archiveoflikes:arda

[helenvader]

These two stills nicely show the passage of time during Sauron's goo phase. Stalactites and stalagmites do not grow exactly quickly.

It's only after the shot in the second still that Blobron devours the poor rat.

It means he was a black puddle for a very long time before he turned into a spaghetti monster, crawled out of the cave, had a sled adventure, was run over by a carriage and turned into Halbrand... possibly not of the Southlands. :-)

It's a lovely example of "show don't tell."

[dreamlandcreations]

Okay but I just realised that this took his whole story in a different light with this...

Because this pitiful creature('s essence) not only spent centuries in a dark cave with little to no hope to get himself together ONCE but TWICE!

He walks the same path and expects a different destination. AND HE CAN'T EVEN SEE IT?!?!? The all-seeing eye, the puppet master deceiver, can't see or understand himself and what he is doing! 🤯

[beardedmrbean]

how to commit to the bit properly

[iischaos]

Who would win in a Fellowship drinking contest:

Frodo would win, because hobbit metabolism makes it impossible for Big Folk to outdrink them and he’s the oldest of the hobbits and therefore the most experienced

Merry next, because he’s older than pippin

Pippin next, hobbitish constitution but the youngest of them and not fully developed yet

Sam, hobbitish constitution but I don't really see him as much of a drinker except on special occassions, unlike the two above who will take any excuse to get drunk and cause chaos

Legolas and Boromir are about even, sometimes one wins and sometimes the other does. Boromir's country has been at war and on the brink of collapse for years and, as he says, the only thing the soldiers really have to do a lot of the time is drink and die. He's been trying to keep their spirits up for years and that means a kind of 'party hard because we might all be dead in the morning' mentality. Also he's under a lot of stress and needs something to take the edge off. Legolas, meanwhile, comes from the elven kingdom renown for their parties and also his father drinks like twenty glass of wine a day. But also I think for an elf of his kingdom he actually can't hold his drink that well, comparatively, and gets teased about it mercilessly. It's not until he goes out into the world that he realizes that his tolerance is great, it's just that everyone else he knows is insane

Gimli, actually able to hold his drink pretty well but just not up to the competition

Aragorn, because Rivendell is full of fucking lightweights. The elves of Mirkwood make fun of them for this endlessly

And, entirely separately:

Gandalf. Who, depending on the day, can either go shot for shot with a hobbit or is drunk after a few sips. Must be a Maia thing. Up to you whether this is by his choice, or if it's entirely random and even he doesn't know what it's going to be in advance

[emilybeemartin]

Gondor Week day 7: Fourth Age

Just a final scribble of our friends enjoying each others' company.

@gondorweek

[mhevarujta]

Something about Celeborn being the one to send Nenya to Galadriel in this version...

[connieboldheart]

I love making these - let me know in comments/reblogs where you'd sit! :)

[thetiredprometheus]

Tolkien only has two kind of elves: Enderenwen the fair, who's eyes hold centuries of pain and yet his gaze is as kind as the first sun in spring, his mother was a nightingale and his father a seabreeze, flowers grow wherever he walks;

And Finwendulenfinfedë, who has killed half of his entire family and is here to fuck shit up

[lukavyi]

Sketches

[outofangband]

An underrated bit of horror that’s on my mind is that when he appears as a dark shadow among the first elves, he becomes known to them in their dawning language as the dark rider or the black rider, at least in my translation.

We know this was likely in part because Morgoth knew that Oromë had begun to search for the elves and that beneath Oromë was Nahar, the very first horse, proverbial (and literal) sire to all horses. Indeed many elves feared Oromë when he approached, just as Morgoth had hoped and planned they would.

What I wonder often is what shape Morgoth rode upon to mock and distort Nahar and thus, horses. Longer limbs, sharper teeth, a shadowy form to move through the forests…

Perhaps it was created in part to mock Oromë who may have been tasked with hunting the monster. Forcing Oromë to slay a beast created in the likeness of his loyal companion seems like something Morgoth would enjoy.

Whatever monster he created in Nahar’s image, it presumably was not fully successful; horses remained an important friend to the elves throughout the ages. It was Nahar that survived more powerfully in their collective memory, not Nahar’s doppelgänger

But perhaps the shadow still remains. In folktales, whispered rumors among Oromë’s hunters, strange dreams and drawings, expressions regarding the behavior or illnesses of their own horses.

[livsmessydoodles]

the girls are fighting!!!!!!!!!!!!

[insomniac-arrest]

one of the underrated lessons from lotr's Aragorn is to avoid responsibility for as long as humanly possible, possibly in the woods, possibly without showering, until the small folk need you or whatever

[hobbitinnumenor]

Racists: Elves can't be black.

Me: First of all, get bent. But also...how can you care LOOK AT HIM

[the-arcane-archivist]

Can I just say that Faramir of Gondor is one of the hottest men ever written? And his romance with Éowyn?? *screams* It’s just so honest and raw yet sweet and wholesome.

xxx

“He looked at her, and being a man whom pity deeply stirred, it seemed to him that her loveliness amid her grief would pierce his heart. And she looked at him and saw the grave tenderness in his eyes, and yet knew, for she was bred among men of war, that there was one whom no Rider of the Mark would outmatch in battle.”

“She did not answer, but as he looked at her it seemed to him that something in her softened, as though a bitter frost were yielding at the first faint presage of Spring.”

“‘Then, Éowyn of Rohan, I say to you that you are beautiful. In the valleys of our hills there are flowers fair and bright, and maidens fairer still; but neither flower nor lady have I seen till now in Gondor so lovely, and so sorrowful. It may be that only a few days are left ere darkness falls upon the world, and when it comes I hope to face it steadily; but it would ease my heart, if while the Sun yet shines, I could see you still. For you and I have both passed under the wings of the Shadow, and the same hand drew us back.’ ‘Alas, not me, lord!’ she said. ‘Shadow lies on me still. Look not to me for healing! I am a shieldmaiden and my hand is ungentle…’”

“And as they stood so, their hands met and clasped, though they did not know it.”

“And he stooped and kissed her brow.”

“And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air. And the Shadow departed, and the Sun unveiled, and light leaped forth…”

“Then Faramir came and sought her, and once more they stood on the walls together; and he said to her: ‘Éowyn, why do you tarry here, and do not go to the rejoicing in Cormallen beyond Cair Andros, where your brother awaits you?’ And she said: ‘Do you not know?’ But he answered: ‘Two reasons there may be, but which is true, I do not know.’ And she said: ‘I do not wish to play at riddles. Speak plainer!’ ‘Then if you will have it so, lady,’ he said: ‘you do not go, because only your brother called for you, and to look on the Lord Aragorn, Elendil’s heir, in his triumph would now bring you no joy. Or because I do not go, and you desire still to be near me. And maybe for both these reasons, and you yourself cannot choose between them. Éowyn, do you not love me, or will you not?’ ‘I wished to be loved by another,’ she answered. ‘But I desire no man’s pity.’ ‘That I know,’ he said. ‘You desired to have the love of the Lord Aragorn. Because he was high and puissant, and you wished to have renown and glory and to be lifted far above the mean things that crawl on the earth. And as a great captain may to a young soldier he seemed to you admirable. For so he is, a lord among men, the greatest that now is. But when he gave you only understanding and pity, then you desired to have nothing, unless a brave death in battle. Look at me, Éowyn!’ And Éowyn looked at Faramir long and steadily; and Faramir said: ‘Do not scorn pity that is the gift of a gentle heart, Éowyn! But I do not offer you my pity. For you are a lady high and valiant and have yourself won renown that shall not be forgotten; and you are beautiful, I deem, beyond even words of the Elven-tongue to tell. And I love you. Once I pitied your sorrow. But now, were you sorrowless, without fear or any lack, were you the blissful Queen of Gondor, still I would love you. Éowyn, do you not love me?’

“Then the heart of Éowyn changed, or else at least she understood it. And suddenly her winter passed, and the sun shone on her. ‘I stand in Minas Anor, the Tower of the Sun,’ she said; ‘and behold! the Shadow has departed! I will be a shieldmaiden no longer, nor vie with the great Riders, nor take joy only in the songs of slaying. I will be a healer, and love all things that grow and are not barren.’ And again she looked a Faramir. ‘No longer do I desire to be a queen,’ she said. Then Faramir laughed merrily. ‘That is well,’ he said; ‘for I am not a king. Yet I will wed the White Lady of Rohan, if it be her will. And if she will, then let us dwell in fair Ithilien and there make a garden. All things will grow with joy there, if the White Lady comes.’

“And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many. And many indeed saw them and the light that shone about them as they came down from the walls and went hand in hand to the Houses of Healing.”

This doesn’t even cover it all. Him speaking with Merry to learn more of her. Him giving her his late mother’s beautiful mantle to keep her warm that he thought fit her beauty and sadness. The way he is honest yet assuring with her. And on and on.

Personally, their romance is one of my all-time favorites in literature. Even though it’s short, there’s a lot packed into those few pages. It’s a great example of how it’s not the quantity of the pages but the quality of the pages that matters.

xxx

(All quotes are from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien)

[mhevarujta]

I was discussing the other day that Galadriel and Celeborn are such a refreshing pair among Tolkien's ships.

You have Feanor being a wife-guy UNTIL Nerdanel disagress with him. Which is when he becomes awful to her.

Then you have marriages that work and endure: Thingol and Melian loved each other deeply until the end, and YET Thingol closed his ears to Melian's advice when his passion took the best of him. But this is not how it goes for Galadriel and Celeborn. When Galadriel talks Celeborn listens and even as his emotions threaten to overtake him, his trauma still apparent, he controls himself.

There are of course the unions of elves and men and Earendil's relationship with Elwing. All of these are loving, but ultimately the female character ends up following the male character.

Galadriel and Celeborn are different. Galadriel sets the path they follow most of the time. She precedes and Celeborn follows, sometimes immediately and sometimes following his own pace.

They are the only ship that epitomize the way Tolkien imagined an elven marriage in Morgoth's Ring:

The union of love is indeed to them great delight and joy, and the 'days of the children', as they call them, remain in their memory as the most merry in life; but they have many other powers of body and of mind which their nature urges them to fulfil. Thus, although the wedded remain so for ever, they do not necessarily dwell or house together at all times; for without considering the chances and separations of evil days, wife and husband, albeit united, remain persons individual having each gifts of mind and body that differ.

This all happens while Galadriel remains the most prominent and more powerful of the two. In Numenor, where women COULD have power and become queens, there are too often examples of men feeling threatened and trying to dominate and to supplant. But this is never the case when it comes to Galadriel and Celeborn.

They have it all: A beautiful love that endures, their days of happiness with Celebrian, trials and grief that they faced together, but they also followed their individual desires, each knowing that at the end of it all the other would be there; being aware that they would be reunited and their pursue of their needs would not estrange them. And in Tolkien's work their ability to maintain this relationship both by being together and by being apart is not a show of emotional distance, but a testament to their love.

And one might assume that such a love is not too exciting, but I don't think this is the case. Galadriel is the one character in the legendarium who chooses to be known by her epesse. Her lover gave her a name and she felt so loved and seen that she wanted the entire world to perceive her as he does. This shows adoration, but also certaintly that their love was IT for her. And centurles later, Celeborn still considers Galadriel his treasure and is bereft of her. But he manages to treasure her without objectifying her. And that's so beautiful. These two were down bad for each other.

[general-illyrin]

After 712 days (18 days short of two years), I finally finished my Lord of the Rings map embroidery project!!!!

And this last one is to show my finger for scale and to point to some tiny march plants XD

This took so much time to make, but it was so worth it. I loved seeing the map slowly appear on the shirt as I embroidered. And I did bring the difficulty on myself, because I was trying to make each individual hill and mountain match the original map. (As much as I could without going insane that is.)

As an example, here is a comparison of Dol Guldur:

(This is why you should NOT let a precisionist do embroidery btw)

Overall, it was a simple project. I only used a total of four stitches for the entire map: a split stitch for the outline, a french knot (for the trees), a running stitch (for everything except filling in the mountains and hills), and a variant of the satin stitch, adjusted to fill in the mountains and hills. The hardest part of the project was honestly the amount of time it took.

And if anyone is curious, here is the map I used for reference:

(And I'm always happy to answer questions about the process!)

[treefey]

"I hate that Eowyn gave up being a warrior and became a healer"

Okay, god forbid a woman change careers and go into STEM

[winwin17]

What is it with Tolkien and grey eyes? It seems like all his characters have them. Any time he mentions a person's eye color, it's grey. All the beautiful people have them, for sure. He makes it sound like it's the only eye color in the world.

I'm not going on a deep dive to prove or disprove this, but from what I've read and what I can recall, it's rare or never that we get told a character has any other eye color than grey. I seem to possibly recall a passing mention of brown eyes for one of the Hobbits. And on at least one occasion, Gandalf's eyes are called "dark," though I'm not sure if that is meant to refer to a color or an expression. Something is tickling my brain that maybe, maybe Tom Bombadil has blue eyes - but I might be making that up.

So I put this task to you, dear fellow Tolkien fans. If you know of any instances mentions of a character's eye color that is anything other than grey, please let me know! I'd love to find out.