Raven Feathers and Mallorn Leaves

A lot of nerding out over books and things. You'll see mostly Tolkien and JSMN stuff here, because I'm kiiinda obsessed. Every so often you'll stumble across other things here too: history, writing, folklore and myth. So yeah, talk to me about nerd things :D

[galacticcrow]

[milfmisspiggy]

why was this so sweet, what did he expect people to say, "no mr. brian may from the band queen, you do NOT have permission to play the sea shanty, put down the guitar and go back to the astrophysics" like,,,, what a silly goose

[ariaste]

"no mr brian may from the band queen, we absolutely do not want you to play sea shanties for us on your guitar so that we can all pretend we're Freddie Mercury, please stop asking"

[official-lucifers-child]

this is such a weird vibe. the glasses on a chain hanging around his neck. the extremely 80s hair, but grey and grandpa-esque. the angle. the couch. the soft fuzzy blanket. the simply drum beat in the background. the absolute PHENOMENAL guitar. what a vibe.

[thessalian]

There is nothing about this that has not filled me with squee.

[derryderrydown]

Excuse you, that is DOCTOR Brian May. The man did not return to Imperial College after a thirty year break for you to disrespect him like this.

[sandersstudies]

Anybody else have no idea how their personality is perceived by others? Like am I nice? Am I mean? I have no idea.

[sandersstudies]

When people tell me stuff about me I literally think about it nonstop for 3-5 business days.

[fairylandsx]

Opal Chrysalis by Firefly Path couture

[spookyjarchivist]

while i do have a soft spot for “hobbits age slower than humans so 33 for them is our physical 18” i rlly dont think that’s how it is bc they get to about the same age as humans before death by old age, i also really dont think we appreciate enough a few things about what this means narratively and thematically

tolkien really said no child soldiers, no 20-something year old soldiers, they’re not really adults yet, they barely know anything of the world we’re sending them to die for it and that’s not okay, not when there are other options

he also addresses this with the hobbits specifically, frodo and bilbo are 50 when they go on their journeys, FIFTY, and we can see that they handle them differently than the others. while bilbo changes afterwards, it’s not in a coming of age like we would see if 50 really was the equivalent of ~27, he just accepts a part of himself he’s been suppressing for years, for him it’s accepting that getting older and being an adult doesn’t restrict you from the excitement and opportunities of youth. similarly frodo doesn’t change much either outside of his ptsd, all of his change is trauma, not maturity

now sam and merry are both past the age of majority, but they still grow into themselves in a way bilbo and frodo do not, they mature

but pippin, sweet beautiful pippin grows the most out of all of them. he’s the most childish, always running after his cousins and you can tell he’s not even 30, this is HIS coming of age story, before this journey he’s known nothing of true responsibilities, but by the end he’s ready for when he eventually has to take over as thain of the shire

and i think that this is a really beautiful way of saying something that has started to get really popular in the last few years

instead of being terrified of that big 30, we should be excited for it, we should embrace it wholeheartedly, because it’s the time when we’ve finally started ironing out the last of the kinks in being an adult, we’re growing into our responsibilities and and we can start learning how to cultivate that balance of responsibility and excitement and FUN that makes life living instead of surviving

[thinkanamelater]

JS&MN but make it a dating sim (if only I had the skills to make it :( anyway)

Introducing our cute protagonist:

Bonus: Segundus reactions

[superhelldeactivated]

I've realized recently that every time I'm asked for socials my response is sorta "oh i don't have twitter" "I'm not on Instagram much" "i uninstalled TikTok a few months ago" and this has led people into believing I'm just someone who doesn't do social media but in reality you can find me in here lets get it on cunts monday through shawty like a melody sunday, 9am to 12am, posting blorbo.

[dorwinionwhining]

I misread someone’s “I don’t own the Silmarillion” disclaimer as “I don’t own the Silmarils” and legit my only thought was a heartfelt “good” as though the Silmarils are a real thing and all of us are in constant danger of being murdered by the Sons of Fëanor if we don’t tell everyone on the internet we don’t own them

[stareyemoth]

For the record, I’m neither hiding nor hoarding, neither in my hand holding nor casting aside any Silmarils over here, so don’t y'all come looking.

[faustandfurious]

“By being in this fandom, you confirm that you are not hoarding the Silmarils, you are in no way affiliated to people who have hidden Silmarils, you are not following the fandom on behalf of someone who hath in hand taken a Silmaril or an associate of someone who afar has casteth a Silmaril. To the best of your knowledge, information and belief the Silmarils will not make their way into the hands of Morgoth or Anish Kapoor.”

[immortalsins]

[tolkien-feels]

@tarrevizsla This is what it’s like talking to you (affectionate, slightly scared)

[bloodenjoyer]

best thing about oingo boingo is they sound exactly how you would expect a band called oingo boingo to sound

[jaubaius]

Crow skiing down a roof with a small lid or something….

[my-chemical-mermaid]

Tolkien: Tom Bombadil is a funky little dude who lives in the forest with his hot wife. Also the most evil thing in the world has no effect on him.

[prokopetz]

The discovery that we had it backwards and that more realistic cave paintings are generally older than more abstract ones is exciting from an anthropological perspective, because it demonstrates that art movements have existed for as long as art has, but I have to imagine there’s some poor biologist out there somewhere going “you mean to tell me that our Paleolithic ancestors had the ability and means to record realistic, highly detailed depictions of contemporary flora and fauna the whole time and simply chose not to?”

[findingfeather]

Well everyone knows what these things LOOK LIKE, Thag, why would you just COPY them? 

Surely the trick is to evoke what they are at SOUL, Thag. If I want to look at a mammoth I can just GO FIND A MAMMOTH. DUH. 

[tolkien-feels]

My pettiest of pet peeves is when people portray the Finweans as children in Aman playing with toy swords, which (a) had not been invented yet and (b) were things to be hidden once they were invented.

It's just a pet peeve and I know it's unimportant at the end of the day, but you know what I just realized while being peeved about it?

The sheer potential for the Exiles to be profoundly disturbed to witness the first generation of Noldor to have toy swords

[mythopoeticreality]

#for the record i headcanon they had toy bows rather than toy swords in aman#and yes beleriand elflings probably did have toy swords - which is probably how the noldor babies pick it up#'my friend has a toy sword and my parents have swords I WANT A SWORD'

Okay, honestly actually all of this, but like, imagine those first few years (decades? Centuries?) of the Noldorin Exhiles trying to cling on to that belief that they could keep that seperation between every day life and the reality of the soldiers holding the Seige against Angband. In a way, The Sword would have even more of a threat than it had in Aman, because these weapon were suddenly --and very bloodily -- proven in their effectiveness in the first Kinslaying. So many of the Exhiles would have seen first hand just what they could do, what an actuall killing of elf by elf is like.

There becomes this kind of dark mystique around the idea of swords. They are...terrible terrible weapons. Perhaps they should have remained something to be hidden away and never brought out for use. Perhaps they should have never been created at all, some might think. But they have their uses, when set against the Enemy, and put to proper purpose. But I can see there being something almost Taboo about swords seen off of the battlefield -- especially with the tensions that still exist between the houses of the Noldor, and the memory of that first Kinslaying so strong and fresh in people's minds. It is a tool to be trained in the proper use of, and yes, unfortunately young elves in Beleriand, in this new Realm so different and so separate from Aman will have to be trained from a young age with swords. But they are training weapons, the Noldor are adament about this. They are not toys.

I can imagine the shift in throught, as the years go on being so gradual that few notice at first. As These weapons start being seen in less and less this...almost darkly sacred light, and more just...tools, used to do a job much like Bows were seen on Aman. Mundane.

The idea really starts to come into sharp relief once the Noldor start interacting with Men. Men, who have only known life in a world full of danger, where death is inevitable and constantly hanging over their heads. Where death by Sword is just...another way to go, and the sword itself is something that can be used to prolong your life and the lives of your family. I can see the Exiles experiencing a kind of horrified shock, seeing Mortal children running around with toy swords at first. Not simply training with them but holding mock battles and reenacting old legends amongst themselves.

And then feeling that same kind of shock again, feeling a stomach dropping gulf between their generation and the one below them, as they see their own children picking up sticks from the ground or asking their parents for a sword of their own to 'play with.'

[clouds-of-wings]

Modern ‘Shibboleth’ AU in which Fëanor defends to the death his mother’s pronunciation of ‘GIF’.

[tolkien-feels]

GIÞ?

[ftgloss]

[loveletter2you]

“once upon a time” in other languages

korean: “back when tigers used to smoke” (호랑이 담배 피우던 시절에) [x]

czech: “beyond seven mountain ranges, beyond seven rivers” (za sedmero horami a sedmero řekami)

georgian: “there was, and there was not, there was…” (იყო და არა იყო რა, იყო…)

hausa: “a story, a story. let it go, let it come.” [x]

romanian: “there once was, (as never before)… because if there wasn’t, it wouldn’t have been to told” (A fost odată, ca niciodată că dacă n-ar fi fost, nu s-ar mai povesti…)

lithuanian: “beyond nine seas, beyond nine lagoons: (už devynių jūrų, už devynių marių)

catalan: “see it here that in that time in which beasts spoke and people were silent…” (vet aquí que en aquell temps que les bèsties parlaven i les persones callaven…) [x]

turkish: “Once there was, and once there wasn’t. In the long-distant days of yore, when haystacks winnowed sieves, when genies played jereed in the old bathhouse, [when] fleas were barbers, [when] camels were town criers, [and when] I softly rocked my baby grandmother to sleep in her creaking cradle, there was/lived, in an exotic land, far, far away, a/an…* (Bir varmış, bir yokmuş. Evvel zaman içinde, kalbur saman içinde, cinler cirit oynar iken eski hamam içinde, pireler berber [iken], develer tellal [iken], ben ninemin beşiğini tıngır mıngır sallar iken, uzak diyarların birinde…)

[sumerianlanguage]

sumerian: “In those (distant) days, in those (distant) nights, in those (distant) years” or variations, e.g. Udreta udsudareta, ngireta ngisudareta, mureta musudareta…

[besidethepath]

Bright spots on a gloomy day