Brezé-le-Châtel, France 🇫🇷

Late-nineteenth-century watercolor portraits of indigenous North-African men, by Spanish painter Josep Tapiró i Baró (1836-1913).

Padlock and key, 1580, Southern Germany.

Had the honor of painting this wonderful commission of Finwe morning the loss of his beloved wife Miriel by the silver willows in Lorien.

Thank you @Khris Clymer for requesting this piece!

Harbour, Andrey Svistunov

Why Pengolodh of all people is able to stoke such rage within me on his behalf is so bizarre. Like, he's a non-character, a name and some facts Tolkien came up with in his carousel of in-universe authors to keep the layers of narration he loved, but the way he is maligned in this fandom is tragic.

I've touched on before that treating the Silmarillion as if it were written and relayed by a single author is entirely incorrect so I won't go into that here, and honestly I'm sure I've said this all before BUT

The idea that Penny is for some reason *least* suited to write most of the events of the Silmarillion is PATENTLY ridiculous, and I would challenge anyone who says that to a duel, either intellectual or physical (even in my current weakened state... Tulkas is on my side I cannot fail). First of all, the one place where nobody else knows anything about what happened is GONDOLIN, so I think if anyone is going to be writing about most of the events of the Silm, they either need to be from Gondolin or need to live in Sirion with survivors.

OH WHAT'S THAT.... SIRION?!?

Yeah, Sirion! The place where not only are there survivors of Gondolin, but there are survivors of Doriath and Nargothrond AND any remnants of the Beorians, Hadorian, and Haladin. Like, I can think of no other place where the Mannish legends would be able to be recounted, and put on the same level, as the Elvish ones.

"But the Feanorians," you squall. "He's so *unfair* to them, and how could he know ANYTHING about them? That's why we know sooo little about the Feanorians and why they are soooo unjustly maligned."

Ok, first of all, ya basic. Second of all, HE HAS ACCESS TO FEANORIAN SOURCES TOO.

There is Celebrimbor, and all the other former followers of Curufin and Celegorm that could of course tell Penny what was up in Himlad and afterwards while he was in Gondolin. Also, there were probably Feanorians who lived after turning on Maedhros and Maglor during the sack of the Havens who could fill in what happened after The Luthien Incident. So, actually, Pengolodh had multiple sources to literally all of the essential events of the Silmarillion.

OH YEAH THE SACK OF THE HAVENS. Despite living through what is described as the worst atrocity of elf v elf, despite having people we KNOW were friends with him KILLED during that fight, despite having his home destroyed by fellow Noldor, he *really* gives Maglor and Maedhros every excuse. "they felt bad, they're so tired, love grew between them and their victims" etc etc. The Silm is sympathetic to the Feanorians and you can't convince me otherwise (you're not some crazy rebel because you like them!) (They are also Doomed by the narrative, but attributing that to an in-universe author requires getting into the territory of events that occurred not actually occurring and... what's the point if you're going to say that the things that the book is about didn't happen? why are you even here?)

I see people say that the bias is against the 3 Cs, Caranthir especially, which is an ABSURD statement to make in conjunction with the 'Pengolodh, sole conveyer of the Silm' theory. Like, Pengolodh most likely never met any of the 3 Cs or if he did he was very young -- why would he dislike them more than the brothers that massacred his friends? I think the theory here is that he's just such a huge Turgon fan and just absorbed Turgon's opinions on the 3 Cs, which is just conjecture on top of conjecture with no solid footing.

I think there is more credence to him being biased against Maeglin on account of the Fall of Gondolin. But, I ask you, is it really *bias* when the guy is partially responsible for the sack of the city you spent most of your life in and likely the deaths of most of your friends and relatives? And Maeglin too in the published Silm is not without his good qualities! If you hate someone, it can be very hard to admit they're handsome and smart, but Penny does not have that issue.

Anyway, justice for Pengolodh. You didn't write the whole thing, Penny, but what you did write was I'm sure fucking fantastic.

The Ride of the Rohirrim in 4k

Acrylic on paper painting of a bay horse trotting.

Antler engraving found in Lortet Cave in the Hautes-Pyrénées region of France. It was carved from a reindeer antler and shows a group of reindeer crossing a river or lake full of swimming salmon. Dating to the Magdalenian period, approximately 17,000-12,000 years ago.

"The morning was cool, and mists were in the valleys and hollows and twined here and there about the peaks and pinnacles of the hills." "The Hobbit" - J. R. R. Tolkien

good lord this thing is useless

mendocino national forest

Aboard Galdor’s warship, Glorfindel returns in triumph from a dangerous expedition deep into enemy territory. He has found Elrond’s missing son, but all is not well: the Elf-child that was abducted by the Corsairs of Umbar is now a Man grown. War and darkness have left Elrohir deeply scarred, and he is not the mission’s only casualty.

An alternate universe for the Under Strange Stars series, in which Elrohir goes with Glorfindel instead of running away from him after the events of Under Strange Stars. This story covers the events of ‘Northern Skies’, but it can be enjoyed without having read the original.

Many thanks to Grundy for all of her excellent beta-reading and brainstorming.

Aboard Galdor’s warship, Glorfindel returns in triumph from a dangerous expedition deep into enemy territory. He has found Elrond’s missing son, but all is not well: the Elf-child that was abducted by the Corsairs of Umbar is now a Man grown. War and darkness have left Elrohir deeply scarred, and he is not the mission’s only casualty.

An alternate universe for the Under Strange Stars series, in which Elrohir goes with Glorfindel instead of running away from him after the events of Under Strange Stars. This story covers the events of ‘Northern Skies’, but it can be enjoyed without having read the original.

Many thanks to Grundy for all of her excellent beta-reading and brainstorming.