#because elwing and earendil need to visit elros on numenor!!!!

[undercat-overdog]

For WIP Wednesday: Elros and Elwing, post-founding of Númenor.

“You remind me very much of him. Tuor that is.” Elwing reached out to brush away a strand of black hair behind his ear, her eyes gentle and sad but with a bitterness in them too. “Not in looks of course. But he lived an unkind life and yet took such joy in all things good. The tales I told you and Elrond as children, the tales of the heroes of the Edain, they were ones he told to your father and me as children.”

Elros raised his eyebrows. “Your stories were… abridged.”

She laughed. “Of course they were, and so were Tuor’s at first. I never wanted you to have nightmares.”

She had had nightmares, he thought, and so had his father. He and Elrond had had them too; he still did at times. As a youth, his night-terrors had been of the Kinslaying; now they were of the great War, and of what had been found in the bowels of Angband. But he did not say that, and his mother went on.

“And you have Tuor’s laugh too, and his smile; Earendil’s laugh and smile. But your greatness is your own. Oh Elros, for what it means, we are so proud of you, you a merry and mighty leader of Men.”

#elwing #elros #because elwing and earendil need to visit elros on numenor!!!! #tuor #tumblr fic #my fic

[undercat-overdog]

Elwing and/or Lúthien please?

Elwing! (Lúthien is very intimidating!)

How I feel about this character

I love her! I have since the first time I read the Silm as a wee thing. Her story is so cinematic, and her casting herself into the water with a star at her breast and her arms creaking into wings was an image that stuck with me.

I think there are so many parallels between her and Earendil and Sam and Frodo. Frodo and Sam were the capstone of the Age of the Rings, the heroes instrumental in defeating Sauron. Earendil and Elwing were the capstone of the Age of the Silmarils, the heroes instrumental in defeating Morgoth. And not for nothing are all four characters not quite human, and not Elven. (Elwing as a Peredhel is very important to me.)

And Elwing herself - what is she but the Quenta Silmarillion made manifest? The Oath, the Silmaril, defiance in the face of evil and certain defeat. A woman who is Elda and Adan and Maia and none of those, a woman who refuses to be conquered, a woman with nothing but her self and her spine and her spite. And then grace unexpected, a turn towards salvation against all hope, the eucatastrophe.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Earendil! Their story is so romantic and sad. They are so very clearly in love: Elwing follows Earendil onto the soil of Aman knowing that it's a death sentence because she would have them share the same fate, while Earendil tells Elwing to make the Choice for both of them because he won't have them parted. And then they're parted anyways T_T

The world was saved, but not for them.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Tuor, as a father figure for her. I headcanon Elwing as very much aware of her human heritage, and proud of it, but also needing to learning about Edainic culture, not being acculturated into it from birth, like she was on the Elvish side. Tuor is likewise distanced from his heritage: an Adan raised by Elves whose only experience in human society was an enslaved person specifically targeted for abuse; he's culturally Elvish too. They're also distantly related and both of them were orphaned at early ages and had very difficult childhoods. I think Tuor was a good rolemodel for her (and Earendil!) and I think he saw her yearning to understand her human heritage and made sure that she was exposed to it. Elwing and Earendil both spoke Taliska - I think Tuor was the person who arranged for them to be taught. (And Earendil at the least must have been taught. Elwing might have learned from Dior, but Quenya was Earendil’s native language and he would have learned Sindarin naturally from his culture and setting, but Taliska would have needed to be learned; it’s possible Tuor didn’t speak it. And yet Earendil pleaded to the Valar in the language of the people of Beor and Hador.) On that note, language is so interesting with Elwing? Elros might have a Mannish element, and she clearly had no issue with Quenya, considering how her husband named his ship after her in Quenya. She likely spoke it, given that she was able to communicate with the Teleri.

I am also very charmed by the idea of her and Bilbo interacting. Or her and Sam! Elwing and Earendil have a ton of parallels to the Hobbit Ringbearers, and as three members of the "gave up an Item of Power" club, I'm curious about what they have to say.

My unpopular opinion about this character

Elwing is more hopeful than Earendil, and considering that she attempts suicide out of heroic despair, that's saying a lot.

To venture into the discourse, I appreciate that her being a mother (and Earendil being a father) is not terribly important to her story.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I want a happy ending for her and Earendil! Sadly, I'm not sure how terribly well supported that is: they are very much people who saved the world, but the world was not saved for them.

More prosaically, I'd like to see her visit Numenor and get to know Elros as an adult and be a grandbirdy.

Thank you for the ask!

#elwing #chaos-of-the-abyss #ask #headcanons #meta