#guilin

[huariqueje]

Thousand Year-Old Banyan Tree, Yangshuo, Guilin - Francis Hamel ,  2024.

British , b. 1963 -

Oil on linen laid on panel , 13 x 17 in. 33 x 43 cm.

[sinoheritage]

Yangshuo 阳朔县, Guangxi province, China.

Located in South China’s Guangxi region, it’s surrounded by karst peaks and bordered by the Li river.

[otphotography]

From Atop Xianggong Mountain 相公山

Yangshuo, China

[xanaxfarts]

日月双塔 ‘The Sun and Moon Twin Towers’ location: Guilin, Guangxi, China

[pangeen]

" Yangshuo Region " // © sjoerd bracke

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

I mentioned yesterday in response to @endless-natterings ‘s truly excellent Gwindor HCs that I absolutely adore Guilin, father of Gwindor, so let me say here why I think he’s 10/10, no notes, as a dad even though he makes only super scarce appearances in the text.

Gwindor has always been my favorite Silm character, and if we look at all the things I deeply love about him — he’s compassionate, loyal, unafraid to push for what’s right even when others don’t want to hear it — we can see how those traits came directly from the kind of parenting he received.

Elven communities of the First Age were notoriously hostile to anyone who had been captured by Morgoth. Former thralls were viewed with suspicion if not outright aggression, and many were simply refused return by their families. But Gwindor didn’t express any concern that this might be his fate. To the contrary, he didn’t just declare a direct intention to return to the place he was born, but he confidently asserted to Túrin that they would find healing and renewal there. I think that’s partly because he knew who was waiting for him — a father who loved him so fully and unconditionally that he met his escaped thrall of a son with literal open arms:

Lo! Sire and son did sweet embrace neath trees entwining tangled branches…

Guilin not only 1) recognized his son in an instant despite the substantial trauma-induced changes in his appearance and 2) directly defied community standards to welcome him back without hesitation or reservation, but he also 3) tenderly cared for Gwindor’s hurts, both physical and mental, to nurse his boy back to health, or as close to health as Gwindor could achieve:

In those halls in the hills at that homecoming mirth was mingled with melting tears for the unyielding years whose yoke of pain the form and face of [Guilin’s] son had changed and burdened, chilled the laughter that leapt once lightly to his lips and eyes. Now in kindly love was care lessened, with song assuaged sadness of hearts; the lights were lit and lamps kindled o’er the burdened board…

Guilin shared in Gwindor’s joy at being reunited and in his tears from his continuing pain. He lessened Gwindor’s cares with kindness and love, sang to him to soothe his heart, surrounded him with comforting light (especially important to someone who had been enslaved in dark mines!) and tempted him with good food (the “burdened board” in this context is a food-laden feast table, something a starved thrall could only dream of!). You can see his profound love of Gwindor in every action.

There are plenty of displays of emotionally vulnerable men in Tolkien’s work, but very rarely do we see it directed from father to child and with this level of gentle affection and physical caretaking. This is parenting in the most nurturing and involved sense, spelled out directly in the text and notably far above the elven standard of the time. Its rarity makes Guilin that much more special to me, and it’s no wonder that the child of such a brave, loyal, strong minded, kind man turned out to be just like him.

(For what it’s worth, I also find it interesting that there is no mention of Gwindor’s mother. That could just be a classic Tolkien “oops, forgot the women existed!” moment, or it could indicate that either Guilin’s wife was dead or perhaps alive but just not willing like he was to accept her son back as a former thrall. Both of those options are hugely tragic, especially in light of the fact that this family had already lost Gwindor’s brother, Gelmir, to enslavement and then execution. But if Guilin was really on his own, single dad-ing it without the support of a partner, that speaks further to his integrity AND makes this one tiny bright spot in Gwindor’s utterly tragedy-strewn existence all the more significant!)

[wgm-beautiful-world]

Guilin Mountains - CHINA

[zegalba]

Hiroji Kubota: Guilin, China (1980)