shoutout to everyone in small fandoms who takes a character with one minute of screentime and decides to build an entire universe around them. to the oc creators, the rarepair shippers, the canon-divergence enthusiasts and the people who can’t stop asking “but what if?” and then proceed to spend 50k words answering their own question.
i genuinely think your joy is contagious. fandoms grow because people see someone having fun and think, “wait, i want to play too.” <3
“For Fëanor beheld the hair of Galadriel with wonder and delight. He begged three times for a tress, but Galadriel would not give him even one hair. These two kinsfolk, the greatest of the Eldar of Valinor, were unfriends for ever.” — The Peoples of Middle-earth
Celeborn is still learning the many shades of green unveiled by the Sun. In Menegroth, the loremasters are yet busy devising and debating new names. Though the Egladhrim may scorn the pride of the elves from across the Sea, they, too, are proud, and will not adopt any word of the tongue of usurpers.
In secret, therefore, Celeborn samples morsels of Galadriel’s language, sounding the shapes of her speech. Ezella, he murmurs, as she idly traces the line of his jaw working around the syllables – the colour, she explains, of the bright gem that rests between her breasts, facets shimmering in the sunlight with each rise and fall of her breath. The colour of the mound upon which those Trees she grieves once grew. A word borrowed, she says, from her grandmother’s kindred, to whom she owes the golden strands of her hair.
Celeborn threads his fingers through her hair now, disbelieving that such a marvel is his to touch. He does not grieve the loss of a light he never knew, for it is here with him, resplendent and alive.
Yet, he promises himself, he will never allow his sight to forget the subtle gradients of deep, starlit greens into which he was born. When next the Moon forgets to rise, it will be Celeborn’s turn to teach his beloved new words for colours she has yet to see.
@esotolkienweek day three | skies, demand | velindo
Wéland (Smith): Eriol asks innocently is not Aulë him that we call Wéland and they (Rúmil?) laughing says no and tells of Velindo or Gwilion the fay — one of Aulë’s folk who was sent by Aulë into the world to fetch at his need some of the gold heavy red gold of the dwarves.
There his pride swelled by reason of the amazement of men and dwarves at his skill; and he never returned to Aulë but set up on his own — and was once famous far and wide but with the fading of the fairies his power has waned.
He was not wicked but very vain — Eriol touches on the Bodvildr legend [in which Wéland escapes the captivity of the cruel king Niðhad and elopes with his daughter by flying away on invented wings] and Rúmil says that if it is true it shows the vanity of Wéland (Niðhad must be a dwarf king).
Notes: This character, while deeply obscure, is also deeply charming to me! In notes unearthed only in Parma Eldalambaron, Tolkien gives two Arda versions of the Old English smith-legend Wéland (written probably around the time of The Book of Lost Tales): one where Wéland is a proto-Fëanor figure (with the original myth’s hard edges rounded off), and another where he is a servant of Aulë who goes rogue. Since Fëanor, of course, has an integral role in the later legendarium, I choose to adapt Velindo into my wider Silmverse instead. I envision him as something of a sixth wizard, the Red Wizard, who flies around on invented wings and has a dwarven wife he stole away from a wicked king! As his escapades were not sanctioned by Aulë, he doesn’t have to follow the rules of the Istari, and is probably happy in his own corner of Middle-earth, living alongside his master’s children among one of the more obscure dwarven clans.
A fandom event celebrating sexually explicit fanworks based on the The Silmarillion and related legends — now in its fourth year!
September 28 to October 4, 2026 (Monday to Sunday)
The aim of Silm Smut Week is to foster a positive, inclusive, and fun culture around the creation and enjoyment of smut, porn, and erotica.
Themes and Prompts (Mobile) | Event Directory
How to Participate
Create something that narrates, depicts, or considers sexual activity involving the characters of the Silmarillion.
Post it on Tumblr and/or add it to the AO3 Collection and mention this blog (@silmsmutweek) and tag #silmsmutweek2026.
We will reblog posts daily.
If you do not see your post reblogged after 24 hours, please send us an ask or DM mods @polutrope or @ettelene.
The themes and prompts for each day are just suggestions. You can post anything any day of the week and we will reblog it.
Late submissions for the event are welcome and we will try to reblog those as well but cannot guarantee that we will.
Engage with other creators! Enjoy their works!
All genres, tropes, and kinks are welcome, as are all forms of creative of engagement (writing, art, meta, headcanons, playlists, podfics, etc.) with the Silmarillion and the Silmarillion fandom.
While Tolkien is known for his vast natural landscapes, those expanses are populated by people—and the buildings they construct. Whether a cottage tucked into the forest or the soaring spires of a grand city, the architecture of Arda can send the imagination adventuring through settings ethereal and astonishing.
This month's challenge uses architecture to inspire fanworks. Participants will receive a prompt from the challenge moderators; you can choose if you'd like to receive an architectural style, a location on Arda, or both. As usual, if the prompt you are assigned isn't working for you, just let the challenge moderators know, and we will draw again. You can request a prompt by emailing us, sending us an ask on Tumblr, commenting on Dreamwidth, or requesting a prompt on the #monthly-challenges channel on our Discord.
You can use your prompt however you want to inspire your fanwork. While setting and architectural descriptions are one approach, this certainly isn't required!
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 August 2026. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Thank you to Sallysavestheday for this month's stamps!
What the Valar Look Like, Part I: Fanar, the Shape and Raiment
a meta written for @tolkienfashionweek 2026, Day 1: Races — Valar & Back to Middle-earth Month 2026, using the 2017 gameboard's Orange Path prompts Worldbuilding and Compile a list of sources.
“Now the Valar took to themselves shape and hue; and because they were drawn into the World by love of the Children of Ilúvatar, for whom they hoped, they took shape after that manner which they had beheld in the Vision of Ilúvatar, save only in majesty and splendour. Moreover their shape comes of their knowledge of the visible World, rather than of the World itself; and they need it not, save only as we use raiment, and yet we may be naked and suffer no loss of our being. Therefore the Valar may walk, if they will, unclad, and then even the Eldar cannot clearly perceive them, though they be present. But when they desire to clothe themselves the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by the choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby.”
—The Silmarillion, “Ainulindalë”
Preface: In this post (Part I) I will heavily reference both the published Silmarillion as well as Parma Eldalamberon No.17, pages 173-180, which discuss the word “fana” and the nature of the Valar in seeking to answer the question “What do the Valar look like?” What I have written here is what we know and can reasonably infer from the text we are given on the topic of the fana. (Of course, aside from the published Silmarillion and PE 17, there are other sources that discuss this topic, but I’ve chosen to only focus on those two documents for this meta.)
Part II will cover canonical descriptions of specific Valar, as well as my personal headcanons about their appearances.
~~~
For the Valar, physical appearance and clothing are one and the same. All Ainur are in their truest nature solely an eäla, or Spirit (distinct from the spirits of the Children, which are called fëar, and must be united with a body (hröa) to be considered ‘living’). But to the Children (well, almost entirely just to the Elves, rarely Men, and even then only certain Elves), the Valar can appear in a “raiment” called a fana (literally meaning “veil” or “cloud”), which makes them look as if they are incarnate beings.
When not “wearing” their fanar, which while in Arda was their “normal ‘raiment’” (PE 17), the Valar were invisible to incarnates, and yet “Glimpses of other manifestations were seldom given to them [the Eldar],” which implies that on occasion, the eälar of the Ainur could be visualized, though this was rare. While in their spiritual state and unbound by a fana, they could travel anywhere in Arda in an instant:
“They could go where they willed, that is could be present at once at any point in Eä where they desired to be.”
—Parma Eldalambaron No.17
(Those noted to have “passed over the Sea” from Valinor to Middle-earth were Oromë, Ulmo, and Yavanna.)
Their fanar are “self-made,” express their inner self, and can change at any time:
“They houseless[?] as spirits could go where they would (either slowly or immediately), and could then reclothe themselves.” (PE 17)
Additionally, “the Elves of Valinor asserted that unclad and unveiled the Valar were perceived by some among them as lights (of different hues) which their eyes could not tolerate; whereas the Maiar were usually invisible unclad, but their presence was revealed by their fragrance.”
Melkor, however, was said to be in this sort of manifestation “invisible, and his presence was revealed only by great dread and by a darkness that dimmed or blotted out the light and hues of all things near him” (PE 17). Also, his Úmaiar stank! But that was only when they were not wearing a physical form. Any of them could, just like other Ainur, appear with a fana, which they could “make to appear beautiful to Elvish eyes.” (See: Annatar.)
This ability was apparently not used or else taken from them after Melkor destroyed the Trees:
“After that Melkor (Morgoth) and his servants were perceived as forms of evil and enemies undisguised.” (PE 17)
This makes me wonder if they just didn’t feel the need for that kind of deception any longer, or maybe Melkor forbade them from appearing beautiful? We know that when Melkor’s hands were burned by the Silmarils, they were burned forever after, and he had a hard time changing his shape and appearance. This is also made clear when Fingolfin gives him a permanent limp after their duel:
“Morgoth went ever halt of one foot after that day, and the pain of his wounds could not be healed; and in his face was the scar that Thorondor made.”
—The Silmarillion, “Of the Fall of Fingolfin and the Ruin of Beleriand”
Personally, I lean more toward Melkor forbidding his Úmaiar to do much changing of shape out of jealousy and rage at his own condition, as we know for a certainty that at least one Úmaia, Sauron, was able to take on a fair form later on, long after Morgoth’s ultimate downfall, for he came to Eregion as Annatar in a fair disguise that fooled many. Yet even Sauron lost this ability, in part:
“But Sauron was not of mortal flesh, and though he was robbed now of that shape in which he had wrought so great an evil, so that he could never again appear fair to the eyes of Men, yet his spirit arose out of the deep and passed as a shadow and a black wind over the sea, and came back to Middle-earth and to Mordor that was his home. There he took up again his great Ring in Barad-dûr, and dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible; and the Eye of Sauron the Terrible few could endure.”
—The Silmarillion, “Akallabêth”
The fana is called a “raiment” because it is a “cloak” over the true being-ness of the eäla. But it is a physical object, and is subject to (at least some of) the laws of physics:
“Their fanar which were originally devised out of love for the ‘Children of Eru’, the Incarnate, whom they were to guard and counsel, had the properties of the material of which the koar [note: later hröar] (or bodies) of the Elves (and also of Men) were formed; so they were not transparent, they cast shadows (if their inner luminosity was dimmed); they could move material objects, and were resisted by these, and resisted them. These fanar were, however, also personal expression (in terms suitable to the apprehension of the Incarnate) of their individual ‘natures’ and functions, and were usually also clad in vestures of similar purpose.”
—Parda Eldalamberon No.17
Fanar were also intentionally created in the manner of the bodies (hröar) of Eru’s Children:
“These were the bodily forms (like those of Elves and Men), as well as any further vestures, in which the Valar were self-incarnated. These fanar they assumed when after their demiurgic activities they came and dwelt in Arda (“the Realm”), that is the Earth; and they did so because of their love and yearning for the ‘Children of Eru’, for whom they were to prepare the world, and for a time govern it. The future forms of the bodies of Elves and Men they knew, though they had no part in their making. In these forms they presented themselves to the Elves (though they could assume other and wholly alien shapes), appearing usually as persons of majestic (but not gigantic) stature. The High Elves said that these forms were always in some degree, variable according to the occasion, ‘radiant’, as if a light from within suffused the fanar.”
—Parma Eldalambaron No.17
Thus, while fanar generally resemble the bodies of Elves and Men but more “majestic” (and always glowing at least a little from within (though while in Middle-earth “they usually occluded their radiance”), the Valar can also appear rather eldritch when they wish to (“other and wholly alien shapes”). “Majestic stature” is then further elaborated:
“The fanar of the great Valar were said by the Eldar who had dwelt in Valinor usually to have had a stature far greater than that of the tallest Elves, and when performing some great deed or rite, or issuing commands, to have assumed an awe-inspiring height.”
—Parma Eldalambaron No.17
So they were larger than elves, but not gigantic, except when they were doing “great deed[s]” or issuing commands. That of course brings to mind the Doom of Mandos, where Námo likely towered far above the Noldor; I also envision giant Valar presiding over the Ring of Doom. Námo himself is probably most often in this sort of form, as well as Manwë.
~
I have a lot more thoughts (and quotes) to share on what the Valar look like, but this is where I will end Part I’s general overview of the properties of fanar. In Part II I will go over what specific Valar look like, both canonically and in my own personal headcanon!
Part II: Vestures of Purpose will be shared when I’m finished with it. Keep an eye out!
It's that time of the year again! 31 days of writing prompts. You have two prompts each day, meant to give you a choice if one of them doesn't speak to you, but how you handle them is up to you. Whether you work with only one of them, put both prompts in the same fill or write two fills, one for each prompt.
This even is open for all forms of writing. Original stories, fanfiction, poems, haikus, drabbles or novel lengths. We don’t dictate what you write or how you write it; all fandoms, all ships and all themes are welcome in our event. AI created content is strictly forbidden.
Some important links: Rules (more detailed) | FAQ | AO3 Collection 2026 | Discord Server
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 😌😌😌
Ainur Week, here we go! I've decided I want to do a slightly unhinged amount of Tolkien fandom weeks over the span of the next few months.
I went back and forth about how to pick who to draw for Ainur Week, and I decided to narrow things down by going only with the Maiar (I want to redo my Valar series sometime soon). Some of these match up the correct day. Some don't. I did my best.
@ainurweek Day One: Eönwë
I like the idea that the Maiar go a little crazy with how they look. I think the Valar stick mostly to looking live Elves or Men, at least when they're dealing directly with them. I think the Maiar just do whatever they want. Eagle felt like an obvious design direction for the Herald of Manwë, and multiple wings for a sense of divinity. I spent way to long looking at types of eagles. I finally settled on Steller's Sea Eagle. Please look them up, the proportions of their beaks compared to their heads is wild. For colors, I matched the colors I used in my Manwë piece years ago.
blakekathryn
2087
snowghoul
discoholicmusic
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