whiteladyofithilien

[whiteladyofithilien]

What drives me mad about the Silmarillion is the endless potential these guys have. Fëanor has soooo much potential to be the kind of protagonist who wins in the end, gets everything he ever wanted, and everyone treats him like a hero, but at what cost??? First time around you expect this guy is going to have to lose everything in order to stand on top of the world, but no, he has to get to Beleriand, win once-- and DIE. Leaving his sons to sift through the ashes. What is this trope called cuz it makes me insane.

They all. Had. So. Much. Potential.

Maedhros could have been a hero, in every sense

Maglor could have been the most beloved musician in all of Arda

Celegorm could have actually tried to help the Fëanorians' relationship with all of Doriath instead of destroying any and all hope they had

Caranthir could have also helped solidify the union

Curufin could have chosen to be like his father still but without his father's mistakes

Amrod and Amras could have made a better name for themselves and be known as something other than kinslayers

They had it all, they had each other, their lands, they were a family, they had so much good in them before… this. But no, as soon as the rocks became more important than everybody beating Morgoth, they chose their fate and lost everything.

[whiteladyofithilien]

[whiteladyofithilien]

As a follow-up to my prior post, I present:

Top 10 Characters in the Tolkien Legendarium who are so psychologically healthy my broken ass finds them difficult to relate to but nonetheless is inspired by.

10) Gandalf: if it weren’t for the pipe-weed dependency he’d rank higher. But he’s late for Council meetings and annoys Galadriel, who has better things to do. Yeah I know he’s on the other list too, but I am large, I contain multitudes.

9) Celeborn: not a jealous bone in his body, content to be a background wifeguy who somehow wasn’t even a little bit annoying. Utterly unrelatable

8) Nerdanel: Literally the only reason Fëanor didn’t go off the rails sooner. If those 7 little shits were still minors you can BET she would’ve been granted full custody.

7) Sam: only crime was loving too much (see: Frodo, potatoes)

6) Legolas: a literal prince content to risk his life for a cause bigger than himself. Also a silly boy.

5) Fingon: did what even Maedhros’ nuclear family couldn’t (or wouldn’t), now he soaks in Bubble Bath and sips miruvor in the Undying Lands

4) Glorfindel: could have rested on his Balrog Blaster laurels but willingly went back to a shitstorm. Sort of regretted it as soon as he landed but shrugged and just did what needed to be done.

3) Miriel: the human one (the elf one is as broken as they come, but damn I love her for it) . She tried her best but just couldn’t win against Tar-Patriarchy.

2) Aragorn: head on straight. But yeah, completely unrelatable

1) Finrod: so good Mandos just fist-bumped him back into a body

[whiteladyofithilien]

Sir Christopher Lee met Rasputin's assassins, saw the last guillotine execution, hunted Nazis, recorded a heavy metal album, spoke 9 languages, was Ian Fleming's cousin (James Bond) & was the only actor in “The Lord of the Rings” to have met J.R.R. Tolkien

[whiteladyofithilien]

It sucks that the original Lord of the Rings movies are actually so good, because it makes it so hard to be a Hater. Like, with most franchises that have expanded into massive corporate Marvel Star Wars Disney Cinematic Universe Franchises you can look back at the original movie that started it and be like “this movie was not actually That Deep. this was ultimately just a pretty simple standard generic action adventure story that happened to have a solid cast/great art direction/groundbreaking visual effects/etc, and then people collectively assigned it depth that the original film’s story didn’t actually have.”

But like… the Fellowship of the Ring IS that good! It really is! It is genuinely a perfect horrible complex fairytale of a film that does have those many many elaborate rewarding layers of depth and meaning. It IS that good! It is that deep!

And that makes it hard to be all cynical about it, even with how the Franchise(tm) has evolved XP. Alas.

[whiteladyofithilien]

Me trying to flirt: would you like to watch The Lord of the Rings (extended editions)

[whiteladyofithilien]

Only the elves really see Elrond as "half-elven." They focus, of course, on who he is in relation to them. He's sort-of an elf– enough that they can accept him into their society, but not enough to erase his differences. They understand the different parts of him– his propensity to get sick, his elvish-sharp hearing, his need for sleep, his immortality– as "elvish" or "not-elvish." And while they can be rather condescending about anything they see as "not-elvish," they aren't usually very curious.

Most men regard Elrond vaguely as a fae being. This isn't unique to him– much of Middle-Earth's changling and fairy stories were built on the strange human-and-not-human nature of half-elves. Of course, different humans regard them very differently– sometimes with respect, even reverence, believing that "fairies" are beings of great wisdom and knowledge. Others see them with suspicion and fear, viewing them as sources of danger and deception.

To the Numenorians, Elrond is just one of them– a kind of "immortal man." He is like them in several key ways– he gets ill, he needs sleep, he regards the passage of time in a very "human" way. More importantly, he is their kin, a living remnant and reminder of both their mythical founder and non-human blood they share. He acts as a healer and counselor when they need him. This is all well and good until some of them start thinking that if Elrond could make the choice to be immortal, surely they should be able to as well.

The dwarves see Elrond as an elf. They absolutely do not care enough to tell the difference between him and the others. He's immortal, he's always with a bunch of elves. He's an elf.

The Maiar do not really understand what Elrond is, and have kind of defaulting to seeing him as one of them but like, small. Look, they're all uncounted thousands of years old, he's a child to them. They dote on him and think he's adorable, but sometimes forget that he's also part-elf and part-human, and can't just drop his physical form whenever he likes to go be a disembodied spirit in the clouds. Gandalf encourages all their antics. Elrond is working on it.

(Contrary to popular belief, the average hobbit does not have any kind of opinion on Elrond Peredhel. Bilbo Baggins, who lives in his house and has written several long, extremely personal ballads about his family history, is a statistical outlier and should not have been counted.)

[whiteladyofithilien]

Gender Roles & Faramir's Ultimate Triumph

How Tolkien plays with gender with Faramir and Eowyn is just so bonkers because traditionally, a woman shows her virtue through resisting sin, resisting temptation, maintaining her purity, and inspiring others to goodness, while men show their virtue through deeds and accomplishments.

Of course, for Eowyn and Faramir, this is the other way around.

Eowyn's great deed, her great triumph, is a martial feat, her destruction of the Witch King.

For all that Faramir's a skilled soldier, his two great triumphs are not in battle, in fact the defence of Osgiliath fails, but in acts of virtue, in resisting the Ring, and in healing Eowyn and inspiring her to turn towards hope and peace.

Faramir's ability, and his willingness, to take on this traditionally "feminine" role is so crucial for both their happy endings.

For Eowyn, she has not only suffered due to being barred from fighting for her country, and having freedoms deemed "masculine", but also for having the "feminine" responsibilities fall entirely on her shoulders, being forced to act as a "dry nurse" with no respite, crushing down the extent of her unhappiness and anger with her situation and her country, out of "duty" (in Gandalf's words) to Eomer and her male relations.

Understanding that Faramir will meet her in the middle, take on those emotional and caretaking duties, seek out her thoughts and feelings, (and Eomer too, hopefully, considering the words Gandalf gave him in the Houses of Healing and his own response), is integral to understanding Eowyn's happy ending.

Not only does she now have freedom to do things, to go to Rohan to help rebuild, to return to Gondor to marry Faramir, to go to Ithilien to restore it and make things grow, to heal things and fix things, at her will, instead of staying behind trying to tend things and hold things together so others can fight to put things to right, but she is also freed from the crippling duties of being the only person in her family to take on the "woman's" duty of acting as caretaker and dry nurse.

Meanwhile, for Faramir, as I have noted above his defence of Osgiliath, which, had his narrative followed the "traditionally male" route, would have have been his moment of martial victory, proved futile. Not only that, the two people he loved best, his father and brother, were lost, and lost to despair.

Faramir was the one having the dreams that brought Boromir to Rivendell, Faramir was meant to go in his stead. But he didn't, and Boromir died. Then, when it seemed Faramir was dying also, the loss of his son and the end of his bloodline was the final straw that saw Denethor succumb to despair.

However, Faramir is able to triumph, to defeat despair, on falling in love with Eowyn, and through his kindness and virtue, having her fall in love with him, thus renewing her desire to live, saving her where he failed to save Denethor and Boromir.

[whiteladyofithilien]

Feanor's silmarils 🤝 Elrond's dads

One in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters

[whiteladyofithilien]

I killed a Balrog. You are so outclassed it's not even funny.

- Glorfindel, to the Nazgûl on the banks of the Bruinen, book I, chapter XII

[whiteladyofithilien]

Maglor: Why would you give a dagger to the twins?!

Maedhros: They said they felt unsafe!

Maglor: Well, now I feel unsafe!

Maedhros, reaching into his jacket: Do you want a dagger, Káno?

[whiteladyofithilien]

azhagal and maedhros interacting pls

[whiteladyofithilien]

Maglor

[whiteladyofithilien]

I was thinking about the various parts of himself that Tolkien put into Feanor (the interest in language, the desultory work habits, the mother-trauma) and it occurred to me that if there were any elf to have Tolkien’s driving habits (”Charge ‘em and they scatter!”) it would undoubtedly be Feanor. So perhaps one century or other in the Noontide of Valinor, Feanor invents the internal combustion engine on a lark and briefly terrorizes the countryside. (It’s lucky that he loses interest soon afterward, because otherwise the way things were going it would have called for intervention from the Valar, and that wouldn’t have gone at all well.)

Then I remembered that one of Tolkien’s books for his children details the vehicular misadventures of one Mr. Bliss. And if a toy dog manages to glimpse Valinor in Roverandom, could it be that the Bliss referred to might be the ages of the Trees?

[whiteladyofithilien]

Ideologically I don’t agree with Fëanor but he kind of went off with the badass dialogue

“See, half-brother! This is sharper than thy tongue. Try but once more to usurp my place and the love of my father, and maybe it will rid the Noldor of one who seeks to be the master of thralls.”

“Get thee gone from my gate, thou jail-crow of Mandos!” 

“It may be that I can unlock my jewels, but never again shall I make their like; and if I must break them, I shall break my heart, and I shall be slain; first of all the Eldar in Aman.”

“Why, O people of the Noldor, why should we longer serve the jealous Valar, who cannot keep us nor even their own realm secure from their Enemy? And though he be now their foe, are not they and he of one kin? Vengeance calls me hence, but even were it otherwise I would not dwell longer in the same land with the kin of my father’s slayer and of the thief of my treasure.”

“Come away! Let the cowards keep this city!”

“After Morgoth to the ends of the Earth! War shall he have and hatred undying. But when we have conquered and have regained the Silmarils, then we and we alone shall be lords of the unsullied Light.”

“Be he foe or friend, be he foul or clean, brood of Morgoth or bright Vala, Elda or Maia or Aftercomer, Man yet unborn upon Middle-earth, neither law, nor love, nor league of swords, dread, nor danger, not Doom itself, shall defend him from Fëanor and Fëanor’s kin, whoso hideth or hoardeth, or in hand taketh, finding keepeth or afar casteth a Silmaril. This swear we all: death we will deal him ere Day’s ending, woe unto world’s end! Our word hear thou, Eru Allfather! To the everlasting Darkness doom us if our deed faileth. On the holy mountain hear in witness and our vow remember, Manwë and Varda!”

“Is sorrow foreboded to you? But in Aman we have seen it. In Aman we have come through bliss to woe. The other now we will try: through sorrow to find joy; or freedom, at the least.”

“Therefore I say that we will go on, and this doom I add: the deeds we shall do shall be the matter of song until the last days of Arda.”

“Let those who cursed my name, curse me still, and whine their way back to the cages of the Valar! Let the ships burn!”

[whiteladyofithilien]

One of my favorite little things in the silmarillion is how jirt very passively aggressively uses “it came into his thought/mind” when someone has a very stupid idea.

Basically “I have no fucking idea how this imbecile came to the conclusion in his tiny little brain that this would be a good idea but HERE WE ARE”

[whiteladyofithilien]

Foster grandpa Maglor