Every time Sean Astin makes a statement on whether or not Sam and Frodo were indeed gay for each other in lord of the rings he’s always like “well we have to acknowledge that attitudes around sexuality have changed dramatically over the past several decades and since authorial intent is only up to speculation, the story is open to multiple readings, some of which might have different significances for different groups of people also they kiss on the lips because I said so”
Rosie: "This is my husband Sam, and that's his husband, Frodo. Frodo is my husband-in-law. I'm not into him, he's he's a bit too 'elfy' for my taste, but Sam likes him, and that's fine with me. As far as I know, Frodo can't give Sam children, but Frodo looks after ours all the same, so I don't mind sharing Sam if it means another pair of eyes on the wee ones. In all honesty, our family tree is right simple compared to some hobbits. Yes, I'm referrin' to you Lobelia, over there pretendin' you ain't eavesdroppin'. Still bitter you ain't got either of my boys or their house, eh?"
Tbh it's canon that Frodo invited Sam and Rosie to move in to Bag End after their wedding and they all lived there for a couple of years until Frodo went to Valinor, so yeah. Running with it.
And once Rosie dies, Sam says his goodbyes and disappears after him.
what’s funny is people assuming that rosie would somehow be too dim or naive to KNOW that sam loved frodo, instead of looking at a guy who would loyally follow a beloved friend to hell and then help carry him home again, and not be like ‘oh i can’t not fuck that.’
Polyamory, specifically polyandry, would be an interesting solution to the oddball population of the Shire.
The Shire is excellent farming country, with consistently good weather, and only one tough winter in living memory; hobbits like to produce large families; they’re resistant to disease, rarely violent, and encounter few dangers. It is usual for hobbits to produce many children, so that (for example) Bilbo and Frodo are unusual in both being only children, with no siblings, and not having children of their own. All of this should point to a population that increases every generation if not doubling outright. Young people (and their ideologies!) should rapidly outnumber the old with an ever-increasing effect and impact on society. However, the Shire has a surprisingly stable history; it never seems to increase or decrease greatly in population, and the bell curve of age seems… demographically balanced? There certainly isn’t a conflict from rising young bloods challenging the middle-aged reactionaries; there’s no unemployment; there are no housing crises or waves of emigration, or even a tendency for young people leaving home to marry. Meanwhile, not only does the Shire not suffer from internal pressures, but it remains obscure and hardly noticed in global politics.
What makes sense here is that adult hobbits form a loose group. Four parents in a polycule, between them all, may produce four children. All four parents claim to have four children. An outsider would assume this meant the adults had eight children.
Hobbits therefore are not especially fertile or fecund. They simply have large families. Much of their interest in genealogy is due to the complex relationships of blood-kin, hearth-kin, love-kin and pledge-kin, who must all be carefully tracked and measured - not just because you need to make sure that you don’t climb into bed with an un-permitted degree of blood-kin, but to track family alliances and carefully quantify the precise level of thoughtfulness to put into the proper present to gift your father’s lover’s lover (too much implies a degree of intimacy that might upset the polycule.)
Thus, while a hobbit matron may tell a startled dwarf that she has seven sons, she might only have borne five of them herself, and have one hearth-son by her wife, and a pledge-son of her first husband’s. There are between three and four fathers involved at various stages of production, from conception to pledge-duty, but there is debate about the precise number of fathers, as one child was festival-conceived and therefore provisionally pledged to the Brandybucks until more distinctive paternal traits should materialise. It’s expected that four of the sons will be uninterested in women, and their contribution to family life will be in raising hearth-children and pledge-duty. However, this level of detail is normally negotiated later in conversation, as a mutual overture of friendship. So she’s just clear and simple: yes, certainly, she has seven sons. Yes, they’re all hers. Yes, that’s fairly normal - yes, hobbits like big families. How big? That’s really hard to say! Well, about thirteen hobbits live in her house… er, she has forty-three nieces and nephews. Yes! She has nine siblings, that’s correct, but some of them are still babies themselves..
In this way, a bewildered dwarf might assume that hobbits are absurdly fertile, producing an average of seven children per couple, at an absurd pace.
When in fact, with about half of hobbits never bearing biological children, the population of hobbits is pretty much always the same.
Tl:dr, hobbit population works perfectly well, both internally and in the perceptions of outsiders, if the majority of the Shire is gay, they’re all polyamorous, and they all firmly claim to be parents of high numbers of children. Of course Frodo fathered Sam’s kids - he named them! They were pledge-kin but not hearth-kin, as Frodo needed a lot of quiet and stability in the home.
No outsider ever parses hobbit genealogy well enough to understand this except for Gandalf, who never explains anything either.
Okay, reblogged this too quickly out of enthusiasm.
This makes so much sense in the worldbuilding, actually???
Like, consider: Elves don't understand hobbit families, but hobbits are also baffled by elf families. You have exactly one partner ever? And it's considered wildly inappropriate to take another even if that partner straight up dies? And they only raise their own children, usually three maximum? Most hobbits would be convinced that elves were cold, unfeeling and anti-social.
Bilbo is percieved as oddly elf-ish when he comes back from his adventure at least in part because he only takes on one hearth-child, and even then quite late in his life. Like sure dude, you don't have to have romantic or sexual partners but no children????? Very strange. Here. Take a Frodo. Maybe he'll fix whatever is wrong with your brain.
And this also explains why hobbits get on better with Elrond than most other elves. Because Elrond has a weird af family by elf standards and takes in foster children all the time. He seems much warmer by comparison. Basically, when Bilbo comes to stay at the Last Homely House and he's doing his writing Elrond would be thrown by how comfortable Bilbo is with his family.
Elrond: My apologies, I know this must be quite confusing for you.
Bilbo: No no I understand perfectly. You have two blood-parents (Elwing and Earendil), two hearth-parents (Maglor and Maedhros), one blood-brother (Elros), and one pledge-brother (Gil-galad). Certainly a bit unconventional due to the kinslaying and all, and a bit on the small side, but other than that...
Elrond, who has never in his life had his family called 'small': ...
Pledge - legal documentation on some sort of “vow,” of familial connection, like a legal marriage or adoption or birth certificate, and maybe also something like a fealty/apprenticeship in some cultures?
Love - you love them so they are kin on an emotional level, regardless of biology, where they live, or legal documentation.
I really like this a lot & it makes a lot of sense. I wonder how the whole “cabbage patch hobbits” reproduction would affect this! Like, that way, you can’t even rely on matrilineal genealogy, because biological parentage is nonbinary & sexless - any two, or maybe even fewer or greater numbers of bio parents could be involved in procreation.
I think any cabbage-patch shenanigans would come under “blood.” Thus leading dismayed outsiders to ask: why do plants count as blood????? Why are plants blood!!!!!!!
ahhhh not mxtx related but i just finished reading the last taiki-related twelve kingdoms book and i'm so sad the fandom isn't bigger ;_;
SO. svsss people! if you're in an exploratory mood, this series is japanese but based on chinese historical aesthetics, girl/boy gets pulled to another world and it turns out they're the emperor/emperor's really important magical unicorn, respectively. (not to each other.)
i read these originally in the tokyopop translation back in the early 2000s (also when the anime was made) but seven seas is licensing a new translation, so clearly they think it'll appeal to you guys! a bunch of them are already available.
there's no romance whatsoever, a lot of it is political drama or fighting, but the characters are amazing, the ties between emperor and kirin (the unicorns) are sooo interesting, etc. (i am someone who does not enjoy reading about politics and fighting, and i still cannot put these books down. i love them.) immortal kings (gender-neutral) and their sexy, sexy assistants who can transform into flying horses. it's great.
ALSO. if you don't want to purchase. a particularly dedicated fan (RIP eugene) completed translations of all the books over a decade or more, and you can read them all here/on the site he links.
reading order: i think they're all great and would just start from #1. if you have trouble with the politics, names, etc. you can watch the anime first so that you have their faces in your mind! The OG book 1 (SS 1+2, youko + keiki) and its section of the series focus on female mcs, and the anime starts there.
but if you're coming from danmei, i can imagine that you might want to start with the male/male sets, so SS book four (enki + shoryuu, originally book 3) or the whole taiki + gyousou saga (SS book 3, OG 2). enki + shoryuu first appear in youko's story, and everything is connected but i think the different stories are designed to be able to be read standalone, so.
pithy summaries: taiki (black hair, below) is a twink who falls for (/chooses as his emperor) a hot white-haired army general. there is no way they don't have a weird codependent relationship in the later books. enki (blonde hair) similarly falls for a jaded young samurai lord and now they're both 500 years old and stuck ruling together. (one of the books is about a courtier rebelling against the emperor and i really want them to fuck.) (the emperor spends his time at brothels drinking and listening to music. he's like if shen jiu wasn't totally insane). youko (red hair) gets chosen as empress by a tall blond himbo who might be thought of as a lan wangji w/o his wwx. her best friend is a twink who turns into a rat and then she falls in with an ex-princess and a peasant. the closest this series gets to romance is youko x the rat. it's amazing.
this concludes me plugging 12k....please watch/read!!!
i wrote this post directed at mxtx people, but i also think silm people might enjoy this series. given that it has been described as "japanese lotr" lol.
it is not at ALL like lotr in plot/worldbuilding, etc, - but what i think does strike true is the author's seriousness and respect for the world and characters she's built. it is DEEP.
there is no pregnancy because children grow on trees and that enormously affects the worldbuilding and yet is never overtly examined in the story. everybody is either aroace or fucking all the time and we just don't know because there's no mention of relationships ever. i fully believe author has HOME-equivalent books full of charts of characters that will never ever be mentioned. books manage to tie together previously-built stories with entirely new standalone kingdoms with fullly fleshed-out governments. some random thing mentioned in passing in book 1 turns out to get a full backstory in book 7. etc.
these books seem to center on emperor + kirin pairs and yet SO MUCH of each book is incredible stories of side characters off doing their own thing and it matters to the plot. the little people, the small efforts, matter.
i also think the anime respected the intent of the original. ex., the #1 main character is a teenage girl who doesn't have a single thought about boys, and a lot of the important characters in the books are female and fully fleshed out, etc. the anime made the weird choice of adding in two characters--her high school friends (m+f) that get sucked into this alternate world with her. i am recalling that there was definitely some annoying romance stuff, girl v girl thoughts, but ultimately that disappeared and the two girls grew soooo much as characters and were pitted against each other not because of boys but because of survival and ambition. (anyway. i prefer the books there for various reasons, but i think the anime is still impressive in terms of its treatment of female characters. that said, i haven't watched it in ???15 years??? so.)
anyway i think silm people should give 12 kingdoms a try :)
Biomechanical elves, feat. Maglor and Galadriel! Because you don’t live for ~5000 years on one hröa without needing some maintenance.
Additional thoughts below the cut!
Okay, here’s the logic:
1.) Elves live forever unless killed
2.) Elves cannot grow back limbs like starfish (c.f. maedhros)
3.) Elves, due to their preternatural endurance, are very likely to survive having limbs hacked off (c.f. maedhros again)
4.) Elves, especially in the First and Second Ages, spend a lot of time trying to stab each other and/or fighting things that want to rip them to shreds (orcs, werewolves, etc.)
Rinse and repeat long enough, and by the Third Age, most older elves would have several serious permanent injuries. Conveniently, elves also have a cultural predilection for a.) the healing arts and b.) magic smithery, which gives us an excellent fast-track to automail-type fantasy prostheses.
I drew Maglor and Galadriel, who have decent odds of rocking the most metal-per-hröa by the time of LotR.
Maglor has a vocal prosthesis (maybe for smoke inhalation during the War of Wrath, specially calibrated for singing-laments-upon-the-shore purposes); a cranial implant/helm (I like to think Elwing chucked something heavy at him); a gauntlet (to restore fine motor control to his Silmaril-chucking and harp-playing hand), and a prosthetic leg.
Galadriel has several implants and a prosthetic arm. The crown-with-circuitry is a helm designed to offset migraines (a common side effect of peering into things that are, once were, and have not yet come to pass.) It was made for her by Celeborn, who is her husband AND her mechanic, and is also why he gave her the nickname Galadriel.
For obvious reasons, prostheses are wayyyy more common in Middle Earth than Valinor! There are some prosthetic and mobility aid craftspeople in Aman who make tools for elves who were injured on the Great Journey back in the Years of the Trees (or born with conditions that necessitated it!) However, I think the technology probably advanced a whole lot faster in the East, so skilled mechanics arriving in Valinor would be warmly welcomed. I drew the prostheses with exposed metal for the Aesthetics, but I do think elves would develop some kind of grippy skin-like surface for functionality.
“She walks in starlight in another world…”
Once, Kíli murmured these words to Tauriel as he lay dying. She saved him then, but she couldn’t save him when he met his end upon Ravenhill. Now, centuries later, Tauriel has accepted her loss and returned to Valinor—but when her old friend Legolas arrives with a dwarf at his side, old griefs reawaken and she determines to make her own happy ending. Only this time, it is Kíli who is in another world, and she must enter into the Halls of the Dead to find him.
for @weekofkiliel Day 7: Afterlife, I finally finished my long-awaited sequel to All Things Turn!! this is a Silm-infused version of Tauriel, but this fic is all about her and Kili (and Legolas and Gimli, of course).
thanks always to the fabulous @welcometolotr for making this whole AU possible <333
Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💗
My top five favorite fics I've written, in no particular order:
the Heirlooms series - exploring some of the various objects of Middle-earth and attempting to reconcile their various (often incompatible) histories! currently featuring stories about the Elessar, the mithril coat, and the Dwarven Rings; I'm chipping away at a WIP on the blades of Gondolin next :)
"Treasures Most Precious" (Maedhros/Fingon, 13k) - I'm unreasonably proud of the worldbuilding in this fic, and the Fingolfin/Hador subplot is still one of my favorites. I said this list was in no particular order, but if I had ordered it, this might be my #1 personal favorite!
All Things Turn (Tauriel Russingoniel, 52k) - a beast of a story inspired by @welcometolotr's fabulous art concept!!! I'm currently revisting this 'verse for a fic I'm desperately hoping will be complete in time for @weekofkiliel <3
"and caverns old" (Kidnap Fam, 1.7k) - a short fic I wrote for @jaz-the-bard which turned out to have some very fun worldbuilding and delicious character dynamics! I'm quite proud of this one.
kings and things to take by storm (Fëanor/Fingolfin, WIP) - I've been sitting on this one for so long and it has some really great moments that I'm very excited to share!! next update is this Friday :)
some honorable mentions: the Russingon Fake Dating AU; Beneath the Stars (my first real longfic about post-canon Tauriel), "a most faithful vassal" (Russingon fealty kink smut), father of dragons (another Russingon collab with @welcometolotr as part of their First Oath AU); & You with the Stars in Your Eyes (t4t Kiliel Cinderella AU, one of my very first forays into writing trans characters!)
also, my two favorite non-Tolkien fics: "and Love" (The Adventure Zone; arospec Magnus through the ages) & "A Witch's Gift" (Les Mis; post-canon witch!Musichetta) <3
I tag: @welcometolotr @jaz-the-bard @bad-writer @last-capy-hupping and @oopsbirdficced !!! and if anyone else wants to join in pls go ahead & tag me so I can check out your favs ^-^
back when I made my masked ainur post for Tolkien Fashion Week, I was also playing around with some gandalf designs. I couldn’t settle on one I liked so I dropped them … but in retrospect, I think I like both haha
Nerdanel has white ribbons as her craft is sculpting and stonecarving - I am slowly figuring out my craft = ribbons system - but she only wears them in formal settings, such as when she meets Fëanor in court before they married.
Fëanor is wearing black and white, both expensive colours and stars, while I don´t think the eight pointed star had become his symbol yet, I still think he used it, as it is a very common shape for a star.
Prints | Commissions | Support me on Ko-Fi; early access drawings + WIP + commission discounts
Glorfindel's first visitor (excerpt from Imposter Syndrome part II)
For Back to Middle-earth Month 2026, Day 17. Once again, I didn't finish this fic in time to post it all, but here is an excerpt from the second part of my "Elenwe-is-Glorfindel (sort of)" series!
Today's prompts were from the 2017 gameboard's Red Path: Create a fanwork for someone (Act of Kindness - this series is for @welcometolotr <3), Meteor/Shooting Star, A New Age Begins, Foresight, and “I will not say the Day is done, / nor bid the Stars farewell.” Most of those concepts don't appear in this snippet, but they all will once I'm done with the full work.
Here is the introductory section of Part II! I hope the rest will be ready to share soon.
~~~
The golden-haired elf known as Glorfindel emerged from the Halls of Mandos into Valinor, staring up at the blue, blue sky. It had been a very long time since Glorfindel had seen the sky. The elf stared up into the blue, watching the clouds in awe, soaking in the rays of the Sun. It felt very good, that warmth.
(It had been very cold were the elf called Glorfindel had died.)
Waiting for Glorfindel is the one elf most anxious to be reunited with his golden-haired companion: Turgon of Gondolin; Turukáno Ñolofinwion!
“Aiya! Laurefindil!” he cried, and rushed to embrace his friend. “Oh, I have missed you!”
Glorfindel laughed, and embraced Turukáno. “I have missed you, too, Turno,” he said fondly—but the time for reunion was brief.
Half a heartbeat into the hug, Turukáno turned away, and began to speak. Glorfindel listened first in surprise, then interest, then dawning horror—for he had never heard his King rant like this, not even in the darkest throes of his grief at Elenwë’s loss!
“Glorfindel of the Golden Flower,” he said in one great breath, “you will not believe what has happened to Elenwë...”
“I thought she returned long ago!” Glorfindel cried, and Turukáno grimaced.
“She has, but I returned not long before you, and—well—she left to Middle-earth, again!”
“What?!” Glorfindel could not believe his ears. Soon Turukáno was spinning out the whole story, and he could hardly keep his head on straight, but—
“Turukáno, Turno, slow down,” he insisted. “I’m so sorry you’re separated again, but—what does this have to do with me?”
“I’ll tell you what!” Turukáno all but shouted. “She’s gone to find our great-grandson, Elrond, but somehow, for some reason, everyone thinks she’s you!”
I love how Gondor is compared to Ancient Egypt by Tolkien, it makes me wonder about its animals. I love the idea of the Anduin having crocodiles and hippos, all the more so if the Gondorians value them, not as gods but maybe as animals sacred to Araw.
Contemplating Gondorian hippos as a) the Gondorian sequel to the bears doing interpretive dance on Númenor and b) sometimes encompassed when they talk about "horses."
Iconography of Araw/Oromë on his noble steed (a hippo) accompanied by distinctly crocodilian Maiar. Gondorian Dúnedain with the ancient gifts summoning horse friends at need (sometimes horses, sometimes hippos and terrifying). Early culture clashes with the Northmen involving some tragic miscommunications...
gamechangershow
romaincrisis
gummygunk
prguitarman
turnnoffyourmind
ellievsbear
