#melkor's dating problems

[cilil]

I think Melkor's dating problems mostly boil down to him getting the order of operations wrong due to his impatience.

He proposed to Varda before they were even dating

He told Arien that he's chosen her as his spouse before even properly introducing himself to her (thought he could short-cut the process by removing the part where he asks for permission...)

He informed Lúthien about Valinorean orgies sex crimes and slavery instead of flirting

He wanted to get his hands all over Fëanor's crown jewels before Fëanor even agreed to be in his presence

This also explains why Mairon out of all people fell for it. Melkor totally started out with promising him power and other cool stuff and Mairon is the kind of person to talk business first, before accepting various compliments about his beautiful fána, charming intelligence and general admirability

[last-capy-hupping]

I thought that I’d make a post with random trivia details for my modern Silmarillion AU, Anywhere With You, which focuses on Russingon. Feel free to ask for more, and I’ll answer it as long as it doesn’t contain spoilers.

Warnings: some vague discussions of Maedhros’ relationship with Melkor, which was abusive, and some non-graphic discussion of various characters’ sex lives.

1) Fingon claims to be 5’10”, but he’s more like 5’8.5”. Maedhros is six and a half feet tall and can’t tell the difference.

2) Fingon, Turgon, Aredhel, and Argon are all major sporty kids. Fingon plays soccer, though now only as part of a club, and enjoys running and rock climbing. Turgon played football up until he got into the masters section of his accelerated bachelors/masters program in architecture. This allowed Fingon to finally become buffer than his brother. Fingon is not at all smug about this. Aredhel plays softball and volleyball and loves going rock climbing with Fingon. Argon plays high school basketball and has already made the varsity team, even though he’s only a sophomore. He’s already close to Turgon’s height, and he will be taller. All of the Fingolfinions can ride horses and shoot (guns and bows).

3) Quenya is basically this verse’s version of Irish. Fingon is the Americanized name for the semi-legendary St. Findekáno Astaldo, this world’s version of St. Patrick. Fingon’s birthday is March 17, 1999. Even though the lines of Míriel and Indis are completely desperate in this verse, Fëanor, Fingolfin, Finarfin, and Nerdanel are all basically Irish. Anairë is Ghanaian, and Ëarwen is Greek/Cyrpiot.

4) All of Fëanor’s sons have their Quenya names as their middle names, while Nerdanel gave them Sindarized first names. She deliberately combined “Maitimo” and “Russandol” for her first son’s name because he was the prettiest baby she’d ever, and she totally wasn’t biased.

5) Maedhros (b. May 1, 1995) was an extremely well behaved toddler who was very good at self-soothing. He loved being read to, memorized a few children’s books before he was able to read, and used to build elaborate block towers. He loved being a big brother from the start and only tried to return Maglor to the baby delivery place once, after Maglor lost his copy of Goodnight Moon (his favorite book) and destroyed his block formation, a replica of the semi-legendary city of Tirion. Maedhros immediately regretted this and climbed into Maglor’s crib to apologize to him. There is video of this. For a solid three years, Maedhros believed that baby Celegorm was his punishment for not appreciating Maglor enough. Maedhros had an awkward, gangly teenage phase that swimming helped him overcome. His high school team encouraged him and other swimmers to push their bodies to the limits of endurance (getting out of the pool to puke was not an uncommon occurrence during practice), which explains his running habits. His best stroke was the butterfly, which he can no longer do properly due to his rotator cuff injury. He’s had two surgeries to correct some of the damage done by Melkor and to keep it from dislocating easily.

6) Maglor (b. 1997) was very handsome from the time he was a teen and never had acne problems, but he was also a short, skinny band geek. This is why he didn’t believe that Malthenes, his tall, beautiful blonde classmate with a teen modeling contact, was into him. Maedhros had to convince him that Malthenes was serious and drive him to the date. Maglor was a child piano and violin prodigy, and Fëanor encouraged this until it became clear that Maglor wanted to be a professional musician instead of a lawyer. (Fëanor would have also allowed him to become a doctor, but Maglor was always a squeamish boy.) Fëanor blames Malthenes for this because he knows that he raised Maglor to be more reasonable and responsible. Maglor is shorter than his girlfriend/fiancée and thinks that that’s super hot. Malthenes is 5’9” and suspiciously slightly taller than Fingon.

7) Celegorm (b. 1999) was an extremely rowdy, energetic child who broke everything in sight, especially Maglor’s things. He used to smash Nerdanel’s work when he got his hands on it. At the age of two, he gave six-year-old brother Maedhros a permanent hairline scar when he smashed a clay pot over his head. Maedhros made the mistake of trying to take it away from him. The injury required eight stitches, and Celegorm was extremely proud and kept bragging to the hospital staff. (No babysitters were available, so Fëanor and Nerdanel had to drag all four of their kids to the ER.) Celegorm grew up into a rowdy teen who only avoided expulsion by ensuring his high school football team’s continued success. (Maedhros still had to attend some meetings on his parents’ behalf while he was in college and Celegorm was a high school junior/senior.) Celegorm switched to rugby in college because it had more booze and more queerness. He is proudly bisexual and aromantic. He also got his wolfhound Huan from his grizzled elderly mentor (aka Oromë) at the local shooting range in Formenos, Maine. Fëanor is shocked/pleased that Celegorm got a real job, but he’s embarrassed that his son lives in “government housing,” i.e. a park ranger’s house in the national forest outside Alqualondë where he works.

8) Caranthir (b. 2001) is a mathematical prodigy who graduated high school two years early, the same year as Celegorm. He also completed college in two and a half years. He recently got his CPA. He enjoys investing, and frequently tries to influence Maedhros’ investment decisions regarding his own trust fund from their grandfather Finwë. Caranthir is also Angrod’s ex boyfriend. According to Angrod, Caranthir has the best ass that he’s ever seen (“you could serve coffee off of that thing”), and that’s totally the only reason that he’s upset that Caranthir abruptly dumped him over text messages, Finrod. Caranthir is currently dating Haleth. He fell in love with her at first sight at the gym and decided that he had to break up with Angrod immediately and pursue this gorgeous female body builder, who (to Angrod’s despair) has better biceps than anyone Caranthir has ever dated. Caranthir is absolutely devoted to his girlfriend and she to him. He is also her 24/7 sub, which is why he proudly wears the leather collar that she gave him along with his fancy suits. Caranthir is the only son whom Fëanor will not randomly visit because the last time that he dropped by unannounced, Caranthir answered the door wearing the collar and nothing else. He’s very anxious and finicky and carries around a fidget cube. He also helped Curufin uncover Melkor’s tax crimes and blackmail him into leaving the country so that Maedhros would it have to testify against an ex at an abuse/sa trial.

9) Curufin (b. 2004) is also a genius and started taking community college courses early. He is currently looking into the most prestigious college programs available. Fëanor was so impressed with his son’s affinity for computers and coding that he pulled him out of school to homeschool him personally, based on a special curriculum that he designed. He has never dated because he’s too busy, but he’ll probably got out with his father’s business partner’s daughter at some point because Fëanor thinks that they’d be a good match and Fëanor knows him best. He is a very skilled hacker and got into Melkor’s device to steal back all digital copies of sensitive media that Melkor was using to blackmail Maedhros into staying.

10) Amras and Amrod (February 2009) are twins. Amrod is shy and Amras is outgoing, but they support each other in everything. They are particularly devoted to Maedhros, who served as a sort of third parent to them while Fëanor and Nerdanel went through a divorce when they were toddlers. Amrod was scared of storms and loud noises and used to sleep in Maedhros’ bed for “safety” as a child. Amras and Amrod have a twin language, and Maedhros is the only one who knows some of it. Both twins are major fish, amphibian, and reptile enthusiasts, and Fëanor has allowed them to have their own massive aquarium as well as a reptile room. They’ve been promised an iguana as their Winter Solstice present from their father.

11) Fëanor is a brilliant, charismatic local real estate developer and builder from Formenos, Maine who followed in his wealthy father Finwë’s footsteps and became mayor of the small city. He is the only child of Finwë and Míriel, both of whom are still alive and married in this universe. He is so beloved that the citizens voted to abolish term limits so that he could keep running for mayor. Fëanor also owns a local lake resort, as well as a ski resort in the northernmost parts of the Pélori Mountains (my version of the Appalachian Mountains). He also makes jewelry as a side hobby. He and Melkor, a estate developer and a successful political from the neighboring town of Avathar, got into an intense rivalry when Melkor attempted to bankrupt him and buy out his businesses and lands.

12) Nerdanel is a world-renowned sculptress and the only child of the independently wealthy Mahtan. She and Fëanor bonded over their shared ambition and passion for crafts. They married straight out of college and had Maedhros a year later. Nerdanel loves her sons dearly but grew tired of putting up with her husband’s neuroses. She divorced him and moved to Tirion, New York (named after the semi-legendary ancient city) when the citizens of Formenos almost universally sided with their beloved mayor.

13) Fingolfin is the older son of Indis and Ingwion, who are not cousins in this verse. He inherited his parents’ love of fine wines and the Northern California countryside. He and his wife Anairë bonded over their shared love of art and wine and managed to secure investors to buy and start a vineyard in Valmar. They’re currently very wealthy and successful, and they have enough money to give all of their children generous allowances. They’re extremely indulgent and supportive parents who are so happy to have such happy, good-looking, athletic, and academically successful children. They didn’t openly push traditional gender roles on their kids, but they always rewarded and praised their sons for being tough, resilient, and generally traditionally masculine. Also, they never made their kids so much in the way of chores.

14) Fingon was the happiest, friendliest baby ever, and well-meaning but clueless adults often made jokes about him flirting and being budding ladies’ man. He was also an extremely friendly, easygoing; and popular kid from elementary school until basically the start of the fic. He was really smart and never had to work too hard for good grades and academic success. He did well in college and generally got away with partying and procrastinating because he works well under the pressure of impending deadlines. He is also a bit of a fuckboy.

15) Finrod is bisexual, though he’s more likely to be attracted to men than women, and homoromantic. He’s in a very happy QPR with Amarië, who is in the same boat. He’s a very happy writer and budding journalist, who also makes good ad revenue off of his anonymous online blog, where he discuses and opines upon the relationship dramas of his friends and family. His most popular series deals with Andreth and Aegnor, though his cousin Fingon’s stories are forming the basis of a series that’s garnering loads of interest already.

16) Angrod is totally over Caranthir, Finrod!

17) Aegnor is in a high drama, constantly on-again/off-again relationship with Andreth. He’s scared of going out of the honeymoon stage and stupidly keeps breaking up with Andreth, even though he loves her. Andreth keeps taking him back because she loves him and he’s gorgeous and goes down like a champ.

Anyway, if you’ve got other questions, feel free to ask and I’ll answer.

[ospreyeamon]

the shape of arda

I've always had trouble deciding whether I prefer the cosmology as explained in The Silmarillion or one closer to the version in 'Myths Transformed' Tolkien began working on where Arda is always round and the sun and moon pre-date the Trees. On one hand I do like the idea of a world of eternal night and the first humans waking in the light of the first sunrise to hold it in adoration afterwards. But on the other hand there are things that annoy me about it, like how changing the shape of the world didn't destroy massive swaths of it in tectonic disasters, where the extra sea and land needed to cover the gaps came from, and that the sun first rises from the west.

O how I hate the idea of the sun rising in the west. The insistence that Aman is the ultimate source of all light and civilisation, flowing through the Eldar and Númenorians who have been uplifted by the Valar making them superior to all who refused it or never had it offered to them at all, is incredibly obnoxious.

While 'Myths Transformed' can be taken as proof of in-universe knowledge of planetary roundness, that does leave the question of how the mythic flat world came to be recorded by people you would expect to know better; the Ñoldor received teaching from the Valar who surely must have been aware of the shape of the world if they created it. However, I do have an idea about how it could have happened…

🎇🎆

Valar: Well done team – one circular world and it is absolutely perfect.

Melkor: What a stupid shape for a planet. I think *smash* that this *crash* will be a much better one!

Valar: ...let's try again somewhere else and pretend this never happened. If we refuse to accept the Marring of Arda and keep hope things will get better maybe the problem will magically fix itself through the power of positive thinking.

🌳🌴

Manwë: *to the elves* ...and all the layers of the Airs stretch as far as the Encircling Sea. They touch the Walls of the World, beyond which lies the Void where my beloved Varda’s stars shine.

Ulmo: Don't you think you should mention that this is only true for Aman and that Arda is round? And just because the sun and moon didn't turn out quite the way we hoped that doesn't mean we should encourage the elves to forget about them entirely.

Manwë: I think that the fact Arda should be flat is more important. The sun and the moon are old news; the Trees are much better. Just look at the way the light drips – Yavanna really out did herself with them.

1️⃣

Fingolfin's Host: It was amazing how the sun appeared just as we arrived in Middle-earth. Definitely an omen of the coming of good things.

Fëanor's Host: Actually, it was already day over here. You just didn't see the sunlight before you passed the end of the dimensional verge at the edge of the Hel... carax...

Fingolfin's Host: *glaring intensifies*

1️⃣

Ñoldor: Your ancestors must have decided to journey to Beleriand because at their awakening they saw the sun rising from the west and loved it as we love the stars.

Humans: Actually, according to our people’s lore the sun has always risen in the east and set in the west. The first elves we met – we have mentioned them before; they live beyond the mountains and don't have glowing eyes which is why we didn't realise you were related to them at first – told us that their kin had gone into the west to dwell in a land without famine or sickness where the dead can return to life. We thought that sounded like a really nice place to live.

Ñoldor: Let us explain to you why your traditions are silly and wrong.

2️⃣

Faithful: How could anyone doubt that the cosmology taught to us by the elves is correct? They were gifted the knowledge by the Valar themselves.

King's Men: A bunch of people circumnavigated the world by sailing across the Eastern Sea until they emerged from the Sundering Sea. They brought some weird birds they violently appropriated from a distant continent back with them.

Faithful: Clearly this is a conspiracy to trick us into breaking the Ban of the Valar so doom will fall upon us.

3️⃣

Third Age Scholar: It's strange how all these ancient texts describe the world as a disc even though we know it to be spherical. Perhaps the nature of Arda was changed during one of those continent-destroying cataclysms.

[thescrapwitch]

🌀🌪☔️

Thank you for the ask!

🌀Post the fic summary for a fic you haven't written/published yet. It can be hypothetical or something you really plan on releasing.

No title yet, but I’ve labeled this as: “The most dysfunctional couple gets therapy via time travel”

Celebrimbor and Annatar both get sent back to Nargothrond, with Celebrimbor waking up inside his past self and Annatar waking up just outside the city. Both decide to take advantage of this situation: Annatar to free himself from Morgoth’s service (because his boss failed last time so why be shackled to such failure again) and Celebrimbor to try and save what family he can. Neither of them can tell anyone about the future, and, more importantly, neither of them realizes that the other person has ALSO been sent back in time. What follows includes: terrible decisions, flirting despite the warning signs, Curufin accidentally encouraging his son to date his murderer, and a nice sprinkling of angst. Also Beren and Luthien are there, but this story isn’t about them so don’t worry about the plot happening in the background.

🌪️Sum up a WIP with a few fic tropes/Ao3 tags.

For my “The Conditions of Existence” WIP

AU: Canon Divergence - Silvergifting - Angst with a Happy Ending - Hurt/Comfort - Second Chances - author has fun making up how Maia souls work - author learns the basics of blacksmithing just for this fic

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

I have this idea of, sometime maybe in the Fourth Age or so, a crack being found in the Doors of Night. It's much too early for the breaking of the world, so the Valar decide that they need to get some smiths in to fix this before it becomes a problem and Melkor gets loose. So, they enlist Feanor, Curufin, and Celebrimbor to work together to repair it.

Of course, those three have been in the Halls all this time and are still filled with lots of family/personal trauma, so they have to both find a way to fix the Doors of Night but also deal with everything still between them. No idea how that would all play out, but it could be fun to write. Maybe one day?

[absynthe--minded]

so what would the Amazon show have to do to be a good adaptation, in your eyes? since you don’t think condensing the timeline would work, and you both like adaptations that change things AND adaptations that don’t.

that's the question, isn't it?

here's the thing: I think a good adaptation of the Second Age is possible, but I'm very annoyed by the fact that Amazon is choosing to go about it in the way they are. the thing about Tolkien's details is that, frankly? they're necessary. there are a few tiny things that can be changed here and there, but even the relatively mild changes made by the Jackson films created serious problems that don't exist in the books.

every event here is interconnected, and in order to successfully dramatize them and preserve the emotional impact of the story and the scope of its events, you have to relay these events accurately and in the order they occurred in canon. there are not vibes that can be preserved, there are not changes to the plot that must be made to facilitate an easy transition into TV. TV in fact is eminently suited for Tolkien, as it's got time to delve into the politics and the characters and the way their legacies and families interplay. inventing extra things is unnecessary, there's plenty there on the page. removing things, or speeding up the pace, does not work, and it doesn't work because taking out one domino takes out all the others.

I speak from experience here - I had to spend years getting to know the events of the First Age like the back of my hand to write Blessed Hands, I put blood sweat and tears into memorizing dates and timelines and family trees. I have had to do this so that I know exactly what can be cut or altered or combined or moved around, and where the breathing room is. Sure, the Amazon writers haven't had as long as I've had, but they have had since the mid-2010s to develop their work, and unlike me they were getting paid to do it.

but, putting one's money where one's mouth is, etc, here's my off-the-top-of-my-head bullet point list for a five-season Second Age series. there are in fact some changes here, but my goal is to preserve as much of the story as possible.

first season is establishing the world and the characters. the plot is about the Gwaith-i-Mírdain and how they're panicking about entropy and decay and they want to stop it. Númenor exists in the background, on the periphery, but the real drama is politics with Galadriel and Gil-galad (Fëanárian vs Nolofinwëan vs Arafinwëan inter-House rivalry REPRESENT) and the friendship between Celebrimbor and the Dwarves. Elrond, Ereinion, Celeborn, Galadriel, etc. all make their first appearances here. last shot of the season: Annatar makes his entrance in Eregion.

second season is the Ringmaking. no TV show is ever going to do Silvergifting justice so just keep it heavily coded and implied but not explicit. more political drama, more relationship drama. midseason break is Sauron's reveal, second half of the second season includes the fall of Ost-in-Edhil and Celebrimbor dying

third season is the War of the Elves and Sauron, including an appeal to Númenor for help. we get a whole arc of Galadriel-Celeborn-Ereinion-Elrond fighting Sauron, ending with Númenor coming in clutch to kick Sauron's fucking ass. season ends with Sauron being taken back to Númenor as a prisoner.

fourth season is the beginning of the fall of Númenor. really delving into the Faithful-King's Men split, fleshing out the colonialist nature of the empire, showcasing Sauron's growing influence on the court. Focus on Tar-Míriel and Elendil as protagonists who are ultimately helpless. season finale: Sauron convinces Pharazôn to build a temple to Melkor

fifth season starts after a time skip. the temple is done and the human sacrifices are rolling in. this is a political thriller about the survival of the Faithful and the downfall of the island that ends with the attack on Valinor and the drowning of Númenor and the escape of Elendil's ships. the last shot of the series is Elendil's "Out of the Great Sea to Middle-Earth am I come..."

it's not perfect, and I don't actually want it. but if I were to be in charge of development, that's what I'd do, that's what I have, and I'm some idiot with a computer and too much time on her hands.

[child-of-hurin]

you have good Silm opinions, can I ask you a question - why do you think Ingwe didn't intervene in the rebellion of the Noldor and the flight of Feanor after the breaking of the trees? there's no indication that he was corrupted by Melkor or anything - did the Vanya essentially just peace out of the noldor drama? I mean I doubt Feanor would have listened but Ingwe is supposed to be high king of all the eleves, right

Aw, glad you think so 😁

Granted Ingwë and the Vanyar are not my specialty, but I’ll tell you my thoughts & hope they’re not too obvious:

A more personal perspective: If by Noldor drama you mean the unrest of the Noldor created by Melkor, that’s interesting to think about because Indis is close kin to Ingwë (Silm leaves the exact relation vague so I’m going with that), and headcanons here are free on how much he cared and how much Indis shared -- did she try to minimize the problems she was having, did she write openly about the gossip and growing tension between her sons and Feanor?

One thing that ALWAYS catches my attention is that, while there’s a tendency in a huge part of the fandom to portray Feanor as the one who would bear stigmas similar to bastardhood or any type of illegitimacy, the narration of the Silm, on the contrary, only sees it important to defend the existence and legitimacy of Indis’s children, making it explicit that THAT is what is put to question:

In those unhappy things which later came to pass, and in which Fëanor was the leader, many saw the effect of this breach within the house of Finwë, judging that if Finwë had endured his loss and been content with the fathering of his mighty son, the courses of Fëanor would have been otherwise, and great evil might have been prevented; for the sorrow and the strife in the house of Finwë is graven in the memory of the Noldorin Elves. But the children of Indis were great and glorious, and their children also; and if they had not lived the history of the Eldar would have been diminished.

So depending on how involved you want Ingwe to be with Indis AND with the matters of the Eldar in general, he might have been super up to date on the gossip, or, on the contrary, too involved with the Valar to be here emotionally. (It hadn’t occurred to me to think of this before you asked, but now that I do, I think it’s the same characterization dilemma I always have with Beor the Old, in terms of like, how involved I want him to be with his own kin and political duties once he goes to Nargothrond...). Like, maybe he cared a lot, but felt like it was not his place to actually do anything or bypass Indis and go talk to Finwë directly -- it’s Indis life. Or maybe it legit didn’t occur to him. But anyway, Finwë eventually leaves Indis to go to Formenos...

And like, maybe other Vanyar did interfere with their own Noldo friends? We know plenty of Noldor didn’t join the exiled and preferred rather to stay in Valinor. Maybe some of those had Vanyar friends to vent to when the drama got too much...

A more political perspective: After the Unrest/drama, from the moment Finwë dies and Feanor becomes king to the moment that he leads the Noldor into exile, that all happens very fast. And, at any rate, this whole thing is an issue between Fëanor and the Valar, and they are in Valinor, and Ingwë’s authority comes from the Valar, so even if theoretically his authority makes him a middleman between the High King of the Noldor and the Valar, there really is not reason or even opportunity for him to interfere.

I think that we (including myself) tend to have a very legalist view of things, but ultimately these ranks and titles and really just ranks and titles. Fingon claims High Kingship of the Noldor and Orodreth basically tells him to get fucked. Thingol claims High Kingship of Beleriand and the Noldor basically fart on his face as much as diplomacy allows. This happens because neither Fingon nor Thingol, in those circumstances, have the means to assert the authority they claim to have a right to. 

So like, Ingwë is High King of Elves, but what does that mean? And how interested is he in asserting that authority, under which circumstances? The real answer, if I recall correctly, is Never. We can assume that the chief commander of Valinorean Elves during the War of Wrath was supposed to be a Vanya, but Ingwë sends his son Ingwion in his place, and it’s anyone’s guess who the real authority in field was. It has always been my headcanon that Finarfin, who has actually seen death and the aftermath of war, is the de-fact commander -- just like the Silm makes it implicit that Maedhros was the chief commander in what later became known as the Unnumbered Tears. 

So I think it makes a lot of sense that we don’t hear about Ingwë doing anything after the unrest: it’s got nothing to do with him directly; his liege lords are already taking care of it; and, even if he were suuuuper invested, it takes place and is ‘resolved’ way too fast for him to pitch in (by resolved I mean, once the Valar make their ruling and Feanor & co take exile, there’s nothing really he can do. Like even if he thought the ruling for exile was too harsh, Feanor has already chosen it & had never any desire to stay anyway? So like. What do.)

So yeah I do think the Vanyar “peace out” of Noldorin drama but also like, I don’t think they were involved in the first place! And while Ingwë’s motivations, characterization and relationship to his own authority as King of All Eldar is really up to anyone’s headcanons, I don’t think he had the time or opportunity to make use of his authority anyway. What do you think, does this make sense? 😁

[imakemywings]

2021 Fic Roundup

Nobody tagged me but I like this meme as a way to reflect on what I’ve worked on over the year (it’s usually more than I thought it was!). So here we go, in order of date written, fics written in 2021:

Published Word Count for 2021: 142,838

There were some fics I published or re-published on AO3 that weren’t written this year, and I left those out of the count.

New things I tried this year:

I started writing for the Tolkien fandom this year! I got back into The Hobbit over the summer, which led me to reading The Silmarillion for the first time, and you can see a definite trend change at that point 😂

Fic I spent the most time on:

Probably In the Glittering Halls of King Felagund ? Surprise Developments is a squidge longer, but I pumped that fic out in a few days and didn’t do much editing on, whereas I spent a lot more time combing over Glittering Halls because I was more concerned about the overall quality. Possibly The Jewel Out of Reach is Ever the Fairest though, because I did also spend a lot of time re-reading that one before publishing.

Fic I spent the least time on:

Respite. It was just a short little scene I couldn’t get out of my head.

Favorite thing(s) I wrote:

Travelers on the Long Road (Hawke & Merrill & Solas, G, 2k)

First Ruins of the Noldor (Anaire & House of Finwe, T, 9k)

In the Glittering Halls of King Felagund (Finrod/Thranduil, M, 16k)

Transcript of Divorce Proceedings: Mairon v. Melkor (Angbang, T, 6k)

Of Nerdanel (Nerdanel, G, 3.5k)

Favorite thing(s) I read:

I’m actually putting a list together of recent recs, but for fics read so far here’s are a few favs in order of fandom (Tolkien --> Mass Effect --> Dragon Age):

1. Speak, Friend, and Enter (Celenarvi, E) - Such a sweet and adorable fic. Both Narvi and Celebrimbor are such a delight!

2. 20th Century Boy (Thorinduil, M) - You know I don’t usually go in for modern Tolkien AUs...but this one is worth it. Thorin and Thranduil are real people with problems, but they make it work.

3. Ear to the Ground, Eye to the Sky (Thorinduil, E) - Very well done “time travel” AU where the events of The Hobbit are a dream had by Thorin before Smaug ever arrived at Erebor, and his subsequent efforts to prevent those tragedies from taking place.

4. Devices of the Heart (Thorinduil, M) - So cute ahhhh this fic works in some wonderful fairy tale elements while allowing for a slow, steady build of the relationship in a believable way. Also shows a more tender side of Thorin than we glimpse in canon which is great.

5. No Children (Curufin/Finrod, E) - This was just. Very hot. ngl. Also excellent character portrayals 👌

6. Ownership (Thrain/Thranduil, Thorinduil, E) - Is there such a thing as guilty pleasure fic? Enjoy some slutty Thranduil.

7. Wet Boots (Fingolfin & Maedhros, G) - It’s just so cute! TTuTT

8. Where No Storms Come (Elrond & Maglor, G) - This is a must read for Maglor fans. And a beautiful depiction of Elrond as well, and the bittersweetness of the Elves sailing West after LotR. Makes your heart hurt, but in a good way?

9. Axe and Fire (Thorinduil, M) - Author does an excellent job of working this into the canon timeline, a bittersweet “what if?”

10. Beyond the Western Shore (Curufin & Finrod, NR) - This is such an incredible look at both Curufin and Finrod as characters it floored me. This author has true skill and I am duly impressed.

11. am_fae’s 1,001 Nights AU (Finrod/Sauron, M) - Fascinating power play between Finrod--nominally Sauron’s prisoner--and Sauron, nominally Melkor’s flunky. I’m truly a sucker for all things Finrod and watching him quietly wrest power from Sauron a little bit at a time is just a delight.

12. Some Truth Down in my Bones (Celebirmbor & Finrod, G) - More fantastic character exploration. Finrod is such a good choice for welcoming back reborn Elves, even if Celebrimbor might have some baggage where he’s concerned (but that just makes for a very interesting fic).

13. When My Emotions Go to War (Talibrations, E) - It’s CUTE and they DESERVE to be HAPPY.

14. A Long Life (Drack & Lexi, T) - Love that exploration of what it’s like for the longer-lived species in the Mass Effect universe, and these two have such a sweet relationship.

15. A Most Edible Thistle (Josephine/Vivienne, T) - You all KNOW I’m a sucker for a good Vivienne fic and ChocoChipBiscuit gets her so well TTuTT

16. Waiting for Blackwall (Blackwall/Cadash, NR) - This is a top-tier ship and this fic does an excellent job with the emotions here.

17. Marcid - Incredibly Exhausted (Bastien/Vivienne, NR) - Anything by AdlerObsessed is worth reading ofc but this in particular is such an excellent character study of Vivienne.

18. A Soft Invitation to Madness (Sten/Tabris, E) - Marvelous tension, an excellent Warden, and an overall treat of a fic!

19. The Rain, it Raineth Every Day (Merrill/Hawke, T) - The rain is my tears over how few fics are in the Merrill/f!Hawke tag. But of those that are there this one is a delight! Merrill is wonderfully written and Hawke’s efforts to woo her are both awkward and endearing.

20. That Mercy that You to Others Show, Show that Mercy to Me (Blackwall/Cadash, Solas/Lavellan, G) - Thora Cadash and Blackwall are fab and that’s facts. This fic made my brain scream about the parallels between a forgiven, romanced Blackwall and a romanced Solas. Solas’ dialogue is also so in-character here, which doesn’t surprise me with this author!

Writing goals for next year:

Unfortunately as with last year I don’t really have time to commit to goals. My #1 focus has to be school, and I’m just happy if I can get any fan writing done around that. All the same, I’d love to write more Tolkien and Dragon Age.

Tagging (no pressure ofc): @outofangband​ @meadowlarkx​ @starsgivemehp​

[saurons-pr-department]

If Mairon and Melkor existed in a modern AU, what do you think would be their respective professions, or majors in a college AU? What are your thoughts on their student / working life or role in the university / workplace community? Does Melkor throw crazy parties? Is Mairon a huge nerd? I'd love to hear your thoughts! You can also include other related characters (e.g. Celebrimbor, Gothmog, Thuringwethil, Manwe...)

Oooo, very interesting!

This got a little long, so I put it under a cut.

Mairon: 

- School/profession: There’s a couple of directions I could see his interests going in a modern AU. I could see him taking an interest in something like engineering. I could see him become a gold or silver smith and work in making jewellery (along with maybe having a knowledge of gemstones). I could even see him taking an interest in psychology or psychiatry. He’s just one of those people who wants to know how things work and how to make them work better, as well as having an affinity for things that can be obtained from the Earth. He would definitely become quite specialised and skilled in whatever field he chose. The ones I’ve listed are the ones that I think would be most likely for him.

- Community role: I would imagine Mairon would be one of those people that somehow manage to be simultaneously aloof and very clued in to everything going on. He seems to know who everyone is and everyone seems to know who he is and yet...he doesn’t exactly have the massive pool of friends you’d expect from someone so well known. He’s not shy though, as anyone who’s been unlucky enough to be put into a group with him for a project will tell you. He has zero qualms about taking charge of a group and seems to really enjoy bossing everyone around. You’re going to get a good grade with him in charge of your group, but no one is going to have any fun doing it. Yes, he does think everyone else is an idiot. Yes, he will say it to their face. Though, he can turn on the charm when it suits him.

- I wouldn’t consider Mairon a huge nerd. He knows a lot, he enjoys learning, and yet there’s something decidedly un-nerdy about him. You know those people who are infuriatingly good at school without even trying? Yeah. He’s one of those. He does value that knowledge though. He’s quite proud of his book-smarts. 

- Ooooo! If he’s still a smith it could be really interesting to see Celebrimbor be a competitor on the jewellery-making market and Maeglin might work for Mairon. (No, Sorcha, do not add this to your fanfic to-do list! Bold!) It could make for some good rivals to friends/rivals to lovers material?

- Thuringwethil is his best friend! I don’t know why, but I’m fully convinced that in a modern AU she would own a small, independent bookshop with a cat. I feel like it would be a particularly good place to find stuff nature magic kind of stuff. It’s a mysterious little place and no one really knows how she keeps it open. Maybe it really is magic..?

- Mairon likes hanging out there with her. She shares his passion for all the animals people normally label “scary”.

Melkor:

- School/profession: I could see him being interested in something like zoology. (crack idea: he works in a light fixtures shop so he can be surrounded by light all the time XD). Maybe he goes on to care for the crocodiles or big cats or something after college? Oooo, ooo, ooo, or maybe he works in the reptile house at the zoo?! Tarantulas? (on second thought...maybe not the tarantulas... XD)

- Community role: Like Mairon, I could see him as the kind to know, and be known by, everyone. Unlike Mairon, I could see him being a bit more...popular? That might be the wrong word for it, but he’s less aloof. Mairon is more like a concept. You know him, but you can’t put your finger on how... whereas, you remember your first encounter with Melkor. He has a much bigger personality and isn’t as immediately dislikable (though he really has a knack for rubbing people up the wrong way and can be quick to dislike other people).

- Manwe is his twin brother who went into the family business and fits in with the rest of the family more. Manwe actually really likes Melkor and admires the fact that he followed his own interests. Melkor is sick of other people comparing him to Manwe. The relationship can be somewhat tense...

- Gothmog is an old buddy from school. The two liked to cause problems on purpose when they were together XD

Angbang:

- Mairon and Melkor meet when Mairon and Thuringwethil take a trip to the zoo and happen to be there when Melkor is feeding one of the above mentioned animals (I still haven’t decided). Melkor sees that the two look interested and asks if they have any questions. Of course Mairon goes on about all that he already knows. Arrogant as the response is, Melkor is genuinely impressed with Mairon’s knowledge. Normally when people say they know things about the animals they really, really don’t. Thuringwethil notices that the two are getting on and wanders off to the side a bit to let them chat. When it’s time for Melkor to move on to other duties, Thuringwethil also notices that he heads back the way that they themselves had just come. Of course, she then “suddenly realises” that she left something behind at that bench they took a rest on. She tells Mairon to go on ahead and she’ll catch up in a minute. Once Mairon is out of sight, she wanders up to Melkor and gives him Mairon’s number.

- Initially, Mairon is pissed that she gave his phone number to a random stranger (understandable).

- It takes Melkor about a week to work up the courage to call or text.

- Yes, they do end up having a zoo date.

[psychedaleka]

god does not play dice with the universe (but he does play pranks) (vii)

read on ao3!

Hallmark movie Melkor/Mairon/Celebrimbor.

---

for @tolkiencrackweek

---

Starring:

Mairon Artáno, overworked engineer at Angband Enterprises, originally from the small town of Valinor. Engaged to his boss, Melkor Bauglir.

Melkor Bauglir, CEO of Angband, estranged from his family.

Aulë Artáno, father of Mairon, Manwë Sulimo’s best friend.

Manwë Súlimo, mayor of Valinor, father of Eonwë, Melkor’s fraternal twin.

Eönwë Súlimo, Mairon’s ex boyfriend.

Celebrimbor Finwion, grandson of the deceased genius Feanor, civil engineer to be fixated on restoring Valinor as a lively small town.

So: Mairon is engaged to Melkor, and very much in love with him despite the significant age gap and fact that Melkor’s his boss.

A few days before Christmas, his estranged father Aulë calls him in a panic: Mairon’s teen brother Curumo has gone missing.

Mairon’s never gotten along with his father, but he remembers the younger brother who’s always looked at him with hero worship in his eyes.

So Mairon packs his bags, kisses Melkor goodbye, and returns home to Valinor.

His homecoming isn’t quite as pleasant as he’d hoped: he gets into an argument with Aulë almost immediately after he gets off the train—it’s your responsibility to look after your own son—and Mairon storms off into the night.

He hasn’t been home for years, and it’s changed more than he thought: Valinor had been a vibrant town then, fuelled by traffic from the highway. It had been bustling with activity, people walking through the streets, buildings lit up with signs and goods, a festival or special event seemingly happening every week.

But ever since the new highway was built, fewer and fewer people have been coming—and so many have been moving away. Lúthien’s son, for one, and his fashion company, and all his family and their employees—now gone. Shops and buildings are abandoned, storefronts left decrepit with nothing more than shelves of dust, flickering, poorly maintained lights. New roads were built, then abandoned to potholes and weeds, and old roads went out of use.

Valinor’s not a big place—it never has been—but with the new town layered over that in Mairon’s memories like a palimpsest, is it any surprise he gets lost?

A blizzard starts, and Mairon, still wearing his business formal, is ill prepared—he’d left all his luggage with Aulë, phone included.

He has no choice but to knock on the first door he sees: the house of one Celebrimbor Finwion, civil engineer.

Mairon’s not familiar with the Finwions—they lived a little north, in the community known as Formenos back when there were enough people that Valinor had to be divided into multiple neighbourhoods. He knows Feanor was a genius who had children and died early, and that his son Curufin had followed in his footsteps (except for the dying part).

Fëanor—Aulë’s contemporary—had a grandson a few years younger than Mairon.

Celebrimbor is in his house, still working despite the late hour—much to Mairon’s surprise and approval. Celebrimbor invites Mairon in—he doesn’t have a phone, since it distracts him from what he’s working on—and they begin to talk.

Mairon is, surprisingly, drawn to the young and ambitious engineer, who wants nothing more than to see Valinor as the lively town of his childhood, back when there was still life and light. Mairon, still in shock over how much has changed in the last decade, vows to help him.

They spend the night in pleasant conversation, and the next day comes but the blizzard doesn’t stop. They talk for the entire day, too, and Mairon’s shocked at how much he has to say to the young engineer. Mairon’s not much of a conversationalist—even a few hours of conversation usually exhausts him—but it’s been much longer and he’s still excited to continue.

The next day, they dig themselves out of the metres of snow, and Mairon returns to Aulë’s house. Yavanna and Aulë are worried sick for him, and they have yet another argument.

Mairon demands how they could claim to care and worry about him when they never seemed to do so during his childhood, leaving him to face the bullies at school and the solitude of years alone.

Aulë, incensed, retorts that he was only trying to save the town, working nearly round the clock in order to bring more business and new people—for Mairon, he might add, to have a future. How could you be so ungrateful, Aulë rages, and Mairon opens his mouth to speak but—

“Stop it!” yells sixteen year old Curumo, standing at the front door. “Why do you have to keep arguing like this? Aren’t we family?”

Curumo, it turns out, had wished every Christmas for his big brother to return home, and now that he’s old enough to not believe in Christmas miracles, decided to take matters into his own hands by running away to a friend of his, Olorin’s house.

Aulë and Yavanna vacate the living room, and Mairon and Curumo have a difficult conversation. Their childhoods were different ones, and they’re different people too, and Curumo’s hero, standing right in front of him, doesn’t exactly live up to his expectations.

Curumo cries. Mairon remains impassive.

The doorbell rings.

It’s Manwë, Aulë’s best friend, and his family—his wife Varda, and their two children Eönwë and Ilmarë. They’re here for lunch, as is traditional, and it’s a tense meal. Manwe doesn’t know what happened, but he and his son try their best to diffuse the tension—they fail.

Mairon volunteers to wash the dishes so he doesn’t have to speak to anyone except—Eönwe offers the same.

They’re in close proximity, and maybe Eönwë’s still not over their break up so long ago, but Mairon feels nothing. Their conversation is stilted, which only makes him long for Melkor—or Celebrimbor, surprisingly.

Problem solved—Curumo found—Mairon prepares to leave. Mairon offers to drive him to the train station, and he accepts.

There, he runs into Celebrimbor, who, disappointed, asks him if he’s leaving.

Yes, Mairon says.

Oh, Celebrimbor says. I thought—well. I know we’ve only known each other for such a short time, but you made me feel as I never have, as though I could tackle whatever problem the world gave me. And I thought you would stay, to help me with Valinor.

A train pulls up. Mairon should leave.

You make me feel the same way, Mairon says. I wish I could help you, but I—I can’t stay here, not with my family like this. There’s too many bad memories here.

We could… make new ones? Celebrimbor suggests.

A pause.

I love you, Celebrimbor blurts.

Silence.

Someone hugs Mairon from behind.

Guess who, says Melkor.

Mairon turns his head, and Melkor kisses him.

It’s your favourite fiance, Melkor says.

You’re my only fiance.

Celebrimbor leaves without another word, and Mairon can’t explain the deep sense of loss in his chest.

Come on, Melkor says, pushing Mairon towards the parking lot. I wanna see how much this town has changed.

Mairon barely has time to process that before—

Melkor? Manwë looks pale, as though he’s seen a ghost. What are you doing here?

As it turns out, they’re fraternal twins—which would explain why Mairon’s never made the connection. Melkor left very early, after graduating high school, desperate to get away from an overbearing father.

Mairon wonders how he’s going to explain this to Eönwë: oh, I’m dating your long lost uncle.

The tension skyrockets.

Manwe and Melkor have a shouting match. Aulë and Melkor have a tense conversation. Aulë tries to lecture Mairon on his romantic choices. Explaining to Eönwë is as awkward as he thought.

Celebrimbor is nowhere to be found.

Mairon, hesitantly, mentions Celebrimbor to Melkor.

Huh, he says, I had a crush on Fëanor when we were in school. If you—we—were to date him, I’d feel like I was robbing the cradle.

Christmas Eve is spent in awkward tension.

Christmas Day comes. Outside, everything is covered in snow. Inside, everyone is in surprisingly good spirits.

There’s a bit of Christmas magic in the air, after all.

Mairon talks to his family, and no one gets mad. There’s too many years and burnt bridges and things done—or not done—for them to make up, just like that, but it’s a start.

Manwë and Melkor talk. They’re older now, no longer teenagers, and with the years in between—and Eru dead—they can talk about it, now, their shared childhood, everything that was and no longer is.

All that’s missing is Celebrimbor.

A knock at the door.

I came to say, Celebrimbor says—

Whatever you have to say, no need, Mairon says. I care for you. And I’m hardly strictly monogamous, after all.

Celebrimbor is hesitant, but willing to try to make things work. They, none of them, know what’s going to happen, but it’s worth a shot.

You wouldn’t happen to know where Fëanor hid his jewels, would you? Melkor asks.

Celebrimbor doesn’t. But Maedhros does. And Melkor remembers the caves where they came from, filled with rock structures and glittering stone, like a glistening spray of stars against dark sky, enough to take anyone’s breath away.

This is it, Celebrimbor says. This is how we save Valinor.

And so, maybe they do get their happy ending. It’s not an easy path, no, filled with arguments and negotiations and tears, but it’s better than another world they don’t know, one where Feanor’s jewels nearly destroy Valinor instead of save it.

But in this universe, where Christmas has some power after all, there can be more laughter than tears, and the only rings Mairon creates are wedding rings—three of them.

[comparativelysuperlative]

Of the Flight of the Noldor

(essential context)

[FINGOLFIN] Yo, I’m Ñolofinwë and I’m kind of the King. Two thirds of our people will all say they agree. Fight Melkor, that’s reckless you see— But I'll be damned if I let you try without me! [FINGON] Aye, oui oui, mon ami, je m'appelle Findekáno I’m Nolofinwe’s heir and I got him signed on, yo. We need Melkor gone; just don’t tell Fëan- -áro that he’s insane...and I’m dating his son. [GALADRIEL] Brrah, brrah, I'm Artanis of Eldamar, Pushin’ for leavin’ like my friends the Teleri so seldom are. Aye, let’s get the charts and the horses, of course, It’s hard to cross over borders and seas need traversin’ No more oaths, but this world’s gettin’ wider Let’s found a couple states, fight the evil Ainur! Well, if it ain’t my father with a sep’rate army Arafinwe, welcome to the Leaving party! [FINARFIN] I guess I’m in, you all carry on, I’d vote talk to Manwe, but I’ll come along.

[FEANOR] But the revolution’s here, so why wait on the Powers? Morgoth killed dad, and you’re just going to cower? [ALL, with FEANOR looking more annoyed than usual] Ooh, who are you, who are you, who are you? Ooh, who is this kid, what's he gonna do? [FEANOR] I am not throwing away this plot! I am not throwing away this plot! Hey yo, I’m just like the Noldor,  My tale will shock beholders And I am not throwing away this plot! I’m the force that’s here doing all the driving. I probably shouldn’t brag, but dag, I invented writing. The problem is that these calamities are coinciding I got to try and lead us ahead, my father’s dead, you’re all dividing. I’m a famous orator. A master over words.  Aiming for remoter parts. My tongue has art, power over hearts.

My mom was a queen, but she died and stayed dead That’s even though we Elves all get rezzed, the gods said. If the Valar gonna keep her dead so Finwe gets rewedded And it’s all what they intended, I hate their damn heaven! You’re seeing— I’m being a spirit of a flame And Valinor’s been darkened so I’ll spell out my name. I am the F-E-A-N-A-R-O (That’s in tengwar’s English mode.) And all we’re owed is a free and open road But the Valar claim all our works in their abode We’re oh so low, just accept what they bestow Till we mourn here all deedless as a shadow-folk. And when we accomplish something out of their tableau? Then the fact we did it here makes it theirs, you know! Silmarils! (He shouts, like we knew he will)

Tried to take my greatest works, but not unopposed! And while Morgoth who took it may be their foe, Don’t forget he’s a Vala, one of theirs to own.

And I am not throwing away this plot! I am not throwing away this plot! Hey yo, I’m just like the Noldor,  Our tale will shock beholders And I am not throwing away this plot! [FINGON]

It's true our future is what we'll fulfil But obsessed is this dude with his Silmarils Silmarils, how you say, oh you say Thilmarils "Linguithtic" "inthithtenth" is more insane overkill Than this plot!

[GALADRIEL]

Yo, I’m the golden-haired princess And I loathe this knucklehead but damn right I’m in this I’ll leave the Valar’s gender roles, join the Noldor’s new spring, And I’ll be crowned a king, instead of sporting some bling I’m going to rule a plot!

[FINGOLFIN]

And but you gotta aim catapults And bro, Fëanáro kind of does need a real adult See that's why We'll all ride Let me stop all of your reckless gross errors With my sweet steed named Rochallor Turning 'round the plot!

[FINARFIN]

All of you, slow it way down, guys, We don't get our goal here if the whole Noldor crown dies. I'm with you— but have any of you even thought That us having fought like we ought Some part could just be Morgoth's plot?

[FEANOR]

Fine, stay home and rot. And you usurper guys, who even needs you lot. I'll do my own onslaught I've got the throne you sought. I'll give a swat to you and let you write your own damn plot.

What are the odds the gods could keep us all in one spot? Not when we're launching a mission to go hop 'cross the pond. Our people all are first-in-class, the top of brass and kicking ass, If only cowards take a pass we'll leave the streets to growing grass!

Oh, am I talking too loud? 'Cause if I am then suck it up; I'm wearing the crown. You know I'm Finwe's eldest son and we're a people tall and noble and proud. [ALL]

I hate what this guy did with our crowd.

And I am not throwing away this plot! I am not throwing away this plot! Hey yo, I’m just like the Noldor,  Our deeds will shock beholders And I am not throwing away this plot!

[etc.]

[ALL]

Rise up! When you're living on your knees you Rise up! Tell your brother that he's gotta Rise up!

[FEANOR, FINGOLFIN, and FINARFIN] Tell your half-brother he's gotta Wise up!

[ALL]

When are these colonies gonna rise up!

[FEANOR]

When are these wannabes gonna wise up!

When are these colonies gonna rise up! / When are these wannabes gonna wise up!

Rise up.

[FEANOR]

I've seen more of death than any Elf on this side of the sea. Is it going to get me? On a quest, seven sons to side with me? If I see it coming, do I count on Mandos' guarantee? Is it like a hall without a tapestry? See, I never thought I'd live forever. Even if some Elves use words like "never." So Nerdanel and I married young, got lots done, no song unsung, Can't run, our life had just begun, together.

Scratch that, happiness is not for us to target Not when we're facing down an evil god incarnate. Behold untold stakes, gotta complete this Quest. We roll like Olwe, sailin' out from the West.

And? If we win our independence? Is that a guarantee that Morgoth would face our vengeance? Or will some traitors like that dumb Artanis Check out a kingdom— then leave and not help end this?

I know all the action we'll see is exciting But while we’re before all the bleeding and fighting I'll be seeking uniting We need to settle on a final destination! Let's all go take down Morgoth, and reclaim what he's taken!

So all monsters or Valar, The Maiar or the Eldar or unborn Aftercomer You'll be capped if you keep my creations! The Silmarils are mine or else Eternal Dark and sorrow— It's an oath that I'm swearing past just Varda—

And I am not throwing away this plot! I am not throwing away this plot! Hey yo, I’m just like the Noldor,  Our deeds will shock beholders And I am just kicking off this plot!

[fortuitousraven]

Eru Ilúvatar?

Thank you!

First impression, Impression now

I don’t think my impression of him has really changed. Creator representation of the setting, portrayal does a decent job of it.

Favorite moment

I pick the Ainulindale where he directs the themes, very lovely descriptions there. Not exactly a lot of other moments of him on page to pick from ;)

Idea for a story

That’s a tough one, he’s an inherently difficult character to portray on-page X). If anyone ever tackles the challenge of a Melkor redemption fic though, then seeing him reconcile with Eru would be neat.

Unpopular opinion

I’m not too up to date on that. I try to stay out of arguments about Eru, people rehashing the ‘problem of evil’ yet again gets tedious enough without when they bring fandom discourse about it too XD.

I’m a (non-Catholic tho) Christian so I'm in more agreement with Tolkien’s philosophical framings around Eru than most of the fans I’ve seen discussing him.

Favorite relationship

His relationship (in a non shippy way obviously) with Melkor is the most interesting. Melkor trying to be Eru is what kicks off the entire plot after all.

Favorite headcanon

I’m with Andreth on this one :p, Eru didn’t originally intend Men to be mortal.

Character asks

[swilmarillion]

Kiss #35 with FYD angbang

35. An awkward kiss given after a first date

                 “That place was good,” Mairon said, “but not as good as a three-week waiting list would imply.”

               “Agreed,” Melkor said.  “I’m going to tell Gothmog not to bother.”

               “Nah,” Mairon said.  “It wasn’t that bad.”

               “It wasn’t that good, either.”

               “Let him go,” Mairon said.  “He can be the tie-breaker.”

               “Or you could just admit I’m right,” Melkor said.

               “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Mairon shot back, grinning.

               They had reached Melkor’s car, and they stood awkwardly on the sidewalk, unsure of what to do next.  “Well,” Mairon said, shifting his weight.  

               “Well,” Melkor echoed, leaning back against the passenger door and crossing his arms.

               “Whether or not the restaurant was worth the wait, I think this was.”

               “Can’t argue with that,” Melkor said.

               “Thanks for taking me out,” Mairon said.

               “No problem,” Melkor said.  “I’ve wanted to for a long time.”      

               “Same,” Mairon said, smiling at him.

               Melkor leaned forward, pushing himself off the car, and bent down to kiss him.  Mairon had, unfortunately, had the same idea, and the two of them crashed into one another, noses and teeth and lips colliding painfully.

               “Ow,” Mairon said, putting a hand to his bottom lip.

               “Yeah,” Melkor said, rubbing his smarting nose.  “Not my smoothest move.”

               Mairon laughed suddenly, and Melkor did too.  “This is ridiculous,” Mairon said, mirth in his eyes. “We had sex two days ago.  There’s no way a kiss should be this awkward.”

               “And yet,” Melkor said, grinning at him.

               “Let’s try that again,” Mairon said, pressing himself close to Melkor.  He put a hand on Melkor’s chest and slid his other hand to the back of Melkor’s neck, pulling him gently down.  Melkor slid an arm around Mairon’s waist and kissed him, gently at first, and then more deeply, thrilling at the feeling of Mairon’s lips parting beneath his own.  “Much better,” Mairon murmured, smiling against Melkor’s lips.

               “I don’t know,” Melkor said, mischief in his voice. “Better try it again to be sure.”

               Mairon laughed and stood on tiptoe to oblige.  

[elesianne]

A Silmarillion fanfic, chapter one

Summary: Through all the struggles and triumphs of the Noldor, Angrod and Edhellos hold on to their love and their faith in each other.

Despite the title, there is more than romance in this fic.

Length: ~1,600 words; Rating: Teenage audiences

Some keywords for the whole fic: romance, family, some fluff and angst, mild sexual content, the Noldor and their fall and their triumphs, canon compliant

A/N: There will be five short chapters. I’ve completed the fic already and will update often. I use Quenya names as long as the characters would use them. Quenya names of the House of Finwë can be found here.

All warnings for this fic: Major Character Death at the end of the last chapter (with the caveat that it’s Tolkien’s elves dying so whether that counts as true death is debatable); also some blood, violence and mentions of deaths in the last four chapters. Nothing is graphic and all is canon or canon-typical.

AO3 link

*

Chapter I //  The noontide of the blessed realm

This was the Noontide of the Blessed Realm, the fullness of its glory and its bliss, long in tale of years, but in memory too brief. – The Silmarillion: Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor

Eldalótë cannot recall a time she did not know Angaráto. She was born the daughter of one of king Finwë’s advisors, he one of his grandsons. They have always been in each other’s world, though not closely before the day as young children when they become the pupils of the same tutor.

It takes some courage to say it. He is a prince and she is not a princess, and she rarely speaks to people she doesn’t know well, but after some weeks of watching him silently during lessons she tells him, ‘I think I would like you to marry me.’

He studies her face and replies, ‘You said that very quietly.’

'It doesn’t mean that I didn’t mean it loudly’, she says.

He thinks for a heartbeat and then nods decisively. 'I think I want that too.’

With that it is settled, and all there is to do is to grow up so that they can do it.

*

On their last day of lessons together, when they are old enough that such things as small touches are becoming exciting in a new way, Eldalótë takes his hand in hers under the long table.

It is warm and large in hers, and Angaráto holds on tight to her without speaking a word.

*

The next day he comes to her home just to bring her a flower for her hair.

'For your name’, he says. Elven-flower, she is called.

He brings her one on many days after that, too, even though she tells him, 'You have the prettier hair that should be decorated.’

Though, perhaps, his mane of gold needs no enhancement.

She often thinks of it while she learns her craft, gilding. No delicate sheet of gold leaf is more beautiful when the light shines through it than Angaráto’s hair in the light of Laurelin.

His glowing hair is a wonderful contrast to his masculine features, his strong jaw and thick, light brown brows, and his wide shoulders and arms that even as a boy were strong enough to swing his little brother around, or carry all of Eldalótë’s schoolbooks and his own. But he carries his strength lightly, without boasting like his cousin Tyelkormo, and she likes that very much.

She wonders if she chose to learn to beautify things with gold because of his golden self.

*

They declare their betrothal to their families on the day Angaráto, the younger of them by a few weeks, comes of age. They wait the required year to marry, and then they settle into the life together they always knew they wanted.

It suits them very well.

'Yours is the most boring love story I have heard of’, Angaráto’s cousin Makalaurë tells them at their wedding. Eldalótë smiles, for he says it in good humour. Angaráto at her side bristles a little.

Findekáno says the same later. 'No disapproving parents, no problems getting along with anyone, no competing suitors, not even a disagreement on the wedding date!’ he lists, grinning.

'We’ll leave all drama to you’, Angaráto quips, poking at Findekáno’s ostentatiously gold-braided hair. 'You wear it better. You can write songs about it and wail them all over Tirion as is your habit.’

Eldalótë likes the way he is with his family. He can be rash, but he is gentle at heart and loves all who are close to him.

*

Aikanáro has always been a good friend to her, too, and despite his young age often hid pleased smiles when he saw his older brother paying court to her.

At their wedding feast, he takes her hand and leads her to a joyful dance.

'I have been blessed with a second sister’, he says to Eldalótë in between the swift steps. He has been growing rapidly, and is almost as tall her now. 'A quieter one, but no less smart. I am glad for my brother, and for all our sakes.’

He smiles at her in his softly mischievous way, and she can do nothing but smile back, words stuck in her throat. She has no siblings of her own.

'Thank you, brother’, she manages at the end of the dance when, her arm placed carefully on his, he delivers her back to her beloved.

*

On their wedding night, Angaráto treats her like the most precious thing he ever saw, with equal reverence and passion.

'As beautiful as the stars’, he whispers against her skin as he kisses a leisurely route around her body.

She runs her hands all over him, hurrying to learn all the parts of him that are usually covered in clothes. She has been wanting to touch them for years. He is the perfect combination of hard and soft, and she tells him so.

He makes his way up to kiss her lips that are kiss-softened already. 'And you are more than I dreamed.’

She twines her hands in his hair, in the purest unalloyed gold of it, and looks up at him. He has his grandmother Indis’ admired hair colour and his grandfather Olwë’s eyes, blue and dark and fair.

'When I chose you as a child’, she tells him, 'I did not imagine moments like this. A child could not. The woman I’ve grown into wants nothing so much as you in all ways.’

Angaráto swallows, and she watches the movement in his neck muscles and his jaw. 'The way you look at me in the low light of private spaces – it robs me of my words and my wits.’

'That is all right.’ She runs her hand down his arm that is corded with muscle and golden-warm under her fingers. 'We need only feel tonight.’

Angaráto nods, and sets to work making her unable to speak as well. She holds on to his broad shoulders that some of her friends have called too broad and she calls perfect – but then, any shape he grew into would have been perfect.

*

Her mother-in-law teaches her to make lace as strong as any net of Falmarin fishermen and as fair as any jewel of the Noldor, with her gentle, nimble fingers guiding Eldalótë’s. It is quiet and peaceful in Eärwen’s chambers in the palace of Olwë at the harbour of Alqualondë, with a fresh sea breeze ever blowing in through the tall windows.

Angaráto and Eldalótë stay here much of the time. She misses her own family but at his side, begins to feel at home with his family and among the Falmari too.

With Eärwen’s guidance, Eldalótë makes a nightgown of gossamer-fine lace and one night, puts it on and asks her husband what he thinks of it.

Touching the soft, almost see-through fabric, he makes a complicated expression. 'I don’t know what to think since I know that my mother helped you make it –’

Eldalótë is embarrassed, but bursts into laughter. 'I did not think of that. I am horrible at enticement.’

'You don’t need clothes to entice me.’ Angaráto swoops her into his arms, nightgown and all. 'Just ask, sweet wife. Asking wastes much less time than making nightgowns.’

'Take me to bed, then, please?’ Feeling very frivolous, she bats her eyelids at him.

Laughing, they fall into bed. The windows are open, and the sea air is sweet, and the call of seagulls close by a part of existence here.

*

Her husband and all of his family love to sail. 'You must have half salt water in your veins’, Eldalótë dares to joke one night at dinner.

'Very possibly.’ Findaráto smiles at her. 'But do not mention that in the presence of uncle Fëanáro or his sons. They already thinks us strange with our Noldorin, Falmarin and Vanyarin blood. They would think us stranger with salt water added into the mix!’

'That’s not quite fair to them’, Arafinwë tries to interject, rather feebly. Eldalótë knows when he defends Fëanáro, it is often more out of a sense of duty than genuine feeling.

'It’s more than fair’, Angaráto contends. 'They think that we should act and dress and talk more Noldorin than we do.’

But Eldalótë comes to like some Falmarin habits too. She loves wearing pearls in her hair, and fishing on balmy afternoons or early in the morning when the sea wind has teeth.

Findaráto teaches her to sail when Angaráto’s equilibrium fails at her ineptitude, but even with her brother-in-law’s more patient tutelage, she never comes to really like steering a ship. She is a good fisher, though. She enjoys the tranquillity of sitting on a pier or a boat, waiting for fish to bite, and the thrill of diving fast with a spear in hand.

She and Artanis never know how to be in each other’s company. Artanis is much younger than her, only a keen-eyed child when Eldalótë and Angaráto are married. As she grows, she continues to regard Eldalótë with slight confusion. Not because she doesn’t understand her sister-in-law – Eldalótë knows that there are few people Artanis can’t understand the nature of, even as a child – but because she doesn’t understand the connection between her brother and Eldalótë.

Eldalótë wants to tell her, 'You don’t need to understand it; it is enough that I am enough for him.’

But she never does, of course, and she and Artanis are both well-raised enough that they always behave civilly with one another though they have little in common and never seek out each other’s company.

Eldalótë’s father-in-law simply treats her like a daughter, as he has done since she met him for the first time when she was the height of his knee and Angaráto had already told his father he was going to marry her. Arafinwë was the only one who took the two of them, a pair of earnest children, seriously since the beginning.

*

A/N: In Laws and Customs Among the Eldar, Tolkien mentions that many elven couples choose each other as children. I decided that Angaráto and Eldalótë, who is shortly mentioned in The Shibboleth of Fëanor, are one such couple.

[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.

[garden-ghoul]

of galadriel and celeborn

“special thanks to vardasvapors for helping me put off deciding whether to read lotr or the hobbit first”

The very first sentence begins, “There is no part of the history of Middle-earth more full of problems than the story of Galadriel and Celeborn.” There is also no elf more full of problems than Galadriel, so this is fitting. We’re off to a tremendous start! The problems Chris is having, though, are mostly historical inconsistencies.

...And these are the kind of inconsistencies that require a map. Lemme dig one up. All right I’m patching together 3 different maps in my head, this legendarium is Impossible. Originally Tolkien was thinking Celeborn was one of the Teleri who never went west in the first place (although, given that Cuivienen was a long way east of Lorien, he still went a LITTLE west), and had always lived in Lorien--east across both the Blue Mountains and the Misty Mountains from Beleriand. Then Galadriel hiked over two mountain ranges, just for funsies, and met a bunch more elfs there. However, in one of the appendices it says he lived in Lindon, which I think is just on the Beleriand side of the Blue Mountains.

In any case, the reason that she remained in Middle Earth after the big old war with Melkor was that “at the end of the First Age a ban was set upon her return, and she had replied proudly that she had no wish to do so." wow she truly is the greatest of the elves. The ban is because she was “one of the chief actors in the rebellion.” Like, was she? Did she convince a ton of people to come with her, all for the purpose of ruining Feanor’s life? I love her an unimaginable amount. Oh to be fair though “she longed to see the wide unguarded lands and to rule there a realm at her own will.” She has always been kind of into dominating other people? 

She really would make a fantastic nemesis for Morgoth; each of them trying to conquer more of the disputed lands and rule over everyone. Risk: Belerian Edition! I was considering her against some other elves who would make fun servants of Melkor, but she would never serve anyone, literally ever. If she got captured by Morgoth and he tried to break her mind she would just blow up his entire castle, killing everyone within half a mile. Is that something she can do? I know Luthien can do that, but Luthien is half-god so I dunno.

Back to the actual text: Chris is talking about Galadriel’s lover, Teleporno (Celeborn in Sindarin). This is the most unfortunate name had by any elf. Teleporno! They invented phone sex so Galadriel could run around far away from him and not get sexually frustrated! Another version of the story says that he lived in Alqualonde and was her first or second cousin. They built a ship together and after the destruction of Alqualonde they set sail by themselves, wanting to escape from the horror of their ruined city, but were Banned anyway. Banned! Banned! You’re all banned! None of you are free from sin! But this version of the story is pretty non-canon since it contradicts a bunch of actual published materials. Tolkien just wanted to make a point about how extremely separate from Feanor she is. Possibly he was being threatened by Galadriel to make this point.

Yet ANOTHER version is that they were still second cousins but they met in Doriath and lived there basically the entire first age, which doesn’t sound very Galadriel to me. Anyway in this version Galadriel and Celeborn hang out in northwestern Middle Earth for a while in the second age and then move to Eregion just west of the Misty Mountains for the purpose of thwarting Sauron. It says she might have chosen that place because she was pals with the dwarves of Khazad-dum (although Celeborn apparently blamed them for what the Nogrod dwarves had done to Doriath, because he was a racist fool). This is cute, I love to imagine that she has travelled all over the world and made friends with many different kinds of people. It’s interesting trying to imagine Galadriel being a guest anywhere except with her kin--she doesn’t like not having power like that. Must one assume that the people she visited were subservient enough to satisfy her pride? Ugh where’s my fanfiction of Galadriel travelling the world and having a personal crisis whenever she has to be humble. She needs to learn to play it like Teru and be The Most Gracious, Not That It’s A Competition. Her perfect etiquette gives her power. I dunno.

She looked upon the Dwarves also with the eye of a commander, seeing in them the finest warriors to pit against the Orcs. 

Oh.

Moreover Galadriel was a Noldo, and she had a natural sympathy with their minds and their passionate love of crafts of hand, a sympathy much greater than that found among many of the Eldar: the Dwarves were "the Children of Aulë," and Galadriel, like others of the Noldor, had been a pupil of Aulë and Yavanna in Valinor.

Mm... okay.

Now we hear about Celebrimbor, who lived in Eregion with our heroes. He LOVED crafting so so so much and he was dating a dwarf (Narvi), really ahead of the times. They basically carved a heart with their initials in it on the west gate of Moria:

I, Narvi, made them. Celebrimbor of Eregion drew these signs.

Cute... It says both kingdoms grew greater together than they would have apart, this is so so good. I’m a little concerned though, why they ever left...

Ah! It’s because Sauron taught a bunch of Eregion elves The Deep Craft Lore and convinced them to stage a coup against Galadriel’s family. She took her kids Amroth and Celebrian through Moria (to the other side of the mountains I think?) but Celeborn was too racist and stayed in Eregion. Because he wasn’t a threat and no-one cared about him. So Sauron hung out convincing the masonic smiths guild of Eregion to make him rings of power, and when Celebrimbor found out that it was actually for BAD REASONS he was SHOCKED and went to Galadriel for advice.

She told him to hide the three elven rings, and he gave her one, the water ring. It made her gay for the sea though, so she was a little sad. This was a Curse I guess. Oh shit this next part is good! Sauron makes war on Eregion, and although Gil-Galad sends Elrond to aid them they don’t quite get there in time; Celebrimbor makes a Famous Last Stand on the steps of the smiths guild that’s about to be ransacked for its magical treasure. He was probably expecting to die, but instead he is taken captive and tortured to find out where the seven rings and the three rings are. Then, disappointingly, Sauron puts him to death. This isn’t like in my fanfictions. WOW he does, uh, use Celebrimbor’s mutilated body as his standard while fighting Elrond’s forces though. Hell of a thing.

Elrond’s people withdrew to Imladris; the Lorinand elves and their dwarvish allies withdrew through Moria, which meant Sauron had a grudge against the Moria dwarves Forever. He’s so petty. Anyway then he marches to the coast to fuck with Gil-Galad’s fortress at Lindon. Blah blah war murders and the Numenoreans come to kick Sauron’s ass. The siege of Imladris is broken, Sauron retreats to Mordor with his tail between his legs. Galadriel, infected by Nenya with the seagays, moves to the coast until circumstances far later force her to return.

[murderonthemattress]

Lord of the MCU

So it’s been snowing in Boston since like Thursday and so naturally @anais-ninja and I decided there was no better way to spend the time than marathoning the Extended Editions of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  

It started because I couldn’t help it - Aragorn’s introduction is one of the best.  So I naturally out with: “BUCKY BARNES FOR ARAGORN 2K17!”  

Because they’re both broody, much-put-upon, scruffy kings of my heart.  So much baggage.  Willing to bear the burden of their past.  

And he defends tiny Steve Baggins to the death.  Steve, who always manages to get himself into the worst situations without even trying.  

Fury as Elrond.  Because he has no time for this nonsense and puts together a merry band of misfits to solve the world’s problems.  And he has NO TIME FOR SCRUFFY SO-AND-SOS THAT WANT TO DATE HIS BEAUTIFUL, DANGEROUS DAUGHTER, Natasha.  

Maria Hill as Galadriel.  Because she is beautiful and completely savage and knows all.  

Thor as Legolas.  Dum Dum Dugan as Gimli.  Thor isn’t tempted by the ring because, like, have you seen him? Gimli and Dugan are here to drink scotch and fuck shit up and have a good time.  And he’s all out of scotch.  And think of the tension over who’s tougher that will end up as friendly rivalry, drinking songs, and counting the enemies they slay in battle.  

Red Skull (or maybe Pierce?) as Saruman, and Zola as Grima Wormtongue. 

Merry as played by Matt Murdock, and Pippin as played by Clint.  These two dudes are so game no matter what and are just doing their best, ok.  For a good time that will likely end in bodily injury, call Murdock/Barton.  They’re happy to let Steve and Bucky and Sam/Peggy do the big deeds and get the glory, they’re here for the guy down the block who needs a helping hand.  Or their landlord punched.  Whatever.

Peggy Carter as Samwise.  Strong and true and keeping Frodo on-track and getting shit done.  Just as capable as being Cap as Steve, Sam’s easily the protagonist in the same way Frodo may be.  I am also 100% here for Sam Wilson as Sam Gamgee because, my god.  Everything I’ve just said about Peggy fits him perfectly, too.

Tony as Boromir, because of the redemption arc.  So damaged.  So brave.  Trying so hard to do right by the dad that doesn’t see him for who he is.  Tries to do the right thing but is so far out of his depth he just ends up making it worse.

Phillips as Gandalf.  Someone has to show these noobs the way but he was so done with this extended, weaponized camping trip like, yesterday.

Loki as Gollum.  His vices go way beyond him and he’s corrupted by the ring/Sauron (Thanos! Who I guess would be better as Melkor but I’m just sticking with the LotR Trilogy, so.)

Erskine is Bilbo.  I’m so sorry that you must bear this terrible burden. Gifts and curses, and all that.  NOT A GREAT SOLDIER BUT A GOOD MAN.  DON’T LET THAT RING CORRUPT YOU, STEVE BAGGINS.