I've been looking more into the myths and legends that inspired Tolkien, specifically into Irish Mythology, and there are actually a lot of very interesting similarities, particularly in Tir na nÓg and the Tuatha dé Danann.

Tir na nÓg means 'the land of the young', and is an enchanted isle off the west coast of Ireland where all were happy and suffered no illness or unhappiness. It is also called the Otherworld, and just like with Valinor, was often mistaken for a kind of heaven or afterlife when it was an actual, earthly place that could be reached by sailing across the sea(or through magic).

It was from Tir na nÓg that the Tuath Dé came, sailing eastwards in a fleet of 300 ships. Tuatha dé Danann means "people of the Goddess Danu". The Tuath Dé are immortal beings who are immune to aging and illness who came from across the sea and inhabited the lands of Ireland before Men ever came there.

Upon landing on Ireland's shores the Tuath dé immediately took the ships they had used and burned them to prevent anyone from returning to their homeland. The smoke from the fires could be seen for miles and the dark cloud lasted for three days straight.

In their first battle against their enemies and former inhabitants of Ireland the Formorians, the King of the Tuath Dé, Nuada, had his arm sliced clean off. Because he was no longer "unblemished", he thus lost his kingship, although a new hand was made for him that was made of silver. Nuada thus gained the epithet of Airgetlam, meaning 'silver hand/arm'.

They were powerful magic users, and during the years they spent there conquered most of Ireland, though at the cost of much blood.

But just like the Elves, so do the Tuath Dé and their power eventually fade at the coming of Men, the Milesians, the ancestors of the Irish people. In some tales the Tuath dé fight back and are driven underground by the Milesians, but in others versions the Tuath Dé foresee and accept their fate, and flee beneath the earth where they later become the sidhe, the fairy folk, or Little People, living in barrows and cairns. In other versions, the Goddess Danu sent many of the Tuath Dé to live in Tir na nÓg, and made homes beneath the earth for those who wished to stay.

Overall, very alike to Tolkien's Elves, specifically the Noldor!

How about feanorians and their favourite animals? 👀

Flora, fauna, geography and environment of Arda Masterlist

Environment and Geography of the realms of the Fëanorians

I Took this as a (small) chance to explore the animals that were important to their realms both domestic and wild.

I’m actually planning a longer post about this though so I limited it to creatures that were also personally important to them

For @tolkiengenweek day two

As always I love environmental world building and questions like this and relationships with animals both on a personal and society or level is really important to me so please feel free to ask more

Maedhros (Himring and the March of Maedhros, Northeast Beleriand)

I’ve spoken about snow leopards of the March multiple times and these elusive creatures endear themselves to Maedhros over time.

Horses are the primary domestic animal and some are sired from those brought from Valinor while some were tamed from wild horses in Beleriand. Horses of Eastern Beleriand retain their winter coat for more of the year than their kin and this is especially true of the March. Maedhros grows a strong bond with several of the horses

Maglor (Maglor’s Gap, Northeast Beleriand, South of the March)

Maglor likes that which inspires him to create (during relatively calmer times when taking inspiration from the natural world is possible). Certain songbirds especially larks, creatures that are capable of a chorus like tree frogs and crickets. Do not mistake this for whimsy however. If such sounds disturb or distract Maglor rather than inspire him he has no love for them at all. And later on especially he grows to dislike songbirds altogether. Their voices feel mocking.

In happier times he will readily admit he likes the long eared hedgehogs

Celegorm and Curufin (Himlad, East Beleriand, Northeast of Doriath)

During prosperous years horses and hounds are both abundant in Himlad. Wolfhounds and thick coated mountain dogs (similar to St. Bernard’s and Burmese Mountain dogs of today) are favorites of Celegorm

Celegorm is fond of many creatures. He loves the large monitor like lizards he saw in the warmer areas of Western Beleriand.

Curufin is very fond of his own horse. He likes insects with delicate wings. Lacewings and dragonflies for example. These are not as common in Himlad however

I have some ideas about diversity in dogs and horses of Valinor and Beleriand that are probably best left for another day but in short I think there is selective breeding and some diversity in breeds though nowhere near as much as today here.

Caranthir (Thargelion, Northeast Beleriand, slightly South of the March and the Gap, North of Ossiriand)

Caranthir if asked would frequently say he was not a lover of animals. He does develop a fondness for the wading birds of Lake Helevorn as well as the gray wolves he occasionally sees closer to the montane forests. They do not bother him and in turn he leaves them be.

Amras and Amrod (Estolad, East Beleriand, East of Doriath and West of Thargelion and Ossiriand) Both twins have a love of birds of prey that dates back to their first explorations of hunting in Valinor. Falconry is practiced among them and their people. Golden eagles are most valued for this but are rare. Saker falcons and merlins are more common.

As always please feel free to ask more!

Offtopic: of Morgoth, his hand and Carcharoth (and also a little bit of Fenrir, of course)

Well, it’s quite an embarrassing topic, but also something that could be very fitting for the story and something I’ve been wanting to discuss with someone for years. And who knows maybe I didn’t misread the thing when I read it first time after all...  So, in Silmarillion there is this part telling of Carcharoth  and how Melkor raised him.

Then Morgoth recalled the doom of Huan, and he chose one from among the whelps of the race of Draugluin; and he fed him with his own hand upon living flesh, and put his power upon him. Swiftly the wolf grew, until he could creep into no den, but lay huge and hungry before the feet of Morgoth. There the fire and anguish of hell entered into him, and he became filled with a devouring spirit, tormented, terrible, and strong. Carcharoth, the Red Maw, he is named in the tales of those days, and Anfauglir, the Jaws of Thirst. And Morgoth set him to lie unsleeping before the doors of Angband, lest Huan come.  

And the very first time I read it, the line “he fed him with his own hand upon living flesh” made me think that Morgoth actually fed his own hand (now, that’s the embarrassing part, because I kinda missed “with”) and it didn’t really surprise me but looked quite natural to me (for the reasons I’d like to discuss in this post). In fact, it still surprises me how fitting the mistaken perception of that line would be for Melkor’s story, possibly making it even better. Of course reading it the other way (I guess the proper way) the line simply tells us that Morgoth personally fed living flesh to Carcharoth, emphasizing that he had been personally overseeing the bringing up of the werewolf, showing his concern of threat from Huan the Hound.  But, despite how weird it may sound that Morgoth fed his own body to a werewolf, it actually seemed completely natural to me (and I believe, or hope at least, that over the years there were some people who read it the same way that I did, lol) that Morgoth would actually feed his hand to Carcharoth. In fact, it would be pretty much the same thing as what he had been doing all along. Because throughout the story we can see it emphasized by Tolkien in several places how from the mightiest, the greatest, the fairest of Ainur, Melkor, through his pride, jealousy, arrogance, wrath, evil turns into weakened, fearful, crippled, even pitiful creature.  I believe it’s really well, edifyingly, depicted how Melkor spent all his power and wisdom (which indeed were the greatest) on evil, on attempts to dominate and destroy or at least mar that which he could not dominate. He gradually dispersed his powers to change, spoil, the very matter of Arda, dispersed his powers among his servants (otherwise weak-willed without a dark lord leading them), spent his powers on destruction and eventually from once somewhat “the closest to Ilúvatar” (though the very point of the story is pretty much that no one can ever be close to Ilúvatar, not to speak of being equal, which was Melkor’s desire that led him to his ruin) Melkor eventually fell to the state when he wasn’t able to even heal his hröa being left forever crippled, and it was Melkor himself in the first place who got marred and destroyed in the result (”something that might happen to us too if we are only focused on hatred towards others and thoughts of how better we are than others, how inferior are the others comparing to us” I believe is what Tolkien was talking about there), and dispersing his power among his slaves Bauglir himself became slave to them in a certain sense - the fear was known to him and he was afraid to fight Fingolfin, but he still had to fight, for even more he was afraid of losing his face before his servants. And during that very fight he got those injuries which left him scarred and crippled, which he could never heal, and it’s really beautiful how Tolkien shown it all together - weakening of Morgoth’s spirit, Morgoth’s power, Morgoth’s hröa, generally Morgoth’s fall on different levels, in pretty much a single scene. So basically Morgoth converted his initial power into all sorts destruction, evil, darkness now blighting Arda forever.  So having all that said, the idea of Morgoth feeding own body to create the mightiest wolf that would kill Valinor’s Hound, doesn’t sound that weird.  He had been doing the same all along, spending basically himself, converting his himself into destruction, into evil, into deceit, into the power of his servants, leaving the rest of him weaker and weaker on the other hand. And wouldn’t it be very fitting for his story if, having already reached a rather pitiful state, he still had to go on and keep converting himself into power of his tools, and had to feed his own hand to convert it into Carcharoth exceptional power, basically to literally convert his hand into Carcharoth and make Carcharoth his hand which would kill Huan? I don’t know, maybe it’s so only to me, but such version of Carcharoth’s bringing up would be even better for the story, and who knows, maybe the way I read that line at first was because in some earlier drafts, in some earlier versions it was indeed written without “with” as if Morgoth indeed fed his own hand?  And, well, speaking of a hand feeding a great wolf, and a great wolf devouring the hand that fed him, I believe that quite naturally we recall the story of Fenrir and Týr (who fed Fenrir with his own hand and I guess it’s possible to say that eventually “fed his own hand”, though, of course it wasn’t the point to simply sate Fenrir’s hunger) While of course the story of Eru and Melkor, Melkor’s fall is really very Christian, (naturally reflecting Tolkien’s views), and in my opinion also  very well written and illustrating a point about God in real-life Christianity really well (something that quite a lot of people I’ve seen getting wrong about the God in Christianity actually, it’s not about a somewhat “yin–yang”-like situation (only fighting each other) between the good and evil  but pretty much the point is that devil is nowhere close to the God) some Old Norse inspirations can be obviously seen in the legendarium (and also Finnish of course, and it’s quite fascinating how different the Finnish stories are from Norse ones, but Tolkien still took both and combined them in the story of Húrin’s  children) so who knows, maybe there was something about feeding wolf with a hand at some point after all. Sorry, I’m not really good at writing things (when I really like something I keep talking about it, repeating the same thing several times, it’s not like I do it without noticing it, but these are really the things I really love and enjoy and I want to talk about them a lot, and repeat the same stuff over and over, sorry).