dreamingofalibrary - Tumblr blog

[dreamingofalibrary]

“Get some rest,” Time said. “I’ve got you.”

from: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58662970 by @somer-writes

[dreamingofalibrary]

Halenthir but none of the Finweans believe Haleth is real because they all assume Caranthir made up a spouse so he could leverage his marriage status for tax concessions. Caranthir is extremely mad about this. Haleth thinks it’s hilarious.

[dreamingofalibrary]

Ok so. I have a question. If there was a full glass of human blood in front of you, and the was absolutely no health risk to drinking it, like, that's not ever a factor, how much of it do you think you would drink? Because I would at least take one solid gulp.

[dreamingofalibrary]

North Wind

Oh Boromir! The Tower of Guard shall ever northward gaze. To Rauros, Golden Rauros Falls until the end of days.

[dreamingofalibrary]

🎇 🎄 ❄️  Obligatory Winter Episode ;) ❄️ 🎄 🎇

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year everyone.

[dreamingofalibrary]

This little collection is for you @ordonianhero​ thank you for all the kind words you have ever left for me, you really don’t know how happy they make me. ;D

This took… a really long time, but it was partially because I really couldn’t think of any good banter for Twi and Wars, so I hunted for some good quotes for months to get some inspiration. It didn’t really come tho, so hence the mish-mash with addition with other Links. xD I had another small idea, but it might take a while to figure out how to go about it… hopefully it will happen soon ;) wink-wonk

but yeah, hope y’all enjoy some quotes haha

[dreamingofalibrary]

Wild would likey Very Fast Long Metal Horse. And the chance to ride a screeching fuk-tone piece of metal powered by fire and steam down dangerous tracks.

[dreamingofalibrary]

Hi I hope this isn't presumptuous, but so, that post you made about Tolkien making the lads leave their weapons outside the hall and CS Lewis thinking the hall was gonna get burned down by a lady who also wanted to kill herself... what's the historical precedent for that? Is there a trope in medieval lit where people like... do that? I ask because uh. I am obsessed with Children of Hurin and there's a scene where that like, happens. And I'm obsessed with that scene, and would love to know if there's like, cultural/mythic context that would enrich my knowledge!

OH BOY, sorry I'm getting to this late, it's been uhhh a summer, but one, this is a very good question!! And two, yes there is absolutely precedent, particularly in early medieval literature, and high medieval literature set in the early medieval (circa 500-1100 AD) past. I'll let someone else debate how often people actually historically locked their enemies into a hall and burned them, but especially in Old Norse literature (and if Fellowship felt like it leaned a little more on Old English literature, Two Towers, where Eowyn appears, felt a little more Old Norse) this is common. Off the top of my head, you've got many Icelandic family feuds ending in burning the whole family in their hall, like Njal's Saga (Old Norse), Attila the Hun dramas (yeah he's a big guy in the burning halls circuit, but actually not in the way you might expect) like his cameos in Volsung Saga (Old Norse) and Nibelungelied (Middle High German), and my vague recollection of a few Irish and Welsh versions that no search engine is giving up for me right now.

This, predictably, got long and slightly off topic.

Disclaimer: As usual, I should say I come from an Old English-centric background, and Old English literature is actually notable among all its neighbors for not burning down too many halls. Second disclaimer, all links are not proper citations, they just go to wiki.

Hall-burning in literature is, to my understanding, part of the concerns of a few early medieval cultures in which revenge is not only expected but in many cases legally reinforced and codified, and one in which conflicts could spiral to engulf -- figuratively, or literally and in flames -- entire families. Many medieval Icelandic sagas are focused on this exact type of destruction of whole families or friendship/community units. Most relevant of these to Eowyn, Two Towers, and the vibes of Edoras (since alas I am only partway into RotK and can't speak to Children of Hurin yet!) is Volsung Saga, which is set on the Continent, not Iceland, and actually has to do with Attila the Hun. As mentioned before, an incredible amount of stuff turns out to have to do with Attila. We will come back to him!

So, on the particular post you're talking about, a few people iirc have replied pointing out that the hall in TT is clearly supposed to be based on a hall from Old English literature, namely the hall in Beowulf, which famously did not actually get burnt down. And that's all true! I was not posting with much nuance; I was mostly having a joke at the expense of CS Lewis. However, I was also referencing a very very common trope in Old Norse/early medieval stories, and I personally think JRR was as well (AND I think Beowulf was also very consciously referencing the exact same motif anyway) (no one has to agree with me, a tumblr blog, on any of these points).

The thing about the hall when our heroes approach is that the scariest damn thing in that hall is Eowyn. Certainly not every hall-burning story requires a woman with no other recourse to set the fire (in fact, the "warrior band approaches unknown hall which might have a grudge against them" is a trope that can get you killed in a pretty homosocial environment, as I guess Aragorn at least was aware, being a big reader). Still, the presence of a woman who is swiftly running out of options does fit what I'd consider one of the or perhaps The best known version of the early medieval burning hall trope: Gudrun, who shows up in at least a dozen different texts in both the Scandinavian and the German language traditions, including Volsung Saga, a text which itself often gets paraded around as the basis of lotr (which I'm sure it is, in that JRR appears to have simply and very fairly based lotr on every piece of early medieval vernacular literature I can think of).

In a portion of Gudrun's story (which of course changes a bit in each retelling), after her first marriage she is unhappily married to Atli, who is none other than our main man Attila the Hun. After Attila kills her brothers for reasons (in one version, her father), seeing no other way to take the necessary revenge and no other way out, she kills the two sons she had by him, serves them to Attila for dinner, has Attila killed, and then sets fire to the hall with everyone in it. After this, she attempts to drown herself.

The self-destruction of this act is a really important beat, and has only gotten more-so as a comparison to Eowyn the further I've read into RotK (currently, I'm at the houses of healing after merry and eowyn take on the witch king). It's a lot clearer in the book than the films, for me, that Eowyn going off to battle was not so a straightforward empowering and/or freeing move, despite allowing her some agency, but more the one path she saw as available to her with which to die with honor (which was pretty much exactly what Gudrun was facing as well). Like Gudrun, whose first husband was a great hero but has died, Eowyn's romantic choice is a hero who is presumed dead (sorry Aragorn they did Not believe in your ghost skills). In fact, in some versions Gudrun does put on armor and fight with her brothers before they're killed. She kills Attila with her own hand, with the help of another man who needs to avenge a blood feud against Attila.

So while Eowyn didn't get forced into marriage to Attila Wormtongue (with apologies to both historical Attila and that one historical skald also called Wormtongue who was reportedly hot) and burn the whole place down, she's still trapped, and like Gudrun chooses destruction alongside her household.

Reading her arc feels so much like watching Tolkien write a fix-it for Gudrun. What if she got this one little chance, and this one other little chance, and this one more -- tiny little shifts in the narrative that allow her to get out, and not through fire, and not through death.

Anyway, this got away from me. I hope it added some context to the Children of Hurin arson case! Thanks for the ask

[dreamingofalibrary]

Inspired by 《Rána》（The moon god）, a silmarillion fanfic written by Chorasmia. For thousands of years Elrond had been searching Maglor. Then Arwen. Then Eldarion who finally found Maglor at Tolfalas. People there worship Maglor as the moon god for silvery light of the Trees in his eyes and his healing power. They call him Rána, the wanderer, instead of his long-forgotten elf name.

[dreamingofalibrary]

🌟 Fëanor ♥ Nerdanel 🌟

[dreamingofalibrary]

Step into the unknown ’Cause this is where dreams are born Million miles away But it still feels like home In the land of heroes. Land of the Heroes Alan Walker, Sophie Stray

*cue intro*

—

Wanted to make a banner for my main page, but following the suggested image size means it looks great on desktop but terrible on the dashboard pop out (it’s too long…ugh) Whatever, I worked too hard on this so enjoy!

[dreamingofalibrary]

big brothers, big brothers, BIG BROTHERS

They’re watching the young ones commit chaos

[dreamingofalibrary]

The Four Sword

[dreamingofalibrary]

Day 13 Sepfember

OOT Zelda/Sheik + Fate

Sepfember 2024 prompts list by @rebornofstars

I don't know if this still fits into the Sepfember category since the Sheik image is more prominent than the Zelda one. Sorry if I'm wrong. This is my first time drawing Sheik and I had fun.

Posted using a schedule, because I'm not in front of the computer tonight. Hopefully there are no mistakes in this post.

[dreamingofalibrary]

I was thinking about Aragorn’s stupidly long legs again and I think it should be canon that he regularly smacks his forehead into low door frames and stuff. Just somwhere in Minas Tirith there’s a loud thunk followed by a long string of Sindarin swearwords and Arwen is like “ah yes, here he comes, the King of Gondor and Arnor, the love of my life.”

[dreamingofalibrary]

I shudder to imagine what was going through Maedhros's head in the aftermath of Sirion. Nothing good, that's for sure. Anyway, a note on character design, (It's his hair, of course it's his hair, I have no self control) when i draw him, his hair is a strong indicator of his mental state. At this point, he's so far gone that he doesn't even give enough of a shit to cut it short any more (which I hc as an act of reclaiming in the wake of angband, controlling one of the very few things he still can about his appearance.) P.S. I spent way too long on this to tolerate tumblr quality, so please click on it and take a closer look!

[dreamingofalibrary]

The faintest of aurora last night, but sadly cloud was too thick to really see her dancing