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softlysilverfountainsfall · 1 month

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Bear with me while I rules-lawyer the spirit of the Oath of Feanor because I'm pretty sure that's exactly what Maedhros did.

The Oath is specifically targeted at anyone who "hideth or hoardeth, or in hand taketh, finding keepeth or afar casteth a Silmaril" which I do not believe means anyone who touches a Silmaril, despite "in hand taketh" because all the other stipulations are targeted specifically at people who keep the Silmarils away from the Feanorians, by hiding, hoarding, keeping, or even throwing it far away. It would also just be bizarre if, say, a Feanorian follower returned the Silmaril to their lords and the Oath required that they kill them.

However, the strongest evidence for the Oath only applying (or being interpreted to only apply) to people who deliberately withhold the Silmarils from the Feanorians are Maedhros'/the Feanorians' actions before the 2nd and 3rd kinslayings: in both cases, they send a letter demanding the return of the Silmaril. Now, if by touching/posessing the Silmaril, the deaths of Thingol, Dior, and then Elwing are already demanded by the oath, why in the world would they send a letter (losing part of the element of surprise), not even to declare war, but demanding the Silmaril's return? Sending that letter implies that this can still be resolved peacefully if the Silmaril is handed over.

It's my interpretation that Maedhros/the Feanorians are rules-lawyering this tiny loophole in the oath (regardless of whether the oath is present magically/compulsive/just their own dedication) by deliberately closing their eyes to the fact that the current holder of the Silmaril definitely believes it to be their possession and is deliberately keeping it from the Feanorians---which lasts as long as that holder hasn't confirmed that desire.

After all, Thingol, Dior, and Elwing didn't steal the Silmaril, they received it from family members. If the Feanorians ignore the intent behind their keeping it (before that intent is confirmed by the holder's response to the Feanorian's demand), then they could consider Thingol et al to simply...coincidentally...happen to be holding a Silmaril, not possessing it for themselves and therefore not liable to the oath.

Actually, one line in the text from after Thingol refuses to return the Silmaril even hints that even after that, the situation might be salvageable if the Silmaril is returned by free will: "Celegorm and Curufin vowed openly to slay Thingol and destroy his people if they came victorious from war [this is pre-Nirnaeth], and the jewel were not surrendered of free will" (emphasis mine, Of the Fifth Battle, The Silmarillion).

Of course, the Oath drives the Feanorians to reclaim the Silmarils, and so I view the letters to Thingol, Dior, and Elwing as last-ditch attempts at solving this peacefully (via exploiting the above loophole). (Note: this is not necessarily meant to make the Feanorians more sympathetic, this is just me trying to figure out why they sent those letters.) However, this also dooms them to a kinslaying, because as soon as Dior and Elwing reject returning the Silmaril, they have explicitly or implicitly claimed it for themselves and have now "in hand taketh" the Silmaril instead of just touching it and happening to have it around, which means their deaths are now demanded under the Oath.

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art-of-firefly · 10 months

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Finwë & Elwë

#my art #Silmarillion Fanart #finwe #elwe #elu thingol #The Silmarillion #everyday is finwe propaganda day #house of finwe #house of elwe

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sakasakiii · 11 months

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Hi!

I love your work!! Your art is very pretty. Do you have a specific idea of how old everyone is ? Do you lean more towards canon or do you have your own dates in mind ? If don’t wanna a answer it’s ok!

Hope u have a nice day

(Remember to drink water!)

hiiii nonnie!!! thank you for checking in, and im happy u like the stuff i put out!! when it comes to ages, it's difficult to answer sometimes bc of the way professor tolkien's timeline is-- it makes gauging one singular place where most of the cast can be compared something that makes my tired brain go 😵🤧🤕 but i love the prompt youve given! and thus heres my attempt at it

with most of my tolkien stuff, i always try to stick to canon wherever possible emphasis is on try lmao and the topic of ages is one such place. i do make exceptions to the Professor's canon sometimes for a few reasons: 1) i like some of the scrapped ideas in his drafts, or 2) i just prefer other options. with ages, i think the only charas with canon-established ages i deviated from are fingolfin, finrod, turgon, and aredhel. i try to keep cases like these minimal tho, so i hope it doesn't bother anyone too much... 👉👈

anyways i figured just dropping a list of numbers would be kinda boring to look at so heres an illustrated guide to what the ~rough~ ages of the finweans are in my head whenever i write or draw. Y.T. 1495 (the year Finwe dies) is the controlled medium ive used to enable a fair comparison of the Finweans

note: "born Y.T. xxx" means this is the canon date of birth listed on Tolkien Gateway. "est. born [xxx]" means this is a noncanon estimate:

the First Age gets a lot more muddled from there due to the hullaballoo of everything going on, so ill only be including the doriathrim and a few other denizens of nargothrond:

it's mostly the older elves that are more undefined/vague with their ages (i.o.w. others like elwing, earendil, the peredhil twins, and most Men all have set dates of birth), so they're all i'll be doing for now. but it's that vagueness which makes hcing all the more enjoyable, isn't it! plus since we’re on this subject, under the cut are just a few headcanons and musings ive had that i wanted to put somewhere 😙

Finarfin and Earwen were born within months of each other! Finwe and Olwe made a Really Big Deal out of when they found out their wives were pregnant at the same time. As a result, the two were often sent on many playdates with each other to “bolster healthy relations” between the Noldor and the Teleri. It wasn’t an arranged marriage situation, but I like to think they were goofy for each other from the start… Resulting in the two eventually getting married as soon as they came of age, the fastest out of all of Finwe’s kids to do so.

The reason the Ambarussa are significantly younger than the other Finweans (especially the Feanorians-- there’s a 100 Valian year gap between them and Curufin alone!) is because I imagine they were accidental babies that even Feanor didn’t expect to conceive. too bad morgoth said "its morgin time!" and started Messing Things Up shortly afterwards.....

Anaire was Lalwen's good friend long before she married Fingolfin; they met through Lalwen who wingmanned Fingolfin the whole time. i like think Anaire'd be the best out of all the wives at keeping good, healthy bonds with all the women of her family :DD

luthien's potential 姐姐/big sis dynamic with all the younger doriathrim elves is something i daydream about a lot 😌 but sometimes the fact that she's older than finarfin keeps me up at night

this has been really fun, so thanks again for asking-- annnd yessir, i am chugging water as i write this so you better be doing the same ❤️ have a great start to your week!

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kitcat22 · 4 months

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Daemags Time travel au!

Daeron and Maglor never technically got together. Maglor was very much in love and proposed on several occasions but Daeron despite also being in love was more flighty and nervous at the idea of being tied down especially to someone he knew deep in his bones was doomed no matter how the person in question tried to avoid it.

Daeron ended up dying in Doriath after being stabbed by Maglor who did not initially realise who it was he’d killed

Due to half maia magic Daeron filled with rage and grief didnt end up in the halls and instead got pulled into a time tunnel dragging maglor along with him although that was a bit delayed

Maglor ends up waking in his old body during a family trip to Aqualonde. He isnt aware that Daeron traveled with him but is increasingly worried about the barely escaped attempts on his life. He thinks Melkor must be suspicious of him.

Daeron is very angry that his genocidal bitch of an ex wont just die. Hes taken to making Maglor’s life as difficult as possible in the mean time. He steals one of every sock Maglor has so there is never a matching pair, he poured glue and chicken feathers on Feanor and made it look like it was Maglor who did it etc

Rest assured Maglor very much wants to die after several thousand years of walking along the beach mourning everyone and everything he’s ever loved, but first he has to make sure he fixes the future.

During this time Finwe and Olwe are both having mental breakdowns thinking they are hallucinating Elwe. A silver haired figure seen standing before the paintings of Olwe’s lost brother. A laugh that sounds so very familiar. Both of their wives and kids are very worried but trying to keep it a secret from the other party as well as the grandkids so as to not ruin the visit. After they both see this phantom at the same time they start to get even more worried that Elwe has returned to life and holds a grudge for them abandoning him to his terrible fate (marriage but they don’t know that)

Cue wacky adventures

#silmarillion #silm #the silm #maglor #makalaure #daeron #daemags #silm time travel #time travel #olwe #finwe #house of finwe #elwe #elu thingol #elwe singollo #thingol

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silvantransthranduiltrash · 1 month

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Do ya have any more headcannons about the whole Thingol and Melian you sometimes write about over here? I really like the concept of Thingol being Melian's thrall basically

Yes yes yes! It’s pretty much canon in my mind

So Thingol isn’t being mind controlled by Melian 24/7, it’s mostly during important events /decisions.

When it’s just an average day, Melian loosens her control over him (bc she’s a sadist) so that she can say she doesn’t control him all the time. Unfortunatly for him, when he isn’t being mind controlled, Melian is verbally and occasionally physically abusing him, so it’s a toss up on which he prefers: mind control, where he doesn’t have to think to much and isn’t constantly being hurt, or no mind controll, but he is constantly being hurt and gaslit.

By the time the noldo came to the eastern shores, Thingol has pretty much given up, which is why his personality switches between mind control and no mind control aren’t noticeable.

Furthermore, Melian likes to make herself out as the good guy, so she has Thingol act and decide things that actually she wants, but she herself will play as the disapproving, compassionate wife. This means that most elves, espescially the noldo who haven’t been around to witness the breaking down of thingol’s will, believe that Melian is the one to talk to in order to get Thingol to work with them, and it gives the impression that, if anything, Thingol is the abusive one in the relationship, essentially trapping Thingol, and preventing him from escaping due to social pressure.

Luthien knows exactly what’s going on, but other elves either 1. Don’t believe her (like her Noldorin cousins) or are not in a position to help her and Thingol completely. They might be able to keep melian down momentarily, but they can’t put a permanent stop to it unless they are willing to risk the eradication of all the sindar.

As mentioned in previous posts, this really leads to a “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” mentality in the sindar, and even all the way to the third age the concept is pushed that Melian was merciful and Thingol was not.

Luthien, whenever she needs to get away from Melian’s abuse (with her it’s more verbal/gaslighting and watching her father get hurt), runs to Oropher, the head of house Edireth, bc he’s one of the only elves who has enough power to stop Melian in her tracks unless she’s willing to risk it all. She has a permanent room in his household, where she keeps all her diaries listing the abuse Melian has put her and Thingol through, bc she knows that if she keeps those diaries where Melian can access them, they’ll end up destroyed. This is her way of documenting proof of melian’s abuse bc she knows no one will believe her if she accusses he mother without proof.

Luthien is also pen palls with Lasgen, her cousin, god mother (Thingol was able to gain controll for enough time to make Lasgen Luthien’s god mother, bc he didn’t trust melian for one bit) and Oropher’s grand daughter, who lives (at this time) in the Arctic Empire (an Avari nation), and Lasgen has hundreds of letters where Luthien is venting about exactly what is happening in her home.

Also as mentioned in previous posts, Luthien didn’t only choose to marry, live and die with Beren bc she loved him, she also did it to escape her mother’s grasp.

However, Luthien’s departure from his life ultimately broke Thingol, and she’ll forever regret that.

Now, the ainur aren’t really good in this au, especially the valar, so when Thingol comes out of the halls, Melian gets control of him once again and the valar do nothing about it, and no one really helps him, bc everyone has been so gaslit into believing that Thingol is the bad guy and melian is the good guy, that no one even knows smth is going on.

Except Olwe, Ingwe, and Finwe that is.

And as much as they want to tear him away from Melian, they have to play the long game and little by little break Elwe away from that bitch.

It isn’t untill into the 5th age that they, with the help of other Avari and cuivienen elves (bc they are some of the only ones not blinded by the ainur’s powers), manage to fully destroy the marraige and chase Melian away from Elwe. Of course, this causes further chaos amongst the elves as a whole bc if Melian could succesfully make most of the elven population believe that she is the good guy, even though she’s just as bad as Sauron, what else are the ainur doing? Especially considering they didn’t intervene now that they were in valinor.

#Melian #elu thingol #elu thingol is melian’s thrall #not melian friendly #luthien #abusive melian #house of edireth #anon ask #answered asks #lord of the rings #lotr #lotr elves #silmarillion

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superloves4 · 9 months

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While I slog through a fic I actually really want to tell (the joys of writing!) I decided to talk about that Feanor as Melkor's son AU I mentioned in my tags

So far I have three possibilities, from least realized to most:

Feanor as Melkor and Mairon bio baby, so far I don't really have much for this one, the Valar find baby Feanor after Melkor's imprisonment (haven't decided why Mairon wouldn't have escaped with the baby) and give him to Finwe to raise (I hadn't realized it doesn't makes sense for Miriel to die in this one until now, so either she doesn't and it's full throwing away canon or in this one she doesn't exist and Finwe just didn't want to tell Feanor who his real parents were, it's both sad and funny)

Baby Feanor kidnap adopted by Melkor, the timeline is bothering me here, maybe Feanor is born before Melkor's imprisonment? Or he leaves imprisonment way before the original? I mostly wanted this to be funny about Melkor and Mairon getting so attached and wanting so bad to be good parents to feral child Feanor that they actually get redeemed (although dark!Feanor x Nerdanel is very intriguing)

And the one I (unfortunately) have the most on (as of right now) is Feanor as Melkor... and Miriel's son, I jokingly thought about this one but alas it got bigger than I expected, so: Melkor decides to go mess with the elves only to find Miriel collecting bugs (they're silk worms, weird bug girl Miriel for the win!) and he gets actually quite impressed with her desire to not settle with the world and wanting to make it prettier with fabrics, they fall in love (or as much in love Melkor can be, so far he is more like canon evil Melkor than the softer one of the other two ideas) but when she finds out who he is, she runs away and falls for Finwe instead.

Finwe is then totally cool with raising Miriel's child because he loves her so much but Miriel keeps feeling she's awful for her previous love for Melkor, combined with the power required to sustain a half-ainur child, and ends up dying.

Finwe of course, absolutely adores little Feanor despite not being his bio dad, and thus names him Finwion (later Curufinwe), but raising a half-ainur child is not easy, especially when you can't actually ask anyone for help without revealing the truth, so Finwe just has to deal with eldritch child Feanor, alone.

(like, one time there's a teacher Feanor hates because he heard the teacher say that Feanor killed Miriel, so Feanor gives the teacher a bracelet he doesn't even understand how he made cursed, the teacher then complains to Finwe, who is just trying to understand how to explain to his son that he can't do that, also he fires the teacher)

Then it's basically the same as canon up until Melkor return, because instead of trying to create discord he arrives and realizes Feanor's his son and tries to pull a Darth Vader and convince Feanor to join him.

Feanor is, of course, against the idea but Melkor is convinced that if he reveals Feanor's true parentage in the upcoming festival then the uproar and hate will cause Feanor to be more willing.

Only, right before he can make his announcement Feanor shows up wearing the silmarils (Melkor decides to rename him Lightbringer but I haven't figured out what that is in Quenya) and instead of going along with Melkor, Feanor

Bows. to. MANWE!!!!!

And does a whole speech about Melkor trying to deceive him by claiming he isn't Finwe's son (Feanor already realized the truth, he's just rejecting it) and doing a whole spectacle of proof

The Finwe family isn't stupid and to Feanor's surprise, the first person to join his show is INDIS!!! Joined then (in order) by Nolo, Nerdanel, and Maglor (if it was political it would be Maedhros but it's a performance remember)

Manwe isn't stupid and understands what they are doing so when Melkor tries to say that it's all Finwe's lie he just tells Melkor that it was clear that Feanor was Finwe's son

Melkor storms out (he still plans to destroy the trees but his objective is Feanor instead of just the silmarils) and the Finweans leave too

Feanor has a cathartic talk and cry with his dad while the rest of the family discuss what this means for them all, Feanor is now more open to his half-family and his relation to the other Valas is totally different, and how that could end up having happier ending to the story.

And that's how much I have of this one, it compels me but it's the only one that I have no idea of how to add Melkor x Mairon and the original idea was about THEM as parents whereas this one is about the original Finweans in a different situation so I'm conflicted

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lovefairymina · 20 days

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*pausing by the doorway of his room* "Thingol, we're getting married. I mean--I guess if you don't want to--well, this is me proposing." *walks away embarrassed without waiting for an answer*

Standing before your soon-to-be-husband as he towered over you with his majestic form and resplendent robes, he jutted his chin out, waiting for a response. “Come, my dear, if you are to propose to me, do it with confidence. You already know my answer is 'yes', however, I want you to take charge with pride. My love wants to marry me, fills my heart with joy.”

#♡{sweet.hugs} ~ {thingol}#thingol imagine #thingol x y/n #thingol x you #elu thingol #thingol #house of thingol #elwe singollo #elwe #silm imagines #middle earth imagine

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doodle-pops · 9 months

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˚*ೃ༄When You Argue With Them˚*ೃ༄

Headcanons: Turgon, Aegnor, Rog, Thingol

Synopsis: In which you decide to sleep on the couch during the argument.

. ˚◞♡ *ೃ༄ Turgon — arguments with Turgon are never peaceful, more turbulent than ever and it sometimes takes more than a week before the two of you can come to terms. The heat is high when he braces you, towering mighty tall and fiercely with arms firmly planted at his side and face screwed with rage.

Your attempts at getting him to leave his silver-haired cousin alone whenever he made jabs at him were futile. Another dispute between the both of them led to Turgon attacking first and Celegorm following suit to defend. You could no longer take it, you’d been at it for hours, attempting to prove yourself right and for him to humble his pride.

All you wanted was for him to understand that he was wrong and Celegorm was simply egging him on for entertainment. He should understand his cousin’s intentions by now.

Deflating as you stood closer to the door of your room, you sighed and trudged over to your bed, prying your pillow and sheet off and marching out of the room.

“Where are you going?” he puzzled.

Shaking your head and marching down the staircase to enter the living room, you heard him trailing behind. “What are you doing Y/N?”

“Sleeping on the couch Turgon.” Your voice was empty, hiding your rage behind each syllable. “I have no energy to sleep in bed.”

His shoulders and face fell at the awareness of the meaning. Even when you argued in the past, it never escalated where you slept elsewhere; this was a first. Not liking the sensation of guilt settling in his chest, he stepped forward to cut off your actions. A hand reached out to take the pillow out of yours. “Please don’t…I’ll sleep outside if that’ll make you feel better.”

“Káno, you’re too long for the couch; you’ll feel uncomfortable,” you scolded.

“As will you…” he hesitated, playing around with the words in his mouth before spitting it out, “…I’m sorry. You’re right and I’m wrong. Just come to bed please.”

Staring at him contemplating, you sighed. It wasn’t often he openly apologised, so this was a first from your stubborn husband. “Fine…but we’re settling this properly in the morning.”

. ˚◞♡ *ೃ༄ Aegnor — he hates arguments with you because he gets lost in the moment and heated. He’s trying his best to state his point across and justify why he was right to confront his cousins, but you weren’t pleased with his reasons.

Aegnor didn’t want to keep arguing, but you weren’t agreeing, so he was relentlessly attempting to get you to see his point of view. In his eyes, the punishment that arise from his feud with Caranthir was simple one and he was right to start it. He could be so hard-headed at times, and it made you want to pull your hair out.

“Aegnor, you were wrong to engage in the argument, you should have walked away. You know you don’t have a wholesome relationship with them, but take the risk,” you fired and watched as he stopped his pacing to give you an incredulous look.

“How could you say that after they murdered our people? They deserve being incriminated; they’re just lucky that the King was compassionate to just ban our tongue.” You had marched over to stand at the bedhead, ripping the sheets off the mattress and rushing to get into bed and end your dispute.

Refusing to comply, you turned to the wardrobe and grabbed a pillow and quilt before stomping out of your chambers. It didn’t take long for Aegnor to rush after you, shouting your name. When he did catch up, you were spreading the quilt over the sofa in the lounge and placing your pillow at the head.

“…Y/N?”

“I’m sleeping outside Aegnor. We just don’t seem to be on the same page right now,” you quietly respond, not sparing him a glance. He was torn between feeling guilty and wanting you to settle your thoughts out and understand. Not sure what to exactly do, he walked over and aided you in settling down.

“What are you doing?”

“Helping you so you can get a good night’s rest if this is your decision.”

Gapping at how innocent he was to the experience of arguments, instead of swelling with rage, you snickered at him. “Aegnor, you’re supposed to say that you won’t allow me to sleep outside on the sofa, not help me.”

Breaking out of his focused state, wanting to still please you through your displeasure, he sheepishly laughed and scratched his head. “Oh, I didn’t know you wanted me to say that…I’m new to all this you know.”

Sighing at his innocence, you’d admit that despite the frustration you were experiencing currently, his helpless state was humorous and adorable. “You’re so clueless Aengor…”

. ˚◞♡ *ೃ༄ Rog — he hates arguments and never liked the idea of going to bed displeased. If he as to stay up all night to settle the dispute so you and he can have a good night's rest, Rog would. He wants you to know that even though you both have your options, he still loves you.

Rog would get lost in spending hours, even days in his forge, leaving you in solitude. Not being able to take it, it led to a one-sided argument between the both of you. Rog understood your frustration and his lack of care and attention towards his spouse, hence his reason for remaining silent and taking in your disputes.

Ranting to him about how he doesn’t come to bed anymore or make time to have breakfast, lunch and dinner with you or even take a walk, caused tears to flow from your eyes. He rushes over to meet your broken figure but was met with the force of your hands pushing him away and whispering to leave you be; you required time to relax now that you were a mess.

Rog watched with furrowed brows the entire time you shuffled out of your shared chambers to sleep on the sofa in your nightwear. His heart clenched at the barrier you were building after you demanded his time. Being a pleaser, he was not standing for your separation and waited for slumber to kick in before making his move.

Waking from your slumber, you turned to adjust yourself on the sofa and rolled into a firm chest with steel arms around your waist. Looking up, you noticed Rog was awake and staring off into space. “Dearest why am I in bed? I thought I was sleeping on the sofa?”

“I couldn’t allow you to. No matter how upset you were with me, I couldn’t bring myself to let you,” he whispered. He could see the anger behind those sweet eyes he fell in love with.

“Well…I’m still displeased.”

“I understand and I am sorry… But I’ll be out of the forges for the rest of the week. I would like to talk this out to not repeat it again.” His eyes held sorrow the longer he gazed at you.

“…You still could have allowed me to sleep on the sofa.”

“Not a chance; if anyone’s doing that, it should be me since it’s my fault.”

Softly smiling at his sincerity and nobility, you leaned forward and nuzzled into his chest, relishing in his warmth. “Why don’t we stay in bed a little longer and then decide who sleeps on the sofa?”

“Deal,” he laughed.

. ˚◞♡ *ೃ༄ Thingol — arguments with him also feel one-sided because, at certain times, he ignores your complaints, but you both engage in a level-headed match, it’s mostly him taking the lead with his anger. It wasn’t often the King was seen fuming.

Tired of having Thingol dictate your every decision, even after he made deals with you to give you free time, it always came back to bite you. You should know that as his lover, he wants to keep you safe from the harm and danger the world contains. If he doesn’t allow his people out of the borders, then you’re not departing either, even if you wanted to see the rest of the world.

“Thingol please, all I ask is to see the world. I can even take our Marchwarden with me!” you fumed. Still, your response wasn’t enough to convince the King. He was finding all sorts of ways to prove you wrong until he couldn’t.

“Beleg is needed in Doriath to train our troupes, I cannot simply allow him to run off with in into the wilderness meleth-nîn,” he reasoned, taking a step closer to you with his hands out.

Sighing at another attempt at denying your request, you hmphed and zig-zagged out of his grasp, making a beeline for the bed. The argument was going on since this morning and he had yet to let you have your way or provide a reasonable excuse. Not wanting to be in his presence for the rest of the night, you snatched your blanket and pillow off the bed and paraded out of the room.

Behind you the entire time, Thingol was following and asking you what you were doing while you continued to ignore him and look for a suitable place to nap. Passing all the spare rooms since they required a key, you wedged yourself through the library entrance and plopped onto the sofa beneath the eastern window. Frowning in disgust at the location of choice to rest your head, he tsked.

“If you are going to be upset with me and sleep elsewhere, might as well sleep somewhere decent and lavish.” He gave you no time to respond, scooping you from the sofa along with blanket and pillow, and filed back through the corridor of empty chambers.

“Thingol put me down!”

“Your wish, my command, but at least let me find you a decent sofa…ah!” Returning to his chamber, he walked over and placed you on his bed-like sofa, ignoring your protests. “There, better!”

“You’re not supposed to…this isn’t what you…Thingol, you’re supposed to be displeased that I’m choosing to sleep on the sofa,” you huffed, crossing your arms and glaring at his overly large frame.

Puzzled, Thingol cocked his head to the side. “I thought you wanted me to agree with your decisions?”

“Yes, er…I meant with Doriath, not with the…never mind. You’re so confusing at times. We’ll discuss this some other time,” you sighed with an amused grin on your face, inspecting the curious one on Thingol’s face.

“As you wish meleth.”

Masterlist | Underrated Character Event Masterlist |

Taglist: @eunoiaastralwings @noldorinpainter @ranhanabi777 @lilmelily @someoneinthestars @mysticmoomin @aconstructofamind @the-phantom-of-arda @rain-on-my-umbrella @singleteapot @wandererindreams @asianbutnotjapanese @justellie17 @justjane @silverose365 @bunson-burner @wisheduponastar @stormchaser819 @ilu-stripes @floragardeniahope

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nyxshadowhawk · 9 months

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I Read The Silmarillion So You Don't Have To, Part Three

Please read parts one and two first: https://nyxshadowhawk.tumblr.com/post/726120109073104896/i-read-the-silmarillion-so-you-dont-have-to-part https://nyxshadowhawk.tumblr.com/post/726261927846772736/i-read-the-silmarillion-so-you-dont-have-to-part

Chapter 4: Of Thingol and Melian In which Elwë/Thingol gets horny and abandons his quest, and behold, a language is born.

I said that Melian would be important, but that’s because the book said so. Unlike with Olorin, I don’t actually know anything about her in advance. So, now we’re going to find out what her role in the story is! Melian is a Maia and she lives in Lórien, where she is best known for her singing. The whole world stops to listen to her sing. Before dawn, she comes to the “Hither Lands” (Middle-earth?) to teach the birds to sing.

While the Elves are traveling, Elwë, the leader of the third group of Elves (the Teleri) is scouting by himself. He hears the voice of Melian and is entranced. He finds her in a forest glade, and as soon as he touches her, she traps him there. He stays in the glade while time moves on around him. His brother Olwë takes over the kingship of the Teleri, and Elwë never sees Valinor again. He and Melian are quite productive, though, and end up becoming the ancestors of an entire race of elves, called the Sindar, “Grey Elves” or “Twilight Elves.” Sindar are “grey” because they are neither Light Elves who saw the trees of Valinor, nor “dark elves” who chose not to go to Valinor. Elwë Singollo became known as Thingol, which still means “Greymantle,” but in Sindarin. Thingol and Melian became King and Queen of the Sindar.

To elaborate on the significance of this: “Elvish” is probably the best-known of Tolkien’s conlangs, but there’s actually two completely different Elvish languages. One is Quenya, the language spoken by those Elves in Middle-earth who are descended from the “High Elves” or Light Elves of Valinor, and the other is Sindarin, the language spoken by the Sindar. When you think of “Elvish,” you are probably thinking of Sindarin, because it’s the most common Elven language in Middle-earth. The Elves of Mirkwood are descended from yet another subgroup of Teleri Elves, called Nandor (no, not that Nandor), who split off from Olwë’s group and went off on their own to live in the forests. They have their own language, Silvan Elvish, but Thranduil definitely spoke Sindarin, and his name is in Sindarin. So, the Sindar are kind of a big deal.

Thingol and Melian by Elena Kukanova

Chapter 5: Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië In which the Elves settle into their new home.

The Vanyar and Noldor finally reach the westernmost coast of Middle-earth, and are confronted with the ocean that they have to cross to reach Aman (the continent where Valinor is). Ulmo comes and talks to the Elves, playing his shell pipes for them, and they lose their fear of the ocean. Ulmo drags up an island from the ocean, and brings it into the bay as if it were a ship, and all the Elves climb on it to sail it to the other side of the ocean. (Part of the island was broken off and remained in the bay, becoming the Isle of Balar.)

The Teleri arrived too late. They missed the island-boat, Elwë abandoned them for Melian, and now they’re stuck in East Beriand. They name Elwë’s brother Olwë as their king, and they learn about water and music from the Maiar Ossë and Uinen. Everything’s fine for a while, but the Noldor in Valinor missed the Teleri, and asked Ulmo to go and get them. Most of the Teleri are willing to uproot themselves again and continue on to Valinor, but Ossë (the Maia of waves) is sad to see them go, and persuades a few to stay so that they can continue to sing for him. The ones that stay become the Falathrim, the first mariners. Had enough subdivisions of Elves yet?

No you haven’t, because there’s another one — the friends and family of Elwë who are still wondering what the hell happened to him. They still want to go to Valinor, but Ulmo doesn’t wait for them to find Elwë, so they’re left behind. They call themselves Eglath, the Forsaken People, and live in the forests yearning for a place that they will never see. Elwë does eventually find them, though, and he looks so glorious and beautiful with his silver hair and his unusually tall stature that they almost mistake him for a Maia. So, they’re okay now. Presumably they become Sindar.

Ossë chases after the other Teleri. When they hear his voice, the Teleri beg Ulmo to lock the island in place in the Bay of Eldamar. Ulmo doesn’t mind doing this, because he didn’t think it was a good idea for the Elves to leave Middle-earth in the first place. The island becomes Tol Eressëa, the Lonely Isle. So, after all of that, the Teleri still don’t make it to Valinor (because they just love the sea too much, I guess). The Valar aren’t happy about this, and Finwë (the leader of the Noldor) grieves to hear that not only are the Teleri not coming, but Elwë got lost somewhere along the way. The Teleri are happy, though (and literally within sight of Aman so if only they had a boat or something…). The important thing is that this is why they speak a different language from everyone else. Like I said before, language is what drives the worldbuilding, as opposed to narrative or character or anything else. In Tolkien’s defense, this is definitely how real-life ethnic groups form (not islands magically moving and stopping, but groups breaking off from each other during migration) so he’s doing a great job on that front.

Eventually, the Teleri do make it to shore. Elves are like moths in that they’re constantly drawn towards the light of Valinor. So they change their minds, and ask Ulmo to bring them to shore. Ulmo tells Ossë to teach them how to build boats, and Ossë does, though very reluctantly. As a parting gift, he gives them swans to pull their boats. (My immediate thought was that this is a reference to the Tuatha Dé Danann in Celtic mythology, but I might be misremembering it, because I can’t find any proof of that. Moving on.) The Teleri come to live on the shores of Aman, within reach of Valinor, but closer to the sea because they like the water so much. The Noldor give them lots of jewels, which they scatter across the beaches, and they build themselves palaces out of pearl in their city of Alqualondë.

The Ships of the Teleri Drawn by Swans, by Ted Nasmith

There’s three cities in total: Valmar, the city of the Valar, Tirion, the city of the Noldor, and Alqualondë, the coastal city of the Teleri. The Noldor built Tirion on top of a hill called Túna (I know it means something in Quenya, but there’s no way I’m taking that seriously). They love Telperion, the White Tree, so Yavanna gives them one of its seedlings, which becomes another white tree that looks just like a smaller version of Telperion, except that it doesn’t glow. In Sindarin, the little tree is called Galathilion.

The Noldor like to learn things, discover things, and make things. They were trained by Aulë himself, so they’re experts in all kinds of craftsmanship. Their masons discovered precious stones hidden in the earth, which they learned to cut. Noldor have an insatiable love of learning, and whenever they find something new, they make up a new word for it in their language (Quenya). The dark side of a love of learning is that one might not know where to stop, i.e. “just because you can doesn’t mean you should” and “these were things mortals were not meant to know.” The Vanyar live directly with Manwë, which makes them both the coolest Elves and the least interesting because nothing about them is known to anyone else. The Noldor, however, still remember Middle-earth — dark, quiet, and full of stars. The grass is always greener, I guess.

We know next to nothing about the Vanyar because they stayed in Valinor, but the Noldor eventually came back, so we know their whole genealogy. As boring as that sounds, I do have to describe the whole thing here, because it is important: The King of the Noldor is Finwë as we’ve said before, and he has three sons: Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Finarfin. Fingolfin and Finarfin have the same mother, a Vanyar elf called Indis. Fëanor’s mother, however, is another Noldor elf called Míriel Serindë. Of the three sons, Fëanor is the smartest, Fingolfin is the strongest, and Finarfin is the wisest and the most beautiful. He eventually befriends the Teleri and marries one of Olwë’s daughters.

Finarfin, Fingolfin, and Feanor by _star热爱生活呀巴扎嘿

Fëanor has seven sons: Maedhros the tall, Maglor the singer, Celegorm the fair, Caranthir the dark, Curufin the crafty, and the twins Amrod and Amras. Fingolfin has two sons and one daughter: Fingon and Turgon are the sons, and Aredhel the White is the daughter. Finarfin has four sons: Finrod the Faithful, who eventually gains the epithet “Felagund, Lord of Caves” (really interested to hear that story), Orodreth, Angrod, and Aegnor. He also has a daughter — Galadriel. (Yes! Finally a character you know! Well, apart from Olorin, that is…) She is known for her golden hair, so shiny that it is if the light of the golden tree, Laurelin, shines within it.

That’s all the genealogy we need to know for now. Again, Tolkien gets points for authenticity here — a significant portion of real historical epics are long lists of everyone’s names and who they’re related to and who their kids are, which is of great interest to historians, but not very exciting if you’re primarily interested in a cool story about people killing each other. You know what, even if Amazon did get the rights to The Silmarillion for Rings of Power, they would probably have the same trouble adapting it that people usually have when they try to adapt epics like The Iliad or Beowulf: Epics just aren’t structured like conventional narratives. Even if there is a story, it usually plays second fiddle to all these historical details and other infodumps. Don’t get me wrong, epics are more than capable of being emotionally impactful, and I was pleasantly surprised by the Iliad and Odyssey more than once. But they don’t follow the same kind of five-act story structure that novels and films typically do. The narrative is interspersed with records of events and people, since an oral tradition needs to be able to preserve cultural history in addition to telling a good story, and the result is more like a series of significant events rather than an actual plot with a tidy ending. The cultural history is very important to the people whose history it is, and the people who study it, but when you have a complex cultural history of people who don’t actually exist, then the only people who are going to be interested are people who are already invested in Tolkien and his world. Basically, you can (sort of, barely) get away with infodumping if you’re intentionally following the conventions of an obsolete literary genre, and people already care about your worldbuilding.

If LotR is the story of the One Ring and the things that happen around it, then The Silmarillion is the story of this family, and the things that happen around or because of them. So, you’re going to want to keep track of them:

House of Finwe by @cy-lindric

Chapter 6: Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor In which we meet our… uh… protagonist?

You can tell just by the title that this is when everything goes to hell, right? It was too good to last. Although the Elves lived in bliss in Valinor for however many centuries, if someone didn’t fuck everything up, we wouldn’t have a story. That someone is Fëanor, who is the nearest thing this story has to a protagonist.

Fëanor by Insant

He was born in Valinor. His original name (or patronymic name) is Curufinwë, but his mother called him Fëanor (FAY-ah-nr), which means “spirit of fire.” Míriel, Fëanor’s mother, all but died in childbirth. After he was born, she refused to bear any more children, because all of her life-force and that of any future children had gone into Fëanor. Giving birth to him was like being burned away by fire, to the point where Míriel basically didn’t have any will to live… except that elves don’t die. So, Finwë went to Manwë for help, and Manwë allowed Míriel to go live in the beautiful gardens of Lórien with Irmo, the god of dreams. Once she got there, she basically died; her body went to sleep, but her spirit passed on to the Halls of Mandos.

Finwë was very sad at having lost his wife, but dedicated as much love and attention to his son as possible. Fëanor quickly proved himself to be one of those gifted kids who are naturally good at everything. He excelled in craftsmanship, figured out a way to make gems bigger and brighter by infusing them with starlight, and invented lenses. He didn’t invent writing — that was an elf called Rúmil, shortly before he was born — but he did improve upon it to produce the Elven alphabet that Elves still use today. And that was all while he was practically still a teenager!

Fëanor marries an Elf called Nerdanel. His father-in law, Mahtan, learned metalworking and masonry directly at the feet of Aulë, so Fëanor learns a lot more about making things from Mahtan. Fëanor’s relationship with Nerdanel is summed up pretty well by this quote:

Nerdanel also was firm of will, but more patient than Fëanor, desiring to understand minds rather than to master them, and at first she restrained him when the fire of his heart grew too hot; but his later deeds grieved her, and they became estranged.

Yeah… that tells you everything you need to know about Fëanor. He’s one of those arrogant, hotheaded men who needs his wife to put a lid on him so that he’ll calm the fuck down before something blows up. And eventually, managing him becomes too much for her. I guess we’ll find out why.

Meanwhile, Finwë remarries. His new wife is a Vanya elf called Indis, a close relative of the High King Ingwë. Fëanor is not happy about his father remarrying, and mostly ignores his stepmother and half-brothers. The thing about familial strife amongst royalty is that it ends up affecting everyone else, too, usually in catastrophic ways. Looking back, the Elves wonder if everything might have been different if Finwë had just gotten over the death of his first wife and been content with having only one son, especially one as mighty as Fëanor. On the other hand, the world would also be lacking if Fingolfin and Finarfin hadn’t been born, so… this is one of those “what if we went back in time and killed Hitler” questions; history would have been so different if Finwë hadn’t remarried, it’s almost impossible to tell whether it would be for better or worse.

As Finarfin and Fingolfin grow up, Valinor’s heyday is already almost over. The thing about Sealed Evil in a Can is that it doesn’t stay sealed. Eventually, it gets out, and when it does, it’s like a volcano erupting. For once, though, it’s not because some idiot went and broke the seal on the can of evil — it’s because Melkor finished his sentence. The Valar decide that it’s time to put Melkor on trial again. Melkor’s envy and hatred are dialed up to eleven when he sees the Valar on their shining thrones and the Elves gathered at their feet like kittens. He also really likes the look of all the gemstones that the Noldor have dug up, and wants to steal them. But, he’s more cunning than to make his evil thoughts obvious. He really sucks up to the Valar during his trial, in the most cloying and pathetic way possible. He even promises to fix all the things that he broke (which, I’ll remind you, was everything).

Manwë buys it. I guess he just really wants to believe that there’s good in everybody? Or that everybody deserves a chance at redemption? Tolkien’s explanation for why Manwë pardons Melkor is that, just as pure evil cannot comprehend goodness or happiness or love, pure goodness cannot really comprehend evil, either. As far as Manwë is concerned, a sincere apology is all that’s needed, and why wouldn’t Melkor’s apology be sincere? After all, Melkor and Manwë were both Ainur created by Ilúvatar, so there must be good in him somewhere, right? The other Valar aren’t as easily fooled, though. Ulmo knows better than to trust Melkor, and Tulkas is just itching to punch him. But it’d be pretty hypocritical of them if they punished Melkor for rebellion and then turned right back around and disobeyed the orders of their king, so they don’t do anything.

Remember, Melkor blames the Elves for his initial downfall, because the Valar fought for their sake. And also because they’re happy-go-lucky little Elves in their little Elf world and everything is bright and shiny and so saccharine it makes your eyes bleed. So, Melkor responds by being even more saccharine and kissing up to the Elves as much as possible. “Oh, do you need help with anything? Can we be friends? Do you want to know everything about how the world was created?” The Vanyar aren’t interested, because who needs lore when you have trees? The Teleri don’t even interest Melkor because he sees them as weak and useless. But the Noldor, oh, the Noldor like making things and they like secret knowledge. They’re just the kind of people who would eagerly agree to a deal with the devil to learn all the secrets of the universe.

Melkor claims that Fëanor learned everything he knows at his knee, but as usual, he’s lying for clout. No one hates Melkor more than Fëanor. In fact, it was Fëanor who first called him “Morgoth” (“dark enemy”). Besides, Fëanor himself is just as arrogant, and insists on working alone. The only person he ever goes to for help is his wife.

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