#by the bywater

[rachelillustrates]

Concerning Orcs.....

(Art featuring Onna Kin-breaker from my comic “Tock the Gnome,” my man Lurtz from the Jackson film version of “The Fellowship of the Ring.,” and Butterfly Hero Steven. No official affiliation or copyright infringement intended! Will be finishing this up in color eventually but liked the linework too much not to share! With spruce in Onna’s hand, for ‘hope in adversity.’)

So I’ve been doing some (more) Orc research in my continuing Tolkien obsession, and that – as always – impacts how I manifest them in my own work.

Specifically, I’ve been inhaling the backlog of “By the Bywater” episodes, which is an amazing podcast talking about “all things J.R.R. Tolkien: his work, his inspirations and impact, creative interpretations in other media, languages, lore, ripoffs, parodies, anything we think is interesting!” It is SO chill, and so good, and the people involved – Oriana Schwindt, Jared Pechaček and Ned Raggett – never fail to get me thinking and bring up SO many things I hadn’t heard about, as an (up until recently) more casual fan.

I got to the episode on Orcs recently (YES, they tackled Orcs as a topic. Thank you, brave humans) – “Hella Problematic in So Many Ways” – and I have thoughts.

“But Rachel!” you may cry, “I’m not a fan of ‘Lord of the Riiiiiiings’ Orcs! Why should I care about how they’re portrayed in a franchise I don’t like?”

That would be because without Orcs in Tolkien’s work, we wouldn’t have Orcs anywhere else. Where we’ve come as creatives with them since then is REAL important, but in terms of Story, they showed up in Arda first. Yes, they have inspirational roots beyond that, but I think its important – even beyond a fangirling perspective, yes – to recognize where this fantasy people I love so much came from, in the written-beginning.

Sooooooo I wrote a really long post about it, but I broke the Tumblr character limit apparently? So you can read the notes and my thoughts here 💚

And here is smiling Lurtz for further incentive:

[cantsayidont]

In an undated letter written in the late 1950s, reproduced in THE LETTERS OF JRR TOLKIEN, Tolkien alludes to the legal difficulties Sam faced after returning from the Grey Havens at the end of LORD OF THE RINGS:

When Master Samwise reported the ‘departure over Sea’ of Bilbo (and Frodo) in 1421, it was still held impossible to presume death; and when Master Samwise became Mayor in 1427, a rule was made that: ‘if any inhabitant of the Shire shall pass over Sea in the presence of a reliable witness, with the expressed intention not to return, or in circumstances plainly implying such an intention, he or she shall be deemed to have relinquished all titles rights or properties previously held or occupied, and the heir or heirs thereof shall forthwith enter into possession of these titles, rights, or properties, as is directed by established custom, or by the will and disposition of the departed, as the case may require.’

You can see how the residents of Hobbiton might have seen Sam's return as the premise of a kind of Agatha Christie mystery plot: favorite servant of eccentric middle-aged local resident departs on an unexpected journey with his master; returns home alone two weeks later; and then conveniently produces a copy of said eccentric local resident's new will, naming the servant the heir to all his property — and the only account the servant can offer of his master's whereabouts is a preposterous story about Elves. Suspicious! Very suspicious indeed!

[rearte2]

by Jerry Bywaters, 1940

[viridiansunset]

Bywater

New Orleans

[direwolfrules]

The Weirwood Queen Memes, Part X: Because I feel like using Roman numerals today

Link to master post

As always, spoilers for The Weirwood Queen series by @redwolf17. Y’all should check it out. Seriously, you should. Please, I made 10 meme posts for this fic, if that’s not a ringing endorsement I don’t know what is.

[leatherducttapeprettyboys]

[topcat77]

Oil Field Girls, 1940

Jerry Bywaters

[balanceoflightanddark]

"Nonetheless, ease and peace had left this people still curiously tough. They were, if it came to it, difficult to daunt or to kill; and they were, perhaps, so unwearyingly fond of good things not least because they could, when put to it, do without them, and could survive rough handling by grief, foe, or weather in a way that astonished those who did not know them well and looked no further than their bellies and their well-fed faces. Though slow to quarrel, and for sport killing nothing that lived, they were doughty at bay, and at need could still handle arms. They shot well with the bow, for they were keen-eyed and sure at the mark. Not only with bows and arrows. If any Hobbit stooped for a stone, it was well to get quickly under cover, as all trespassing beasts knew well."

-J.R.R Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Prologue 1. Concerning Hobbits pgs. 5-6

This paragraph fascinates me for a few reasons. Often in fiction, a long period of peace is often used for explaining why people are so slow to react to a rising threat. That prolonged prosperity dulled the senses and breeds complacency. Indeed, Frodo himself does express some exasperation and almost wishes for a dragon or some evil force to invade the Shire to shake the Hobbits out of their complacency.

Which to some level is true here. It's a known fact that Hobbits like to keep out of the affairs of the "big people". Yet at the same time, even if they want to keep themselves isolated, it doesn't mean the world won't march into the Farthings regardless of what they want. After all, there wasn't a whole lot stopping the Nazgul or Saruman from entering their borders.

Yet at the same time, the paragraph does illustrate that just because Hobbits have grown accustomed to peace, doesn't mean they're pushovers. Consider Bandobras "Bullroarer" Took and the Battle of the Green Fields. When a goblin warband led by Golfimbel descended from the Misty Mountains and broke through the Dunedain's encirclement to invade the Shire, Bullroarer charged straight at the goblin ranks. He then proceeded to knock Golfimbel's head off and shatter the morale of the warband.

The story was repeated in the Battle of Bywater when Saruman decided to set up a criminal ring in the Shire after his defeat at the hands of the Ents. Long story short, once Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin returned, the Hobbits proceeded to raise up a sizeable force and effectively kicked Saruman out of the Shire. Mind you, Saruman used to be the greatest wizard in Middle-Earth, and the Hobbits led to his final defeat. That's two accounts of invasions of the Shire going badly for the invaders.

And that's not even getting into the adventures that Bilbo, Frodo, and his friends got into during the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings respectively. Bilbo was able to save the asses of Thorin's Company multiple times, discovered Smaug's weakpoint and indirectly relayed that to Bard via the Thrush, and risked life and limb to forestall a battle between the Dwarves, Men, and Elves till Bolg showed up. Frodo and Sam were ultimately able to destroy the One Ring, while Merry and Pippin were able to rouse the Ents into attacking Isengard. That's not even counting Merry being partially responsible for the death of the infamous Witch King.

So even though the Hobbits were accustomed to peace, they weren't complacent enough to be pushovers when presented with a threat. Personally, I think part of the reason this is so is because the Hobbits never forgot the basic necessities of a good life: a comfortable home, friends, family, and basically everything needed to live simply. They never indulged too much in luxury to become lax like Smaug, nor constantly scheming to take more power like Sauron or Saruman. They were happy with living simple on the farm.

It turns out, that's what gave them their edge. They were down to earth, so they had a good sense of morality thanks to living humble lives. Safeguarding their farms from wild animals meant that some Hobbits could recognize a threat when they realized it. And their sense of community and friendship got them through some of their hardest trials, like when Frodo almost succumbed to the Ring and Sam never gave up on him. Their sense of community and toughing it out through the hardest times such as during the Long Winter when Gandalf began to really warm up to the Hobbits, seeing the value and courage in them.

So while they're not the flashiest or most "badass" of Middle-Earth's free peoples, the Hobbits are some of the hardiest and "purest" races. And how ironically, peace never dulled their senses but served to toughen them up for the dark times ahead.

[sageandscorpiongrass]

hello! for some reason, the thought of asking about web weaving prompts completely escaped me until now. you're the first I am asking! hello!!!

I don't see this sort of web weaving subject around, so is it possible to make one about an abandoned AI? (the fictional, sapient kind, not the ones irl lol)

like an AI, with a sapient mind, just..... alone. lost between the lines of code in cyberspace, wishing for someone like them to destroy their isolation

How can you mourn for something not living?

I hope this fills the prompt well! It was very interesting to do. I'm sorry it took so long! ;^^

Subtitle, Weldon Kees | Can't Help Myself, Oliver Rain | Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, MARINA | If I Were Paul, Mark Jarman | Robot Apocalypses, Beatrice Bywater | One More Love Poem, Dunya Mikhail | Just Take My Wallet, Jack Stauber | Machine, John Ciardi | There Is Absolutely Nothing Lonelier, Matthew Rohrer | Conjure, Rachel Blau DuPlessis | More than whispers, less than rumors, Bob Hicok | The Day the Saucers Came, Neil Gaiman | The Birds Outside My Window Sing During a Pandemic, Lee Herrick | End Poem, Julian Gough | 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke & Stanley Kubrick

[text transcription and image ID in alt text]

[chic-beyond-the-wall]

Rings from the Crownlands

[princesssarisa]

Snow White illustrations by Lynn Bywaters, from A Treasury of Children's Literature.

@ariel-seagull-wings

[shiremenace]

I am excited for tales of the shire because whenever I cook on lotro I'm always like "I wish there was more to this" and it looks like it's gonna deliver exactly what I want

[rainwingmarvel7]

Alistair Dormaire x Nathaleya Bywater, who is a fairly new GOT Oc so she unfortunately doens‘t have a post and lore up yet - but I can tell you she is bookish, polite and maybe a bit melancholic at times. She is stuck in a rather loveless marriage & knows quite a lot about the history of Westeros.

Oh Nathaelya is absolutely lovely! Thanks so much for the ask! I absolutely loved thinking up what these two would be like.

I think Alistair and Nathaelya would be such a wholesome couple honestly. As bold and brash as Alistair can be at times, he is also a very gentle and compassionate person, especially towards the ones that he loves.

Alistair would do whatever he could to rescue her from her current marriage, but he would also be content just to be her lover because all that matters is that they have each other. Their love would be enough for him.

He could sit and listen to her talk about books history for hours, but he’s also content to sit in comfortable silence, keeping her company as she reads. He would comfort her in her melancholy and offer her any support that she would desire.

He would love her with his entire being, and she would be her world. He would do anything to protect her.

I think that they’d be a very soft, loving couple, and I actually love them so much.

[coleheinous]

FINALLY got around to drawing my AU inquisitor Minerva

I'm so happy with how she looks now

I have her whole story written up in her artfight profile

[viridiansunset]

New Orleans

Source

[judeinthestars]

New sapphic book review: Bloodline by Jenn Alexander, narrated by Quinn Riley