#mahtan

[firefly-artwork]

Finally sharing my contribution to the @feanorian-zine !

Nerdanel reminisces about the past while looking at paintings of her family

[whosthatsilmcharacter]

Presentation of Results!

Audio of me presenting this to my English club linked here.

Transcription of the audio file below! I presented it to a group of people who weren't familiar with the Silmarillion, so I did a little bit of explaining y'all won't need.

I'm presenting on a project I've been doing for the past… two years? It's called “Who’s That Silmarillion Character: A study of the iconography of the fanart of the Silmarillion fandom”.

Welcome to nerd-central!

*scattered giggles*

*Next Slide*

So, the point of this whole thing is, the Silmarillion fandom – which, for those who don't know is the, kind of, history book of the Lord of the Rings – it's full of talented artists. Like, professional-level crazy-talented. And, most of the Silmarillion characters, because there's so many of them, have never had any kind of visual adaptation. However, a lot of the Silmarillion fans will recognize the characters in the art at the drop of a hat.

And I wanted to know – first of all, if that was really true, like, based on hard data – and, if so, how and why. So I made a blog about it, y’know, as you do.

*Next Slide*

For my methodology: that is a list of all of the characters I made polls for – there are 93 of them. That's a very long screenshot.

So, step one: create a list of all of the possibly recognizable characters. I did have to expand it a few times, because the Silmarillion fandom has people who are even nerdier than I am! I love to see it.

And then, step two, track down art pieces of each character that are recognizable to me for whatever reason, and not based off an adaptation, which for some characters, was kinda difficult.

And then, ask the artist for permission to use it – repeat as needed. There was a few artists who didn't want their art posted without their names, which, that's totally fair.

Step four, create a poll with the unlabeled art piece.

Step five, include the correct character, as well as several possible “decoys” who share as many similar traits as possible.

And then publish the results, while tagging the artist, making special note of what caused a character to be guessed correctly and what caused confusion.

And then repeat steps one through six 92 times.

And, in order to randomize it, I separated- I alphabetized the characters, numbered them, and then chose one from each set of ten, and just kinda cycled through that until I was out of characters.

*Next Slide*

So, my findings!

Overall, the Silmarillion fandom has an unnerving uniformity; like, it was kinda creepy. The total average was 70.1 over all 93 characters. Of those 93, only two did not win their poll, which is wild to me.

So, in order to really dive into this, I tried to separate the characters in as many ways as possible. So, in the first little bubble on the left there, I split it into male and female and there's a slight discrepancy, but not much; which is also very impressive, considering Tolkien writes a lot more about his male characters.

And then, I split it up by species. Those are all pretty uniform. The mannish characters did have a higher recognition rate, which was interesting – still don't know why. But the maiarin characters were particularly interesting to me, because I split them up into the Valar – which is like the Greek gods of Middle Earth – and then the lesser maiar, which are everyone else. And I thought, for sure, those'll have totally different numbers. Nope! They are less than three percent off.

The hair color was actually a little more split apart. So, the dark haired and silver haired characters were pretty- pretty normal. The redheaded characters were super high on the list, they did very well, which makes sense because – first of all, there's only five of them as opposed to, like 49 dark haired characters – and one of the redhead characters was voted most recognizable and one of the other redhead characters is one of only two elves with a beard, so, fairly recognizable!

And then, the blond characters… We'll get to those in a minute ‘cause there was some “statistical nonsensery” going on there.

*Next Slide*

However, there were two exceptions that, quote-on-quote, “failed” their polls. But, when it comes to research, things going differently than you expect isn't necessarily “failure”. It can teach you so much, because those two characters failed for the exact same reason; and that reason is that they share a lot of iconography with much more popular characters.

So, the Saruman art I did- since I was going for something that didn't have an adaptation, I didn't go with the easily-recognizable movie version. I went with before he got sent to Middle Earth. Which means he was mistaken for Sauron, because they have a very similar background. They worked under the same master. They're both associated with fire and the forge- so that was interesting.

And Curufin, that character, he shares one of his names with both his father, Fëanor, and his son, Celebrimbor; and both of those characters are much more popular and well-known, and well-loved. Curufin kinda just gets left behind.

And also, both of those don't really have any iconography that's unique to them. It's just- there's a lot of overlap that combine to make them [recognizable]. And, I knew it was shared iconography specifically that threw off the polls because there were a lot of characters that I had barely heard of, or hadn't heard of at all, that absolutely crushed their polls. It was crazy!

*Next Slide*

And then *giggle* now we come back to the blonds. I made a meme about it.

The Arafinwians are five characters, Arafinwë and his children, and pretty much their main recognizable character trait is that they're blond. Galadriel is one of these. She's also the only female one.

The average score for that family was 59.94 – I remind you that the average overall was 70. There's some of them that don't even have any secondary signs, it's just… blond. And, mind you, five characters singlehandedly lowered the blond score by six percent! It was crazy!

So, that's what I've been doing for the past two years. Thank you very much! *applause*

[asinoeiv]

Idk if you're still doing little sketch requests, but have ya ever done something with Mahtan? Or have any hc's for Nerdanel's mother? I think they're so underrated

I don't know why, but Nerdanel's mother is a black hole in my head ... I can think of something for the wives of the lords of the Edain but not Nerdanel's mother. 🫠 I sometimes just think he went to Aule and asked for a child. 😂

But I can add that in the Crusader Kings III mod Realms of Exiles she is the daughter of Rúmil which is certainly an intriguing idea. While I like the idea I hc Nerdanel as 'lowborn'. Mahtan owns land and maybe a lord title but it was given to him in honor of his achievements and not by coming from an important house

Ignore the very very rough Aule, besides flaming hair and a very long beard I lack ideas.

[silmalope]

Tagged by @saintvoids to share some wips! I love sharing wips because I have approximately 1000 of them ongoing at any given time, most of which will never be finished 🥲

Elrond and his dad :)

A Míriel begun well in advance for @finweanladiesweek, which at the current rate of progress I will need every single remaining day to complete 🥲

A never-finished Radagast for @ainurweek … I had the best of intentions, but the Thuringwethil also in the image just wouldn’t cooperate 😭

A study of Feanorian family resemblances! Behold the extreme untidiness of my sketches

A comic of my favorite CoH scene that has been in the works for literally half a year help 😭

Noldor in silly runway fashion! You KNOW Tirion had some absolute nonsense fashion trends. In order Maedhros, Galadriel, Anairë, Celegorm, Argon (alt design), Findis (alt design), and finally the resplendent Maglor.

A dumb lil Lay of Leithian comic

No-pressure tagging @southaway, @a-cat-of-many-colors, @laisrinel, @balrogballs :)

[nerdylizard5]

New slightly crack but also absolutely defensible theory: beards are to elves what balding is to humans

Evidence: we know Mahtan had a beard weirdly young (= premature male pattern balding), and Thingol entered the third stage of life associated with beard growth early due to grief (= hair loss from grief/stress). Also Cirdan isn’t the only super old Elf but he’s the only one with a beard from normal aging just like not all human men go bald with age!

But also imagine Elves being like “Does premature male-pattern bearding run in your family?”

[sakasakiii]

some rumil doodles in response to @whimsicallywiddershins who asked: Oh my god I love your art!!! I'm curious about Rumil. I've never really heard of him and I'm curious about what happened to his eyes....

thank you for the ask!!!! im real happy to hear you like my art, and even happier you took the time to ask about rumil! <333 it took me until your ask to realise that, despite him frequently appearing in group concept sketches n doodles, i've never really elaborated on him haha 😅 i tried to illustrate and summarise some of the key points in the art, but more detailed yap incoming under the cut!

so! to start off, my version of rumil is pretty much at his core the same as canon rumil wherein he's a noldorin sage/scholar responsible for inventing the Sarati and later going on to write the Annals of Valinor. his whole being captured and enslaved in angband for a while comes from the other version of him the Book of Lost Tales, where he was a slave of Melko who learned the speech of monsters and goblins --essentially i thought it'd be fun to combine the two to give him a more complicated backstory ^^

in response to your query about his eyes, i hc that during his time in angband he was one of those who were experimented on by Sauron - acting on Morgoth's orders - during the initial testings for the evolution of elves -> orcs. (maybe sauron thought that blinding the first elf-orcs would make them more unlikely to disobey orders/easier to control? hmm) his band of captives were able to break him out in time and they fled back to safety before he was too far-gone, thus allowing him to reunite with finwe, miriel and co, and then eventually follow Orome to valinor :D

him being miriel's dad was also something i felt would be fun to explore, especially because i thought his ties to Sarati and Feanor would be an interesting dynamic! it's very very much noncanon, and incredibly self-indulgent on my part (im so sorry... 😭), but i like to go on tangents abt their relationship! i think rumil wouldve made attempts to dote on feanor and encourage his linguistic pursuits, but would have been held back a lot on truly being around him by both his health and his lingering guilt about miriel. he is incredibly proud when feanor refines his abandoned Sarati concepts and turns Tengwar into a near-universal system of writing however :D

other thoughts on rumil... hmm... i think he's kind of pitiful tbh. something about him being an absent (albeit not of his own volition) father to miriel, and then in turn him feeling unfit to offer feanor as much emotional support as would be ideal, is a theme i would like to keep exploring (^3^) adding on to the fact that he outlives his wife, daughter, son-in-law, grandson, and like 6/7 of his great-grandsons while miraculously not Fading himself gives him an essence with parallels to maglor that i do appreciate...

major apologies for going off on such a rambly tangent, but i do suppose an explanation on my rumil has been overdue for a few years!! i hope i havent misled anyone since i first drew him in that family tree, but thank you so much again for taking the time to ask about him! im always grateful for the interest in my absurd headcanons, and i hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead!!! ❤️

[sweetteaanddragons]

Hi! I love all your Tolkein stuff, but I was reading Raise Them Well (Or Out of Spite) and something caught my eye in the third chapter.

Please ignore this if you're not interested, but I would dearly love if you could maybe write something about Finwe's thoughts on/relationship with/potential grudge(?) against Mahtan.

I don't want to pressure you, but I want to let you know all the same that I really do love all your stuff! My brain couldn't help latching onto that one scene tho.

Thank you again for all your stuff! God bless you!

Thank you so much; I'm glad you enjoy my work!

I don't know if I'll ever write a proper story about Finwe's thoughts on Mahtan (mainly because I find Finwe's perspective difficult to write), but I'm happy to share my thoughts on what exactly Finwe has against Mahtan (definitely in that fic, and quite possibly in the background of some of the others as well):

He's jealous.

(Almost all of what follows is headcanon; there are only a few passing references to things that we actually know from canon.)

Feanaro left him to go learn from Mahtan, and Finwe . . . didn't actually see that coming. Feanaro is his son, his eldest son; he doesn't need to go apprentice to anyone. If anything, he's his father's apprentice! Of course he knows that Feanaro is interested in metalworking, and that's perfectly fine, wonderful even that he has this interest in the craft, but there are an excellent selection of superb smiths right here in the capital who would be happy to teach him if Feanaro wants a tutor. Or if Mahtan is truly an irreplaceable teacher, then surely there's something Finwe could offer that would persuade Mahtan to come spend a few years in Tirion -

But Feanaro is quite determined not just to learn from Mahtan but to leave in order to do so.

Finwe still remembers when he was carrying Feanaro around everywhere, terrified to let him slip out of his sight lest Feanaro's spirit fade. When being separated was unthinkable. When Feanaro was content to stick close, hand always reaching up, tugging at his robes, Look, Atar, look, how does it work, why do we things this way, wouldn't this be better -

And then things.

Changed.

He does know that.

Children grow up. They need their space.

(Feanaro is not - angry with him. He knows that. He's sure of that.)

(Sometimes he almost wishes Feanaro were. Maybe then the fury that blazes through his son at every mention of Indis, every mention of Miriel, every shift of their language - )

(Maybe then.)

(Maybe then Feanaro would be content to only be in a different room than his father, a different wing of the palace, and not half a continent away.)

Finwe is not upset at Feanaro for leaving, of course. Children grow up. It's natural.

It's Mahtan's fault, really. For being able to teach something Finwe can't. For providing the good advice Feanaro talks so brightly of in his letters. For the proud way he puts an approving hand on Feanaro's shoulder when Feanaro is pronounced a master craftsman.

(Mahtan is not, of course, Feanaro's father. He isn't trying to be.)

(Except.)

(Except Mahtan has a daughter, and Finwe knows, he knows, that by the custom of their people, Nerdanel has joined Finwe's house by marrying his son.)

(But sometimes he can't help the insidious suspicion that Mahtan sees it as Feanaro having joined Mahtan's instead.)

(That Feanaro sees it - )

Mahtan is a master craftsman who has advanced the craft of the Noldor. Finwe is of course happy to have had such a talented man teach his son.

He looks at the statue Mahtan built for him after his death - built in order to lift a burden from Finwe's son, already so burdened by the crown -

(Thinks of Feanaro leaving Tirion, tense with fury barely restrained, and returning laughing, bursting with bright new insights, babbling of all he learned - )

Thinks of how it has happened that Finwe keeps laying burdens on his son and Mahtan keeps lifting them.

[sesamenom]

🎃 Happy Halloween! 🎃

this year's group theme is patron valar, featuring team aule vs team orome.

whose costumes are better

team aule

team orome

just celebrimbaby, huan, and nahar

Voting ended onNov 7, 2025

team aule:

aule as feanor mahtan as aule feanor as mairon curufin as curumo nerdanel as arien celebrimbaby as durin

team orome:

orome as celegorm celegorm as orome amras as tilion amrod as nieliqui (orome's daughter) aredhel as alatar (blue wizard) huan as nahar nahar as huan

the rule was that the valar have to work with their normal fanar (so they actually have to dress up and can't just shapeshift).

mahtan and celegorm (and huan) got to reuse their costumes from last year. huan isn't full sized (i imagine he's like the size of a large horse by luthien time), but he's definitely big enough to ride for a short while. nahar on the other hand is uh. huge.

aule's costume was somewhat simpler outfit wise w feanor's black tshirt, but he's wearing skin color gloves to cover his hand-magma lol (and it still kind of glows through the gloves and shirt). the silmarils he's wearing are replicas - not quite as bright and not hallowed, more akin to the star-gems used in varda's constellations.

mahtan gets to be aule bc hes the only one with a beard lol. nerdanel was mairon last year but her hair is better than feanors for the arien costume (the ambarussa are on team orome, and maedhros is doing a group costume with turgon and argon, so no other redheads available). curufin just borrowed clothes from curumo, and celebrimbaby got a new hood :)

on the orome side, aredhels alatar costume is incredibly well made as always, vs amrod and amras who flipped a coin over who gets to be who. the nieliqui costume is a dress borrowed from aredhel with daffodils tied to it, and the tilion costume is amras's festival outfit plus a silver wig.

celegorm's been building up his orome cosplay over the past three years so it's actually really good, and orome got the celegorm costume mostly right (he can't hide the antlers though). nahar is like 15 ft tall and glows.