Tolkien’s subtle connections between LOTR and The Silmarillion are just glorious to discover. Like the reason Gollum hates sunlight and moonlight is the same reason the Nazgûl get scared off when Frodo calls out to Varda! Sauron, and thus his servants and his Ring that has completely corrupted Gollum’s soul, shares the absolute darkness of Melkor, who always hated and feared Varda because she is absolute light and thereby she created the Sun and Moon in defiance of that darkness… and she created them out of the last remaining light of the Two Trees which Melkor destroyed, so every time a piece of Melkor’s darkness comes into contact with the light of the Sun and Moon, it is reminded that Melkor did not destroy that light completely, that it lives on. Gollum can feel Varda’s creations forever clashing with what is indirectly Melkor’s creation.

Ilúvatar and Ainulindalë

Valar

The Two Trees of Valinor

Thingol and Melian

Ulmo, Ossë and Tol Eressëa

Fëanor and The Silmarils

The Flight of the Noldor

Maedhros and Fingon

The Fall of Fingolfin

Beren and Lúthien

Art by Wavesheep. Part I | Part II | Part III.

Feanor was fascinated by the light of the two trees .At times he liked to walk along the path and gaze upon their wondrous light and from this came the need for preserving part of their wonder in his own creation and thus ,the Silmarils were created.

Legendarium by  Rene Gross

1. Eru Ilúvatar

2. Creation of Melkor and Manwë

3. Wedding in Valinor

4. Telperion and Laurelin, the Two Trees of Valinor

5. Eärendil Sails to Valinor

6. Wedding in Lothlórien

white light amid the darkness

Day 1: Noontide of Valinor - prompts by @nolofinweanweek

The two trees of Valinor - by Kinko-White

Thinking about Christmas now that thanksgiving is over, and the tradition of putting up an evergreen tree and decorating it with ornaments and stringing it with lights (of gold and silver especially) legit sounds like a thing the Elves, especially the Calaquendi would appreciate or even do themselves. It's a tribute, a memory of Laurelin and Telperion ere they were lost, and with the gold and silver radiances combined, it's like the mingling of the lights again on earth.

Tolkien: Trees are the best. I love trees.

Edith: Yes, Ronald, I know how you feel about trees.

Tolkien: Like, trees are perfect the way they are.

Edith: Yes, dear.

Tolkien: Except...

Edith: Except???

Tolkien: Except... what if they were also a lighting system?

In Honor of Yavanna: Glingal and Belthil

[...] in the courts of Turgon stood images of the Trees of old, which Turgon himself wrought with elven-craft; and the Tree which he made of gold was named Glingal, and the Tree whose flowers he made of silver was named Belthil

just a tad late for Yavanna's day for @ainurweek

“The Two Trees”

Watercolour of the Two Trees of Valinor, created to be the logo for Tolkien Thing 2023, the summer moot of the German Tolkien Society.​

It is told that even as Fëanor and Fingolfin stood before Manwë there came the mingling of the lights, when both Trees were shining, and the silent city of Valmar was filled with a radiance of silver and gold. And in that very hour Melkor and Ungoliant came hastening over the fields of Valinor, as the shadow of a black cloud upon the wind fleets over the sunlit earth; and they came before the green mound Ezellohar. Then the Unlight of Ungoliant rose up even to the roots of the Trees, and Melkor sprang upon the mound; and with his black spear he smote each Tree to its core, wounded them deep, and their sap poured forth as it were their blood, and was spilled upon the ground. But Ungoliant sucked it up, and going then from Tree to Tree she set her black beak to their wounds, till they were drained; and the poison of Death that was in her went into their tissues and withered them, root, branch, and leaf; and they died. And still she thirsted, and going to the Wells of Varda she drank them dry; but Ungoliant belched forth black vapours as she drank, and swelled to a shape so vast and hideous that Melkor was afraid.

So the great darkness fell upon Valinor. Of the deeds of that day much is told in the Aldudénië, that Elemmírë of the Vanyar made and is known to all the Eldar. Yet no song or tale could contain all the grief and terror that then befell. The Light failed; but the Darkness that followed was more than loss of light. In that hour was made a Darkness that seemed not lack but a thing with being of its own: for it was indeed made by malice out of Light, and it had power to pierce the eye, and to enter heart and mind, and strangle the very will.

— OF THE DARKENING OF VALINOR

Telperion and Laurelin

The two trees of Valinor, created by Yvanna, during the noontide of Valinor.

Vala Yvanna sang the two trees into existence after the Lamps were destroyed. Telperion (silver) lit the world through the night, and Laurelin (gold) by day. The Two Trees bestowed power on the Elves who saw them, and the Elves of Aman had great wisdom, foresight and strength. In YT Melkor and Ungoliant destroyed the Two Trees. The Valar shaped the final flower of Telperion and fruit of Laurelin into the sun and moon.

Fëanors three Silmarils encased the light from these trees, potentially aiding in elves and Vala desire for them.

(Yvanna created a tree like Telperion without light for the elves in Tirion and it’s descendants were Nimloth the White Tree of Nùmenor, and later the White Trees of Gondor.)

This is my second wood burning, and first using paints to color it.

What happened to Shelob's giant mother who bit the Devil so hard that the entire universe heard him scream? (Not that I blame him on that one, as I would also utter the most unholy shriek if a big spider bit me.)

Oh crap I thought I answered this. Geeze, it's been a while, sorry. Also same about being bit by a big spider. The guy is pretty damn big so the spider itself would be terrifyingly huge and that's before the "webs of unlight" and other fun powers. Y'all thought Mirkwood's were big? Nah, they're tiny compared to Ungoliant.

We have no idea where Ungoliant is from although it's assumed it's space but it's implied she's some kind of maia (angel/minorish god) that went off in her own particular rocker. She's basically a Primordial Hell Spider. We don't know where she went or and what became of her. Last we know, she was seen fighting and then just skittered off to parts unknown "southward" and was never seen again.

Knowing Dagor Dagorath, Ungoliant will probably show up at the end to help further that Ragnarok / End of Times setup. I mean after all, the Silmarils will be shattered there and the Sun and Moon will crash to the planet and you know she'd be hungry for that final feast of the Trees and their tofu/seitan imitations.

Although the fact that she dipped South makes me very worried about the people living south-ish past Gondor and Mordor. Like, what kind of unholy spider abominations do they get plagued with that teaming up with the evil "god" Sauron is a good idea, even with any Morgothian indoctrination at play? The Blue Wizards are late to that party but at least they can help shake things up over there.

Okay so to clarify for people who no idea: Shelob is the giant spider living in Sauron's mountain range nearish to the front gates. Ungoliant is her ancestor to an unknown degree (mother? grandmother? ungodly number of greats? who knows how long giant spiders live for in this setting) and is famously known for draining dry the giant magic trees that glowed brighter/dimmer in an about yearly cycle.

The trees, for the record, are the source of the Sun and Moon and also part of the inspiration for Feanor creating the Silmarils (specifically their light reflecting off of his niece Galadriel's hair). Telperion was planted first and then followed by Laurelin. The silver-leafed tree Telperion had flowers that dripped star-like dew, while Laurelin had clusters of golden fruit surrounded by golden glowing leaves. I mentioned before in another post about these trees and how the last flower and fruit were shotpucked into orbit on skyships. The moon's driver is apparently kinda shitty at sailing which is sometimes why the moon is larger. You'd think he'd get better but…

Anyway, the Trees' light stretched all the way from Valinor (basically heaven on earth) all the way to the known lands across Arda (including Middle Earth, which is charitably around the size of Europe compared to the rest of the landmass). Now it wasn't a perfect go and I forget at this moment when exactly the Two Pillars over on the continent Middle Earth is on were built to give that continent its own light source but Morgoth hates it when people have nice things so either he deliberately smashed them or a fight with the Valar got out of hand there and they got smashed in the fight. Because of this, the land got "ruined" by developing rocky mountain ranges, canyons, and so on so instead of being completely perfect it's wonderfully imperfect and varied. Similar way that Morgoth fighting with Ulmo - the Valar god-archangel-master of the Oceans - helped carve the shorelines and ocean-facing cliffs.

Ungoliant joined up with Morgoth with the promise that he'd offer her freely from his hands anything to satisfy her endless hunger. Using her webs as a ladder to breach Valinor's capital during a massive party since everyone would be busy, Morgoth struck down the trees with his giant spear weapon, and then she lapped up all the sap and her hunger and gluttony only got worse and Ungoliant grew larger and possibly more monstrous-seeming if she was able to scare Morgoth shitless.

They fled across the Grinding Ice, a jagged arctic wasteland (which is why the Noldor when led by Feanor went across that rather than any sensible path).

Ungoliant wasn't an idiot even if she was greedy. She knew that Morgoth broke promises when it suited him, so she demanded her goods. I am not sure how he had the time to do this but Morgoth looted Feanor's treasury along with swiping the three Silmarils. So the promise was demanded and she was fed all the gems held in his left hand… but he refused to open his right which contained the Silmarils (somehow, given that nothing evil can hold them).

Understandably pissed off, Ungoliant wrapped him up in her webs of unlight and tried to kill him. This created the echoes of Lammoth - the endless scream that would rattle forever until the area's destruction. This scream is what drew his minions' attention to the area and so Ungoliant exited the scene, pursued by Balrogs.

Yes, Balrogs. Plural. The Balrog of Moria was just the one and possibly a weak one at that.

Each Balrog is a fallen angel that was formerly working for others or could've been one of Melkor's had he stayed true (which was never gonna last given how he changed the Song and went Lucifer on God).

She wandered around, was known to have attempted to breach Doriath but was somehow successfully fended off by Luthien's mother Melian (told you she was a bamf), then had lots of spider babies in the ruins of Angband (Morgoth's Hell on Earth capital).

After that we have no idea where she went or what Ungoliant is up to beyond going "southward". Come the Fellowship's founding, it's been about 6458 years (not counting the exact date she was last seen in the Second Age) but if she was sniffing around for a Silmaril then that'd make the last possible sighting around 466 First Age so…6583 years.

That's a long time to lose track of a giant spider. Hope it doesn't literally bite them in the ass. Hopefully Pallando and Alatar (the "missing" two Wizards of the Istari Order) are handling things over there.

Solar eclipse is just Tilion stealing a kiss from Arien.

Down there somewhere in Arda, Galadriel and Celeborn are watching, joined as the sky aligns as they are.

"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light". Featuring the Two Trees of Valinor that brings the Lights to the Eldar

This is a lamp that I decorated in December for my mother and it's tempera on metal and glass 👐💙🌞😊

Finwean ladies week 2: Findis and Lalwen

Two sisters dancing in Valinor <3

I PUT SWEAT AND BLOOD IN THIS BACKGROUND AAHHHHHHHHH

@finweanladiesweek​