#diversetolkienweek

[silmaspens]

Diverse Tolkien Week day seven:

Something Black

[of-him-the-harpers-sadly-sing]

uff da there's a lot going on here-

TOLKIEN DIVERSITY WEEK DAY 4: CULTURE

DANCING ROMANI LÚTHIEN BECAUSE WHY NOT? 

still gotta get around to writing down all my culture-inspired headcanons. Prepare thyselves 

[arlenianchronicles]

Day 3 for Diverse Tolkien Week: LGBTQA+

Elrond’s Diary: The Many Ways to Love

I will admit my dear delight

When Maedros spoke to me,

A-telling of his youthful days

And lands I wished to see.

He once was bright, and fair, and bold,

All robed in velvet drapes;

He’d sashay through the streets and buy

The sweetest, fruity crepes.

Oh, everybody loved him there,

From baker boy to king!

He did not say it clearly but

I heard each hidden thing.

“O dear Adar,” I said to him,

“That seems all good and well,

“But did you ever think to have

“A lady with to dwell?”

Adar looked so funny that

I thought I spoke too soon,

But then he bade me speak some more,

And so I took his boon.

“A family I thought you’d want

“Away from all the eyes;

“A tall, great house to live within

“With lots of space besides.”

“And with your lady you could rest

“In golden mornings bright,

“While on the carpet with the dolls

“Your child plays in sight.”

“Would you not have wished for one – 

“A fam’ly of your own?

“One to love without restraint

“Or fear of sadness sown?”

“My Elerondo,” Maedros said,

“I will admit to this:

“That once I thought of having such

“A fam’ly dear to kiss.”

“And yet I felt no need for one.

“P’rhaps ready I was not;

“I did not think to sire a child,

“Nor houses have I sought.”

“Not e’en a lady, tall and sweet?”

I asked with eyes all wide.

Surely there was one that might

Have taken Adar’s side!

But Adar chuckled then and said,

“Oh no, my little star.

“Not everyone will take a bride

“Or husband, here and far.”

“Nor did I have to take a bride;

“A lord I could have had!

“As long as love holds true for you

“And them, then that is glad!”

“I did not have a family then,

“Not one to call my own.

“But I no longer wonder what

“I could’ve happily sown.”

“I have you here to care for now,

“My Elerondo dear;

“Both you and Elerossë fair

“My own heart are kept near.”

“A father’s role I’ve long since held

“Since ‘Adar’ you called me.

“And thus I need not dream of what

“My family might be.”

***

Sorry I’m super late for this Tolkien week! I’ve been busy with schoolwork, so I was planning to hold onto the prompts and give them a try another day ^^;; That being said, this piece has evolved quite a bit from my initial ideas; I didn’t think to use this painting for Diverse Tolkien Week until I got halfway through the poem and realized what I was trying to get across with it.

What ended up happening was me wanting to explore the idea of Maedros being aro or ace. Or maybe biromantic! However you read into this poem loll Personally, I’m leaning towards aro/ace (or both!), but that could just be because I’m far more interested in his relationship with the twins than any sort of romance with him ^^;; And I also thought it’d be nice for him to give Elrond a “talk” of sorts XDD

[foxleycrow]

Yavanna. For @diversetolkien week. Ink & watercolor & gouache.

[fandomblr]

Today is day two of Diverse Tolkien Week and the topic is disability, so here are some of my disabled post-Thangorodrim Maedhros headcanons:

After his rescue Maedhros has to use a wheelchair for a while since being hung over a cliff for what according to the Annals of Beleriand was around two whole years made him lose much of his upper and lower body strength. Fingon takes turns with his brothers to wheel him around.

A few months later he starts physical therapy with the help of the elven healers in Himring, and he’s very determined to get his old strength and balance back, mostly so he can go to war again and kick orc ass personally but shhhh he’s motivated and that’s what matters

Since Fingon isn’t king yet and Maedhros abdicated to Fingolfin, Finno spends as much time as his princely duties allow him to help his queer-platonic partner (Maedhros) recover by being with him during physical therapy and helping him do his exercises at home.

Since Mae lost his right hand he obviously has to learn how to write again with his left hand now. Maglor teaches him how to write Tengwar script all over again as he dictates him his songs so he can practice.

When Fingon finally has to go back to Hithlum because his father gets on his arse and needs him to do his princely duties instead of being all mushy with his QPP Mae now can practice sending him letters as he’s still learning how to write with his left. His penmanship obviously doesn’t start very good, but he improves drastically as he keeps writing to Fingon. Fingon cherishes every letter and saves them in a special place, even framing some of his favorites around his chambers.

He also has to learn how to fight, obviously, which is where his brothers come in. At this point Fingon is gone, again, so he practices with them as he learns how to fight with his left hand. Celegorm and Curufin are dicks, like always, but their attitude just motivates Mae even more until he gets to the point that he can kick their asses when they’re being little brats.

Celebrimbor, with the help of his father, makes him a prosthetic. It’s mostly just to alleviate the feeling of the hand being gone since he still has to use his left hand for everything, but then Caranthir, who as we all know has a lot of $$$ and bling, gets fancy and adds a ton of gemstones and gold onto it to the point where it looks even fancier than Thanos’ gauntlet.

He also needs psychological therapy, OBVIOUSLY. Since therapy was unheard of in the Middle Ages and middle earth wouldn’t be too far from this time period, this would be tricky because it’s not like he can see a licensed therapist. But he gets the next best thing, which are long talks with Finrod aka Nom “the wise,” and he helps him process his trauma when Mae goes to visit Nargothrond to see his brothers and nephew.

Bonus: Ambarussa (or just Amras depending on which version but I’m gonna go with the twins because Mae doesn’t deserve to lose a brother on top of his father) insist on spoon-feeding him for the longest time, finally getting the opportunity to baby their oldest brother. At first Maedhros is extremely annoyed by this but appreciates the gesture regardless, and obviously this stops once Mae is as good with his left hand as he was with his right.

[the-dwelf-ao3]

Diverse Tolkien Week, Day 4.

Prompt: Religion, Faith, Culture

"They buried Thorin deep beneath the Mountain, and Bard laid the Arkenstone upon his breast. [...] Upon his tomb the Elvenking then laid Orcrist, the elvish sword that had been taken from Thorin in captivity. It is said in songs that it gleamed ever in the dark if foes approached, and the fortress of the Dwarves could not be taken by surprise."

-The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

I'm not really reinventing anything here and I'm sorry, I'm... Recovering a beautiful moment of culture-meeting that the movies sadly erased. At Thorin's funeral Men, Elves and Dwarves (and a Hobbit and a Maia) alike are there to pay their respects. Bard's gesture is full of meaning, and Thranduil's even more so- not only is he showing respect to someone who died fighting for his people, he's actively protecting Erebor from future surprise attacks placing for them a magical glowing alarm.

Different races, different cultures, praying for the dead together and showing each other respect, recognition and alliance- I love this bit so much and I'm so glad I got to sketch something about it.

[welcometolotr]

a happy family for #diversetolkienweek!!! thanks to @diversetolkien for hosting ✨

left to right: Lenwë - Nimrodel - Denethor 

Then one arose in the host of Olwë, which was ever the hindmost on the road; Lenwë he was called. He forsook the westward march, and led away a numerous people, southwards down the great river, and they passed out of the knowledge of their kin until long years were past. Those were the Nandor; and they became a people apart, unlike their kin, save that they loved water, and dwelt most beside falls and running streams. Greater knowledge they had of living things, tree and herb, bird and beast, than all other Elves. In after years Denethor, son of Lenwë, turned again west at last, and led a part of that people over the mountains into Beleriand ere the rising of the Moon.

(The Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter 3: “Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor.”)

(lineart here ~ these characters are all Tolkien’s but these particular incarnations are from the first oath)

[quixoticanarchy]

[This is incomplete and ambiguous, but while it’s still diverse Tolkien week I have a lot of thoughts about disability* in Tolkien and am trying to put some of them together. @diversetolkien]

There is ableism; there are portrayals that I think are harmful and I wish they were not there. There are also portrayals I am grateful for. There is space for disability to exist, to be central to a character’s arc or to be an incidental occurrence. I do observe that disability usually serves to add a negative flavor to a character’s life or arc: an obstacle, even a fatal one, which in some ways is the also-unsavory inverse of a superhero/cure trope. The portrayal is not uniform nor consistent, and while some of it is confining, reductive, or demeaning, I also appreciate the visibility and acknowledgment of disabled existence in fantasy - an existence that is fundamental to these stories of strife and survival in a certainly imperfect world.

(Which is not to say that disability is an inherent defect, nor that the world would be more perfect without us! but that in many cases, what is construed as disability in a given context is a reflection of how you relate to the world you’re in as well as the traces the world leaves on you. And it is always disingenuous to create a true-feeling fantasy world without us. Disability is both a universal and a contingent experience – we have always existed; and too, the world continues to produce experiences of disability, be it through physical effect or psychological.)

There’s a vast range of human experience in Tolkien – and yet of course always an incomplete and flawed reflection. How much we find may depend on our readings, and our personal relation to the text and the characters. There’s a lot of space to fit yourself into these stories, as well as to refuse ableist sentiments that certainly crop up. I am consistently struck by how present are narratives of disability, and so varied; although a lot of it is bleak, a lot also rings true to me. And what doesn’t is free for us to remake for ourselves. Since it’s not like Tolkien from beyond the grave is going to adjust or undo anything in his works, it’s on us (as readers, artists, writers) to recognize, reject, and not reproduce the ableism therein.

*I am using ‘disability’ here veeery broadly, both because experiences or definitions of disability are highly context-dependent, and also because there is a wide range of potentially relevant story and character elements within Tolkien’s work that I think we as disabled readers can read into, identifying certain insights as well as certain biases.