#Nerdanel and Feanor’s scenes in this fic are so fun to write

[thescrapwitch]

Hello! I keep wanting to message you so I’m gonna use your fic game ask post as an excuse, lol! XD

If you’d care to indulge me, I’d love to see the Flip Flop version of Feanor and Nerdanel’s first reunion in “From Ruins We Grow.” (Love this fic so much. 🥰) I’d love to see what all she was thinking and feeling going to meet him again after so long. 👀

Thank you!

Thank you! You can message me anytime, I love talking about my fics 😊

Fun fact: I had no idea Nerdanel was going to show up so early in the fic, but she kind of burst onto the page, making me just as surprised as Fëanor was. I thought she would stay back until chapter 7 or 8, but nope! She was determined to be a bigger part of this fic and face him.

Here’s a little bit of their first scene together but from her POV:

“Fëanor.” The name came out of Nerdanel’s mouth like a curse, burning her tongue as she spoke it.

He looked - damn him, he looked like he had years and years ago. Dark hair a mess, eyes catching her heart with how they dazzled in the light. But gone was his grin: determined, self-assured, full of promises. In its place was a hesitancy, a vulnerability that made him look ready to crumble if she stepped too close.

A part of her wanted to step closer. To hit him, to hold him, to shake him hard until answers fell out. Why did you damn our lives, why did you drag my babies away, why did you lead them to death and ruin? Why was our life not enough for you?

Why did you have to come back?

Why couldn’t you have stayed?

“I have brought your pots,” she said instead, her hands balled into fists.

“Thank you.” He spoke softly. That was new as well. No demands, no yelling. The fire that always shone in his speech had been dimmed. His eyes never once left her face, as though trying to memorize every tiny detail. “Is your father well?”

“Yes,” said Nerdanel, surprised that he would care enough to ask. “I told him I wanted to see you. Alone.”

Fëanor’s eyes became bright, his lips turning into a smile. “I have wanted to see you as well.”

Of all the things to say! The nerve of him to throw that at her, after everything! “You left,” she said, daring him to argue back, to start a fight.

He did not take the bait. “Yes.”

“You took our sons.”

“Yes.”

“They are dead.” The grief of it tore at her, the thought of all her babies lying dead and broken, or burnt to ashes, or drowned alone in cold, faraway waters. “All of them are dead, and so were you.”

“I am sorry,” he said, and even in her anger she knew that he meant it. “I did not want to come back without them.”

“Are they - ” Nerdanel turned away, suddenly unable to look at him. Do not break, not now, not when your pride is all you have left. “Are they well, in Mandos? Or did you damn our children to eternal darkness?”

“They are in the Halls,” he said. “They are no longer in any danger or pain.”

Nerdanel nodded, her mouth pressed into a thin, hard line. She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, a pain so deep in her heart that it nearly knocked her to her knees. My three middle ones slain at Doriath, my youngest two cut down in Sirion, my beautiful eldest jumped into fire, my sweet little singer lost to the sea - and my husband - my damn husband nothing but ashes -

Fëanor reached for her hand. “Nerdanel - ”

She jerked away. It was his fault, after all, that her babies were dead. “Your pots are this way,” she said, and led him to the cart.

[muse-write]

☔️

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

There are so many fic concepts in my notes, it’s almost overwhelming. I may be able to find ways of incorporating elements of them into larger stories somehow, hopefully, but I’ll list out a few ideas here.

First: back when I was really into the Scarlet Pimpernel and Georgette Heyer, I came up with the seemingly brilliant idea of: Feanorian family drama but as a Georgian-era comedy of manners. I wrote a few scenes for fun but it wasn’t something I was seriously working on and I can’t see myself actually writing multiple chapters of it, so I’ll post some bullet points from the brainstorming:

Sons of an English Duke, Feanor and Fingolfin get into a duel at a party, enmity sparked by the machinations of Morgoth; afterward, Feanor and his sons retreat to France for years afterward.

Elrond and Elros were actually going to be refugees of the French Revolution—I couldn’t quite figure out how to include the oath or kinslayings

Morgoth haunts the narrative, inticing Maedhros into returning to England and getting involved in yet another duel, in which he’s disfigured. His estranged cousin Fingon takes him in and looks after him as he heals.

It was fun, if not very well thought through!

Another really fun AU that I kind of want to return to one day is my Gothic Romance/Rebecca-inspired Nerdanel and Feanor retelling. Set in the early 1900s, Nerdanel marries the haunted genius inventor Feanor, but upon moving to his lonely mansion, learns that his house really is haunted by the ghosts of his mother and Morgoth, whose role (a demon? A ghost? A former enemy?) was never quite decided. Nerdanel teams up with Feanor’s brothers, who work as paranormal investigators, to find a way of saving her husband as he descends further into hubris and insanity.

Nerdanel’s story would be paralleled with Indis’, who decades earlier came to live in the same house with her widowed husband, Finwe—whose late wife she could swear she hears laughing in the hallways and in empty rooms—and his glowering, brilliant child, who hates the very sight of his new stepmother.

I had only vague plans for this one; really all of my ideas were more about atmosphere and the vibes and inspos (Rebecca, Crimson Peak, etc.). It’s still something I can see potential in if I could ever figure out the themes.

Thank you for asking! This was so much fun!

[kendrixtermina]

Further reactions to "The book of lost tales":

I appreciate that Idril canonically wears armor and does swordfighting.

I feel like I can actually imagine adult!Idril much better now like in armor and with open hair, distraught but ready to fight while babby Earendil does not yet realize the danger...

My first thought is that Earendil was probably cute in that baby chainmail. My second thought is OUCH, Idril and Tuor always made sure their growing baby had fitting chainmail cause they felt the apocalypse might get them at any moment. Imagine that, imagine them having the baby armor fitted every year or so :(

Its fun how much of the basic structure already exists but most of what you'd consider the main characters doesn't exist or is scattered across various minor roles The only Prince anywhere in sight is Turgon - Except for Team Doriath, theyre all accounted for. I suppose Maeglin is kinda there in name only with vaguely the same role & motivation, but looks personality and background all did a 180 since. Luthien is still pretty much "princesd classic" at this point, not quite the fearless go-getter from the final version - markedly this version tells Beren that she doesnt want to wander in the wilderness with him whereas the final one says she doesnt care and its Beren still wants to get the shiny so as not to ask this of her and also for his honor.

I mean in the finished version Id consider the 3rd and 4th gen royals to be the main characters (well, alobgside Team Doriath and the varioud human heroes) and theyre hardly here. Imagine the silm with no Finrod!

Feanor had no affiliation with the royal family whatsoever, and is also generally less super. He's just the guy who won the jewelsmithing competition, not the inventor of the whole discipline. Still seems to have been envisionad as a respected member of the community who gets called to the palace for crisis meetings and is listened to when he stsrts giving speeches. From the first he already has the backstory of going off the deep end (or at least growing disillusioned with Valinor) after a family member is killed by Melkor and theyre still the first to die, but its just some other rando unrelated to the royals

The situation regarding the humans is different - instead of Melkor leaking their existence, its Manwe who explains that the other continents were supposed to be for them eventually. So Feanor goes off on a tirade about weak puny mortals comes off as a more of a jerk unlike in the final version where Melkor barely knew about the humans and described them to the Noldor as a threat. On the other hand in this one, also very much unlike in the finished product, Melkor dupes even Manwe into being unfair to the elves as a whole. In this the final version is a definite improvement, both Feanor and the Valar come off as a lot more sympathetic and though still deceived he's partially right in some things at least, so you have more of a genuine tragedy rather than a simple feud

There is something to the idea of Commoner!Feanor tho. I guess some of this survived in his nomadic explorer lifestyle and how both his wife and mother (who arent mentioned here) eventually were the ones to get that background of being not especially pretty ladies who are not from the nobility but got renown, respect and acclaim for their unique talent and contribution to society, with each having invented things and Nerdanel also being renowed for her wisdom. Hes sort of an odysseus-like Figure in that sense. I suppose later developements necesitated that Maedhros & co. have an army not just a band of thieves, which means they needed to be nobles/lords. That said this being a society where artisans are very respected and half the lords have scholarly/artistic pursuits going, the gap was probably not as big to begin with as it might have been in say, medieval England. Esoecially since Nerdanel's father had been given special honor by one of the local deities and that the social order might have been a very recent thing in Miriel's time. One might speculate that the first generation of Lords started out as warriors during the great journey, or perhaps just Finwe's friend group.

Also found that bit intetesting where the Valar have to deal with the remaining political tensions and effects of Melkor's lies on the remaining population in Valinor... - i guess with the change of framing device it was less likely for news of something like this to reach Beleriand. That, or the existence of Finarfin and his repentance made this go smoother this over in later cannon

Turgon's go-down-with-the-ship moment reaaly got to me. Im half tempted to write a fic where his wife, siblings and dad glomp him on arrival in Mandos. I dont care that none of them exists yet in this continuity i want Turgon to get hugs

I love all the additional Detail that got compressed out in the shift from fairytale-ish to pseudohistoric style especially all the various Valinor magic insofofar as it is compatible with the final version - particularly love the idea of the connection between the lamps and the trees that is now integrated into my headcanon forever

Its actually explained what the doors of night are

If I had not already read unfinished tales or volumes X to XII where this is also apparent, this is where I would say: Ah so the Valar were supposed to be flawed characters. Manwe has an actual arc; by the time he sends Gandalf he finally "got" it. I think in the published silm the little arcs of Ulmo and Manwe are mostly just lost in compression/ less apparent when only some of the relevant scenes got in but not all

It occurred to me way too late that the "BG" chars are the most consistent because theyre at the start and most stories are written from beginning to end. Finwe doesnt get a dedicated paragraph of explicit description until HoME X but my takeaway was that he's described pretty much like I always imagined him anyways/ same vibe I always got from him... charismatic, thoughtful, enthusiastic, sanguine temperament, brave in a pinch but at times lets his judgement be clouded by personal sentiment (though that last bit is more apparent/salient as a character flaw once he became the father of a certain Problem Child) ...i guess this would be a result of jrrt having had a consistent idea of him in his head for a long time.

This means Finwe's still alive at the time of the exodus which is just fun to see/interesting to know... Interestingly he sort of gets what later would be Finarfin's part of ineffectually telling everxone to please chill and think it over first while Feanor simply shouts louder (which is consistent with his actions before the sword incident in later canon where he initially spoke out against the suspiciozs regarding the Valar) - but its not exactly the same, he's more active than Finarfin later in that when "chillax" availed nothing he said that then at least they should talk with the other Kings and Manwe to leave with their blessing and get help leaving (This seems like it would have been the clusterfuck preventing million dollar suggestion in the universe where Feanor is related to him and values him) but when even that falls on death ears he decides that he "would not be parted from his people" and went to run the preparations. I find it interesting that the motivation is sentiment/attachment (even phrased as "he would not be parted from [his people]" same words/ expression as is later used for the formenos situation), not explicitly obligation as it later is for Fingolfin (who had promised to follow Feanor and didnt want to leave his subjects at the mercy of Feanor's recklessness )

Speaking of problem children. It seems the sons of Feanor were the Kaworu Nagisa of the Silmarillion in that originally all they do is show up at some point and kill Dior as an episodic villain-of-the-week. And then, it seems their role got bigger in each continuity/rewrite... probably has something to do with the Silmarils ending up in the title later making it in the sense their story that ends and begins with them. They have zero characterization beyond "fierce and wild" at this point, though in what teetsy bits there is we already have the idea that Maedhros is the leader and Curufin is the smart one/shemer/sweet-talker, though not the bit where Maedhros (or Maglor, or anyone really) is "the nice one". Which I guess explains why "Maglor" sounds like such a stereotypical villain name.

"The Ruin of Doriath" was purportedly the patchworkiest bit of the finished product, but I never noticed and it actually left quite an impression of me upon first reading, the visual of Melian sitting there with Thingol's corpse in her arms contemplating everything thinking back to how they met... she had the knowledge to warn him not to doom himself but couldnt get him to understand it because he doesnt see the world as she does.... After reading this though I wish there was a 'dynamic' rendition that combined all the best bits like, youd have to adapt it to the later canon's rendition of the dwarves, have Nargothrond exist etc. But i mean that just makes Finrod another dead/doomed relative of Thingol's whom bling cannot truly replace, like Luthien and Turin. In the Silmarillion you could easily read it as just an "honoured guest treatment" but here and in unfinished tales I get the impression that Thingol actually did see Turin as a son.

Already you see the idea of trying to make the stories all interconnected but there is less than there will be (the human heroes aren't related yet and there is basically no Nargothrond, which is later a common thread for many of the stories - a prototype shows up in the 'Tale of Turambar' tho complete with half baked prototypes of Orodreth and Finduillas

O boi im not even through yet

[thelioninmybed]

fanfic trope replies

gileonnen replied to your post “Soulmate au 👼”

But what if the elves keep inventing written languages /because their soulmate marks are written in whatever will be the dominant writing system when they meet/--there is a real and urgent need to decode those marks as soon as possible, which actually creates the very muddle that it was meant to solve.

The paradox this creates is making my brain hurt therefore it is a good and proper theory and must be incorporated into the AU asap. 

mmarycontrary replied to your post“Soulmate au 👼”

...piped soulmate marks?

FINE YOU WIN that’s the best possible joke.

imindhowwelayinjune replied to your post “mmm what about Person A whump in front of an emotionally invested...”

........i need this powerful bad, run away celebrimbor

How did this turn into something so in character (and so viley compelling?) 

imindhowwelayinjunereplied to your photo “AU in which Celegorm isn’t a reprehensible fuckboi (okay I know it’s...”

my least favorite thing about celegorm is that he smells like murder children :P

You’re a liar; we both know you don’t have a least favourite thing about him. 

imindhowwelayinjune replied to your post “pick your poison: 1) de-aging 2) superhero AU 3) fake-married.. :)))...”

aredhel and maedhros kick back with lemonades and enjoy watching their beefcake throw dogs all over the place, it's way lower maintenance than the alternative

the alternative being them getting benchpressed as part of the escalating contest (it’s not so much the being lifted that’s objectionable but the being unable to watch their muscles flex from that angle) 

imindhowwelayinjune replied to your post “for the meme: role reversal AU!”

brb writing beren's version of victorian rejection verses

please

crocordile replied to your post “for the meme: role reversal AU!”

I THINK YOU ARE JOKING BUT I'M LEGIT INTRIGUED NOW WTF

this was 100% a cunning trap to lure you into drawing it

erotetica replied to your post “pick your poison: 1) de-aging 2) superhero AU 3) fake-married.. :)))...”

they are the BEST ideas, you can tell bc the only difference between 1 and canon is that the obnoxious-but-emotionally-vulnerable child is arguably taller and imprints on Nerdanel instead.

I like that he’s only arguably taller, are we going with only his mind got deaged, baby Feanor was a giant or adult Feanor is really short? I love every option. 

crocordile replied to your photo “AU in which Celegorm isn’t a reprehensible fuckboi (okay I know it’s...”

my friend lise has this wonderful AU where something like this happens and also Beren/Lúthien and a threesome at some point i think :') I love this au, but it really relies on celegorm being less of an asshole ofc hahahaha

valaraukars replied to your photo “AU in which Celegorm isn’t a reprehensible fuckboi (okay I know it’s...”

and then beren and celegorm make out! 

actually yes I was also just about to comment about lise's AU, it is excellent

I can’t believe you would both bring this up and then not link me???

simaethae replied to your post “mmm what about Person A whump in front of an emotionally invested...”

slfjbglbg

I did, if I’m entirely honest, write that with you in mind. 

valaraukars replied to your post “mmm what about Person A whump in front of an emotionally invested...”

how do u always manage to hit exactly on my points of interest... like... unfair. but also, CoH is so creepy. sometimes I nearly forget, but it's so creepy wow. DID melkor install 90s soft light curtain fades into depictions of graphic scenes? like, I dont wanna know, but I'm still thinking abt it now

THIS is how we know Melkor’s really evil, there are some lines you really shouldn’t fucking cross, god what a creeper. 

vardasvapors replied to your post “kidfic fluff without deconstructionism”

I WOULD READ THIS ENTIRE FIC WHY DID U TEASE ME

vardasvapors replied to your post “Coffee shop AU”

GLORIOUS. I WOULD READ IT AND I NEVER READ THIS GENRE.

vardasvapors replied to your post “ABO mpreg. for the meme.”

i would, in fact, like more of this. i never say this about any abo ever so consider it a compliment.

VV no these are BAD ideas and you should FEEL BAD for wanting them. 

imindhowwelayinjune replied to your post “Meme: "aliens made them do it" or "fuck or die"?”

I am increasingly liking how fingon/finrod is less of a ship than a sled

I mean it’d have to be, all the ships got burnt.

emilyenrose replied to your post “ABO mpreg. for the meme.”

oh no I would read it

I know. (still not convinced you weren’t the anon)

erotetica replied to your post “Coffee shop AU”

WOW. also ft. nerdanel's killer scones that don't deserve this

Nerdanel’s killer scones, the one place in this AU where ‘killer’ is not used literally. 

imindhowwelayinjune replied to your post “kidfic fluff without deconstructionism”

That last line is literally everything we need to know

PROTECT HIM. From himself, mostly. 

berrysphase replied to your post “ABO mpreg. for the meme.”

Actually this is hilarious and all too fitting and makes Thingol's overprotectiveness of Luthien more fun

Right, he is not going through all that morning sickness again

imindhowwelayinjune replied to your post “Coffee shop AU”

GRINDING ICE I hate u

shut up I’m great

simaethae replied to your post “Coffee shop AU”

this is just going to be all the worst tropes isn't it

simaethae replied to your post “ABO mpreg. for the meme.”

i take it all back, this is beautiful

Coffee Shop AU: Disgusting, get it away from me. ABO Mpreg: tell me more. I’m not judging you but- no I definitely am. 

melody-chii replied to your post “kidfic fluff without deconstructionism”

omg maedhros plz you're such a pitiful wreck and i love you

what are you talking about, he’s clever and mature and makes great life choices.