#garthaglir

[thesummerestsolstice]

See one of my favorite Rivendell headcanons is that even though it's a wonderful, peaceful sanctuary, pretty much everyone there could be incredibly dangerous if they wanted to be. Like, let's think about who lives in that valley.

Elrond Peredhel, resident healer and eldritch crime against nature, self-explanatory

Glorfindel, slayer of balrogs, self-explanatory

Erestor, probably Feanorian, definitely dangerous

Old Feanorian diehards, all of whom are probably looking for an excuse to commit morally justified violence

Old Gondolindrim/Iathrim, who, despite what they might tell you, are exactly as dangerous as the Feanorians

Garthaglir the Library Orc, who absolutely remembers how to use the giant battleaxe he keeps behind his desk

A strange, shadowy figure roaming the valley who I'm *sure* isn't Maglor Feanorian, but who is nonetheless a terrifying singer

Elladan and Elrohir, who have spent the last several centuries becoming nightmare fuel for Sauron's forces

Arwen, eldritch, bites

Bilbo Baggins, not to be underestimated, can defeat a grown man with nothing more than his scathingly polite commentary

Dunedain visitors, vaguely feral, highly trained

Aragorn, very feral, highly trained

Lindir, not actually dangerous, but if you upset him you are going to have problems with everyone else on this list

I actually really like the idea that a lot of the people who live in Rivendell are inherently kind of dangerous, because it means that they're actively choosing peace and kindness for themselves and I love that.

[thesummerestsolstice]

People seemed interested in Library Orc Blorbo so I decided to write down my headcanons about him:

His name is Garthaglir (it’s Sindarin for “poem keeper”)

He renamed himself after discovering a love for library sciences, shortly after he moved to the valley

Rivendell’s head librarian

Used to be an extremely dangerous warrior, now considers himself retired

Extremely tall and buff, blue skin, salt-and-pepper hair and a well-trimmed beard

Very distinguished, very polite

Has a tiny pair of spectacles he uses to read because he's farsighted

He doesn’t look like an old man but he is one deep in his heart

He was one of the first reformed orcs to end up in Rivendell, so he helps other orcs adjust to living there

Basically invented Middle Earth’s version of the Dewey Decimal system

Look, Rivendell’s library is like, unfathomably huge, there’s 6000+ years of books in there, someone had to organize it

He, Elrond, and Erestor are the only people who have keys to the part of the library where they keep the cursed books

The three of them also have a monthly book club

He holds a weekly story time for the kids

(Yes, he does do funny voices, no, you are not allowed to comment on it)

Has tracked people down at 3 AM before because “M’am? M’am you have an overdue book, here, I brought my library stamp would you mind just checking this out again? You can keep it out for another month that way. Just a moment, ah, yes thank you, I’ll be on my way now. Excellent choice in reading material.”

He has a fancy sunhat he wears outside during the day so the sun doesn’t burn him, it was a gift from small Arwen and he cherishes it

He has a library cat, her name is Mittens and he would die for her

Uses his free time to teach himself different languages; there are hundreds in Rivendell’s books

Enjoys recommending books to visitors, he’s gotten really good at getting a read on what people will like

Personally, when he’s in the mood for fiction, he prefers a good mystery

[thesummerestsolstice]

Garthaglir, beloved😭😭😭. I love how he's living a peaceful life (but don't test him) and I adore headcanons about orcs who aren't dehumanized (good job!). Does he have any family? Siblings, parents, lovers, friends? I want him to be happy 😭😭😭.

Thanks for the ask, I'm so glad that people like Garthaglir! He has parents, and a twin brother– though unfortunately, he hasn't seen them since coming to Rivendell. He does hope that eventually they'll be together again though, even if it takes until Sauron falls.

He does have plenty of friends in Rivendell. As I said before, he's close to Elrond and Erestor, who also spend a lot of time in Rivendell's library and archives; they have a monthly book club and play some very intense games of Quenya scrabble.

He's also close with a lot of the other orcs living in Rivendell. This includes Glamour (an orcish guard who's lived in Rivendell since its founding) and Kemendil (former drill sergeant and current head cook).

He also has Mittens, of course.

He is very happy in Rivendell, rest assured. He works in the library and has plenty of time to relax, or work on his own projects. One of those projects is an appeal he plans to present to the Valar about why orcs should be allowed in Valinor.

But that's probably also a subject for another post.

[thesummerestsolstice]

I would love to see more about the orc librarian of Rivendell. How did he come to choose that life? How and why did Elrond let him in? Perhaps you could put it on AO3.

Thanks for the ask!

I do want to write a proper fic with Garthaglir eventually but I've got a few WIPs going already so it'll probably be a while. For now, I'll try to answer some of your questions here:

(Content warning: this post discusses the creation of orcs, and their indoctrination and subjugation under Sauron, as well as non-graphic violence)

My headcanon is that while the first orcs were elves kidnapped by Morgoth, the later generations of orcs basically became their own species (subspecies? arguably they're still kind of elves). They're born in Angband/Mordor, undergo pretty brutal training and indoctrination from an early age, and generally don't interact with the outside world unless they're on a raid.

The only interaction orcs have with men, elves, etc are violent. They only ever see peope when they're at war, so they aren't really exposed to life outside of the constant struggle of war. They have a very warped view of the world. And because there's a language barrier, there's no way for them to speak with anyone else. Even the language they use is designed to isolate them; Black Speech was created by Sauron, not the orcs, and doesn't really allow for free expression– it's not built for that. There are a few stories and some carried over words from the original elvish orcs, but it's more myth than reality for most of them.

It's a long story, but Garthaglir ended up getting separated from his party sometime in the early Third Age, and hiding out in some elvish ruins to avoid sunlight (and the human warriors they were running from). He ended up spending weeks there, every night he'd go exploring; finding old paintings, books, toys. The remnants of a people who weren't forced into a life of war. Eventually, he realized that there was more to Middle-Earth than fighting, and that he didn't want to go back to fighting for Sauron. He ended up wandering, unsure of what else he could do with his life. And, well, doorways to Rivendell have a habit of showing up when they're needed.

As for Elrond– that's a long story. He was taught Black Speech as a survival tactic at a young age, but has also used it to communicate with orcs. There was also a kidnapping incident with some surprisingly nice orcs. You know. Normal means of cultural exchange given Elrond's life. So he was much more open to letting orcs who wanted to to escape Sauron and live a better life into Rivendell. Since Garthaglir wasn't the first orc to live there, many of the other residents were also pretty used to the idea by that point.

Bonus: Garthaglir found Mittens when she was a small kitten. She showed up outside the library one day when it was pouring rain, trying to get out of the storm. Garthaglir let her in and dried her off. They've been inseparable ever since.

[thesummerestsolstice]

WIP Wednesday

Got tagged by @jaz-the-bard

Here's a snippet from an ongoing one-shot collection I'm doing about pets in the Legendarium, featuring Garthaglir the Library Orc and Mittens the cat.

He took a sip of his tea, adjusted the blanket so that it better covered his shoulders– it was always cold during these early spring storms, and shut his eyes for a moment. It was mid-afternoon. Normally the library would have a few elves, orcs, and various others milling around, but today it was just him. Really, he needn’t have come to the library at all; he had no urgent work and most of the valley’s residents chose to stay in on rainy days, but it was so peaceful in the library that he couldn’t resist. He could hear the rain pour through the leaves outside, gentle and–

He opened his eyes, frowning. He could hear something else, too. Something small and afraid. The sound was vaguely familiar– some sort of animal–but he wasn’t sure quite what it was. He stood, walking towards the window, blanket still draped around him. The noise came again, quieter this time. His breath caught, slightly. It was never a good thing when an animal sounded that weak. He peered out the window, into the gray swirl outside. From the library, the valley looked quiet and peaceful, but for anything trapped outside–

He spotted a small, dark smudge curled on a branch, one that periodically tapped against the window. He adjusted his glasses, but still couldn’t make out quite what it was.