#its also the same star from part of gil galad's heraldry!

[sesamenom]

et tu, tyelpe?

[gi-nathlam-hi]

do you have any particular headcanon about elrond's cloak? it's so worn there are holes in it so obviously it has history and significance and I hope we'll get to know it in the show. and that pin - is it supposed to look like feanor's star?? I'm not sure how to feel about it if it is. I mean I get that elrond's fond of his kidnapper dads but still. or maybe it's earendil? like on that tapestry in lindon? I like that option better:)

HI HELLO

sorry it took me so long to get to this one! I assume we're talking about the teal/blue cloak which I have a lot of thoughts about. Thank you for giving me an excuse to ramble.

The production have all been very clear that they've hidden allusions to Elrond's heritage pretty much everywhere in his costuming, so I've spent a lot of time picking it apart and thinking about it. As far as his blue cloak goes I've seen the headcannon that it's either originally from numenor or possibly even used to belong to Elros, and while I like that idea for the Feels(tm) I don't think it holds up due to the fact that in this scene below, it seems to be a shared item among Gil-Galad's entourage.

The Cloak:

the cloaks the others are wearing aren't an exact match and seem significantly newer, so it's not guaranteed they're related (and may just be there for the scene's color palette), but considering how much work this show has put into the costuming across the board I don't think its insignificant that the fabric seems to be the exact same. Elrond kind of seems to almost be wearing his inside-out though? Anyway this leads me to think that it may simply be a signal of a specific function in Gil-Galad's court. I think these women may be pursuivants, which is the court position directly under herald. The position has a similar set of duties (cataloguing genealogies & lore, running diplomatic messages, issuing warrents, attending personally to the king, etc. etc.) but they just aren't as highly ranked.

That isn't a particularly exciting answer but it does offer an interesting clue as to how long Elrond has been a member of Gil-Galad's court/how old he might be. This hasn't been specifically mentioned yet but considering his "work cloak" seems old and worn we can infer he isn't brand new to his position of herald (further supported by how familiar he is with Gil-Galad/confident in asking for favors. They seem to know each other very well on a personal level and have rapport, even if Gil is being a cranky this season).

Being a kidnap fam enthusiast there is a lot of fun to be had with the fact that there is a giant Feanorian star on the back, which I personally like to imagine is a jab at everyone who might have qualms about Elrond's background. A big ol: "deal with it! I was kidnapped and fostered by Feanorians and NO that does not make me a traitor but also they are part of me & raised me & I don't hate them sorryyyy. However I am in fact very loyal to the king thank you very much and have no kinslaying urges" -- and also an interesting distancer from Earendil. HOWEVER the cirth on the cloak seems to read "Earendillion" so...

(which again, leads to fun headcannons about how much of this specific clothing item has the potential to be Elrond going 'yeah, I have a very messy and mixed background and I accept all parts of myself. deal with it' ... but that may just be wishful thinking on my part).

Everyone's been pretty up in arms about the usage of "Feanorian" stars across the costuming, but I've been examining Elvish heraldry recently and to be quite honest I don't think it's a Feanorian star specifically. It does look UNCANNILY like what all of us, as a fandom, have collectively decided Feanorian heraldry looks like, but despite what collective Silm fanon would have us believe, Feanor doesn't have a monopoly on the usage of eight pointed stars, and actually Feanor's heraldry looks like this:

sure, it's an eight pointed lozenge technically, but it looks nothing like the symbol the show is using -- and again, eight pointed stars are everywhere among the ruling noldorin houses because in Tolkien's heraldry 6-8 pointed stars simply signify royalty.

I wondered if maybe it's Earendil's sigil all over everywhere, but Earendil has a six pointed star, not an eight pointed star. So that rules out Earendil's heraldry.

Upon further digging the symbol the show's been using nearly universally looks a LOT more like Finarfin's sigil:

Which I find especially interesting considering Elrond wears it and Elros seems to have adopted it EVERYWHERE. Elros and Elrond are descended from the line of Fingolfin (via Turgon on Earendil's side), not Feanor or Finarfin, however the show has made a pretty big deal about their showcanon (headcannon????) of just how close Elrond and Galadriel are and how maternal she is toward him (to the point of possibly even raising him and Elros for a portion of their childhood depending on where you interpret the "beach event" to have happened in the timeline) so I'm wondering if this perhaps is another way to signal just how deep that affection and loyalty runs. That seems most likely to me.

The Pin:

The pin is another puzzle as it didn't seem to match with any of the major shapes. The four-point is unusual. Again, upon further digging, the only heraldry that uses a four pointed star with that really long tail is Gil-Galad's.

So my guess is that the cloak designates that he's in service to Gil-Galad as a member of the heraldric "division" for lack of a better term, and the pin is a sign of status of being in direct service to Gil-Galad as chief herald-at-arms.

Thank you for the ask!