#flw21

[arofili]

@finweanladiesweek day one | míriel þerindë

Her hair was like silver; and she was slender as a white flower in the grass. Soft and sweet was her voice, and she sang as she worked, like rippling water, in music without words. For her hands were more skilled to make things fine and delicate than any other hands even among the Noldor. By her the craft of needles was devised; and if but one fragment of the broideries of Míriel were seen in Middle-earth it would be held dearer than a king's realm; for the richness of her devices and the fire of their colours were as manifold and as bright as the wealth of leaf and flower and wing in the fields of Yavanna. Therefore she was called Þerindë.

—The History of Middle-earth: Volume X: Morgoth’s Ring, “The Later Quenta Silmarillion”

[finweanladiesweek]

FLW 2021: October 4-10

These are the preliminary dates for @finweanladiesweek 2021! Official announcement is coming soon!

In the meantime, please reach out to the mod @arofili if you have any suggestions for the event!

[arofili]

@finweanladiesweek​ day five | ladies who [almost] married in I andreth saelind

          ‘I desire neither,’ [said Andreth.] ‘I was young and I looked on his flame, and now I am old and lost. He was young and his flame leaped towards me, but he turned away, and he is young still. Do candles pity moths?’

          ‘Or moths candles, when the wind blows them out?’ said Finrod. ‘Adaneth, I tell thee, Aikanáro the Sharp-flame loved thee. For thy sake now he will never take the hand of any bride of his own kindred, but live alone to the end, remembering the morning in the hills of Dorthonion.’

—The History of Middle-earth: Volume X: Morgoth’s Ring, “Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth”

[arofili]

@finweanladiesweek day seven | freeform: genderbending | maitimë and the ambarussat

But when they were landed, Maitimë the eldest of her children, and on a time the friend of Findekánë ere Morgoth’s lies came between, spoke to Fëanárë, saying: ‘Now what ships and rowers will you spare to return, and whom shall they bear hither first? Findekánë the Valiant?’

Then Fëanárë laughed as one fey, and she cried: ‘None and none! What I have left behind I count now no loss; needless baggage on the road it has proved. Let those that cursed my name, curse me still, and whine their way back to the cages of the Valar! Let the ships burn!’

Then Maitimë alone stood aside, but Fëanárë caused fire to be set to the white ships of the Teleri...

—The Silmarillion, “Of the Flight of the Noldor” (text altered)

...she went to the ships and set them all aflame; and the dark sky was red as with a terrible dawn.

[...] In the morning the host was mustered, but of Fëanárë’s seven children only six were to be found. Then Ambarussa went pale with fear. ‘Did you not then rouse Ambarussa my sister (whom you called Ambartë)?’ she said. ‘She would not come ashore to sleep (she said) in discomfort.’ But it is thought (and no doubt Fëanárë guessed this also) that it was in the mind of Ambartë to sail her ship back afterwards and rejoin Nisdanor, for she had been much shocked by the deed of her mother.

‘That ship I destroyed first,’ said Fëanárë (hiding her own dismay).

‘Then rightly you gave the name to the youngest of your children,’ said Ambarussa, ‘and Umbartë “the Fated” was its true form. Fell and fey are you become.’ And after that no one dared speak again to Fëanárë of this matter.

—The History of Middle-earth: Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, “The Shibboleth of Fëanor” (text altered)

[arofili]

@finweanladiesweek day one | indis the fair

There was a fair lady of the Vanyar, Indis of the House of Ingwë. She had loved Finwë in her heart, ever since the days when the Vanyar and the Noldor lived close together. In one of his wanderings Finwë met her again upon the inner slopes of Oiolossë, the Mountain of Manwë and Varda; and her face was lit by the golden light of Laurelin that was shining in the plain of Ezellohar below. In that hour Finwë perceived in her eyes the love that had before been hidden from him. So it came to pass that Finwë and Indis desired to be wedded, and Finwë sought the counsel of the Valar.

—The History of Middle-earth: Volume XII: The Peoples of Middle-earth, “The Shibboleth of Fëanor”

[arofili]

@finweanladiesweek day five | ladies who married in | elwing

For Ulmo bore up Elwing out of the waves, and he gave her the likeness of a great white bird, and upon her breast there shone as a star the Silmaril, as she flew over the water to seek Eärendil her beloved. On a time of night Eärendil at the helm of his ship saw her come towards him, as a white cloud exceeding swift beneath the moon, as a star over the sea moving in strange course, a pale flame on wings of storm. And it is sung that she fell from the air upon the timbers of Vingilot, in a swoon, nigh unto death for the urgency of her speed, and Eärendil took her to his bosom; but in the morning with marvelling eyes he beheld his wife in her own form beside him with her hair upon his face, and she slept.

—The Silmarillion, “Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath”

[arofili]

@finweanladiesweek day seven | freeform: genderbending | findekánë the valiant

Of all the children of Finwë she is justly most renowned: for her valour was as a fire and yet as steadfast as the hills of stone; wise she was and skilled in voice and hand; truth and justice she loved and bore good will to all, both Elves and Men, hating Morgoth only; she sought not her own, neither power nor glory, and death was her reward.

—The History of Middle-earth: Volume V: The Lost Road and Other Writings, “Quenta Silmarillion” (text altered)

[arofili]

@finweanladiesweek day five | ladies who married in | nerdanel the wise

          While still in early youth Fëanor wedded Nerdanel, a maiden of the Noldor; at which many wondered, for she was not among the fairest of her people. But she was strong, and free of mind, and filled with the desire of knowledge. In her youth she loved to wander far from the dwellings of the Noldor, either beside the long shores of the Sea or in the hills; and thus she and Fëanor had met and were companions in many journeys.

          Her father, Mahtan, was a great smith, and among those of the Noldor most dear to the heart of Aule. Of Mahtan Nerdanel learned much of crafts that women of the Noldor seldom used: the making of things of metal and stone. She made images, some of the Valar in their forms visible, and many others of men and women of the Eldar, and these were so like that their friends, if they knew not her art, would speak to them; but many things she wrought also of her own thought in shapes strong and strange but beautiful.

          She also was firm of will, but she was slower and more patient than Fëanor, desiring to understand minds rather than to master them. When in company with others she would often sit still listening to their words, and watching their gestures and the movements of their faces. Her mood she bequeathed in part to some of her sons, but not to all. Seven sons she bore to Fëanor, and it is not recorded in the histories of old that any others of the Eldar had so many children. With her wisdom at first she restrained Fëanor when the fire of his heart burned too hot; but his later deeds grieved her and they became estranged.

—The History of Middle-earth: Volume X: Morgoth’s Ring, “The Later Quenta Silmarillion”