#My Finrod Headcanons

[inthehouseoffinwe]

Finrod and Maedhros in the halls or post embodiment talking about Sauron.

Not about the torture or the agony they went through, more like gossiping on how much of a peacock he was, strutting around and bragging about how beautiful he is.

If you came across them in the street you’d think they’re talking about one of those overdressed Tirion nobles, but then you hear “I preferred his torture to his speeches because dear Eru those were a whole new level of pain-“

“Heard all of two before being mauled. Definitely preferred the werewolf.”

Celebrimbor sometimes joins these sessions but he’s got the additional years of having known Annatar and it’s therapeutic to talk about how self absorbed he was to people who really understand. Safe to say Maedhros and Finrod sombrely commiserate the kid on dealing with that for centuries.

“How did you two become friends??”

“I think his vanity numbed my brain.”

“That’s fair.”

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

look if finwë’s kids are like this, and his grandkids are like that, i feel pretty secure in saying the elf himself must have been an absolute fucking nightmare. melkor made sure to take him out early because if given the slightest opportunity to level up he would immediately become unstoppable

[thesummerestsolstice]

Fic Concept: Erestor is Maglor, Lindir is Daeron, and Gildor is Finrod. They all live in Rivendell in the Third Age. They're all using elf magic to try and hide their identities, so they don't recognize each other.

Lindir has heard Galadriel call Gildor kin but assumes that Gildor is like, Finrod's son or something because Finrod would absolutely name a child "Gildor Inglorion."

Erestor has heard Lindir sing some very familiar old Sindarin lays but assumes that he must just know them because of how popuar Daeron's compositions were. Nevermind that many of them are lost to history by the Third Age.

Gildor knows Erestor is Feanorian because he's not as subtle as he thinks but he doesn't really sing around people anymore– because singing the Noldolante for thousands of years straight has made his voice extremely dangerous– so Gildor assumes he's just another old Feanorian follower.

Elrond and Gandalf are making bets about when they'll realize. Elrond bet it would happen before the Fourth Age. It's not looking good for them.

[echo-bleu]

Noldor Hair Headcanons (3/4)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | On AO3

Some lighter Kidnap Fam content, after the downhill freefall that was the last chapter. With a dash of Finrod in Valinor.

Elrond and Elros have never had their hair braided when they end up with Maedhros and Maglor.

They don’t realize what they’re asking when Elros grabs a hairbrush and puts it in Maglor’s hand.

Maglor understands that, but decides that the twins need parental care, even though he has no right. He brushes their hair and leaves it loose at first.

But the twins have watched Maglor braid Maedhros’s hair and they soon start asking for more interesting hairstyles.

Eventually Maglor explains to them that it can only be done by family.

The twins have a whole silent conversation.

“What does it take to be family?” Elros asks eventually.

Well, braiding an unrelated child’s hair is pretty close to informal adoption.

Elros forces the brush into Maglor’s hand again.

Maglor stares.

Elrond shakes his head and runs out.

Of course, Elrond must hate them. He has every right. Sure, Elros has started to warm up to them, but that’s just because he’s affection-starved, probably. They’re still kidnappers.

Maglor is about to put down the brush and try to refuse when Elrond comes back.

He’s holding a second hairbrush.

He hands it to Maedhros expectantly.

Maedhros cries.

Maglor cries.

The twins’ hair really doesn’t hold braids very well, and they’re still kids who run around and play, but damn them if Maglor and Maedhros aren’t going to do their best.

Now all of their people can see that the twins are well-loved.

Maedhros and Maglor also proudly sport a few clumsy, wonky braids each.

They’re less wonky with time, and eventually the twins are doing their fathers’ (kidnappers’) hair as often as not.

Finrod is reembodied shortly before Eärendil and Elwing gets to Valinor. It’s too early and he’s Not Doing Well. While in Middle Earth, he was the one who let basically every one of his friends braid his hair, now he can’t stand the thought of someone touching him that way.

But Beleriandic battle braids feel wrong in Tirion. And he’s desperately trying to reckon with his trauma, with Sauron defeating him by singing about the kinslaying, so he can’t leave his hair loose like the Teleri.

And he can’t quite get the sight of Edrahil’s bloody braids spat out by a werewolf out of his head.

He wears nothing but the very strange-looking (to Amanyar) Mourning Braids he designed after Dagor Bragollach for a couple of years.

Then after an episode of really bad depression and nearly fading, he cuts his hair short.

No-braiding-possible kind of short.

While not unheard of in Beleriand (sometimes former thralls keep their hair very short, like Rog), it’s unthinkable in Valinor, especially for the Crown Prince of the Noldor.

He is stared at a lot, his reputation goes down the drain, but to Finrod it’s liberating.

He does let his hair grow out again eventually, but only when other Exiles start coming back and choose to keep the Beleriandic braid styles, and it becomes a fashion statement rather than a mark of shame.

Finarfin is Very Shocked arriving in Beleriand when he finds his (single remaining) child with her hair loose and everyone else with weird self-braided battle hairstyles.

After a battle or three where he ends up with his hair matted with blood and mud, he caves and gets Galadriel to give him battle braids.

By the end of the war he’s even learned to do them himself! Let it not be said that King Arafinwë Ñoldóran didn’t rise to his calling.

The night before sending the Elrond and Elros to Gil-galad, Maedhros and Maglor undo all of their braids. Everyone cries.

Maedhros and Maglor meant this to minimize the ‘taint’ their names would put on the twins, by making it look like they were still hostages to the end, but the twins stop on the way to do each other’s hair because one does not meet a king with their hair loose, they have manners (which the Fëanorians taught them, so they’re Very Specific Manners), so the effect is lost. Gil-galad has Questions. The twins refuse to lie.

Then, before going to steal the Silmarils, Maedhros and Maglor do each other’s hair, in a style of their father’s that they haven’t worn since the Oath.

Maglor braids a single golden ribbon into Maedhros’s hair.

They have very few pieces of hair jewellery left of their brothers’, but they use all of them.

They both know it’s the last time.

To be continued

I did some sketches for visual reference of a few of the hairstyles mentioned here, if you want to see what I'm imagining!

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

i have to laugh about people complaining about how Bigoted and Disrespectful thingol is to the noldor as if he doesn't:

remain friends with finrod and tell him the location of nargothrond, which finrod goes on to be the king of - meaning thingol is fine with there being a noldorin elven ruler in beleriand

outright state that he will not cut ties with fingolfin and his followers, who do participate in the slaughter of his brother's people, merely because he sees that they've atoned for their actions

host galadriel in doriath and make no objection to her wedding with celeborn, his own grand-nephew - meaning he is also fine with noldor staying in his court and marrying into his own family

the only noldor whom he openly dismisses and dislikes are the fëanorians, who participated in the aforementioned slaughter of his brother's people, insult him, and refuse to acknowledge him as a king despite him having maintained his kingdom in beleriand since before they were born and certainly long before they came there. but that's just it isn't it. fandom can't handle someone in-universe disdaining their precious innocent war criminals and that's why everything bad that happens in the first age is thingol's fault. or the fault of his grandson for not giving the silmaril that his parents nearly died to obtain to the people who disrespected his grandfather and tried to rape his mother. or the fault of his great-granddaughter for not giving the silmaril to the people that sacked her home, killed her entire family including her brothers who were children, and made her a refugee as a toddler. it is definitely not the fault of the people who decided to do all the ambushing and attacking, no absolutely not. that's nonsense, they're just victims of tyrannical close-minded racist elu thingol and his equally entitled descendants :DDD

[wanderer-clarisse]

cousin bonding time (I like to imagine that Maedhros is the one who tied baby Finrod's hair!)

sorry for being suddenly inactive here lately, Things Happened and I haven't really had the time to sit down and draw until this week ;-; hope this little sketch can make up for it!

[straybreeze]

Silm characters as Tarot cards

Okay so I've been thinking on this lately. Maybe it's not completely correct, but I think most of them still fits (also I was very tempted to give Maedhros the Hanged Man card fdkglfkdk).

Also I wanted to exlcude all the valar and maiar and put only the children of Ilúvatar into this list. There is one extra, who is not exactly a Silm character, but oh well.

Also I'm open to any other ideas too!

I. The Magician: Fëanor II. The High Priestess: Aredhel III. The Empress: Galadriel IV. The Emperor: Thingol V. The Hierophant: Elrond VI. The Lovers: Beren and Lúthien VII. The Chariot: Fingon VIII. Strength: Fingolfin IX. The Hermit: Maglor X. The Wheel of Fortune: Tuor XI. Justice: Húrin XII. The Hanged Man: Finrod XIII. Death: Míriel XIV. Temperance: Finarfin XV. The Devil: Eöl XVI. The Tower: Turgon XVII. The Star: Eärendil XVIII. The Moon: Maeglin XIX. The Sun: Finwë XX. Judgement: Maedhros XXI. The World: Aragorn 0. The Fool: Túrin Turambar

[barelyanartblog]

Finrod came back a few hours later

(Based off a personal headcanon where Fingon, Finrod, and Maglor were all in a band together back in Valinor but were so toxic that they refuse to ever bring it up after their messy break-up)

[edennill]

So there he was, standing before the Powers of the World, breathlessly spilling the truth of his errand on the sand, word racing word, as if his breath could run out at any moment. Him, a mortal on this shore that he was forbidden to set foot on, who did not want to break that ancient law, unsure whether it was virtue or sin — he said that last part loud —and the words kept flowing, the incoherent ramblings of an older man, he guessed, but hoped it didn't matter. He had come with no prepared speech, or maybe he had tried and forgotten it all when the moment came, did Eärendil prepare his words, he wondered — and again he was speaking this loud, his thoughts rushing through his lips in the order that they came — and then one of the Lords; the Elder King he thought — and trembled, how could he be speaking to the Elder King — raised his hand, and Amandil felt rather than heard the command to cease, and so he did. With a last desparate effort he opened all the barriers of his mind, breathed rather than shouted "See!" and, exhausted, fell upon the ground.

He felt someone, he did not know who, brush over his mind, feather-light, and then he opened his eyes and saw the Lord of the West had crouched in front of him. It seemed incongruous. He did not have the strength of body and spirit to get up and change the tableau.

“Child.”

He was heard and answered.

~ part of a fic I will probably never finish that I found in my notes app

[stacytea]

Okay, but our bois be like: - Fingon: signs up important documents with pink glittery ink - Finrod: signs up important documents with golden glittery ink - Ereinion Gil-galad: draws little hearts all over important documents

[eldal0te]

Gil-Galad origin story of the day: he is the son of Finrod and Amarië. Or rather, he is the son of Finrod and Edrahil.

We are told that Amarië wanted to follow Finrod into exile, but was not permitted to. So she didn’t. In the general confusion that occurred, I imagine it would be easy for someone to disappear (Amarië is angry now, she is just ignoring everyone, give her a moment and she will come back, right?). Nobody hears about Amarië following Finrod, it’s Edrahil who follows him instead (by the time her family realizes what happened they are already on the ice). Is Amarië pretending to be a guy because it’s easier at the moment? Is Edrahil a trans guy who used that moment to come out? Who knows.

When Beren comes to Nargothrond, Edrahil decides to follow Finrod into the danger again. The moment he picks the crown and asks Finrod to choose the steward it be given to, he also asks him to choose the guardian for their underage son. 

The events of Tol-in-Gaurhoth are already one of the most dramatic moments in Silmarillion, let’s make them even more depressing by making it the moment Gil-Galad loses both of his parents

[inthehouseoffinwe]

Just cause I think this would be cute for the Finwëans (because large extended family yanno.) Bear with me, this needs a little context.

In my culture we don’t call older siblings by their names. More than respect, we do it as a form of endearment. For example, the oldest sister is ‘Apama’

Apa - Sister (affectionate)

Ma - short form of mother (also affectionate)

Another example is ‘Apajaan’, jaan as a generic term of endearment. Usually used for people you’re close to. This also applies to older cousins, especially first cousins who get the next closest endearments. Or if you only have brothers or only have sisters, they’d take the ones available.

Eg. I don’t have any sisters but I have an older female first cousin. I’d call her Apama.

Or maybe I don’t have any older brothers, so I call my male first cousin ‘Bhaijaan’ (Bhai = brother)

SO I think it would be super cute if our resident Aman born elves with their hundred names, also had these terms for their older siblings. It would probably only be used if there’s a significant age gap, so Mae and Mags would call each other by their names, Celegorm, Caranthir, and Curufin all use each other’s names.

All of Fingon’s younger siblings call him by an endearment. Argon also uses one for Turgon and Aredhel.

All of Finrod’s siblings call him by an endearment. Aegnor and Angrod call each other by names. Galadriel doesn’t because she wants to be Different TM but it comes out in moments of high emotion. Orodreth (because I like adding him even if it was one mistake in the official stuff) calls everyone but Galadriel by one.

Ambarussa use a big sister endearment for Aredhel, since she’s so often hanging Celegorm and they see her the most. And an older cousin term for Galadriel.

The Nolofinwëans and Arafinwëans use endearments for their respective older cousins, and those of similar ages, but only those still somewhat close to the Fëanorions use any for them once they leave for Formenos.

The exception is Maedhros and potentially Maglor (depending when he was born) as the first grandchildren with a larger age gap to the rest of the family. Everyone has to call them by some term, even if it’s just out of respect. Fingolfin and Finarfin ensured this out of love for the eldest kids.

Onto Finwë’s kids.

Fëanor is oldest so it doesn’t really matter. He doesn’t particularly care if the others call him by his name or anything else.

All of Findis’ younger siblings call her by an endearment.

Fingolfin and Lalwen are pretty close in age so they call each other by names mostly (we have some more generic equal terms too.) Fingolfin probably used something for Fëanor until pride took over both brothers.

Finarfin is the baby of the family and generally a ball of sunshine until they throw the crown at him. He calls everyone by something, including Fëanor because let’s face it. He’s probably old enough to be Finarfin’s dad by the time he’s born 😂

Now the interesting thing would be seeing how these relationships dissolve over time, and when they lose these terms of respect or endearment. When the younger members start calling their siblings or cousins by their names instead. Because I don’t think it would change just because of a new language.

Most of them start calling Maedhros by his name only after the first kinslaying and Helcaraxë. Some of them return to calling him by an honorific when they see what Morgoth did to him and he gives up the crown to keep peace.

They all stop calling the rest of the Fëanorions anything but their names though. The exceptions are Fingon (who only used one for Maglor other than Mae, and that was more out of general affection than because he was older) and Finrod.

Finrod has one for Celegorm as well (he is in fact a bit younger) which he uses until the Nargothrond situation because listen. I sincerely doubt Finrod would’ve just let Celegorm and Curufin in freely if he didn’t have a good relationship with them.

Turgon starts calling Fingon by name sometimes after losing Elenwë. He doesn’t know why, he shouldn’t be angry at his brother… but he doesn’t have anywhere else to take out his fury. Fingon’s heartbroken, but he understands.

No one calls Turgon anything but his name after his disappears. Ironically enough Turgon starts calling Maedhros and Fingon by theirs again once he moves away.

Depending on their mood, the twins do or don’t call Aredhel by hers. They don’t blame her exactly, but it hurts that she’s gone. Then again, it’s not like they don’t deserve it after the boats. The younger Arafinwëans are a little less forgiving.

All the younger Fëanorions and Nolofinwëans call Angrod by name after the ban on Quenya. Some of them do the same to Finrod.

Galadriel completely stops using any and all terms after deciding to stay in Doriath. Catching herself even in those high emotion situations where it would sometimes come out. No one’s really surprised but it does hurt her brothers and Nolofinwëan cousins. She regrets this in the Second and especially Third Ages, and exclusively uses endearments when talking about them to keep some connection to her lost family.

Meanwhile on a faraway shore, Finarfin alternates between cursing his brothers and sisters’ names, and crying alone under still unfamiliar moonlight, calling for them in every term of endearment he can think of. They never answer.

…I’m sorry, this got kinda angsty towards the end 😂

Feel free to ask if you have any questions!

[nelyos-right-hand]

I don't know how much we know about Osanwë but I'm pretty sure that it can be used to convey memories as much as thoughts. So here's a headcanon:

In the first age, elves were looking for a way to honor the dead and make sure that they were never forgotten. So it became a tradition that, if someone saw an elf die, they would share that memory with the dead elf's family so that he would always be remembered.

Those memories would also be "given along" the generations and parents would share the memories of the last moments of their relatives with their children as soon as they thought them old enough to deal with, you know, seeing someone die.

This results in Elrond remembering the death of almost every member of the house of Finwë even if most of them died years before he was born. The only people he doesn't remember dying are Maedhros, Maglor, Celebrimbor, Fingolfin and Finwë himself because they died all alone.

[actual-bill-potts]

Finrod, upon being reembodied in Aman, feels lost. First Noldo to return, the only child left of the house of Finwë where once the streets of Tirion and the beaches of Alqualondë, the halls of the palace and the cozy walls of Arafinwë’s house, had rung with merry laughter.

His father had met him outside the Halls of Mandos, eyes alight with such terrible hope that Finrod had been almost afraid. Never had he seen such an expression upon his father’s face, not even when he had turned away from all his children and gone back to Tirion with head bowed. (But then, his father had not spent half a millennium without his children. Then, his father had not felt his sons fall to dragon and wolf, felt their pain and terror and confusion.)

But then Arafinwë had caught sight of him, and there was such joy upon his face that Finrod forgot the words that had passed between them when it became apparent that Arafinwë would not follow his brother into exile; forgot the years leading his House alone; forgot even, for a moment, the knowledge of how it felt to be ripped apart so wholly you could not understand the shape of your fëa. He forgot all, in the rush to fling his arms about his father and be embraced in turn. Atya was weeping into his shoulder, and Finrod was crying in turn, and he let himself be held as he had not since long before that terrible dark night in Tirion.

And when they returned to Tirion, and his mother embraced him in turn, arms strong about him and words of forgiveness spoken on both sides—still then he had felt nothing but joy.

But with the passing of time, some of that had—faded—and now Finrod wanders the hills about Tirion, lost and longing for something he cannot name.

Part of it is grief. Everyone in Aman knows grief, now; the Teleri cruelly slain had learned it well, and the Noldor forever sundered from their kin no less. But there is still the certainty, beneath the loss: no one is gone forever. The dead Teleri, killed for their ships, had marched home singing long ago. Finrod himself, Doomed and Returned, can see the hope dawning in the eyes of the Noldor who look at him. He is back! they seem to say, he is back, and if he is back why should not my beloved be returned?

But what of the Atani?

Finrod had known, in Endórë, that his fate was sundered from Men. He had felt it keenly as they died: slowly, one after another, in the long years of peace, then quickly and brutally, when their Leaguer was broken. Still he had had hope. He was Doomed, with little hope of mercy; why, after all, might he not see the Atani again, in whatever place he was sent after his ending?

Now he knows: they are gone. Gone beyond the world, and no hope of reunion. Balan, Baran, Barahir, Beren, even Lúthien: gone past recall. And there is no one else in Aman who knew them; no one else who loved them; no one with whom he can grieve as mortals grieve.

He sits, in the hills, and waits. He is weary. There is joy—of course there is joy!—but there is so much sorrow. So many gone, and none who can understand.

What is he waiting for?

I can understand, says a voice next to Finrod, and he looks up to see—

A hooded figure, garbed in gray, shoulders shaking, sorrow-cloaked—

This is the Lady Nienna.

Finrod kneels. "My Lady," he says, "what would you have of me?"

It is so rare, to see Nienna. Others among the Valar had visited often, Oromë and Ulmo, Vána and Estë, to rejoice at celebrations and wonder at children born. But Nienna was locked in grief, and would not venture forth.

Nienna’s voice comes again, haunted with sorrow. I would have you follow me. I grieve with you, for the Secondborn who are so bright and beautiful, and fade so soon. Perhaps you, in turn, may grieve with me, and give comfort to those who come to my dwelling.

You have walked long in sorrow, Friend of Men. You have loved mortals, and have not feared their loss as it breaks you. The Atani had much to teach you—and you in turn have much to teach us, if you are willing.

Finrod has begun to weep, though he hardly feels it. He does not hesitate. "My Lady of Sorrows, my Lady of Mercy," he says, "I will follow you. Through sorrow to joy."

I am sorrow, Nienna responds, her voice like the tolling of a great bell, but through me, to joy will you walk.

[echo-bleu]

Yesterday I posted more Noldor Hair Headcanons (Part 1 | Part 2 | On AO3 and @alqualonde-s wrote in the tags that she'd like some visuals. As it happens, I have very clear mental images of each hairstyle in the fic, so I did some sketches!

(individual sketches under the cut, terrible ID in alt)

Here we have:

a very sad injured Finrod with his mourning braids

Galadriel wearing the crown braids they devised on the Helcaraxë to protect their ears

Maglor and his far-too-complex mourning braids

Lalwen wearing armour and battle braids

Turgon wearing a formal style, black/kinky hair edition.

I didn't have designs yet for Lalwen and Turgon but I'm happy with these!

I'm not always consistent with my hairstyle headcanons in my art, but as a bonus, some hairstyles I've drawn before:

Finarfin in semi-formal Tirion style

Maedhros in battle styles here and here

Maglor in a slightly silly Fëanorian style

Finrod in fully formal Tirion style

Finrod in semi formal Tirion (or formal Nargothrond style)

Celebrimbor in a mixed late-Fëanorian and dwarven style

Fingolfin and Fingon in semi-formal Tirion styles (with Anairë in a simpler style)

Celegorm with his hunting braids

Elrond in a late-Fëanorian style

Fingon in two formal Tirion styles (but in trad pencil)

Bonus: "Elwing's hair floats around her as she falls."

[fistfuloflightning]

When Curufin first sees the Nauglamir about the throat of the upstart king, it is Celegorm of all her brothers who keeps her from slaying Dior in his own throne room. They had come to treat for the silmaril, but even as the Oath eats away at her the longer she looks at it, all she can feel is rage.

It was a mortal who desecrated her husband’s city, pillaged her husband’s treasures, and it was an elf lord who took them and turned them into a mockery. Thingol had once called Arafinwe’s children kin, but through his greed he spat upon Finrod’s grave. It is a pity Thingol died when he did—Curufin can only hope the dwarves butchered him thoroughly on her behalf.

It is Finrod’s gift about the peredhel’s neck, and she wishes it were her hands. She knows every strand of gold and mithril, every jewel and crystal strung in glittering pendants. Green stones that Feanor had gifted them on their wedding day, two of which Curufin had wrought into a serpentine ring. Golden stones that glowed with the trapped light of Curufin’s forges, a meager attempt at replicating her father’s works. Shimmering pearls Earwen had crowned her son and grandson with at Celebrimbor’s birth. All these he had brought from Aman—treasures that he had been unable to be parted from, and that he had carried with him even over the Grinding Ice. That the dwarves had painstakingly crafted into a gift for him that he wore until the day he parted from Curufin for the last time.

It is her father’s silmaril the peredhel wears, but it is also her husband’s legacy. And when Dior turns them away and shuts them out of Doriath, she can only mourn all over again.

She continues to lose him, piece by piece. The things they created together—their children, their craftsmanship—all unraveling. And she can feel herself doing the same.