Fanatic

[ekatvi]

The fall of Numenor🌊

[novemberthecatadmirer]

So my argument about Elwing is, her decision in the end was COMPLETELY LOGICAL

Because what did Celegorm’s followers do to Elurin & Elured?

They did not kill them.

They did not kill them; they got their hands clean from children’s blood by abandoning them into a forest and leave them to die of starvation or cold or evil creatures. Or worse, they might be picked up by Morgoth’s servants and suffer fate worse than death.

Elwing had completely NO reasons to trust M & M would not do anything similar when they said they would let the twins live if she gave them the gem.

—————

Another really interesting thing I realized rereading Silmarillion is that the Silmarillion version did not mention Elwing was threatened with her twins. It does heavily imply that she knew they were captured. But how she knew and whether she was asked to buy their lives with Silmaril is unknown.

And she did the right thing actually when she got turned to bird; she took Silmaril away from Beleriand. If she took the gem to Cirdan or Gil-Galad there was this chance that M&M would just attack them again.

It was actually Earendil who decided to not turn back. The text basically said he “saw now no hope left in the lands of Middle-earth” and “turned again in despair and came not home.”

It’s very interesting that not just Elwing was in despair drove to suicide previously, Earendil was in despair too.

I am just thinking Earendil was probably really in a very bad place mentally all his way to Valinor.

I think he did not even care about whether he got to live or not, and did not mind if he got killed as long as he got Valar to help. There was also a whole case of survivor’s guilt about him not being there when Sirion was attacked, and his decision to not turn back.

I really wonder if his “weary of the world” was heavy ptsd and depression…

And while Earendil was looking for Sirion, Elwing was not doing nothing in canon!

Somehow she wandered by the shore line and somehow went near to Alqualonde and somehow “befriended the Teleri”? And started telling them everything about “Doriath and Gondolin and the griefs of Beleriand.”

That’s a lot of coincidence out there that it almost appear intentional? There was no way Elwing did not learn where Alqualonde was from the Noldor. It almost looked like she was actively seeking the Teleri.

Like, Earendil was on this might-be-suicide mission to look for Valar to beg for help… and Elwing who was ordered to stay behind quickly started to make connection with local population and start actively telling them about all the sufferings of the lost family they abandoned oversea, the not-evil section of Noldor, and their old homeland?

I just wonder if Elwing, the one who actually did the political side of things in Sirion instead of her sailing-obsessed husband, has some backup plans going on here.

Like, if the Valar decided to murder Earendil, she’ll attempt to lead some mass protests to help her husband and have Teleri at least doing a Beleriand evacuation with their ships…

I really think Elwing was less depressed at this moment than Earendil… She still was able to chose life for both of them when Earendil kind of wished eternal rest.

[novemberthecatadmirer]

My Very Personal Probably-OOC Headcanon Take on Idril:

OH I LOVE HER

She was a sun that didn’t want to be a sun but constantly felt that she was given no other choices than to be the sun

She was the princess of this pure white city that was slowly dying from inside, the daughter of this king who used to be fair and wise but was now slowly being eaten alive by despair

In this wonderful city that caged itself with white bloodied walls against the darkness slowly growing outside, everyone desperately needed a sun, so she gritted her teeth and decided she had to be the Sun, she had to be the Hope, she had to make herself to be a fucking symbol instead of being herself.

In reality she had crippling anxiety because she could just see the doom coming, she did not know how but she knew the end was coming. And people who were actually close to her actually sensed it but they did not understand it. They did not believe her worries not because she was a pretty woman but because they deemed her paranoid and overthinking.

Like, the girl needed some break and go have fun creatively with her very hot husband.

And I cannot believe she would ever be okay with her son becoming saver of the world, no she never wanted her son to be the prophesied hero who sailed the void holding the star of hope. Yes she wanted the world to be saved but she did not want her son to become just ANOTHER FUCKING SYMBOL.

I kind of believe she sailed to the West in the hope that she could somehow convince the Valar to ACT so that HER SON DID NOT NEED TO. Which did not work out the way she wished though.

Even more personal completely-made-up headcanon:

(Inspired by that post from someone else pointing out that many Noldor elves may actually had encountered Morgoth (as Melkor) in very casual, daily circumstances (you know what I sold him lemon flavored cupcakes) before the whole spider drinking trees thing happened)

She was little, she saw this strange Vala named Melkor who was very beautiful (on his way corrupting Noldor) a couple times when she was playing, and she disliked him but she could not explain WHY. However everyone else seemed to welcome this Vala so she thought she should at least be polite. 

So she tolerated this creepy Vala handing her candies, patting her head and praising her very beautiful golden hair. No line was ever crossed, but she was deeply uncomfortable to be touched and praised by this strange Vala. 

(Melkor knew she was upset and enjoyed it, to the point that he would “accidentally” bump into her in public and pat her head with other people around smiling at the scene of friendly Vala being nice to little girl. He enjoyed messing with her, and the interaction was used by him to endear Noldor elves to believe he was so kind and good-with-kids.)

Then the trees thing happened, her grandfather was murdered by this VERY HANDSOME VERY NICE Vala who handed her candy patted her head and she was polite to this fucker. She was disgusted and she wondered if things could change, her grandfather could still be alive HAD HER TOLD HER PARENTS that this Vala was creepy as fuck. But she did not dare to tell this to anyone, and she felt guilty and tainted and disgusted with herself.

Then her parents decided to leave home to fight this creepy fucker, and decided to leave her back home because she was so very young, but she insisted to follow because she had to go with them because it was all HER FAULT.

Then when crossing the ice she and her mother both fell into the icy water and her father was only able to save her. And she regretted, she REGRETTED, if she did not come with her parents probably her mother could be saved. 

Basically she had a severe case of survivor’s guilt. And people just KEPT. DYING. AND. SUFFERING. AROUND. HER. in all her fucking life.

(Valar were really nice to at least let her keep her very hot husband, that’s the fucking silver lining.)

(Also when she saw Maeglin-weird-creepy-child-son-of-evil-father-with-evil-color-palette-actually-just-fucking-traumatized: Okay I AM NOT GOING TO REPEAT MY MISTAKE. I am not going to trust this one NO MATTER HOW. I am going to tell EVERYONE do not fucking trust this FUCKER.)

(I just enjoy headcanonning that all these beloved light-side characters actually had their minds messed-up this-and-that creative ways)

[novemberthecatadmirer]

I have my stupid ooc headcanon that Maeglin and Idril were eerily similar in some ways and they understood that similarity to some extent and that was why Maeglin had his unfortunate crush and Idril disliked Maeglin almost instinctively

They were projecting really extremely hard and they were not exactly wrong

The experience of seeing someone and believing they could truly understand your thoughts and the experience of seeing someone with all the faults your hate in yourself

To begin with if Elenwe died trying to save Idril that’s another case of “having your mother died saving your life”

The survivor’s guilt and the trying to be good so your mother’s sacrifice was not worthless

Also the experience of having a non-Noldor parent. People in Gondolin definitely viewed having a light Vanyar parent and having a dark Sindar parent very differently. But I suspect people avoided mentioning Elenwe just like how they avoided mentioning Eol. People in Gondolin were good at denying difficult topics; the city in a way was a deny of the difficult topic of the Doom.

Masking extremely hard; I absolutely don’t believe Idril was not living under layers and layers of very nicely-crafted masks all the time

Political enemy. Don’t tell me Idril won’t see her father’s bad decisions and thought “that is very extremely stupid I could fix that”

And Idril was not without ambition!! Hearing the Doom then seeing your mother dying in front of you and believing this was part of the Doom and still wanting to survive the Doom and have your loved ones survive the Doom. Seeing the Doom at every corner when other people were content with the peaceful pretty city

The difference was Idril recognized and understood the Doom and was fully focusing on escaping it. While Maeglin was in denial of the Doom (to admit the Doom was real meant his father was RIGHT in some way) or believed he could overcome the Doom by working really hard. Idril was older and had more opportunities to understand the severity of the issue.

They were foil for each other!

It was not Maeglin and Tuor competing over Idril it was Maeglin and Idril competing over Gondolin/Turgon

How to pull the strings to subtly emotionally manipulate your uncle/father into doing what you want

—————

(I bet Maeglin tried to come up with some plans to sway Tuor to his side too the man was too politically important due to his symbolic values and the identity of child of Huor. A very effective piece to guilt trip Turgon.)

(Too bad Tuor was just confused about all the rock facts special interest info-dump.) (also: think about how similar it might be to anakin talking about sand)

(Idril: I will have him and I am going to fuck him so hard that by the end of this week we’ll be visibly married in the eyes of each and every person alive in these walls) (casually broke the heart of half of the young adult population of the city)

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Maybe Turgon chose to follow his family to cross the Ice partially because his daughter kept having dreams of 'Tirion' getting destroyed in fire

(After Gondolin was built Idril would one day look at the city from some tower and went "oh no")

[actuallyfingolfin]

there’s just something about tirion being this once-bright, once-shining city for the noldor, then… simply not being this thing anymore.

most of the noldor leave with fingolfin & feanor, and something like a tenth return with finarfin to tirion. and although nothing has changed, everything has. 

it’s a paradox, really. 

that statue on the edge of the courtyard is still there, the shimmering glass tiles in the fountain are still there.

but its people are almost all gone.

once, before everything, the city would be filled with the sound, making a medley of the noldor: singing, the sound of metal in the forges, the rippling from the fountains, laughter.

the trees that dot the city sway silent in the wind, though none dance or rest beneath them.

no one sings, after the darkening. 

they don’t laugh for even longer.

the sun’s harsh light is no compare for the gentle glow of laurelin, the moon’s cold gleam nothing like the soft beams of telperion. 

in the end, tirion is like a husk of itself, as the folk that remained worry about their loved ones who left-

then comes the helcaraxe, the bragollach, the nirnaeth arnoediad, the fall of nargothrond and doriath, the second kinslaying, the fall of gondolin, the third kinslaying-

(do they feel it? feel each great grief as it tears their loved one’s souls? does the bond they share rend violently at the other’s death?) 

until earendil comes, bringing the light of lost laurelin and telperion and, for the first time in an Age, tirion shines like it did so long ago.

[anghraine]

I was talking the other day about how strongly Faramir is associated with Númenor in the book, and thought I’d actually look up his scenes/references to him to see how persistent the association really is. So here are the occasions I found where he either refers to Númenor stuff or is associated with it:

“We of my house are not of the line of Elendil, though the blood of Númenor is in us.”

—Faramir, “Window on the West”

-

“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of Númenor”

—Faramir, “Window on the West”

-

Before they ate, Faramir and all his men turned and faced west in a moment of silence. Faramir signed to Frodo and Sam that they should do likewise.

“So we always do,” he said, as they sat down: “we look towards Númenor that was, and beyond to Elvenhome that is, and to that which is beyond Elvenhome and will ever be.”

—“Window on the West”

继续阅读

[magicalhideoutengineer]

These illustrations by Franklin Booth give me Númenor vibes. The last one could be people praying in the temple devoted to Morgoth.

[anghraine]

It's occurred to me that part of my special affection for later Third Age Gondorian Dúnedain is that they're a people whose ancestors had to flee their homeland and who are very intense about their culture even as its distinctiveness gradually fades. The things that defined them as Númenóreans are still present in part, sometimes in significant part (like the houses of healing), but we're seeing them in the moment before that slips away.

And it will.

Aragorn's centuries-long life is nice for him but does not halt the fading of other Dúnedain. There's discourse in and out of the text around the "impurity" of Gondorian Dúnedain in particular and how that does or does not affect their legitimacy as Dúnedain (trying to find a discussion of Gondorian Dúnedain without people going on about blood purity is ... yeah, yikes). And the conceit of the story demands that they ultimately cease to exist as a distinct culture, eventually forget all of this, and their histories become lost for ages of the world.

Númenóreans also have a lot of power and prestige in Gondor, so it's not like they're an oppressed class in their country (even if people outside it are sometimes condescending assholes about them, which rings true enough). But they truly are a springless autumn, in a way as much as the Elves.

Even the joyous end doesn't quite escape it. Gondor can be restored to a superpower in Middle-earth terms (and is). Humanity will rule the earth. But the days of the Dúnedain are numbered.

[melestasflight]

I was rereading the Nirnaeth chapter last night, and it struck me how many brotherly vibes are present throughout.

How Gwindor goes completely savage after Gelmir is massacred and pursues Morgoth’s heralds all the way to the very stairs of Angband, and even ‘Morgoth trembled upon his deep throne’ as he heard Gwindor’s people banging on his doors.

How Turgon opens the leaguer of Gondolin after 356 years and risks everything he has built to aid Fingon. How even on the last day of the battle, when he probably knows that everything is lost, he ‘hewed his way to the side of his brother.’

How Maglor, the mightiest singer of the Noldor, slays Uldor the Accursed when he draws near the standard of Maedhros.

How Húrin and Huor decide to stand together until the very end, and neither of them leaves, even when ‘all the hosts of Angband swarmed against them, and they bridged the stream with their dead.’ How Húrin screams ‘Aurë entuluva!’ seventy times as he takes down enemies only feet away from where Huor lies dead with all the people of their house.

The fact that every pair of brothers loses one, other than Maglor, and even he would not be certain all his brothers live in the midst of that chaos. And that does not stop them but propels them further until they have given it all.

The battle begins with Gwindor and ends with Húrin. Those who have lost a brother. Those who will now be thralls in Angband, and even that will not be their final end.

Goosebumps. Every. Damn. Time.

[hexen-ein-mal-eins]

Fingolfin rides out to challenge Morgoth

[starshadeemilyart]

I have thoughts about the duel at the gates following my completion of this drawing.

I think Fingolfin's duel with Morgoth is significant in terms of the "fall of a race" narrative of the Noldor. The battle is, of course, doomed from the outset. Fingolfin had a 0% survival chance. But did not the Noldor proceed in their exile after being told "slain ye may be, and slain ye shall be, and tears unnumbered ye shall shed"?

It's also, like, this thing where the Noldor, who are a proud and exalted race, who have had a major moral fall after the tragic massacre that was the kinslaying, have now suffered a catastrophic military defeat. It is at this point after Dagor Bragollach where their king, who symbolizes their perseverance and valor in the narrative, succumbs to despair. Fingolfin may have wounded Morgoth 7 times, but his death is a defeat, and even though Morgoth got fucked up, Nolvo's death ultimately serves Morgoth's purposes. Which is kind of a theme with the Noldor, who throughout the story bring about their own doom.

The duel seems to me to be a microcosm of the Doom, wherein Fingolfin, gleaming like a star in his silver mail and crushed beneath the enemy's foot, is a symbol of the ancient glory of the now-fallen Noldor. He is a proud man, and his pride brought him to Middle Earth, and now his pride drives him to suicidal wrath and despair. Which means something when a major theme of the legendarium is hope and despair. And the thing is, no one was forcing Fingolfin to go to this fight and leave his family and people bereaved. But he did because he had set this fate in motion for himself.

[magicalhideoutengineer]

Headcanon: The Exiles called Tar-Míriel Tar-Fíriel post Akallabêth, echoing the fate of her namesake, Míriel Therindë

[magicalhideoutengineer]

Three "Manly Women" in the Legendarium

1. Nerdanel: Quenya, element nér means man, male person

2. Nerwen(Galadriel): Quenya, "man-maiden" according to Shibboleth of Fëanor

3. Emeldir the Manhearted: Sindarin, emel: mother; dîr: man

[lintamande]

“This [involvement by Celegorm and Curufin] was not, however, his final view, as it appears. In a letter of 1963 (Letters no.247, p. 334) he wrote that he could ‘foresee’ one event in the Elder Days in which the Ents took a part: It was in Ossiriand… that Beren and Luthien dwelt for a while after Beren’s return from the Dead. Beren did not show himself among mortals again, except once. He intercepted a dwarf-army that had descended from the mountains, sacked the realm of Doriath and slain King Thingol, Luthien’s father, carrying off a great booty, including Thingol’s necklace upon which hung the Silmaril. There was a battle about a ford across one of the Seven Rivers of Ossir, and the Silmaril was recovered … It seems clear that Beren, who had no army, received the aid of the Ents - and that would not make for love between Ents and Dwarves.”

—

- War of the Jewels, pg 261.

Tolkien’s final and definitive rejection of any involvement by Celegorm or Curufin in the ambush at Sarn Athrad, in which he returned to the version he’d used in the tale of The Nauglafring (II.238), the Sketch of the Mythology (IV.33), the Quenta (IV.134), and AB 2 (V.141), with the new addition that the Ents were involved.

I didn’t want to post this because of course anyone is entitled to work with whatever version of the text makes the most sense to them, but now I feel the need to clear up confusion. Prefer a different version, but know what Tolkien himself decided on!

[magedarkwood]

Beruthiel inspired moodboard

[echoofthemusic]

I’m still amazed when I look at the family tree of the House of Bëor and remember Bregor is Andreth’s brother. They are power siblings! Bregor’s bow is among the four notable heirlooms passed down to Elros, so I think Bregor must be a remarkably skilled archer. It’s interesting how Bregor became the lord of his people at the ripe old age of 73 and ruled for a brief but peaceful time. It makes me think about how historians tend to record more dramatic and eventful stories. It’s bittersweet to think about how Andreth probably watched all five of her brother’s children grow up and educated them in lore but never had the chance to build a family herself. I think being around her family probably makes her feel more strongly about the contrast between human and elven ways of life, and how she desires time with griefs of changes rather than memory unchanged. We know Beril their younger sister only by name. Her name gives me a feeling that she is a gardener and healer and somewhat like Rían in personality. I definitely need to think more about the relationship between these three!

[echoofthemusic]

Apparently meril means “rose” in Sindarin, and beril was an earlier spelling. Perhaps beril could be a Taliska word with a flower-related meaning? At any rate, I’m happy I guessed near based on intuition. (*insert Morwen voice* “But you guess, and guess near, I think.”) I’m really into the idea of Beril as a gardener now! I love the idea of Beril and Andreth exchanging lores of the earth and of the children of the earth.