Tolkien and long hair: what do the books say?

Any time Tolkien describes the length of Elves’ hair, it’s always said to be long:

- Glorfindel: ‘His golden hair flowed shimmering in the wind of his speed’ (FOTR - Amroth: ‘The wind was in his flowing hair’ (FOTR) - Celeborn: ‘The hair of the Lord Celeborn was of silver long and bright’ (FOTR) - Elves even made bowstrings from their hair: ‘A bow such as the Galadhrim used, longer and stouter than the bows of Mirkwood, and strung with a string of elf-hair’ (FOTR) - Celegorm: ‘Golden was his long hair’ (The Lays of Beleriand) - The Elves of Valinor: ‘With their gleaming hair in the wind flying’ (The Lays of Beleriand); ‘There blowing free unbraided hair is meshed with beams of Moon and Sun’ (The Lost Road) - The Teleri: ‘With their long hair gleaming like foam’ (Morgoth’s Ring) - Olwë: ‘The hair of Olwë was long and white’ (Morgoth’s Ring) - Thingol: ‘Elwë himself had long and beautiful hair of silver hue’ (The War of the Jewels) - Fingon: ‘He wore his long dark hair in great plaits braided with gold’ (The Shibboleth of Fëanor) - And then there’s this quote which implies that long hair was seen as desirable among the Elves: ‘All the Eldar had beautiful hair (and were especially attracted by hair of exceptional loveliness), but the Noldor were not specially remarkable in this respect, and there is no reference to Finwë as having had hair of exceptional length, abundance, or beauty beyond the measure of his people’ (The Shibboleth of Fëanor)

But it’s not just Elves—Men are also described as having long hair:

- Aragorn: ‘He threw back his hood, showing a shaggy head of dark hair flecked with grey’; ‘His hood was cast back, and his dark hair was blowing in the wind’ (FOTR) - The Witch-king of Angmar: ‘His hair was long and gleaming’ (FOTR); in an earlier draft of the scene, Tolkien wrote that all the Ringwraiths had long hair: ‘Upon their long grey hair were crowns and helms of pale gold’ - Boromir: ‘They combed his long dark hair and arrayed it upon his shoulders’ (TTT) - The Rohirrim: ‘Their hair, flaxen-pale, flowed under their light helms, and streamed in long braids behind them’; ‘Where is the helm and the hauberk, and the bright hair flowing?’; ‘Their golden hair was braided on their shoulders’ (TTT) - Eorl the Young: ‘His yellow hair was flying in the wind’ (TTT) - Théoden: ‘His white hair was long and thick and fell in great braids’ (TTT); ‘The hair that flowed beneath his high helm was like snow’ (ROTK) - Men from the South: ‘They have black eyes, and long black hair’; ‘His black plaits of hair braided with gold were drenched with blood’ (TTT) - Faramir and Éowyn: ‘And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air’ (ROTK); this would only be possible if Faramir also had long hair - Túrin: ‘For his garb was of the wild woods and his hair was long’ (The Book of Lost Tales)

What about Maiar?

- Gandalf is described as follows: ‘His long white hair, his sweeping silver beard, and his broad shoulders, made him look like some wise king of ancient legend’ (FOTR); ‘His snowy hair flew free in the wind’ (TTT) - Even the Balrog is described as having long hair: ‘Its streaming hair seemed to catch fire, and the sword that it held turned to flame’ (The Return of the Shadow)

Interestingly, I only found a few instances of characters cutting their hair short, and all of them are women:

- Lúthien cuts her hair in The Silmarillion, although it does not say how short, but in The Lays of Beleriand, it says she ‘cut the hair about her ears, and close she cropped it to her head’  - Vána cuts her hair too in The Book of Lost Tales: ‘There follows an account of how Vána...cut short her golden hair and gave it to the Gods, and from her hair they wove sails and ropes’  - In The War of the Ring, Éowyn is described with shorn hair when she goes to war, although this was changed in the final version of ROTK: ‘In the passage that follows, Éowyn’s hair is described as shorn upon her neck’

In conclusion, long hair is clearly the norm in Tolkien’s books. No Elf is ever described as having short hair apart from Lúthien, and no mortal is ever described as having short hair except for Éowyn in the rejected draft. If anyone should have short hair, it’s certain female characters, not male Elves. Fight me!

Visions

funny purple dog you get endless health issues

playing around with how i draw iterators

in your orbit

Finally posting this AU here;

It’s 1 year anniversary of this AU!!

CW: This au contains general dark themes, brainwashing, non-consensual body modification, violence, machine gore, etc. please read at your own risk!

This is my rw au(Project Triple Affirmation), it takes place in a setting where the Ancients are still alive. One day, Looks to the Moon announces that she has found the Triple Affirmative—the answer to the Great Problem: to eliminate death by uploading all consciousnesses to a virtual reality, for without death, there is no rebirth, thereby breaking the cycle. She sees herself as the savior of everything, granting an ethereal eternity.

To put it into simpler words: Moon with her local group killing everything and uploading their victim’s consciousness to FP’s processor(a virtual reality).

While Moon claims that her plan “Solves” the Great Problem, her real agenda is far more radical: she wants to play god. To create a new world in her vision.

There’s still a lot more lore in this au, I’ll slowly get to them in my later posts.

Misha loved the destiel town "where's Misha?" art and has it on his phone now.🥹💕

So cute and funny explanation 🤣

link to tweet source in the tags.

Really old sketch I decided to clean up..anyway LOCAL GROUP HUG!!

selkies have been taking up so much of our brain for the past few days so here's a scelkie (scug selkie) looks to the moon

Okay!!! Finally (Finally, this has been months in the making and redone several times) I made a lineup of my Iterator designs!!! They're done and I'm really happy with them.

Misc headcanons under the cut

All: Asexual, Trans

Looks To The Moon: She/Her, Demiromantic Lesbian

Five Pebbles: He/Him, Greyromantic MLM

No Significant Harassment: They/Sometimes He, Aromantic

Seven Red Suns: They/Them, Demiromantic Bi

Moon and NSH are both Gen 1. NSH was Moon’s first junior and friend, and they are extremely close because of it.

Suns is early Gen 2 and was created by a particularly aesthetically inclined group, resulting in their slightly more ornate clothing.

Pebbles is put off by NSH’s humor, thinking that if they’re a Gen 1, then shouldn’t they act like it?

NSH’s humor is actually sourced from their life experience. They’re relatively comfortable with themself and know how to see the bright side in most situations. (Moon’s collapse not being one of them. They were completely devastated; even moreso once assigned Senior in her stead.)

Moon loves Pebbles and wants him to be happy and healthy. He thinks she’s too overbearing, but loves her too deep down.

moon in a suit because shes beautiful

bugs or something

HERE IT IS

My takes on the local iterator group, this took way too long lol

I had fun trying to make up things based on my personal hcs of their personalities!!

With all (All!) due regards from the (by spiritual splendour eternally graced) people of the Five-hundred-and-ninety-second High Convocation of the True Anointed Citadel, do hereby Wish to thank you for your Loyal and Relished services, and to Offer our Hopes and Aspirations that the Honourable and Righteous Cooperation between our people and yourself may continue until that Glorious moment when the last of us has joined our most Admired peers in spite of current Events!

It is with Honour I, Eight Bogs under Warm Starlight, of the House of Ten Bones, Count of two living blocks, Counsellor of 1, Duke of none, Humble Proprietor of the Convocation of the True Anointed Citadel, do write this to You on behalf of our Organization:

We seek your Thoughts, Opinions, and possibly Feelings (insofar as you find yourself capable of the latter, being Transcendent and Greater as you are!) on the issues that Surround the Imminent Completion and Activation of the Apostate Superstructure Abomination which has been allowed the Outrageous Blasphemy of being allowed to place shadow upon the Divine Body of the True Anointed Citadel.

Sincerely, Eight Bogs under Warm Starlight, of the House of Ten Bones, Count of two living blocks, Counsellor of 1, Duke of none, writing to you on behalf of the Five-hundred-and-ninety-second High Convocation of the True Anointed Citadel.

May your cycles be Fruitful and your recovery from the Present Situation regarding Oversights of Scalability and Sustainability on account of your Flawed and Humble Occupants be swift.

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The Trigun boys say take your brain meds!

moon! wait.... what the sigma, moon where is ur clothes!! this is so indecent.. im experimenting with my style if u couldnt tell. going for something more simplistic since its so much more fun to draw. pls suggest modern clothes i should put her in! i wanted to draw her in something cute but like i couldnt think of anything