Yes I have been taking my meds why do you ask.

Elrond : I want to be a Caterpillar!

Gil Galad : explain?

Elrond : eat a lot, sleep for a while, wake up beautiful.

Gil Galad : you know that they have a lifespan of like two weeks, right?

Elrond : that's another highlight

Gil Galad : ELROND NO-

Fingon and Gil-galad. I haven't drawn them in a while. :)

LEGENDS OF THE QUENDI

Private commission, from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Pen and ink, watercolor, 24 K gold.

Gandalf/Olorin, Cirdan, Celembribor, Gil Galad, Melian, Galadriel, Elrond, Arwen, The Elven Rings, The Elessar, and a symbolic Belt of Melian.

No, I'm not playing hooky on Good Omens, I get about 20 minutes a day to work on other stuff.

I was getting a half hour a day, but even that's too much at this point.

And yes, at roughly 25 minutes a day, a piece like this takes a really long time. Months.

I'm a big believer in making sure you pick at something else even while working on a big project, even if you only use that time for warm ups. Keeps you from crumbling under the weight of the main project.

Beleriand is gone and Tol Himling remains. No one lives there, few dare to venture close. Even years later, the fortress feels like bitter grief and pained endurance.

The remaining Noldor– and there aren't many of them by the Second Age– start sailing there. It's not far from the shore; an easy enough journey, even for someone with little seafaring experience.

One day, someone– no one is sure who– takes one of the broken pieces of Himling's walls, carves Maedhros's name into it, and sets it as a tombstone. After that, more graves appear, slowly at first, then more quickly. Old battle-songs and tributes to the dead are carved and painted into the walls. Soon, the meadow around the old fortress is full of memorials, some made from the ruins, others lovingly crafted and brought from the mainland. For all the Noldor fought amongst themselves in the First Age, now their headstoens stand together. In the cemetery, the House of Finwe is united in death as it never was in life. Graves for Feanor and Fingolfin sit side-by-side in a sorrowful peace neither lived to see.

Himring stood on an icy mountaintop where the snow never melted, but Tol Himling does not. One spring the barren meadow blooms, red poppies and blue forget-me-nots. It flowers every year after, new hues and blossoms appearing annurally until the graves are surrounded by a colorful sea of flowers.

Not many Noldor choose to sail west– most that go back to Valinor go in death– but those that do leave tokens on Himling before they leave, broken weapons and battered armor. Maybe they do it to leave something with the dead who may never return from Mandos. Maybe they do it because like the dead, their fight in Middle-Earth has ended.

Men who sail by the island– always by, never to– are very sure that there are ghosts there. To them, the place seems strange and misted, and every figure there looks like a shade. They speak of a golden-haired warrior who spends hours talking to some of the graves, a king who dutifully cares for the tombstones, wiping away dust and moss, the strange dark-haired figure who comes every year to sow wildflower seeds. But those aren't the spirits of the Noldor dead. Only those who would remember them.

Gil-galad Variations, featuring all the gil galad theories i've encountered.

My favorite theory I think is the one where Gil-Galad is actually Elured. Bc canon doriath makes me hella mad and sad. also yes, the firefly motif is just gonna be everywhere. because I said so.

✶ Gil-galad was an Elven-king. of him the harpers sadly sing: the last whose realm was fair and free between the Mountains and the Sea. ✶

Gil-Galad illustration. <3

the rings of power + tolkien’s descriptions of canon characters

I love the whole concept that all the mortals by the late third age have this idea of elves as these serene, calm, wise and peaceful beings. Like at the council of Elrond and the like they all see the elves as inherently great givers of advice with the bigger picture at heart. Imagine if someone from then read a book on the first age. Like Faramir being exposed to Elrond’s records after he leaves for Valinor and thinking are these really the same species? Why are they setting everything on fire? Was the founder of Numenor really raised by these people? Did the calm lord Elrond really hold a knife to that guys throat? They are all completely feral and bloodthirsty and possess no basic judgement skills. Frodo getting to Valinor and being invited to a party at Finrod’s house. Expecting a deep cryptic discussion on lore and feeling out of place among all these dignified ethereal legends. And like ten minutes in people are playing drinking games with knives and fire. Frodo expects Lord Elrond to be shocked at his relatives behaviour but finds him in a knife throwing competition with the former high king. He seems to be winning. He also sees what seems to be two high kings making out in the stairwell. His last hope is Galadriel whose now in an intense bar fight with three of her cousins. Her husband is cheering her on from the corner.

The elves are not actually inherently wise. They just made all the mistakes and learnt from them after about the fifth attempt.

I am once again thinking about how good the story of the second age is, and all the fun things you could do with an actually decent adaptation. Consider:

Galadriel should be exactly the same as she is in Lord of the Rings. She is older, weirder and more powerful than any elf other elf in Middle Earth. Other elves are just as unnerved by her as mortals, and dealing with her is stressful at the best of times.

Elrond should be an absolute infant. Just, complete baby face. But everyone treats him super respectfully and he has a lot of power and influence. The energy should be the same as when the super ancient and powerful vampire or faerie or whatever looks like a ten year old girl.

ALSO there should be a tall, menacing elf with visible tattoo and facial scars who just. Stands behind Elrond looking intimidating all the time. The least elf-looking elf ever. All the other elves are uncomfortable around them. Elrond should treat them like their an Aunt or Uncle. The elf is one of the few surviving hard-line Feanorians, all of whom follow Elrond. The longer you can go without explaining this, the better.

Gil-Galad is very tired, and spends a lot of time balancing one of the most famously unstable political systems in all of Arda. Galadriel and Elrond both have factions they support to strongly to be relied on to be impartial. The reason he doesn't worry much about what Celebrimbor's up to is that he's the one member of the family who is highly unlikely to attempt something batshit nuts, and his followers are mostly moderate.

Celebrimbor and Annatar/Sauron should spend the whole series playing complicated mindgames with each other.

Annatar is playing four-dimensional chess from the beginning. For him, this is an all or nothing gamble. If he can't make the rings he won't have the power to seize control on his own. He should spend a lot of time having Light Yagami-level monologues where he tries to figure out what game Celebrimbor is playing while outwardly pretending to be harmless and normal and only succeeding at this about 75% of the time.

Celebrimbor should start of thinking the stakes are considerably lower. Like... is Annatar hiding something? Yea, but he figures Annatar doesn't actually have permission from the Valar to be here or something. Not, ya know, Annatar is secretly Satan in disguise. In the first act there should be an almost comical disconnect between the amount of energy Sauron is putting in to these mind games versus Celebrimbor.

Bonus points if as Celebrimbor figures out the truth, you intersperse more and more of his family backstory. The guilt he is still carrying for a lot the things that happened in the first age. Early on bring in the fact that Finrod went into Sauron's jaws alone and it was Curufin's fault, use this as angst material. And then as he figures out who Sauron really is, drop Maedhros and Thangorodrim in like a nuclear bomb.

Because Celebrimbor has seen this play before, and he knows what Sauron does to people. It wasn't even personal then, what Sauron is going to do to him will be so much worse.

And Celebrimbor chooses to forge the three rings anyway. He doesn't give up their locations, even with everything Sauron does to him at the end. And that should be devestating.

From bottom to top: Turin Turambar, Aredhel, Maeglin, Haleth, Gil-galid, Beren and Lúthien, Feanor and his seven sons, Elwing, Vingilótë, Ancalagon.

Another funnier option would be that neither of them found out until after Elros’ marriage when some confusion arose between Elros and his Wife. Elros then frantically writes to Elrond to ask him what sex is and how it works. Elrond, who has no idea what Elros is talking about, brings this up to Gil Galad, Galadriel and Celebrimbor after a council meeting at which point all three remember, with no small amount of panic, what they forgot to discuss with the twins. This results in one of Gondor’s archives/museums having a stack of letters adressed to Elros Tar Minyatur sent by several famous historical elves. Unfortunately due to the age of the letters and the fact they were written in ancient elvish no one can read them but its is assumed they were important diplomatic messages. If they could read them, the scholars of Gondor might be a little suprised and confused why the adult King of Numenor had received multiple, quite lengthy letters detailing how sex works.

brb kids Grandma Galadriel is on a mission

Fingon and little Gil-galad. :)