#noldor

[matias-crtz-art]

Maedhros. the Tall "There Maedhros in time was healed; for the fire of life was hot within him, and his strength was of the ancient world, such as those possessed who were nurtured in Valinor. His body recovered from his torment and became hale, but the shadow of his pain was in his heart; and he lived to wield his sword with left hand more deadly than his right had been"

[essenceofarda]

Fëanor

[sirionriver-birdfeeder]

Noldolantë as a disk

[kisses-in-the-void]

Noldor (INCLUDING GALADRIEL) don’t get enough criticism for hiding the truth from Elwe and Melian while living in Doriath for years and forming alliances with them. It was far too serious to justify staying silent - whether out of fear, guilt, or a desire to protect their power and pride.

I’ve seen way too many very long posts defending them, and some were like: "Well, they were obviously ashamed, and they didn’t plan to kill anyone at first, they just wanted the ships, and then everything happened so fast and was so confusing! they probably didn’t even realize what they were doing. No ill intent here, so it’s understandable they wanted to hide it!"

To me, it just shows how some people are unable, or unwilling, to view events from the POV of characters they don’t like. It’s easy to write long essays about all the emotional torment your favorite sad boys were enduring, and come up with a dozen excuses for them. But when it’s a character you’re indifferent to, or whom you hate, it’s not that serious. Even though anyone deserves to know when they’re interacting with someone complicit in the murder of their relatives. And to make decisions with that knowledge, not while being kept in the dark

I’ve been thinking about Alqualondë.

The First Kinslaying is often thought if as a battle between two armies, but it really isn’t. The Teleri are all civilians. In the many thousands of years since they came to Valinor, they’ve had no thought of all of war, of combat, or defence, of any kind of violence at all. The reason the Noldor are armed, armoured, and have trained in combat is because Melkor incited them to make and train with weapons of war when he was setting them against each other. The Teleri were completely outside of that. Their bows would be hunting bows, for rabbit or deer (one can’t eat fish all the time), not in any way suited to fighting armoured warriors.

So what we have is really an army (one that hasn’t actually seen combat, but judging from Dagor-nuin-Giliath is nonetheless very proficient) attacking a larger group of scarcely-armed civilians who have had no experience of violence for many thousands of years. The Teleri are fighting a last-ditch effort to preserve the central artistic work of their entire culture, but combat is completely foreign to them, and they lose badly, and the Noldor kill a large part (a third? a quarter?) of their people.

This is another thing I think that is often overlooked. The Darkening of Valinor stands out as one of the most tragic moments in the history of Middle-earth, the destruction of a light that will never be restored, but in the course of the Darkening, Morgoth kills one person. (Three people, if you’re Yavanna.) The Noldor kill thousands. The Kinslaying and the destruction of their ships, not the Darkening, is the most traumatic and devastating thing the Teleri have ever experienced; they suffer far more from Fëanor and his following, and from Fingon’s forces, than they do from Morgoth.

And the ships stand out because they are not, like Silmarils, the artistic creation of one person who passionately values them, but the artistic creation of an entire people, an entire culture. And they aren’t locked away in a hoard in Formenos; they are a daily and continual part of all the people’s lives, building and repairing and mending, sailing, fishing, exploring; for work and for pleasure. A lot of the Noldor have probably rarely or never even seen the Silmarils, or only glimpsed them at a distance. The Teleri’s swan-ships are a focal point of all of their lives, and something that many of them have taken part in making.

For the Teleri - and probably for most of the people in Valinor - the Kinslaying hits harder and leaves a deeper mark, is more destructive to their lives and homes and daily experiences, than the Darkening is, and all the more so because it’s at the hands of people whom they are used to regarding as their friends.

[charri-fish]

[arlenianchronicles]

Do eldritch elves still turn into crabs when wandering the shores of Middle-Earth?

They sure do! Well, one eldritch Elf in particular XD

[braxix]

Mortal: *Insults Elrond*

Noldor: Truce?

Sindar: Well just this once...

[melestasflight]

Fingolfin and Feanor as two hummingbirds fighting over a Finwe-shaped birdfeeder. Morgoth is the raccoon who knocks it down and tears it open to get to the sugar water. (Meanwhile Finarfin has moved in to the nearest botanical garden.)

So accurate.

The vast majority of the Noldor are so very hummingbird, the Valar see them from afar and think "oh the grace and beauty of these creatures, look how intricate their plumage, how deep their memory of blooms, how vital their flight" and construct this enormous hummingbird garden to attract them and keep them forever in bliss

only to realize that these things are both migratory and territorial as fuck by nature, love a good fist fight, and can get real loud, terrible pets really, they were never meant to live that way

[s-u-w-i]

Silmarillion sketches, once again, ha 💎💎💎

"Then Morgoth hurled aloft Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld, and swung it down like a bolt of thunder. But Fingolfin sprang aside, and Grond rent a mighty pit in the earth, whence smoke and fire darted."

"But Fëanor followed him, and at the door of the king’s house he stayed him; and the point of his bright sword he set against Fingolfin’s breast. ‘See, half-brother!’ he said. ‘This is sharper than thy tongue."

"...for though at great feasts Fëanor would wear them, blazing on his brow, at other times they were guarded close, locked in the deep chambers of his hoard in Tirion. For Fëanor began to love the Silmarils with a greedy love, and grudged the sight of them to all save to his father and his seven sons..."

[bluotbanner]

Fëanor but if he was a fae king

[katarrinskey]

Lord of Himring

The figure he was cutting against the grey stone of the surroundings was striking. His cloak was the same shade of red she was now getting used to, and looked voluminous and heavy with furs, covering his entire right side from shoulder to the sole of his boots, almost touching the ground. Plate armor he wore was mirror-bright and carried intricate designs, that her eyes could not distinguish from such a distance. His hair was laying atop his shoulders in waves, unbound and shockingly red, almost matching the color of the cloak in lowlights, yet streaked with grey in a way she never saw on an elf before. The copper circlet on his brow seemed to almost disappear in it as well, adding bright shine when it caught the light just right. His face was half hidden behind his hair, and Amina would later find it hard to remember his features, except for the intensity of his eyes, shining brighter even than his brother's, as if there was a roaring fire trapped inside them.

Had absolutely no spoons to deal with all the details, but here is an illustration for a something else i am working on. (He isn't the main figure of that story, but he is the main figure of the painting, so i thought it fitting for the week anyways-)

Day one of @feanorianweek

[giganticmarshmallow]

Finyo having a Li Shang moment there

[anattmar]

Maedhros

[sauroff]

The curse of the Noldor, King edition 👑

I'm sorry for the awful watermarks, but I couldn't find that part of the song on TikTok, and I didn't want to download it and edit it again.

This took months, and the distribution of that time was like 10% drawing the characters, 15% thinking about possible BG elements and drawing them, 50% procrastinating starting the editing, 15% animating the elements, 10% choosing and putting the transitions.

But I'm so happy that it's done 💖💖

[strelkovski]

"I'm a shadow of what I once was"

[thesummerestsolstice]

Concept: Elrond is, by Middle-Earth standards, a perfectly respectable level of fancy. You know, he's an elf-lord, he has plenty of robes with intricate embroidery or layers of flowing fabric, he wears finely-crafted jewelry, especially during formal occasions. He's elegant, but not gaudy– there are some tasteful references to his various ancestors in his outfits, he's got a whole image. He assumes that this is like, standard for the Noldor.

What Elrond failed to realize when he sailed to Valinor is that the expectations for "Middle-Earth elf lord with vaguely Noldorian implications" and "Noldor prince in the Blessed Realm" are two very different things. He goes to a feast and everyone is dressed like they'll die if they're not wearing four layers of skirts and at least 20 pounds of gems and precious metals. He shows up to Finarfin's court wearing more jewelry than he ever would've worn in Rivendell and people still flash him strange looks and ask him whether he wasn't feeling up to dressing up that night. He'll braid his hair in the half-up half-down style he often wore in Rivendell and it'll cause a scandal because– gasp– Elrond had part of his hair loose. In public. Noldor keep giving him jewelry because they've collectively decided that he's clearly been deprived in Middle Earth. He's confused and a little bit afraid, frankly.

Thankfully, most of the attention is taken off Elrond when Tirion is engulfed in drama the likes of which hasn't been seen for hundreds of years. The cause? Galadriel showing up in Tirion with her hair entirely loose, and no jewelry to speak of. Her robes are entirely plain. Her only adornment is her unbearably smug smirk.