novemberthecatadmirer

[novemberthecatadmirer]

OP made the post unrebloggable but said it's fine to screenshot and I'm in love with this

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Perhaps he steals away Mannish children to raise as his own, scions of his dead house.

I see what you are doing it’s a habit now is it Maglor

(Still believe Daeron and Maglor collaborated to steal the children of Hamelin

All this Maglor talk makes me think about what he was up to post First Age. Do you think he was a Third Age ghost story, like elves tell their children, don't wander too far from home or you'll be stolen away by the Maglor! Or elves traveling alone in the forest coming upon a lone elf and always in the back of their minds thinking, shit, what if that's him?

“Listen!” cried the bard. “Listen, good folk and I shall tell a tale such as never you have heard before.” 

The taproom of the Prancing Pony stilled and quieted, which said much for the skill of his voice, or of the mannish want for new stories.

“The Dark Lord is thrown down and a king crowned in the West!” the bard went on, leaping up onto a table and drawing out his harp. “But Sauron - yes! I shall speak his name! - is not the first nor the greatest foe of the free peoples, and there are kings that sit e’en now in a West more distant than Gondor. A flagon of ale and a warm bed for the night, and I shall tell you of the fall of Morgoth, and the fall, too, of the great Elvenkings of old. I shall sing to you the Noldolantë, as was first sung by Maglor Fëanorion, the greatest bard to ever walk this earth.”

Barliman Butterbur looked around at the crowded taproom and the folk squeezing in from the stables as the news spread and decided he knew a good deal when he heard it. He filled the requested flagon and handed it up. 

The bard drained it in one long gulp, wiped his mouth upon his sleeve and struck another cord. “There was a man - a prince! The greatest of all princes! - and he had seven sons-”

It was a long story, but a good one. Barliman liked the clever maiden in the vampire fell even if he couldn’t quite keep up with all the Fins - what kind of names were those, he asked you? - and much of it was sadder than he liked. But it kept the patrons in and kept them drinking, which was more than enough to recommend it to him. 

The young bard told the story well, slipping into the characters like they were well-worn boots and a favourite jacket. He was a handsome fellow, bright-eyed with hair as raven-dark as the plumes in his fine hat, and the flames licking in the hearth threw shadows across his features that made him seem now fair and merry, now old and fell as a grizzled wolf in keeping with the characters in his tale. 

When he was done with his story, had accepted another flagon of ale and refused, despite much pleading, to do an encore, the room started to empty out, the patrons wending their way home or upstairs to their beds. 

“Here now, though,” said Barliman, pausing with his hands full of empty jugs and greasy plates. “What about that last fellow? You never said what happened to the second son.” He was an innkeep after all and every innkeep has a sense for when he’s been cheated.

“Faded from grief,” said the bard, wearily for it had been a long performance. “Or drowned with Beleriand. Returned to the West when the weight of his sins grew too great for even his proud shoulders to bear up under. Or perhaps,” - he leant in closer and Barliman was not sure why he’d thought this old man young. “Perhaps he lingers still upon these shores. Haunting the woods, and singing sad songs beside forgotten pools. Perhaps he steals away Mannish children to raise as his own, scions of his dead house.”

“Not around here, I shouldn’t think,” Barliman huffed indignantly. “That may have gone over in that drowned country but we have a proper king now and he wouldn’t hold with stolen children.”

The bard laughed merrily. “Of course, of course. The poor fellow’s surely dead, but I’ve long found a neat ending, all tied up in a bow, makes for a poorer story. A more forgettable one, certainly, and I would not have poor Maglor fade from history altogether. Now if you’ll excuse me, I am for my bed.” His hard heeled boots rang on the stairs as he picked his way up them. 

His words rang on in Barliman’s mind a good while longer. After the tables were wiped down and Barliman was in his nightshirt blowing out the candle, he thought about that wanderer, weeping upon the cold sand of a distant shore.

All innkeeps have a sense for when they’ve been cheated and a new thought tickled at the back of Barliman’s mind. 

But the bed was soft, the hour was late and Barliman never had had much luck in recognising kings. 

[novemberthecatadmirer]

The One Ring as a human. Highly desirable, powerful and dangerous.

#asking important question: is that giant eye fuckable #where does the ring verse appear when you toss it into fire

[novemberthecatadmirer]

TIL that the reason lead levels in children’s blood have dropped 85% in the past thirty years is because of an unknown scientist who fought car companies to end leaded gasoline. He also removed it from paint, suggested its removal from pipes, and campaigned for the removal of lead solder from cans.

via ift.tt

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Curufin/Aredhel stans rise up

#curufin gave birth to celebrimbor and feanor never figured out who was the other parent

[novemberthecatadmirer]

I still think Vanyar had very colorful fashion with many styles instead of “white & gold flowy robes” (they might had that too but that style really feels like a Tirion Noldor thing (combined with a lot of shiny jewelry)

A lot of them lived everywhere away from city, probably in different climates and landscapes. I think they utilized local plants and dyes and developed many different types of garments unique to each habitat. A lot of their clothing were likely very functional. (Also, creative mending!

#silmarillion #tolkien #the silmarillion #silm #silmarillion headcanon #silm headcanon #vanyar

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Maybe instead of the twins being unwilling to see Earendil during War of Wrath it was Earendil being afraid to see them

Earendil was the one canonly (Silmarillion version) mentioned to be in despair and the one decided “well my children probably are both dead so it’s better to try my luck on this last suicide quest to help my people instead of returning to see if they were alive.” Not Elwing!

It was probably a good decision, but the text says he made it out of despair instead of a rational mind.

Now imagine him went to War of Wrath and found his children were both alive and he did indeed abandoned them???

(Also with the fact that he was likely absent during their childhood before, and was just not there when Feanorian destroyed the city.)

I just think he felt a lot of guilt and believed that his children hated him now and no longer wanted to see him.

I can just imagine him facing Ancalagon and thought “if I win this battle or die trying I can finally redeem myself to beg for forgiveness from my sons.”

But it’s not about his children not forgive him; it’s about him unable to forgive himself.

(I also think he knew he likely cannot give Feanorians Silmaril to trade his sons even if he returned at the time. Whole city was destroyed for the gem and canonly it was the collective decision of both Elwing AND the people of Sirion to refuse Feanorian’s request. Cannot see him handing over the gem to save his own sons after all the slaughter. That’s like a huge disrespect to everyone who was murdered. Knowing this probably only made him feel worse.)

—————

Anyway it would just be funny to imagine depressed dad Earendil stalking his children and watching them with a telescope (half-elves probably do not have eyesight as good as elves). M & M were very unnerved by the new star with Silmaril following them everywhere.

Meanwhile Elwing was training her military of bird spies (“if anyone try to harm my babies gouge their eyes out, and remember to shit over tall redhead with only one hand”

#the silmarillion #tolkien #silmarillion #silm #silmarillion headcanon #silm headcanon #earendil #elwing

[novemberthecatadmirer]

So my argument about Elwing is, her decision in the end was COMPLETELY LOGICAL

Because what did Celegorm’s followers do to Elurin & Elured?

They did not kill them.

They did not kill them; they got their hands clean from children’s blood by abandoning them into a forest and leave them to die of starvation or cold or evil creatures. Or worse, they might be picked up by Morgoth’s servants and suffer fate worse than death.

Elwing had completely NO reasons to trust M & M would not do anything similar when they said they would let the twins live if she gave them the gem.

—————

Another really interesting thing I realized rereading Silmarillion is that the Silmarillion version did not mention Elwing was threatened with her twins. It does heavily imply that she knew they were captured. But how she knew and whether she was asked to buy their lives with Silmaril is unknown.

And she did the right thing actually when she got turned to bird; she took Silmaril away from Beleriand. If she took the gem to Cirdan or Gil-Galad there was this chance that M&M would just attack them again.

It was actually Earendil who decided to not turn back. The text basically said he “saw now no hope left in the lands of Middle-earth” and “turned again in despair and came not home.”

It’s very interesting that not just Elwing was in despair drove to suicide previously, Earendil was in despair too.

I am just thinking Earendil was probably really in a very bad place mentally all his way to Valinor.

I think he did not even care about whether he got to live or not, and did not mind if he got killed as long as he got Valar to help. There was also a whole case of survivor’s guilt about him not being there when Sirion was attacked, and his decision to not turn back.

I really wonder if his “weary of the world” was heavy ptsd and depression…

And while Earendil was looking for Sirion, Elwing was not doing nothing in canon!

Somehow she wandered by the shore line and somehow went near to Alqualonde and somehow “befriended the Teleri”? And started telling them everything about “Doriath and Gondolin and the griefs of Beleriand.”

That’s a lot of coincidence out there that it almost appear intentional? There was no way Elwing did not learn where Alqualonde was from the Noldor. It almost looked like she was actively seeking the Teleri.

Like, Earendil was on this might-be-suicide mission to look for Valar to beg for help… and Elwing who was ordered to stay behind quickly started to make connection with local population and start actively telling them about all the sufferings of the lost family they abandoned oversea, the not-evil section of Noldor, and their old homeland?

I just wonder if Elwing, the one who actually did the political side of things in Sirion instead of her sailing-obsessed husband, has some backup plans going on here.

Like, if the Valar decided to murder Earendil, she’ll attempt to lead some mass protests to help her husband and have Teleri at least doing a Beleriand evacuation with their ships…

I really think Elwing was less depressed at this moment than Earendil… She still was able to chose life for both of them when Earendil kind of wished eternal rest.

#silmarillion #tolkien #the silmarillion #silm #silmarillion headcanon #silm headcanon #silm meta #silmarillion meta #elwing #earendil #sons of feanor #third kinslaying

[novemberthecatadmirer]

There should be more lovers-to-enemies Aredhel/Celegorm in which Celegorm is absolutely not Aredhel’s “right choice”

Fiction in which love was not enough to stop Celegorm from doing evil shit because it was never lack of girlfriend that made him decide to do evil shit; he got that villain arc because he chose to

I just want to see them trying to murder each other in Third Kinslaying?

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Stupid headcanon time

I am just thinking, would Feanor reject the Call of Mandos? How many of his sons would reject the Call?

If Amrod was burnt he probably would follow the Call because in that version he was already showing regrets and planning to go back to Valinor and being accidentally burnt to death by one's father and brother (Curufin in that version) does feel like the type of thing to make one want to run away far away immediately

Feanor? He was mad at Morgoth AND the Valar. Definitely the type to haunt and follow his sons around. I think he actually has a very good chance to have his fea captured, probably along with Maedhros. If not, he'll just get to witness his sons suffer and die one by one.

Celegorm? I think he never intended to return since the very beginning when he left Orome. I always headcanon him as the one completely abandoned the idea that they could be heroes after kinslaying and fully embraced "we're villains now gotta live fast do crime". He was the one who convinced the rest to start Second Kinslaying after all.

Curufin feels like the type that's too pride to answer the Call; I think elves do need a certain amount of remorse to be willing to go the the Halls

Caranthir might answer, or not. He would likely try to think rationally and consider the pros and cons, but it's hard to tell which option would be better from Sons of Feanor's position. (There's no way they could know if there were punishment awaited them in the Halls.)

Amras (and Amrod if no crisping) might, but I think at that point they had willingly committed three kinslaying each worse than the one before. It would be very, very hard for them to believe they would found mercy in Mandos.

(Whether the ocean had power to flush unwilling elf spirits to Mandos after flooding Beleriand is not clear.)

(Can elf spirits haunt the bottom of ocean?)

Maedhros very likely would go to Mandos willingly(and expect/wish for punishment). Maybe after sulking in the lava pit for a while. Somehow I just don't think he would follow Maglor.

----------

It would be kinda funny, if Maedhros went to the Halls and believed at least he would see his father and brothers, and realized none of them was there?

And Namo & his Maiar were like "They refused to come here! We do not exactly have the authority to find them & drag them here (cannot arrest people oversea)! We do not have the resource & time to find them & drag them here (already overworked and burnt out from trying to heal the dead people from all the wars thank you very much)! Why should we put extra effort to help people who reject help when we struggle to help everyone who actually wants help? Sorry but your prideful family is not the priority here when there are all these feas lost to Angband that we have not yet found."

(Just want to see a very mentally unwell ghost Maedhros team up with Huan and (maybe) a reembodied Amrod to sneak out of Valinor & drag their stupid ghost family back one by one.)

#tolkien #silmarillion #the silmarillion #silm #silm headcanon #silmarillion headcanon #sons of feanor #feanorians

[novemberthecatadmirer]

first age beleriand discourse tag simulator

user1: sure you have "kinslayers dni" in your bio but are you normal about the sindar

user2: keep getting anons about this but NO prince turgon isn't a girlboss for fucking off with half the fucking population

user3: Got blocked by the OP of the post so I can't respond directly but the day I'm allowed to speak my own language in public is the day I'll believe in "Noldor privilege" sweet fucking varda

user4: 👏remarriage 👏 isn't 👏 valid 👏 your 👏 old 👏 marriage-bond 👏 can't 👏 be 👏 broken 👏 it 👏 doesn't 👏 matter 👏 if 👏 your 👏 spouse 👏 died

user5: gotta say i'm almost impressed by the level of cognitive dissonance some of you have to have to condemn feanor but excuse the valar tbh tbh

user6: reblog this if you're loyal to king thingol and live outside the girdle i'm trying to prove a point

user7:

user8: say what you want about it i was born a humanfucker and i'll die a humanfucker

[novemberthecatadmirer]

“Celegorm only kidnapped Lúthien and attempted to rape her as revenge for Aredhel” ok but that’s worse. You do realise why that’s worse right??

#yeah have seen that take #and yeah I believe Aredhel would personally do violence to Celegorm for that

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Just saying, if I found out that my brother's grandkids were complicit in the massacre of his people (who used to be my people) and the theft of their ships, and that they hid that information from me while living in my kingdom, and that because of this my people could have unknowingly been trapped in the Doom... I would personally drop them off at Morgoth's doorstep.

#and they lied for 60 years and were apparently ready to keep lying if they were not caught #also the murderers were Thingol’s old best friend’s sons & grandkids #and they apparently got on fine with the murderers even after the murder?

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Fingon is 1000% the kind of uncle who snatched up Idril, hurled her into the air, and then tucked her under one arm like a sack of potatoes before jogging to the nearest body of water to HURL her in, all while she laughed madly and breathlessly.

(Nonzero chance that he also stubbornly insists on doing this at least once to a fully grown Maeglin post-reimbodiment. Maeglin says something about trauma around falling, and fingon starts calling it exposure therapy.)

#idril #maeglin #that is the difference between baby tiger and little meow meow

[novemberthecatadmirer]

I also would like people to give more appreciation to the great thematic unity in all of The Lord of the Rings. The idea is “do what good you can with what you are given.” Usually your abilities and your chances seem horribly small, even though your responsibility is so enormous. The minutes, the little decisions, the days, the small towns, the small characters, matter the most. The fate of the whole big world of good and evil and languages and races and heroes and villains all hangs on what’s done by a little scholar and his gardener.

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Thingol was done dirty so much in fandom it’s ridiculous

Like yeah he made (maybe) questionable decisions in the end which costed his life but that was after loss and loss of people he treasured and loved (Finrod, Luthien, Daeron, Beleg, Turin, Nienor, Morwen) so he likely was slowly crushed by depression.

(Also in a version he was implied to be affected by dragon gold. Which was kind of like addiction?

(I actually think it is very reasonable that he refused to approve his daughter’s relationship with a random man she just met a little while ago and never mentioned to him before. And especially reasonable for him to do drastic shit to stop his daughter from walking into the Devil’s lair. The only issue he did wrong in the matter was asking for that stupid gem and assumed that Beren-who-lost-whole-family-to-Morgoth would not jump into the opportunity to do crazy shit to humiliate Morgoth when prompted.)

His kingdom survived the longest if we do not count Gondolin (which was not actively fighting Morgoth aside from Unnumbered Tears so I believe they were not really the priority target until the end.)

People were willing to follow his order to not speak Quenya even when they were not directly under his ruling! (Aside from Gondolin but Turgon was likely the less problematic Noldor and pretty much completely cut tie with his kinslayer family and basically hated Feanorians for death of family members just like Sindar.)

Also I think his language ban might actually prevent the situation from escalating… Like there had to be some angry Sindar elves with direct relatives beyond the sea planing to do something violent…

Other people still speaking Quenya doesn't mean that the banning of a language is not a form of cultural genocide (you can't recognize the term when applied in the clearest sense in fiction but accuse ofc it's “everybody else” that doesnt know what it means and minimizing it). If you wanna invoke “real life” shit, languages that have been banned are still public knowledge, doesn't mean barring them wasn't an act in the name of eliminating that culture. The lang. survived *despite* his actions, not bc he was so accepting of them. And attempting to monopolize the common tongue or make your own tongue the lingua Franca of a place is still... xenophobic? It's xenophobia.

He wasn't "making" his language the lingua franca of Beleriand. It already was. Thingol was protecting his culture and people from being assimilated into the Noldor, who came with the express intent of establishing their own kingdoms and showed disdain towards the Sindar ("dark elf in his dark caves"). And like I said in the post, the ban was a way to enact some sort of consequence for the Noldor who murdered his brother's people, stole and burned their ships, lied to him about it and also disrespected him and his people. I really don't think he was trying to "eliminate" Noldorin culture. He told Finrod where to build Nargothrond because Finrod valued his input and showed respect and admiration for the Sindar. He honored Hurin and Morwen even though they were vassals of Fingolfin/Fingon. He doesn't prevent Cirdan or the Laiquendi from establishing positive relations with the Noldor, and he takes in Noldorin refugees after Nargothrond's fall, as well as Sindar who worked for the Noldor after Bragollach. The ban was his way of protecting Beleriandic/Sindarin culture, showing his authority, and yes, as a consequence for the Kinslaying.

I expressly did not "invoke real life shit" in my post because I don't feel comfortable using terms like racism to describe fantasy events (unless we're talking about authorial intent like how Tolkien wrote the Haradrim and Easterlings, which was undoubtedly racist). But if you want to go down that path, don't forget that Thingol and the Sindar were native to Beleriand, and the Noldor came to take and rule territory (among other reasons). Again, do not like applying this here and it's not an exact comparison but if we go with a simplified idea of colonizer/colonized, then the Sindar are in the position of the colonized. In a (limited) comparative hypothetical scenario, the ban is like if Mughal emperor Jahangir banned English in the subcontinent and told his subjects to speak only Persian/Hindi-Urdu with the East India Company. I see nothing wrong with that.

Also, not only did Quenya survive and remain accessible, in LotR it was still considered the "High Elven" tongue compared to Sindarin, so the ban didn't even make it taboo or associated with kinslaying.

To each their own though. I'm just defending my opinion, I don't expect you to agree with me.

#tolkien #silmarillion #the silmarillion #silm #thingol

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Magnolias are so ancient plants that almost every other plant and insect who came to being around the same time as them has gone extinct by now. They are the loneliest plants in this world. Does anybody understand how much grief it gives me that the symbolic flower of Kuras is magnolia.