vocade

[vocade]

Favorite Drawings of 2024. What animals should I draw in 2025?

[vocade]

Last night I remembered another of my favourite Tolkien wifeguy facts.

So in Western mythology we've often personified the Sun as masculine and the Moon as feminine. Off the top of my head: The Sun is associated with purity, reason, scholarship, illumination, constancy, dragons, gold, and masculinity. On the other hand, the Moon is associated with darkness, silver, impurity, flux, change, uncertainty, fickleness, and femininity.

You can see all this imagery being adopted, eg, in the Mozart opera THE MAGIC FLUTE, in which a benevolent scholar wizard (with solar imagery). straight up kidnaps the daughter of the evil, passionate Queen of the Night so that she can be properly educated in Enlightenment rationalism, purged of all those icky feminine night/lunar influences, and turned into a good submissive little wife for the scholar's young disciple. Guys the music slaps but the story is SO gross and misogynistic.

Anyway, what does this have to do with Tolkien? I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED.

In Middle-Earth, Tolkien does a GENDERSWAPPED Sun and Moon. The Sun is She, the Moon is He. And, like, it's not that he just thought "oh how can I make this mythology Different" - he really thought this through. In THE SILMARILLION, Tolkien tells us that the Sun and Moon are two vessels made from the last flower of Telperion and the last fruit of Laurelin, the Two Trees which once gave light to Valinor. Two Maiar were chosen to pilot these vessels. The pilot of the moon is Tilion, a hunter of Orome, and the pilot of the sun is Arien: "Arien the maiden was mightier than he", a spirit of fire whom I strongly suspect to be an unfallen Balrog.

Now, just as in our world, the Moon in Middle Earth has a reputation for waywardness and unreliability. Because, get this, apparently Tilion falls in love with Arien: "But Tilion was wayward and uncertain in speed, and held not to his appointed path; and he sought to come near to Arien, being drawn by her splendour, though the flame of Arien scorched him, and the island of the Moon was darkened."

And I just. Here's Tolkien, standing up in the face of centuries of unveiled misogynistic symbolism and saying, "oh, we've got two celestial entities, one of which is powerful and bold and glorious, and the other famous for being kind of lame in comparison? SOUNDS TO ME LIKE A SWAGLESS LOVER BOY ABANDONING HIS DUTIES TO WORSHIP HIS GODDESS. I MEAN OBVIOUSLY. WHAT ELSE COULD THE EXPLANATION BE"

[vocade]

ever get so bored-

[vocade]

Instagram

[vocade]

[vocade]

This shot from The Two Towers looks like a renaissance painting. Frodo lifting the Elvish rope over Gollum's neck, both of them stunned by Frodo's merciful nature. Gollum's eyes in shadow, because that is all that he has known for so long. Sam standing in the light and holding the rope, presented as the voice of reason to Frodo's voice of compassion. A pained expression on Sam's face, as if he can already foresee how this will end. Incredible cinematography.

[vocade]

Jack Sparrow ass Took

[vocade]

[vocade]

i walked with you once upon a dream ☁️

[vocade]

[vocade]

If anyone is interested, I have a near foolproof spell for rain.

Get a load of clean wet laundry

Hang it outside on the line to dry

That's it actually. In extreme cases if necessary you can also wash your car and/or set up the grill for outdoor cooking.

[vocade]

i love how Gandalf invested in Hobbits in year one and has been pushing them ever since. Thorin, i hear you need help with a breaking and entering. Can I recommend one of these little cunts? Silent as fuck, trust me. Elrond my dude i know you're skeptical but these four chucklefucks just transported a weapon of mass destruction all the way here. Theoden, you've gotta get yourself a hobbit man, I've got a spare one here. Denathor you big prick, take a hobbit - literally this is the bottom of the range but listen to him sing. Beautiful little bastard.

[vocade]

Two more Middle-earth postcards, today from Lothlórien ♡ (it took me two months to do colouring...I am really slow at digital media :D But I wanted colours here to be really different, magic...I hope it works :3 )

[vocade]

“Sean was very much Sam for me. You know, always looking after me, being there for me.” - Elijah Wood (2001) // “Well, I felt very, um… protective over Elijah, for no reason. He could take care of himself fine.” - Sean Astin (2012)

[vocade]

feanorian family tree </3

[vocade]

Mirkwood Elf Requests

Because I love Silvan Elves (particularly those that dwell in Eryn Galen) so much, and I enjoy character development and lore, I've decided to put out this announcement that I would love any asks requesting Silvan Elf related headcanons! I love interacting with people who are interested in the same things I'm interested in (which is of course Mirkwood), as well as getting challenged to develop worldbuilding and culture design!

So please, send asks about anything you'd like regarding Silvan Elves and Mirkwood, whether that be canon characters, worldbuilding, lifestyle, ecosystem, lore, or anything else you can think of!

any asks I get, as well as other headcanons / lore I write will be tagged as #mirkwood headcanons.

[vocade]

How fucking annoying is it when you feel so restless with creative energy but you can’t decide what to do with it and when you finally try to create something it comes out shit so you just give up and sit there being all creatively annoyed and jittery.