@tolkienweek​ 2022 | favorite quotes ● light and dark | “aurë entuluva! day shall come again!”

Last of all Húrin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until it withered, and each time that he slew Húrin cried: ‘Aurë entuluva! Day shall come again!’ Seventy times he uttered that cry; but they took him at last alive, by the command of Morgoth, for the Orcs grappled him with their hands, which clung to him still though he hewed off their arms; and ever their numbers were renewed, until at last he fell buried beneath them. Then Gothmog bound him and dragged him to Angband with mockery.

Thus ended Nirnaeth Arnoediad, as the sun went down beyond the sea. Night fell in Hithlum, and there came a great storm of wind out of the West.

—The Silmarillion, “Of the Fifth Battle: Nírnaeth Arnœdiad”

Fingon and his host being the reason the Noldor were able to overcome the Teleri at alqualonde thus leading to the declaration of the Doom of the Noldor really adds a lot more meaning to the battle Fingon perishes in being named after the first two words of said Doom.

And by meaning I mean A LOT OF PAIN.

Another chapter. Yay!

About this fic: Union of Maedhros; Nirnaeth; canon-compliant with a few additions and twists; WILL HURT

Chapter summary: Six months have passed. Tyelcano has found his place in Gondolin, made friends, and is almost happy with his new life. Fate, of course, is quite ready to ruin everything.

Also featuring:

Anardil calling everyone names

What Truly Happened Out In The Training Fields (the folk poetry edition)

Ecthelion and Glorfindel being Good Friends TM

Major Plot Point arrives, kicks down the door and says "SUP". Or, to be exact, "Caw".

Enjoy! <3

Maglor's duel with Ulfang the traitor. This episode is so interesting to me bc we don't often see Maglor taking initiative and doing something on his own. He acts very much as one of Maedhros' follower, but I think that this moment and his mercy for elrond and elros are the two defining actions that shape his character in my head.

A red sun rises

Day 5: Tears Unnumbered

A letter from the private archives of Lord Elrond of Rivendell, now kept in the Royal Archives of Arnor.

My d[e]ar[es]t R[uk]o (name uncertain), I have high hopes for the battle to come so tr[y] [n]ot to fret too much (I know it […] like asking A[rie]n not to rise [b]ut try for me.) Here is a token of my [word illegible] to keep you safe (?). With [word illegilble], Fin[no]

Despite the obvious damage, this letter dated to the second half of the First Age is remarkably preserved from time thanks to countless layers of Elven enchantments. All the damage seems to have been inflicted during the lifetime of the person who received this letter (Elf Ruko), probably due to poor conditions of storage. The spots and smudges let the historians think they may be tears, for the paper shows no other sign of water damage, and some words are worn out by what may be frequent touch.

We may make the educated guess that this letter was re-read by the elf called Ruko after the battle as they mourned their friend Finno and was an object of high personal value. The historians of the First Age agree that the battle mentioned in this letter is likely to be the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, the battles of Tears Unnumbered, as it fits in the timeframe this letter is dated from.

Despite its briefness, this letter is a precious and rare testimony of a close friendship between two soldiers, showing that, despite the state of semi-constant war of the First Age, there was an efficient messenger service between the Elven strongholds.

We know not how this letter ended in the keeping of Lord Elrond of Rivendell, nor why he put such care in its preservation, but this is one of the last written primary sources we have from the First Age and we can only be grateful it survived to this day to offer us a brief glimpse of two unknown, long dead Elves.

Late to maedhros and maglor week, here's my contribution anyways

Thinking about Maglor (as you do) and how the only death directly attributed to him is Uldor, the treacherous captain of the Easterlings who turned against the Union of Maedhros at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.

Of course, we can infer that Maglor has killed quite a few people before Uldor, and will go on to kill many more. Between Alqualondë, Menegroth, Sirion, and his tenure as captain of the Gap, Maglor has plenty of blood on his hands. But the text is quite vague about his role in these killings. We are not told, for example, that Maglor slew Nimloth or Dior. We are not told the names of his victims at Alqualondë, or the names of the guards that he murders at the end of the War of Wrath. While Maglor is certainly involved, his individual contribution is “lumped in” with the collective guilt of the Sons of Fëanor.

…which makes his slaying of Uldor all the more interesting!

Suddenly, Maglor is acting as an individual. It is not the sons of Fëanor who slay Uldor, but rather Maglor himself. The manner in which he kills Uldor is also worth noting: Maglor defeats him in single combat, meaning that they probably faced each other one-on-one. In the death of Uldor, we see a rare instance of Maglor acting independently.

Why this sudden independence? I think Maglor takes a personal interest in Uldor because Uldor is a traitor. He is separating from the sons of Fëanor, something that Maglor proves incapable of doing. The death of Uldor emphasizes Maglor’s greatest virtue (which is simultaneously his greatest vice).

The fact that Turgon possibly sees his wife and all three of his siblings die, and also gets his dad's corpse delivered to his doorstep like...this man needs THERAPY

I noticed some reblogs of my old Fingon+Turgon art, and, believe it or not, I got inspired to redraw one of those paintings! You can find the originals below the cut XDD For those of y’all who don’t know, I was intrigued a while back by Fingolfin riding to Angband with his eyes glowing like a Vala’s. I headcanoned that he passed that ability down to his kids: when they’re super angry or something, their eyes start glowing too!

So far I’ve only drawn Fingon in that setting, so I thought to myself, why not give Turgon his turn? Thus, here they are, reuniting during the Nirnaeth Arnoediad! I removed their armour to make it easier on myself to draw (and harder for them during the battle lmaoo)

“…his banner, blue and silver, they trod into the mire of his blood.”

Watercolour and pencil

Maedhros before Vaire

Thus ended Nirnaeth Arnoediad, as the sun went down beyond the sea. Night fell in Hithlum, and there came a great storm of wind out of the West.

Hey so the fuck's with this windstorm anyway. The capitalization of West makes it clear it's coming from Aman and presumably Manwë, so is it:

A "we warned you" to the Noldor?

A "time to run" warning to the people of Hithlum whose first knowledge of the defeat would instead be Orcs and Easterlings?

Clearing away the cloud of smoke that Morgoth generated at the start of the battle?

A "we're still watching" warning to Morgoth?

A completely coincidental natural storm accidentally attributed to the Valar?

I was rereading the Nirnaeth chapter last night, and it struck me how many brotherly vibes are present throughout.

How Gwindor goes completely savage after Gelmir is massacred and pursues Morgoth’s heralds all the way to the very stairs of Angband, and even ‘Morgoth trembled upon his deep throne’ as he heard Gwindor’s people banging on his doors.

How Turgon opens the leaguer of Gondolin after 356 years and risks everything he has built to aid Fingon. How even on the last day of the battle, when he probably knows that everything is lost, he ‘hewed his way to the side of his brother.’

How Maglor, the mightiest singer of the Noldor, slays Uldor the Accursed when he draws near the standard of Maedhros.

How Húrin and Huor decide to stand together until the very end, and neither of them leaves, even when ‘all the hosts of Angband swarmed against them, and they bridged the stream with their dead.’ How Húrin screams ‘Aurë entuluva!’ seventy times as he takes down enemies only feet away from where Huor lies dead with all the people of their house.

The fact that every pair of brothers loses one, other than Maglor, and even he would not be certain all his brothers live in the midst of that chaos. And that does not stop them but propels them further until they have given it all.

The battle begins with Gwindor and ends with Húrin. Those who have lost a brother. Those who will now be thralls in Angband, and even that will not be their final end.

Goosebumps. Every. Damn. Time.

May I offer you a traumatized ginger in these trying times?

Then Morwen bade farewell to Húrin without tears; and she said: 'I will guard what you leave in my keeping, both what is and what shall be.' And Húrin answered her: 'Farewell, Lady of Dor-lómin; we ride now with greater hope than ever we have known before. Let us think that at this midwinter the feast shall be merrier than in all our years yet, with a fearless spring to follow after!' Then he lifted Túrin to his shoulder, and cried to his men: 'Let the heir of the House of Hador see the light of your swords!' And the sun glittered on fifty blades as they leaped forth, and the court rang with the battle-cry of the Edain of the North: Lacho calad! Drego morn! Flame Light! Flee Night! Then at last Húrin sprang into his saddle, and his golden banner was unfurled, and the trumpets sang again in the morning; and thus Húrin Thalion rode away to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.

— THE CHILDREN OF HÚRIN, CHAPTER I: THE CHILDHOOD OF TÚRIN