#drúedain

[outofangband]

Goats in Middle Earth

Apparently it was world goat day on the 21st which I completely missed but in honor of that here are some Middle Earth related goat thoughts! I focused primarily on Beleriand but please let me know if you'd like a post on later Middle Earth goat related world building specifically!

There are also mentions of goats on several of my mammals of Beleriand posts where I go into more detail about their status as domestic animals!

Several species of wild goats live in Beleriand, primarily in montane regions and domesticated goats, variants of two of the wild species, are kept by elves, humans, and dwarves throughout Middle Earth.

Caprus aegagrus, the wild species closest to the later domestic goat, is found mostly east of the Ered Luin in montane regions where it's primarily kept by humans and some dwarven populations.

Ibexes are found in the mountains in the south of Dorthonion and into the Ered Gorgoroth though these are rarely observed by humans or elves.

Tur, a subgenus of wild goats, are found in the Ered Luin and in montane regions in the south of Middle Earth

In Beleriand, the Noldor elves and the dwarves of the eastern regions own the highest numbers of goats.

Goats milk is the most common source for milk and cheese in Himlad, Thargelion and Estolad.

A popular dish in Himlad includes Goats milk cheese prepared with woolly hedgenettle (lamb's ear) herbs.

The Sindar of Hithlum, the Haladin, and the Drúedain of central Beleriand also keep them in smaller numbers. They’re used for wool, meet and occasionally milk.

Obligatory mention of this but it's an old headcanon of mine that Aerin had a goat as a child named Wilwandrëa which means like a butterfly. The goat got its name from its black splotches that reminded Aerin of a common species found in meadows in Dor-lómin (likely marbled white). The Hadorians don’t typically raise goats but the Drúedain do and some of their people pass through Dor-lómin not infrequently. @rana-temporaria made me adorable art of this here :)

The Drúedain make imprints of various hooves including those of the goats they keep on the cave walls of central Beleriand, near Dimbar.

[tulaturambar]

Fic Update!

Sealord father is set in an alternative timeline in Arda where Adar has led the Uruk to the sea to become pirates rather than turning the Southlands into Mordor. The Ghost Elf and his spectral crew are wreaking havoc across the vast Sundering Seas. Admiral Veanelen is on a mission to keep the waters safe for all. However, she soon uncovers a concealed agenda behind the reports of piracy, revealing a bigger danger to the free peoples of Middle Earth.

Chapter 28 is soaring with the wind on its stern!

Adar and the Admiral agreed to sail their ships as consorts to meet Adar's most trusted captain and assure Veanelen's company that he can be trusted. Then there is the minor issue of hauling the Númenórean vessel full of Peredhil recently freed from enslavement.

Ao3 link

The tide that lifts every ship is @heckate-hexx

[negreabsolut]

Cavallers de Ròhan i en Ghân-buri-Ghân, per Tim Hildebrandt.

[chronivore]

Drúedain

[diversetolkien]

Could I ask for a Ghan-buri-ghan perspective? (Moth)

Ghan-buri-ghan was of the Earth.

The lives of the Drúedain were meant to be short, so that at the end they could return to the earth. Sometimes he had believed that the creation of his people had been a mistake, that the creator had intended for them to be spirits that roamed Middle Earth, and not men.

Why else would their lives be so short?

He supposed his kind were granted life though to appreciate both the woods and the people (though until, King Elessar, he’d cared little of them and those before that trespassed on his land), for spirits and elves lost their appreciation with time.

And to live to be an elf was a world of black and grey, and to live as a man was a world of regret at a life so long--yet so short.

But the Drúedain were of the forest. And they would live forever in the earth, their souls seeping into the soil and making it alive.

Send me a character and I will write you a prompt :) 

[outofangband]

First age humans and summer headcanons!

Spring, Winter, Autumn

Summer headcanons for the elves

Obviously I couldn’t go through each group or culture so please feel free to send one and I’ll tell my ideas for them! I’m going to do humans next. Feel free to request for outside of Beleriand too!

I talked about Hadorian summer festivals here!o

I like to use these posts to explore world building topics (I went into probably too much about water supply in Dor-lómin for example here) as well as environmental and climate thoughts

I’ll go into information about water supply in other locations soon! It just came up here for the Hadorians when I was thinking about Nen Lalaith 

As always please feel free to ask more

-Summers in Ladros are dry, warm during the day with heavy temperature drops common after dark. Smaller streams often dry up outside of the cooler forests.

-There are festivals in Ladros for both the beginning and end of summer. Meat from rabbits and sheep are cooked with a variety of native herbs for communal feasts. Pine nuts are a favorite snack throughout the year and on special occasions like those, children are given small decorated pouches of roasted pine nuts that they then collect. (The pouch I mentioned Morwen having at the time of the Bragollach was from this kind of occasion)

-There are several species of lizards in Dorthonion and in the summer, they can often be seen basking on rocks in the open. At the beginning of summer festival, lizards are a common decoration on the decorative pouches.

-For both the Haladin and the Hadorians, marriages traditionally happen in the summer (in Ladros it’s usually early autumn).

-It is traditional among the Haladin for weddings to be held among the circle of some of the oldest birch trees in the forest, located near what would become Ephel Brandir.

-Hadorian weddings are held in the open fields and it’s typical for large groups to turn up, regardless of their relation to the two families. Many take place around the midsummer festival and feast and it’s common for multiple couples to marry upon the same day.

-In Dor-lómin, most drinking water is obtained through wells, often located around or connected to springs. It is uncommon for houses to have running water though some have their own well or other source. In villages, there is usually one or two communal well located in a shelter or otherwise covered. People use Nen Lalaith and other streams for bathing and washing clothes. There are also several communal baths in southwestern Dor-lómin, built around hot or cold springs. These are utilized far more for recreational and medicinal purposes rather than day to day bathing.

-Summers in Brethil are warm though the forest provides shade and cool. More communal work outside army and defense tasks are undertaken in the summer.

-In the fields Southwest of Brethil forest in the spring and summer, the Haladin grow some crops, mainly vegetables, and maintain a small orchard. There is also a garden in Brethil Forest near Ephel Brandir.

-The river Teglin and its tributaries are used for bathing and swimming and fishing. Fish is an almost entirely summer food.

-The Drúedain in Beleriand typically spend summers in Brethil or Ossiriand (there are several Drúedain groups). Those in Ossiriand often live on or near one of the rivers, including in small house boats

(I’m not feeling great about this but I hope it’s ok!)

[chronivore]

Drúedain

[chronivore]

Drúedain