#the teleri

[lordgrimwing]

There is something just so funny about the Teleri bodily throwing the Noldor off their ships.

[thranduilofsmirkwood]

The Silmarillion Memes

[mandhos]

day of the lamps~

[tari-cua]

Teleri. no plot, just a picture that came to mind in a dream. I even wondered what they would have next? will they stir it up? give birth to children? Who will the Feanorings kill? intrigue ept😅🤣😂

[thestaroffeanor]

Swan-maiden of Alqualondë Eärwen

[humbleschilder]

Telerian harbor, this one just a quick raw concept that I made so that I could grasp the atmosphere of Telerian culture before I create the final illustartion.

[tanoraqui]

the Kinslaying at Alqualondë is sooo interesting because it is both the Noldor's original sin (everything before that was just family drama and/or dramatic, if binding, rhetoric) and the LEAST of their great crimes. Eonwë literally does not name it when saying why the House of Fëanor has lost their right to the Silmarils; he highlights the other two Kinslayings - "and most of all because of their slaying of Dior and their assault upon the Havens" - but not Alqualondë. It is a BLATANTLY obvious parallel to Morgoth coming in the Darkness, killing Finwë and stealing the Silmarils, for "these [ships] are to us as are the gems of the Noldor; the work of our hearts, whose like we shall not make again." The Noldor did NOT plan to start killing: "[Fëanor] went to the Haven of the Swans and began to man the ships that were anchored there and to take them away by force. But the Teleri withstood him, and cast many of the Noldor into the sea. Then swords were drawn, and a bitter fight was fought upon the ships..." [emphasis mine] It's not clear who made the first killing blow, but actual weapons were clearly drawn only AFTER the Teleri proved themselves willing and able to fight. Did Fëanor mean to simply intimidate them into giving him the ships? Did he think Olwë only refused because he was cowed by the Valar, and would surely give aid with a nod and a wink if he had an excuse? Every single one of these people had grown up in blessed peace, except those who had Journeyed, who still (so far as we know) had no experience of battle. The only person other than Fëanor named as playing a key part in the whole mess is Fingon, "rush[ing] in before they knew rightly the cause of the quarrel", portrayed in all the rest of the text as the closest the Silmarillion gets to an archetypal hero. It was the greatest loss of peace and collective innocence that Aman ever faced, and it was such a MESS.

[allbycharles]

Deep respect to the elves...

About 9000 years of written history

Only three attacks on other elves

Only one battle with dwarves

No slavery

No poison used in diplomacy

No assasination in between the aristocrats

Nobody slept with kings wife

...they really are good people even in the Silmarillion compared to ....you know ...humanity on Earth for example

[eomerofrohan]

Idea: the Teleri have an annual festival/memorial where they wade out into the water and let loose little paper lanterns with candles in them

It started as a way to “light the road” for Thingol’s people who were supposedly going to follow them to Aman… after a while it just became a traditional thing they did

[fingolfinwiththesteelchair]

Hark! Ill tidings, the first blood has been spilled in Valinor! Finwë, first king of the Ñoldor, who led his people to Aman, has been murdered! Melkor has slain Lord Finwë and stolen the Silmarils of the House of Fëanor!

There has been unrest in Valinor as of late, and now this! Fëanor, first son of Finwë has given a rousing, blood-stirring speech, and made a vow to destroy Morgoth, avenging his father and retrieving his Silmarils. With the silmarils, the Eldar may hold the light of the trees themselves and reside in peace, without the oversight of the Valar who failed to prevent it. Valinor is no longer safe, says he, and the Valar not fit to rule over the Eldar. He invites all who so desire to follow him into the East, to middle-earth, to seek freedom and safety, and to destroy Morgoth.

[strelkovski]

Green boy here again

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

Elrond, talking to erestor: i would love to find lake cuivinen and see the place our ancestors first awakened at.

Legolas, just here for a quick visit: would-would you like directions? Cuivienen was never lost, idk why you think it is-

[echo-bleu]

Day 11: Eärwen of the Teleri, Queen of the Noldor of Aman.

At this point I'm just painting into the evening and popping them here right away, which I never normally do (I wait at least a day to post), so I'm not seeing/correcting small issues. That's the fun of the challenge, though.

This one actually started as Finarfin, but I guess he'll wait another day or ten!

Eärwen wears a lot of pearls and sea motifs, she's a daughter of the sea first, and even though she married into the Noldor, she never adopted their customs. She wears her hair loose and not a single gem.

[sauronnaise]

Slay

[ardafanonarch]

Where does Beleg’s light-coloured hair come from? Is it just fanon? Thank you!

Hair Colour of Beleg (and the Sindar)

To the enduring enrichment of fandom discourse, descriptions of physical appearance are (famously) very few and far between in Tolkien's writings.

Beleg, though, is an interesting case because we actually have a painting of him by Tolkien! If you haven't yet seen the 'Red Boots Beleg', your day is about to get better:

This is a close-up of a larger painting, dating to July 1928 and originally entitled 'Beleg finds Flinding in Taur-na-Fúin' (Flindling was the name of Gwindor's character in the Lay of the Children of Húrin). Tolkien later titled it 'Fangorn Forest' and used it as an illustration for LotR. But it was originally meant to be Beleg and Gwindor.

Here's the full painting, where you can see the title 'Fangorn Forest' has been added:

As this painting is the only canonical reference we have for Beleg's hair colour, Beleg is canonically dark-haired.

(A small consolation for fans of light-haired Beleg: Being from 1928, the painting is quite early in the development of the legendarium, and Tolkien was known to change his mind on things, including what this painting depicted.)

However, the fandom's fondness for light-haired Beleg did not arise out of nowhere. Beleg is one of the Sindar, who are a subset of the Teleri, and several major Teler characters in the legendarium are described as silver-haired: Thingol, Olwë, Eärwen, Círdan, and Celeborn. So it makes perfect sense that readers would think silver hair was common among the Teleri.

(There's also the influence, of course, of the Peter Jackson films which are full of light-haired elves, including Sindarin Legolas.)

Here's from the essay 'Quendi and Eldar' in History of Middle-earth Vol. 11: The War of the Jewels:

Elwe himself had indeed long and beautiful hair of silver hue, but this does not seem to have been a common feature of the Sindar, though it was found among them occasionally, especially in the nearer or remoter kin of Elwe (as in the case of Círdan). In general the Sindar appear to have very closely resembled the Exiles, being dark-haired, strong and tall, but lithe.

No kinship between Beleg and Thingol is ever mentioned, for the record. But again, for silver-hair fans, this passage doesn't exclude the possibility that someone unrelated to Thingol could have silver hair. It just wasn't common.

References

This fantastic compilation of the evidence on elven hair colours has all the sources.

Information on the 'Fangorn' painting is from the Tolkien Estate's website.

[humbleschilder]

A raw concept of Telerian elves, I tried to capture their culture and nature. The elves that had superior craftsmanship in both ship-building and songs. They were quite tall compared to their kin.