it gets around here sometimes. Even with the youngest four still at home. It’s much better, all nine of us being under one roof.”

“It’ll be about thirty tomorrow, with all the extended family at Grandpa’s house! But it’ll be great to see all the cousins again. Especially Fingon...we’ve been so bad about keeping in touch ever since I started law school.”

“I hope you know how proud we are of you,” Nerdanel said. “Are you happy, at school? Not putting too much pressure on yourself?”

Maedhros hesitated before nodding, quickly. “Nothing to worry about, Ma. I’m doing absolutely fine.” He grabbed a cookie from the baking sheet and devoured it in two bites. “I’m heading out to the living room. I need to see how this music debate plays out. Come find me if you need any help, all right?”

Sometimes, Nerdanel reflected, as Maedhros departed from the kitchen, her eldest son was a bit too responsible for his own good.

--

Stepping out onto the upstairs balcony later that evening for a breath of fresh air, Nerdanel was slightly surprised to see her husband, who had spent much of the week still working, and even more surprised to see a bottle of champagne and two full glasses on the table.

“Well!” Nerdanel exclaimed. “This is all very luxurious.”

“I thought you deserved a bit of luxury, after all the stressful holiday preparations. Where are the boys, if I may ask? I’d rather not have to share this champagne with all of them.”

“Last time I checked, they were all in Maedhros’ room watching It’s a Wonderful Life. Now, don’t quote me on this,” Nerdanel said solemnly, “but I believe the oldest three were playing a game where they had to drink every time someone says something charmingly folksy.”

“Were they indeed?” Feanor shook his head in mock disapproval. “I’ll have to go have a chat with them later. We can’t have our children being hungover on Christmas Day. Now, now, I said I would, later,” he added, as Nerdanel turned to head inside. He handed her a glass of champagne and squeezed her upper arm gently “You’ve been working quite hard enough today.”

“Well, you’ve been working hard too. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your doing the shopping.” Nerdanel leaned against her husband’s shoulder contentedly and took a sip of her wine, watching the snow swirl in the air around them. “You know what this reminds me of?”

“Our first apartment,” Feanor said with a smile. “Back when we were first married and trying so hard to be penniless entrepreneurs with integrity.”

“Drinking hot chocolate on the fire escape…”

“Out of those giant mugs you used to make…”

“The boys broke so many of those when they were little. But I think I still have a few stashed away in the cupboard. Would you rather be drinking champagne out of them?”

Feanor laughed and leaned over to kiss his wife on the cheek. “I don’t much care what I’m drinking or what I’m drinking it out of, as long as I’ve got my gorgeous wife by my side.”

[sweetteaanddragons]

A Question of Precedence

I was having difficulty writing this one, and then I remembered it had been a while since I’d done a bullet point fic and tried to write it that way. Things went much faster after that.

Feanor is born too soon. Miriel dies within an hour of the birth. Feanor lasts only a day longer. The healers say that he might have lived if his mother had - that his spirit is still so closely bound to hers that she might have been able to sustain him. But Miriel dies, and a day later, her son follows.

(Finwe holds him from the moment the midwife hands him over to the moment his son takes his last breath. He’d have poured out every drop of his fëa if it would have saved his son, but there is nothing he can do.)

Miriel refuses to return, and Estë warns that without her, there is no point in returning Feanor to the world. He will die again just as quickly.

Finwe pleads with his wife to return for their son’s sake if nothing else, but Miriel refuses him.

Finwe cannot forgive her for this.

(Miriel wishes she could find some way to explain the cold weight and bottomless weariness even the thought of returning brings her. She holds the shade of her son in her arms and weeps for him, but no matter how she tries, she cannot find the strength to return. Not even for him.)

Finwe eventually remarries, though he waits longer to do it. Giving up on Miriel means giving up on Feanor too, but he has come to believe both are lost to him, and he can’t bear to face all of eternity alone.

Indis gives birth to Findis. Finwe is overjoyed both are healthy and secretly relieved it’s a girl. It’s . . . easier that way, at least for the first.

Then there’s Nolowfinwe, Irimë, and Arafinwe. All healthy. All safe.

But he never forgets Feanor.

Melkor is eventually released and inevitably stirs up trouble. This time, though, Feanor has almost nothing to do with it.

Finwe’s heir is still in question, though.

Findis is Finwe’s oldest surviving child. Many believe she should serve as his heir.

But inheritance is a rarely used concept among the elves as of yet. Nothing is set in stone. Should this be determined by birth or Finwe’s choice? And since all of their original leaders were male, should their potential replacements be male too?

More pressingly, Findis is . . . Well, all of Finwe’s surviving children are half-Vanyar, of course. But Findis is particularly Vanyar. She looks and acts far more Vanyar than Noldor, and the Noldor aren’t thrilled with that fact in a potential heir.

Nolofinwe, on the other hand, could easily pass as a full Noldor. And though his is loathe to do anything that could be at all construed as trying to usurp the crown from his sister, he has to admit, if only to himself, that he wants it, and he’s not at all sure that Findis does.

Findis doesn’t. Not exactly. She does, however, resent everyone that suggests that she couldn’t do a perfectly good job

(No one particularly considers either Irimë or Arafinwe since Irimë spends as much of her time as she can running wild through the forest, and Arafinwe is both the youngest and suspiciously Vanyar in appearance to boot. Both are fine with this, though Irimë occasionally likes to complain for the sake of it.)

There’s no open fighting between the siblings, but things get progressively more heated amongst their supporters. Indis wants Finwe to step in and officially proclaim a heir to make it stop. Finwe hates the idea of appearing to choose between his children. He quietly thinks that if Feanor was still alive they wouldn’t be having this problem; Feanor is his firstborn, fully Noldor, and to top it all off, male. That’s a wish, though, not a plan. His plan is currently just to live forever and render the point moot, a plan that, while flawed, is at least more plausible for elves than anyone else.

There are no Silmarils this time around, just steadily increasing tensions that finally erupt into a full-scale riot.

When the Valar intervene, Melkor’s intervention is discovered.

No one is exiled, but there is a reconciliation scheduled once tempers have cooled. They meet at the Trees.

Which Melkor destroys.

In the chaos, he also kills Finwe for the sake of stirring up trouble.

There is no possible way to avoid the succession issue now.

Nolofinwe is furious and grieved at his father’s death. He argues passionately that they should pursue his murderer.

Findis is more cautious. They should trust the Valar, she argues. Light will surely be restored soon. They cannot possibly hope to fight a Valar on their own.

The succession issue is resolved, more or less, by those who wish to go to Beleriand with Nolowfinwe following him to the shore and those who don’t staying under Findis’s leadership.

The Teleri refuse to give them the boats, but though it’s suggested, Nolofinwe refuses to steal them. Instead, they take the path of the Grinding Ice.

(By the time they arrive, Círdan’s forces will be long dead, as will many of the Avari. Only those within the protection of the Girdle or far from Angband will still be grimly holding on. Even with no Doom, there is a long hopeless war in front of them.)

Findis faces problems of her own. While many of those who stayed are her supporters, others stayed for other reasons and resent her rule.

And . . . all of her siblings have gone to Beleriand. She can’t help feeling that’s a comment on her.

Her mother, in her grief, returns to the Vanyar. Findis wishes desperately she could have gone with her and swallows down the feeling that she’s been abandoned.

Meanwhile, Finwe’s found Miriel and has told her everything.

And Miriel thinks . . . maybe. Maybe she can return to life, or at least something resembling it.

She goes to weave for Vaire.

And she takes Feanor with her.

He grows little by little. When he’s big enough, she knows he has to leave. This half-life is no place for a child.

So she sends him to the only family she can.

She sends him to Findis.

Findis has had the crown for a few years by now. She’s proven her point. She can do this. She just doesn’t want to.

And Feanor is the perfect excuse.

She invents the term regent and declares that Feanor will be the next king.

Feanor grows up with a good deal of curiosity about his absent siblings and a confused mess of emotions about his parents and step-mother. He wishes fiercely that he could have gone to Beleriand to fight, to explore, and to do great deeds and avenge the father he doesn’t remember. 

He’s as brilliant as he was always destined to be, but the Silmarils aren’t a possibility now. He makes lesser gems that capture the light of sun, moon, and stars, and wishes he could have seen this light that others mourn.

You saw it once, Findis reminds him. For just one day. I can still see the light of it in your eyes.

He does still invent Tengwar. It’s adopted quickly.

When he comes of age and Findis is convinced he isn’t going to burn Tirion down in one of his experiments, she abdicates and goes to live with her mother’s family. Feanor gets busy being king . . . and wooing Nerdanel.

Nerdanel is older than him, that’s true, but he’s determined not to let that stop him.

It does stop Nerdanel for quite some time. But with every decade that passes, the less significant the age gap becomes.

Eventually, she says yes.

They have seven sons.

The twins are still very young when Namo breaks his long silence on the fate of those in Beleriand and makes an announcement that causes the biggest stir Aman’s seen since the Sun came up for the very first time.

Nolowfinwe’s eldest son, Fingon, is dead.

And for the heroism he showed in Beleriand, it’s been decided that he’ll be returned early. This week, in fact.

Fingon emerges from Mandos’s Halls to be greeted by an uncle that is simultaneously far older and far younger than him and who is very, very eager to hear absolutely everything about Beleriand and everyone who’s there.

Fingon is bewildered by pretty much everything that’s going on, but he’s also very, very eager to share what’s going on, mostly in the interest of getting reinforcements.

Feanor isn’t nearly as hard to convince as he was expecting.

[amethysttribble]

Harry Potter!Silmarillion AU, GO!

- Finwë Noldoran the Seventh is from an old distinguished pureblood family, with a fine Gryffindor history. Miriel Weaver was a Slytherin half-blood, and people were shocked when they married very young and very much in love.

- Years later though, Finwë, an up and coming politician in the MoM, caused quite the scandal when his sickly wife died a few years after the birth of their son and he remarried within the year.

- Finwë’s eldest son, Feanor, Miriel’s boy, makes sure this scandal doesn’t die, and Rita Skeeter is inspired in her youth by the angry interviews he gave as a teenager.

- The second wife, Indis Vanyar, is from another pure-blood, very distinguished family. Her elder brother served two terms as Minister of Magic, but lost favor when he refused to interfere in the growing Death Eater problem on the council of ‘higher powers’

- Finwë became the Minster of Magic right as the war against Voldemort started. Albus Dumbledore backed him.

- Finwë was a very distinguished Gryffindor, and he, as well as everyone else, expected the same of his sons (though he’d never say it allowed)

- So it caused quite the stir when neither the eldest nor the youngest were Gryffindors (Feanor went to Slytherin, though it took the hat half an hour to decide; Fingolfin is a Gryffindor, the selfless bastard; Finarfin went Ravenclaw)

- The girls, Findis and Lalwen, went to Hufflepuff and Gryffindor respectively

- While at Hogwarts, the young prodigy Feanor aces all his courses, wins Slytherin the house cup six times, (one year he blew up half the castle and couldn’t win back all the points that lost him; winning and losing points in astounding quantities was his M.O.) dazzles a lot of people, and pisses even more people off.

- He’s in the same class as Arthur Weasley and Molly Prewitt, among others, and studies alchemy independently. He has very little free time, associates with very small groups of people, and spends more time in the Restricted Section than the actual library.

- He makes Head Boy, but not Prefect.

- Feanor once challenged his little half-brother to a duel in the Great Hall during his seventh year and received a months worth detention. 

- The Gryffindors hate him for attacking a second year, among other many and varied reasons. All the Gryffindors hate him, except one.

- His company is mostly kept by the Gryffindor Seeker, Nerdanel Smith, and they elope hours after graduating. 

- Feanor wasn’t speaking to his father at the time, so no family attended the ceremony. Not even the Charms professor, Mahtan Smith (he retired within the next few years. Filius Flitwick, rather scandalously as he was part goblin, replaced him).

- Feanor spends two years working in the Department of Mysteries, before quitting in a rather spectacular display. After that, he and his family seemed to go off the grid.

- It was generally accepted that Feanor (snobbish, talented, Slytherin) was a perfect candidate for Voldemort’s movement, and that's where he went after leaving the ministry. These rumors were mostly perpetuated by gossips, embittered school mates, and his brother, but only when Fingolfin was in a foul mood and severely drunk. (He never believed it in the light of day.)

- These rumors are wrong. Feanor’s in France with Nicholas Flamel, living a bohemian lifestyle with his artist wife and newborn, Maedhros.

- Meanwhile, Fingolfin, five years Feanor’s junior, is in a silent war with his year mate, Lucius Malfoy, and trying to follow in his father’s footsteps. He’s a keeper. He’s dates a Ravenclaw prefect girl. He is a prefect and a member of the Slug Club, and in the top ten of his class. He’s Head Boy. And it’s never enough to get his Father to notice him sitting in the dust of Feanor’s disastrous, amazing genius.

- Fingolfin watches the rise of the Death Eaters in Britain, while his brother is off to the continent. He watches Slytherins come back from summer with tattoos. He sees friends get letters about dead relatives. His Muggle-born girlfriend, Anaire, is assaulted once. 

- Fingolfin keeps in touch with Dumbledore after he graduates, and abandons his political plans. He becomes an Auror. 

- His parents are only slightly appalled, though Mother still cries. Through Ingwë they see the decay. Finwë hears nasty rumors about Voldemort’s shadowy benefactor.

- Lalwen follows her brother to the Order of the Phoenix. Findis marries an American and moves.

- Finarfin, meanwhile, quietly studies legilimenecy and occlumency. 

- He does moderately well at Hogwarts, joins the gobstones club, and makes a fool of himself trying to ask out his childhood friend, Earwen Teleri. His is a prefect, but not Head Boy. He’s okay with this.

- He and Earwen open a teashop after graduating.

- The war happens. 

- Finwë is named Minster of Magic amid an unparalleled disaster.

- Due to old family connections, Fingolfin is Dumbledore’s go-to on matters concerning someone named ‘Melkor’.

- It is emotionally exhausting work. He and Anaire collect rumors, he creates an auror task force focusing on this ‘Balrog Gang’. The Order makes contact with someone known as ‘The Lieutenant’ and Caradoc Dearborn pays the price. People are dying. They are so tired.

- They have a son named Fingon, born two years after the First Wizarding War starts. The year was 1972. James Potter and Lily Evans had just started their second year.

- Across the channel, Nerdanel and Feanor have a pair of toddlers, increasingly distressing letters from their families, and the designs to some shiny rocks. They talk about having another child.

- They are visited by a man with a tattoo that doesn’t quite look like the dark mark. He introduces himself at Melkor Bauglir and is very interested in Feanor’s work. 

- Feanor say, “Get out of my foyer, you dementor’s pet of Azkaban.”

- How Feanor knew he was once imprisoned in Azkaban by his brother, Melkor doesn’t know. He just knows he’s angry. And that he must bide his time.

- Feanor loves his father very dearly and wishes to help him in this awful war that Ingwe caused and then ran away from. Feanor sends his father the alchemic weapons he’s been creating. He calls them the ‘Silmarils’.

- Minister Finwë Noldoran the Seventh was murdered in Diagon Alley on July 27th, 1973 by Melkor Bauglir and an acromantula. Three gems were stolen from his corpse.

- Feanor and Nerdanel hold off on that third child and come home. Nicholas Flamel hides the Philosopher’s Stone down a deep well. Feanor swears bloody vengeance against all even loosely associated with the Death Eaters. He wants his rocks back.

- Fingolfin thinks it’s about damn time Feanor cared about this war.

- Finarfin and Earwen add a bookshop onto their tea shop. They talk about having a child.

- The war wages on. 

- Fingolfin is busy, Feanor is angry, Finarfin is painting, and everyone is so very frightened.

- Feanor does not join the Order of the Phoenix. Fingolfin doesn’t let anyone entertain the idea of asking him to. He knows his brother doesn’t take orders well. Despite that, they make sure Feanor’s efforts are supported and don’t clash with their own unintentionally.

- Feanor is very charismatic. He almost starts his own order. He personally kills Evan Rosier at Finarfin’s tea shop. Earwen isn’t happy.

- Lalwen dies a hero, saving the lives of Edgar Bones’ family. She and Edgar both lost their lives in the triumphant last stand.

- Finarfin takes her favorite drink and cake off his menu. Fingolfin is never the same. Feanor regrets, and contemplates.

- Findis moves her mother to America, and vows to never return to Britain. Her tears are plentiful and furious.

- War goes on.

- The year is 1975, and Finrod Noldoran is born. So is Turgon Noldoran. 

- Nerdanel remembers that they wanted another child before everything went to hell. Everyone has vowed, after all, to still be happy and unafraid, despite being absolutely terrified.

- Celegorm Noldoran is born in 1976.

- Aredhel Noldoran is born in 1976, a few months later.

- Feanor’s fourth child, Caranthir, is a year after them, and was conceived rather suddenly and surprisingly.

- Fingolfin thinks Feanor just wants to claim he has the most children, and makes sure everyone knows it at their meetings in Finarfin’s teashop.

- Somehow, ‘The Swan’s Cup’ has become the center of Feanor and Fingolfin’s joint efforts. They host anti-Voldemort-and-‘Morgoth’ meetings there.  

- When Feanor wants to be annoying he conducts business in French, or one of the other twelve languages he seems to know and Fingolfin hates it. Anaire speaks French and thinks it’s hilarious. 

- It is the Order of the Phoenix’s favorite place for sandwiches. Moody and Dumbledore have a debate about whether Earwen’s scones or petifores are better. It is more violent than some battles.

- Swan’s Cup also does babysitting services. Molly Weasley takes advantage, especially after her brothers are murdered.

- Between the fear and the death and the pain, they laugh.

- They don’t have a choice but to work together in this war, and Fingolfin saves Feanor’s life from a brute known as Gothmog. 

- Between the bickering and rapid fire spells and years of bitterness, they get along.

- The deaths of their father and sister have made them more family than family dinner ever did. Fingolfin and Feanor won’t admit it, but they mourn this. Their father will never see them being civil. There sister will never know that they war could end.

- They’re not sure the war can end.

- The war drags on.

- There’s an incident involving a pureblood girl from a neutral family wanting to marry a muggle boy. Her father is angry. 

- Luthien and Beren complete some task to gain her father’s blessing.

- They marry. Melkor is furious. Luthien just wants a peaceful life, but she has seen horrors. She tracks down Feanor, a leader of the resistance against Morgoth, and returns one of his great weapons to him.

- As Feanor is not known as a murderer of innocents, this is not a problem.

- The year is 1978. Angrod is born. His brother Aegnor is born a year later, within hours of cousin Argon’s birth. All three boys are close.

- Also, James and Lily Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Marlene McKinnon, and Peter Pettigrew join the Order of the Phoenix.

-They’re punk kids, and Fingolfin knows them, but Feanor doesn’t. Not at first. Not well.

- Sirius flirts with Anaire at ever Order meeting, and Remus swears he will marry Earwen every time they goes to the Swan’s Cup, which is often. None of them know how to cook.

- The war drags on. Marlene McKinnon, and many others, are dead.

- It’s taken it’s toll. They are so scared. And so tired.

- Maedhros goes to Hogwarts. He’s a Hufflepuff, and his Slytherin/Gryffindor parents are so proud they can’t breath. Maedhros still worries he’s not good enough.

- He does well in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Herbology. He takes after his mother, and loves flying. Maedhros wants to join the Quidditch team next year.

- He knows a lot about the war. He’s worried about his parents and his brothers and his cousins. But the war seems so far away at Hogwarts.

- Feanor cries for the whole first week Maedhros is gone, but he can’t be too sad. He and Nerdanel are relieved. He’s somewhere safe.

- The amount of times they’ve considered sending the children to Nicholas and Perenelle in France is too many. But they can never bare to part with the children.

- In 1980, Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter, and Curufin Noldoran are all born in the same month. 

- Finarfin had thrown quite the party nine months before. Someone spiked the punch, but no-one knows who. (It was Moody). It becomes a running joke among their group of disjointed fighters, united only by a common goal and a tea shop. 

- And the grief.

- Amid the pain, they smile and laugh.

- These babes get to know each other in the Swan’s Cup’s play group. 

- Galadriel is born just seconds after the New Year.

- Then there’s a prophecy.

- The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies... 

- It never occurs to Voldemort or Dumbledore that this prophecy might apply to Curufin Noldoran. 

- But that’s only because it’s not common knowledge that there are two dark lords running around.

- Nor is it common knowledge that Feanor defied him thrice. 

- Once was as a youth at Hogwarts. Melkor came personally to recruit the brilliant young Slytherin. Feanor politely said ‘no’, and walked away. He was young and angry and obsessed with his own brilliance, and he’d never admit how close he came to saying yes.

- The second time, he slammed the door in Morgoth’s face.

- Third, Feanor nearly died spitting vitriol at Morgoth and his sneak attack, so angry he could almost feel himself go up in flames, and Gothmog loomed at his unsuspecting back. 

- The only reason he survived his defiance was because Fingolfin didn’t need the fireplace Feanor dismantled to find his brother. He apparated just in time.

- While this does not occur to Voldemort, who has rarely dealt with Feanor, or Dumbledore, who Feanor does not report to, it does occur to Feanor and Melkor.

- Maglor, Celegorm, and Caranthir are sent to France. 

- Feanor and Nerdanel take Curufin and hide. And fortify. And prepare. 

- Feanor’s a genius. He mastered non-verbal at thirteen. He makes new spells like others make biscuits. He is an alchemist on par with Nicholas Flamel. He is a more than accomplished duelist, leader of men, and the only man Morgoth fears (or so he likes to think). He’s been practicing wand-less magic.

- Like everything else, Feanor is good at this.

- He sets his lone Silmaril in a sword. The sword was Nerdanel’s idea. 

- The Potter’s are betrayed by a friend, and attacked in what should have been a safe haven. Feanor plans to virtually invite Morgoth to a battleground, but he needs time.

- Morgoth doesn’t give it to him. The Lieutenant found them, and informed his master.

- Sauron launches a diversion attack on the Swan’s Cup, and it works brilliantly. Except no one realized that after Finwë’s brilliant son and brave son, the bashful one is the most skilled legimens of two generations.

- Finarfin divined the scheme, and screamed at his brother. 

- Fingolfin apparates away from the battle as soon as he can. The house is in ruins, but all is not lost.

- Nerdanel and Curufin are long gone. Their escape was obviously the first thing Feanor ensured. 

-But Fingolfin’s brother is lying on the ground, bleeding, and there’s a discarded sword across what used to be the dining room but is now mostly lawn.

- “Accio sword!”

- Fingolfin is not good at wandless magic, or non-verbal magic. But he is a Gryffindor.

- He wounds Morgoth seven times.

- He’s beginning to suspect that the shadow-y powers behind the ministry are not wizards. Morgoth wouldn’t be alive is he was just a man. 

- The light from Feanor’s silmarils burns him, though, even if the slashes don’t do much. It helps.

- Fingolfin has done well enough, but he has a boot on his neck, and he’s pretty sure he’s going to die.

- They’d both forgotten about Feanor.

- Just because he can do wand-less magic, doesn’t mean Feanor’s fool enough not to have carried his wand with him.

- Ten inches, Ebony, Phoenix feather.

- “Avada Kadavra!”

- It doesn’t kill, but Morgoth stumbles and turns.

- What Fingolfin meant to be a final strike to the leg becomes a stab through the chest.

- The Silmaril burns hotter than anything any of them have ever seen.

- When the temporary blindness fades, Feanor and Fingolfin see that Melkor’s body has crumbled to dust.

- Feanor cries, Fingolfin laughs, and they hug one another. 

- Feanor contacts Nerdanel. She and baby are okay. They apparate to the Swan’s Cup.

- They’ve survived mostly intact, though the shop is destroyed. Finarfin hugs his brothers tighter than any would have thought him capable of. His scrawny arms are strong!

- On October 31st, 1981, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is defeated by a baby.

- James and Lily Potter are dead. Peter Pettigrew is dead, and Sirius Black is in prison.

- The price feels much too high.

- But the war ends.

- No one cares too much about the prophecy concerning Curufin. Feanor doesn’t believe in such stuff, everyone else is convinced it applied to Harry.

- There are more than two Dark Lords.

- Life goes on. 

- The interim minister, Harold Minchum, leaves office. Many think Fingolfin should replace him. But he is very tired.

- Millicent Bagnold is elected minister, but only after extracting a promise from Fingolfin that he will succeed her. 

- Fingolfin quits being an auror and takes a small but prestigious desk job in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He has an under secretary named Cornelius Fudge.

- Feanor collects his children, and he and Nerdanel decide to move back to France for a few years.

- His other two Silmarils are still missing, but it doesn’t seem to matter as much now as it once did. He’s still worried about it. Fingolfin keeps an investigation open.

- He allows Dumbledore to study the one he still has. Feanor doesn’t really want to look at it anymore, not when its covered in his, his brother’s, and Morgoth’s blood.

- Maglor goes to Hogwarts the next year. He’s a Ravenclaw, and annoys his roommates with his harp and guitar. He’s in the same class as Charlie Weasley. 

- Maedhros is now Hufflepuff Keeper.

- Finarfin and Earwen reopen the Swan’s Cup. Their children help decorate. They make Remus Lupin manager.

- Life goes on

- Voldemort’s spirit has been split seven ways. He waits in a Romanian forest.

- The Lieutenant escapes capture and notice. He mourns the death of his master. Sauron plots.

- Harry Potter sleeps in the cupboard under the stairs.

- The story continues.

[arianaofimladris]

Encounters

I wrote another little fluffy piece to accompany the two I posted some time ago. The Previous two are available here: http://arianaofimladris.tumblr.com/post/174939648847/family-reunions

Encounters

 A ship coming from Middle-earth was something that always attracted attention, now more than ever, as many of the Exiles who still dwelt there had come in the past few decades. There were still elves waiting for their families and friends to come, but fewer came to havens to wait and see if any of their kin were on board of the approaching ship.

Much to the Teleri’s relief, the eldest son of Feanor ceased coming, now that he had his missing brother back, but his two youngest visited the shores whenever a ship would come. They were not waiting for anyone particular, they were just curious, especially after seeing the unusual companions Elrond and Galadriel had brought with them. Amras and Amrod could hardly pass unnoticed, but they  caused no trouble, so no one really paid much attention to them.

They came as usual when a new ship appeared on the horizon. It was one of the smaller, meaning it carried only a few passengers. Those ships were quite popular these days, unlike in the past, when sometimes hundreds would come in span of just a few decades.

“Look.” Amras elbowed his brother, pointing at two dark-haired elves standing on the deck and looking around in wonder. There was no mistaking; their resemblance to Elrond was too great.

The youngest sons of Feanor exchanged glances. Twins were extremely rare among the elves and they were eager to meet Elrond’s sons since they had first heard about them.

“You!” A sharp, angry call directed obviously to them made them look left. They saw another elf appearing by the sons of Elrond. His posture was regal, his silver hair pulled back and tied in a practical manner.

Amrod glanced questioningly at his brother, who shrugged.

“I gather we must have met, however, I do not recall having been introduced to you,” said Amras lightly, though he could feel his twin tense beside him.

“Celeborn,” replied the elf stiffly. “I never expected to see Kinslayers greeting those coming from Middle-earth,” he added with disgust.

“Ah, you are Nerwen’s husband. That explains a lot,” muttered Amrod. “I must say your daughter is much more accepting.”

“You’ve seen our nana?” asked one of the twins on the deck, brightening up with hope. “How’s she?” Two quick steps and he was on the plank, ready to run down on the shore.

“Delighted to have Elrond every time we have a chance to see her,” replied Amras, pointedly ignoring Celeborn. “And she will be even more to see you. We can show you the way if you wish,” he offered.

“Elladan!” Barked Celeborn, stopping his grandson mid-step. “Wait. I will not have you two follow strangers in a foreign land, let alone kinslayers.”

“Whatever you may call me, do not transfer it on my twin,” hissed Amras. “He’s no worse than your wife.”

“Are we going to continue that?” The other twin, Elrohir, moved closer to his brother. “I’m sure we can leave family grudges for later. I will be perfectly fine with seeing our parents. Though I suspect we could just start with introductions,” he suggested with amusement.

“Ambarussa,” replied both redhead twins and grinned.

“I’m Amras.”

“Amrod,” added the other more carefully, still not completely at ease with Sindarin.

“Elrohir Elrondion. This is my brother Elladan.”

“You said you met our parents,”  said Elladan. “Perhaps you can tell us then, why they have not come to greet us?”

“They would have, but they received the news of your arrival too late to make it to the haven in time,” explained Amras. “They went to visit our mother, that’s how we learned about your arrival.”

“Mother passed to us that Elrond and Celebrian will head straight home and they asked us to guide you.”

“Then by all means, lead the way!” Elladan easily ran down the plank. Elrohir followed him, limping slightly.

The twin sons of Feanor glanced at the newcomers questioningly, but Elrohir only laughed. “Middle-earth wasn’t so eager to let us go,” he explained lightly.

“We rode on our last trips along the shores and Ro just happened to fall off his horse,” smirked Elladan and offered his brother a hand to help him down.

“It was only my horse that got startled because I left you far behind me,” his brother reminded him. “He’s hopeless at racing,” he muttered conspiratorially to the sons of Feanor.

“So is he,” nodded Amras in understanding, pointing at his twin. Both Amrod and Elladan shared an exasperated look and rolled their eyes.

“We should probably take care of our luggage,” remarked Elladan, glancing reluctantly at Celeborn on the deck. “We’ve brought most of the things our father had left behind.”

“And the rest he probably forgot to pack,” smiled Elrohir. “We’ll have to arrange some transport.”

“Leave it to the Teleri,” suggested Amrod. “They are used to dealing with elves coming from Middle-earth. Just pass a word that you will be staying with Elrond and Celebrian and they will deliver your things there.”

Celeborn still eyed them with distrust plain on his features, but he said nothing as his grandsons followed the sons of Feanor. Seeing how eager Elladan and Elrohir were to see their parents, Amras suspected that any objections would have been pointless.

Just like Amrod had said, they easily arranged a wagon that would bring their belongings the following day. There was no point in waiting for the ship to be unloaded and, much to the amusement of Elrond’s sons, neither Amras nor Amrod wished to stay and see if their cousin intended to come and greet her husband.

As Celebrian’s house was quite far away from the haven, Amrod offered his horse to the twins and nodded encouragingly as Elrohir sent him a grateful smile. Feeling the hold of his twin on his waist, as they were now sharing a horse, Amras couldn’t help but feel excited. Elrond was a lovely company and they were all grateful for him bringing Maglor back home, but his sons seemed to be more restless souls. Perhaps they would be willing to join them and go explore Valinor... It would be a nice change.

They rode mostly in silence,  Elladan and Elrohir looking around wide-eyed, enjoying the new sights. For the sons of Feanor they looked as alike Elrond as Curufin was

“I don’t think we should go with them,” whispered Amrod to his twin. “Let them...”

“Nonsense.” Elladan turned back to look at them. “I gather we are going to have a lot of time to learn what has been going on since we parted with our father in Middle-earth.”

“Not to mention the fact that we are extremely curious why you seem to dislike our grandmother so.”

Amrod groaned. “And here I thought you said something about leaving our family grudges for later?”

“Very well,” laughed Elrohir. “I bet we will learn that soon enough.”

“Oh, you will,” muttered Amras under his breath.

They travelled most of the afternoon through the mild hills that rose slowly behind the high cliffs of the havens. Much to Maedhros’s displeasure, Celebrian lived quite far from Tirion and she and no intention of moving any closer. As Elrond too sought rest after having come from Middle-earth, they stayed.

“Looks homely,” remarked Elladan as the house they were heading to appeared between the trees. “Not quite so hidden, but...”

“Oh, it’s hidden and way too away for some,” snickered Amras. “Russo’s been complaining. That is Maedhros, our brother.”

:Surely he can easily spare a day or two for travel if he wants to see our parents?” asked Elrohir with amusement.

“Have I ever called any of them patient?” A clear voice, full of joy and mirth came from behind the trees. “But today I dare say I understand Maedhros.”

“You did take your time.”

The sons of Elrond stopped their horse, Elladan already jumping from the saddle, Elrohir following him close. Tears of joy shone in their eyes as Elrond and Celebrian stepped on the road from a narrow path that led to a stream. Amrod whistled softly at his horse and poked his brother. They moved away, knowing all too well what it was like to wait for being reunited with someone they loved. Some of them had waited a very long time.

Elladan and Elrohir were long since grown, but as they approached their mother, they looked very young and overwhelmed, like children returning home from their very first trip on their own. Tall as she was, Celebrian all but disappeared in their embrace.

“Naneth...”

Celebrian hugged them back, then climbed on her toes and kissed their brows, her own eyes shining and smiling, but dry. She looked so much like Nerdanel the first time she saw her six sons released from the Halls of Mandos that Amrod instinctively put his arm around his twin; he had known the pain of parting too well.

“I guess you no longer need our guidance,” said Amras after a while, when Elrond’s sons finally let go of their mother. “We’ll see you soon.”

“Just make sure they don’t take as much time as Elrond did,” added Amrod, turning to Celebrian. “We do like to make acquaintances with our cousins and so do our brothers.”

“Oh, I will.” Celebrian laughed merrily. “Or else Valar know who they are going to bring along for dinner!”

Amrod mounted back his own horse and with final farewell they rode back, intending to stop in an inn for the night. They were already behind the curve of the road when they heard one of Elrond’s sons speaking to the other. “We won’t be bored in here.”

I’d love to hear what you think of it. Please let me know, good or bad :)

I can be found in here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16603994

[admirable-mairon]

My thoughts on Fëanor-

-and false claims that piss me off

See, I have been wanting to just sit down and write things about Fëanor for so long now but I’ve never gotten around to actually doing it. What is the purpose of this? Well mainly as entertainment for my followers, but also to clear up some things that I keep seeing repeated over and over again, and oh how many posts I would reblog on here if only they didn’t take a cheap, unfunny jab at Fëanor - The character I love more than any other in any form of media ever.

I will unfortunately be unable to share actual quotes in this piece. I let my friend borrow my english copy of the Silmarillion and so I only have the swedish version here, which is admittedly HILARIOUS occassionally, but it means that if I have a quote - I will have to translate it for you, so it won’t be exact word for word.

I won’t be talking about the different texts and exact words, but rather misconceptions I’ve seen prodding around about him, and direct arguments I’ve seen come from different parts of the fandom. I see the majority of the Tolkien fandom as the gosh darn best people I’ve ever had the joy of stumbling upon - endless amounts of fan-pieces, whether it’s art, music or writing that never seem to go away. They just get better and better and I love you.

But like I said there are SEVERAL things that are always brought up falsely about Fëanor that I just can’t stand for, sort of like the criticism against Thranduil that ‘OH HE’S JUST A RACIST SHITHEAD AND HE’S WRONG’, when in truth he’s the only actually rational and sane character in the movies.

THAT is the type of things I will bring up here. Read on further if you think it might me amusing. If you decide not to I wish you a pleasant evening/morning/day :D

There are many things one might dislike about Fëanor - Hell one might simply not be interested in him? I have several characters that I couldn’t care less about for no better reason than ‘Meh I guess I just don’t?’.

One might dislike his arrogance - he’s the very definition of ‘Holier-than-thou’ in many ways, and his passion can be off-putting for many. Maybe the whole concept of ‘GREATEST OF THE ELDAR WAS HE’ pisses you off on a sheer principle? That’s all well and good - I dislike Galadriel for the same reason (though I would argue there is no basis to claiming that she’s the GREATEST in any way as she hasn’t really done anything worthy of mentioning, but I digress - that is not what I’m here for, and the malcontent I have with her is mainly because of petty arguments on tumblr). 

HOWEVER. 

When people lie about Fëanor to support their own dislike of him - I get downright pissed off. 

To be more direct - Here are the things I will be discussing in this piece:

He was a bad Father / He ruined his children / He forced his children to swear the oath with him

He left His people to the Helcaraxë 

He was to blame for all the kinslayings

There was nothing but fire and greed inside him

All of these are so-called critisisms I’ve seen directed towards him during my years on here. I have not seen many of them on here lately, but it is likely that that’s because I’ve made a point to unfollow and potentially block those who spew nonsense like this. 

BUT LET’S ADRESS ALL OF THIS SHALL WE? STRAP IN Y’ALL AND GRAB A SNACK - I’M GOING IN DEEP

He was a bad Father / He ruined his children / He forced his children to swear the oath with him

Mostly inspired by things I keep hearing as well as an anonymous ask I recieved this morning 

I love feanor too but he sort of brought tragedy on his children

*the heaviest sigh*

Okay. Just. Gimme a moment. 

Okay no. 

Here’s the thing: The Silmarillion is filled with questionable forms of parenting. There’s Finwë not understanding what had to be done to deal with Fëanor as a child, there’s Indis also lacking in that understanding, there’s parents that seem to give no shits about their children, hell I love Curufin and I do think he adored Celebrimbor more than anything, but he was a little too damaged to know how to handle him, not to mention the fact that a pair of Kinslayers were better parents than Elwing and Eärendil ever were. 

But Fëanor wasn’t one of them. How do I know?

His sons would not have done everything they did unless they loved their father with every fibre of their being. They were not copies of him (aside from Curufin) and to me it seems clear that they were encouraged to follow their heart’s desires rather than strictly follow in his footsteps. 

When Nerdanel left - or however that went over - ALL SEVEN OF THEM CHOSE THEIR FATHER. ALL OF THEM. ALL SEVEN. 

When Fëanor was distraught and coing crazy with agony over losing his father and the Silmarilli - When he swore that oath - his sons wasted NO TIME in getting up to stand there with him. 

They stuck with him through thick and thin, they didn’t hesitate to stand there with him and support him fully. They were a family - a close-knitted one at that - and they adored him. That much is clear. 

Just because someone is a biological parent doesn’t earn them any form of respect as a parent, nor any love from their children if they haven’t deserved it. Fëanor was loved by his sons and he loved them dearly - He is one of the few parents in these damn series that deserve the title of ‘Actually great and supportive dad’. 

Fëanor did not bring tragedy on his children - let’s all be very clear on that. If anything - tragedy was brought unprovoked onto him and his children, who - by the by - were grown men by the time they left Valinor and swore the Oath

Eru was completely alright with all of this. The Valar were cruel, whether they meant to be or not, and Fëanor was used by Melkor. The fëanorions wanted what was rightfully theirs - what their father and grandfather died for - and the whole world suddenly decided to say ‘Hah fuck no finders keepers shitheads!’.

It can naturally be argued that his death fucked them up, and that he shouldn’t have barged forward to take on Balrogs on his own, but TBH if it fucked over them that bad it only further supports the argument that he was an amazing father that they loved so dearly that they would do literally ANYTHING to get back and honor. Furthermore one could naturally point out that burning ships was a Rude AF thing to do, but to be fair every single one of his sons was in on it aside from Maedhros who suffered the loss of Fingon, but perhaps Fingon would still at least be safe and out of harm’s way in Valinor. Burning the ships was arguably and admittedly very ‘rude’, but it was not an ill action directed towards his people or most importantly his son.

Which brings us beautifully to the second subject....:

He left his people to the Helcaraxë

Except he really didn’t. 

He left FINGOLFIN’S people - not his own. Seems minor and pointless perhaps, but I assure you it’s of great importance. 

After the kinslaying at Alqualondë it was only natural that tensions would grow unbearable. When people break - when people do terrible things - they often regret them afterwards, become angry and need to find someone to blame it on. Given how Fëanor was their king and that he was the one who encouraged them to leave the cage the Valar had put them in, it would be natural to blame Fëanor for the horrendous act they’d all just committed.  Because let me remind you - The Nolofinwëans ALSO took part in the first kinslaying.

Fingolfin’s people had long been - for a lack of a better word - talked shit about Fëanor and his people. Ever since Finwë died and they left the safety of their cage, there had been constant nagging about how Fëanor shouldn’t be their king, how he didn’t deserve it, why did they have to do this, it was too far away, this was going too far by now, Fingolfin should lead instead.  And Fëanor - Never having been one for taking anyone’s shit - basically said ‘Oh okay then you can WALK BACK HOME YOU PIECES OF SHIT WE’RE GOING TO MIDDLE-EARTH AND YOU CAN STAY BACK COMFORTABLY HERE’. 

FINGOLFIN was the one to insist they cross the Helcaraxë, along with his people. There was the option of returning back to Valinor, which I assume Fëanor would assume that they would do, because after all that’s what they had been complaining about for weeks, wasn’t it?  Believe me - I love Fingolfin - and it was an asshole move to burn the ships.  But Fëanor didn’t leave his own people to the Helcaraxë - He left Fingolfin and his people to do whatever they wished (as long as it didn’t involved the ships they’d killed for), and they chose to walk along the Helcaraxë. 

Did they have much of a choice? Could they return or was it more of a 50-shades kind of situation of ‘OH BUT SHE COULD LEAVE WHENEVER SHE WANTED but really she couldn’t’? Finarfin returned just fine, but then again he hadn’t killed any teleri. 

That whole part can certainly be discussed and argued about, but the fact remains that Fëanor did NOT leave his own people to the Helcaraxë - He left Fingolfin’s. The dramatic noldor flare version of ‘IF YOU DON’T STOP COMPLAINING I’LL TURN THIS THING AROUND AND YOU ALL CAN WALK HOME’

He was to blame for all the kinslayings

This is - as we all can see - A clear and obvious fucking lie. 

Fëanor died before the sun was created. Fëanor died at the very beginning of the First Age. 

He was literally not alive long enough to be blamed for any of the other kinslayings. 

He created the silmarillis - he and his sons had the only right to them. 

The kinslayings post Alqualondë happened because of incompetent leadership, corruption and betrayals within the good ol’ people of Middle-Earth. Need I mention that the only Fëanorion killed by Melkor’s forces was Fëanor himself? The rest were killed by other elves. Not only that but the fëanorions were known to be diplomats - the strongest war-forces out there to be sure, and warlords for the legends - but the Union of Maedhros wasn’t their fault. The fact that Thingol fucked up and told a human to fetch a Silmaril because this human couldn’t understand a simple metaphor for ‘I will never let you marry my daughter’. Sort of ‘I will let you marry my daughter when Hell freezes over’, and he’d take that seriously? Not that I doubt it - Beren seems like the kind of fella who would barge into Hell with buckets of ice because ‘I WILL BE ALLOWED TO SHAG THE FEMALE ELF IF I DO THIS’.

Wars and conflicts such as the ones that raged through the First Age are NEVER black and white. Never. There is no good guy and there is no bad guy (aside from Melkor, but he wasn’t the ONLY bad guy). There were the Fëanorions and their property, and people who thought that they had the right to them. 

Overall bad leadership and simple stupidity as well as over-dramatic elves and kings and humans were to blame for the Kinslayings: Not Fëanor. 

That would be like blaming the one who made my phone in case it’d get stolen. “OH IF ONLY YOU HADN’T MADE THIS PHONE THIS WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED”

There was nothing but fire and greed inside him

I saw this written in that one post about why Galadriel giving Gimli three strands of her hair was an amazing scene (which it was because that move was SAVAGE). 

This is the only place in which I will quote something word for word in this:

“Even when she was young, Galadriel’s ability to see into other’s hearts was very strong, and she knew that Fëanor was filled with nothing but fire and greed”

*muffled shrieking*

ALRIGHT SO LET’S HAVE A LOOK SHALL WE

To be fair - Galadriel is a child of Indis. That is not to say that Indis herself was bad (even though I literally hold no love for her whatsoever, aside from the fact that she gave us great characters through that womb of hers - good job), but rather that Finwë’s family was very heavily divided and separated by an understandable conflict.

Fëanor - understandably - hates that side of the family.  Because of that, because they’ve never been given a chance because they aren’t worth his time - it’s natural that they dislike him in turn. 

Galadriel is Finarfin’s child, but acts more like a Noldo than he does. It would be LOGICAL for her to be biased against him. Because of that it wouldn’t be surprising if she saw the passion in him and interpreted it as Fire and Greed because of bias - whether she was aware of it or not. 

Fëanor was indeed the greatest elf that has ever existed and ever will exist - greatest in both beauty, mind and strength. He did ask for her hair three times because he wanted to capture it's beauty in gems, but that they inspired the silmarilli? Really? Nah. It might have driven him to create them out of spite, but we have a pretty clear case of stroking Galadriel's ego to deal with here if we are to assume that the SILMARILLI - the very gems that caused most of the tragedy during the First Age - were crafted in her image.

But more than that the phrase "she saw that in his heart there was only fire and greed" pisses me off.

No. There was not. There was passion in his heart. Fëanor lived to create - especially things of beauty. Everything - literally everything about this cocky little shit was about passion and creation. He cared for his people - he wanted to share wonders with the world freely and out of the rule of the Valar/Gods. He wanted freedom and he wanted to create, he has three times too much energy in his soul.

If that is what they mean by "only fire and greed", then yes.

All in all this has been amusing and interesting to write and I hope I’ve made at least some lick of sense to you - the reader.

This was really just a long and complicated way of saying that it is OKAY to dislike a character. Not every character appeals to everyone. There is legit nothing wrong with that. 

But I lose respect for people - grownups - who can’t even admit that their reason for disliking someone or something is petty. I cannot respect people who go far enough that they end up lying and making things up just to make themselves seem more sensible and mature, when in all seriousness all it tells me is that someone lacks the self-confidence to admit that ‘Yeah. I like this thing but not that. There’s no reason really, I just thing this thing is neat and that one isn’t because I’m a petty asshat’. 

No character - Especially not in a masterpiece like The Silmarillion has perfect characters, only ones with different grey areas in what’s okay and what isn’t.  There is nothing wrong in liking some and disliking some.  But OWN that. if the reason is petty OWN it.  Try to have at least some semblence of confidence and insight to know when you’re being petty and when you aren’t. 

We’re a great fandom - I truly and utterly believe that.

I love you

( @first-son-of-finwe )

[vardasvapors]

meme replies

gurguliare replied to your post:                 feanor + early parenthood? or anything about him...                

   “just as damaging as neglect in hindsight” ah, my kink. wait maybe that’s poor word choice in this instance. ah, my sense of humor    

YES

I’m a huge fan of ‘x trait only works in the right story and you’re in the wrong one sorry bruh you’re SOL’ tbh

   “extremely communicative in both telling Maedhros and Maglor everything he is doing (except when making them surprise presents etc) and soliciting their thoughts and feelings on everything they are doing” also this is great, i love feanor who thinks explaining things is boring unless it’s for his KIDS when it’s the MOST FUN CHALLENG EVER    

I am REALLY into Feanor being very interested in kids! Not necessarily good with them from the perspective of people other than him, but very attentive to them and very patient - at least in the sense of ‘I’M not bored of talking to them!’ And for his kids of course everything is a different ballgame than any other beings around. I am...not super sold on good-dad-Feanor in terms of ‘this is a good way to raise children’, but I’m very invested in good-dad-Feanor in terms of ‘i think this idea is awesome for some ridiculous reason so i’m going to do it with my kids’

erotetica replied to your post:                   feanor + early parenthood? or anything about him...                

  that is. the most terrible thing ever done to me, an innocent, f u k

OOPS. sorry! lol i’m kidding i’m not sorry.

thelioninmybed replied to your post:                   feanor + early parenthood? or anything about him...                

   Aww man just fuck me up. I was coming up with questions to expand on this but tbh I’d just be asking you to write the fanfic, anyway this is good shit 

   No i cant help myself, how does his parenting style mesh with nerdanel’s? 

Uh, okay like.........real talk, I am not a big fan of stereotypical media Daddy Issues in the sense of the Colbert ‘a distant authority figure who can never be pleased,’ in large part because of massive overexposure, so I like to see it as kinda...Nerdanel is the reliable head of the household who gives the kids Talks and “imagine how you’d feel if”’s about how decency involves understanding and working with a socially agreed upon idea of how to behave in a community, which go beyond ‘these are my rights’ and ‘my idea is correct so it’s the one that should happen.’ Feanor is the idolizable “*I* love you so much and you made *us* so proud and exercised *your* potential to the fullest” one who reassures and instills within them the idea of how awesome and important they and their whole family and their role is. Like, family-and-family-member-focused and family-approval-based versus member-of-society-focused and principle-based. Which overlap fine for a long time, because timeless paradise. But then........

crocordile replied to your post:                   uuuuh, Luthien + Hair for that hc thing                

   Vantablack hair    

U GOT IT

   No but really, yes, I also love the multiple mentions to her shadows - there was some good meta somewhere that i’ll look for that looked at the wording of when she puts melkor to sleep, which is also irrc described as a shadow of her own    

YES and thank you for the message with the passage, I’m going to quote it:

"‘Sleep, O unhappy, tortured thrall! Thou woebegotten, fail and fall down, down from anguish, hatred, pain, from lust, from hunger, bond and chain, to that oblivion, dark and deep, the well, the lightless pit of sleep! For one brief hour escape the net, the dreadful doom of life forget!’"

Also I had this passage in mind but didn’t want to quote it because it was too cluttered looking:

“when all the Earth had peace and the glory of Valinor was at its noon, there came into the world Lúthien, the only child of Thingol and Melian. Though Middle-earth lay for the most part in the Sleep of Yavanna, in Beleriand under the power of Melian there was life and joy, and the bright stars shone as silver fires; and there in the forest of Neldoreth Lúthien was born, and the white flowers of niphredil came forth to greet her as stars from the earth.“

valaraukars replied to your post:                   uuuuh, Luthien + Hair for that hc thing                

   Came here for the vantablack hair comment but I see I was too late    

Someone write the AU where Luthien is sued by Anish Kapoor instead of running into C&C

yavieriel replied to your post:                   uuuuh, Luthien + Hair for that hc thing                

   Honestly I agree with this so much that for years I’ve been unreasonably annoyed when someone gives Elrond hair that’s just dark brown and ordinary elves in the same fic have black hair and I’m just ???nO???? Excuse you Elrond has the fabled vantablack hair of Luthien accept no substitutes    

VANTABLACK PEREDHEL. Um................regarding all those ‘dark brown’ descriptions, i don’t mind it at all tbh, but that reminds me, how do I say this. Have you ever dabbled in, like, the really really bad LOTR fic, the ones I spent maybe three evenings browsing through about a year ago before noping away from them in amused bafflement? By which I mean. Erestor, the ’exotic’ ‘ethereally beautiful’, with super-black hair? Like, those are some weird seemingly-obvious character description mix-ups, man.

gurguliare replied to your post:                  Elros + Facial hair                

   NO THIS ANON KNOWS WHAT’S UP. elros’s magnificent anime sideburns. does that mean ar-pharazon had muttonchops    

Everyone knows that muttonchops are a sign of being the superior race, ppl with beards are inferior and beardless ppl are those awful elves who are laughing at us for dying.

[procrastinationonvacation]

Oh wow! I loved your Daeron post! Could I request something about Fëanor and his relationship with his sons and wife - how it was pre-Silmaril and after?

- Captain Anon

Captain anon is just sitting over there giving me validation with every single ask and i love them <3

uh tbh my view of Feanor has been heavily influence by Frankenstein recently. What it comes down to is before shiny = good, after shiny = not so good -> worse -> well at least hes dead

Before:

Ok so I can go either way on this. But. I think Feanor loved them well. To have children who’d follow you into exile and then into darkness. Plus its much sadder if Feanor was (kinda) a good person to begin with.

So I imagine that he was a good father, and yeah he was rather plagued with anger at the gods and Finwe, and was very grudging towards his (half) brothers - i feel like Feanor’s ghost would come after me if I don’t include that - but to his family I think he would act well.  

If the family was dysfunctional before the shinys then it was because of being over protective. I think Feanor is none too trusting and perhaps a little restrictive because sure people say its safe, but Miriel wasn’t supposed to die either. So what’s to say no one else has gotten hurt and then swept under the rug.

Also I think I’ve said this before, but even if he’s opposed to it, Feanor isn’t going to stop any of his kids from hanging out with the cousins. And he’s fine with them coming over too. (no he’s not warming up to the cousins… MAYbe it would look Bad if they were always at Nolo’s house. have you ever considered that Nerdanel? He’s obligated to have them over with the best activities. By the feud. Obviously.)

I think he also would be really insistent to his kids, whenever they felt like “why am I not at the forefront of literally every field except aquatic research” that they were enough just as they were, and tries to show them they are in no way a burden. Because I head canon that he wonders if he wasn’t good enough for Miriel to bother sticking around. Or if he wasn’t good enough to fill Finwe’s need of family. (I imagine he wasn’t finwe to be happy with Just him)

Also for Nerdanel. Um. They vibe SO Well. Their marriage endangers half of existence. Nerdanel wants a moving statue. Feanor says well how about a dancing one. Nerdanel says hey lets make it sing. Feanor says lets bring it to life. Aule says NO.

-

After making the shinys, but before they were stolen:

Just an update to say he starts being suspicious of everyone and upon seeing his mistrust, his sons also grow suspicious of others and the family closes ranks.

I think this is where that possessive love I talked about a bit a go comes in too. I’m blaming Melkor for it. I don’t think it’s directed so much at his sons, mostly towards his father, but idk I think that the main aspect for it is that it’s very consuming. Listen I’ve been reading Frankenstein and looking for themes for my class. Half the time I just want to write an essay on Feanor, change the names and call it a day.

-

the theft of the shiny:

Like I said, I wish to write Frankenstein essay but for Feanor. At this point he’s no longer a good parent. The ambition that before was sated with crafting and being Better Than Nolo (TM) is now directed solely towards Morgoth’s destruction.

I think Nerdanel sees that and understands her husband is lost.

I think the kids see that and they know Feanor’s always been angry, and they’ve been on road trips with him before. The first swearing of the oath I dont think they know what they’re getting into.

-

Dying:

Not much to say for Feanor here except that this is his final failure as a father and person, being too enraptured in this idea of a glorious fate to kill Morgoth, and too obsessed with his silmarils and father to think of his sons. (does this remind anyone else of gondor when Gandalf is talking about how people were valuing their lineage and stuff, forgetting to be concerned with the Current kingdom?)

What IS striking however, is that his sons rewear the oath. Like yeah, it’s his dying wish and all, but hear me out. By now they.. they kinda know what this is going to entail. They know they’ve become murdurers for this oath. They’ve abandoned their friends, their family. They watched their father be consumed by it. And they swear it again.

“let not him swear to walk in darkness who has yet seen the night fall” (or whatever elrond says, I dont have my book with me)

a good point about the sons not necessarily knowing what they were getting into by our boy, but me thinks they kind of did know. 

At least a little bit.

[avantegarda]

gather round children you’re gonna learn some feanorian hair headcanons

Feanor: keeps his hair cut fairly short on account of not wanting to get it set on fire. 

Nerdanel: has all sorts of crazy curls; usually keeps her hair pinned up very tightly for practical reasons, but lets it down for special occasions (and when she’s trying to seduce her husband)

Maedhros: has absolutely gorgeous wavy hair that he keeps long and usually does in some kind of fancy classy way--until post-Thangorodrim, when he keeps his hair short in order to accomplish more badassery.

Maglor got Nerdanel’s curly hair (though his is very dark brown, not red) and he is juust a little vain about it. He usually wears it long and loose in order achieve that sexy romantic poet aesthetic.

Personally, I like picturing Celegorm with blond hair for absolutely no reason, but I also think it’s cute when he has Miriel’s silver hair? But what we can all agree on is that boy does not give a damn about his hair. He runs a comb through it in the morning and he’s out the door. He’s usually got twigs in there. You know how it be.

Caranthir has super-coarse straight hair that resists all attempts to do anything with it. He usually just braids it back tightly and tries to forget it’s there.

Curufin also got the curly hair, but he keeps it short just like his dad, both for safety and because he needs to look just like dad ok.

The twins got the wavy red hair just like Maedhros, and when they were little their parents would make sure to braid their hair differently so they could be told apart. As adults, Amrod’s hair is just slightly darker, but honestly it’s still hard to tell.

Celebrimbor has very straight, fine hair that he keeps long as an aesthetic thing and a screw-you to his old man.

[sweetteaanddragons]

Wire and Code

A science fiction AU in which the elves are still immortal and bad at it, the Noldor are still making things without stopping to consider all possible implications, and the Valar still really wish they would stop.

A note on names: For the real elves, I used the name most often used for them in canon. For the androids, I used whichever name I thought most likely to have been given to them due to their circumstances in this AU.

Feanor wasn’t the first to make a successful android; that had been their father, who’d started the business. He hadn’t even been the first to make one that could pass for a real elf when seen; that was Nerdanel.

He was, however, the first to create artificial intelligence that could pass for the real thing, a fact that some attributed to Feanor’s brilliance and that Fingolfin personally attributed to his brother being insane.

The unit his brother had installed it in was as small as a child, and it sat on the edge of Feanor’s workbench with its mechanical legs swinging aimlessly and a half completed arm held steadily out while Feanor adjusted something inside.

“Exactly how are you going to market an android this small?” Fingolfin demanded. “No one’s going to want an AI this untested near their children if that’s what you were thinking.”

The android’s eyes widened. “Father?”

“Father?” Fingolfin choked. “You programmed him to - “ A new meaning in the childlike form suddenly struck him, and his heart sank. “I know you and Nerdanel wanted children,” he began carefully.

Feanor’s grip on the small hammer in his hand shifted until it looked more like a weapon than a tool. “I’m not marketing him. We’re keeping him.”

The android’s shoulders actually slumped in a semblance of relief, and Fingolfin wondered just how ridiculously complicated his programming even was. “This isn’t healthy,” he tried.

“Your concern is noted.” Feanor snapped the last arm panel into the place, and suddenly the android could be a real elven child. Fingolfin repressed a shudder. “There you go, Maitimo. Why don’t you go show your mother?”

Fingolfin barely noticed the machine’s departure. He was too caught up in the name. “You named it well-made,” he said. “Of course you did.”

“Nerdanel did, actually,” Feanor said tightly. “And I would prefer that you not refer to him as an it.”

“It is literally an object,” Fingolfin snapped before taking a deep breath and reigning himself in. Their father had enough to worry about with the Valar’s  increasing oversight of their business without the two of them getting into another scandalous fight. “Fine. But you had better not have programmed him to call me ‘uncle.’”

Feanor scoffed. “As if any child of mine ever would.”

Because Feanor apparently never knew when to stop, he kept building Maitimo progressively bigger bodies and reinstalling his personality chip in the upgraded form. Fingolfin avoided it as much as possible.

Then Feanor and Nerdanel - and why he’d ever had any hope she’d reign his brother in, he didn’t know - apparently decided one wasn’t enough and made another one.

“He can sing,” Feanor announced proudly at their latest attempt at a family dinner. Maitimo was there and talking eloquently to an enthralled Finwe. Fingolfin had no idea who had loaded food onto the machine’s plate as it wasn’t as if he could actually eat. The newest tiny android was perched in Nerdanel’s lap and looking around at everyone in a creepily convincing display of curiosity.

“All androids can sing,” Fingolfin pointed out. “The sound systems have been perfected for years.”

“You mean they can play recordings on command,” Feanor said scornfully.

“Well . . . yes,” Finarfin said with considerably more tact than Fingolfin would have. “What have you done instead?”

Nerdanel stroked the thing’s synthetic hair. “He’ll get better in time,” she said. “You still need a bit more training, don’t you?”

“I can sing,” it protested, and then -

The problem with androids singing, of course, was that no matter how perfect the pitch, they could never manage to endue a song with power the way an elf could, and the music always came out a little lifeless as a result.

This one’s power rang throughout the room with a force and beauty that brought tears to his eyes.

When the song ended, they all sat in stunned silence, except for Maitimo, who clapped dutifully, and the singer himself, who looked smug.

“I can sing,” he repeated. “I’ve been practicing.”

Fingolfin wasn’t really surprised to learn they’d named him Kanafinwe. Strong-voiced was rather hard to argue with after that. 

The third time Feanor announced he and Nerdanel had crafted an AI together, Fingolfin finally learned how his brother had been managing to do all this.

. . . Sort of.

He squinted at the brilliant gems skeptically. “They’re beautiful,” he admitted, “but how exactly are they the secret to all of this?”

Feanor shrugged defensively and moved to put them back in the safe. “I don’t know,” he admitted shortly.

“But if you made them - “

“I had been awake for three days and hadn’t left the workshop once. I had an idea, a brilliant idea, and when it was done, I had these, three pages of illegible notes, and almost no memory of what had happened. If I craft the personality chip and the programming under their light, then it works. If I don’t . . . ” Feanor’s tone did not invite further comment.

That had never stopped Fingolfin before. “If you don’t know what you’re doing, then how do you know you won’t accidentally craft murderous robots that’ll snap and kill us all?”

“I’m not murderous,” a small voice said from behind a pile of scrap metal. “I have all standard anti-violence programming installed. Also, Huan says he’s bored. Can I take him for a walk?”

“Take Maitimo with you,” Feanor said absently while Fingolfin tried to recover from nearly jumping out of his skin.

“You crafted Turcafinwe to think he can talk to dogs?” Fingolfin said incredulously.

“Of course not,” Feanor said. “I gave him the data he needed to actually talk to dogs.” His eyes shone with triumph. “And I knew you’d warm up to them eventually.”

“What - “ 

Fingolfin abruptly realized what pronoun he’d used to refer to Tyelkormo.

They weren’t people, and it was dangerous to think of them as such.

But -

Well. How much harm could it do?

The next creation was named Morifinwe, supposedly for the color of his hair. 

Judging by the look on Feanor’s face, calling him “Dark Finwe” was actually about being spiteful at the Valar’s increasing concerns that all of these too-intelligent, too-real androids might someday go dark and snap, but that wasn’t Fingolfin’s problem.

Fingolfin thought he had made his peace with his brother’s creations. He had even quietly started his own attempt at making an advanced AI, a serious break from his usual work in PR, but he still remembered all his old lessons. It would take a while, but maybe . . .

Then the next little android showed up at family dinner. 

For a moment, Fingolfin thought his brother had gotten bored with androids and decided to take up cloning.

“Why?” he finally asked Nerdanel, pain in every second of the drawn out syllable.

Nerdanel beamed at her creation. “I think he’s adorable, don’t you?”

Fingolfin remembered that this was the woman who had willingly married Feanor and instead took comfort in Anaire squeezing his hand under the table.

Still. However . . . disturbing . . . Atarinke was, he kept working on his project with Anaire’s help. He was very pleased with how Findekano came out. He might not have that mysterious extra something the Silmarils added, but he was a creation to be proud of.

His only hesitation with the programming was the designation to give himself and Anaire. Were they parents? Creators?

“We are not having it call us its parents,” Anaire said flatly. “It’s creepy enough when Feanor’s do it, and we all know he’s a bit eccentric. You’ve been complaining about it for years. Why is it suddenly a question?”

It was a question because suddenly looking at the tiny, almost perfect body on the table - small for safety concerns, small because it would make it easier to subdue if this went horribly wrong, not because he was thinking of it as a child, surely - looking at it, Fingolfin suddenly had a harder time fully believing that he was making just a machine, nothing more.

But Anaire was right, of course, and Feanor would never let him hear the end of it if he conceded at last. They would be designated by their titles within the company, nothing more.

Finarfin announced not longer after that he’d gotten so intrigued that he’d talked Earwen into helping him build Findarato. Feanor must have felt threatened because he announced that he and Nerdanel had decided they were going to build two at once in an attempt at an approximation of twins.

Fingolfin was disturbed less by the concept of that than by the aftermath. He was never entirely sure whether Feanor had actually merged the two’s memory banks or if they were just eerily good at mimicking it. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

It got almost normal after that. Finarfin had apparently enjoyed the challenge so much that he went on to build Angarato, Aikanaro, and Artanis; Fingolfin raced him for the creation of the first ‘female’ by talking Anaire into helping him with Irisse and made Turukano and Arakano for good measure. It was fine. It was all fine.

Until he walked into Feanor’s shop, saw the parts, asked, “Another one?” and heard - 

“This one’s Atarinke’s, actually.”

Fingolfin froze. “You mean it’s . . . parts for him?” Please let it be that. Please, please, please . . . 

“That’s not what I said,” Feanor said irritably. “It’s his. He decided he wanted to build himself a son. I think he’s getting someone to help him with the detail work of the programming, though. He always did prefer the hardware side of things.”

“You programmed them to be self-replicating,” Fingolfin said faintly.

“Of course I did,” Feanor said. “Didn’t you?”

The Valar were going to riot.

Fingolfin hadn’t, of course he hadn’t, but he had programmed them to take in their environment and as much as they could learn, which was presumably why young Dr. Elenwe ended up approaching him tentatively at the end of a project where she’d been allowed to use Turukano as a resource.

“He asked for my help on a personal project,” she said hesitantly, “and it sounded very interesting, only I wasn’t sure if it was allowed . . . “

Fingolfin frowned. “Does he need an upgrade?” He’d seemed to be functioning fine.

“No, no,” she assured him. “He, um. He wanted my help to make another one. A little one.” When he continued to stand frozen, refusing to comprehend it, she continued on helpfully. “He wanted its designation to be Itarille?”

“Right,” he said faintly. “I’ll . . . get back to you on that.”

In the end, he sent her a signed project approval form.

He also sent Feanor a memo that said If they build an army, I’m blaming you.

In general, the Valar were exactly as . . . concerned . . . with this development as he had expected, but Melkor was the exception to the rule and was instead merely genially interested.

Or was genially interested until Feanor shut the door in his face upon his request to see the Silmarils.

Once, just once, could his half-brother try not to be a PR nightmare?

“I don’t blame him for wanting to see them,” Turukano said wistfully. No, not wistfully. Androids couldn’t be wistful, just approximate it.

He had to keep reminding himself of that if he didn’t want Anaire to shoot him more annoyed looks when she caught him referring to them as real.

“They’re beautiful,’ Turukano continued, and Fingolfin blinked.

“You’ve seen them?” Feanor had kept them locked up and more and more, much to Nerdanel’s annoyance, and Fingolfin couldn’t think when Turukano could have glimpsed them. Unless he had hacked the security feed?

That was concerning.

“We’ve all seen them,” Turukano said in the blank voice he used to communicate simple facts programmed into his database. The sky is blue. We are in Finwe Incorporated’s headquarters on the planet Aman. We’ve all seen the Silmarils.

Fingolfin thought of how that slight but noticeable gap in the realism of Maitimo and Findekano had slowly disappeared.

He felt a sudden need to go storming into Feanor’s workshop and demand to know what he had done.

That urge was somewhat hindered by all the lights abruptly going out.

Sir, I have some bad news. There’s a planet wide power outage, and they’re having trouble with the back-up generators . . . 

Sir, I have some bad news. Someone broke into Dr. Feanor’s workshop, and it looks like they took the Silmarils and most of his notes . . . 

Sir, I have some bad news. Your father was in the hallway outside of the workshop and - 

When the backup generators finally kicked in, and Fingolfin felt slightly less of an urge to scream, he went to find Feanor.

When he found him, there was blood streaked on his brother’s knuckles and leaking down to the keyboard he was frantically typing on. Line after line of code filled the screen.

With a chill, Fingolfin realized he recognized the code. “That’s the anti-violence programming,” he realized. “Why are you dismantling it?”

“I’m going after Melkor,” Feanor said hoarsely. 

“The Valar said - “

“The Valar don’t control the largest collection of androids on the planet,” Feanor snapped. “We do.”

That Feanor intended to change the programming on the countless androids awaiting shipment in their warehouses without so much as consulting anyone surprised Fingolfin not at all. But - “You’re doing this to all of them? Even yours?” Feanor hadn’t touched their coding once since he’d finished it, preferring to let them work things out on their own.

Feanor actually paused. “I made them a separate program,” he finally said. “Code named Oath. I’ll send it out as a potential update. It’ll be up to them if . . . “

It wouldn’t be up to them. It would be up to the original software he’d installed and whatever developments it had made since. There was no real choice involved, just long strings of code.

Fingolfin didn’t say that. Instead, he said, “I’d better work on something for mine then. And see what Finarfin thinks.”

Feanor blinked. His eyes were bloodshot. “What?”

“He killed Father,” Fingolfin said, and finally let himself feel every last bit of his grief and rage. “I’m coming too.”