All the stars in our souls

Tolkien stuff, mostly Silmarillion. I have some feelings for Fëanorians.

[kairennart]

Little gift for dear @queerofthedagger

[nynevefromthelake]

little russingon wip

[balrogballs]

FINROD FELAGUND

latest instalment in the Hot Elves By Balls™️ series features Finrod in an outfit I would probably actually kill people to wear… commissioned by the wonderful @justdrowthings, whose brief for this portrait included the phrases “peak why do we talk about ANYONE when this guy exists” and “major art directive - break me”, and agreeing entirely, I was only too happy to oblige 😌😌😌

commission details etc

[lemonomelette]

Feanorian lineups are apparently a rite of passage for silm artists, so

I wanted to include Feanor and Nerdanel but they're on honeymoon.

[asinoeiv]

Gil Galad's chief councilors and source of headaches.

Two half-elves: one the Eldritch scion of pretty much every royal line—human and elven—and the other, the Fëanorian hardliner that may or may not be an actual Fëanorian. Both are having a dubious claim to your throne and a total disinterest in it at the same time. 

[castielsfeatheredballs]

No but it always kills me how CURUFIN is the one who had Angrist all along and that he did fuck all with it until Beren and Luthien took it from him. The one knife strong enough to pry a Silmaril from Morgoth's crown.

And Celegorm had Huan!! These two Feanorian brothers specifically had all they needed to at least make an attempt at retrieving the Silmarils and it never really occurred them to TRY.

[angamaite-der-ritter]

In my opinion, this does not even occur to them - because subterfuge as a means of attack is not an option in the institutional sense for princes accustomed first and foremost to achieving their ends by military & political machinations, by open battle or by rhetoric that takes advantage of the structures of power within which they have lived their entire lives entrenched. What Beren and Lúthien do requires a certain forfeiture of pride - a forfeiture of pride necessitated by the fact that they do not have any feudal systemic power behind them, in fact they are acting against the interests and desires of that power, so they have to come to terms with using means that eschew pride in order to win the freedom to decide their own fate.

No such thing has ever been in question for Celegorm & Curufin, as princes who have always been backed by systemic power or only temporarily disadvantaged yet still construed as within the right in their framework of power; the Exile is a schism, Maedhros' abdication is unprecedented, Nargothrond is seized by rhetoric and populism, Doriath - as later Sirion - are assaulted by means of military power. And what examples has Fëanor given them? That subterfuge and infiltration are the tools of Morgoth (theft; disguise; lie) and the way that Fëanor himself had been wronged (infiltration of the family structure by Indis), not something a king or prince is liable or allowed to use. Fëanor himself utilises rhetoric and takes advantage of the legal framework, and if no other thing will avail, uses military power and force to achieve his objectives, and decries cowardice, where a line can be drawn to assume that direct, open conflict is thus assumed to be the morally correct path to attain what you want. Celegorm and Curufin, the two most likened to Fëanor, exemplify his lack of willingness to treat with anyone considered a traitor to the cause or compromise on their objectives perhaps best of all. To them, guile is both humiliating and morally suspect in this ideological framework; the sons of Fëanor in Beleriand utilise force, organise military operations, send intimidating letters and use political posturing, but nothing akin to guile even such as Fingon uses to rescue Maedhros from Thangorodrim. That brings me to the second reason: guile missions in the Silmarillion require a certain amount of faith and hope in things turning out the right way, and a certain amount of divine providence. Fingon would not have succeeded without prayer just as Lúthien would not have enjoyed the fruits of their success without convincing Mandos. But hope in divine favour is not something that people famously eschewing the authority of the Valar and undertaking a blasphemous oath not once, but twice, would champion; clinging to hope for aid from the same people considered to have betrayed the cause & good of the Eldar is not to be expected. In light of that, relying on goodwill clearly seems like a suicide mission, especially in the aftermath of the Dagor Bragollach which has revealed that all of the military might the Noldor have been amassing is still insufficient to move any closer to their goal. The only possible way forwards is more power, more resources, more bodies. There is no hope to talk of.

So of course it does not occur to them to try; to try is not just humiliating and amoral, but a waste of resources and foolish to boot, inevitably doomed to fail.

[ctx-opencanvas]

[mattefun]

1. Finwë as Ambassador of Valinor

My headcanon is that before arriving in Valinor, Finwë had short hair and when his life became calmer, he began to grow his hair

2. Finwë and little Fëanor

I just love them

[helenmask]

She's done

[yuzutea1864]

"The Orcs fled before his face; for since his torment upon Thangorodrim his spirit burned like a white fire within, and he was as one that returns from the dead."

[celebrimbot]

the sons of fëanor

[aryssan]

Of Elrond and the things he could keep

Sudden feeling tonight for Elrond and the few things he was allowed to keep and claim from Maedhros and Maglor.

Years after the end of the First Age, he is used to people searching for bits of Lúthien in him, telling him that his hair shines just like hers under the stars. He is used to people saying he has his father's eyes, the same blue-green as the sea that Eärendil inherited from his own father.

Elrond is used to being a constellation made of tiny pieces of his famed ancestors: Lúthien's hair, Eärendil's eyes, Elwing's jaw, Dior's height, Turgon's expressions.

In the early Second Age, as he builds his life in the Noldorin court, those kinds of comments happen often. He meets more and more people who knew, from near or far, one of those ancestors. As they look at him, they see those kings and princesses lost to the ages. And Elrond does not fault them. He considers himself to be made of all those parts that once belonged to somebody else.

Yet, as Elrond continues to make a place for himself, most people do not see the eight-pointed star embroidered at the collar of his clothes or etched into the clasp of his winter cloak.

They do not see it, or they choose not to acknowledge it, because this claiming of Maedhros and Maglor is not something Elrond is supposed to do.

Elrond never claims them publicly and never speaks of them. But he cannot let them go altogether, either. He would never be allowed to publicly ask to be named as their son. The memory of their deeds is still too fresh in Elven memory, and it will remain so for centuries.

Yet Elrond cannot let them go.

So he claims the eight-pointed star for himself and puts it wherever he can. Maedhros and Maglor are a part of him as much as Lúthien or Eärendil, and placing those little stars upon his clothing is his way of making them part of the constellation of parents everybody sees in him.

Though few and far between, Elrond occasionally meets someone who sees Maedhros and Maglor in him more than any of his other parents. And those small similarities, he keeps close to his heart.

Galadriel's soft laugh as Elrond argues against another loremaster in Gil-galad's court. Makalaurë of old would have had the same opinion, she says, her eyes shining, lost in a memory lit by the Trees.

Ereinion's tired but friendly smile after a long day of court. Thank Eru one of us inherited Maedhros's silver tongue for diplomacy and patience for politics. I would have thrown my wine goblet at that Sindar's head long ago if you hadn't been here.

Celebrimbor's exasperated sigh as he follows Elrond out of his workshop after spending too long away from his bed, convinced to go eat in exchange for a song. You are as annoying as Uncle Maitimo. At least you're as sweet as Uncle Kano when it comes to convincing people.

Those comments, those similarities, Elrond keeps close to his heart. Because to him, they mean that Maedhros and Maglor made him theirs just as much as he made them his.

Those tiny parts of them, he allows himself to keep as bright little stars in his constellation.

[crypticcuntking]

Anairë portrait!

[ilaneya]

maedhros 🔥🗡️

[balrogballs]

CELEGORM THE FAIR

latest finished commission of Celegorm in full Fëanorians-in-Beleriand getup, and this is probably the most ‘illustration’ style commission I’ve done so far: I loved the brief specifying the style of the earrings and I have been wanting to do armour again since my Eönwë commission. I also enjoyed the challenge of balancing a slightly feral look with the militaristic attire, plus balancing a ‘silver’ Celegorm with steel armour and gold+red accents as per the commissioner’s headcanon!

commission details

[mondengel2]

Thinking on the fact Maedhros canonically favored and (exclusively?) wore copper as a metal for jewelry and he was one of only two people in the entire Tolkien verse capable of destroying a silmaril.

I don't think he cared about the silmarils themselves at all. It was simply being a possession of his dead father and his oath that made him care.

I feel like it's an underrated bit of characterization that, of all metals, he loved COPPER.

Copper, while lovely, is soft and maleable and by it's nature will oxidize over time to become blue-green and so is doomed to change no matter what (time will change it's color, polish and care will wear it away a bit at a time until it's no more).

And Maedhros ended up doomed and changed irrevocably himself, like the copper he favored over the eternal and shining gold and silver everyone else loved.

I don't think there's any other character described as loving copper, or even favoring anything except gold and silver (and mithril which looks like silver) for metals, but especially not an elf.

There is no way any piece of jewelry worn by Maedhros could have truly survived in the state it was in when he wore it. It's all either altered in some fundamental way visually, or it's literally gone. Eroded by either time or the hands trying to battle back time to keep it pristine.

I feel like his love of copper is a foreshadow of both how he would change and be changed by the "oxidization" of Beleriand and also how he himself is capable of letting go of the silmarils because ALL of his favored jewelry is fated to be gone eventually, so he was always able to let go of material things, in perhaps a way no other elf could.

Headcanoning that he would ALWAYS have destroyed the silmarils after acquiring them.

The other sons of Feanor wanted to possess them again and end the silmaril conflict by returning them to the House of Feanor they belonged to, but Maedhros was quietly planning to have a true and final end to the conflict they bring by smashing the fucking things from the start.

It's just, he was horrifically tortured and mutilated, he was compelled over and over to kill, Fingon died, all his brother's died but one and he was even more TIRED and in despair from centuries of war and oath, so he destroyed himself along with the silmaril instead of simply destroying the jewel.

[nycterisg]

hc Maglor and Maedhros being very close in age (our equivalent of 2 to 4 years apart?) so they grow up deeply intertwined in Tirion, where Maedhros being the heir doesn't really mean all *that much*, at least not to Kanafinwë Makalaurë most renowned bard of the Noldor anyway, so they stand on equal footing, they move as a pair, they're equals. And then Beleriand changes *everything*. Maedhros becomes king and then after his return he is still Maglor's liege and now Maglor cannot simply talk back to him but he must obey. And Maedhros is no longer merely his brother, no longer his closest confidant, and Maglor must guard his back even when he feels like hitting it himself really. So who is Maglor now who is Maedhros where does the brother end and the vassal begin

And it's harder than he thought you know. Maglor struggles to take Maedhros seriously at first because he had never really thought much about Maedhros' position but now it is real. And while he becomes Maedhros' right hand (no pun intended) helping build the reputation of The One Who Came Back From Thangorodrim unscathed, unvanquished, he starts believing his own chants, and Maedhros becomes something far removed from him now - not an elf at all, how could Maglor possibly resemble this white flame that is his lord and still his king. Because if Maedhros is merely an elf, if Maedhros is simply the brother, the brother he knows so intimately, if Maedhros is fallible then what