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camille-lachenille · 5 months

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The Silmarillion ultimate playlist

It’s the time of Spotify wrap-ups and whatnot and this gave me an idea: let’s make a giant, collaborative playlist for the Silmarillion!

Drop the songs that make you think of a specific character, your OCs, relationship, event, place, or just gives you major Silm Vibes in the reblogs and tags. Put links to them, write essays about these songs if you want, or just reblog to share further, but the goal is to have fun and discover as many songs as possible.

You can share any song or musical piece you want, no matter the genre or language, the only rule is that it can’t be a song by Tolkien nor a track from the LotR movies or musical, nor the Hobbit or any musical adaptation of Tolkien’s works (I see you Finrod Rock Opera. I will listen to you one day).

Anyways, here are my songs, and the link to the collaborative playlist:

Eärendil, Starwing: Sailboat of Mine - Eurielle & Mario Grigorov

Eöl, Nan Elmoth: Hotel California - Eagles

Aredhel: Touch the Sky - Brave; I want to Break Free - Queen;

Nerdanel, Anairë and Eärwen: Friends will be Friends - Queen

Findis: Ave Maria - Franz Schubert (specifically sung by Maria Callas)

Morgoth: Back on the Throne - Firewind

Lúthien: Savage Daughter - Sarah Hester Ross; Queen of King - Alessandra

Maglor’s Gap: I wanna be in the Cavalry - Colm R. McGuinness (both the original and the reprise)

Maglor: Requiem, Lacrimosa - W.A. Mozart

Fingon/Maedhros: Princes of the Universe - Queen

Túrin Turambar: Live and Die by the Sword - Firewind

Fëanor (from the moment he swears the Oath to his death, but specifically Alqualondë and Losgar): Wars of Age - Firewind

Amarië: I will survive - Gloria Gaynor

Eluréd and Elurín: Erlkönjg - Franz Schubert; Come Little Children - Hocus Pocus (cover by Erutan)

Finwë: Sin - Lia Marie Johnson

Helcaraxë: Rise from the Ashes - Firewind

Nirnaeth Arnoediad: Bloodstained Ground - Eluvetie

Sons of Fëanor: Threefold Death - Eluvetie

Edain/ end of the War of Wrath vibes: Prologue - Eluvetie

Fingolfin: Last of the Lords - Battlelore

Tuor/Idril: Song of the Sea - Nolwen Leroy

Maglor, Elrond and Elros: The Magic Lullaby - Eurielle

Thingol/Melian: Cat People (Putting out Fire) - David Bowie

Nolofinwëans: Hey Brother - Avicii

Celegorm and Curufin in Nargothrond: (Do)minion - Eluvetie

As you can see, this playlist is completely random, jumping from lullaby to death metal to 80’s pop without rhyme nor reason. It’s just a giant melting pot of Vibes

And now, it’s your turn to play!

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szyszkasosnowa · 3 years

Note

Fingolfin (or any noldorian high king of your choosing) for the character meme

Thank you!!! A chance for a Silm rant, yessssss!!!

Fingolfin

favorite thing about them: actually seems to have more braincells than an average elf, which is, itself, impressive. The way he dealt with Feanor is very mature. For an elf. He said ‘we’re good’ instead of starting a domestic war because of his hurt honour, that’s really impressive

least favorite thing about them: He sucks Valar’s dick too much, esp at the beginning :/

favorite line: 'Come forth, thou coward king, to fight with thine own hand! Den-dweller, wielder of thralls, liar and lurker, foe of Gods and Elves, come! For I would see thy craven face.' Absolutely big-dickked thing to say to Satan himself. Feanor would be so proud.

brOTP: With Lalwende! We know they were very close and Fingolfin was basically the reason for Lalwen to go to exile. My headcanon: in the Middle-Earth, Lalwende became a warrior and was slain in Dagor Bragollach, which was one of the reasons for Fingolfin’s breakdown :(.

OTP: none

nOTP: FingolfinxFeanor :/

random headcanon: During childhood/youth, he and Lalwen were always teaming up against Findis & Finarfin, deeming them Vanyarin sticks-in-the-mud. They both were of course a pair of Noldorin rogues and they enjoyed pestering Feanor :>

unpopular opinion: Was his duel against Morgoth badass? Yes. Was it also dumb as hell? Yeah.

Also Idk if this is unpopular, but I can’t blame him for taking his host through Helcaraxe. Firstly, I’m sure he didn’t force anybody and would gladly let people return if they wanted; but also the choice he made at that moment is... something very dear to me and I don’t feel right to judge him.

song i associate with them: High Hopes by Pink Floyd. Though, tbh it fits all the Exiles.

And Time Stands Still of course. Hansi NAILED the delivery of the ‘lord of slaves’ line >:)

favorite picture of them:

https://alackofghosts.tumblr.com/post/141519056767/anonymous-said-aredhel-and-fingolfin I love this fanart of him playing with smol Aredhel!

Bonus: a ranking of Noldorin High Kings!

Finwe - cool old guy. I support his decision to stay with Fea. Big dick energy in the last moments of his life. 8/10

Feanor - the best. Too hot, hot damn. Biggest dick in the history of the world, possibly ever. 10/10

Finarfin - pussy. 0/10

Maedhros - cinnamon bun too good for this world. The only elf with more than 5 braincells. I would die for him. 10/10

Maglor - was the king in super bad circumstances and it made nobody happy. -100/10 as for the kingship, 9/10 for personality.

Fingolfin - look above. 8/10

Fingon - better than you, better than me, better than everyone else. 100/10

Turgon - sucks. 0/10

Gil-galad - sweetie. 9/10

#tauremornalome #silmarillion #fingolfin

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dawnfelagund · 6 years

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Character Ask: Caranthir

@fefe-homu-akemi, @floralegium, and Anonymous asked for Caranthir, so here goes!

Favorite Thing: I wrote a pretty lengthy defense of Caranthir, who I believe was misrepresented by the narrator of The Silmarillion. I’m not going to rehash that now, but one of the points I make is that he, along with Finrod Felagund, is among the most cosmopolitan of the Noldor: He forms positive relationships with many groups of people outside his own culture. Where Finrod is lauded for this, however, the same actions in Caranthir are downplayed or negatively represented.

Least Favorite Thing: For all of the Fëanorians so far, I’ve discussed their violence for this item, so let’s consider that boilerplate at this point. For Caranthir specifically, I wish he hadn’t told off his damned cousins about their palling around with Thingol. It’s a regrettable moment that Pengolodh seems to lean on heavily in his assessment of Caranthir and that looms large in the imaginations of fans as well, when they take Pengolodh’s word or, in the case of fanworks creators, otherwise develop a character that would act like this routinely rather than looking at his other actions (such as his success in relating to diverse people).

Favorite Line: “Then Caranthir looked kindly upon Men and did Haleth great honour ...” (The Silmarillion, “Of the Coming of Men into the West”)

This is evidence of the Favorite Thing but also ... man oh man, there is so much mystery embedded in those two words “great honour.” Is it simply what The Silmarillion tells us he offered her? Or is there more there? Up to and including a romantic relationship?

brOTP: Caranthir is very much a one-man wolfpack in my mind. In fact, given the number of positive relationships he forged with other people, I imagine him wearily doing his best to behave to cultivate and maintain those connections because he knows he has to but silently shaking his fist at the universe for putting him, of all people, in such an ironic position.

(In this, I relate to him a lot. I’m deeply introverted. And I’m also a middle-school teacher, and a good one--I won Teacher of the Year last year at my school. I excel at building relationships with my students, and not just the ones who are like me. So I run the gamut from warm-hearted and constantly smiling with my kiddos to a snarling misanthrope at home. I’m exaggerating a little on the last one but, yeah, I get Caranthir.)

OTP: I love Haleth/Caranthir, but my OTP for Caranthir is his wife, Taryindë (as she is called in my verse). They grew up together, both were rather awkward (really awkward, in Caranthir’s case) and experimented with each other as teenagers, and eventually married. They had two daughters, who were born in Middle-earth and survived through the First Age.

There are spoilers for future stories ahead.

Taryindë went to the Nirnaeth with her husband but agree not to ride into battle because, after all, they had two youngish children and one of their parents should survive to see them into adulthood. Only, in the grand tradition of Tolkien’s women, she did ride into battle, unbeknownst to Caranthir. When she found him unconscious on the battlefield, she defended his body with her own and saved his life.

When he woke up, she was gone. He never learned what happened to her.

(Yes, I will write this story someday but at the rate I’m going I’ll be about 73.)

nOTP: I mean, I guess Nerdanel again? I really don’t do the hardcore shipping thing where liking one pairing more than others automatically rules the others out. Caranthir is sexually precocious on the sly in my verse--this idea is explored most fully in The Sovereign and the Priest--so my imagination has already gone all sorts of places.

Random Headcanon: It’s not terribly random because I feel like it’s the elephant in the room where my Caranthir is concerned. It’s definitely the most obvious fanon that my writing has created: the idea that Caranthir was unusually sensitive to the thoughts and emotions of others. He is also not fully bound by time: He is able to perceive things in the past and the future the way that you or I could look off into the distance in place.

I’ve written many times before about where this idea came from. Essentially, I was trying to explain his animosity to the sons of Finarfin, which didn’t seem to make much sense to me. As far as Finwëans go, they are pretty harmless, at least based on what we see in the texts.

(Had I tackled this question a few years later, once I had access and had read parts of the HoMe, I probably would have gone with him being jealous of their friendship with Celegorm and Curufin, while he--stuck in the middle--was overlooked. But I was a baby in the Silm fandom when I tackled this question, hadn’t read any of the HoMe, and developed my characterization of Caranthir as a result.)

Because of his heightened sensitivity to others--a trait we know ran in Finarfin’s branch of the family tree as well--Angrod and Aegnor were able to be unkind to him without others perceiving it. Much of this centered on the fact that Caranthir had a crush on their brother’s betrothed, Amarië, which they found out about. And Caranthir was very awkward and had trouble controlling his emotions--being a constant radio tower for others’ unfiltered feelings will do that to a person--so he provided them with plenty of fodder.

(I also honestly wanted to write mindspeak in a way that wasn’t a bunch of characters sitting around and thinking at each other, which was how it was usually written at the time. I mean, imagine explaining taste or smell to a being that doesn’t have it; I tried to do that with Caranthir’s perceptions.)

Anyway, from this came my Caranthir, who is strange to the point that he is off-putting to others; in my recent Cradle of Stars, Anairë calls him “the wild one who’d been born half-mad.” Hence, also, Pengolodh’s eagerness to depict him as angry--he certainly would have looked that way at times, to those who did not know him well.

Of course, I’ve since taught many a Caranthir. @heartofoshun first suggested that Caranthir was on the autism spectrum. I never intended that reading but certainly don’t mind him being read that way at all! I’ve worked most of my career with boys with emotional disabilities and have a lot of empathy and love for people for whom interacting with the world isn’t always easy. In retrospect, even though it wasn’t my intention at the time, I’m glad I gave one of them a prominent place in my verse.

Unpopular Opinion: I suppose my argument that he was not as awful as Pengolodh claims wouldn’t be popular among the anti-Fëanorians, who have always been a significant part of the Silm fandom and who lean rather heavily on the belief (the word is very intentionally used) that the Fëanorians were not fallen but evil to begin with.

Otherwise, my Caranthir has been popular over the years, which is ironic, because in the conservative moment in Tolkien fandom history when I began writing, I was convinced that I would be excoriated for my writing of him so beyond the bounds of what Tolkien gave us (although always informed by the canon). The exact opposite happened for the most part.

Song I Associate with the Character: Bush, “Glycerine.” (Actually, the much of the angsty ‘90s alternative catalogue could fit Caranthir. He has Stabbing Westward and Linkin Park on permanent repeat.)

Favorite Image: Caranthir by @albuum. Because Caranthir is a character that I have such a strong sense of, I often find artwork that I like but don’t particularly connect to as my Caranthir. This one is pretty doggone close and features his wife too. *happy sigh*

#caranthir #silmarillion #tolkien #character ask meme

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arlenianchronicles · 3 years

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Valaquenta: The Lords

While taking my Silmarillion break and having fun in Discworld, I started thinking about the Valar. Consider me surprised! I thought I burned myself out on Silm art. But, you know, I do like the Valar. Nienna is my favourite so far, and I’ve found myself thinking about Manwë these days. Nor did I ever finish designing the rest of the lords, so ... That’s what led to this.

A general note to make before I dive into the specific lords -- the swirls of light on their chests are meant to represent their power, which is music, but it’s also their names in Tengwar (Classical Mode)! I had a general concept behind this, and I’m probably butchering the explanation, but I wanted to somehow represent those parts of Ilúvatar’s mind that the Valar came from / their respective songs during the Ainulindalë. The only way I could see accomplishing that was through the use of their names.

I would’ve preferred to use their Valarin names, really (along with the Sarati script), but those would be too long; I had no idea where I’d put Mānawenūz in Manwë’s portrait, for example XDD

Speaking of Manwë, let’s dive into the lords themselves, shall we? I’ve even included closeups to see their song-names better!

Manwë

I’ve had a few thoughts before about what his design would be ... Something with birds or clouds, stuff like that. But then I had the idea to give him a form that resembles a seraphim angel!

Also, here’s the second version of his portrait; the orange clouds were originally meant to be white and represent his hair, but once his head feathers took over that job, I just felt like I needed to fill the empty space.

Ulmo

Nothing much to say here; it felt like an obvious decision for me to turn him into the sea itself. Drawing all those coral reefs actually got me thinking about doing a Maiar portrait series ... My designs for Ossë and Uinen associate them with coral and pearls respectively, and of course I’d include Salmar this time with the conch shell horns XDD

Aulë

The smith himself! He crafted the stuff. Created the Dwarves. So I decided to turn him into a mountain loll He also has a mountain-hammer, as you can see; I imagine it’s made out of some gold-like material, maybe a super-strong metal that he made himself, and something obsidian-like for the handle.

Oromë

Boy oh boy, this was a tough one. I wanted to give him an otherworldly look like the others, but ... How to make him look like a hunter at the same time?

Well, I remembered that my design for Nessa included deer antlers and a fur cloak (or super curly hair). Given that they’re siblings, why not give Oromë antlers too? Plus I’ve seen similar designs from other Tolkien artists; it certainly suits him! And he also hunts monsters and fell creatures, so how about he wears some monster pelts?

The end result kinda makes me think of Hollow Knight loll But I really like it :DDD

Námo

I designed him a while ago, so I didn’t have much trouble with him XDD Originally, his “hair” was supposed to be a veil with gold threads, perhaps to suggest that Vairë had woven it for him. But then I turned it into hair with gold strands that cover his eyes. Y’know, cuz judge.

Irmo

When I showed this one to my friends, the first thing they mentioned was that it had Olympics vibes, which ... I suppose makes sense! I probably had it on the subconscious loll

I still wasn’t able to get the full idea of how I imagine him though; I see him as a psychedelic-y geometric figure, very much like Polaris (a resonance-based entity) from Control.

Tulkas

This guy was the toughest to design initially, I think. He’s described as the most warlike of the Valar, being very strong and also a hardy friend. He’s Oromë’s opposite in that he’s known for his laughter (whereas Oromë has the terrible wrath).

And then I took inspiration from Manwë’s design with the Biblical angels, but used a throne angel for Tulkas instead of a seraphim!

Also, I know that Tulkas is supposed to have golden hair, so let’s just imagine that his hair is a red-gold here; and it has different shades of gold in different lighting XDD

Melkor

I ended up including him even though he’s not counted among the Valar. I gave him the same shape as Manwë since they’re brothers, but changed his “wings” to shadow and smoke. He also has a halo like Manwë’s, but as you can see, it’s shattered.

I also imagine him to be made out of volcanic rock / obsidian, with little lava cracks and scars.

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dawnfelagund · 6 years

Note

Maedhros and/or Indis for the character meme?

@thecurseofhotfeet also asked for Maedhros, so I’ll go with him for now, but I also got an anon ask for Indis, so she’ll be along later in the week. :D

(Thank you, btw, for all the asks, everyone! I will get to them all, and yes, you can keep sending them! This was such an amazing gift to get me back into writing and thinking about Tolkien every day. ^_^)

Favorite Thing: His leadership. He exemplifies, to me, someone who knows what it means to be a leader. He certainly has a better grasp of this than his father, who was highly skilled in getting people fired up to do things but lacked Maedhros’s self-awareness and ability to act in a way that benefits his people rather than feeling right in the moment.

My favorite quote below says more about this.

Least Favorite Thing: He failed miserably at that leadership three times.

The kinslaying at Alqualondë can be seen as less of a leadership failing since Fëanor was still in charge, and one can read his resistance at Losgar as perhaps realizing too late that Fëanor was not entirely stable or acting in the best interests of his people. But the kinslayings at Doriath and Sirion are really unforgivable. He was the leader and in a position of influence to stop them, and he didn’t. The moral compass and willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good that we see elsewhere isn’t to be found here.

Of course, this illustrates as well the power of the Oath, but I have never like absolving the Fëanorians of responsibility for their deeds on those grounds. Maedhros could have stood aside again and didn’t, and that’s a problem.

Favorite Line: From The Silmarillion, “Of the Return of the Noldor”:

That region was named thereafter the March ofMaedhros; for northwards there was little defence of hill or river against assaultfrom Angband. There Maedhros and his brothers kept watch, gathering all suchpeople as would come to them, and they had few dealings with their kinsfolkwestward, save at need. It is said indeed that Maedhros himself devised thisplan, to lessen the chances of strife, and because he was very willing that thechief peril of assault should fall upon himself; and he remained for his partin friendship with the houses of Fingolfin and Finarfin, and would come amongthem at times for common counsel.

This quote shows exactly what I was just saying about how he was generally willing to act for the greater good, even when he served to lose the most. Key to this, too, was that he had known the torments of Morgoth and was willing to risk them again in order to preserve others.

(See why this guy has fascinated me to write about for fourteen years now? Also why I grudge the kings of the hidden kingdoms for the accolades they receive, purchased in part by the sacrifices of characters like Maedhros?)

brOTP: Oh, Maglor, without a doubt. In the Felakverse, these two are closest in age, only eight years apart, whereas there are twenty-five years between Maglor and Celegorm (and twenty-six between Maglor and Fingon, the eldest cousin). So they are the equivalent of teenagers when their brothers and cousins are still kids. They are best friends and remain so throughout their lives, unfailingly loyal and devoted to each other.

OTP: I do have an unfailing soft spot for MaeFin. (Yep, keeping the old-school name for this pairing, no offense to Russingon.) I love stories about them, and despite myself, they have made it into my stories more than I ever intended, the Republic of Tirion (where they are canon) being the key example of this.

nOTP: Really, none? Okay … Maedhros and his mom. That would be weird and icky. But this guy has been paired and slashed with nearly everyone, and I’ve read quite a bit of them.

Random Headcanon: Finwë adored Fëanor but harbored no delusions about Fëanor’s suitability as king. And for all his noise about the succession, Fëanor didn’t really want to be king either. He wanted the symbolic place in his father’s family, not the responsibility and the sacrifice of the actual job. So Finwë started training Maedhros from a young age to take on this role, for when Finwë was ready to abdicate. It was never explicitly stated, but Fëanor saw what was happening and supported it. As such, Maedhros alone of the Fëanorians lived extensively in the city of Tirion and was involved in politics prior to the Darkening.

Unpopular Opinion: Well, I kind of started writing about Maedhros in the first place because I harbored an unpopular opinion, namely that the Fëanorians were not evil degenerates. What spurred me to open a blank Word document and start furiously typing the first chapter of AMC was a comment on a poem about Maedhros found on Fanfiction.net that said something like, “You’ve made me see that Maedhros is the true villain in The Silmarillion.” Like … what? Huh?? Maedhros???

I’ve never believed him–or Fëanor, or even the most misanthropic of his sons–to be evil. I think the story is about their fall and how it came about, and that is what makes The Silmarillion interesting (and scary) to me. (I tackle this subject in this blog post here.) At the same time, I’ve also never sought to absolve them of responsibility for their horrible deeds, which makes me unpopular also with the other side, the extreme Fëanatics. No, I am fascinated by how such an illustrious family could fall so far.

Which incidentally made me popular among many in the middle, but it continues (amazingly, to me) to be a controversial stance.

Song I Associate with the Character: Okay, so I am making a playlist on Spotify called “Maedhros and Fingon”! I’ve been working on it for months now without much to show. My absolute favorite song that I can’t hear without thinking of them, and Maedhros in particular? Fuel, “Hemorrhage (In My Hands).” I mean, listen to that and tell me that is about anything but Fingon rescuing Maedhros on Thangorodrim.

Favorite Image: Oh, there’s so many! Of all the Silm characters, I have the biggest crush on Maedhros. I do love me some beautiful Maedhros art. My most recent favorite: Maedhros with a Manbun by the inestimable @hrymfaxe. This is pretty much Maedhros relaxing after a day teaching middle school in the Republic of Tirion series while Fingon cooks them dinner.

#maedhros #silmarillion #tolkien

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