#The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth

[thegreendragoninn]

SCREEEEEEEE!

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Tom Bombadil

Artist: Marko Manev TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-art-daily]

Saruman the White

"Sauron's victory is at hand; and there will be rich reward for those who aided it."

Artist: Matt Stewart

[lowcountry-gothic]

Aragorn and Arwen, Wed, by Magali Villeneuve. From The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.

“Aragorn the King Elessar wedded Arwen Undómiel, and the tale of their long waiting and labors came to fulfillment.”

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Elanor Gardner by Torgeir Fjereide

[refreshdaemon]

A dream come true turns out to be just modestly enjoyable since the prerelease experience was low-effort as usual.

[tolkien-povs]

Reading The Hobbit has a warm, cozy feeling to it, like sitting by a fireplace and downing a warm mug of hot chocolate. There are times when you want to cry, times when you want to laugh, times when you want to fight alongside Thorin’s Company. But at the end of the story, you realise that you will never experience that, because The Hobbit is fictional in reality, but so real in the heart and mind.

Reading The Lord of The Rings has a cool feeling, neither warm nor cold, but a comfortable one; it’s as if you’re sitting by a window, staring into the rain, and wishing you could go outside and relish in the rain but you can’t because it’s cold. There are times when you want to laugh, cry, dine with the Fellowship, fight with the Fellowship. But you can’t, because The Lord of The Rings is only a figment lodged in your heart, tucked away in a cozy spot.

Reading The Silmarillion has the feel of sitting in an enormous library almost abandoned, and fishing out an old, dusty book from a nook long forgotten, written about the history of the world. There are cases when you want to delve into that world and explore it, revel in it, fight it, love it, yell at the people in it. But you can never do that, because it is a history long past, existing only in the minds of very few.

Reading the old stories narrating the entire history of Arda has the feel of travelling back in time to the Library of Alexandria, reading and studying all the library can give. There are times when you want to cry, mourn, grieve, celebrate, laugh, revel in the world. But you can never, as that world, those people, are all part of your heart and mind, tucked away into the most precious part of you.

Reading the legendarium doesn’t make you want to be a part of that world because you love it. It makes you want to be a part of that world because the characters are normal people, like you, who got roped into an unlikely adventure, forever narrated in song, poems, ballads and laments.

They are simple stories, of simple people, in a simple world, where if you existed, you could have been one of those souls both fortunate and unfortunate.

Reading the legendarium makes you want to be part of it, because it makes you think you can survive it.

And certainly, if you have read this amazing mythological masterpiece, you absolutely can survive it.

[cats-spilled-wine]

"But now in the western battle Fingon and Turgon were assailed by a tide of foes thrice greater than all the force that was left to them. Gothmog, Lord of Balrogs, high-captain of Angband, was come; and he drove a dark wedge between the Elvenhosts, surrounding King Fingon, and thrusting Turgon and Húrin aside towards the Fen of Serech. Then he turned upon Fingon. That was a grim meeting."

~ Of the Fifth Battle: Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Ch. 20, The Silmarillion ~

WHY my drawings on tumblr are posted in such poor resolution is still beyond me... either way, here's Fingon the Valiant, High King of the Noldor. Precisely the moment he saw Gothmog coming. I tried to make him look both scared and determined, and I think I did a pretty good job with that; feel free to zoom in on the face. The hand could've been better, but overall... I FINALLY am almost completely satisfied with something I drew! Success!

Also, I forgot to add a circlet, but I think it looks better this way. And I didn't forget to add a helm; I just didn't. In fact, this was mostly done so that I could get rid of my irrational phobia of drawing - painting - faces and skin in general. At the moment, I think I came out victorious, but... we'll see.

Meanwhile, below is the sketch. I fixed and altered it so many times; mostly just minor details. As you can see, it's underwhelming. It doesn't even look good. In fact, I have no idea why I'm even sharing it in the first place... maybe as proof that "trust the process" is a real thing? Also, all of this was done entirely from head; no reference photos, no net inspiration, no colour palette inspiration, no searching of poses on pinterest.

I forgot where I was going with this.

So, um... enjoy, I guess.

[anghraine]

Today was a weird, uncomfortable day, so I'm consoling myself in the best way: with a Tumblr poll about my favorite Tolkien family—

*Tolkien wrote of the foundation of the Stewardship:

The Kings of Gondor had no doubt had “stewards” from an early time, but these were only minor officials ... He [Húrin of Emyn Arnen] was evidently the chief officer under the crown, prime counsellor of the King, and at appointment endowed with the right to assume vice-regal status [note: that is, the status of a viceroy or regent granted the powers and responsibilities of the king in his absence], and assist in determining the choice of heir to the throne, if this became vacant in his time. These functions all of his descendants inherited.

**Except the very elderly, obviously—but otherwise, every described Dúnadan of Gondor has dark or black hair (Boromir's is dark and longish by his death, while Faramir's is black and likely longer). Nearly all described Southern Dúnedain have grey eyes as well, including Boromir, Faramir, their uncle Imrahil, random soldiers, Rangers, messengers, etc, while Denethor has dark, glowing eyes (the color unknown). The members of the House of the Stewards, specifically including Boromir, also have enough of Elros's blood to inherit his beardlessness.

(None of the women of the Southern Dúnedain are described as anything except vaguely beautiful, but there's no reason to suppose the appearances of Elros's female descendants are more variable than the male ones, and Tolkien did say in NOME that Númenórean men and women were more physically similar to each other than usual.)

[mossyteacup]

tea & tolkien for second breakfast

[distinguisheddwarffriend]

Yo I've got another for my by now mixed Tolkien survey series:

(yes, I over-simplified stuff, and had to exclude Tulkas, Melkor & Mandos for lack of answer-options, just comment if you'd have picked them)

[thegreendragoninn]

It's not like Saruman's gonna give reliable dating advice.

[mtg-cards-hourly]

Mount Doom

Artist: Justine Jones TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[mtg-art-daily]

Eastfarthing Farmer

Artist: Iga Oliwiak

[lowcountry-gothic]

Art by Iga Oliwiak. From The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.

"The audience all opened their mouths wide for laughter, and stopped short in gaping silence; for the singer disappeared. He simply vanished, as if he had gone slap through the floor without leaving a hole!"

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Smite the Deathless by Alexander Mokhov