Reading the Maeglin chapter of the Silm and I’m baffled by the parallels between Aredhel/Eol and Thingol/Melian, and while the former is clearly a dubcon, weird, toxic relationship and it’s portrayed as such in the text, Thingol and Melian’s relationship and their super creepy meet-cute is glossed over?? Like, the narrative doesn’t linger on the fact that Thingol and Melian’s relationship is weird, nor does it mention the inherent power imbalance, but paints this relationship in a positive light. What??!

about to completely lose it over maglor and how borrowing the imagery of the wanderer injects the wanderer’s themes into the maglor (and the feanorion) story but also transforms the original theme..... the wanderer contrasts the impermanence of life (material wealth, comrades, lord and lands) with the inevitability of death. after expounding on the narrator’s despair, the poem ends nearly on a reassuring note that when going through earthly trials, one can draw strength from having faith in the permanent heaven and succor from God that awaits the narrator beyond death.

but for one such as maglor - who turned away from valinor, who has committed unspeakable acts in the pursuit of the silmarils - what succor would await him over the seas? is that even a path open to him, unlike the wanderer? when he wanders the seashores like the wanderer does, does he even hold faith that there could be a place for him in eternity? even if he is given grace, even if he regrets and repents, could he bring himself to accept that grace? is it, then, a choice for him to wander middle-earth forever, to turn down that reassurance, to remain faithless, to fade away into a “shadow of regret” because he does not think himself worthy of it all?

AND HE SHUT THE DOORS OF HIS HOUSE IN THE FACE OF THE MIGHTIEST OF ALL THE DWELLERS IN EA. I forgot how much fun feanor is. faces the literal embodiment of evil and is like get the fuck out of my house. can’t imagine how significantly worse any of the silmarillion would have gone if he’d lived any longer

"Oh, good morning, Elwing."

Eärendil (and Elwing) for @nolofinweanweek! I really wanted to participate in the prompts, and when I saw Eärendil I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to draw him. I've always loved the imagery of Elwing flying out to meet Eärendil as he returns, so here's my take on what that might look like :)

I had completely forgotten that it was in Nan Elmoth that Thingol and Melian met, and that Thingol explicitly suffered an enchantment after wandering in, and that the enchantment still lay upon the forest when Aredhel entered it, years later; and it probably lasted until the breaking of Beleriand at the end of the First Age...

And now I'm entertaining a headcanon that the forest is Beleriand's Bermuda Triangle -- Thingol and Aredhel are the most notable missing person cases, yes, but there are many others who have gone into the forest or even just strayed too close to its borders and allegedly have never been seen again; travelers and merchants and hunters, all disappearing. It gains the reputation of being haunted or cursed (not in the horror-and-madness-walked terror of Dungortheb kind of way, but more in a less severe, urban legend kind of way); a bedtime story to frighten children; just enough for the more superstitious folk to willingly add a day or two to their journeys to avoid it, just in case, but not enough for the more pragmatically-minded to resist scoffing at the notion and thinking it absurd, leading to many arguments. Perhaps it becomes a favorite spot for dares among the younger elves, challenging each other to spend a night under the shadow of its trees Eol having to chase all these damn elflings that have started appearing off of his lawn, grandma-style

And even after Beleriand sinks under the waves, the rumors persist that there is an area upon the sea -- many days out and almost a direct shot westwards from the northernmost reaches of the Ered Luin -- where ships simply vanish. And if sailors of those vessels ever do reappear, drifting into port on wood that should be long-rotted or suddenly, inexplicably, finding themselves standing behind a market stall or sitting on an inn stool, they do so with no memory of what occurred; only the haziest dream-like recollection of deep twilight and birdsong.

i think so much abt the fact that celeborn was one of the last elves who left middle-earth... like we don't even know when it was that he left

and i also think that it was probably him who lived on middle-earth for the longest period of time (out of the elves). i mean yeah galadriel was probably older than him for example and maybe even círdan too, but none of them lived longer on this side of the sea than him. celeborn was already living in doriath in starlit beleriand when the noldor lived still in valinor, and he also stayed longer after the war of the ring, after galadriel and círdan and elrond left. like, idk. how much you have to love a place to stay there even after the most of your kind and the love of your life all left... etc

me: the thing i love in tolkien is how he creates a sense of doom, how he writes suffering, how his characters go through pits of hell-

me, when tolkien writes about suffering and doom and puts his characters through pits of hell:

Among the tales of sorrow and of ruin that come down to us from the darkness of those days there are yet some in which amid weeping there is joy and under the shadow of death light that endures.

"Here I sit in paradise/ My head between my hands/ Little sister, break your vow/ Break down, the sacred side/ Little sister, break the rules/ Break me in two"

Hello again silm fandom I offer fëanorian angst based on lyrics I probably misinterpreted <3

no one ever talks about the wild ass experience that is reading ALL of great tales immediately after silm and then trying to be a functioning member of this fandom. like i don’t know what canon is anymore i don’t know what’s headcanon what’s fanon what’s earlier draft what’s silm canon and what’s something christopher tolkien said in his unfinished tales footnotes. was daeron luthien’s brother or in love w her?? melko or melkor, maidros or maedhros?? tevildo canon?? legolas of gondolin?? idek anymore bro.

<- experiencing shrimp emotions (listening to the return of the king ost: battle of the pelennor fields)

i’m on my first silm reread since highschool i think (so more than eight years), and it’s the first time i read it in english — and i JUST finished the flight of the noldor and i’m an emotional wreck, my hands tremble, i cried so much, i didn’t expect to be so angry at the valar. look how they massacred my boy

after so much introduction and infodumping (affectionate) there is SO MUCH happening here, i thought i could handle it since i’ve been in the fandom for a few months already and i’m familiar with the plotline but DAMN i had such a gut-punch, i’m sobbing

that tolkien made a point to create a valar representing grief is so intriguing to me. grieving, sadness, and sorrow is literally built into the dna of his world, it is an unchangeable part of us. and for nienna to not only be grief, but also the teacher of pity (mercy) and hope. the ability to grieve as proof of empathy. grief as something that must be endured so that hope gains meaning.

HALF-BROTHER IN BLOOD, FULL BROTHER IN HEART WILL I BE. THOU SHALT LEAD AND I WILL FOLLOW. MAY NO NEW GRIEF DIVIDE US.

hey guys cool you finally reconciled after a lifetime of conflict. any of you checked on your dad lately? no?

✨Sauron👁️

I think that Sauron should change up the shape of his third pupil, for fun but also for freaky.

had way too much for coloring this and it is a delight <3

But Fëanor spoke then, and cried bitterly: ‘For the less even as for the greater there is some deed that he may accomplish but once only; and in that deed his heart shall rest. It may be that I can unlock my jewels, but never again shall I make their like; and if I must break them, I shall break my heart, and I shall be slain; first of all the Eldar in Aman.’

‘Not the first,’ said Mandos, but they did not understand his word;

NÁMO YOU DIDN'T