Nern ed i Nor-Nuiannen

Tales out of the Sunken Lands Eryn | 20s | ace | she/her | actuarial analyst Tolkien blog, primarily Silmarillion content Header by @dimdiamond!

[erynalasse]

Why hello there! If you’ve come for assorted Tolkien content, you’re in the right place.

Asks are always welcome! Meta, requests, prompts, have at it.

Common Tags: #my post or #my writing (original content), #reblog addition (commentary on other posts), #chatteryn (misc conversations), #that show (you know the one), and #personal.

Do Not Interact policy. Trans people are enthusiastically welcome; transphobes are enthusiastically blocked.

Fandoms (read: various shades of Tolkien stuff) and characters are tagged as expected

While I don’t personally post NSFW content, I might reblog it. I tag both for that and common trigger warnings. If you see anything else you’d like tagged, let me know.

My Ao3, though there’s naught but many bookmarks there 

[silme-lorien]

was thinking about how elrond is kind of the central character in tolkiens legendarium, and like damn HE REALLY IS. even though he might not be as old as some other more “accomplished” characters, he outlived most of them. he’s literally connected to everyone, all the main stories of the silm i can find MINIMUM one character he has a relationship with (and it’s usually more!). like, he’s connected to beren and luthien (b&l > dior & nimloth > elwing & eärendil), he’s connected to the fall of gondolin (eärendil), he’s connected to the fall of numenor (elros + descendants), of course he’s connected to the feanorians through maglor, to the house of finarfin through celebrian, connected to children of hurin through thingol (explained above) and finduilas who is his cousin (in some way idk how family trees work). LITERALLY even connected to the AINUR by being part maia. this man has fucking CONNECTIONS. and by the third age he’s just hanging out ruling the most chill elf settlement in the last two ages while glorfindel (shiniest elf in arda hello, fucking slayer of balrogs if you even care) hangs out in the corner. HE ESTABLISHES THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING YOU GUYS. HIS ACTIONS INDIRECTLY DESTROY SAURON. HES A PEREDHEL. ON BOTH SIDES. HIS EXISTENCE UNITES MEN AND ELVES EVERYONE 👏 ARE WE PAYING ATTENTION

[girldumas]

one thing about james flint is that he is the most suicidal character with the most unwillingness to die you've ever met.

[duckbunny]

you are fifteen thousand generations removed from stone tools

[duckbunny]

to be clear you are fifteen thousand generations removed from the invention of stone tools. not from the end of stone tools. modern humans are still using stone tools.

[pseudomasochist]

Flawless tags, @baddywronglegs

[chthonion]

Hey Chthonion! I’m not sure if you noticed, but The Harrowing now has the most comments of any fic in the Silmarillion fandom now by a wiiiiide margin (over 1000). It’s also second in the LoTR fandom.

Just in case you needed some data on how much we love you and this story!!!

Wait what

W h a t

...okay it's true that I have long accepted that my commenters are the best commenters but. WOW

I looked at my stats recently and realized that the Harrowing had exceeded a hundred thousand hits, which I tried to grapple with by being like "Oh well it's because I've got a lot of rereaders and a ton of chapters" and then realized that that is actually even more cool because it means I have a lot of rereaders, and now this???

The community I've experienced as a result this story is legit one of the nicest things ever to happen to me as a result of grad school stress.

[erynalasse]

It didn’t let me include a picture but here she is!

[sabertoothwalrus]

yknow how the greener parts of apple skin are tan lines from where leaves and branches obscure the sun? I’m surprised I’ve never seen anyone utilize that for printmaking

[sabertoothwalrus]

finally got an apple that shows this effect well

[sabertoothwalrus]

OH THIS IS EXCELLENT THANK YOU

[erynalasse]

Peaches also do this!

[chthonion]

The Lost and Found sequel is here!

Hello, friends. Are you ready to watch me be unhinged for a while as a palate cleanser for my massive work of incredible wordcount where everyone is trying really hard to make good choices at all times? Do you want to see what it takes for me to decide that a fully consensual sex scene between Finrod and Sauron at the dawn of the Second Age is both feasible and interesting? Do you want to see Finrod and Celebrimbor go on a messed up road trip with Reluctant Werewolf Mairon because of Reasons?

I was going to save this for the lull between the Harrowing and the draft after it, but the Harrowing is mostly on hold until next year when I get my brainpower back, because the edits for the Harrowing are an incredible amount of work. So.

Have a thing.

It's very weird.

I love it very much.

Hold me fast and fear me not

If Finrod has a solution, then Mairon is desperate enough to permit him the opportunity. If he doesn’t, then—at least tonight Mairon can hear Celebrimbor laughing. * In which Celebrimbor is dying, Mairon refuses to let him, and somehow their best option is to go on a road trip with Finrod Felagund.

[shinisenko]

[erynalasse]

agh this is so cute and funny!!!!

[melliabee]

Okay, poll time. How many languages do you have a smattering of? This includes everything from fluency all the way down to knowing just a word or two.

(Proper nouns and adopted words don’t count.)

Including your first language, how many languages do you know some words in?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11-15

16+

Voting ended onSep 13, 2025

[erynalasse]

@comeontakemyname I’m curious what your answer here is! I know you’re fluent in three and know at least a little Spanish and Latin, but what about others?

[appletunplushie-deactivated2025]

Might have been done before but silly tag game. Who is prev's blorbo?

[erynalasse]

oh this is easy @comeontakemyname’s blorbo is fingolfin :)

[whovianofmidgard]

Fated Ends

For Day 3 of @maedhrosmaglorweek

I was inspired to try this kind of poetry by @two-bees-poetry 's work, specifically this and this. And man oh man is it a lot harder than it looks.

Poem is also available on Ao3

[makeshiftdraco]

I need Silmarillion operas to exist...

So many tales from The Silmarillion would be absolutely phenomenal as an opera or better yet, a cycle of operas. If I had to choose, my two dream adaptations would be:

1. The Children of Hurin: Epic tragedy is what opera is all about! This story is so Wagnerian--doomed hero, cursed weapons, dragons, death, betrayal...(And unlike Wagner's operas, when the siblings realize they have committed incest, they are appropriately horrified.)

2. The Lay of Luthien: Again, this tragic romance would be perfect in an opera! Star crossed lovers...epic quests...magic... I mean, singing is pivotal to the plot! Sauron and Finrod literally battle by singing! Luthien uses song to cast spells numerous times, even enchanting Morgoth himself! It just makes sense, people.

If there are any opera composers out there up to the task, I would gladly offer my services as a librettist. (Manifesting my super niche dream job via Tumblr lol)

Any other opera fans out there in the Tolkien fandom?

[erynalasse]

Hey so OP I don’t know if you know the Russian rock opera version of the Lay of Leithian but if not it’s absolutely worth a listen!

[edennill]

People who don't ship them, how do you exactly think Fingon and Maedhros became close, and what is it that they share aside from a grandparent? I've recently realised that as much as I love their friendship narratively speaking, I only have the vaguest image of what it looked like when not currently the ground of Tragedy and Despair...

[erynalasse]

I think the position of Heir™️ is a role that carries a lot of weight in their family. (Ironically, I think this is Fëanor’s fault; there is no real status in being first in line when the head of the family isn’t supposed to die. But when Fëanor starts making a huge stink about inheritances re: Fingolfin, all of a sudden the Heir™️ is a position that matters.)

As a result, I’ve always viewed Maedhros and Fingon’s relationship, however you classify it, starting as political allies to manage their fathers. They don’t even have to like each other much in the beginning. Allies is good enough to work from. As heirs and later as heads of houses, their word has a lot of weight.

There’s a lot of evidence for the - shall we say - father-wrangling and division-bridging in canon. Maedhros standing aside at Losgar, Fingon retrieving Maedhros, Maedhros ceding the crown to Fingolfin’s line.

[balrogballs]

hello @erynalasse my tumblr app is not letting me answer this via inbox, possibly because of length or my signal idk, but i need you to know that this brought me so much joy to read

and while Elros is sadly very much dead, i can absolutely picture this list being constructed by the Comrade in one of his more delirious, manic moments post-Elros (probably before he broke down the door) and kept thinking about it until i had to sketch this during my changeover 😭 thank you so much i’m still giggling

[erynalasse]

AHAHAHA I’m so glad it made you laugh! I’m getting like… the string board conspiracy theory meme guy vibes from this. Incredible

Also while I’ve got your ear THANK YOU for this story, it’s truly amazing and it’s unusual that a Maedhros story can give me a whole new set of feels to go feral about.

[swanhild]

Just two princes of the Noldor, enjoying the treelight (and each other) 💕

Only thing I have for @russingon-week , but at least this old wip is done now.

[gayvampyr]

ok how are you people putting commas in your tags

[gayvampyr]

??? WHERE

[fleshdyke]

‚

enjoy

[marinebiologyshitposts]

[erynalasse]

Hey @chthonion you have some explaining to do

There would never be a better time to strike at Maedhros than right now, with his heart broken open. There would never be a better time to get past his defenses than right now, after bringing back the only person who ever made him feel worth loving after Alqualondë, after Thangorodrim, after everything—

- The Harrowing, chapter 30, “Courage”

Maedhros raises his head, which is the only confirmation Annatar needs to know that he’s won. His gray-green eyes, half-obscured by the unkempt tangle of his hair, are a mess of tears and misery. He does not even try to pull his hand away; he only looks up, through a mask of pain, and in his eyes Annatar can see the grieving, self-effacing yearning that Sauron-the-torturer always used to aim for: the moment that a prisoner imagines the possibility of reprieve, and will suffer any degradation, submit to any agony, to reach it.

It is the expression of a person already in the process of shattering, and in this moment, Annatar knows, anything is possible, because this is the moment when nothing remains to prevent change from taking root.

- The Harrowing, Chapter 50, “The Hostage of Númenor”