#Sindar

[arlenianchronicles]

Just a little sketch of Beren and Luthien sharing a hidden kiss! I wasn't sure what to do for the background so I just gave up on it loll But I still love these two very much :'''D

Also, I've been posting my "not appropriate for eyeballs" Beren/Luthien art on AO3, so if y'all are interested, feel free to check it out! It includes a bunch of melons, peaches, and a side helping of eggplants; and it's my first foray into the super spicy art stuff, so I appreciate the support! loll ^^;;

[inthehouseoffinwe]

Crack idea: Elrond’s tired of elves constantly asking him to be king, and when they finally say ‘if not you, at least choose one of your sons!’ plonks the crown on Aragorn.

He has the training. The skills. Is well known and generally loved by the vast majority of elves anyway.

And if they don’t like it? Well. They should’ve been more specific.

It’s worth mentioning Thranduil finds the whole thing *hilarious* and doesn’t even try to hide that he’s sending his most problematic elves Aragorn’s way. Elrond and Galadriel start doing the same and we end up with Gondor filled with hardcore Doriathrim and Fëanorians.

The only reason they’re not throwing hands is the position of High King is cursed and no one wants to answer to Elrond if his youngest son gets so much as a paper cut on their watch. Especially since this whole thing is their fault. Aragorn ends up with a constant guard of Sindar and Noldor he can’t shake off no matter what he does.

[velvet4510]

I don’t think any of us should ever overlook Celeborn’s love for Galadriel, because it’s really something.

Usually in Tolkien’s texts, it’s the girl following the guy. Lúthien followed Beren to Tol-in-Gaurhoth and Angband and later into death itself, Níniel followed Turambar to Cabed-en-Aras, Elwing followed Eärendil to Valinor, Éowyn followed Faramir to Ithilien, Arwen followed Aragorn to Gondor and later into death itself, etc. Not that this is a bad thing, not at all. (It should never be deemed disempowering for a woman to follow a man she loves and who loves her and treats her right, if that is her choice.) But overall, considering the wide variety of couples in Middle-earth, it does get repetitive sometimes.

Yet with these two, it’s the opposite. Celeborn always followed Galadriel.

When Galadriel departed Doriath, Celeborn went with her. He left all his kin behind to be with her. We don’t know for sure how his kin reacted to his relationship with a Noldo, but it could very well be that they eloped. She was just that important to him.

Then for the next 2 ages, they endured all sorts of trials and tribulations together across Middle-earth and eventually settled down in Lothlórien. There, Celeborn never tried to make Galadriel subservient to him. She had as much say in how things were run as he himself did. They were true co-rulers, equals in every way.

Then finally, Celeborn temporarily let Galadriel go. He was alright with her leaving on the White Ship to see their daughter and her parents and brothers again, while he stayed behind to finish what needed to be finished. He didn’t force her to stay with him when he himself could not (yet) leave. He didn’t hold her back from reuniting with people she loved and had lost so long ago.

And ultimately, Celeborn followed Galadriel once again. Though he was a Sinda born and bred, and never before had any desire to cross the Sea, he left his own homeland behind forever to reunite with her in her homeland. She still was just that important to him.

This guy was down bad for this girl. He lived his whole life drunk on wifeguy juice. Respect Celeborn.

[sakasakiii]

a while ago i was sent an ask from @waterjewelsspite (answered below) wherein i was asked about different elven fashions.... so from left to right: doriathrim fashion, teleri + nargothrond fashion, vanya fashion :DD these have been sitting in my drafts as uncoloured wips since early 2022 omg, but better late than never i suppose !!!

i didnt have a specific sketch page for the noldor that i did back then hahahaha so i came back to it recently and took it as a chance to do some assorted concept doodles with the kind of outfits i imagine them wearing in mundane situations? i dont quite know how to explain it but i hope my annotations can help show my thought process a bit!!

cant believe it took me this long to give like half the characters proper fullbody refs or designs (im looking at YOU beleg and mablung) but this has been super fun and really refreshing, so thank you again waterjewelsspite for the kind ask!!! sorry again it took. two and a half years. OMG. for me to get it done 😭😭😭 i hope this sufficed!!!

in usual fashion, bonus feanorian shenanigans: caranthir's first business/publishing/entrepreneurship/girlboss venture

[moredhel]

"There he learned much of metalwork, and came to great skill therein; and he devised a metal as hard as the steel of the Dwarves, but so malleable that he could make it thin and supple; and yet it remained resistant to all blades and darts. He named it galvorn, for it was black and shining like jet, and he was clad in it whenever he went abroad"

[serene-faerie]

What she says: I’m fine.

What she means: The constant woobification of Fëanor and his sons and the constant Noldor bias in the fandom has really made it difficult for me to actually enjoy the Fëanorians and most of the Noldor as characters. It really doesn’t help that a lot of people like to demonize the Sindar for so many reasons. These fans won’t extend the same grace they give to the Fëanorians to Sindarin characters like Thingol, who made mistakes but at least tried to make amends for them, unlike Fëanor and his sons. In addition, their need to demonize Beren and Lúthien is honestly appalling, because it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of their story and the broader themes of the Silmarillion— that there is hope in the world that’s worth fighting for. And furthermore, the constant demonization and victim-blaming of Dior and Elwing is genuinely unsettling, especially when the Fëanorians are pitied for the crimes they committed. Lastly, their obsession with property rights and the Silmarils, and their willingness to justify the Kinslayings shows that these people have not truly read or understood the text, and they probably don’t want to properly understand it.

[erendur]

I'm strongly convinced that the reason Maglor took so long to complete the Noldolante (he wrote it "ere he was lost", which to me suggests it wasn't done straight after Alqualondë or even soon after reaching Beleriand, but was the work of many years, maybe even written in his last years before the 4th Kinslaying, as a "where did it all go wrong" retrospective kind of work after everything had been lost) was because he wrote it on "down" days, when he was feeling depressed and hopeless, but these were, before the 3rd kinslaying, interspersed with "up" days, during which he would, instead, gleefully write incredibly mean songs directed at the people who had annoyed him.

And I mean INCREDIBLY mean songs, as in everybody would have expected Fëanor's son, haughty and fell and gifted with words, to write mean things, but they would have been SO mean that somehow every single one of them managed to seem unbelievably mean - and clever of course.

Obviously a lot of them would have been directed at his brothers. Yes, even Maedhros, because when you are a grown-up Elf who has been regent for years and also is the lord of the Gap there are only so many times you can listen to your big brother instructing you about the proper way to train a horse or the correct way to handle underlings or the frequency at which you should practice with your sword, really, before snapping and smiling and say "Yes, of course Nelyo" before darting to your room and write a mean song about your brother's braids that will somehow ("somehow") have done the rounds of Beleriand in a matter of weeks.

Nobody called Celegorm "the fair", before his failed attempt at wooing a Sinda princess. Yet somehow ("somehow"), that's the name under which he is remembered in (*checks notes*)..."songs". If not for songs, nobody would have remembered that Thingol was decidedly much, much better looking AFTER having met Melian than before. Who would have remembered "Beren's Leap" (ie, the fact that the guy - *checks notes* - jumped far), if not for a particularly catchy song that described with great gusto how Beren unhorsed and throttled Prince Curufinwë before stealing his knife ?

Fingolfin tried to explain for years to all that would listen that he actually "gave as much as he got" and had some burning one-liners directed at his brother during the famous sword incident. Alas, none are recorded in the songs describing the incident that have passed down to posterity. Finrod was not the only Elf lord to have a hard time leaving his jewellery behind, but is, somehow ("somehow"), the only one to be recorded hauling his treasure over the Ice.

In spite of valiant attempts coming year after year from Lothlórien trying to explain that "Felagund" was an praiseful nickname given to King Finrod by his Dwarven friends and meaning "Hewer of caves", "the wise" haven't been able to completely dismiss the idea that it actually meant "badger" and found its origin in a song that had circulated in Beleriand circa YS 54.

You wondered why Eöl had such a beef with the Noldor ? One song too many. He tried to leave Doriath and live alone with his MUTE people in the depth of the forest but, somehow, ("somehow"), some of the catchy mean tunes directed at him always seemed to be able to make their way to him, carried by the wind through the dense dark foliage of Nan Elmoth.

How do people know what went on between Turgon and Ulmo, you say ? Well, funny you ask, most of what we know comes from a couple of songs that heavily seem to imply that King Turgon was a bit...simple, to put it much more mildly than the songs do.

Yes, all of the songs were pointedly written in Quenya. Yes, in spite of the fact that the Sindar did not learn Quenya, there somehow still managed to be some available translation of every single one of them, to be sung along with the very catchy tunes. Yes, they were so catchy that they were sung all over the place. Some even whisper that Lúthien might have been singing something something Caranthir sucks when Beren saw her for the first time. And something something the Valar suck when putting Morgoth to sleep. What she sang to Namó nobody can say, but if she is famous for her voice, she isn't for her song-writing abilities. Enough said.

The only reason Celeborn has a clean record (ie : almost doesn't exist) in the records of the First Age is because the one condition Galadriel selflessly put to giving her consent for her daughter to marry Elrond was that he would personally undertake to track down and destroy every single copy of the mean songs written about her husband because they made him cry (given that most of them were kept at Imladris, that was promptly done). The only remaining unflattering depictions of him are kept in the halls of King Thranduil in Mirkwood, but they are of a much inferior quality and "the wise" are inclined to think that they were not, in fact, penned by the famous Maglor. Who their real author might be remains a mystery.

[hedgehogoftime]

Hi, I'm still angry about Amazon trying to turn Galadriel into a shitty YA romantasy protagonist by making her generic sword girl and taking away her entire backstory as one of the most powerful and revered of the Noldor and Queen of the Sindar and giving her a shitty enemies to lovers relationship with fucking Sauron.

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

Imagine legolas trying to explain why he doesn’t like sm1 romantically bc they’re a cousin to a noldo/sinda, only to die a little inside bc he remembers that no, that is not, in fact, a reason for noldo/sinda to not date each other.

Legolas: no i don’t have a crush on xyz, firstly, bc she’s my cousin-

Elladan: what’s that got to do with anything?

Legolas:

Legolas: i genuinely wish that that wasn’t the first thing that comes out of your mouth.

[polutrope]

Vagueblogging a website but like do you really think the Sindar who followed the Fëanorians East were following Maedhros, whom they'd just met? Sure, that was a nice gesture handing over leadership, but I'm pretty sure from the Sindar POV he was never really a contender. He's a former thrall after all! Even if the northern Sindar were more sympathetic to thralls, I don't think they'd think it wise to take one as leader. I also don't think the Sindar were particularly in-the-know about the reasons for the Noldor in-fighting (and if so, not a word got to Thingol for ~60 years which I find implausible, even if there was tension there). I think Maedhros' former thrall status would be their main concern about him.

Anyway the point I'm arriving at is that it was Maglor they did ~30 years of cultural interaction with. What did the Sindar call themselves? Lindi, the Singers. Of course they followed Maglor the Singer, Maglor the Poet King. He's the reason the Fëanorians had the benefit of Sindarin allies. Not Maedhros.

[allbycharles]

Imagine there was no Beren

And somehow Celegorm actually pulled Luthien...probably tx to Curufin?

Suddenly we have an icredibly beautiful, down to earth, clever elleth operating around the disastrous duo of two C

Guess who immediately gets their asses whooped for mendling in Finrod's court? Guess who gets to go hunting only if they stop being manipulative little bitches?

Yeah yeah they had it coming

But guess who on the other hand loves that new situation and uses it for his diplomatic wins? And who adores his new sister in law? And who has great deals for Doriath outta nowhere?

Thats right....Maedhros

[arlenianchronicles]

My second submission for this year's @tolkienrsb (slide 85) in collab with @polutrope! Elrond (the one in white) finds Maglor wandering on the beach, and they have a little reunion :''')

The fic's link is here, but it won't be made public until Sept 6, so just keep an eye out! XD

[inthehouseoffinwe]

Thingol, Luthien, and Dior’s claim to the silmaril bugs the living daylights outta me and I’m gonna break down why. This goes a bit beyond ownership laws.

Starting with basics. What are the silmarils? Gems created by Fëanor that hold the light of the Two Trees. Who in Beleriand saw the light of the trees and no doubt misses it like a limb? Are here in part to avenge their destruction? The Noldor.

The Sindar never went to Valinor. They might find the gems beautiful but that’s it. There’s no cultural or emotional connection to them beyond ‘pretty stone, look how awesome our princess was.’ There’s no appreciation for what they hold. No understanding that this stone is one of the *last* things that holds the ancient light of the Trees.

The Noldor meanwhile not only saw the Light, they had entire festivals surrounding it. Grew their entire culture, their lives, under and around it. Now the trees are destroyed, their king killed defending these jewels. And this last beacon of hope, a piece of the home they can never return to, a piece of light that will never come back, is being kept by people who can’t even begin to understand the significance of what they keep.

Now imagine being the sons of the one who made this jewel from a culture of people who value craft above all else.

Not only is it light, it’s the result of years of toil and experimentation of your father, the one who managed to do what no one had ever even thought of. Fëanor’s sons would have been the first to see these jewels, probably saw him make prototypes, work equations whilst they worked on their own crafts. Provided what relief they could to his ever working mind and inadvertently gave him ideas that helped solve problems he encountered along the way. Suddenly it’s not only a key part of their culture, it’s something core to their family.

Then Fëanor is killed and in many ways it’s the most important thing they have left of their father. Now it’s a source of memory too, for someone doomed to the Halls for eternity. Who they’ll likely never see again unless they’re killed.

Now from what I’ve heard, Tolkien says the Fëanorions lost their right to the Silmarils when they killed for them. Which makes no sense considering the Silmarils were *created* by Fëanor. Yes the light was created by the Valar, but what, you’re gonna say ‘I created electricity so that lightbulb you made is actually mine.’ That’s not how it works. Fëanor made the casing for the stones and figured out how to hold the light, without aid from the Valar. It doesn’t matter what actions they take, the right to the Silmarils remain theirs and theirs alone. The jewels hold no power of their own, they’re literally objects. Healing objects at most. Morals do not dictate their ownership, hallowed or not.

Tolkien going on to say the right of Doriath’s Silmaril actually goes to Beren and Luthien for taking it from Morgoth gives me frankly coloniser vibes.

‘Oh this thing I stole was originally stolen from you? Too bad. I took it so it’s mine now. Don’t care how important it is to you, your entire culture, and your people.’

Get where I’m coming from?

All in all the whole situation gives me Bad Vibes and I really don’t like the attitude the Sindar have to the Silmaril. In terms of Elwing, I can partly forgive her purely based on trauma response. Fine. Doesn’t make it right, but I understand. But that never would’ve been a problem if her father, grandmother, or great grandfather had the sense to acknowledge the silmaril was never theirs to keep. Don’t like the Fëanorions, (too bad) at least give it back to the Noldor.

[sindarweek]

A Tolkien event week for the Sindar, the Grey-Elves, from the Years of the Trees to the Third Age!

@sindarweek is a fandom event week celebrating the Sindar! It will be running from Wednesday September 4th 2024 to Tuesday September 10th 2024.

Prompts (not mandatory, just inspirational):

Day 1: Inventions

Day 2: Folklore

Day 3: Objects

Day 4: Nature & Environments

Day 5: Minor & Forgotten Characters

Day 6: The Great Journey

Day 7: Youth and Childhood

Photo by Maxx Gong on Unsplash

@tolkieneventsblog @tolkienfandomevents

[maironsbigboobs]

@sindarweek day 1: Inventions - Certhas Daeron

In Y.T. 1350, Daeron, Loremaster of Doriath, reorganised the cirth and added new ones, and this became known as Certhas Daeron. It was used for inscribing names in Menegroth. The Dwarves working for Thingol liked them and adopted them, spreading Certhas Daeron beyond the Blue Mountains.

[firinaira]

Elrond and Celebrian

Do not use without my permission, please