#b; the silmarillion

[princessaredhel]

❦ Of the Noldor | a fanmix for the Noldor, from their days in Valinor till the Third Kinslaying and the beginning of Gil-galad's reign. [spotify] 

“They are the Deep Elves, the friends of Aulë; and they are renowned in song, for they fought and laboured long and grievously in the northern lands of old.”

1. Ages of the Golden Wood - Chance Thomas | 2. My Name is Lincoln - Steve Jablonsky | 3. Isabel the Strong - Steve Jablonsky | 4. Anakin’s Betrayal - John Williams | 5. All of Them! - Hans Zimmer | 6. Wall of Ice - Ramin Djawadi | 7. Obliviate - Alexandre Desplat | 8. My People Were Horsemen - Clinton Shorter | 9. For Blood, for Glory, for Honor - Jeremy Soule | 10. Twilight and Shadow (feat. Renee Fleming) - Howard Shore | 11. Optimus - Steve Jablonsky | 12. Jodie’s Suite - Lorne Balfe | 13. Last Chance (Remastered) - Brand X Music | 14. Dragon Age Inquisition Theme - Trevor Morris | 15. Assassin’s Creed Theme - Lorne Balfe | 16. Pandora - Immediate Music | 17. Into Eternity - Brian Tyler | 18. Lords of Lankhmar - Audiomachine | 19. Elegy - Brand X Music | 20. Farewell to Lorien - Howard Shore | 21. Dust and Light - Twelve Titans Music.

[heathcliffgirl1847]

okay REAL funny guys

[myceliumelium]

It's a Depression Nap! Still in maedhros's hypothetical single father era that I can't stop thinking about.

[kenobihater]

[thelordofgifs]

While I have an enduring hatred for the “Fëanor would be a tech bro in a modern AU” take, I would like to present a programmer!Fëanor who always comments his code SO meticulously and extensively. Meanwhile his annoying colleagues are always saying “oh haha I don’t need to comment it I just remember what the code does!” and Fëanor is seething about how documentation is important, what if you forget, what if things don’t last forever—

[lendmyboyfriendahand]

More in the AU where Elrond and Elros are 16 years old rather than 6 when Sirion is sacked. Tag is "older kidnap fam fic" for previous installments

Elrond wakes up draped over the rump of a horse.

Not, to be clear, his own warhorse. His faithful stallion is being ridden by one of the few remaining warriors of the Gap, the great cavalry of the Noldor, who will be able to keep her seat regardless of what the horse tries.

Elrond isn't initially sure who is riding the horse that he's been set over like a sack of baggage. His arms are stretched out past his head, tied wrists dangling toward the ground, and his ankles are tied as well, tighter than the hobble that he had while walking. He can't see anything but horse flank.

Elrond wriggles around to try and get a better view, and someone notices.

"Lord Maedhros, it seems your guest is awake."

Maedhros pushes down the middle of Elrond's lower back to pin him more surely to the horse. "Lie still. If you fall off while riding in formation you're liable to get stepped on by the next horse, even if the rider wished to avoid you."

"I know how to ride properly."

"Yes, I saw that you were quite skilled when you killed my soldiers, which is why you're staying right there."

"Could I at least sit upright, even if I have to ride behind someone else like an infant?"

"Maybe tomorrow, if you give your word not to escape."

"I'm not stupid enough to try and bargain with you again, after you broke your word about setting us free from the cellar."

"I never said I'd set you free, I said I'd leave the city and wouldn't kill you. Sirion crumbled in the first assault, but I did no more damage after taking you and your brother into custody. If they're smart enough to repair the castle first, everyone should be able to keep warm this winter."

"And if they focus instead on burying their dead, or rebuilding their houses, or rescuing their kidnapped princes?"

"Who knows? But I'm not king of even the Noldor anymore, and the people of Sirion are not my responsibility."

"You would just let them die?" Elrond wanted to glare at the Feanorian, and nearly slipped backwards off the horse as he tried to sit up.

Maedhros caught Elrond deftly by the bound wrists and pulled him back into place. "Next time you do that, I'll let you fall"

"So you don't actually intend to even spare my life."

"I agreed to spare you, not to save you . None here will harm you, but I won't rescue you from consequences of childish stupidity, no more than I will rescue Sirion from winter. If you would rather bash your head open rather than remain my captive, I am not so cruel as to deny you that escape."

Elrond had nothing to say to that topic, as his first retort about more palatable escapes seemed likely just to enrage his captor, as did any question about cutting off hands. "Where's Elros? Was he at least left back in Sirion?" Elrond wanted his brother to be safe, and his people to have a leader with his mother drowned. But he, selfishly, also did to want to be alone with the kinslayers.

"He's here as well, don't worry. Nornmalo has him, and I trust him not to torture a prisoner, despite what it may sound like."

"The moans of pain might be a headache, he drank rather a lot of beer while we were trapped."

Maedhros laughed. "Well, a hungover child soldier. He will at least bother Nornmalo less with questions."

"Could I give him something to soothe the headache? I know a bit of healing."

"No. A headache won't kill him, and he'll get water when we stop same as you."

They stopped only once that day, to water the horses at a stream. Elros was pulled down from the saddle - feet first, luckily, though he still landed in a heap - and his hands untied. Maedhros tossed him a canteen, and said "if you need to piss, now's the best time. You won't get piss all over the horse or your clothes, and we're downstream of the rest of the company."

"My legs are still tied."

"The ropes low enough you should be able to unfasten your belt."

"Are you going to watch me the whole time?"

"Until I find another guard, yes."

Elrond drinks little enough water to avoid the issue, for the moment.

When it's time to ride again, Elrond puts up a fight about having his arms tied again. That just gets Maedhros pinning his face in the dirt while a soldier ties the rope.

Elrond is slung back on the horse like a parcel.

They stop again just before sunset to make camp.

Elrond's hands are untied again for dinner.

The food is simple, waybread and water, and Elrond wonders if he should mention that Men need to eat more than once a day.

Far more exciting than the food though is the figure dropped on the grass next to him, clutching his own canteen and waybread.

"Elros!"

"Elrond! By Ulmo, you're alright!"

"I am, just a bit bruised from the horse. You?"

"Here's something for your healer's notes: do not put people with hangovers upside down for hours. I must have thrown up a dozen times."

"That's terrible! Maybe we can ask-"

At that point the guard tells them to hurry up, they'll be taken to where they're sleeping in ten minutes regardless of how much dinner they've had. Elrond and Elros focus on eating.

They are not, apparently, going to be sleeping near each other. "Too much chance to plot."

The Feanorian soldiers have tents. Some of them share, some of them have their own. A few soldiers have tents obviously designed for two or three that they go into alone.

The horses stolen from Sirion are tied to a picket line. It's loped through the reins, but one person untying the end would let all the horses scatter.

The horses the Feanorians rode into town on are not tied at all. They are loyal old warhorses, and will not flee from orcs in the distance. If wolves do sneak past the guards into the camp, better for the horses to run, and come back at their masters' call when the danger is passed.

Elrond, by contrast, is tied to a tree trunk. His hands are tied in front of him rather than behind, and his legs are unbound. Maedhros's brother - and Elrond learned from a careless remark that their is only the one left - even tossed a blanket over Elrond's legs, to guard against the chill of the night air.

It is the most freedom of movement Elrond has had all day, but that's saying little.

He is stuck sitting up, feeling every root and rock underneath him, unable to reach his hands back to where the rope is tied behind the tree.

Elrond sleeps poorly, stirring at every noise, whether it's a guard on their rounds or an owl hooting its warning.

In the morning, Elrond is given a breakfast of water and waybread again.

Maedhros says "You know it would be suicidal to flee, alone in the wilderness, yes?" and lets Elrond ride behind him sitting up.

Elrond's hands are still bound, and a rope leads passed Maedhros to the saddle horn. If he fell off, he better hope he can keep pace with a cantering horse, or else be dragged on the ground.

Elrond stays on the horse. He figures out his balance well enough to turn, and sees Elros riding similarly.

Thing continue like this for over a week, until they reach Amon Ereb.

[emeraldskulblaka]

Tolkien Stage Adaptations - Performance Calendar

~ April 2024 ~

The Hobbit (play; Austin, TX, USA)

5, 6, 9, 10

adaptation by Edward Mast

Сказание о Берене и Лютиэн ([equestrian] NOTmusical; Moscow, Russia)

6

performed without horses

postponed from 23 March

One Man Lord of the Rings (parody play; Anchorage, AK, USA)

6

Финрод (rock opera; Russia)

6 (Nizhny Novgorod), 10 (Yekaterinburg) > moved to 19 June, 13 (Novosibirsk) > moved to 29 June

The Hobbit (play; Prairie du Chien, WI, USA)

11, 12, 13 (two shows)

adaptation by Edward Mast

The Hobbit (play; Waterloo, IA, USA)

12-14, 19, 20

adaptation by Edward Mast

The Hobbit (play; Woodbury, MN, USA)

12-14, 19-21

adaptation by Patricia Gray

The Hobbit (play; Rhinebeck, NY, USA)

27, 28

adaptation by Patricia Gray

Performance dates and times are subject to change; please check the original post for up-to-date information.

For a general overview of Tolkien stage adaptations, see this post.

[carmisse]

Of the kings and their reunion in Halls of Mandos.

Thingol : Is it mine Fëanáro?

Finwë : What? Of course not, besides your question is not funny at all.

Thingol : Oh fuck, he is mine!

Thingol : You were pregnant when you left for Valinor with your people, and you said nothing!

Finwë : You were literally lost!

Finwë : Fëanáro is mine, he is my son only, I raised him and I gave birth to him.

Thingol : I suspect we conceived him a few months after our return from the first visit, before we lost me, before we set out again, you were on standby before I was lost and yet you did not tell me.

Finwë : I was going to tell you when we arrived in Valinor, but only one of us arrived. Anyway, how did you find out?

Thingol : When I found out that your son's eyes were grey, and you don't have grey eyes, let alone Miriel, only I and my family had grey eyes.

Thingol : Besides, only someone of my lineage would be able to create something as marvellous as the Silmarils.

Finwë : idiot!

Fëanor : ...

Fëanor : Lord Námo, I am ready to be thrown into the void right now.

[sesamenom]

Ar-Pharazon from the Reverse Gondolin AU and as Witch-King of Numenor - thanks to @who-needs-words for helping develop this idea!

[verecunda]

Misc. "Beren and Lúthien" thoughts

Honestly, fair play to Christopher Tolkien for his efforts in producing these standalone volumes, especially in tracing the development of the stories, because the way he describes his dad's multifarious drafts, notebooks, bits of scribble on the backs of envelope etc... Jesus Christ. X'D

I found so much interesting stuff in the Beren and Lúthien book! I'm not even going to try and put them all down here, but in the early versions especially, there are so many odd wee details that seem to me to shed light on certain ambiguous details in the version that appears in the published Silmarillion (whether these were Tolkien's final thoughts on the matter or not).

One of the most interesting things, particularly in the earliest versions, is the stress laid on the fact that Thingol/Tinwelint's order to Beren to fetch a Silmaril is actually meant sarcastically. It's a joke; he doesn't actually expect Beren to go and do it. It struck me because that's exactly how I read it in the Silmarillion: it's Thingol's way of scoffing at Beren and getting him to fuck off. I don't think Thingol had any particular desire for a Silmaril himself (at least, not until it actually came into his hands). That was how I read it, at least, but I was surprised that in the early versions, it's made pretty explicit. It also gives an added resonance to Beren's "lololol the Silmaril is in my hand!" line: the quest that began with a poor-taste joke is brought to fruition with a poor-taste joke. :D

Also quite interesting that Beren's father was originally called Egnor. Clearly not meant to be the same figure as Aegnor son of Finarfin, but it is an early version of the same name. Interesting just because it's a name that always seems to be floating about the fringes of these tales of love between mortals and Elves... ;___;

The version where Felagund first encounters Men while he was a "guest of Celegorm in the East" (as opposed to Maedhros and Maglor in the published Silm). This, I thought, was interesting, because it might serve to explain why Celegorm and Curufin wind up in Nargothrond after the Bragollach, if Tolkien had - at least at one stage - envisioned a friendship between them. There's definitely versions where C&C are friends with Angrod and Aegnor; I wonder if that was meant to extend to all the sons of Finarfin at one point.

[smilingdawn]

RIP Melkor you would've loved Westeros in its Targaryen era

[the-elusive-soleil]

Okay, but thinking it over again, I can kinda see why Thingol decided the appropriate response to some mortal man walking in and announcing he's engaged to Luthien was to set an impossible quest.

I mean, so many people want Luthien over the course of the story. Daeron. Beren. Celegorm. The dark Vala Morgoth. Even the Maia-dog becomes completely devoted to her. The only male characters outside the family who meet her and aren't mentioned as going head over heels in their own way are 1) Curufin, who is revealed at this time and no sooner to have a son, indicating a preexisting marriage and ineligibility, and 2) Sauron, who would rather capture her for his boss and get promoted.

So I kind of get the feeling that this happened a lot to Thingol, someone coming in and insisting on their undying love for Luthien and wanting to marry her, and he's just gotten grouchier and grouchier in how he responds to this, and Beren is maybe the last straw.

Like, I'm not the biggest fan of Thingol, and in my opinion there were a lot of unhelpful consequences to the Silmaril quest that could have been avoided if he'd just been more reasonable. And he might have tried trusting Luthien to know her own mind. But you can sort of start to see where he's coming from here.

[heathcliffgirl1847]

some baby feanorians bc i drew maedhros and the other eldest cousins

[myceliumelium]

Maedhros in his single dad era.

[vorbarrsultana]

Honestly, perfect AU dynamic for Finrod/Sauron in my head looks like this:

Sauron, voice oozing with fake sympathy: I only need the name and the purpose of your little quest, elf. Or would you rather watch me skinning your friends alive?

Finrod, with a smile so sharp it can cut through glass: Yes, I would. We will endure it, and then our souls will go to the Utter West or Beyond, and sooner or later we shall live again.

Sauron: ...

Finrod: But you, like your pathetic master, will turn into a mere shadow of your self, struggling to master the matter of Arda which already despises all that you've become.

Sauron: Well, actually...

And then it dissolves into lengthy philosophical argument. Both of them meticulously point out every logical inconsistency in their opponent's worldview with varied level of smugness, until Finrod makes Sauron admit aloud that joining Melkor of all Ainur with the intention to bring order was not his brightest idea.

(It only goes downhill for Team Dark Side from here.)

(The "oh, no, he's hot" moment happens hundred(s) of years later, when now-again-Mairon helps Aulë to fashion Númenor for Finrod's beloved Edain, and Finrod warmly thanks him.)

[amethysttribble]

There’s so much packed into the Unchaining of Melkor, like

Manwe and the Valar said that Melkor would be imprisoned for three ages, and when that time was up, they let him out with parole (can’t leave Valmar). When he served his parole without issue, they let him out totally. Whether this was a reasonable move, I can’t say, but Tolkien does pretty much say it wasn’t a well informed move (“for Manwe was free from evil and could not comprehend it”). Your mileage may vary on how much you get out of this explanation.

But for my money, letting a prisoner serve their sentence and not suddenly extending it as it’s about to end is a good thing to do. Not seeing the evil in Melkor’s heart there after? Eeehhhh, Ulmo and Tulkas both have their concerns and doubts so this obviously wasn’t the perfect deception.

And we can quibble about whether that was an appropriate amount of sentence time in the first place, but I don’t find that to be an interesting question

What I do think is an interesting question:

Did Manwe unilaterally “[give] [Melkor] leave to go freely about the land”

and

Did the Valar ask the Elves what they thought about releasing Melkor into wider Valinor?

Within my knowledge, I don’t think the text offers us a good answer to either of these questions. Could really go 50/50 on the Valar question, with either Manwe making that call (as the Valar sans Melkor seem very cool with him having ultimate authority) or it going to a vote and Ulmo and Tulkas losing.

For what it’s worth, the text in Morgoth’s Ring says “Manwe gave him leave to go freely about the land”, but that isn’t definitive for my purposes, as that could just be legalese around how decreeing works. Tips the scales a little bit, but doesn’t %100 need to imply anything about the decision making process.

The Elven question, though. That’s more interesting and complicated still.

My first instinct would be to say, no. The Valar don’t seem to ask the Elves for counsel in the base text. But here, Morgoth’s Ring has something else to say as well, because concerning the Statute of Miriel and Finwe, “Manwe considered the words of Finwe; and after a time he summoned all the counsellors of the Eldar” (note that this is in the EARLIEST version of this story).

Once we get to the version of this story in LACE, the elven counselors have disappeared and the Valar debate among themselves.

By the time we get to Later Versions, the text becomes, “Then Manwe was moved with pity for Finwe, and he considered his plea. But because this seemed to him a great matter and not lightly to be judged, he summoned the Valar in Council. Of the long debate that they held the Elves wrote a record, for their chieftains were permitted to be present.” Complete with footnote (I), which leads us to:

“This debate of the Valar not wholly feigned [meaning: dramatized by record]. For the Eldar we’re permitted to attend all conclaves, and many did so (especially those that so deeply concerned them, their fate, and their place in Arda, as did this matter) …. Later, my father commented against the beginning of this note that the Eldar would not be present at this debate (‘certainly not Finwe!’) and that the Yalar would have informed the loremasters of the Eldar concerning it.”

Which is a whole lot of mess! The answer keeps changing.

There’s a whole lot of room for debate between “summoned all the counsellors of the Eldar” and “chieftains were permitted to be present” and the subsection of ‘permitted to be present’ being “permitted to attend”.

“Would not be present at this debate,” is also in there, but to me that seems to be a very specific instance, which isn’t applicable elsewhere except insofar as ‘this hearing was closed to protect privacy and not give offense’.

So, I now wonder, how closely are we using ‘present’ and ‘attend’. Are the Elves permitted to watch the contribute to the debate? Personally, by the time we get to later texts, it doesn’t feel like it. The Elves are allowed to sit in the gallery, but not contribute.

But I can’t say that interpretation is airtight and the text can’t be interpreted differently!

So, it feel like, under most circumstances, at the VERY LEAST, the Elves were allowed to watch Melkor’s parole hearing. Their ability to debate the matter is up to debate, the people and/or their kings might have had a say! Or the chance to present their stance before the Valar, if not a vote.

I have to bring up the line, “both the Valar and the Eldar had profit from [Melkor’s] aid and counsel,” as part of why he was realeased from parole. Were some of the profiting Elves speaking on his behalf? Either in or out of council?

Personally the odds seem slim on the Elves having a formal voice. Informal, I believe they probably did, but I’m not giving anyone democracy points for that. But going off the supposition that the informal voice was, I think the norm, does it still apply to the question of Melkor?

Because this is Melkor, Manwe’s brother-

It makes me ask the question: for family privacy, was his trial closed, too?

Maybe!

I have no answers, just a lot of thoughts and possible interpretations and at the end of this I didn’t even ask the question I wanted to examine, which is: the Vanyar rejected Melkor. Did they do so at trial or after, and how did Manwe feel about that?