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Pippin has unfortunately figured out that if he plays with something he’s not supposed to, he gets my attention

as if he doesn’t get it enough 🙄 it’s just when i’m working and not paying attention to him bc of that work that he decides to rebel

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aragorn's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week:

the fellowship breaks on his watch

forced to choose who to follow

runs over 200 kilometers in under four days

thinks merry and pippin are dead

meets the reborn gandalf (a rare win), immediately has to do a 180 and ride to edoras

immediately after that needs to ride to battle

takes part in a battle which takes place over the whole night

gets maybe 20 hours of sleep over the course of the whole week

and, I cannot stress this enough, this is all still very far from over

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People often say LOTR is a story about hope. (I'm reminded of it because someone said it in the notes of my Faramir post.) And that's true, but it's not the whole picture: LOTR is in large part a story about having to go on in the absence of hope.

Frodo has lost hope, as well as the ability to access any positive emotion, by Return. He is already losing it in Towers: he keeps going through duty and determination and of course Sam's constant help.

For most of the story, Sam is fueled by hope, which is why it's such a huge moment when he finally lets go of the hope of surviving and returning home, and focuses on making it to the Mountain. To speed their way and lighten the load, he throws his beloved pots and pans into a pit, accepting that he will never cook, or eat, again.

When Eowyn kills the Witch King, she's beyond hope and seeking for a glorious death in battle. It's possible that in addition to her love and loyalty for Théoden, she's strengthened by her hopelessness, the fear of the Nazgúl cannot touch someone who's already past despair.

Faramir is his father's son, he doesn't have any more hope of Gondor's victory or survival than Denethor does, he says as much to Frodo. What hope have we? It is long since we had any hope. ... We are a failing people, a springless autumn. He knows he's fighting a losing war and it's killing him. When he rejects the ring, he doesn't do it in the hope that his people can survive without it, he has good reason to believe they cannot. He acts correctly in the absence of hope.

Of course LOTR has a (mostly) happy ending, all the unlikely hopes come true, the characters who have lost hope gain what they didn't even hope for, and everyone is rewarded for their bravery and goodness, so on some level the message is that hope was justified. But the book never chastises characters who lost hope, it was completely reasonable of them to do so. Despair pushed Théoden and Denethor into inaction, pushed Saruman into collaboration, but the characters who despaired and held up under the weight of despair are Tolkien's real heroes.

(In an early draft of Return, Frodo and Sam receive honorary titles in Noldorin: Endurance beyond Hope and Hope Unquenchable, respectively. Then he cut it, probably because it was stating the themes of the entire book way too obviously, because this is what Tolkien cared about, really: enduring beyond hope. Without hope.)

Also, people who know more than me about the concept of estel, feel free to @ me.

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I don't know half of Tolkien lore half as well as I should like, and I've studied less than half of it half as much as it deserves.

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Bilbo barely passed Old Took's record lifespan after having a supernaturally-life-extending ring for 60 years. which begs a question. what the hell did Old Took do

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"NO DWARVES IN MY FOREST 😡"

"Your wife is hot."

"...THIS ONE DWARF WITH IMPECCABLE TASTE CAN STAY"

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it most probably was just an empty threat, but can you fucking imagine a tarantino lotr trilogy

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Mucha inspired Eowyn illustration

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here have this grond meme that my partner made

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THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY (2001 - 2003) dir. Peter Jackson

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here have this grond meme that my partner made

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Reunion

Nolofinwë Week Day Seven: Elrond Sailing to Valinor

Hey, I have feelings.

I have this head cannon that as Círdan's ship carried Elrond to Valinor on the sea Vingilot sailed above in the sky. I think Eärendil guided his son home, I think he heralded his arrival to the Undying Lands. I think when Elwing saw her husband's star so low, and close, and bright she knew that finally after over 6,000 years she was going to see one of her sons again, I think Celebrian knew she was going to see her husband again.

I think Elrond and Elros and their legacies were the happy ending to The Silmarillion with all its grief.

Okay I'm done. Back to being completely normal.

(Also, I absolutely borrowed from @thelien-art's very good Elrond design)

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Legolas Greenleaf by Rene Gross

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Happy “This Meeting Probably Could Not Have Been An Email” Day.

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the only time of the year this can be posted