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transagorn · 6 days

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Treebeard takes his pet hobbits for a walk.

This was so much fun to draw, really happy with how he looks, I think he turned out just as I imagined him in the series! I based him off an oak tree, I don’t believe he has a given tree in the books but I could be wrong lol.

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transagorn · 6 days

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I’m fine, I’m fine, it’s totally cool that the last galdor (spoken charm particularly used, under various names, in the Dark Ages in the European North Atlantic) Gandalf lays down is “You cannot pass.” And that the SECOND to last galdor Gandalf lays down is to protect the abandoned Bill the Pony.

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transagorn · 25 days

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It puzzles me when people cite LOTR as the standard of “simple” or “predictable” or “black and white” fantasy. Because in my copy, the hero fails. Frodo chooses the Ring, and it’s only Gollum’s own desperation for it that inadvertently saves the day. The fate of the world, this whole blood-soaked war, all the millennia-old machinations of elves and gods, comes down to two addicts squabbling over their Precious, and that is precisely and powerfully Tolkien’s point.

And then the hero goes home, and finds home a smoking desolation, his neighbors turned on one another, that secondary villain no one finished off having destroyed Frodo’s last oasis not even out of evil so much as spite, and then that villain dies pointlessly, and then his killer dies pointlessly. The hero is left not with a cathartic homecoming, the story come full circle in another party; he is left to pick up the pieces of what was and what shall never be again.

And it’s not enough. The hero cannot heal, and so departs for the fabled western shores in what remains a blunt and bracing metaphor for death (especially given his aged companions). When Sam tells his family, “Well, I’m back” at the very end, it is an earned triumph, but the very fact that someone making it back qualifies as a triumph tells you what kind of story this is: one that is too honest to allow its characters to claim a clean victory over entropy, let alone evil.

“I can’t recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass. I’m naked in the dark. There’s nothing–no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I can see him with my waking eyes.”

So where’s this silly shallow hippie fever-dream I’ve heard so much about? It sounds like a much lesser story than the one that actually exists.

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transagorn · 2 months

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Watchful Peace, The Return of the King by John Howe

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transagorn · 2 months

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gimli taking frodo to see the mirrormere makes me want to cry

“this is one of the most important places in my people’s culture and i want to share it with you” STOP IM ALREADY EMOTIONAL

and aragorn! recognizing how important it is to gimli! and telling him to go look even though they’re under pursuit and arguably don’t have the time!

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transagorn · 3 months

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ppl are always writing characters doing dumb shit like roasting a fresh-caught rabbit over an open flame instead of making a stew with that thing. great now you’re letting all the fat drip down into the fire as it cooks, wasting calories and flavor as well as causing the flame to flare up = inconsistent heat source,… when you could be maximizing the nutritional value of small game by making a soup or stew. Come on

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transagorn · 3 months

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One of my favorite parts of Lord of the Rings is how the history of the environments always echoes what’s happening in the story.

Most sequences in Lotr are like: “the heroes enter a location that is ruined/fading/dead. Then the heroes do something that makes the location’s lost history come to life again, if only for a moment.”

Like the most obvious example of this is Moria. The heroes walk into Balin’s tomb and read the story of what happened there– the dwarves hearing drums in the deep, barricading the door, and being attacked by goblins.

Then immediately after the heroes hear drums in the deep, barricade the door, and have to survive an onslaught of goblins, just as the dwarves did.

The other really obvious example is Mount Doom: Sam tries to get Frodo to let go of the Ring, and Frodo refuses– echoing how Elrond tried to get Isildur to let go of the Ring, and Isildur refused.

But there are more subtle versions of this too-- like I’ve already talked a lot about how much I love this part of Weathertop. Weathertop was once a magnificent old watch-tower that was used by ancient kings, and long ago the ancient kings even used to battle over who owned it. Then the Northern Kingdom fell, and the watchtower fell into ruins and was forgotten.

But then Aragorn (a king in exile) and the Nazgul (who were “great kings of men”) return to Weathertop– and it’s like an echo of the battles that used to happen there. This watchtower fell into ruin and lost its royal identity, the Nazgul fell into ruin and lost their identities, and Aragorn turned from kingship and chose a life of anonymity– so it’s like!!!!!!!! The kings are as faded as weathertop itself!! It drives me wild

(also: unrelated but I love this shot where Aragorn is a dark silhouette and the Ringwraiths are bright white silhouettes, it’s just nice)

Another example is Amon Hen and the Argonath. This land used to belong to Gondor,– but it’s broken, overgrown, in ruins, and gradually fading away.

And this is the place where Boromir dies– the place that symbolizes his country’s death.

But it’s also the place where film!Aragorn finally decides to accept his responsibliity to Gondor–when he realizes that Gondor/mankind has worth, even if it’s faded and in ruins and ultimately doomed.

Or there’s Helm’s Deep in the Two Towers, where the history of Helm’s Deep as a fortress that can’t be taken is repeatedly tied to the hero’s efforts to save it. The heroes find courage by reminding themselves of the fortress’s history. (“The horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the deep– one last time!”)

Or the way Frodo making the choice to take the Ring to Mordor, leaving his home behind, ties into the history of Rivendell– to the way elves are preparing to leave their home behind. Or the way the elves’ grief at how Lothlorien is doomed to fade away ties to the heroes’ grief at the death of Gandalf.

Idk! It’s like every scene! And sometimes the characters themselves are aware they might relive the past– and it it fills them with hope (Helm’s Deep) or dread (Moria, Mount Doom.) But sometimes it’s subtle, to the point where the characters themselves might not realize it’s happening. And i just think that’s neat

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transagorn · 3 months

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Need y’all to know that in the 1970’s a letter to the editor was published in Daily Telegraph where the author offhandedly used the phrase “Tolkien-like gloom” to describe an area with barren trees and JRRT himself wrote back an incensed rebuttal at the use of his name in a context that suggested anything negative about trees.

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transagorn · 3 months

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@lotr20 | Day 6 ↳ Healing: Aragorn in the Houses of Healing

Aragorn went first to Faramir, and then to the Lady Éowyn, and last to Merry. When he had looked on the faces of the sick and seen their hurts he sighed. 'Here I must put forth all such power and skill as is given to me,' he said. 'Would that Elrond were here, for he is the eldest of all our race, and has the greater power.'

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transagorn · 3 months

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some of my favorite lotr bts pictures

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transagorn · 3 months

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it’s tough when you and your elf husband are in love but there’s a giant evil volcano or something that wants you all dead 🏹💎

Slightly NSFW, sorry…But I liked it enough to put it here too.

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transagorn · 3 months

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If LOTR fanfic has taught me anything it’s that braiding someone’s hair is the most intimate thing you can be caught doing

Oh here’s the sft (safe for tumblr) Vers don’t look at that dick up there

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transagorn · 3 months

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when you forgot that the meeting with the lord of emyn arnen was definitely at 4:00pm today

(please fullview for maximum journey!)

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transagorn · 3 months

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Legolas sees Gimli’s tiddies for the first time at the counsel of Elrond and bursts into tears ‘cause he’s never wanted to be railed so bad in his life.

Elrond misunderstands and is like tsk we must overcome our prejudices, Thranduilion 8-|

And then Legolas spends the entire quest like,

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transagorn · 4 months

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Hobbits at Old Forest ♥ re-reading Fellowship of the Ring (and remembering October two years ago when I was working in a small town in England, spending all of my free time walking around hills and hedges ♥)

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transagorn · 4 months

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Semi finals, side A

Sons of Fëanor: Maedhros Nelyafinwe Maitimo Russandol, Maglor Kanafinwe Macalaure, Celegorm Turkafinwe Tyelkormo, Caranthir Morifinwe Carnistir, Curufin Curufinwe Atarince, Amras Telufinwe Ambarussa Minyarussa, Amrod Pityafinwe Umbarto Atyarussa

Propaganda under the cut

Pevensie siblings propaganda:

Kings and queens they are, kings and queens.

These siblings are my freaking childhood, I have such a love for them

They LOVE each other! They live entire lives in another world and experience things no one else could possibly understand together! Peter, Edmund, and Lucy DIE and leave Susan ALONE and it makes me lose my miiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnndddd!

More here!

Sons of Fëanor propaganda:

The brothers who murder together... die separately, doomed to everlasting darkness. Anyway these morons are 60% of my brainrot.

More here!

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transagorn · 5 months

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Thinking of how Legolas began to feel the call of the sea, irresistible and overwhelming, during the quest and yet waited until everyone in the fellowship died before leaving. Except Gimli of course, who he took with him.

He waited decades out of love and friendship.

Thinking about Merry and Pippin buried next to Aragorn.

Thinking about Eomer who called for Merry at the end of his life, to see him one more time before he passed away.

Thinking about Sam who, after Rosie passed away, left Middle Earth to see Frodo one more time before his own death.

Thinking about Legolas and Aragorn singing for Boromir, Merry and Pippin who owe their lives to him praising his deeds and bravery.

Thinking about Gimli, who walked the Path of the Dead out of love of Aragorn and visited Fangorn forest out of love of Legolas.

Thinking about Gandalf, who feels responsible for the heavy burden he placed on Bilbo and Frodo, and who took them with him to Aman, traveling with them one last time to bring them somewhere where they will finally know peace.

The love i have for them.

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