People who act like Middle Earth would be such a great place to live are apparently not aware that that entire world circa Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit is in fact post-apocalyptic

Observe, this supposedly idyllic fantasy world consists of:

- crumbling eleven settlements - shrinking kingdoms of Men - governments and kings either absent or hilariously under equipped to face the evils of the world - all but a handful of the ancient dwarven settlements are in the hands of orcs OR WORSE - Thorin and Co. could barely take one step off the road before being nearly EATEN BY TROLLS (OR WORSE) because there’s absolutely NO safety or rule of law whatsoever - Gandalf basically hangs out in the Shire because it’s the ONLY PEACEFUL PLACE LEFT THAT ISNT’T INSIDE A MOUNTAIN, GIVEN UNNATURAL LIFE BY THE ELVEN RINGS, OR BEHIND GODDAMN FORTRESS WALLS - did I mention half of the CONTINENT was swallowed by the sea during the War of Wrath? Along with about HALF of the major cities? - Numenor, major homeland of Men, was also SWALLOWED BY THE SEA - there used to be a ton more sentient races - and most of them are either lost (entwives), leaving (elves), slowly dying out (dwarves), genocided or something who the heck knows (orcs/goblins/wargs) or destined to vanish completely within the next age (hobbits) - seriously, this world is a vaguely-feudal wasteland of shit that doesn’t work or is downright vanished, the fact that hobbits exist at all is a goddamn miracle, because literally EVERYTHING, INCLUDING THE TREES is trying to kill you or has already been destroyed

In short, I dunno what GRRM was smoking when he said when he died he wants to go to Middle Earth, but I hope he’s prepared to spend his time there RUNNING FOR HIS DAMN LIFE

HOW DO WE SAY “What we do in life echoes in eternity?” IN QUENYA?

http://quenya101.com/how-do-we-say-in-quenya/quenya-archives/3/#6Quellë

(As requested by Alberto Sobalvarro and answered in 70 hours through FAST LINE)

I haven’t read Silm in its entirety in a while, but I totally spaced on Feanor ending up in the Halls of Mandos??

he wasn’t permitted to be reembodied because of his crimes, apparently, but here’s the thing:

didn’t the Feanorians swear themselves into the Everlasting Darkness with the unbreakable Oath?

That is to say, if they didn’t recover the Silmarils their spirits were consigned to the Void (which has Everlasting Dark as another name)? because in my mind/interpretation when they so swore they basically condemned their spirits to never find rest/enter the halls of Mandos at all.

so what is Feanor doing there, if he didn’t repent of the Oath? did he just not get a choice in the matter?

“I know you think you wanna go in the Everlasting Darkness, but that’s dumb so instead come sit in the dark and think about what you did,” said no one ever.

Also the Halls of Mandos are IN VALINOR and the Doom of Mandos says that the Valar will “fence Valinor against you [the Noldor]” basically until everyone chills out and repents of the leaving

and Feanor DID NOT DO THAT he did the OPPOSITE OF THAT his death was like a giant “screw you Valar here’s me DYIN’, there’s you SUCKIN’, I’m still right and you’ll never get a Silmaril outta me and my family” 

plus the Feanorians had the additional bindings of the Oath to contend with so wouldn’t Feanor not be allowed into the Halls of Mandos with his sons?

That’s what I’ve been thinking all this time; that their souls were literally just tossed out into the nothingness and could only be recovered at the Final Battle or whatever.

But apparently not so now I just

have so many questions

(I might be missing something from the Doom of Mandos or the death of Feanor though because like I said, long time since I read the physical text of The Silmarillion)

vefanyar answered your post: Question On The Haladin Lineal Inherit...

Elections are in the Wanderings of Húrin: “But though so far descent had been by eldest son, it had been laid down by Haleth (and Haldar her brother) that daughters and their descendants were to be eligible for election.” The rest is sexism. :(

thank you! (and yeah, how ironic is it that a whole house of the Edain would have been completely wiped out if not for a woman, and the entire group only elects men to leadership forever afterwards?) 

self conscious? no, i am elf-conscious. i am highly aware of thranduil 

Question On The Haladin Lineal Inheritance

real question:

why is the House of Haleth not matrilineal?

(MORE BELOW THE CUT)

I mean, I guess technically all of them can trace their descent back to Haldad, father of the twins Haldar and Haleth, but Haldar's son Haldan is the first to inherit the "house" (since Haleth had no children) so starting from there then of COURSE patrilineal inheritance makes since.

But the house is called the House of Haleth and the inheritance all being patrilineal (that is, power goes from Haldar's son to his grandson and so on) suddenly stops making sense when you consider that the first actual accepted LEADER of the people (who lived longer than five minutes, sorry Haldad) was Haleth, a mature woman aged about 34 at the time of her family's death.

why is there no value placed on female children in the House of Haleth, when the first real "leader" was female? and Haleth and Haldar's unnamed wife raised Haldan (since his father died when he was 9 so he was by no means independent at that point) so he would/should have had a strong positive view of women as chieftains. 

you can't tell me every spousal coupling in the HoH starting with Haldan and his wife produced one child and it was always a boy. And if that IS true and only male children are documented/produced, the implications are China's-limitation-on-children grisly. None of the marriages of Haldad's female descendants are mentioned (except for Halmir's two daughters who married into the House of Hador and were thereafter referred to as members of THAT house, which suggests a definitively patrilineal line at LEAST in the House of Hador).

edit: according to Generic Wikipedia (and I'm still looking for documentation in The Book, though this practice is first mentioned well AFTER Haldan seems to bequeath on his son Halmir the chieftainship by birthright) leaders were elected by the "Full Moot of the Folk" from the descendants of Haldar and <insert poor forgotten wife name here>. I GET Haldar only having one child and that being a son (since he died at the stockade), but if this election thing is true, then why were only males elected when the most successful leader of the HoH was a female? Especially when Haldar was RAISED by women after the age of 9 and HIS son Halmir was born 30 years before Haleth died and you can't tell me she had no influence over his life and views on women. You would think female children would be raised as AT LEAST equals to the male children in that household, so why were none of them ever chosen given the standing female success rate at leading?

This just all brings me back around to the nasty grisly China Haladin-only-want-male-heirs thing which eW??

for here is a fire that shall consume you, and all evil things.

Silmarillion Fancast

Orlando Bloom as Beren son of Barahir

Eva Green as Luthien Tinuviel

this is a complete timeline of the Silmarillion compiled from The Annals of Aman, The Tale of Years, and The Grey Annals. it’s my single favorite reading/writing resource for the First Age. highlights:

Years of the Trees

1 The Two Trees are created 1085 Oromë meets the Elves 1099 Breaking of Utumno - Valar win the war with Melkor  1100 Binding of Melkor  1101 Valar summon the Quendi to Valinor  1130 Elwë meets Melian  1133 Vanyar and Noldor reach Valinor  1140 Tirion completed. Ingwë leaves Tirion 1161 Teleri reach Valinor 1169 Birth of Fëanor  1170 Death of Míriel  1185 Marriage of Finwë and Indis  1250 Dwarves enter Beleriand. Fëanor creates a new alphabet for the Elves. 1300 Thingol builds Menegroth. Daeron invents the Runes. Birth of Turgon and of Finrod.  1400 Melkor released 1450 Fëanor completes the Silmarils 1490 Banishment of Fëanor 1495 Darkening of Valinor. Death of Finwë and flight of the Noldor. First Kinslaying.  1496 Doom of Mandos. Finarfin turns back.  1497 Morgoth attacks Beleriand. Fëanor reaches Middle-earth and burns the ships. Death of Fëanor. Capture of Maedhros. 1498 Maedhros sent to Thangorodrim  1500 Rising of the Moon and the Sun. Hiding of Valinor. Fingolfin reaches Middle-earth. 

Years of the Sun:

1 Rising of the Moon and the Sun. Fingolfin reaches Middle-earth.  5 Fingon rescues Maedhros and the Noldor are reunited.  7 Sons of Fëanor leave Mithrim.  20 Fingolfin holds the Feast of Reuniting 60 Dagor Aglareb. Morgoth invades Beleriand and is defeated.  155 Morgoth attempts to attack Hithlum and is driven off 260 Glaurung invades Ard-galen and is repelled by Fingon  310 Finrod meets Bëor  316 Aredhel encounters Eöl 375 Haleth becomes chief of the Haladin 400 Aredhel and Maeglin ride to Gondolin. Deaths of Aredhel and Eöl.  455 Dagor Bragollach. Deaths of Angrod and Aegnor.  458 Morgoth attacks Brethil and is driven off with help from Doriath. Húrin and Huor visit Gondolin.  464 Beren enters Doriath. Birth of Túrin 465 Beren comes to Nargothrond. Death of Finrod. 466 Beren and Lúthien take the Silmaril 469 Maedhros retakes Dorthonion. Beren and Lúthien return briefly to Doriath.  470 Birth of Dior Eluchíl 472 Nirnaeth Arnediad. Death of Fingon. Capture of Húrin. Birth of Tuor. Morwen sends Túrin to Doriath.  495 Fall of Nargothrond and deaths of Orodreth and Finduilas. Orcs attack Brethil. Tuor leaves Hithlum.  496 Tuor comes to Gondolin. Morwen and Nienor leave Doriath. Túrin meets Nienor.  499 Deaths of Glaurung, Nienor and Túrin 503 Death of Thingol. Birth of Eärendil. Birth of Elwing.  504 Dior becomes king of Doriath 506 Second Kinslaying and death of Dior 509 Maeglin captured by Morgoth 510 Fall of Gondolin and death of Turgon 532 Birth of Elros and Elrond 538 Third Kinslaying 542 Eärendil reaches Valinor 545 Host of Valinor lands in Middle-earth 587 Destruction of Angband. Maedhros and Maglor seize the Silmarils. Death of Maedhros.  590 Morgoth thrust into the Void. End of the First Age. 

Simple Hooded Cloak Pattern

Difficulty level: Beginners

Required skills: basic stuff like ‘how to use a measuring tape’, ‘how to use pins’, ‘how to cut fabric’, 'how to not accidentally stitch through your own fingers when using a sewing machine', you get it

(feel free to message me if you have questions)

The Two Legolases

It’s very true - in the Lost Tales, which includes the earliest version of the Fall of Gondolin, Tolkien tells us about “another” Legolas. He was one of Galdor’s scouts, and actually survived the fall of the city. He eventually went on to sail to Tol Eressea, where he supposedly lives to this day.

The issue arises from Tolkien’s explanation for the double use of the name Glorfindel (there’s more about it in this post, but the basic idea is that Tolkien said that the two Glorfindels are actually the same elf, since the “repetition of so striking a name, though possible, would not be credible.”) So what’s Tolkien’s excuse for the double Legolases? Because Legolas of Gondolin is definitely not Legolas of Mirkwood.

In another note Tolkien clarifies the issue a little bit. He says “no other major character in the Elvish legends … has a name borne by another Elvish person of importance." So the idea seems to be not that elves never use the same name twice. Rather, if an elf is famous enough to make it into legend, then his or her name isn’t used again (sort of like when sports teams retire a famous player’s number after retirement, I guess.) So, since Glorfindel was so famous for battling the balrog, his name was off limits for future elves. Legolas, however, was really just a scout that happened to be mentioned by name. Therefore, it isn’t too strange that his name was used again.

Hope that made more sense!

SOURCES: Histories of Middle Earth vol. 2 (“The Fall of Gondolin”), vol. 12 (“Late Writings”)

Turin & Beleg, a few years later.

From The Encyclopedia of Arda:

The long journey of the Haladin from Thargelion into the Forest of Brethil.

Nerdanel stealing a reborn Feanor from the Valar "He is my husband and we have *many* things to set right with each other"

War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom. Not feared, save as men may fear the dignity of a man, old and wise.

they would make the crankiest person

I found out about this too late to contribute anything of quality I’m so sorry ;u;

Caranthir the Tsundere.