Ten' Ambar-mettá

Until the end of Arda

[arofili]

ok like i know all the first age family trees are buckwild but elrond’s is especially insane. dude is related to literally everyone, noldor vanyar teleri sindar YOU NAME IT the boy has ancestors from all 3 houses of the edain not to mention a fucking MAIA who don’t even have kids except for HIS great-great-grandma, and then if you look at his brother’s descendents you get literally Every Important Mortal Ever except for like. the rohirrim and by the time you get to eowyn and them they’ve intermarried with the line of elros too djhdjdh

[phosphoenolpyruvat]

In the 1st age Elrond is everybodies nephew.

In the 2nd age he is everybodies cousin.

In the 3rd age everybodies uncle.

[dawnfelagund]

I’ve posted a video/recording of my Tolkien at UVM conference paper “The Most Important Characters Never Named: Unveiling the Narrators of The Silmarillion.” The full text of the paper is available on my website.

Here is the tl;dr:

Although the narrators of The Silmarillion are not as clearly revealed as the narrators of The Hobbit and LotR, they and their points of view were intentionally created by Tolkien. They were not merely names appended to the story; the story clearly reflects their points of view.

There were two of them: Rúmil of Tirion and Pengolodh of Gondolin. They have distinct points of view that are discernible in the text.

Tolkien never realized his intention of revising to a “Mannish” narrator. This required too deep of a change, and while surface changes suggest he considered it, he never began those deep changes.

Pengolodh is discernible as narrator in part because of the biases shown in his sections of the text: a focus on places, characters, and battles that would have been best known to people from Gondolin, Doriath, and Nargothrond.

Tolkien used a formulaic phrase it is said/told/sung that shows which character groups and events are least known to the narrator. Again, these support the idea of an Elven narrator.

Fëanor’s characterization especially demonstrates the difference between the two narrators. Rúmil shows a complex character with loving relationships who was driven by loss and grief to terrible actions. Pengolodh shows him and his sons as driven by greed for the Silmarils and the inertia of the Oath. Rúmil’s sections are written in a livelier, eyewitness style while Pengolodh’s show the distance and uncertainty of one receiving secondhand information.

[mc-dude]

I had a thought last night about how a lot of elves have some kind of associated element to them when Tolkien describes them, like Maedhros/fire, Fingolfin/ice, Ecthelion/water and it got me thinking about first age elves and magic.

Its canon that elves can channel magic through singing (press f for finrod’s epic rap battle), and I was thinking about how an elf probably is able to use magic because of their immortal spirits. Then I was thinking that life-altering events, say, crossing the Helcaraxë, would probably have an effect on one’s immortal spirit, and thus would probably affect one’s magical abilities. Then I thought about how an elf might be able to deeply study and understand something (like ice) to the point where they can determine it’s Song.

That made me think of Fingolfin, leading his people across the ice and being forced to become colder, more brittle, in order to keep his people going and survive. Fingolfin whose sword is described as glittering with ice, whose sword was glittering with ice, a song he sang before battle to enchant his blade. Fingon who could freeze opponents with a chant before shattering them with his sword. Aredhel who would whisper songs to her arrows until the water in the air condensed around them and froze, freezing her opponents blood when they struck.

And of Maedhros, who stood aside during the burning of the ships and stared into the fire until he could hear it’s crackling in his dreams. Who endured the fiery whips of the Balrogs and the white-hot brands of the enemy. Who was reforged in the fires of Angband and came out ruthless and unrelenting. Maedhros calling forth fire on the end of his blade to sear his enemies, whose hatred glowed so hot some would swear they saw his eyes filled with fire while he enemies fled in fear.

Anyways, elves being able to study something so deeply to the point where they understand it’s Song, and then being able to sing of it and use it to their advantage. Love that shit

[mc-dude]

more more elves & magic hc:

the elves that are better musicians have access to GREAT power, to the point of it being scary sometimes. two elves singing or playing in harmony can cause incredible amounts of devastation. an orchestra of elves? watch out man

maglor’s voice and understanding of the Song that binds everyone to the world (the most powerful song, the one that echoes with the notes of the First song) is so strong that he can alter reality slightly, make people see visions or experience emotions they otherwise wouldn’t

ecthelion can command water so stringently that it becomes as sharp as an extra blade, so deep is his knowledge of its Song. if he sings or plays his flute he can determine where water is flowing, or even call rain from the sky.

one time maglor and daeron performed a duet and caused the entire population of doriath to engage in pseudo-drunken revelry for an entire week. it’s an unspoken rule that no one speaks of that week ever again

elves that have a craft need to be able to understand its Song to be labeled as masters. curufin can detect impurities in metal just by hearing the sound it makes when he takes his hammer to it. celegorm is so gifted in the Songs of animals that he can see with their eyes or negotiate control of an animal’s body for a short time.

i have a hc about glorfindel also that he spent a lot of time under the tree of Laurelin in the days before days, and is able to understand its Song to a certain extent. he can channel the power of Laurelin to blind & distract enemies.

[piyo-13]

i think it’s also interesting to consider this in terms of different kinds of elves, cause all the noldor seem very craft-motivated, always building and forging and creating in general, whereas the green elves of ossiriand just live off the land so well and seamlessly they seem to not even exist there, for all the mark they make. so i wonder if–are noldor the only ones who can harness the Song, or the only ones who think to try?

(and then of course–they each learn the Song of their craft, and when as is the case of maglor the craft IS song, you get some extraordinary results)

[gurthang]

lol remember that time when

Maedhros stepped away from the crown and the title of his kingship

And then spent nearly 500 years navigating foreign policy, crafting alliances with men and dwarves, and managing an entire war effort? Not that Fingolfin and Finrod and co. weren’t also working very hard at elf politics, but idk I just love how dedicated Maedhros is to leading his people as well as he can for as long as he can. Before crashing and burning, but yknow, can’t have it all.

He’s just so kingly for a non-king and it kills me.

[moved-to-korrigantsionnach-deac]

I want a story about a king whose son is prophesied to kill him so the king is like “whatever what am I supposed to do, kill my own kid wtf is wrong with you” so he just raises him as normal, doesn’t even tell him about the prophecy, and instead of some convoluted twist of events that leads to the king’s murder the son grows up and when the king is very old and dying and in excruciating pain the kid is just like alright I'mma put him out of his misery.

[femonologue]

The king’s son becomes the new king, and is prophesied to defeat evil and bring an age of prosperity. His generals and knights all crack their knuckles but he pretty much ignores them and focuses on strengthening the infrastructure of his kingdom. Forty years later he is old and sick but still hearing his subjects’ grievances, and a general’s like “how will you defeat the prophesied evil now? You’re old and weak.” Another visitor, a teenager fresh out of the kingdom’s public education system, looks at the general like he is an ignoramus. The king eradicated poverty, housed the homeless, taught the ignorant, ended class exploitation by abolishing the nobility and imprisoning the corrupt, and established a highly respected guild of doctors that recently figured out how to cure the plague. There are no brigands because there is enough wealth for everyone to live comfortably; hiding in the woods and taking trinkets from people simply doesn’t make any sense for anyone but the desperate, and the people are not desperate. Evil is a weed, explains the teenager. It grows in cracked roads and crumbling houses and forgotten corners, rooted in indifference and watered by suffering. But the king demands that broken things be mended and suffering people be made well.

No evil lives in this kingdom, says the teenager. It starved to death before I was born.

[femonologue]

Every once in a while, when I’m feeling down, I go and look at the notes on this post and they make me feel a lot better. This is the energy I want to carry into 2018.

[thestarfishdancer]

For those who need to carry it into 2019.

[katekatharos]

AU where Miriel lives and raises Feanor and Feanor follows in her footsteps and discovers how to spin light into threads instead of capturing it in stones.

(I head canon that embroidery and textiles was one of the few crafts Feanor didn’t attempt to master. He’d blithely trample all over anyone else’s reputations but - and he’d never acknowledge this to himself - he was afraid he would surpass his mother. Miriel the finest needlewoman is too much a corner stone of his identity. Of course in this au Miriel starts him carding wool before he can walk and by his teens they’re in a furious battle for supremacy)

[curufinwefeanaro]

|| So I also have the headcanon that Fëanor never really gave a try to needlework and embroidery, but up to this moment I never actually found a proper reason for this. I mean, it must be obvious that he cannot try every art in the world, there must be at least a couple of things that he cares less about, but being that Míriel’s field… at least a try? But no, I just really thought he never approached it.

Honestly, I entertained the idea that it needs a lot of patience and time, at that might be a reason. But then, jewelcrafting isn’t an art that you master in a day and requires attention to details, concentration, patience as well. So no, that couldn’t be the main reason. I also considered that the weaving of tapestries is, in a way, a repetitive thing that will reward you only when the work is truly finished – but that is true for many things, metalworking included.

Míriel is said to be the creator of the art of embroidery, and the gretest at it ever known, so… yes. This headcanon is accepted forever, because I believe that Fëanor, after “stealing” her will to live and “consuming” her spirit through birth, wouldn’t want to strip her also of her unrivaled accomplishments, of the only thing that hasn’t been turned into a standard of death and keeps her identity whole and respected.

How Old is Everybody Anyway?

Depressing Silmarillion Realisation (could a realisation in this fandom conceivably be anything else?)

Read More

[lintamande]

Trying to work out a timeline for the relative ages of the Finweans is a ridiculous headache, but it’s definitely possible to have large gaps in ages and still have Ambarussa of age by the time of the Darkening. Here are my personal headcanons:

(bolded are taken directly from the Annals of Aman, everything else is completely arbitrary)

1169: Birth of Feanor

1170: Death of Miriel [none of Tolkien’s timelines make any sense if you accept the Shibboleth of Feanor version where Miriel lives until Feanor is fully grown, so this is one case where I prefer Silm canon]*

1185: Marriage of Finwe and Indis

1190: Birth of Findis [in the Annals of Aman this is the birth of Fingolfin, but that appears to be a version of the legendarium where Findis doesn’t exist; otherwise there’s no plausible way to squeeze her in.]

1200: Birth of Fingolfin

1217: Birth of Lalwen [Lots of people seem to have them as twins, but twins are extraordinarily rare among the Eldar and Ambarussa are actually the only not-half-Elven twins we know of. So I imagine her as his beloved little sister.]

1219: Marriage of Feanor and Nerdanel [as soon as he’s of age, because he’s impulsive like that and because the Shibboleth says they wed “while still in early youth”].

1229: Birth of Maedhros

1230: Birth of Finarfin

1250: Feanor invents the tengwar

1252: Birth of Maglor

1255: Marriage of Fingolfin and Anaire

1277: Birth of Celegorm

1279: Birth of Fingon

1280: Marriage of Finarfin and Earwen

1299: Birth of Caranthir

1300: Birth of Turgon and of Finrod

1320: Birth of Angrod

1334: Birth of Curufin

1337: Birth of Aegnor

1351: Marriage of Maglor

1362: Birth of Aredhel and Galadriel

1386: Marriage of Angrod and Eldalote

1399: Birth of Ambarussa

1400: Melkor released

1401: Marriage of Curufin

1410: Birth of Argon, when I believe in him which is not usually.

1425: Marriage of Turgon and Elenwe

1430: Birth of Celebrimbor

1443: Birth of Orodreth

1450: Feanor makes the Silmarils

1470: Birth of Idril

1490: Banishment of Feanor

1495: Darkening of Valinor

We know that Finarfin and Earwen had four children within 62 Years total, and within 82 Years of their marriage, so I think it’s safe to conclude that having children within 15 - 20 Years of each other was perfectly normal.  In my headcanon, the Feanorians average 25 years apart until Ambarussa, who are much younger than Curufin.

But, like I said, this is all just guesswork.

* More about why I reject the version where Miriel lives until Feanor is fully grown: This pushes back the birth of all Finwe’s other children by 50 years at least. And since Fingolfin can’t be younger than Maedhros, it pushes back the birth of Feanor’s children by a similar amount. That means Angrod and Turgon and Curufin were all the Elvish equivalent of teen parents. It also make some of the friendships between cousins highly implausible, since Aredhel would be the human equivalent of a ten-year-old when relationships between Feanor and Fingolfin disintegrated. 

[spicysilmarils]

according to this timeline, which i really like, here are everyone’s ages at the time of the darkening:

feanor: 326

findis: 305

fingolfin: 295

lalwen: 278

maedhros: 266

finarfin: 265

maglor: 243

celegorm: 218

fingon: 220

caranthir: 196

finrod and turgon: 195

angrod: 175

curufin: 161

aegnor: 158

aredhel and galadriel: 133

ambarussa: 96

argon: 85

celebrimbor: 65

orodreth: 52

idril: 25

[vardaelcntari]

I love this. I would have never thought that Finarfin was younger that Maedhros, and Fingolfin was just 29 years his senior, but now, looking at this timeline, I realize it cannot make sense elsewise.

And omgg Idril was really young for an Elf when she crossed Helcaraxë and lost her mother 😥😥

[jjetsam1]

Well, a Valian year was roughly 9.582 solar years according to Tolkien Gateway. Admittedly that’s not sourced anywhere, but it seems plausible.

Anyway, I like it too. Large range in ages.

[hereff]

Fingolfin

[lintamande]

Keep reading

[hereff]

I have not rejected the Valar, nor their authority in all matters where it is just for them to use it. But if the Eldar were given free choice to leave Middle-Earth and go to Aman, and accepted it because of the loveliness and bliss of that land, their free choice to leave it and return to Middle-Earth, when it has becomes dark and desecrated, cannot be taken away. Moreover I have an errand in Middle-Earth, the avenging of the blood of my father upon Morgoth, whom the Valar let loose among us. Fëanor seeks first his hidden treasures.

Fingolfin (Shibboleth of Fëanor)

[lintamande]

More Strong Statute Feels

[purple-rhododendron]

Keep reading

[curufinwefeanaro]

Thoughts on Fëanor as King

Keep reading

[onehandedly]

My thoughts on Lúthien

Lúthien is one of the most well known character of the Silmarillion and her story is probably the most famous of the whole First Age. And, any personal preference aside, Lúthien is an undeniably important character and probably the most actively ‘heroic’ female character in Tolkien’s whole legendarium; yet I often see her cited as an example of gender-equality and/or female empowerment which doesn’t make much sense to me.

Quite the contrary, in fact: I am a bit baffled by people putting Luthien ahead as a symbol of female empowerment or some kind of feminist icon. Because I see her as anything but.

Keep reading

[attenashe-deactivated20190606]

So what do you think would have happened if Fëanor hadn't exactly said "no" to the Valar, but asked for time to think it over, maybe talk with his dad, talk with Aulë, he'll get back to them on that, etc?

Well I guess eventually someone would have noticed that Morgoth had kidnapped Fëanor and replaced him with an oddly easygoing duplicate.

[sumeriasmith]

Isn’t that what _did_ happen in canon, though? He was still thinking about it when news arrived that Morgoth had murdered his father, and stolen the Silmarils, and iirc, that’s when his answer shifted to “hell no”.

[simaethae]

I think it was actually more like, Feanor stopped to think about it for a while and Tulkas made a super tactless comment along the lines of “come on, dude, yes or no, wasn’t it Yavanna who made the light of them in the first place anyway”?

(The whole Darkening and subsequent events are basically just an escalating series of fuckups on absolutely all sides, imo.)

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Oh man, I have feelings about this scene.

First of all, yes, Simaetha is right - we’re told that there was a “long silence, but Fëanor answered no word”. That’s when Tulkas jumps in with his little “hurry up and choose” thing. Fëanor says that destroying the Silmarils will kill him (and I don’t think he’s being melodramatic or hyperbolic here, I think he genuinely believes that). But then he keeps considering it. When he finally refuses to surrender them, we’re told it’s because of Melkor’s lies - he believes that the Valar want to possess the Silmarils. And he says that if they force him to give up the Silmarils, he will know that “Melkor is of their kindred.”

So - can we acknowledge that the Valar completely drop the ball here? Fëanor doesn’t know his father is dead yet, but he and his people are still reeling from the Darkening. They’re terrified and confused and grieving, and the Valar don’t seem very outwardly sympathetic to that, or even to be acknowledging those feelings at all. And then, all of a sudden, they’re demanding that Fëanor destroy his greatest creation, the greatest thing ever made by any Elf, without any warning at all. Couple that with the fact that Fëanor can’t be feeling too trustful of the Valar at this point, knowing that they indirectly allowed the Darkening to happen by releasing Melkor and not exerting enough control over him, and the fact that they’ve certainly acted very possessive of the Silmarils in the past (because I will never believe that Fëanor would consent to the hallowing of the Silmarils) - well, it’s really no wonder that Fëanor believes Melkor’s lies. (Because Melkor doesn’t really outright lie - he twists and distorts things that are already true.)

So, essentially, with all those factors in play, Fëanor feels very backed into a corner here. He doesn’t feel as though anyone truly has his best interests at heart, or sees his feelings as valid. He feels that he’s being treated like a tool, an object (which is how he’s been seen all his life). And yet. Despite all of this, he still considers giving up the Silmarils, and possibly his life as well. 

Would he have, if Tulkas hadn’t jumped in and solidified all of Fëanor’s ill feelings about the Valar? I honestly don’t know. It’s quite probable, given all the factors at play here, that he wouldn’t have. I think Fëanor might be willing to sacrifice himself for the benefit of society, but I think that it would have to be a model of society that existed apart from the Valar. After an event like the Darkening, I don’t think he would want things to go back to the way they were before, without any acknowledgement of what happened. (I think he felt this way about his mother’s death, too - he resented the fact that is was barely acknowledged, that everyone wanted to smooth it over, to pretend it hadn’t happened, in the name of maintaining the peace of Valinor.) But the fact that he considers it at all suggests to me that him waiting to do so wouldn’t be remotely out of character.

[onehandedly]

Absolutely!

Besides the Valar would be asking for his death after having asked that his mother might never leave Mandos again and after having exiled him.

Why should he sacrifice his life and his life’s work for a society that has already asked that much from his family, from him, that is willing to use his works but ready to leave him aside?

Is it ethical to ask that sacrifice of someone when there are other feasible options that might bring about a different if “slightly less perfect” world? Because there are ways to have light again, clearly not the same glorious one, but light enough nonetheless. Were the destruction of the Silmarilli indispensable for saving lives, like penicillin, I would be more conflicted, but that does not seem to be the case, what it seems to be about is, rather, restoring the whole glory of the Blessed realms.

The mere fact Fëanor is thinking about it is a marvel and shows he is not unreasonable or unfeeling. He loved the glory of the trees, the Silmarilli are also a celebration of that, so it is more than reasonable to think him far from deaf to the Valar’s request, despite whatever misgiving he might harbour. Hardly the actions od an unreasonable man. An angry one? A prideful one? Sure, but not unreasonable.

Let’s remember how they are asking for his death and the destruction of a masterpiece not even they could accomplish (despite their powers), to restore a model of ‘perfect’ society that has already let him down times and again. I do not see anything unreasonable in refusing such a request.

[dwimmerlaiks]

About the Feanorians running around shirtless a lot, is there a part I missed in the Silm that had Maglor running around without a shirt or is that one of those things we assume that he did because he was too lazy to put something on when inspiration struck in the middle of the night?

”[…] and it is told of Maglor the Mighty, that he would often wear the same shirt for almost a week; or, in the manner of the third son of Fëanor, wear none at all save for the light of laurelin reflecting off his bare skin[…]”

- from HoMe 14 - “The Lays of Fanfic”; Part II: Of Badfic (Ch. V: The Tale of Why I Don’t Write)

[hweanaro]

I’m fucking crying

[ultraviolet-eucatastrophe]

“Often they were guests in the halls of Aulë, but Celegorm went rather to the house of Oromë, and there he got great knowledge of birds and beasts, drunken orgies in the forest, and how to look hella in nothing but body paint.”

-HoME 14 - “The Lays of Fanfic” Part II: Of Badfic (Ch. III: Of the Relative Nudity of the Elves)

[gwenniel]

“But Caranthir, who loved not unnecessary nudity, and was the harshest of the brothers and the most quick to anger, cried aloud: ‘Yea more! Let not my brothers run hither and thither showing off their pale complexion merely in order to mock those of us who have inherited their mother’s complexion.’”

-HoME 14 - “The Lays of Fanfic” Part II: Of Badfic (Ch. IV: Laws and Indecent Customs Among the Eldar)

[nihthelm]

Let’s talk about Caranthir saving the Haladin for a moment, shall we?  

There seems to be some question as to why Caranthir’s armies showed up so very late in the battle, when the Haladin had begun to lose hope to such a degree that some of them drowned themselves in the river.

So let’s take a good look at the facts, shall we? 

“Therefore the Noldor held strength of cavalry in the plains at that place; and the people of Caranthir fortified the mountains to the east of Maglor’s Gap. There Mount Rerir, and about it many lesser heights, stood out from the main range of the Ered Lindon westward; and in the angle between Rerir and Ered Lindon there was a lake, shadowed by mountains on all sides save the south. That was Lake Helevorn, deep and dark, and beside it Caranthir had his abode;” (emphasis mine)

Okay, so, we know exactly where Caranthir lived. He had fortifications on and around Mount Rerir, and personally lived beside Lake Helevorn, in the far north east of his lands.

Keep reading

[nihthelm]

there’s that one joke post which goes around sometimes about how the etymology of the name “Noldor” specifies that it means “the Wise” but “wise in the sense of possessing knowledge, not in the sense of possessing sagacity, sound judgment” and laughing about how they felt the need to specify this because har har the Noldor fucked up, son. like okay i get the joke, har har har, the Noldor made Bad Decisions, har de har har, but honestly i feel like it’s such a fundamental misunderstanding and misrepresentation, doing them no justice as a people. 

because what it means is that the Noldor aren’t philosophers in the sense that word is used today – those who think about the meaning of life, pondering questions of morality and ethics and Truth with the capital T.  wisdom. sagacity.

what they are…. is scientists. empirical scientists. seekers of knowledge. of information. of fact. how the world works. why. reproducible results. they were Loremasters but their Lore was not folklore, not fairy tale. it was science. the Noldor are called the Wise not because they are sages, but because they are scientists.

[ten-ambar-metta]

Let’s talk about Fëanor’s studies under Aulë and Mahtan. He starts when he’s incredibly young - still emotionally pre-adolescent, in some versions of the timeline. While we’re told that he dabbles in every conceivable subject, this is the one thing that he doesn’t stop working on, that he determinedly continues achieving at until he’s the best in the world. 

Maybe it’s entirely the love of the forge that inspires that level of dedication and focus from someone who’s far too young, and who has a wide variety of interests. 

But it reads to me as if he’s looking for father figures. 

Which isn’t to say he doesn’t love his own father - he does - or even that their relationship was in shambles (though I think it was rocky). But an apprenticeship is supposed to be like a parenting relationship in a lot of ways. I think he felt more at home with Nerdanel’s family than he ever did with his own. I think that’s why he throws himself obsessively into being the best, because he lost his own father to not being good enough but he’ll be good enough for the surrogate family he’s building for himself. 

And I think Nerdanel’s eventual departure, choosing her father’s family and beliefs over him, would have been crushing for more than just the loss of her. I think Feanor felt as if the side of the family he could count on, the side of the family that had chosen him and had never implied that his existence was part of the Marring had rejected him. 

And that they’d done it at Aule’s urging, and on the basis of Aule’s “foresight" - foresight which wasn’t good enough to detect Melkor’s treachery, foresight Feanor has no real reason to trust. 

And damnit, now I’m mad at everyone. Again.