More Alliteration, Please

Silmarillion & several book series you've never heard of (Tortall | Queen's Thief | Goblin Emperor & Cemeteries of Amalo | Heralds of Valdemar | etc) Alliteration is my favorite poetic device

[whirlception]

The idea of Elves and Men eventually revering Luthien as a trickster spirit, a patron of impossible tasks and daring escapes, really appeals to me. Luthien steals herself from her father, a Silmaril from Morgoth, and her lover from Námo, which is a nice, tidy, fairy-tale worthy major triad of undeniable thievery. A slightly more diffuse trend of general (but laudable) trickery and skullduggery is demonstrated by Luthien stealing a dog from a prince; Luthien and Huan luring out and killing Tol Sirion’s guards one by one, undetected until Drauglin found them; Luthien making disguises out of the skins of vampires and werewolves and pretending to be a servant of Morgoth to sneak into Angband; and Luthien laying spells of weariness and sleep on Sauron, elves, wolves, and Morgoth alike to win some fights, sneak around, and pry a gem from Morgoth’s crown.

[starsofarda]

@ulmondil I hope you don't mind the tag, but you are correct.

I feel that there are more who can fit together with Mae, but again. Silm fandom, I summon you.

And this is why I, a shitposter and barely a writer, need you all 💖

Meme from here.

Art by @jennydolfen

[arafinweanappreciation]

Earwen (or Olwe) + J. When words aren’t enough

Olwë stopped in the doorway, frozen between the pillars of carved stone.

It had not really felt real, until now, but there he was. Elwë, looking just as much like a deer faced with a hunter as he was sure he did himself.

He looked much different than Olwë remembered. Black hair turned silver, his tan all but disappeared. He looked older, too. Faint lines around his eyes, and a sadness in them that had not been there before. Melian and Finrod and Elmo and others had told him the stories a thousand times, but it had never truly struck him before that the man in them was his brother.

He had lingered long in the Halls; it had given Olwë much time to give thought to exactly what to say to him. And he had given it much thought, down to the cursing. But any prepared speech died on his tongue.

Elwë said nothing, either, only clasping his hands in front of him. The language they had learned together, the only one they had ever spoken to each other, was now older than much of the world. It had seemed too heavy for anything, before, but had now become intolerably light. Utterly inadequate for the task at hand.

He was not sure who stepped forward first, but as they closed the distance, Elwë held out a hand, and Olwë could not help but take it.

His elder brother pulled him into a crushing embrace, as if he could reach back through the millennia through pressure alone.

Olwë closed his eyes and pretended they could.

[balrogballs]

TURGON OF GONDOLIN

An illustration style rendition of Turgon for @ignotr, as commissioned in February by @the-other-side-of-mirkwood 🥰 I really enjoyed hyperfixating on this one, especially with the embroidery and general white roses theme, his relative… er, turgidity, and everyone knows I love a good grey streak. Prosthetic fingers from the Helcaraxë years as well! Also @peasant-player pattern making a reappearance on his sash 🥰

commissioning details

[fickleartdump]

My very correct Finrod opinion is that his actions in the Leithian are not, actually, remotely driven by it being the Right Thing to do. He rationalises it to himself like that, don't get me wrong. BUT in reality what he does is actually the result of the fact he has not been coping since the Bragollach and a sizeable part of it is just, like, garden-variety suicidal ideation driven by guilt and grief.

First you've got all his mortal friends dying before it. Then he's got his brother's deaths, in part because he didn't react to the threat of war they warned him about, one of whom never got to marry his (mortal) girlfriend before he died, which is uncomfortably similar to THIS situation. Then you have the fact that Dorthonion is basically gone and the house of Beor, his humans, are now scattered refugees/dead, and he's the one who set that whole situation up and basically put them on what would be the front lines. And now Beren shows up and he's the last one as far as he knows of all these people he was supposed to protect and didn't, including the guys who saved his life when they really didn't have to, because they all died in the remnants of the lands he gave them. And he's his last chance to save something of it.

So he does think he's doing it because it's the right thing to do. But also he wants an excuse to not have to keep being the guy who keeps outliving the people he cares about and he's crashing out about it. He swears that Oath, knowing it will kill him, because he's sick of sitting around with people he cares about dying while he's in a relatively safe position. And once he's sworn it he now has to obey it by his system of morality so he no longer has to deal with tricky ethical questions like "should I actually be trying to drag my whole realm along with this for the sake of one guy" or "is plunging this whole place into political instability doing more harm than good" or "am I justified in taking these ten guys along when they are DEFINITELY going to die".

[emilybeemartin]

Gondor Week day 5: Dol Amroth

I think Dol Amroth would have a halcyon glow for Boromir and Faramir, but it would grow more and more distant as they got older and weighed down with responsibilities. By the time their cousin Lothiriel is born, she's the last little speck of joy that isn't also tinged with sadness, and on the increasingly rare occasions they visit, they spoil her rotten.

@gondorweek

[southfarthing]

THE RETURN OF THE KING by J.R.R. TOLKIEN

Your bearing is lowly in my presence, yet it is long now since you turned from your own way at my counsel. See, you have spoken skilfully, as ever; but I, have I not seen your eye fixed on Mithrandir, seeking whether you said well or too much? He has long had your heart in his keeping.

[eurydicetown-deactivated2020092]

i really love rog’s rallying speech in tFoG????

“Who now shall fear the Balrogs for all their terror? See before us the accursed ones who for ages have tormented the children of the Noldoli, and who now set a fire at our backs with their shooting. Come ye of the Hammer of Wrath and smite them for their evil.”

he’s basically like. i ain’t afraid no more, i’m done with being afraid, let’s fUCK THIS SHIT UP!!

[fickleartdump]

leithian!!!

[en-theos]

stage production of the antigone which consists of just the agon between kreon and antigone performed thrice, with woke and alt right language switched between the characters from one to the other, and the third rendered as alienatingly greekish as possible

[en-theos]

CR: and even so you broke the law? ANT: yes, since that law was not inspired by God, and since any law that doesn't uphold faith or guarantees peace in the afterlife is illegal. and i don't recognize the authority of a godless degenerate who denies God and the traditional values given by God.

vs.

CR: and even so you committed this crime? ANT: yes, because that law was not valid, and does not uphold justice for all which is an unalienable right. and i don't think one human being has the right to override the basic human rights of others, since we are all equal under the law.

vs.

CR: and still you were so bold as to overstep the norm? ANT: for not from Zeus was this decree to me. and not of that kind from Justice and the gods below are the laws established for men. and not did i think your decree had such strength, that someone death-doomed can override the unwritten and unfailing norms of gods.

[katarrinskey]

Sins of a father

Day two of @feanorianweek

[nicnacsnonsense]

If we take this as pages, what about when we are knights? Do we say, Oh, now I’m going to be nice to the weak and the small? Or do we do as we learned when we were pages?

My girl Kel spitting straight facts; I love her so much

[hirazuki]

The Silmarillion: The First Age (with a tad of Years of the Trees at the beginning) Song: Tranquility, by Sawano Hiroyuki and Anly

Keep reading

[morwensteelsheen]

i read a thing today about how the difference between programming/scripting languages can be equated to the difference between different human languages. all languages encompass the breadth of the human experience, but the way in which they do it is different. according to the author, if you wanted to really efficiently pinpoint a new object or concept, you’re better off with german because its precedent for neologisms/combination words is so much better, but if you wanted really flowery, poetic language, you’d be better off with arabic. he likened that to the difference between javascript and python and php, which i thought was really interesting.

anyways because i am an absolute shit for brains i was thinking about how that kind of language optimisation (i guess? sorry to go full tech jargon like two days after starting my new job lol) might work in the context of, uhhhhhh, lotr and all the multilingual families you have in the gondorrim/rohirrim aristocracies. take, for example, potentially the most multilingual family in the canon, the fourth age house of húrin. between éowyn, faramir, and kid(s) you’d have native-acquisition or fluency in:

• the rohirric language

• gondorian sindarin

• westron

then, at least for faramir and kid(s), an academic fluency in:

• quenya

admittedly i have spent almost no time actually reading up on the differences between the languages, but it’s not hard to imagine that there might be some substantive differences between (at least) sindarin and westron, and certainly some cultural idiosyncrasies that differentiate the rohirric language from westron. given all that, im sort of making myself giddy thinking about everybody in emyn arnen just constantly spitting out sentences that are unintelligible to almost anyone else because they’re picking for Best Word Choice instead of Language Consistency. imagining someone starting a sentence in the rohirric language, jumping to sindarin for an especially flowery term, but using westron syntax. very cute???? i think!!!

okay goodnight bye

[mysarcasticgreencrayon]

Headcanon accepted

[tanoraqui]

"what year the Númenoreans officially stopped speaking Elvish languages" and "what year Elves were legally banned from the Isle of Númenor" are in the history books, but what I want to know is when exactly did the royal line of Númenor stop calling Elrond "uncle"? Both in reference and to his face, if those are different. Surely it went far beyond just Elros's children! Was it Tar-Minastir circa 1800, when Númenor began to build colonies along Middle Earth's western coast? Was it Tar-Anducal, previously Herucalmo, in SA 2637 when he seized the scepter after the death of Tar-Vanimeldë, his wife the ruling queen? (Probably not; I'd think he'd want to connect himself as much as possible to the traditional ruling line.) Was it Ar-Adûnakhôr in SA 2899, when he took the crown with a kingly name in Adúnaic for the first time? Did Tar-Palantir resume the practice? It is NOT recorded that he un-banned Elves from Númenor! Did that rule apply to Elrond? (I'm dead certain the answer is "yes" - but maybe it varied by king, or even with politics of the moment?)

It seems like the Faithful Lords of Andúnie didn't pick up the habit either, if only because if they had, I'd expect it to have been passed down to Aragorn.

[silmalope]

of all the wonderful and imaginative Gil-galad origin stories out there, “Fingon stumbles across a stray orphan on the battlefield and adopts him” is maybe my favorite

Originally posted on the SWG.

[erynalasse]

Fingon is the archetypical hero. He does great deeds of valor and daring, notably Maedhros’ rescue and rushing out to defeat Glaurung. He is not terribly afraid of consequences, which is wonderful when he is the only one he’s responsible for. His talent is forging ahead and inspiring everyone to follow him.

Fingolfin is the archetypical king. He is the one that holds his people together across the Helcaraxë and brokers peace with Maedhros after he’s rescued. He’s incredibly aware of every possible consequence, which is wonderful when he’s responsible for a whole kingdom. His talent is uniting everyone and inspiring them to move forward together.

When Fingolfin dies, he acts as the hero, not the king. He tries to borrow his son’s talent for incredibly inadvisable stunts, but it isn’t in his nature. He believes the Noldor are doomed, and thus dies in despair fighting Morgoth because he does not see another path forward, only defeat.

When Fingon dies, he acts as the king, not the hero. He tries to borrow his father’s talent for forging political unity, but it isn’t in his nature. The Nirnaeth’s forces are disunited from their conception to their defeat, and Fingon dies full of hope fighting Morgoth because he does not see any other path forward, only victory.

Fingolfin’s legacy was despair, though he left a lasting blow against Morgoth. Fingon’s legacy was hope, though he did not so much as touch Morgoth.