#children of the valar

[atane-is-here]

@ainurweek

Balrogs - Kosomoth

Kosomoth, also called Gothmog, was the captain of Balrogs, son of Melkor and heir to his throne. In the beginning, his father favored him greatly. But as Melkor became more deranged, he started to forget the adoration he once held for his son. Ever since the return of Melkor to middle earth Kosomoth has tried to win back that attention. Whether it be by rescuing his father from Ungoliant or slaying Feanor, his enemy. He could never truly break through to him. He saw Gondolin as his next chance. With the information that was extracted from his prisoner, victory was guaranteed. He planned to return to his fathers fortress in glory. And victorious they were with the hidden Kingdom completely destroyed. And on his dark throne, Morgoth was glad. Already sinking into thoughts of his next plot, he missed a crucial detail about this latest success. His captain never returned to Angband.

[an-eldritch-peredhel]

The thing that draws me most to this fandom, and the things that makes it unique, is that by the mere nature of the works we love, everyone's Arda is different. And not just in the usual headcanon-y ways that are typical of every story, but even down to important plot and characterization points.

Who is Gil-Galad? What is the Oath and what does it have power to do? What really is the Dagor Dagorath? How do the Laws Of The Universe work?

And beyond that- what parts of HoME do you pick and choose? LaCE? Does anyone try and work with Tolkien's horrendous math? Have you taken parts of your Arda from older or other worlds, with the Cottage of Lost Play and the exile of the Gnomes?

Have you given names to the wives and daughters? What do they mean- who are they? Mother-names or father-names for those who only had one?

I just really love how even when two interpretations of the same world seem utterly incompatible, they aren't. I'd love to see other additions/headcanons!

[edennill]

Bad Tolkien takes I've encountered:

That it's overkill for the Valar to enforce one rule - don't threaten to kill people.

That Thingol is being racist when he discourages his 17 year old ward from solo guerilla warfare.

There are many others, usually worse, but those are the two that I feel like tackling at the moment, haha.

[shrikeseams]

When you idly think about Celegorm possibly being most like Nerdanel of all the sons of Feanor, and then you start thinking about Nerdanel getting a post-Darkening moral decay arc all of her own to mirror her son(s)'s.

[quixoticanarchy]

I do feel bad for Amandil like he did try to do everything right. he even tries the Eärendil method of sailing west to beg for help but apparently that was a one-time-only deal. the Valar and Eru often seem less quick to reward loyalty than punish transgression, it seems like, especially with Númenor. I did forget that it's implied it's possible Amandil did make it and get to give his plea, and possibly Manwë's mercy is that Elendil&co survive the drowning of Númenor. which is nice, I'm sure 15 million other people would have appreciated that mercy being shared a bit, but Eärendil sure got more for his money, didn't he. Amandil even tries to walk the line of still being loyal to the king even when the king is patently off the deep end of tyranny (bc being a 'rebel' would be a bridge too far I guess? even though it's very justified?) perhaps treason would've been worth a try after all but idk that's just me

[victorie552]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[thelien-art]

Estë is bestë

(I know you already drew them,

but I needed to say it)

Bestë♡♡♡

Y´all really love her?? Honestly, she´s a fav for me too

[legolasofmirkwoodforest]

POV: You’re Irmo watching your garden be overrun by a three hobbits, several elves, a dwarf, and Aulë who follows that dwarf around everywhere.

[beyond-far-horizons]

Trying to relax yourself by listening to Tolkien videos while you do a difficult household task, but the video is about the Children of Húrin and it’s Fall of Nargothrond time!

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

"THEN AULË TOOK UP A GREAT HAMMER TO SMITE THE DWARVES; AND HE WEPT."

PIC INFO: Resolution at 924x1399 -- Spotlight on a Tolkien Legendarium piece titled "Aulë Prepares to Destroy his Children," a.k.a., the Dwarves of Middle-earth, artwork by Ted Nasmith. Media: Gouache on illustration board

First appeared in the new illustrated edition of "The Silmarillion," published by HarperCollins in 2004.

"I offer to thee these things, the work of the hands which thou hast made. Do with them what thou wilt. But should I not rather destroy the work of my presumption?" Then Aulë took up a great hammer to smite the Dwarves; and he wept. But Ilúvatar had compassion upon Aulë and his desire, because of his humility; and the Dwarves shrank from the hammer and wore afraid, and they bowed down their heads and begged for mercy. And the voice of Ilúvatar said to Aulë:

"Thy offer I accepted even as it was made. Dost thou not see that these things have now a life of their own, and speak with their own voices? Else they would not have flinched from thy blow, nor from any command of thy will." Then Aulë cast down his hammer and was glad, and he gave thanks to Ilúvatar, saying:

"May Eru bless my work and amend it!" But Ilúvatar spoke again and said: "Even as I gave being to the thoughts of the Ainur at the beginning of the World, so now I have taken up thy desire and given to it a place therein; but in no other way will I amend thy handiwork, and as thou hast made it, so shall it be..."

-- "THE SILMARILLION," "Quenta Silmarillion," "Of Aulë and Yavanna," written by J.R.R. Tolkien, published in 1977

Sources: https://thetolkien.forum/threads/quote-regarding-aule.20191 & www.tednasmith.com/tolkien/aule-prepares-to-destroy-his-children.

[pearlescentpearl]

tfw you get distracted from writing fic bc your brain wants to wrestle with the implications of Eldamar being outside the protection of the Pelóri

[valardynasty]

Vala Sílfmadrìel

Vala Sílfmadrìel, l'enfant des Valar.

"On l'a nommé enfant des Valar, bien qu'elle ne soit que leur création béni par Erù Iluvatar. Elle possédait en elle un pouvoir semblable à ceux des Valar, bien plus puissants que les Maïar et qui ne répondait qu'à la volonté d'Iluvatar. Détentrice du feu secret et protectrice d'Ea, ce sont là les titres qui la caractérisent. - Athélas"

Création par Intelligence Artificielle.

[colleyuriko]

Some maybe from the more in-depth stories such as "Beren and Lúthien" or "the Children of Húrin".

Honorable mentions, more situational than individual scenes:

Ulmo's plan to save the planet is to get one particular boy to marry one particular princess. Even giving Turgon Tuor's measurements.

Sauron thinking he can kill Huan as a werewolf only for everyone to find out Morgoth already had a bigger, badder hound at the ready and never bothered to tell anyone about it

If other scenes made you chuckle, please let me know in the tags~

[cilil]

☽ 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 - 𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐞·'𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐬 ☾

("The Tale of the Curse of Morgoth and Mandos")*

The Doom of the Noldor and Melkor cursing Húrin's family have always been fascinating and also special cases of Ainur exercising their powers for me. After sharing my thoughts with my good friend @edensrose I realized that there might be more to this than I initially assumed and set out to find better answers and explanations to improve my understanding of the subject and my headcanons.

I'll be providing some quotes and passages from the Silmarillion as well as the Children of Húrin, but the page numbers might be inaccurate due to PDF and version differences.

Feel free to use what I'll be outlining below as background info for your own works (a link to this post and/or a little shout-out would be much appreciated in that case :3).

Do Ainur have the ability to mess with fate itself? The answer is a tentative yes. Some of them seem to have power over fate, however Melkor is the only one (at least among the Valar) who attempts to actively alter it, be it due to him choosing to ignore parts of the Ainulindalë and/or thinking he has more power over the outcome than he actually has. Others like Námo and Manwë choose to be more passive observers/attempt to act according to Eru's will (for more on that see my previous musings about Námo).

Let's talk about Melkor's curse first, as it's the more straightforward one. In the introduction of the Narn (as I'll call it for short from now on) Christopher Tolkien writes the following:

"The curse of such a being, who can claim that ‘the shadow of my purpose lies upon Arda [the Earth], and all that is in it bends slowly and surely to my will’, is unlike the curses or imprecations of beings of far less power. Morgoth is not ‘invoking’ evil or calamity on Húrin and his children, he is not ‘calling on’ a higher power to be the agent: for he, ‘Master of the fates of Arda’ as he named himself to Húrin, intends to bring about the ruin of his enemy by the force of his own gigantic will. Thus he ‘designs’ the future of those whom he hates, and so he says to Húrin: ‘Upon all whom you love my thought shall weigh as a cloud of Doom, and it shall bring them down into darkness and despair.’" "In the tale of Túrin, who named himself Turambar ‘Master of Fate’, the curse of Morgoth seems to be seen as power unleashed to work evil, seeking out its victims [...]" (Narn, p. 12, emphasis mine)

So when Melkor says to Húrin that

"But upon all whom you love my thought shall weigh as a cloud of Doom, and it shall bring them down into darkness and despair. Wherever they go, evil shall arise. Whenever they speak, their words shall bring ill counsel. Whatsoever they do shall turn against them." (Narn, p. 13)

it's not a bluff, he fully intends on causing these things to happen.

Melkor "designing" the fate of specific people has a requirement, however: He needs to have vision of or access to them, if you will. Under normal circumstances this is the case for pretty much everyone in Middle-earth due to Arda being essentially his Ring (for more information on that, have a look at "Morgoth's Ring"). Túrin is briefly shielded from Melkor's influence by the Girdle of Melian:

"Report of the Dragon-helm in the land west of Sirion came swiftly to the ear of Morgoth, and he laughed, for now Túrin was revealed to him again, who had long been lost in the shadows and under the veils of Melian. Yet he began to fear that Túrin would grow to such a power that the curse that he had laid upon him would become void, and he would escape the doom that had been designed for him, or else that he might retreat to Doriath and be lost to his sight again" (Narn, p. 88, emphasis mine)

Additionally, this passage hints that, with enough power, Túrin could free himself from the curse, which implies that some form of power struggle on an individual level between the "curser" and the "cursed" is involved. This could explain why Melkor isn't attempting to curse more powerful individuals like his fellow Ainur or cursing more people in general - it'd require too much of his strength that he's already spending elsewhere.

It can be theorized that Melkor having the power to directly affect others on such a level, especially given how humans aren't bound to Arda and therefore have more freedom in terms of fate, is (at least partly) another result of him dispersing his spiritual power and pouring it into the very fabric of Arda. This is also the reason why his influence is still there even when he himself is no longer around after the First Age and continues to affect incarnates in particular.

Now, what about the Doom of the Noldor? Did Námo curse the Noldor like Melkor cursed Húrin's family, actively using his power to cause bad things to happen, or did he merely prophesize what was going to happen, with the intention to issue a stern warning?

A similarity between the two curses is that they seem to stick to the affected people, follow them and chase them down no matter what they do. Here are a few example passages that highlight this:

"Thus because of the curse that lay upon them the Noldor achieved nothing, while Morgoth hesitated, and the dread of light was new and strong upon the Orcs" (Silmarillion, p. 138)

"And Ulmo warned Turgon that he also lay under the Doom of Mandos, which Ulmo had no power to remove. ‘Thus it may come to pass,’ he said, ‘that the curse of the Noldor shall find thee too ere the end, and treason awake within thy walls. Then they shall be in peril of fire." (Silmarillion, p. 158)

"And because of the curse of the Kinslaying at Alqualondë these lies were often believed; and indeed as the time darkened they had a measure of truth, for the hearts and minds of the Elves of Beleriand became clouded with despair and fear" (Silmarillion, p. 195, emphasis mine)

There are, however, a few key differences which not only highlight that Námo isn't going to the same lengths as Melkor - if he even can or would ever be willing to - but also make it possible to interpret the Doom of the Noldor as more of a prophecy:

Firstly, it's sometimes referred to as a prophecy, for example in the Silmarillion right before the fateful words are uttered.

Secondly, there is no way for anyone to "shield" themselves from Námo's curse, as it affects Thingol in Doriath too as soon as he tells Beren to retrieve a Silmaril.

Thirdly, Námo's passive approach to situations, even being silent during important moments where his knowledge of the future could prevent huge tragedies (for this, again, see my previous post about Námo), is a direct contradiction to Melkor's active designing of other people's futures.

In light of this, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The Doom of the Noldor sticks to them and keeps affecting them negatively until the Valar pardon then, but Námo doesn't exercise some kind of malicious will to actively cause all these horrible events to happen. I think it may be part of Eru's will and an inherent quality of Arda and its fate, woven into the fabric of its reality through the Ainulindalë, that evil acts lead to bad outcomes in the end and to the undoing of the one committing them. Námo once again acts as judge and prophet who tells the Noldor about the consequences of their actions, which leads to the curse being attributed to him and not the other Valar as well, or even Eru.

There's a brief exchange between Námo and Manwë that can shed some more light on this aspect:

"And it was told by the Vanyar who held vigil with the Valar that when the messengers declared to Manwë the answers of Fëanor to his heralds, Manwë wept and bowed his head. But at that last word of Fëanor: that at the least the Noldor should do deeds to live in song for ever, he raised his head, as one that hears a voice far off, and he said: ‘So shall it be! Dear-bought those songs shall be accounted, and yet shall be well-bought. For the price could be no other. Thus even as Eru spoke to us shall beauty not before conceived be brought into Eä, and evil yet be good to have been.’ But Mandos said: ‘And yet remain evil. To me shall Fëanor come soon.’" (Silmarillion, p. 124, emphasis mine)

Manwë is likely referencing Eru's words to Melkor:

"And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined" (Silmarillion, p. 28)

The voice far off Manwë is hearing could be Eru communicating with him, making his will and intentions clear. As cold, tone-deaf or even ridiculous Manwë's statement of "oh, it will turn out good in the end" sounds to us in the situation he finds himself in at that time, he ends up being correct in some ways: The sequence of events causes some of the greatest stories and most heroic deeds in the history of Arda to happen as well as leading to Melkor being defeated.

To summarize: Melkor's and Námo's curses differ mostly due to the different approaches of the Vala in question, with Melkor actively seeking to enforce his malicious will while Námo is usually a passive observer whose goal isn't to influence people or change the outcome. Personally, I think Námo could curse people like Melkor did - and perhaps his curse had some kind of element to it that negatively affected the Noldor in addition to the consequences of their actions - but he doesn't consider it his place to do so.

*"Narn e·'Rach Morgoth" was an alternative title Tolkien proposed for "The Children of Húrin"

[wethecelestial]

just saw someone point out how weird it is that the statue of the elf and the dog in lindon in trop (who i assumed was luthien bc like...who else) has a star of feanor on its chest

which like. i mean obviously the star is there bc somebody just didn't think this through beyond "oh this looks cool." BUT i think it is very funny to imagine that in the trop parallel universe, instead of becoming cautionary tales about hubris and ghost stories that parents use to scare their children into behaving, the feanorians have just become like. completely divorced from their political and historical motivations and the devastating consequences of their actions on people's actual lives and are instead now just like: Thee Fashionable Aesthetic. fashion designers sticking an eight-pointed star on everything to show that they're EDGY and PROVOCATIVE and NOT LIKE OTHER ELVES. showing up to elf school with the star of feanor on your shirt is the equivalent of that one kid in high school who always wore a che guevara shirt to class and told your teacher that they didn't do the homework because They Aren't Gonna Be Part Of The System, Man,