#no not really this is in fact sauron from tolkiens legendarium

[lanthanum12]

Hi! Can I politely ask why you like Maeglin? I’m open to learning to sympathize with him but right now I find it very hard to - he’s a stalker/harasser, an attempted child murderer, and intentionally responsible for a massacre. I’m NOT trying to be a hater criticizing you for liking him, everyone is entitled to their opinions - i’m just curious what it is about him that you like.

Hello! Thank you for the ask! I love talking about Maeglin!

Firstly, it's okay if you don't sympathize or like him! It's perfectly fine to dislike a character. I feel like that's something that needs to be normalized in fandom! There's some characters I dislike just because I find them annoying or because they hurt an character I like. However, there are a lot of really good reasons to dislike Maeglin. (Which you listed above) While I will share my opinions, these are just that, my opinions! Yours are very valid.

Before I get into my opinions on why I like Maeglin, I must say, I loath his treatment of Idril and Earendil. That is the kind of acts that are simply awful. I strongly dislike those parts of Maeglin's character.

With that being said, here goes my thoughts: My brain tends to hyperfixate on random characters and I don't have a lot of say in it. Sometimes I will get obsessed with someone and there's not much I can do. Maeglin is one of those cases.

However, there are a lot of reasons I can point to why I like Maeglin in particular.

He's unique amongst elves. Ever since I was young, I've always enjoyed villains and morally grey characters. Apart from the Feanorians, Eol, and Saeros, most of the elves are good people! Maeglin provides such a nice change of pace. I love him because of his treachery, not in spite of it.

In fact I sometimes increase Maeglin's villainy in AUs. My favorite ship is Maeglin + Sauron and I often have them try and take over the world together. I firmly hold the belief that he was not tortured and sold out Gondolin fairly willingly.

I do have some sympathy for Maeglin (which I will get into later), but I also have sympathy for Sauron, the Nazgul, Gollum, Grima, Beruthiel, Azog, Bolg, etc and cheer for the Nazgul whenever I watch the movies. I am a huge villain fan!

With most of those characters, there are fleeting moments that I can point to that I think makes them sympathetic. The same is true for Maeglin. For one, there is the treatment of Maeglin by his dad. Maeglin is an example of how harmful the cycles of abuse can be. I believe he internalized a lot of dangerous behaviors and views from Eol. There's a lot of interesting discussion to be had around nature vs nurture and abusive cycles around Maeglin. I love seeing them explored in meta and fanfiction.

Many people will also point to the fact that he is so young as a point of sympathy for him. I agree with that and I also think his age is an interesting aspect to his character. Maeglin caused a lot of problems for Tolkien with fitting him into the timescales and developing the elven life cycle. He is the youngest elf we know about and there is a lot more detail given into his childhood than most other elves.

I find him relatable. He's a lot more realistic than other characters in the legendarium. (Same with Salgant. I know for a fact I would not fight in any battle) Both him and I sometimes struggle to find words under pressure for example.

His family history (or lack there of) is really interesting. Little is known about where Eol came from but there's defintly a sense that he has an interesting story. (Tolkien had a few versions of Eol's backstory over the years) I love seeing other fans' takes on Eol's history and how that affects Maeglin. It's written in the original tale of the Fall of Gondolin that there were rumors that Maeglin was related to orcs! That is so neat to me! I love the idea of elf-orcs. In some versions Eol and Maeglin were the only Avari who had any development. In others Eol was a thrall of Morgoth. I also see the popular headcanon of Eol being part maia which makes so much sense (considering the talking sword twins and enchanted forest). There's a lot of possibility in making a really interesting family tree for Maeglin!

In short, I like Maeglin because he is evil and treacherous, but there's that possibility that he could have been better and that makes my heart ache for him and his missed opportunities. I hope you and everyone else enjoyed reading this post! Thank you for your questions!

[siena-sevenwits]

My June/July Reading Review

Not as excited to share this time, because I don't have as many books - or as much variety - despite being a double month. Life has been extremely busy, and I had to put my reading mostly on hold for a bit. This led to a reading slump even when things got more manageable, so I have been concentrating on getting out of the slump. I permitted myself to read lots of short, fun things in order to get back into the reading habit, as that has worked in the past and I know I'll be intentional about reading slightly more difficult works once the habit is re-established. But it does make me feel silly typing this up. On, then.

"Nicholas Nickleby" adapted by Tim Kelly (Play, literary adaptation) - FOUR STARS - As some may know, Dickens' novel is extremely close to my heart and figured into several important passages of my life. I was extremely keen to propose a Dickens adaptation for next years' school play, and was very impressed with this one. (Of course no adaptation will ever compare to the Royal Shakespeare Company's eight hour stage adaptation, which is possibly one of the best adaptations of anything ever, but if we're doing Nickleby in two hours, with students, Tim Kelly has done a pretty great job.) Alas, for financial reasons we need to go with a free script rather than one that requires licensing, so we're falling back on good old Shakespeare, but I am glad I got the chance to order this one in and read it.

Beren and Luthien by JRR Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien (epic poetry, fantasy, mythology, Tolkien legendarium,) - FOUR AND A HALF STARS - My appreciation of the tale truly benefited from reading this anthology. It's remarkable to see how Tolkien's imagination reinvented itself over time. The first version of Beren and Luthien feels like an Edwardian children's short story, with Luthien the fairy hiding behind a flower from the gnome Beren, and singing a song of long things like ladders and vines and the lives of cats to magically give herself Rapunzel hair! And of course the absolute delight of the Sauron character instead being "Tevildo, Prince of Cats" who loves napping in the sun! The later versions have cool variation too - the poetry really emphasizes different aspects than the prose tellings. I also love the dignity and equality of both Beren and Luthien, and how they are equally heroic. Luthien especially is wonderful to me.

The Whispering Skull; The Hollow Boy; The Creeping Shadow (Books 2-4 in the Lockwood & Co series) by Jonathan Stroud (MG, mystery, adventure, thriller, supernatural) For sheer enjoyment, I'd give the second book 2 1/2 stars, and the third and fourth books 5 stars. They are for the most part intelligently written, and just such a blast. (The fun is enhanced by the fact that my brother frequently asks me to narrate the story to him (as opposed to reading it,) and so I get to unleash my love of storytelling. Book 2 is okay, but has middle book syndrome in a way the others don't. Books three and four have better plots and characterization on the whole. I read the scene at the Rotwell Institute at 2 AM during a terrific storm, and though it did not creep me out, I did get a nice suspenseful shiver! (These books don't spook me at all - suspense is really the operative word here.)

"The Mousetrap" by Agatha Christie (play, mystery) - THREE STARS (and that might be rounding up) - My sister had read the entire Agatha Christie canon save this one, as they were kind of her thing in her teens. I have not read as many, but I've definitely read at least twenty-five of her books, plus a large number of short stories and plays. But for many years we had a pact that we would neither of us read this play, because we had an ambition to travel to London and see it on its original run (now more than seventy years running!) at St. Martin's Theatre. Now we're both adults and very much have our own lives, and I am about to embark to England without her, so we decided it was time to mutually break the pact. We had meant to see a community theatre production February, but that fell through, so we made tea and had a spot of reader's theatre. We had tremendous fun, even though the play itself was only so-so - certainly by Agatha Christie's standards. Maybe we just know her too well as an author. That being said, the reader's theatre session was a hoot. We watched this trailer first:

and predicted what all the characters' personalities and backstories were just from the trailer, as well as the murderer's identity. We were correct on almost everything. It also added to the fun because we based all our character voices on the appearances of this cast. My sister stole the show, as far as I was concerned, with her comedic performance as Christopher Wren (the guy in the sleeveless pullover.) I think we actually had more fun doing reader's theatre than we would've seeing it in person.

The Frugal Wizard's Guide to Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson (science fiction, historical fantasy, dimension-hopping) 3 STARS. Fun, but really not Sanderson's best. As always with Sanderson, read it aloud to my brother, and the connection with him is always a good thing.

Ongoing:

Five Children on the Western Front (I can't wait to do my writeup of this one - it's really good!)

An enormous collection of Medieval and Renaissance Italian short stories. For some months I've been reading through the first volume of a multivolume anthology series of the world's great stories, organized by time and country. The first half of this volume was all ancient tales (and, with the exception of Cupid and Psyche, all stories not included in your standard mythologies and such.) Now I am in the second half, and reading all the stories Shakespeare used as inspiration for his stories. The original ending to Romeo and Juliet is... something.

Epistle to the Romans - I continue my slow deep dive, working my way through it with copious notes, two commentaries, sundry articles, etc.

Iphigeneia in Tauris by Euripides - I do mean to keep liveblogging this.

The Empty Grave by Stroud (last Lockwood of them all)

Beowulf (reread)

Fellowship (reread)

[child-of-hurin]

Outside of the faithful/kings men/Sauron situation is there even much explicit religion in there? “Earendil/Aragorn/Frodo is Middle Earth’s Jesus” isn’t that literally eru, think it’s in the athrabeth

Anon, I have so much on my mind about this topic in general, it really became a full ramble and I'm not sure this is useful to anyone besides me. These are my thoughts:

I don't think there is a Jesus-like figure anywhere in Middle Earth, at least not in a way that matters. The son of god, born from a virgin, who teaches a new doctrine, gathers apostles and is betrayed by one of them, goes though abuse and murder by the hands of the state, redeems mankind from original sin by his death, then is reborn three days later; is alive in heaven waiting at the end of time to judge mankind. That's Christ. You don't get that in Tolkien, in fact you don't even get anything remotely resembling the framework that would allow such a figure to arise.

We can see traces of a framework akin to 'original sin' in some extra-canon stuff, like in the tale of Adanel, and some references Andreth makes in the Athrabeth. In the tale of Adanel, Men fall into thrall of Melkor and thus invent, among other things, slavery, and, as punishment, lose their immortality/long life. This is undeniably a narrative of "fall". If you incorporate it in your understanding of the Legendarium, even if not as a cosmological truth, but as a story that exists within the story and that is part of Edain culture, then it's really very easy to imagine that much later, in Númenor, that lost mortality is what the King's Men, their descendants, are trying to reclaim.

This is not, like, /completely incompatible/ with the published Silm, it's just irrelevant: the published text puts immortality as something the Dunedain covet and decide to conquer by force, and associate with the material Aman, not something they think originally belonged to them, that they are reclaiming. King's Men do not understand themselves cosmologically as "fallen men" -- on the contrary, they are men on the rise.

Middle earth has no Jesus, Middle earth needs no jesus, because there is no original sin in Middle Earth. Noldor have more of a narrative of "fall", but even so it's sketchy at best, and their "redemption" doesn't come from Jesus. I mean: Earendil isn't sent bu Eru to die for the sins of the Noldor after teaching them a better doctrine. Earendil is not even Earendil, he is Earendil and Elwing.

There isn't much religion explicit in Tolkien's legendarium in the sense of an organized religion with rites, but I'm also not sure how much it is fair to dissociate magic and lore in M.E. from religion. Some 'religions' in this world have no gods or worship. Many amerindians, for example, have an extremely complex and ritualized, even political, cosmology -- is it religion? Is it religion when a shaman has a spiritual conversation with a leopard? But going further: is it religion to believe in ghosts? In the evil eye? That fasting and positive thinking can cure cancer? etc. IRL the key "religion" needs to be conceptualized every time we open a discussion about a specific topic; it is a conceptual tool, right? So I think to talk about "religion" in Middle Earth we first need to assess what we are trying to discuss, and conceptualize "religion" and its opposite, "secular". If Middle Earth is not Religious, then is it Secular?

You see my point? Like, I'm not trying to be difficult: I don't think there is religion in the Legendarium in any analogue sense to Christianity, period. The closest thing we have to christian religion in the Silm is Sauron's temple to Melkor in Númenor (lol!).

But at the same time, Tolkien populates his world with a historian's understanding of lore, the past, and by consequence, the future. Aragorn talking about Beren and Lúthien is, at the same time, history, art, folklore, AND a spiritual belief in a certain afterlife, a certain organization of the cosmos and of life. When Sam sings about stars in Cirith Ungol, is that a prayer? What do you think?

It's funny to me that I'm complicating this when it would serve me better to just tell you: there is no religion in Tolkien! Because I am an atheist and because I am bothered by fans who, in their eagerness to defeat Christianity, end up shoehorning it where it literally has no place.

[absynthe--minded]

Beren, the Nauglamír, and Editorial Oversight

this is gonna be a long one, guys.

so one of the things that makes Christopher Tolkien’s contributions to the greater legacy of the Tolkien Legendarium so complex is that he, as the posthumous editor of his father’s works, essentially was able to declare what is or isn’t “canon” in a way that no amount of scholarship (fannish or professional) will be able to truly successfully challenge. it’s his vision of Arda that was published as the Silmarillion, and his interpretations of the Professor’s works that have come to act as the standard and the baseline. after all, the Silm’s been traditionally published and translated into many languages; it’s far more accessible than out-of-print/print-on-demand copies of the History, and reading it doesn’t require you to slog through pages and pages of commentary or to have a good solid understanding of what the story is so you can follow along with lists of bullet points outlining events timeline-style.

of course, Chris also made mistakes, and those mistakes became enshrined in canon just as surely as anything else. I and many others have discussed the Gil-galad problem (namely, that Gil-galad’s parentage is oblique and strange at best and downright contradictory at worst, and Christopher’s choice to make him Fingon’s son was an admitted error) but it’s not the only case of a decision later proving to be the wrong one.

with that background, let’s talk about Beren.

Beren and Lúthien are in an unusual position in the Legendarium as a whole. Not only are they the sole author-insert characters, they’re also uniquely positioned as moral compasses - every other person in the Silm is morally ambiguous to some degree, or does bad or questionable things; not so with these two. If Beren or Lúthien does something, it’s explicitly the right thing to do, and this is confirmed by the narrative. If someone else opposes them, that is the wrong course of action. They’re not merely protagonists who make a lot of good choices, they’re good people, and the things they do are right because of their moral fiber and nobility. Of the active agents who are developed to any great degree, they’re the least complex and the most clear-cut, and the narrative itself treats them differently from other characters, validating them and framing them as the sort of spotless heroes that are in short supply in this Age.

This characterization runs headlong into the actions Beren takes in early drafts of the story and in the published Silm, where after dwarves kill Thingol and sack Menegroth, Beren (with the help of some allies, usually either Green-elves or Ents) ambushes them and duels the Lord of Nogrod for possession of the Nauglamír, a necklace originally owned by Finrod in Nargothrond that Húrin brought to Doriath after his release from Angband. Thingol commissioned dwarven artisans to alter the piece and create a setting in it for the Silmaril that Beren and Lúthien had won for him from Morgoth, and there was a dispute about payment that escalated to violence and ended in his death at dwarvish hands. The battle, later called the Battle of the Thousand Caves, was more or less a victory for dwarvish forces, as they escaped both with the Nauglamír and several other treasures from Menegroth and they defeated Sindarin forces that set out to stop them.

In most versions of the story, Melian sends Mablung to Ossiriand to warn Beren and Lúthien of what’s happened, and essentially asks them to do something to stop the retreating dwarvish forces from reaching Nogrod, where they came from. Beren does this, killing the Lord of Nogrod himself and taking the Nauglamír and the Silmaril home to Lúthien, who then gives it to Dior, who takes it back to Doriath when he takes the throne there. This is the version of the tale that’s in the published Silmarillion, and the one that’s consistent throughout the earlier drafts that Tolkien himself wrote.

But it’s not the only version that exists.

In The War of the Jewels, which compiles versions of the story written late in Tolkien’s life, we find The Tale of Years. This is not a cohesive narrative, instead functioning (like many of the writings that make up the bulk of the History of Middle-Earth) rather like a series of bullet points mentioning and summarizing key events. It progresses chronologically, giving a sense of passing time and organization to the First Age, and it has this to say about the Nauglamír and the battle at Sarn Athrad:

“The Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod invade Doriath. King Elu Thingol is slain and his realm ended. Melian escapes and carries away the Nauglamír and the Silmaril, and brings them to Beren and Lúthien. She then forsook Middle-earth and returned to Valinor.

Curufin and Celegorm, hearing of the sack of Menegroth, ambushed the Dwarves at the Fords of Ascar as they sought to carry off the Dragon-gold to the mountains. The Dwarves were defeated with great loss, but they cast the gold into the river, which was therefore after named Rathlóriel. Great was the anger of the sons of Fëanor to discover that the Silmaril was not with the Dwarves; but they dared not to assail Lúthien. Dior goes to Doriath and endeavours to recover the realm of Thingol.”

(This quote is taken from the latest and typed version of the Tale of Years, an earlier handwritten version exists that is shorter but includes the same relevant details.)

Christopher Tolkien elected not to use this version of events, instead choosing to maintain the earlier tale where Beren had an active role; he was never truly satisfied with this, or with the Ruin of Doriath as a whole. In the commentary to the Tale of Years he wrote that “It seemed at that time that there were elements inherent in the story of the Ruin of Doriath as it stood that were radically incompatible with ‘The Silmarillion’ as projected, and that there was here an inescapable choice: either to abandon that conception, or else to alter the story. I think now that this was a mistaken view, and that the undoubted difficulties could have been, and should have been, surmounted without so far overstepping the bounds of the editorial function.” We have, for a second time, an admission of error, though unlike the Gil-galad question there is not a specific choice singled out as a flaw.

Why am I talking about this? Well, simply, I think that the version of the story where Celegorm and Curufin attack the Dwarvish host is the one that makes the most sense, and I’m here to make my case for its adoption as fanon. I’m not trying to take a purely scholarly view - I can’t prove that Tolkien’s true vision was for this version of the text, and of course it’s only in the one draft - but as a fandom we’ve reached the consensus before that specific versions of the story are preferred, even when they only appear in a single draft (Amrod’s death at Losgar stands out as the best example).

So here’s my argument. 

1. Beren is not a violent man, and having him act as a murderer is out of character.

This one is pretty simple - Beren is an outlaw fighting against Sauron, a defender of his family’s land, a nobleman in his own right, and a vegetarian who is keenly aware of what it is to be hunted and pursued. The man we’re introduced to in the other versions of the story is not someone who would answer violence with violence unless there was no other choice, and in fact he becomes less violent as the story goes on. Putting him in a position where he’s acting militarily against the Dwarves introduces elements to his character that simply don’t exist before this story. It’s inconsistent, and it also ends his life on a strange, sour note - he’s not an uncomplicated hero anymore, he’s also got blood on his hands.

2. Beren is one of the moral compasses of the Silmarillion, and having him be the one to spearhead the ambush of the Dwarves frames that act of violence in a very troubling light.

Like I said above, Beren and Lúthien are good people who do good things, and those things are good because of who’s doing them. If Beren kills the Dwarves and the Lord of Nogrod, that act becomes justifiable, and perhaps even the right thing to do, simply due to the fact that one of the two true heroes of the First Age is doing it. The narrative never frames this as a downfall or a moral event horizon for Beren, either - he made the correct decision and the consequences that come afterward aren’t things that can be blamed on him. But wholesale slaughter, even slaughter of people who do bad things, is not something Tolkien ever condones or paints in a truly positive light, so it makes more sense for it to come at the hands of people who aren’t solely positive forces. It’s thematically in line with what Tolkien does through the rest of the text, and it feels more like Arda, at least to me. I think an argument could be made that Tolkien realized that making Celegorm and Curufin the responsible party would achieve this end, and that’s why this version exists in the first place, but there’s no proof of it.

3. The Laiquendi are nonviolent, and it makes no sense for them to be involved in this fight. The Ents being involved at all is somewhat nonsensical based on what we know of them in The Lord of the Rings.

Another simple one - we don’t know much about the Laiquendi, but we know they’re not really keen on warfare or on any undue violence, so having them be Beren’s backup is a weird divergence from their presentation in the rest of the Legendarium. And the Ents are pretty universally depicted as uninvested in the wars of the incarnates, only taking action against Saruman when it becomes apparent they have no other choice - why should they care about Thingol’s death, or care enough to murder dwarves?

4. Melian’s actions make far more sense in a version of the story where she doesn’t merely abandon Doriath once she realizes Thingol is dead.

If Menegroth is already sacked, and she cannot hold the realm together on her own as its Queen without really fucking shit up with reality-warping shadow magic, her choice to abandon it after delivering the Silmaril safely to her daughter and warning her that Dior will be needed soon is far less irresponsible.

5. Celegorm and Curufin ambushing the dwarves makes more sense than any other alternative.

Of course Celegorm and Curufin were actively watching Doriath for any sign of weakness. Of course they noticed the dwarves leaving with stolen treasures, and heard rumors that Thingol was dead and his killers had the Silmaril. Given the choice of following Melian (if they even were aware of Melian’s departure) and following dwarves, of course they picked the dwarves. Their ambush and attack and slaughter is consistent with their past behavior, as is their refusal to attack Lúthien because they were scared as fuck of her.

What’s more, this also explains the Fëanorians’ refusal to attack Doriath immediately after the dwarves do - they were unsure of whether or not Lúthien was in Menegroth and ruling as its queen or acting in some capacity as Dior’s defender. Celegorm in particular isn’t the type to hesitate - he’s impulsive, and rash, and rushes into bad decisions without considering their consequences, it’s even in his name. But they waited for years, giving Dior time to marry and have children of his own, and then even sent letters rather than attack directly - and yes, some of this might have been Maedhros’s influence, or an attempt by all of them to stave off the Oath, but it’s also plausible that they were trying to figure out whether or not they’d have to take on the same woman who made fools of them before.

I, at least, think this version of the story makes the most sense, and I’ll be adopting it into my personal canon. I obviously think it’s worth advocating for on a larger scale, and I hope I’ve made a good argument for its widespread adoption.

[skyeventide]

hi, if you are planning on writing the embalmed M.E. post, I'd be extremely interested! amazing topic

oh man okay I'll try to put it together. I'm gonna stick mostly to one single text for this one because, as a topic, memory-embalming is really large and I think you can construct a lot on like, solely the concept of memory and fading and preservation in the legendarium. and I’m not gonna try that lol

the quote where Tolkien uses the "embalming" word is letter 131. I should preface this by saying that more often than not I take great issue with the way jirt talks about his theology-adjacent Goodness and Good Choices, and I think it's pr... pro... pronghhh I don't wanna write that word lmao, please take it as me intending "it has non-straightforward issues that are worth a second look", not as anything else. it’s problematic, there I put it down lol academic gremlin brain won, for anyone who doesn’t wholly align with him philosophically. so I suppose anyone who generally agrees with jirt's own reckons will disagree with my takeaway here, but so are things. anyway, I'll try to explain why I called it a value judgement.

screenshots first:

I know this is a lot of text, but it's needed. so there's kind of a lot to unpack there but to strip it down to the relevant basics:

part of the reason why some of the exiles do not return is that they don't want to return as exiles, but remain where they have power and stand at the top of the hierarchy (this to me feels like, specifically, a very Galadriel motive — but that's yet another post lmao); they also want peace and bliss, and that is another motive, the same peace and bliss that exist in Valinor (and while the first motive I list, I believe, is directly consequential to the status of the first age's survivors, this second motive, having the peace and bliss of Valinor outside of Valinor, has been present and thematic since the speech of Feanor to the Noldor, and likely before that); they can't therefore abide the "fading" of the land, the way it changes with time, and endeavour to preserve it — embalm it (this becomes emblematic in one of the various versions of the creation of the Elessar, or one of the them: a stone that, if someone looks through it, shows things as they would be when healed, whole, and beautiful. in one of said versions, Celebrimbor gives this stone to Galadriel, who is saddened by the change of time. this is Celebrimbor of Gondolin, or perhaps Telerin Celebrimbor, but no matter the origin, the theme persists)(second parenthesis to point out how third-age Lothlórien, preserved by Nenya, is in all effects a land out of time, where ancient things aren't simply echoed but continue living, and where trees literally don't die. leaves change colour during autumn and winter, then fall down in spring when immediately new buds start growing); fourth motive is the healing of the land's hurts and its adornment.

the difference between healing the land and “embalming” it, I suppose, is the acceptance of its change under the sun, so the acceptance of time's passing, while healing and adorning it work in unison with said passing. of course the matter here is, the absence of decay is kind of Valinor’s whole thing. but we know, both from letter 156 and the Akallabêth, that Valinor isn’t inherently a blessed land and it doesn’t give immortality by virtue of being Valinor. in fact: “'for it is not the land of Manwe that makes its people deathless, but the Deathless that dwell therein have hallowed the land; and there you would but wither and grow weary the sooner, as moths in a light too strong and steadfast.” and letter 156: “for as emissaries from the Valar clearly inform him, the Blessed Realm does not confer immortality. The land is blessed because the Blessed live there, not vice versa, and the Valar are immortal by right and nature [...]”

so, really, it’s not the where that counts. jirt, I believe, makes it pretty obvious that it’s the why and how, and through whose counsel. what I think is identified here as the fault isn’t that preservation of the land isn’t possible and therefore should not be attempted (clearly it is), rather it’s the wish to create a paradise of their own, a desire that Sauron identifies and exploits. now, obviously I’m not trying to argue that Sauron is right or anything the like (even at early stages, and despite the partial overlap of motives, Sauron’s goals can’t really be called good, even though you might argue that they gain some form of internal conflict), or that in pursuit of a challenge to the divine harm becomes justifiable — this isn’t really about characters and more about jirt the man himself and his production. 

I just generally take issue with the idea that wanting a heaven of sorts, made with your own skills, which is within the realm of possibility, and by no one’s leave but your own, is inherently a bad thing, or that it must come with harm and corruption, and compromised motives. but in the narrative of these books, from an outside-of-text perspective, it doesn’t seem to be possible to issue the challenge that letter 131 talks about without also giving aid to evil (Sauron, earlier Morgoth) willingly ot unwillingly, without getting closer to “magic” and “machinery”, without it being written and interpreted under a lens of “embalming”, of refusal to let the world live its course. it isn’t possible to have that cake and eat it (yeah jirt kind of wrote that saying wrong lmao), which is identified as a corruptible weak point. 

it isn’t possible because this discontent, or this wish for independence, is in itself a seed that the story connects to evil and lies (Morgoth’s work in Valinor, and possibly earlier than that his discord); because it’s inherently linked to wanting the top-of-the-hierarchy authority granted by Middle Earth. and because the legendarium doesn’t truly leave room for any gods-challenging story that isn’t some form of taint and mistake, a Fall™ (challenges to Morgoth here don’t count, he is the fall; this is about Eru and the Valar).

(I think here it’s relevant to note that the elves not being in ME is elsewhere called out as a loss for Men, who do not have the “elder siblings” at hand who were supposed to teach them and guide them; as well as the fact that Eru in morgoth’s ring mentions, himself, that the elves have been “removed to Aman from the Middle Earth in which I set them”. so it’s not necessarily so straightforward in all aspects — but I think a discussion on that would be going a little too much beyond the scope of this tbh)

I believe my point is exemplified by a note in this same letter:

“preservation in reverent memory” here is not negatively judged, despite being effectively an antiquarian lore memorial to (”good”) tradition. Elrond also rebukes Sauron, and is not at all subjected to the same Ring-related test as Galadriel in LotR. and I think this is sort of the narrative point of the story, part of the greater (in good measure theological) thesis underlying it. and why I called it a value judgement. 

[teabooksandsweets]

Bright blue his Jacket is

Who is Bombadil? He is. According to his wife, Goldberry, and his creator, J. R. R. Tolkien, we are to be content with this. I, for one, am, because I trust the author about his own intentions and take his words as the final word about them.

But that doesn't mean that I cannot have my own thoughts regarding such a particularly mysterious, and intriguing figure. And, as it is, I like Bombadil. Though most readers of Tolkien's work will agree that he is a mystery, he is often found to be annoying, disruptive and, even, incongruous with the story's style

[…] and even in a mythical Age there must be some enigmas, as there always are. Tom Bombadil is one (intentionally).

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter #144

Tom Bombadil is an enigma, and that is just right as it is. There is no need to explain

I suppose he has some importance as a 'comment' […] and he represents something that I feel important, though I would not be prepared to analyse the feeling precisely […] Ultimately only the victory of the West will allow Bombadil to continue, or even to survive. Nothing would be left for him in the world of Sauron.

The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Letter #153

Bombadil is comment, a symbol of what is good and ought to be preserved, and a thing for itself, outside the story. Yet, despite his apparent immunity to major powers, such as the Ring itself, he would not be left unaffected by the actual destruction of his environment. This is of consequence, but I will come to it later on.

A common theory about Tom Bombadil's true identity is that he is supposed to be Eru Ilúvatar himself—or at least, his incarnation in Middle-earth. Tolkien denied this, and I don't see why I or anyone should dispute this. It is an understandable theory, as Tom Bombadil is ancient, of incomparable power and nature, and inexplicable. But he is a being for himself and his surroundings, not involved or interested in the dealings the rest of the world and its peoples.

And I, personally, don't think it would suit Tolkien to portray his creator of Arda in such a manner—though I don't want to make assumptions about him in that regard, just as I don't agree with those who argue that Bombadil would not fit Tolkien's style and narrate, because what an author includes in his work suits his style and narrative. But, aside from Tolkien's own denial of this particular theory, I have another reason for my own thoughts regarding it: Tom Bombadil is, though older than all of Arda, not necessarily older than anyone or anything else.

“Eldest, that's what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the Little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless—before the Dark Lord came from Outside.”

The Fellowship of the Ring

Tom Bombadil lived before the world was created, or, at least, before it was as one knew it. He knew a time before “the Dark Lord came from the Outside”, which might refer to Sauron or Morgoth, although it isn't clear whether or not he lived before their rebellion, or even before their creation.

All this does not mean that Bombadil is the great creator himself. Nor does it mean that he is one of the Ainur, as is another popular theory. As the Maiar are not immune to the One Ring's influence, and all Valar are named and known, I consider this unlikely. Nor would it be in accordance with his singularity, and his deep connection to the place his is in.

Now, there's a few who like the idea of Tom being evil. But it doesn't appear to be in his nature, it doesn't agree with Tolkien's own comments, and wouldn't explain what made him so different from all other life in Middle-earth. A special evil being or spirit, of greater power than is otherwise known—yes, that might be an appealing idea if one finds a jolly old man to be too boring without a sinister background, but it would still leave us where we are. Who is he? What is he? Why is he—like that?—so other?

But one of those evil theories, that he is indeed the evil spirit of the forest, comes remarkably close to my own thoughts about him.

Tom Bombadil, as Goldberry said, “is”. He represents himself, and his right to be in the story does not need an explanation, nor an apology, as it was only up to the author to make this decision. He existed, in a way, before many a part of the Legendarium, and in that sense, his own explanation of himself and his great age might be even a nod to the reader. The Lord of the Rings is, after all, a fictional translation, and many a thing just a means for the reader from our world to understand the going-ons in another. Who knows what his counterpart in the “original” Red Book of Westmarch would be, with no Dutch doll to inspire the “translator”? But I should not dive too deep into a story which, in this sense, doesn't exist.

Shoving the art of writing and the science of stories aside for a moment, and look at the story from within, as if it were real. What could explain Tom's nature?

I assume my idea is not better than most. But it does appeal more to me. It has so for a while, though I just now got around to writing it down.

He is older than all that is known and seen in Middle-earth, though not likely older than anything else. He is not affected by the One Ring as any mortal (or even immortal) man or otherwise sentient being would be, yet “there would be nothing left for him” under Sauron's rule. His wife is “the River-woman's daughter” and likely a spirit. He claims the land does not belong to him, but to itself, yet it seems also inseparable from him. He is not evil, it does not appeal to him or have immediate power over him, yet it does also not agree with him. He is not precisely good, nor does he care much about the dealings and doings of other people and beings.

His demeanour and nature are lively, earthly, and robust. And thoroughly physical—although apparently a spirit or spiritual being, he is exceedingly bodily and alive, concerned first and foremost with his wife, his land, and his food and drink. So physical, indeed, that no supernatural power seems to appeal to him so much as to fall for it, so different is his own interest, his own nature incompatible with a thing such as the One Ring.

Now I get to the tricky part—because I don't want to make any sort of assumption about J. R. R. Tolkien's own ideas, nor would I claim my theory to be in accordance with his intentions. But I want to say what my own idea is anyway, and I like it, because, even though I don't think that that's what's supposed to be true in the book, at least not directly so—not clearly, specifically, though possibly, just possibly, at the edge of it—it is beautifully fit, compatible so to speak, not really wrong.

Tom Bombadil is Middle-earth. In one way, or another. Its spirit, perhaps, or its man-like form, its protective soul, or a representative, for the reader only, or even for its inhabitants. He, as Verlyn Flieger said, does not desire to dominate, and hence cannot be dominated. I think that is, perhaps, because he dominates all that is in his nature to dominate, and is dominated by all that his in his nature to be dominated by. Not more, nor less.

He came to Middle-earth with its creation, and he is Middle-earth in all its states and stages. He does not want more than Middle-earth, but he cannot have less than Middle-earth, because it is he and he is it. He is. Mind you—not Arda, not Eä, only Middle-earth. But Middle-earth, in its entirety.

Made and sent by Eru, but not as a person, but as a place, he cannot exist in accordance with pure evil—there would be nothing left for him—but not intervening in the doings of and dealings of his own inhabitants. At least, not going further than nature itself, in the shape of a jolly old man, could or would do.

So much for my theory.

But in truth and canon and fact, Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster. That, I suppose, is all we ought to know.

[diversetolkien]

Hey yal! Below is a submissions I received regarding my Eol and Maeglin post. My responses are indented with the grey line! OPs are not!

——————————————————————————————————

First of all, it is absolutely necessary to draw attention to the things you’re drawing attention to. Whether you are “right” or “wrong,” or whether anyone is “right” or “wrong” is beside the point of the argument in my opinion: these issues simply need to be addressed! We need discussion and different points of view and they all need to be considered and we need them now more than ever. There are clear examples that are sketchy to say the very least: good guys are fair-skinned but the evil men ((, Haradrim) are not; orcs, clearly bad guys, are “swarthy” and “slant-eyed”. However, I do believe your point about Eöl and Maeglin on June 10 are off the mark. I believe you get too carried away by the title “dark” and hang your entire argument up on that. As far as I know, there is no textual evidence that Eöl was a dark-skinned elf at all.

Hello there! Thank you for the message. I do want to emphasize that I’ve been incredibly reluctant to answer this. As of resharing my meta I received a terribly racist message from a user on the website, and will tread cautiously with addressing any messages regarding Eol and Maeglin due to that. I completely agree that we do need discussion, and I’m open for it. This is the only way we can progress. But I won’t tolerate blatant racism.

I’m not accusing you of doing such, but for future references I want to make this clear.

While you believe I may get carried away on the aspect of dark or ‘swarth’, I think it may be important to explain what racial coding is, and also to remind you of Tolkien’s history with coding and with people of color. I talked about coding on my twitter, but in short coding is ascribing real world traits to fictional characters.

This includes attributing the historical and social context to the text to prove a point.

We’ve discussed how Tolkien has borrowed from cultures aside from his own, and with The Silmarillion published in the late 70’s, it’s not impossible to see how influence from America and racial influence there have played a role in his writings.

I also wouldn’t call it being ‘carried away’, when, as we both agree, Tolkien has a history of racism directed at people of color.

And at the same time, I think it’s important to note that while you dismiss the possibility of Tolkien considering Eol dark despite the use of swarth, you ascribe swarth to the orcs and their skin tone in the same breath. I don’t see why it’s impossible for the two to mean the same thing. Not when we do have a racist author who grew up in a very racist society already using dark skin to describe evil characers. Not when Eol’s narrative of the brute mirrors that of the orcs (ie: Celebrian and the Orcs).

And regardless if it is explicit or not, Eol is still coded. Again, we know this because we have canon stories that mirror his completely. This being, again, Celebrian and the Orcs.

We can also accept that Tolkien’s constant use of “dark” to describe evil things, and “light” to describe good things comes from a place of racism. So why is there such push back when we analyze that further?

Tolkien was known to ponder about problems, such as missing words in the Germanic languages. The term asterisk-word is coined by August Schleicher for exactly this purpose: words that should have existed in a (dead) language but aren’t recorded and needed therefore to be reconstructed. For example, Tolkien doesn’t have a recollection of how he came upon the word “hobbit” but to make it fit his Legendarium he made the asterisk-word *holbytlan, supposedly an old English word meaning “hole-builders” because hobbit language was akin to Old English. This word doesn’t exist in old English but could (and maybe should) have. Tolkien also wrote a long argument about a particular difficult passage in the Beowulf-poem which you can read in “Finn and Hengest.” Now normally I would never try to talk straight what’s curved, but Tolkien is a bit of a different case as I hope the above examples show.

The case of Eöl is a trick(s)y problem that stems from the “Prose Edda” written by Snorri Sturluson, an Icelandic poet who lived in the 12th century. This is thoroughly explained by Tom Shippey in his essay “Light-elves, Dark-elves, and Others: Tolkien Elvish Problem”. A quick summary is (but one really ought to read Shippey’s essay to understand it) that there are light-elves, dark-elves, dwarves and black-elves in the “Prose Edda.” Germanic scholars such as Nikolas Grundtvig and Jacob Grimm bent themselves in all kinds of shapes to explain the “error” that Snorri made. Are the black-elves the same as the dark-elves? Are both black-elves and dark-elves dwarves? What about twilight-elves? Tolkien pulls all the different strands of this one problem together and called it Eöl the Dark Elf. He could never have done this in an academic work if he wanted to be taken seriously, so his fiction seemed a great outlet to deal with this. Maybe it was all a private amusement because Tolkien never mentioned it as far as I know.

I personally can’t recall Eöl ever being called dark-skinned. He is considered “black” due to the armour he’s wearing made out of the metal galvorn that he made himself after coming into contact with dwarves (which also ties in masterfully with the whole elf-problem, again, see Shippey’s essay), but it’s not skin colour. Eöl was called the Dark Elf because he lived in a place where the sun never came. It was called Nan Almoth, the valley of the star pool, and he loved the stars, and loved to live in the twilight. The twilight-part is important in the above discussion as well.

I understand you are trying to be informative but please don’t be patronizing. Please do not explain to me what I already know. In the future, I will not be answering messages like this again. This is incredibly rude. You are assuming I don’t know about what I made a meta about, and that’s an insult to what I’ve written.

Please read my blog fully before you attempt to whitesplain something I already know. I understand debate, but there is a clear different between wanting to have a healthy discourse, and flat out patronizing me and treating me like a child.

Back the the point; The same, again, can be applied to the orcs. The orcs wear dark armor, were tortured by a creature who is often described as dark, reside in dark areas—but we know clearly that they are coded off of people given the description of them being swarthy.

The same attribute that’s given to Eol. And again, we have a clear historical context and in-canon context. And we know that Tolkien borrows from American history, and that England itself had a huge role to play in that history.

Finally, the citation from the Book of Lost Tales (BLT) where Maeglin is called swart is problematic to me. I think it’s as much proof against your point as it is in favour of it. Many, many things have changed since the BLT was written and turned into The Silmarillion (I mean Sauron was a giant cat at first!). The BLT version of Maeglin being “swart” is a discarded  version and in The Silmarillion, a way later revision, “his skin was white”. I think it would be wrong to conclude Tolkien discarded the swart skin of Maeglin as he realised it was racist. I think he simply hadn’t figured out the elf problem of the Edda when he wrote the BLT.

I think this is all negated by the fact that Tolkien has canonical characters of color, and that they have been coded. I’m having an incredibly hard time wrapping my head around why that’s accepted, yet when it comes to Eol and Maeglin it isn’t. We can accept that Tolkien has a history of racism with people of color, based on evidence far less than what I’ve provided. Maeglin’s light skin can be attributed to the fact that his mother was light. It’s possible to have a dark parent and be born light.  

And regardless if it was changed or not, it’s incredibly important to discuss it due to the fact that it was racist, and deserves to be brought to light.

I want to stress, again, that I think your work and thoughts are important, no matter if I or anyone else agrees or disagrees. It is of the utmost importance to address issues of racism, genderism and any other kinds of ism that is out there. Discussion is what matters!

[amethysttribble]

In which I incoherently consider Legolas’s place in Tolkien’s Lore

Honestly, the more I think on it, the more I CANNOT believe that Legolas ended up being The Elf of LOTR. Out of every complex, deeply developed, Elf with an intricate history in Tolkien’s works, the fact the Legolas ‘Sindar/Silvan forest elf‘ Thranduilion has become the face of Tolkien’s elves is insane to me.

And this isn’t me saying Legolas doesn’t deserve to be. Legolas is a fantastic character with a great arc, I love him to fucking bits. I’m not saying that the general public should acknowledge all the other elves more either. 

I’m saying: I cannot believe that TOLKIEN wrote LEGOLAS as the Fellowship elf, the elf that represents all the elves among the free peoples of ME.

I’m not calling this a bad move, just a baffling one. Because the more I read of Tolkein’s intricate works, the more you dive into his lore, to more insignificant Legolas becomes. The more you think on it, the more it doesn’t make sense narratively. The more I consider Tolkien’s biases in how he presents the elves, the more I can’t understand how he let the premier Elven character be someone so ‘lowly’, so to speak.

Legolas is a complete outlier among Tolkien’s elves, and that he’s The Elf™ baffles me.

Tolkien tells us hardly anything about Legolas. We don’t know his hair color, his age, reputation prior to the quest, but most importantly we don’t know anything about his family! Oropher -> Thranduil -> Legolas. That’s it! Out of all those confusing, intricate, over-thought family trees, Tolkien NEVER deigned to make one for LEGOLAS! THE ELF! OF THE FELLOWSHIP! 

Most of the fandom assumes Oropher’s related to Thingol SOMEHOW, but he’s some estranged nephew or cousin at most, an no one important enough to mention in the Silmarillion obviously. Even in the Unfinished Tales, he’s a bit of the footnote. We don’t know how he was related to all the Sindar, how he might know Celeborn or Cirdan, nor why he stayed in ME! Oropher is a veritable no-name of an elf, even though he’s a king.

Tolkien has apparently put no thought into Legolas’s family (unlike Elrond for example). Why? Why not focus a bit more on the Greenwood when Legolas should be so important. Time? Well Tolkien certainly had that, he just cared more about the Noldor. Apparently Prince Legolas’s realm didn’t matter enough to get attention sooner. Interest? That seems to be the case, but again, why ignore the Fellowship elf so much? Narrative Relevance? If Oropher’s people mattered little to the rest of ME, I guess that makes sense. But then here’s the big question:

Why make Legolas the Fellowship Elf in that case?

Considered from a story-telling perspective in accordance with the Silm and or legendarium stuff, it would have made more sense from one of Elrond’s sons to join the Fellowship. Elladan and Elrohir are Noldo, they have the symbolic fight against Sauron that lasted the entire First Age. Plus, they are related to EVERYONE basically in the Silm,  they could settle the family debt against Sauron, whether that debt be Feanorian, Fingolfinian, Finarfinian, or LUTHIEN’S LINE! 

What score does Legolas have to settle? There’s Mirkwood, but nothing else. If he has a familial vendetta, Tolkien doesn’t tell us. And even if we count the death of Oropher and the corruption of Mirkwood, TOLKIEN DOESN”T TELL US MUCH ABOUT THAT EITHER. Mirkwood is is so unimportant to ME except for their petty fight with the Erebor dwarves that they aren’t even deserving of a ring. The LARGEST elven kingdom isn’t deserving of one of the three Elven Rings. But Cirdan is for being wise. Which just proves how looked down upon Legolas’s people are! They’re the ‘less wise and more dangerous’ elves. They are literally the country bumbkins of elven kind, scorned and dismissed and discriminated against.

Which brings me to what really throws me off about Legolas being the elven hero of LOTR. 

The Moriquendi. 

Tolkien spends a fair amount of the Silm waxing poetic about how wise and fair and good those elves that have seen the Light of the Two Trees are. The Vanyar (who don’t even try to fight most of the time) are The Best™ elves for staying in Valinor. The Feanorians are GREAT even if they’re TERRIBLE because they were from Valinor. Great King Thingol has even seen the light of the trees, and is 100% confirmed, not really one of the Moriquendi. It’s always felt to me that the earlier the elves stopped walking on the Great Journey, the more Tolkien considered them un-wise, un-fair, un-clever elves. 

And it’s a damn good possibility that Legolas is half-Silvan. He’s almost an avar!

Legolas has no connection to any of the Elves Tolkien showed preference too. He showed up out of no where (narratively speaking), became the premier Elven hero of ME, and didn’t settle a single one of the conflicts left open by the Silm. WOULDN”T IT HAVE MADE SENSE IF SOMEONE CONNECTED TO CELEBRIMBOR OPPOSED SAURON?

But they didn’t. It was Legolas. Probably Silvan, might be from a Sindarin PEASANT line for all we know, his family ran from Valinor, they could not care less about Noldorin rings, LEGOLAS. 

And it’s amazing. It’s beautiful. It’s an homage to all those goddamn Anglo-Saxon tales where someone came from the middle of nowhere, slayed the big-bad, and fucked off home. It ties in with the environmentalist message about the forest elves being the healers when the Noldorin smiths only wrought destruction. It’s poetic that the people (Oropher’s Sindar and Silvan) who ACTUALLY WANTED TO STAY IN ME provide the Elf who helps save ME. It reinforces the theme that a hero can come from anywhere, be they hobbit, dirty ranger, or elf from an inglorious line. 

I don’t know how well developed the Silm was when Tolkien wrote LOTR but I know it was decently far along; even if it wasn’t, nothing explains why Legolas’s family history was so neglected by Tolkien going forward. So, I don’t know what Tolkien was thinking when he made Legolas the representative of the Fellowship. He might have left him a blank slate on purpose, but it’s more than likely he just didn’t care about Legolas and his family and that’s wild to me! 

Legolas joining the fellowship was a decision that I think was definitely for the best (the goddamn Sindar deserved to have a hero after being fucked over continuously in the Silm), but... I still can’t believe it happened. 

Just wow.

[asgardian--angels]

Calling All LOTR fans! Why aren’t you on LOTRO yet??

Hey everyone! It’s Molly here - aka, Sauron’s #1 fan lmao. 

Now, we’re a big fandom, between LOTR and the Hobbit and the Silm, there’s millions of us out there, and thousands on Tumblr! And we’re always looking for new ways to experience and interact with Tolkien’s legendarium. Plus, many of us have an overlapping interest in gaming, of any sort. But even if you don’t - read on, I implore you! 

There’s an incredibly awesome free MMORPG out there, one that I’ve been playing for years. It’s called LOTRO - Lord of the Rings Online - and it’s gotta be my absolute favorite interpretation of Middle-Earth ever. 

For those not aware, an MMORPG is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game, basically an open world PC game that has thousands of other users you can interact with within the confines of the game’s universe. And in this case, that’s Middle-Earth! 

Everything you know and love about Tolkien’s world is brought to life in stunning thoughtful detail, from the rolling hills of the Shire to the eaves of Fangorn and beyond. You become an integral part of the story of Middle-Earth, assisting the Fellowship both directly and in the littler ways that count most of all - staving off the forces of darkness by doing good deeds and helping the folk of Eriador, Rhovanion, and Gondor. Everything you do ripples outwards to influence the fate of Arda itself! Without you, there would be no hope for the Fellowship to succeed in its dire quest. Traveling from land to land, you become beloved and treasured as a hero by all the free peoples of Middle-Earth, royal and common folk alike. While you may start out small, soon your path will bring you to the feet of great lords and kings, and onto the very doorstep of Mordor itself, where the Dark Lord awaits. Fight the fell beasts of Sauron, skip through the Old Forest with Tom Bombadil, and ride your warsteed across the vast open plains of Rohan - the world is yours to explore, and to save, if you can. Middle-Earth depends on you.

I truly can’t overstate how much I love LOTRO. I’ve been playing for five years now and I am just as much in love with it as the day I first started. It’s always a little dicey, as a Tolkien fan, especially if you’re a highly devoted one, trying to judge and decide if an interpretation of his work will enhance your experience or ruin it - you just want to see justice done by him and everything he stood for. Trust me, I’m like that too (there’s no need to talk about a certain upcoming Amazon series...). So believe me when I tell you that the spirit of Tolkien comes alive in this game. The creators, writers, and designers of LOTRO have put so much thought and care, and heart, into staying true to Tolkien’s vision and messages. Great attention and care is paid with respect to accuracy to the lore and languages Tolkien created as well, something that cements the authenticity of LOTRO for diehard fans. You just feel good playing it (and honestly, I feel like it’s helped my self-esteem?? Those little virtual hobbits are so grateful for everything you do). Warm fuzzies all around. With a fair helping of angst, can’t forget that. Not all stories can have happy endings, but with your help, a whole lot of them can. 

So... maybe you’ve read this far, and are a teensy bit interested? Or at least intrigued. This is a chance to expand the world of Tolkien to something you can actually immerse yourself in, be a part of, explore like never before! Wander the cobblestone streets of Bree, smell the pipe-smoke in the Prancing Pony, feel the chill winds of the icy wastes of Forochel upon your face. Do you have the guts to face the Witch-King himself? 

LOTRO has so much to offer! Whether you are interested from a gaming perspective, or a story perspective, it’s endless fun. Before LOTRO I’d never played an MMO, and I certainly would not consider myself a gamer. I came from a love of Middle-Earth, and came for a chance to see that story brought to life. So don’t count it out if you think you’re not up for some hardcore gaming lifestyle - this game has the pace that you set for it. Whether you join a social kinship and roleplay, a raid group to do skirmishes, or go it alone and fish the day away, the possibilities are endless. 

Plus, I feel like it’s worth stating that the scenery in LOTRO is astoundingly beautiful. It’s not uncommon for my friends and I to ride around just for the view. And you know what else? The music, guys. Just, the music. LOTRO has been blessed these many years with composer Chance Thomas, who has crafted some of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard - comparable to those of the Lord of the Rings films themselves. He truly encapsulates the emotions, the grandeur, the coziness, the uneasiness, the dread and the joy, of every corner of Middle-Earth. (It’s so well-loved by players that TWO official soundtracks were even put out, and I play them in my car all the time, ngl. Check out one of the Rohan tracks here!)

So, for the nitty gritty that you may be wondering about! This is a great time to join LOTRO. Over the years, the game has grown tremendously, adding more regions of Middle-Earth to quest in, building more storylines, and expanding the characters you can have, the clothes you can wear, and the activities you can do! Currently, you can play several races - Man, Dwarf, Elf, High Elf, Hobbit, and Beorning - as well as a wide variety of classes - hunter, lore-master, rune-keeper, burglar, champion, minstrel, captain, guardian, and warden- each with their own unique stories and abilities. Multiple characters can be created for free on one account. There’s a wide customization capability for characters and cosmetic items, for housing, steeds, emotes, pets, and more. That’s part of what makes LOTRO so fun! Most expansions can be purchased in-game using points earned by completing deeds, making LOTRO affordable and FTP (free to play) for a large proportion of its content. Additionally, we have an incredibly thorough and comprehensive Wiki-style website for all LOTRO-related information. This is an incredibly knowledgeable and welcoming community.

...Did I add that there’s maiar in the game too? If you have a keen eye you’ll spot them.

Molly why are really you making this post?

Now, earlier I mentioned kinships. Traveling Middle-Earth can often be more fun with others, and having friends can help you learn the game and offer advice and insight. They can be roleplay partners, band members (yes, you can play instruments in the game!), or just buddies to talk to. Many LOTRO players are in kinships, and each is different, depending on what you want to get out of the experience. You can find a kinship within the game, or on social media - in fact, I found my kinship, the one I’ve been in all these years, right here on Tumblr! I want to extend that hand in friendship to potential new players that are in the position I was all those years ago. 

Our humble kinship is called Dwarrowdam. You may recall this is the name for a lady-dwarf! While many of our members are dwarrowdams, that is by no means a prerequisite. We welcome players of all races and classes. Dwarrowdam is a casual social kinship, where we enjoy helping others out, from learning the ropes to festival activities, deeding, raids, concerts, and much more. We host weekly kin nights, where we get together and have fun for a couple of hours. This kinship has been going almost since the start of LOTRO itself, and we are eager to meet new people! A few of our higher-ranking members have had to depart after many years, due to real life commitments, and we hope to build our ranks again. We all thoroughly enjoy mentoring new players, myself included. Dwarrowdam would be a great choice for kinship for any player just starting out, or a continuing player looking for a relaxed social atmosphere as part of their gameplay experience! We are located on the Landroval server, which itself is known for its friendliness and its roleplay opportunities. It is our hope that gaining a solid handful of new, active members will allow our kinship to return to its former glory. Kinships can fizzle out and dissolve if too many players leave, and that is the last thing we want to happen to Dwarrowdam. It’s been like a home for me and many others, and I believe we can restore it.

I am an officer in the Dwarrowdam kinship, along with Badari and Daerhovan. We strongly encourage you to contact us with any questions you might have, about the kinship or LOTRO itself, or if you would like to join Dwarrowdam. 

Anyone who loves Tolkien and Middle-Earth should give LOTRO a try. For me, finding it was like filling a hole in my life I never knew existed. It’s thrilling, peaceful, emotional, hopeful, all in one - basically, everything that the stories we know and love already are, but brought to life in front of us. I’d like to think that if you tried it, you’d love it as much as I do. And if you’re in need of a kinship, please consider Dwarrowdam. 

And besides, look at Gandalf and his bushy eyebrows. You can’t say no to that.

[tolkien-fandom-history]

Interview with Angela P. Nicholas--author of "Aragorn: J.R.R. Tolkien's Undervalued Hero"

We were very excited to have the opportunity to interview author Angela P. Nicholas. Her book "Aragorn: J.R.R. Tolkien's Undervalued Hero" is an extremely detailed, in depth examination of Tolkien's Aragorn--his life, his relationships, his achievements, his skills, and his personality. It is a very worthwhile addition to any Tolkien library. She has some fascinating insights into Aragorn, book vs movie representations of the character, thoughts on the upcoming Amazon series and fan fiction as part of the Tolkien fandom. Hope you enjoy reading it!

1. How did you first become interested in Tolkien?

Answer:

Although The Lord of the Rings was very much in fashion during my student days in the late sixties and early seventies I wasn't interested in it at that stage – probably because I didn't tend to follow fashions! It was not until a few years later, in 1973, that a friend persuaded me to read it. He stressed that it would be a good idea to read The Hobbit first and promised me that I was "in for a treat". I was hooked immediately and when I got together with my future husband soon afterwards I wasted no time in introducing him to Tolkien's works as well! I re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings several times during the seventies and bought The Silmarillion as soon as it was published in 1977. Further readings have followed since, especially while working on Aragorn, extending to Unfinished Tales, the twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth and Tolkien's Letters as well.*

2. Aside from reading the books, have you had any other immersion in the Tolkien fandom? Online, through societies, other venues?

Answer:

My Tolkien-related activities include membership of the Tolkien Society since 2005, leading to attendance at Oxonmoot (most years) plus a number of AGMs, the occasional seminar and the event in Loughborough in 2012. I've contributed several articles to Amon Hen and also gave a talk about Aragorn at Oxonmoot a few years ago. In addition I attend meetings of my local smial (Southfarthing) which is actually a Tolkien Reading Group.

3. There are so many richly written, deeply compelling characters in Tolkien. How did you decide to focus on Aragorn?

Answer:

There wasn't really any decision to make, as right from the start I found Aragorn the most complex and appealing character in the book. Every time I re-read The Lord of the Rings - including delving into the Appendices - I found new depths to his character and significance.

4. What prompted you to write this book? How did the impetus to write about him, in such rich detail, come about?

​Answer:

The actual impetus came from Peter Jackson's Lord of the ​Rings films. Although I enjoyed his portrayal of Aragorn in some ways, it ​was clear that there were significant differences between the film and book ​versions of the character. For my own satisfaction I decided to re-discover ​Tolkien's Aragorn by studying all the Middle-earth writings and making ​detailed notes on anything of interest. I did not, at that stage, see myself ​actually writing a book.

5. Did you initially plan such an exhaustive and detailed study of this character, when you first decided to write the book?

Answer:

No, I didn't envisage anything so detailed. It just got out of hand: the more notes I made the more ideas I had and the thing just grew exponentially!

6. The title makes use of the word ‘undervalued’—how do you define that in terms of Aragorn and how did you come to associate that word with him?

Answer:

While studying Aragorn it became clear to me that his role in the story is a lot more significant than is immediately apparent. This is partly because the book is “hobbito-centric”, to use Tolkien's own word [see end of Letter 181 in The Letters of J R R Tolkien edited by Humphrey Carpenter], so is largely written from the hobbit viewpoint. For this reason Aragorn's ancestry and earlier life are only described in the Appendices, which not everyone reads. Thus his deeds - and their significance - are often overlooked, causing him and his role to be undervalued. Chapter 1.5 of my book in particular aims to address this problem by concentrating on the story of The Lord of the Rings from Aragorn's point of view. He does many crucial things behind the scenes, for example: the lengthy search for Gollum; standing in for Gandalf as shown by the secret vigil he conducts over Frodo during the months before the latter's departure from the Shire; and - the most significant achievement - confronting Sauron in the Palantír of Orthanc thus implying that he himself has the Ring and so diverting Sauron's attention away from Frodo.

7. If you were to consider writing a similar book about another character from Tolkien’s legendarium who would you choose to focus on?

Answer:

I find Finrod Felagund, Galadriel and Elrond interesting, especially in the light of their impact on Aragorn and his ancestry. Among the hobbits, Merry Brandybuck is rather appealing. However I have to say that I am not planning to do another book on this scale!

8. What were your thoughts on the portrayal of Aragorn in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies?

​Answer:

Given “book” Aragorn's lengthy struggle to regain the kingships of ​Arnor and Gondor and to be deemed worthy of marrying his beloved ​Arwen, it was extremely disappointing to be presented with the image of ​“Aragorn the reluctant king” who breaks off his engagement so Arwen can ​sail west.

​In general I felt there was too much emphasis on Aragorn as a fighter, ​along with almost total neglect of his formidable healing skills, impressive ​foresight and knowledge of history and lore.

​Another great disappointment was the omission of the challenge to Sauron ​in the Orthanc Stone. Yes, this incident was included in the extended ​version of The Return of the King, but it appeared in the wrong place and ​also gave the impression that Aragorn lost the confrontation. (The credit for ​seeing the enemy's plans in the Stone was actually given to Pippin!)

​In addition I found the beheading of the Mouth of Sauron particularly ​disturbing.

9. Did you find Viggo Mortensen believable and appealing as Aragorn?

Answer:

In spite of my answer to the previous question I liked Viggo Mortensen's performance. He did actually look something like my image of Aragorn and he seemed to capture the sadness, remoteness, physical courage and protectiveness I associate with the character. Basically I thought that Mortensen did very well with the part he was given to play - but the part was not that of Tolkien's Aragorn!

10. Amazon has bought the rights to the appendices of the Lord of the Rings and is planning a 5 part series. Rumor has it that the first season will focus on young Aragorn. What do you hope to see in this adaptation and are there any particular incidents/scenes/events that you think merit particular attention or inclusion?

Answer: The following seem to me to be important:

- Putting Aragorn's early life in the context of “Estel”, the Hope of the Dúnedain, who has been prophesied to be the one who will atone for Isildur's failure to destroy the Ring, and who will restore the kingship of Men.

- Some emphasis on his family members: Ivorwen, Dírhael, Gilraen, the death of Arathorn, subsequent fostering by Elrond, and training by Elladan and Elrohir. Some indication of the close relationship with his foster-father would be good: Elrond loved Aragorn as much as his own children but this was not made apparent in the Peter Jackson films.

- The scene when Elrond tells the 20-year-old Aragorn his true identity.

- First meeting with Arwen

- Friendship with Gandalf from age 25 onward

- Betrothal to Arwen, and Galadriel's involvement: he was 49 by this time, so that may not be considered part of his early life (though 49 would be young for one of the Dúnedain!)

- Perhaps some reference to the events of The Hobbit in 2941-2 when we know that 10/11-year-old Aragorn was living in Rivendell.

11. What do you find most inspiring about Tolkien’s world?

Answer:

The depiction of such a complete and seemingly realistic world, and the fact that one can pick up extra hidden depths in both story and characters on each re-reading. There is always something else to discover or a new interpretation of a familiar passage.

12. Are you involved in any more projects involving Tolkien?

Answer:

Not at the moment. I have one or two ideas for possible short articles.

13. What advice would you give to those first encountering Tolkien’s work and wanting to learn more about Middle-earth and its inhabitants?

Answer:

Speaking from my own experience I would say: Read The Hobbit first then The Lord of the Rings several times, including the Appendices, before delving into other works: The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth and Tolkien's Letters, plus critical works, etc. - and of course online sources which were not available when I first became interested in Tolkien.

14. In the preface to your book you mention discovering the online Tolkien fanfiction community—what are your thoughts on Tolkien fanfiction? What time frame was this and did you join the fanfiction community at that time?

Answer:

I started writing fanfiction during 2003 and continued doing it until about 2007 which was when I made the decision to write a serious work about Aragorn. One piece of fanfiction appeared in Amon Hen, and the rest on a couple of websites which I think no longer exist.

My main thought about fanfiction is that it was this which started me off writing. It was very much an experiment as my last attempts at creative writing dated back to my school English lessons in the 1960s! Without trying the fanfiction first I don't think I would ever have got round to writing articles for Amon Hen, let alone my book.

15. Did encountering fanfiction or even writing it have an effect on your thoughts on Aragorn and the salient points of his character that truly defined him?

Answer:

Yes - because the chief aim of the fanfiction (mine and, I suspect, that of other fanfiction writers) was to fill in the gaps in Aragorn's story. I scoured the text for possible motives and feelings of the people I was writing about. My fanfiction was always based on the “book” version of the story and characters (never on the film version). I did sometimes use invented characters but only to add detail and interest to the story. For exampIe this approach was used when writing about Aragorn's Rangers and when describing his interactions with the inhabitants of Bree. Some stories were actually based on invented characters, in order to try and see Aragorn through the eyes of others. This probably helped me when writing the “Relationship” chapters [see next question.]

16. One aspect of your book that to me is truly unique is Part 2, where you study and interpret his interactions and relationships with the other races and individuals he encounters in Middle-earth. What made you decide to pursue this format?

Answer:

It just seemed the most logical approach. I couldn't study Aragorn's relationships properly without also studying the other half of each different relationship. There was so much to be revealed about both parties in these studies, many of which were based around families and generations (such as in Rohan, and Gondor, and in the Rivendell and Lothlórien communities).

17. Aragorn as a character brings together elements and bloodlines from the First Age into the Fourth Age—you outline these genealogies and relationships quite thoroughly in your book. How do you think this knowledge of his genealogy affected him in his transition from youth to Ranger to King? Is there a character from the earlier Ages that you think had a more significant impact on him or that he resembles the most in character?

Answer: Aragorn would presumably have learnt about these people as a child during his history lessons, but would not have connected them specifically with himself until he was made aware of his true identity at the age of 20.

Elendil, Isildur and Anárion stand out as the obvious significant ancestors whom Aragorn would have striven to emulate - plus, in the case of Isildur, also to atone for his failure to destroy the Ring.

Other ancestors who may well have inspired admiration and/or gratitude in Aragorn include:

- Elendur the self-sacrificing eldest son of Isildur. A passage in Unfinished Tales refers to Elrond seeing a huge similarity between Elendur and Aragorn, both physically and in character. [See footnote 26 at the end of The Disaster of the Gladden Fields.]

- Amandil, the father of Elendil, who advised his son to gather his family and possessions in secret and plan an escape from Númenor in the event of a disaster, before himself courageously setting out for the Undying Lands to plead for mercy for the Númenóreans. He was never heard of again, but the Númenórean race was saved due to Elendil's successful escape to Middle-earth after following his father's instructions.

- Tar-Elendil the 4th King of Númenor and his daughter Silmarien. The royal line of Númenor and its heirlooms only survived via this female line.

- Tar-Palantir the penultimate King of Númenor who resisted the influence of Sauron and tried to turn the Númenóreans back to friendship with the Eldar.

Another notable ancestor for a different reason was Arvedui, the last King of the North Kingdom, who tried to claim the throne of Gondor as well but was rejected and ended up losing both kingdoms before fleeing to the frozen north where he died in a shipwreck. Aragorn must have regarded his own mission to reunite the two kingdoms just over 1,000 years later with some apprehension.

Ar-Pharazôn would clearly have served as a dire warning!

I wonder if Aragorn felt any unease about his namesake, Aragorn I, being killed by wolves!

A comment in Appendix AI(i) of The Lord of the Rings states that the Númenóreans came to resent the choice of Elros to be mortal, thus triggering their yearning for immortality and their subsequent downfall. Did Aragorn ever resent his ancestor's choice? Personally I think he would have had the knowledge and wisdom to understand Ilúvatar's purpose in reuniting the immortal line of Elrond with the mortal line of Elros (through the marriage of Arwen and Aragorn) in order to strengthen the royal line prior to the departure of the Elves and the beginning of the Age of Men.

18. What are your thoughts on the original premise that Aragorn was Trotter, a hobbit?

Answer:

Eeek! The grinning and the wooden shoes! I don't think that the book could possibly have had the same impact, depth and sense of history if the main characters had all been hobbits. I seem to remember that the name “Trotter” still survived for a while after he became a man. “Strider” sounds much better. I'm so glad Tolkien didn't pursue the original idea.

19. Do you have any advice for budding Tolkien acolytes and scholars who are first delving into the legendarium?

Answer:

Read and re-read, record thoughts, ideas, passages worth quoting. Read what JRRT wrote and what others have written. This worked for me, over a very long period - more by accident than design.

*this answer is the same as Angela's answer in the Luna Press interview with her as it has not changed! Take a look at that article for more information on Angela and her book. https://www.lunapresspublishing.com/single-post/2017/09/04/Aragorn---A-Companion-Book

Interviewed by @maedhrosrussandol

July 14th 2018

[sunfrost23]

Tolkien Tuesday: Addressing Some False Claims About Middle-earth

Hiiiiii. Yes, I know I didn’t post anything yesterday or on Sunday. But, you know, I only have one follower and its my sister so WHY SHOULD I EVEN CARE. I’ll post double next week. Whatever.

Anyway, it’s Tolkien Tuesday and I’m sharing another think-piece (is it really a think-piece?) on Middle-earth. One of the complaints I’ve seen lobbed at The Lord of the Rings and other such works is that it’s “racist” in that only white people are in it, and also because Sauron and his followers are consistently described as “black” and such. I am here to argue that that is not the case.

So the first point, about how there are only white people in the books and never any inclusion of any other races whatsoever. There is a reason for that, however. The reason Tolkien originally started writing the Silmarillion (which he wrote first and which became the basis for all of his other works) was because he had read mythologies from other countries, like Greek or Norse mythology, and he wanted England to have something like that. Out of that came the legendarium of Middle-earth. It follows, then, that in the mythology of a country predominantly composed of white Anglo-Saxons, the characters would be all white. It wouldn’t make sense for an English mythology to have black people in it, just as it wouldn’t make sense for an African mythology to have white people in it. Therefore, I don’t think it was a willful non-inclusion so much as it was just a logical turn of events.

Now, on the subject of Sauron and the Orcs. People argue that the Orcs are racist in nature because they are bad simply because of their species. Orcs are evil because Orcs are evil and they can’t change. HOWEVER, there is a in-canon reason for that fact. You see, Morgoth, the OG Dark Lord before Sauron, created the Orcs by taking Elves and corrupting them with his dark magic over hundreds of years. He couldn’t create life on his own, he could only copy and pervert it, and so that was how he created his servants. The Orcs have then reached a point of no return; they aren’t bad necessarily because they’re Orcs--rather, the process of corruption and descent into depravity is what made them Orcs. Death and pain are truly all they live for.

Oh, and as for the use of the word “black” I’m pretty sure that’s just because of nature of “light” being a force for good and “darkness” being a force for evil. It’s a common trope that everyone understands. I don’t think Tolkien harbored any ill will towards the African race and I don’t think he was trying to incorporate a racist sub-text in his works.

People also claim that Middle-earth is sexist because the characters are predominantly male and men do all the fighting and stuff. First of all, that’s not sexist, that’s simply the nature of the times. The stories of Middle-earth are set in a medieval world, a world where men fought the wars and women held down the homestead. That’s just how it was. Not to mention the fact that Tolkien also lived in a time where men had more rights than women. I’m not saying that’s right, but you can’t fault the man for writing things the way he knew them.

And another thing, it would be flat-out stupid to say that Tolkien’s works are disrespectful to women in any way. Yes, The Lord of the Rings has very few prominent female characters in it, and The Hobbit has, like, none at all, but if you read The Silmarillion then you’ll find a bevy of immensely powerful female characters. Half of the Valar, also known as the gods of Middle-earth, are women, all with huge amounts of power, and then, of course, there’s Luthien, the women who sang Morgoth to sleep. Morgoth. That is no small feat, my friends. Obviously in the Lord of the Rings there’s Eowyn, who defeats the Witch-king like a total boss, and also Galadriel, who was so powerful that she could read Sauron’s mind but he couldn’t read hers.

Tolkien’s attitude towards women in the books is always one of extreme respect, and I, as a woman, feel in no way belittled or excluded when I read his works. So, in conclusion, the stories of Middle-earth are not racist or sexist. Good night.

[littleshebear]

Top ten ships

I was tagged by @dngrs-untld-hrshps-unnmbrd and @seigephoenix to name my top ten ships. Not in the mood for tagging but please do this if you feel like it. I like reading about ships.

1. Garrus/Shepard

This doesn’t really need any explanation does it? There’s no Shepard without Vakarian.

2. Roslin/Adama

Adversaries to enemies, to allies, to friends, to lovers, to pretty much married by the end, god they’re so sweet I love them so much, my heart. <333

3.  Manwë/Varda

[Art source]

“Manwë and Varda are seldom parted, and they remain in Valinor. Their halls are above the everlasting snow, upon Oiolossë, the uttermost tower of Taniquetil, tallest of all the mountains upon Earth. When Manwë there ascends his throne and looks forth, if Varda is beside him, he sees further than all other eyes, through mist, and through darkness, and over the leagues of the sea. And if Manwë is with her, Varda hears more clearly than all other ears the sound of voices that cry from east to west, from the hills and the valleys, and from the dark places that Melkor has made upon Earth.”

GOALS.

4. Saladin/Jolder

[Gorgeous painting by the lovely @crazy-bone-lady go forth and reblog!]

Time to break out the ship manifesto. Everything about the story of Rise of Iron is told through Saladin’s eyes and we keep coming back to Jolder. He’s always near her statue, he uses the gun that’s named for her, it’s her helm we recover and present to him. Honestly, I was a puddle of emotion during the opening cinematic, this entire DLC and the accompanying lore destroyed me. And let’s not forget the saddest line break in the history of line breaks: “Jolder’s smile.” *sobs*

5. Dottie Underwood/Peggy Carter

YOU CAN CUT THE SEXUAL TENSION WITH A KNIFE.

6. Zavala/Hawthorne

I’m sailing this ship all by myself but I’m nothing if not persistent. Time for the ship manifesto again. I just love that these two start out on opposite sides of an ideological divide but by the end of the main campaign, they’ve met somewhere in the middle. Hawthorne realises that the City has value and Guardians aren’t all terrible, arrogant nitwits. Zavala accepts that they need to look beyond the walls and that sticking with a siege mentality is self-defeating. I just love the effect Hawthorne has on Zavala’s arc. When we meet him on Titan, he poses the question that “without the Light, are we even guardians anymore?” But when he meets Hawthorne, he has his answer. The Light isn’t what makes you a Guardian, it’s willingness to fight, to take a stand for those weaker than yourself and that’s what Hawthorne embodies to him. And don’t get me started on the bit in “Unsafe at Any Speed” where she grudgingly admits he’s right and he laughs. I mean.

Lore: Zavala never smiles.  Hawthorne exists:  Zavala laughs indulgently. 

7.  Ar-Pharazôn/ Tar-Míriel

[Art source]

This one is a complicated one. There are two different versions in the Tolkien legendarium. In both versions, Pharazôn and  Míriel were first cousins. Míriel’s father, Tar-Palantir was king and favoured the old ways of their ancestor Elros (brother of Elrond). His brother,  Gimilkhâd led an opposing political faction who resented the fact that they were mortal and envied the elves their immortality.  Míriel was next in line to the throne of Númenor.

In the version published in the Silmarillion,  Pharazôn forced Míriel  to marry him (which was illegal, being considered incest) and took her title by force. 

There’s another version which I find way more interesting and was probably written after the published version. In this version, Pharazôn was best friends with, Amandil, a leading member of Tar-Palantir’s party, which suggests Pharazon’s relationship with his father wasn’t the best. Meanwhile, Míriel was engaged to be married to Amandil’s brother, Elentir. Míriel and Pharazôn had never met during their childhood owing to their family estrangement. Pharazon was visiting with Amandil while Miriel happened to be there and that as they say was was that. Míriel dumped Elentir and pined after Pharazôn, while Pharazôn started plotting. After Tar-Palantir died, Míriel took the ruling queen title of Tar- Míriel but willingly married Pharazôn , who became the ruling king Ar Pharazôn alongside her (still an illegal marriage but who’s going to tell them no?). 

After that, things got super bad. Pharazôn invaded Middle Earth to wage war on Sauron (good!) and captured him (good!) then took him back to Numenor (bad), where Sauron used his wiles to corrupt Pharazôn (bad!). Eventually things got so bad, he built a temple to Morgoth and sacrificed Númenoreans who were still loyal to the Valar and the Elves. Sauron eventually persuaded him to invade Valinor and overthrow the Valar so he could sieze immortality for himself (very bad!). Manwe was so dismayed, he handed power back over to Eru (God, essentially), who destroyed Numenor by sinking it beneath the sea. Miriel was the last to die in the onslaught, she climbed the highest mountain, the Meneltarma, which is now the only part of Numenor visible from the sea. 

Pharazon reached valinor but he and his men were imprisoned in caves, awaiting the Last Battle in a really on the nose case of Be Careful What You Wish For. 

Anyway, I find the second version far more compelling because I love the, very tragic, idea of an essentially good man being slowly corrupted by evil. He was *this* close to defeating Sauron for good but he failed because of pride, and Sauron exploited that. And just imagine Míriel watching the man she loved, the man she went against her family and broke the law for, falling into darkeness and being unable to do anything about it. *sobs*

8. Elrond/Celebrían

[Art Source]

Another sad one but at least this one can have a happy ending. Celebrían and Elrond took forever and a day to get together, partly because of Elrond running around doing Herald of the King stuff and waging war on Sauron but I also like to think it’s because Elrond is a massive nerd and was too shy to ask the pretty girl out. 

The reason this is a sad one is because she was captured by Orcs and tortured to within an inch of her life. Elrond was by this time the most skilled healer in Middle Earth but he realised he couldn’t save her so he sent her away to the Undying Lands. He knew he couldn’t go with her until Sauron had been defeated, so she waited patiently and she’s the reason Elrond was straight on that boat after the One Ring was destroyed.  

9.Duke Leto/Jessica Atreides

More goals. This relationship didn’t exactly start out romantically (she was essentially sold to his royal house breeding stock) but these two fell for eachother hard. She disobeyed orders from the bene gesserits because she loved him so much, he refused to marry someone “more suitable” for a man of his station because he always wanted Jessica to be his no.1. One his last thoughts before he died was that he should have said to hell with convention and married her. Moar sobbing. 

10. Amanda Ripley/Christopher Samuels.

[Art Source]

SAMUELS WANTED RIPLEY TO HAVE CLOSURE AND RIPLEY TREATED SAMUELS LIKE HE WAS REAL AND NOT “JUST AN ANDROID” AND HE THANKED HER FOR IT BEFORE HE DIED AND EVERYTHING HURTS, I JUST WANTED THEM TO BE HAPPY AND TAKE CARE OF EACHOTHER FOREVER MORE, AGGGGGGHHHHHH. 

[gurguliare]

hey i’m putting this whole dumb mariner’s wife maunder under the cut because tumblr’s glitchy apostrophes really bother me, thanks

One thing I love about "The Mariner's Wife" is that it's as close as Tolkien gets to like, utopian drama, in that no one in the story is making decisions based off immediate need---poverty, war, et al obviously still exist, but they aren't the kind of threats they are in any other part of the legendarium. Even Valinor! once Morgoth is released. to quote Andie’s meta that I personally slid her $20 under the table for, "very few choices made in Numenor would lead to evil. Probably the worst thing that would happen due to bad human choices in Numenor were mass accidents." All external pressure, positive and negative, (let's say Middle earth’s tempting resources vs Sauron) is at a huge remove, enough so that the characters have almost perfect freedom in how they want to deal with it---except that that their actual reach is limited, and the combination is paralyzing, of course.

I really enjoy the fatalism of Tolkien’s base worldview as applied to the problem of maintaining rather than restoring peace: it’s one of his bleaker stories exactly because it’s ~pre-Fall, post-another-Fall, and tearing itself to pieces while worrying about, essentially, the wrong problem---“what weapons do we need to face the crisis that’s surely coming” rather than “what tools can we give our heirs?” Say that the usual conflict in utopian narrative is “how does the utopia survive,” with the added caveat that the utopia needs to preserve its identity plastically, and not become super-resistant to change---or, put another way, the utopia has to avoid being compromised by “realism” without sealing itself off from reality. Which can be the outside world, but which can also be the strains of rupture and change already present within the utopia, part of its heritage, and naturally produced within it as a society of actual people.

And it seems revealing to me that this bubble is the precondition for Tolkien writing, also, a domestic drama, knowing as we do his mixed opinion of character-driven literature (“stage-plays”). Obviously Aldarion and Erendis are each deeply concerned with How To Save Numenor: and although they're sort of obvious mouthpieces for transformation and conservation respectively, it��s not black-and-white---Aldarion recognizes the need to offer aid and tend old alliances in Middle-earth, but Erendis is the one aware of fissures within Numenor and the ripeness for conflict between unequal groups: men and women, shorter- and longer-lived Numenoreans, and, yes, elves and humans. These are problems that demand serious intervention, even with a status quo in all other ways worthy. So like... there’s enormous scope in which to work, despite the appearance of equilibrium there’s tons to do to keep alive the body paradisiac, and yet it’s exactly this relative innocence and freedom that makes it easy for the characters to suspect one another of perversity, and insincerity, in their respective choice of causes. Everything is equally urgent, and everything is also equally, secretly unreal. Erendis hates the sea and loves trees to spite me, thinks Aldarion; Erendis assumes that Aldarion’s voyaging is born of discontent with Numenor (but really boredom with her). Because Numenor is, in the moment, perfect---because the stakes are semi-abstract and it’s incredibly easy to dissociate intellectual possibilities from present risk if you don’t already feel the threat on an emotional level---it’s the most natural thing in the world to accuse the person with different priorities of playing games with facts, out of pure self-interest.

Hence Erendis’s speech about men; hence also why Ancalime thinks her parents fight for the “promise of sport,” not for considerations ideological or personal. In part because Aldarion and Erendis both consider themselves objective and think that objectivity alone will serve to carry the day eventually, they’re totally unable to communicate their respective visions to their heir, and they only ever get a partial glimpse at one another’s. Which sucks! Like, part of the tragedy of the Tree Subtweets is that Erendis herself represents something as irreplaceable as the trees: a loving devotion to the land and its people that needs no rational basis, precious exactly because rationality is in some sense inadequate to the momentous task at hand. Aldarion is a good steward of resources because he’s personally farsighted and has a basic grasp of logic---but he can’t make his descendants into equally sensible stewards, or rather, he can’t do so simply by being perceptive and expecting the same from others. Insert joke about cult of priests devoted to scaring people away from nuclear waste zones in the far future... but that’s the thing, right: some information is safer culturally embedded than it is passed down literally. Aldarion is born in the wrong time for even his longest-term preparations to be relevant, meaning that if he wanted any control whatsoever over the future, he needed to be forming close, trusting relationships within his own family, for even a hope in hell of continuity.

Which... it’s interesting, right? Tar-Meneldur does it; he abdicates because he lacks Aldarion’s perspective on the situation in Modern Middle-earth and because he (Meneldur) recognizes that action or inaction on his part are both choices he simply doesn’t have the moral license to make. But the thing is, that generosity doesn’t teach Aldarion, in turn, to be generous. I think we’re supposed to understand the abdication comes too late. The feeling I get from both Erendis and Aldarion is that part of the reason they’re so convinced of their own superb rationality is because, for their whole lives, their parents have been telling them how proud and willful they are, without regard for actual progress these stiffnecked children have made toward thinking adulthood. (Note: we see less of Erendis’s side but what we do get is the wayyyyyyy more concentrated version of this, unsurprisingly. One other big problem here is that Aldarion identifies Erendis as an equal opponent with all the same weapons he has, and she isn’t. But this post is already so long) ...The fact that Erendis and Aldarion are proud doesn’t make them deluded, and they know that; they have evidence no one else has, they see things no one else sees. They’re so smart! But then they take pride in pride, moreso as they’re scolded for it; they both develop this protectiveness toward the “right” to pride itself, because despite all the warnings, despite the condescension and doubt from outsiders, this burning self-reliance led them to the most important things in their respective lives (until, coincidentally, it became the most important thing in their respective lives). Ouch.

And pride without purpose (except self-protection) is the one thing that descends to Ancalime, and that sense of alienation persists in the Line of Elros without any final antidote. The one institutional takeaway is the wrong one: “don’t marry outside the Line” wedges open the split between Numenor’s “levels” of reality, again, if we say there’s a utopia-within-the-utopia---the changing present inhabited by its people and the dream of eternity, political and later personal, that haunts the kings.

...I would speculate here about the parallel to the Valar’s handsoff approach to “advising” Numenor but that would get boring fast! And isn’t really fair, or indeed, interesting---the thing that gets me is this entirely human plane of action, even the wasted potential of which is going to change the world. The point is, Tolkien does a really good job setting up personality cascades, and it’s funny. I could ... man I want to talk a bit more about the parenting thing because it’s obviously also connected to, uh, Meneldur and Almarien and Nuneth’s relationships to Numenor! and Numenor’s hypothetical future. But this post is so long and meandering and unedited already and I’m sick of it. GOD. SORRY. GOODNIGHT.

[quentaleardanomion]

Religion in Middle-earth (Part 1)

This is a very difficult subject to address in the Tolkien legendarium, specifically as it relates to the ‘true’ or ‘revealed’ structure of Eru and the Valar, as at first glance there seems to be no definite worship discussed or provided. However, I will attempt to address this question in many facets: Firstly from the point of view of the Elves, based on what we have confirmed as their (proven) philosophy as well as any and all historical details I can collect; Secondly from the point of view of Men, especially the Edain, since they were exposed to the High Elvish teaching and philosophy. This is a very long post, so I apologize for my insane ramblings. This is part 1 of a series. (Part 2 / Part 3)

The Elves

 Starting with the Elves, I will first lay out the basic tenants of their philosophy. As a basis, the Elves believe that Eru is the prime Creator, similar to the Christian God, but with the crucial difference that he does not act directly in the world (except in rare and specific cases). Instead, he gives direct authority to the Valar, his regents in Arda. Now, from Eru proceeds Creation, in the form of an aspect of himself: The Flame Imperishable. As Tolkien remarks in the commentary on the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth, this fact shows that the Elves saw shades of distinction in Eru, but these were not clearly defined, and he was not much discussed theologically, it seems.

Those of the Ainur, the beings he created of his thought in the Timeless Halls, who went down into Eä (the created universe) were given power to order its entirety, from the least flower to the most fundamental law of physics. In the Ainulindalë, the Music of the Ainur, these angelic beings created the blueprint for the universe, to which Eru gave life in the Elvish equivalent of the Big Bang, when he said ‘Eä!’ or ‘Let these things be!’ From this point a great number of the Ainur descended into the world to shape it according to the Music, but with the freedom to do as their heart and knowledge of the One bid them.

Now, of the Ainur there was one who was above all the others in power and knowledge of the mind of Eru: Melkor. He was meant to be the chief Subcreator under Eru, but became filled with self-love and a desire for independence from Eru and his guidance. He made his own Music at variance with the Music of Eru, and thus Discord was written into the laws of the Universe from its inception. When the Ainur had descended into Eä, therefore, those who were to create the habitation of the Children of Eru (Elves and Men, more on that later) hid from him, and went to a far off and secret region of the Universe to work. The chiefs of these were called the Valar, and they were charged with the ordering and governing of Arda, the Habitation, while their servants the Maiar aided them. Eventually Melkor found them and came to Arda, seeking dominion over the Children that were to come. The rest, as they say, is history.

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Now to discuss the Children. The Elves believed (as the Valar told them) that Eru created Eä for the benefit of those who were his Children: Elves and Men. In their making the Ainur had no part, and they proceeded directly from the mind of Eru, much like the Ainur themselves. However, Eru planned that they would exist of their nature in Creation, and Time, and are therefore of a very different nature. The Elves believe that all of Eä is comprised of two things: matter and spirit. The physical matter of the universe is made by the power of the Valar to shape the Creation of Eru into physicality, so very much like the idea of Energy creating Matter. Spirits are the creation of Eru directly, and proceed from him alone. The Ainur are beings of pure spirit: their nature exists solely in the realm of the immaterial. However, Eru designed his Children to exist in the physical world, and thus of their nature they exist in a duality: soul and body (fëa and hröa).

The hröa is drawn from the overall matter of Eä, specifically the matter of Arda, where the Children arrived. However, like all spirit, the fëa came from Eru directly, and thus was not made from any other thing. The Elves say that the hröa of a child is drawn from the father and the mother, and the fëa of a child is influenced by them, so that children resemble their parents in face and also in mind. However, because of the singularity of all fëar, each had something that was new and purely their own.

Melkor knew of the natures of the Children, and thus prepared to rule them in the ways that seemed best. However, as we learn in the Ósanwë-Kenta, every fëa is singular and impregnable: it cannot be forced, and it cannot be subdued. Because of the singularity and free will of each spirit, they are their own masters always, and none can be dominated by force. Therefore Melkor, in seeking a means to dominate the Children, knew that domination through the fëa was an únat, or an impossible thing. Therefore, he sought to dominate them through the hröa, which because of the dual nature of the Children, controlled how they perceived the world and related to it. Therefore he took his own native power and disseminated it throughout all the physical substance in Arda, imbuing every element with his own nature, making all things tainted towards himself. This he did gradually over time, and by the time the Elves awoke, all matter was under his sway. Thus, the bodies of Elves and Men are imbued with the taint of Melkor’s own discord, and thus are distorted from their purpose. This is the Elvish explanation of evil and disharmony: the ‘Melkor-ingredient’ in all things. Some substances were deemed to be purer, with water being the most pure, and some were deemed more evil, with gold being the most evil.

The Elves believed that the soul is divided into two: the Mind and the Heart. The mind (sáma) is the center of individuality and the place wherein the information from the hröa is processed. The heart (órë) is the place that we might call the conscience, where warnings and intuition and the voices of the Valar and others may be heard (more on that later.) The Emotions arise in two places: the body and the soul. The emotions of the body are those of hunger, thirst, sex-drive, and weariness. These are communicated from the (tainted) hröa to the fëa. The emotions of the soul are those such as joy, anger, despair, hope, courage, and love and arise in the órë and come into the sáma. However, because of the wedding of the body and soul, the corruption of the body can warp and distort the emotions of the soul. Elves believe that their fëar have greater control over their hröar than Men, and therefore they can read more clearly the truth of their hearts, but they are not perfect.

The emotions in the órë and hröa rise into the sáma, where they can be processed into a thought (sanwë). This then is turned into a desire (náma) and then is acted upon by the will (indo). This shows that the Elves had a very complex philosophy of the mind and the spirit, but not much really needs to be said about that at the moment.

The Elves saw the fate of the Elvish fëa and the hröa thusly. The Elves are (by nature) immortal within Arda. They are bound to the earth and destined to last as long as it lasts. Thus, according to the design of Eru, they would never die until the world dies. However, since Melkor has corrupted the design, death has entered the world. Therefore, if the fëa and the hröa are separated, causing death, the fëa is summoned to the Halls of Mandos by the Judge Námo, there to reflect on its past life until such a time as a new body shall be made for it by the Valar, using the imprint of its own memory which each soul contains. Some may never leave the Halls, and some do not even obey the summons to go. Some of these are ensnared by Melkor or Sauron, and forced into captivity, while some roam the wilderness in anger and pain and regret.

However, since Melkor has corrupted matter, it has become weakened, and thus over time the fire of Elvish fëar will burn hot, and the hröa will begin to fade. Thus in later ages of the world, the Elves have faded into near incorporeality, even though they remain alive. Above all, however, the Elves are closer to the earth and they are more in tune with the rhythms of its life.

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Having laid out these fundamentals of Elvish philosophy (all of which are contained in the Ósanwë and the Notes on Órë given in Vinyar Tengwar Issues 39 and 41, and the Laws and Customs of the Eldar and the Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth given in Morgoth’s Ring), I will now analyze some historical aspects of what might qualify as ‘religion.’ The Elves earliest ideas of religion seem to be nearly nonexistent, save for an idea that the Dark was to be feared, and the Huntsman was in the Dark (due to the devices of Melkor). However, after the coming of Oromë and the summons to Valinor, things necessarily became different.

From the Valar, the Elves learn of Eru, and the Music of the Ainur, and the making of Arda, and the power of Melkor, and of the power of the Valar. From this instruction (which we are not given in full through the histories) they formed a complete and ‘factual’ religious picture of the world. Tolkien says in Letter 153:

There are thus no temples or ‘churches’ or fanes in this ‘world’ among ‘good’ peoples. They had little or no ‘religion’ in the sense of worship. For help they may call on a Vala (as Elbereth), as a Catholic might on a Saint, though no doubt knowing in theory as well as he that the power of the Vala was limited and derivative. But this is a ‘primitive age’: and these folk may be said to view the Valar as children view their parents or immediate adult superiors, and though they know they are subjects of the King he does not live in their country nor have there any dwelling.

From this we can see that the Elves do not deal with Eru directly, nor do they relate to him. In the Notes on Órë we find in a discussion about the promptings of the heart:

from other minds, including the greater minds of the Valar and so indirectly from Eru. (So at this period it was supposed Eru even ‘spoke’ directly to his Children.)

Both of these show us that the Valar were the prime movers of religion in Arda, as Eru remained removed in an almost Deistic capacity, although more concerned with his creation than that. But as we can see, the Elves (and Men) reached the Divine only through the Valar, and most likely to a lesser degree the Maiar. In The Lord of the Rings we see the Elves singing what is explicitly a hymn to Varda multiple times, and Gildor and his companions are on a pilgrimage to Elostirion. Thus, the Elves did practice some religion, although as Tolkien says, not in a unified group way. In the Book of Lost Tales, however, in Gondolin is built the Gar Ainion, the Place of the Gods, which was dedicated to the Valar. This is where Tuor and Idril were married, which shows it is used as a sacred place for conducting sacred ceremonies of religion. We are told in Laws and Customs that Elvish marriage requires calling upon Manwë and Varda (the chiefs of the Valar) and Eru himself as witness to the marriage. This shows that the Elves (like Tolkien himself as a Catholic) thought marriage to be a sacred union requiring blessing. Even so, this ceremony was conducted by the parents of the betrothed, not by a priest.

It would seem that the Elves had no priests, and instead for them religion was a very personal thing, but we do have one example of somewhat priest-like nature. In the short lore essay Of Lembas, Pengolodh tells us about them thus:

From the ear to the wafer none were permitted to handle this grain, save those elven-women who were called Yavannildi (or by the Sindar the Ivonwin), the maidens of Yavanna; and the art of the making of the lembas, which they learned of the Valar, was a secret among them, and so ever has remained.'

These women are not said explicitly to be priestesses, but they are called the maidens of Yavanna, and they are the protectors of a holy art passed down to the Elves from the Valar. This implies some special devotion to the Valië, although in what capacity, we have no idea. However, if Yavanna had devotees who performed a specific function, it may be that there were devotees to the other Valar as well, who also performed sacred functions, perhaps like the preparation of miruvor, also said to be a gift from the Valar. Indeed, I would say it is likely, although, as in the example of the Ivonwin, these acts are more like the Silent Sisters in Game of Thrones, or the Vestal Virgins in ancient Rome, in that they perform a specific service, and they do not preach or deal with everyday people on religious terms. Therefore, in that sense, the religion remained a mainly private function in Elvish society.

As we see in the hymns to Elbereth, Oath of Fëanor, and the cry of Fingon on Thangorodrim, the Elves call out to the Valar when in need or even in normal times, in order to secure their aid and blessing and to have them watch over them. By Tolkien’s own comparison, the Valar are like saints, but even more so, since the Catholic idea of a personal relationship to God is removed. Therefore, this makes them nearly identical in function to most pagan pantheons, although much more personable and invested in the supplicants than the jealous gods of our history sometimes appear.

Tolkien says in the quote that the Elves did not build churches or fanes, but this is clearly true because they did not worship the Valar in the same capacity as we worship gods or God. As shown in Gar Ainion, at least one elven culture built or dedicated a place to the Valar used for religious ceremonies. The Elves also made pilgrimage as I’ve said, in order to look out to the vanished West. Thus, Elves clearly had holy sites, so Tolkien’s comment about a lack of ‘churches’ or fanes seems limited in its sense. Any place dedicated to the Valar or the Ainur would no more be a church or religious fane than a small shrine to a saint in the house of a Catholic.

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In The Lord of the Rings Gandalf says that Frodo was ‘meant’ to find the Ring. This and other comments about the hidden movements behind the players in Middle-earth (such as the prophecies of Malbeth the Seer) are clear references to the Valar, as Eru does not take an active role in Eä. In this, and in the idea of the Istari we are clearly shown that the Valar had in the Third Age a policy of ‘no interference.’ However, like the Istari, this seemed only to mean no interference in the sense of a full-on war, as they knew this would destroy Middle-earth. Therefore they have become more and more spiritual in their ways of enacting change on the world. This explains why there are more references to prayers to the Valar in the Third Age than the First. The First Age equivalent to a prayer were the messengers of Turgon: he literally sent them to try to give his supplication to the physical Valar. However, the idea of the Valar hearing the prayers of the Faithful remains a constant from Fingon’s prayer to the wandering Elves of the Third Age. That the Elves had a private devotion to the Valar in a religious sense is thus certain.

What might this have looked like? Here is where our guesswork begins, although I will try to remain grounded in facts. As I have shown, Elves eschewed public organized religion, but it seems that they had devout private or small-group religious lives and experiences. They had hymns, prayers, and devotions to the Valar, as one would to a revered teacher… who was also the only conduit available to the Divine. They had religious sites, and made pilgrimages to these places. All of these facts form a pattern of religious life that is much more in depth than most realize.

In addition to what I have already said, there are various Elvish holidays attested. ‘Tarnin Austa’ the Gates of Summer is the Elvish celebration of Midsummer in Gondolin, and ‘Turuhalmë’ the Log-Drawing is the Elvish celebration of Midwinter in Tol Eressëa. The calendars in The Lord of the Rings show us the Enderi, the middle days around the Autumn equinox, and in the Spring the old year ends and the new one begins with Mettarë and Yestarë respectively, right around the Spring equinox. In addition to these holidays which line up with astrological events, there is ‘Sovalwaris,’ or ‘i-Sovallë’ in the winter, a holiday about which we know little beyond the name: the Purifying. In addition, in Gondolin is celebrated ‘Nost-na-Lothion,’ the Birth of Flowers. In the Hobbit, Thranduil’s elves are having a great feast at the end of Fall and the beginning of winter, but we are not given a name. (Peter Jackson invented the name: ‘Mereth en Gilith’ the Feast of Starlight.) These are all the feats we have mentioned canonically, but in Gondor there ae celebrated Yáviérë and Tuilérë, the first days of Fall and Spring respectively. As in the Elvish calendar, the first day of spring is the first day of the year, this holiday does not apply, but perhaps there is some equivalent fall harvest holiday in the elven calendar, or perhaps not. Regardless, the Elves kept holidays based on the seasons and the solar cycles, and in fact the times and types of these celebrations are remarkably similar to the neo-pagan festivals of the wheel of the year. All of this goes to show that the Elves included religion in more aspects of their life than previously thought.

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If we try to analyze the methods of worship, we see that they mostly include prayer. However, the keeping of a solar calendar implies the importance of ritual practice to the Elves, and the ability of the Elves to work their power upon the world through their voice, along with various mentions of spells and magic, leads me to believe that they also practiced a form of magic, and that it may have been ritual in nature. While they would not necessarily have invoked the Valar to work the magic for them, as they had no need, they would call upon them to guide their workings and to bless them, similarly to when patron saints are prayed to for certain tasks in another form of ritual magic. If they were to practice ritual magic as a form of prayer and religious devotion, what form would it take?

The Elves are enormously fond of symbols. Complex, intricate symbols mark their heraldic devices, and the alphabets invented by various Elves are still the standard in use throughout the Fourth Age. What sorts of symbols might then be involved in the workings of Elvish ritual magic, and how would they be used? In our own world (which, as we know, is the same as Middle-earth, simply later) most ritual magic involves the use of herbs and stones and specific ritual elements. We see this in Middle-earth in the Lay of Leithian:

And when one climbed to her she prayed that he would in the dark pools wade of cold Esgalduin, water clear, the clearest water cold and sheer to draw for her. 'At middle night,'           she said, 'in bowl of silver white it must be drawn and brought to me with no word spoken, silently.' Another she begged to bring her wine in a jar of gold where flowers twine -     'and singing let him come to me at high noon, singing merrily.'

[…..]

And Lúthien now was left alone. A wondrous song to Men unknown she sang, and singing then the wine       with water mingled three times nine; and as in golden jar they lay       she sang a song of growth and day; and as they lay in silver white another song she sang, of night   and darkness without end, of height uplifted to the stars, and flight   and freedom. And all names of things tallest and longest on earth she sings: the locks of the Longbeard dwarves; the tail       of Draugluin the werewolf pale; the body of Glaurung the great snake;     the vast upsoaring peaks that quake above the fires in Angband's gloom; the chain Angainor that ere Doom         for Morgoth shall with force be brought with steel and torment. Names she sought,         and sang of Glend the sword of Nan; of Gilim the giant of Eruman; and last and longest named she then       the endless hair of Uinen, the Lady of the Sea, that lies       through all the waters under skies.

Then did she lave her head and sing a theme of sleep and slumbering,           profound and fathomless and dark as Lúthien's shadowy hair was dark -     each thread was more slender and more fine than threads of twilight that entwine in filmy web the fading grass     and closing flowers as day doth pass. Now long and longer grew her hair,       and fell to her feet, and wandered there like pools of shadow on the ground.

This has all the elements of traditional witchcraft and ritual magic, involving specific metals and substances to be used, specific methods of preparation, delivery, and execution, and specific words and singing involved all to make the result that her hair grow long and be enchanted to make people fall asleep. She does this by her own power, not by invoking one of the Valar, but this is also not used in a religious context. If the Ivonwin have a ritual method of harvesting and preparing the grain used in the holy waybread of Lembas, then we already have one example of a ritual process heavily implied to be magical which has implicit religious undertones. This, I think, opens the door to the idea that magical workings were used in religious ways for specific things.

[avnakin]

For such an interesting ask I got tagged by @straightouttahimring. Thank you for tagging me! <3

*Stretches out the hands and prepares to type furiously all the ramblings*

How do you think the Oath worked practically?

I don’t think the Oath actually had the power over the ones who followed it. I think what mattered is your ‘connection’ with it. Feanorians have been following the Oath for their father until his death. Afterwards, what was driving them - not the will to do so, not the actual ambition to get the Silmarils. It became a ‘blind’ target for them, an obligation they have set in their mind over long years. Feanorians didn’t even think of the reasons of following it or not. They just did it.

Were the Valar in the right to bring the Elves to Valinor?

I have mixed feelings about Valar. At some extend I feel what they were doing was fair, but on the other side I doubt their actions. Valar weren’t forcefully bringing elves to Valinor - elves could choose whether they want to follow Orome or not. They had a freedom of choice. At this point, in my opinion, Valar were doing only good, as they were helping the Newborn to get established in this harsh world.

Which Silm character do you find the most relatable personally and why?

Turin is the character I can relate to the most in particular moments. What connects me with him the most, is his ambition to go against the Fate, to go his own path he builds. Turin believes it is up to us to make the life the way it is, not Fate. I agree with him.

If you could ask one character one question (to get clarification on their motives, to ask their opinion etc), who would you ask and what?

I would ask Melkor, as this is the most mysterious character for me. Did he want to destroy the world to fulfill his revenge in such way? Or did he want to create his own world where would be freedom from order and limitation? Did he ever think of stopping what he had begun? Did he really believe in his succession? What were his feelings before the War of Wrath? What were his last thoughts when he was defeated and was going to the Void?

Would you have gone with Fëanor, Fingolfin or Finarfin?

I would have gone with Fingolfin for multiple reasons: 1. I would be very unsure of whether it is right to leave such ‘paradise’ and go somewhere unknown, somewhere, where you don’t know what to expect; 2. I wouldn’t have certain opinions and thoughts about Valar;  3. I would be suspicious to Feanor’s speeches and ambitions, though, they would get to my heart; 4. I would want to follow someone who had neutral and sane thoughts, unlike Finarfin, who was against the idea of leaving Valinor and rebelling against Valar from the very beginning, and unlike Feanor, who, well, was a little bit insane. Fingolfin is the one of the Noldorian princes, who kept the clearest point of view, weighing the consequences, opportunities and possibilities in this situation.

What do you think was the determining factor/reasoning behind the Doom of the Noldor? Does it hold for scrutiny in your opinion?

When a person you care about is mad, what do you try to do to reason them? You try to calmly talk it out and explain to them. But they wont listen to you, plus, basically spit in your face. You try to warn them and tell them why it is better to do otherwise. Still, they won’t listen. What do you have left? You can’t just let them go because you care about them. So you have the last option left - to threat them in hope that it will eventually make them come back to senses. This is what Valar did. When they came to the last option, it is when Mandos came into action (though it didn’t work). However, if the Doom was actually related to unlucky events in Noldorin lives, rather than just simple coincidence, then Valar were unjust and very likely their pride was harmed to bring the actual damage with their threat.

Who is the scariest of Tolkiens characters?

Sauron must be the scariest. Not Melkor even, despite him being a smart dude with genius ideas, tricky and unexpected approaches during the war. Sauron would start from the very far end, even if it means more time and some damaged pride. As a great example we can see how he spreads his web in Numenor, which leads the whole civilization to fall (and even worshipping Morgoth), or his participation in the creation of the Rings, bringing the great men to fatal destruction. There is a good proverb to describe why Sauron’s approach is so effective: “Slow and steady wins the race”.

Any other versions of a story you prefer over the version published in the Silm?

I am the kind of person who will be super interested in Tolkien’s abandoned ideas, but I will always stick to the final result. It is where I have learned this world, where I have had my journey, where my heart belongs. I love the Silmarillion the way it is and I can’t picture it any other way.

Favourite story of the legendarium and why?

Probably the story about Turin Turambar. The story is so tragic, especially after reading the Children of Hurin, that it got firmly sealed in my heart.

The latest thing you learned that made you reconsider or change your view on something in Tolkiens world?

In Tolkien’s abandoned ideas about Dagor Dagorath, one of the ideas was about Eonwe being Morgoth’s bane. It surprised me a lot, since I have never thought of such an end. Why Eonwe exactly? It does make sense if it was Turin who finally defeated Melkor, as he and his family were under Morgoth’s curse. Yes, it is said that Fionwe was in rage because of Arien’s death, but still, why him? Could it be such a classic line from the Lord of the Rings “Even the smallest person can change the course if future” as an explanation, since Eonwe is not the most vital character in the Silmarillion (though not the smallest one either)? I just can’t think of a solid explanation for this.

Thoughts on Fëanor not wanting to share the Silmarils after the Darkening?

It does make sense that Feanor felt reluctant to not sharing his greatest work ever, since he had put so much of himself in this piece. And then in one moment it could be destroyed. Here, I understand and even support Feanor. Though, what he didn’t consider is the fact that by destroying your greatest creation you could really help the world. At this point I think Feanor was just purely selfish.

I am tagging: @forestphantom05 @fionwe @jane-ways @moriquendii @alia-andreth

Anyone who wants to do this ask, don’t hesitate! 

[tolkienuntangled]

Fact for Fans #2 - The Tragedy of Lord Elrond

Picture that moment on the shores of the Grey Havens. Picture Frodo, Bilbo, Galadriel, Gandalf, and Elrond standing on that White Ship, and picture them departing Middle Earth in the final minutes of the Third Age. Now I've already done a fun fact about sailing West from the perspective of Bilbo and Galadriel, and I'll certainly write one about Gandalf in the next few days, but today's fun fact is going to focus on Elrond, and I hope to try and untangle what this moment truly means from his perspective.

Now I have to be honest, in my opinion Elrond's character is a little short-changed in Peter Jackson's movies. That's not to say I don't enjoy Hugo Weaving's performance, but I feel that by the power of the butterfly effect, changing Aragorn into a more reluctant king, changed Elrond into a more stern and less sympathetic version of himself. My favourite quotation of Tolkien's, about Elrond, comes from The Hobbit, and it goes: "he was as noble and fair as an elf-lord, as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves, and as kind as summer." Now I'm not sure that Hugo Weaving's Elrond is quite as "kind as summer," in fact I can't think of any Elf in the movies who truly embodies Tolkien's idea of Elven kindness and compassion. They're all a bit too severe.

Anyway the reason I flag this up is because in Tolkien's tales, Elrond is strong, wise, and noble, but he's also warm, and loving, and kind. And these traits lie at the centre of his character. Now the reason that I think Elrond's kindness is so significant, is because it's not something we should automatically take for granted. After all, Elrond's long life is not a particularly happy one. When we think of immortals in Middle Earth we tend to think of timelessness and of preservation, but to an extent, in Elrond's case, he's defined more by the abundance of things that he loses. Yet he's also defined by what he doesn't lose. And he never loses his kindness.

So in order to fully understand this, we're going to have to go back to the very beginning of Elrond's life; right at the end of the First Age. Now Elrond and his twin brother Elros, were born to two very important characters in the Legendarium. And yet neither one of them was a particularly active parent. When Elrond was only two years old, his father Eärendil went off to sea, and Eärendil never saw either of his sons again. Only four years later, when Elrond was six, his home came under attack, and he and his brother were carried off by their attackers. And Elrond's mother Elwing threw herself into the ocean to avoid the same fate. Now technically both Eärendil and Elwing did survive this, Elwing turned into a bird and Eärendil turned into the planet Venus (no joke, things were weird back then), but neither of them ever returned to their children. And for all intents and purposes, Elrond was orphaned when he was only six years old.

Now it wasn't entirely a case of doom and gloom for young Elrond and Elros, as both twins were eventually adopted by the brother of the guys who attacked their home in the first place. But as with many of Elrond's familial relationships, this one didn't last. You see, only forty-nine years later, Elrond's adoptive father, an elf called Maglor, simply disappeared from the annals of history, and his fate remains one of the great mysteries of Tolkien's Legendarium. But we can be sure that he never saw Elrond again. And so for the second time in his relatively short life, Elrond endured the loss of a beloved family member. Which, if you think about it, must be especially traumatic for an immortal!

Anyway, after the loss of Maglor, a new Age began for Elrond. The Second Age. And this was the Age in which Elrond would truly make a name for himself as one of the key players in the fate of Middle Earth. And his twin brother Elros would do the same. But despite the fact that Elrond and Elros came into the world together, they would not leave it together.

So due to a complex web of Elves and Men making babies in Elrond's family tree, both he and Elros were given the choice to either live as Elves, or as Men. Now obviously Elrond chose to be counted as an Elf, and thus he was given an immortal life, but his brother Elros made the opposite choice. He lived as a Man. He lived a (very) long life as a Man, and he ruled as the mightiest King of Men that Arda had ever seen. But he did not live forever. In his five hundredth year of life, Elros gave up the Sceptre of the King, and he allowed himself to die.

Now Elrond certainly isn't the only Elf in the Legendarium to lose a brother. Galadriel loses all three of her brothers in the space of ten years, but they're not gone forever. Usually when an Elf dies, their soul (their fëa) departs to Valinor where it will be held, and judged, and eventually rehoused and set free; to live an afterlife in the Undying Lands. So when Galadriel sails West, she's sailing to be reunited with her brothers. But this isn't the case with Elrond and Elros. Elros chose the fate of Men. His fëa does not depart to Valinor to be rehoused like an elf's, instead it eventually departs Arda entirely. The soul of Elros simply disappears from the world, and his fate is a mystery to all. Such is the Gift of Men. And so even in death, Elrond and Elros will never be reunited. Just like Eärendil, and Maglor, and (possibly) Elwing, and of course Arwen, Elros is lost to Elrond forever.

But Elrond kept on going. He had responsibilities after all, and throughout the Second Age he became a close advisor, and even closer friend, to the Noldor's High King; Gil-galad. In fact throughout all the drama of the forging of the Rings and the first war against Sauron, Elrond became Gil-galad's "vice-regent" in Eriador, the founder of Imladris (Rivendell), and eventually, Gil-galad even bestowed upon Elrond his own Ring of Power - Vilya, the Ring of Air. But once again it did not last. Gil-glad was slain in the War of the Last Alliance, and Elrond was forced to enter the Third Age without him.

However Elrond wasn't entirely alone, and his story is not entirely tragic. You see, in the 109th year of the Third Age, Elrond finally married the love of his life. The Lady Celebrían; the daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn. And Elrond and Celebrían represent one of the happiest Elven unions in the Legendarium. At least for a while. Celebrían inherited from her mother the Elessar, the Elfstone, the same stone that would eventually be given to Aragorn. And this is a beautiful detail, because the original Elessar was first given to Elrond's father by his grandmother, so it's a really lovely family heirloom. And together, in this period of peace, Elrond and Celebrían build a really lovely family.

First Celebrían gave birth to the twin hunters Elladan and Elrohir, and then 111 years later, she gave birth to Elrond's beloved daughter, Arwen Undómiel. And for the next two and a half thousand years, everything was wonderful. Well I mean, the Witch-king did his thing in Angmar, and there was a terrible plague, also Uruk-hai were invented at this time, but in Rivendell, between Elrond and Celebrían, all was good.

Until it wasn't.

So in the year 2509 of the Third Age, tragedy struck Elrond once again. In this year, Celebrían made the journey from her home in Rivendell to her parent's home in Lothlórien, (a journey she'd done many times before), but on this occasion something terrible happened.

Whilst crossing the Misty Mountains, Celebrían was waylaid and captured by orcs of the Redhorn Pass. And Celebrían suffered misery and torture at their hands, which forever changed her. She was tormented and she was poisoned by the orcs, but they did not allow her to die. Instead they kept her prisoner in their dens, and her spirit was broken.

Now from the orcs' perspective this was probably the most foolish thing they could possibly have done, because by torturing Celebrían they'd brought upon themselves the unbridled wrath of not only Elrond, but of his sons Elladan and Elrohir. And so with a magnificent fury, the twins rode up into the mountains, and we can only assume that they would have slaughtered every single orc in that Pass. And when Lord Elrond found his wife, he freed her, and he held her, and he healed her body, but he could not heal her spirit or her mind. The torment was simply too great.

The following year, Celebrían's despair of life had grown so great that she departed Middle Earth, and she sailed away, leaving her husband and her children behind her. And for Celebrían and her daughter Arwen, this would mark the final time they'd ever meet.

So let's fast forward now back to that moment on that ship at the end of the Third Age, where Elrond and the other ring-bearers prepared for their own departure. We know that this was a bittersweet moment for Elrond, after all he was not only leaving his realm of Imladris behind him, but also all three of his children. Even at the very end, Elrond had one more great loss to endure.

So as we all know, Arwen faced the same choice that Elrond and Elros faced all those years ago, and just like Elros, Arwen chose a mortal life. She was blessed with love and happiness, but she was doomed to be parted from her father forever. Just like with Elros, even in death, Elrond would never see his daughter again. Nor would he ever meet his grandson. And this is made even more poignant, because not only does Elrond lose his daughter, but he loses Aragorn, an orphan not unlike himself, who he'd adopted and raised just as Maglor adopted and raised him. And we don't know the fates of Elrond's sons, but we know that for a long while they too remained in Middle Earth, sundered from their father, and perhaps they too chose a mortal life, and they too were lost to Elrond forever.

So picture yourself in Elrond's position. Picture yourself looking back towards the East, as the White Ship sails into the West. Imagine all the things that Elrond is losing, and all the people he will never see again. But now imagine Elrond turning around and looking forward. Looking west. Imagine that bittersweet emotion as the lands of his children disappear behind him, and he faces the direction of his wife. The direction of Celebrían. For although Elrond had so much to lose by leaving Middle Earth, there was someone waiting for him on the other side. After more than five hundred years apart, in the West, Elrond would find Celebrían. And after a lifetime of losing that which he'd loved, he'd finally be reunited with that love which he'd lost.

From the perspective of a more prideful character this may seem like a sad ending, but from Elrond's perspective I don't think it is. I find that from this perspective, Elrond is an incredibly optimistic character. More so than most Elves, he'd experienced permanent loss many times over, and yet he never loses his kindness. Perhaps at the end of all things, Elrond is not defined by who he lost in Middle Earth, but by who he found again in the Undying Lands.

So, thank you all for reading. Over the course of this year’s lockdown I’ve been working on a series of Tolkien themed YouTube videos called Tolkien Untangled. So far I’ve uploaded 10 episodes explaining the beginning of the Simarillion, the Beginning of Days, and the tale of Fëanor and the Silmarils. I’ve also released four episodes about the differences between the Lord of the Rings books and movies, and I’m currently releasing a weekly series of Tolkien lore videos. So check out Tolkien Untangled on YouTube if you’d like to learn more.

Thanks again everyone. Much love and stay groovy ❤️