#Tolkien Untangled

[liveinfarbe]

Adar and Galadriel reminiscing about their Beleriand days…

These are clips from episode 4 and 7 of season 1. Notice the knife/dagger-parallel.

I've been researching the Silmarillion a little bit, because I think it gives hints about time and place in Adar's flashback account. This got lengthy. I write about the questionable Moriondor assumption by Galadriel and the esteem for flowers, blossoms, willows, glades in the lives of Galadriel and Celeborn, in Beleriand and beyond, and a possible path for hope, forgiveness and growth after trauma, that would lie in a dark Celeborn meets dark Galadriel story: Adar informs Arondir that he's been young in Beleriand once and used to walk down the banks of the Sirion river for miles and miles. He noticed sage blossoms, apparently liked the view, because it left a lasting impression. What I get from this (given the cosmology of that world is actual history and not just mythical) is that it must've happened after the sun and the moon appeared and pulled Middle-Earth out of its darkness, or else there wouldn’t be miles of sage blossoming. It thrives in full sunlight. This puts the account at the end of the First Age, after the Years of the Trees. Interestingly, this is after the "creation" of the Orcs by Morgoth.

Whatever bond and similarity Adar has with the Uruks, he’s apparently not one of those Moriondor that Galadriel talked about to him. I assume the Moriondor concept reflects Tolkien’s idea (he had several) that elves were captured by Morgoth after their awakening in Cuiviénen under the starlight and before Oromë found them and then got corrupted and twisted and thus became the first Uruks. While Adar shares certain physical traits with them, he can’t be one of those first Uruks, because 1.) he lived far in the West, in Beleriand, 2.) the sun had risen, 3.) he’s lived among elves that spoke Sindarin and Quenya, since he speaks it too and not some Avari language, though he could've learned all that in Angband during idle hours, I don't know, he learned black speech too. Anyway, the first mentions of Orcs roaming Beleriand is in Y.T. (Years of the Trees) 1330, but Melkor (at this point in time he's not yet given the name Morgoth by Fëanor) is incarcerated in Valinor. Sauron is in Beleriand though, hiding out in Angband, waiting for Melkor's return, "breeding" Orcs apparently, because their numbers grow and they "roam" Beleriand. This is 200 Valian years before the sun. I'm no loremaster, but I know this is a long time. At this point and later, Adar is still, as he describes himself, young. So Orcs were breathing living creatures before that elf-man became Adar. "Young" I see as meaning before he got captured and tortured and then brainwashed by Sauron as part of the “13 of us” (ep. 2x2).

So something doesn't add up, and Adar implies that in his interaction with Arondir in ep. 1x4. Are the tales of Moriondor a widely spread myth created by Elves, since all accounts about Orcs mostly stem from Elvish chroniclers? Maybe this is what Adar hints at. He says to Arondir

“You have been told many lies. Some run so deep even the rocks and roots believe them. To untangle it all would all but require the creation of a new world.”

He thinks only gods can do that, and he ain’t one…yet. Unlike Morgoth who raised mountains, or other Valar whose wrath sank a whole landmass like Beleriand, and later Númenor. He's just doing what he must, realizing Morgoth's terraforming plan and resettling the Uruks so they can live freely.

The "many lies" that he mentions are reflected in the things that Galadriel - who’s famous as "the scourge of the Orcs", even in Númenor - says to him when she interrogates him in episode 1x6. She’s full of hate and delivers a truly genocidal speech to him that shocks herself in the aftermath. (She acknowledges that somewhat self-critically to Theo in ep. 1x7, and it might be one of the reasons she rejects Sauron's offer later)

The truth about Adar's origin story isn't yet revealed. I think it will be, because the writers put some effort in it, dropped cues and hints in excellent dialogue and made him a multilayered character. Finally, let’s come back to the flowers and blossom mentions in the clips above because they could very nicely tie back to Galadriel and Celeborn in Beleriand and beyond. Adar says he “went down that river once”. Let’s see, if he, for example, came from Doriath and went down the Sirion towards its mouth and saw a lush amount of flowers blossom, he could have come through a region called Nan-Tathren or Tarsarinan that is literally called Valley of the willows. Possibly the home to Galadriel’s “glades of flowers” she danced in.

Why would she dance there and not in Doriath? I don't know, but there's a clear hint that she was in that region and even made meaningful personal connections there. With Ents. And Celeborn, too. Tarsarinan, Valley of the willows, means something to the couple and Treebard, as mentioned in a passage in The Lord of the Rings. The memories of Celeborn, Galadriel and Treebard of that place are intimately entangled.

Then Treebeard said farewell to each of them in turn, and he bowed three times slowly and with great reverence to Celeborn and Galadriel. ‘It is long, long since we met by stock or by stone, A vanimar, vanimálion nostari!’ he said. 'It is sad that we should meet only thus at the ending. For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again.' And Celeborn said: 'I do not know, Eldest.' But Galadriel said: 'Not in Middle-earth, nor until the lands that lie under the wave are lifted up again. Then in the willow-meads of Tasarinan we may meet in the Spring. Farewell!

“Many Partings” - The Return Of The King - LOTR - J.R.R. Tolkien

Okay… 1.) Treebard's “It is long, long since we met by stock or by stone” sounds a lot like Adar’s words to Arondir "even the rocks and the roots believe them", 2.) A vanimar, vanimálion nostari! is translated as "Oh, beautiful ones, parents of beautiful children"

That last point reminds of Adar's relationship to the Uruks and the rhetoric surrounding it: Adar whose name translates as "father" calls the Uruks "my children", "my sons and daughters", main difference is that they’re not that beautiful, neither is he — but that lies in the eye of the beholder. Does Adar imply the propaganda about Uruks is so pervading that even the eldest Ents believe them? Possibly his old friend Treebard… ?

I mean he's certainly wreaked havoc in the woods, forced the felling of trees, displaying not much respect for the Ents. On the other hand, Adar is shown planting Alfirin seeds, that grow into flowers. He's still very Elvish, full of respect and longing for "new life, in defiance of death".

Finally… Lothlórien, Galadriel and Celeborn's later safe space, is literally meaning "Lórien of the Blossom". Treebard calls it "Dreamflower".

With all that cherishing of flowers - I think even his chain mail shirt displays flowery ornaments - could Adar be Celeborn in a rather depressing and long-lasting dark phase of his life in ROP? Explaining where he’s been all that time since she last mocked him as a “silver clam”? And if he is not, wouldn’t that be a really good story if he was? Adar doing the work could be an arc about hope and the possibility of healing and changing — it’s what Galadriel needs, too, in the long run.

At this point she’s confused and hurting after the betrayal by Sauron, because she liked him more than anyone in ages, but also because she had to witness herself being unreliable and, frankly, unwise. Yes, she’s vindicated for having always been right about Sauron, but the way she went about it fills her with shame, it’s gnawing at her, not primarily because of wounded pride, I believe, but out of compassion for the victims of her actions. Not unlike Míriel after her return to Númenor. It begs the question to them both if it was all needless, if there really is a greater good in what's unfolding now? At this point in the narrative, the Númenorian intervention that Galadriel pressed for must feel like a Pyrrhic victory with grave consequences and implications for the future of Middle-Earth as well as Númenor. It has caused immense trouble and pain already to many other people that Galadriel gave Sauron a clap on the back and an army. She still has to fully confront herself about that, she's still vulnerable to the darkness inside her, because she's hurting. She has Elrond to help and guard her, but other than that, who's there for her? I mean, in the end she has to accept that it's not her who can slay Sauron, she needs to come to that understanding. It's a battle within herself she hasn't yet had the courage to take up because she still can't face her lingering grief at this point in any other way than turning it into anger.

[fictionfordays]

Flowers

Main Masterlist | Tolkien Masterlist

Maedhros enjoys flowers. So much so that he takes it upon himself to study them, pressing flowers on a page in a special journal with notes written about it.

While he doesn't study herbs the way someone like Tyelkormo would, he does study the edible and medicinal uses of flowers, making it a point to include flowers in some of the pastries he makes. Topping salads with sugared dianthus, tea cakes made with a creamy chamomile tea, mixing lavender with blueberries in a dish similar to a soufflé pancake, even rose and apple scones.

He loves to look at them. He doesn't mind picking enough to make a seasonal crown, or getting his hands dirty in his own personal little garden. He doesn't mind the thorns on the rose bush that seem to always catch his hair, untangling it from the loose braid he put it in earlier. Or the way raspberry thorns snag on his clothes. They can be mended, after all.

If you prick your finger, he'll dote on you: kissing your little scrape with a small smile. He'll affectionately tell you to be kinder to the roses next time so you won't get pricked again~

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Tags: @a-contemplation-upon-flowers @asianbutnotjapanese @eunoiaastralwings @manjirwo @stopisa @wandererindreams

I do not own these characters. All rights to the original creators. All content—created rights are reserved to Wallabypirate©2024.

[neyafromfrance95]

You are right about elves being able to marry once and for a life being a legal issue than an emotional one.

Elves canonically have fallen in love more than once. Galadriel's grandpa Finwë is a famous example who remarried after his first wife died. Then there is the case of Gil-galad's sister Finduilas who fell for a Man even after loving and being betrothed to an Elf prior to that.

So there is nothing wrong with Galadriel developing feelings for Halbrand/Sauron because, in TroP's continuity, Celeborn is presumed to be dead. Now, if she wished to marry him then the formalities would need to be untangled and sorted out. It also depends on whether Celeborn is actually dead or not. But that's a topic for another day.

All things said and done, nothing about Saurondriel on the show defies the worldbuilding rules as such for none of it is unprecedented. Elves have fallen in love more than once. An Elf did get married again. Another Elf fell for a Maia and married her. In an AU where Sauron didn't side with Morgoth and his path crossed with Galadriel in Valinor, the two might have hit it off for good.

What's most alluring about TroP's approach with Saurondriel is that they met under unlikely circumstances and, within a short while, forged a bond so intense that it left its mark on them. And since both are immortals who have existed for millennia, it is really special because they don't develop a connection this powerful often and with just anybody.

I think the “Elves love only one their entire immortal lives” is quite a narrow view of the lore. Elves, mainly the Noldor, don’t divorce. And they don’t because of their History. Much of the turmoil of the Noldor is blamed on Fëanor’s parents divorce. So Fëanor’s father asked the Valar for permission to remarry after his wife (Fëanor’s mother), tired of giving birth, went to the Hall of Mandos to sleep. She went like “you know what? F*ck this sh*t!” on her husband. The Valar accepted and Fëanor’s half-siblings were born, and Morgoth used his jealousy to drive a wedge in the family that eventually led to disaster. So, yeah, just because the Elves don’t divorce doesn’t mean it’s some kind of “eternal love” or “true soulmates” type of situation. That being said, it’s not lore breaking for Galadriel to have romantic feelings for Sauron while being married to Celeborn. Tolkien didn’t write it, sure, but it’s not against the lore he created 🤷🏽‍♀️

👆

[fingolfinwiththesteelchair]

Mightiest Elf Fight Club - ROUND 2, SIDE B

See side A for more elf options

BELEG IS OUT - condolences to his supporters in the notes. Rest assured, he fought bravely

These elves are competing in a tournament! We're speeding things up, so the two elves who get the most votes in each poll - for a total of four elves - will be eliminated in this round. Select the elf in this group that you think would come in LAST, I repeat, vote for the elf in LAST PLACE. The elf you vote for will be ELIMINATED from fight club.

There was some confusion in the last round, so I want to clarify that magic is 100% allowed. Taking magic away from an elf seems a bit like removing a person's liver and kidney before putting them in a fight club; magic and Songs of Power cannot be untangled from the Eldar, especially those born in Aman who have it oozing out of their pores. Steel and arrow and magic and song are all allowed in fight club; the crowd wants blood. If someone wants to dance their opponent to sleep or rapbattle them into submission, more power to them

Find propaganda and mighty deeds below the cut

Maglor: Maglor was one of the best bards in Middle Earth - which is very important in a world where Songs of Power exist. Maglor held a breech against Morgoth, known as Maglor's Gap, for four and a half centuries, and fought in countless battles against Morgoth. Last son of Feanor standing. Weaknesses: Silmarils, oaths.

Glorfindel: One of the few beings to successfully slay a Balrog, Glorfindel died and came back to life (he did it before Gandalf made it cool). He spent his time in The Fellowship of the Ring gleefully chasing down the ringwraiths, who were so scared of him that between the choice of Glorfindel and a magically-pissed off river, they chose the river. Weaknesses: needs a haircut

Rog: One of Tolkien's earlier characters, Rog was the chief of the Hammer of Wrath. Rog led his people against the forces of the enemy during the Fall of Gondolin. He was said to be the strongest of Ñoldoli. Weaknesses: getting cornered, but who isn't

Gil-Galad: The elf so cool no one knows who his parents are. The Last High King of the Ñoldor, Gil-Galad held the ring Vilya. He fought against Sauron's armies in the second age, and then again during the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, where he engaged Sauron in single combat and won, driving him back. Weakness: fiery hands

Maedhros: Maedhros has fought in countless battles against Morgoth, including orchestrating the Union of Maedhros. He's known for his ferocity with the sword. He held the fort of Himring against the tides of Morgoth's forces for nearly all of the First Age. Everyone wants him carnally. Weaknesses: Silmarils, oaths.

Galadriel: A Ñoldor straight from Aman, Galadriel is said to be the greatest of elven-women. The bearer of the ring Nenya and a member of the White Council, Galadriel aided in the Battle of the Field of Celebrant and helped drive the shadows of Sauron from Dol Guldur. Weaknesses: temptation

Finrod: Finrod has fought in the Dagor Bragollach, and later joined Beren in his quest against Morgoth and Sauron. Finrod got into an epic rap battle with Sauron, and then, completely naked, Finrod killed a werewolf with his bare hands and his teeth. Weaknesses: Beren

Fingolfin: A High King of the Ñoldor, Fingolfin braved the Helcaraxë, fought in the Battle of Sudden Flame, and then rode out alone to Actually-demigod-Satan's house, knocked on his door, and told him to come out and fight him one on one. And then he almost killed Actually-demigod-Satan, dealing seven devastating blows that would never heal. DILF. Weaknesses: Hammers

[theotherwesley]

Hi, I'm R.Wesley

I'm a Seattle-adjacent artist, maker, writer, editor, & rabbit-enjoyer. I'm as old as the Berlin Wall not being a wall anymore and regrettably I have been on tumblr since 2011. Feel free to ask me stuff! I am wise and often bored.

My pronouns exist in quantum superposition, all options being equally correct and incorrect simultaneously, so I guess just pick your favorite.

I am reliably a lover of epic poetry, a collector of fountain pens and financially ruinous amounts of ink, a practitioner of heretical Tolkien studies, and a deeply unnormal Gundam enthusiast.

I own two robust rescued rex rabbits named Maeglin and Salgant. They are both physically dense of body, and one, of mind. If at any point you wish to donate to The Bun Fund 🐇, your contributions will go towards food and bedding costs and be appreciated beyond measure ♥

Some tags that might interest you are: #Lifeblogging for original text posts, updates, thoughts, etc.; #SometimesThisIsAGundamBlog for assorted gundamry; #It'sGood for things that are good, and #Bunblogging for buns that are good. Maeglin and Salgant have their own tag, #TheRabbitsMaeglin&Salgant.

My other active blogs are:

Wesley Art - my art blog

Misbehaving Maiar - Silmarillion art/RP/ask/meta/writing/lit blog that has been running since 2013

Parsing Gundam Wing - an ongoing project to analyze, untangle, and archive the first Gundam show to grace American television.

Some other places you can find me are:

TheOtherWesley on Etsy

AnotherWesley on Instagram

TheOtherWesley on Bluesky (and ThatOtherWesley on the platform formerly known as Twitter)

AngryAncalagon on Flight Rising

MisbehavingMaiar (for Tolkien fic) and TheOtherWesley (for everything else*) ((*It's just Gundam fic)) on AO3

Thank you and enjoy ~ ✨

[shelleysmary]

embrace more silliness.

yes, this post is lowkey about trop, but in general i've been reflecting on the way i "cringe" a lot more than i used to, even at things i used to genuinely love. i mean, one of my favorite traits and therefore one of my favorite words used to be "earnest," but now, even if i don't mean to, i find myself observing moments of genuine vulnerability, connection, or plain stupid fun and pointing them out mentally as kind of uncool. "that was low-hanging, that was silly, that was unsophisticated, inelegant, obvious, sentimental." even when i try to go into things with the best of intentions, the instinct is there; i flag the moment, i'm taken out of the scene - and yes, i think about "ah, this is a line certain other people will hear and call dumb."

i've noticed that even people who like trop feel the need to say it kind of behind the cover of their hand: "it's a silly show, but—" "it's unserious" "i know it's fanfic" "i'm aware that it's cheesy" "i know the general consensus is—" and, idk, but i find it kind of sad. i think a lot of us have internalized cynicism. it's hard for me to untangle because i want to retain my critical thinking, i want to go beyond the surface, notice little details, evaluate the storytelling, but sometimes that feeling of something being "off" isn't actually "this is bad," it's "this made me uncomfortable." this line was too sincere, the plot device was too simple or felt too contrived (an aspect of the source material's storytelling, if we're being honest, but frowned upon ~now that we know better~ and have gotten used to realism). delight is met with suspicion, laughter curbed by an urge to roll the eyes. there was a desire for nostalgia once, and then we all decided that unoriginality is a crime (both moral and commercial), and that homage must be lazy plagiarism.

it's exhausting! i miss laughing at the joke, taking creative choices at their face value, being utterly unaware of whether or not i'm "meant" to have a certain opinion. there's something about middle-earth in particular that makes the cognitive dissonance impossible to ignore because, as a world, i don't think it was built with an ounce of bad faith or cynicism or self-deprecation, and yet i bring it with me. i'm almost certain i'm not the only one.

so that's why i'm saying "embrace more silliness." sometimes you'll feel the call to engage with a story in a straightforward, sensory way. maybe it doesn't make sense all the time, but something about it feels right. that feeling should be enough. if i think back, that feeling used to be enough, and it used to be everywhere, easier to find, easier to access without defensiveness or intrusive logic. i miss sentimentality. sincerity. even cheesiness, which is often vulnerability. i miss the ease with which i used to hold space for all of those things.

so i'm challenging myself, and anyone else, to tap into a previous update, or at least to be more mindful of the ways we might be resisting joy, delight, connection, wonder... i think tolkien's world is a good, safe place to try it out.

[tyklianzi]

Hii love your translation to pieces! How have you been? Have you been reading/watching any other media (aside from TYK) recently that u would rec?

Hello! Thank you so much for your message! I'm kind of in the mud trenches rn but I am very happy to be remembered ❤️❤️❤️

I am going to ramble a lot so sorry about that and thanks for giving me permission to do so.

I would have a hard time putting together "recs for someone who enjoyed TYK", because I think it's an unusual type of story. It's about a protagonist who's so tired of being a main character (or even a secondary character). All he wants is to be a side character who enjoys himself and isn't important enough to get hit by plot shrapnel. I remember @specialability making the astute observation that TYK has a lot in common with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. What do side characters do, when the main characters aren't on stage? But TYK emanates joy that you don't find in the other existentialist stories I've read (which may say more about my own deficiency than the genre itself). Zhou Zishu is dying, but he finds a lot of happiness in spending every day exactly as he wants to. Taking care of Zhang Chengling, untangling the Glazed Spiral mystery, and messing around with Wen Kexing: this is all meaningful to him because it's how he wants to spend the rest of his life. However short that life may be.

That being said, since you gave me permission, I'm going to talk about what I've read recently!

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcìa Márquez) left a really strong impression on me. I guess because the characters in the Buendía family (the novel tells this family's story) trap themselves into lives that they don't enjoy at all. Some of them live for a hundred years or more, but they never find the companionship and happiness that they crave. I wish I could say more about this story, but it really made me want to read more magic realism, and learn about Latin American history to understand the context.

I watched AMC's Interview with the Vampire and it ate my brain. One similarity between the Vampire Chronicles and Faraway Wanderers is that their television adaptations tore apart the source material to make something new. And I love what they did with Interview with the Vampire, because they kept what was so interesting from the books: the struggle between a vampire's murderous, predatory nature, and their moral sense as a sapient being. The show also makes explicit the parallel between this struggle and Louis' struggle with his queerness: should he live in hypocrisy, condemning his true nature even though he can't change it? Or should he abandon the moral scruples that (in his mind) connect him with his vestigial humanity? It makes sense to me, and I love the story of the show. There are some elements I miss from the books, but to me, the show surpasses the sum of its parts.

I'm currently reading Tolkien's Silmarillion! I guess one thread that unites the three works I've mentioned today is "unbelievably messy family drama". Which again, is notably missing from TYK...but it is one of my personal favorite ingredients. Elf aristocratic infighting goes off the chain like nothing else. The Silmarillion is a tragedy, you know? When you read the Lord of the Rings, you feel that the most spectacular days of this world have passed already. You see those splendors in the Silmarillion and know that they're doomed. It's a lot more gothic than I expected. I have to space out how much I read at a time. I've just started Beren and Lùthien, which promises to deliver something of a breather.

Sorry again for this massive wall of text. I love to chat. Come back again anytime. Haha!

[gncgalactus]

Got to the song of Eärendil and my god I GET it now I get why a solid corner of pop culture is just about trying to untangle or tame or recreate or react to Tolkien's work a 5 page poem in the middle of the story about this ancient myth full of ideas and names and concepts that are hinted at and mainly go unexplained and it's so rich and sad and deep and beautiful

[theworldsoftolkein]

Aragorn & True Masculinity: Messages from Tolkien's Lore | Endurance, Hope & Embracing Prophecy | The Men of the West

Aragorn, the Epitome of Many Facets of Masculinity in Tolkien’s Legendarium, is Worth Evaluating in That Context! Let’s Break Down This Message From Tolkien!

The Life of Aragorn - How Does a Ranger Become a King? | Tolkien Untangled

The full story of Aragorn's life from birth to death. We'll look at his relationship with the elves and his epic journey from ranger to king.

[melestasflight]

The world is aging, and Fingon entreats for Maedhros in the Halls of Mandos. It is simpler than he believed, but somehow it makes nothing easier.

On the rare occasions when Fingon allows himself to think of Beleriand, one image takes shape in his mind’s eye above all others. The last moments of sunset spilling down the prairies of Ard-galen.  If one was to wait for the exact hour and find just the right angle, its hue matched to perfection the color of Maedhros’ tresses under bright daylight. The dark reds coming alive with the gentle swaying of tall grasses in the breeze, Fingon would wade between them with his palms spread open and believe that a beloved braid was untangling between his fingers. He recalls longing for those memories with throbbing intensity, his renewed body unwilling to scar over the notches upon his fëa. Yet time is a potent balm, and time they have now in agonizing abundance. So he had learned stillness, the humble act of quietly remaking oneself age, after age, after age. But no peace has ever lasted long enough in any of Fingon’s lives, and neither does this one.

with much thanks to @searchingforserendipity25 for the brain sparks

[fourgondor]

After nearly a decade away from the more hard-core aspects of Tolkienien literature (if you know, ya know lol), I decided to jump back in. I found a wonderful channel on the webs, Tolkien Untangled (highly recommend!!), and some thoughts materialized.

Tolkien stated that "death and the desire for deathlessness" is one the most important themes of his works. The fact that the OG Numenorean kings willingly embraced death at the end of their terms underscores that death is a blessing, the gift of the Secondborn. Elros, the first king of Numenor, saw the torment tied to immortality firsthand, for the demise of his so-called "kidnap dads" taught him that very lesson.

Maedhros and Maglor, after three kinslayings, countless Beleriand wars, and the deaths of most of their family, realize that everything they dedicated the latter years of their lives (centuries!) to was all for naught. Their cumulative deeds tipped the scales in favor of damnation, regardless of their mercy towards the twins of Sirion, Maedhros' hesitation at the ship burning, and his later gifting his Noldorian right to kingship to Fingolfin's line. As a result, the Light of the Two Trees immortalized in the Silmarils rejected the sons of their maker.

The eldest brother sees no path forward, only the bitter taste of futile failure, and subsequently ends his life in a blaze of torment. Maglor, now the only remaining descendant of the untied lines of Finwë and Míriel, will forever walk the shores of Middle Earth, lamenting his role in the scarring of a once pristine Arda.

So, TLDR... having witnessed the evils of a) a life of pain only death can relieve and b) a continued existence of self-hatred and eternal repentance, Elros understands that death is a gift. Perhaps this very understanding makes him wiser than the Loremaster himself, his twin brother who chose the path of the Eldar, Elrond.

[tiofrean]

I feel I need to add to this because I have another bone to pick with reading assignments. Not getting to the end of the book and only analyzing fragments is a problem, yes, but have you considered how absolutely goddamned awful the books are?

Like, maybe it's only a thing in my country, maybe just our powers that be are completely bonkers when choosing them... but for the love of everything that's holy, why would you make people read something that's not only boring but also blatantly outdated?

I was 9 and I was forced to read a fully mature book about knights and history, and not in a fun way. My 9-year-old self didn't give a shit about the history of my country and the political views of the 15th century. Who gives a shit? I was a kid, I wanted to have FUN, read something adventurous, not try to disentangle the political ramifications of a stupid king's decision of getting the whole Teutonic Knight Order into my country a few centuries before.

I didn't care about Great Gatsby or the Mockingbird, and you can keep your Moby Dick, thank you very much. I know there are people who like them, and all the power to you. But to a kid, those books are outdated and boring, and if someone makes them read them as an assignment, what the hell do you expect to happen?

I'm an adult now, I consume over 50k words daily on the internet reading fanfiction, sometimes a lot more than that. I read books, too, but now that I'm curating my experience, I actually enjoy it. I was fortunate not to burn myself on the system, or rather, I was fortunate to have those burns healed so I could come back to reading. I still hate "The Knights of the Cross" (an epopei-thing in my country) with wild passion and I want to tear every single copy I come across to pieces. I can't stand the movie made about it. This is what system did to me. Very often it's not the question of kids not interested in reading, but not interested in reading your particular brand of books.

Tastes differ, even in kids. Yes, I know, there are texts that need to be talked about. But you can talk about them and show examples, without boring everyone out of their skull and assigning them shit to read they will hate till the end of their days. And before you go "oh, but how am I supposed to talk about XYZ without mentioning ABC book?" You are the fucking teacher. Figure it out. I'm a teacher, too, and I have to figure shit out. And I've seen other teachers do this the right way. They were supposed to talk about supernatural elements in writing? Great, the whole class was reading Tolkien, not a medieval poem nobody gave a shit about. Fragments from the poem still appeared, sure, but the bulk of it was on something the kids could actually relate to and not find it boring to death, something they didn't have to check in the dictionary every second word of the text.

Also, not sure how it works in other countries, but in here, schools give you an assignment and expect you to read the book. So you do, you grit your teeth through it, it's boring, old, written in a language that gives you a headache... and then you come to class and try to untangle the meaning. And it's only AFTER you've read it that the actual era-assessment comes in, and the things you were supposed to pay attention to are revealed. And you realize that you were hanging onto your sanity through the reading by latching onto the only interesting plot arch you've seen in that abomination that your assignment was, just to hear that it was not what you were supposed to pay attention to. You were supposed to focus on the historical difficulties of building a community. And you sit there, staring blankly at the text like a dumbass because you have nothing. And you start hating reading assignments a little more.

Don't kill kids' love for stories, I beg you.

Why Kids Aren't Falling in Love With Reading - It's Not Just Screens

A shrinking number of kids are reading widely and voraciously for fun.

The ubiquity and allure of screens surely play a large part in this—most American children have smartphones by the age of 11—as does learning loss during the pandemic. But this isn’t the whole story. A survey just before the pandemic by the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that the percentages of 9- and 13-year-olds who said they read daily for fun had dropped by double digits since 1984. I recently spoke with educators and librarians about this trend, and they gave many explanations, but one of the most compelling—and depressing—is rooted in how our education system teaches kids to relate to books.

What I remember most about reading in childhood was falling in love with characters and stories; I adored Judy Blume’s Margaret and Beverly Cleary’s Ralph S. Mouse. In New York, where I was in public elementary school in the early ’80s, we did have state assessments that tested reading level and comprehension, but the focus was on reading as many books as possible and engaging emotionally with them as a way to develop the requisite skills. Now the focus on reading analytically seems to be squashing that organic enjoyment. Critical reading is an important skill, especially for a generation bombarded with information, much of it unreliable or deceptive. But this hyperfocus on analysis comes at a steep price: The love of books and storytelling is being lost.

This disregard for story starts as early as elementary school. Take this requirement from the third-grade English-language-arts Common Core standard, used widely across the U.S.: “Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.” There is a fun, easy way to introduce this concept: reading Peggy Parish’s classic, Amelia Bedelia, in which the eponymous maid follows commands such as “Draw the drapes when the sun comes in” by drawing a picture of the curtains. But here’s how one educator experienced in writing Common Core–aligned curricula proposes this be taught: First, teachers introduce the concepts of nonliteral and figurative language. Then, kids read a single paragraph from Amelia Bedelia and answer written questions.

For anyone who knows children, this is the opposite of engaging: The best way to present an abstract idea to kids is by hooking them on a story. “Nonliteral language” becomes a whole lot more interesting and comprehensible, especially to an 8-year-old, when they’ve gotten to laugh at Amelia’s antics first. The process of meeting a character and following them through a series of conflicts is the fun part of reading. Jumping into a paragraph in the middle of a book is about as appealing for most kids as cleaning their room.

But as several educators explained to me, the advent of accountability laws and policies, starting with No Child Left Behind in 2001, and accompanying high-stakes assessments based on standards, be they Common Core or similar state alternatives, has put enormous pressure on instructors to teach to these tests at the expense of best practices. Jennifer LaGarde, who has more than 20 years of experience as a public-school teacher and librarian, described how one such practice—the class read-aloud—invariably resulted in kids asking her for comparable titles. But read-alouds are now imperiled by the need to make sure that kids have mastered all the standards that await them in evaluation, an even more daunting task since the start of the pandemic. “There’s a whole generation of kids who associate reading with assessment now,” LaGarde said.

By middle school, not only is there even less time for activities such as class read-alouds, but instruction also continues to center heavily on passage analysis, said LaGarde, who taught that age group. A friend recently told me that her child’s middle-school teacher had introduced To Kill a Mockingbird to the class, explaining that they would read it over a number of months—and might not have time to finish it. “How can they not get to the end of To Kill a Mockingbird?” she wondered. I’m right there with her. You can’t teach kids to love reading if you don’t even prioritize making it to a book’s end. The reward comes from the emotional payoff of the story’s climax; kids miss out on this essential feeling if they don’t reach Atticus Finch’s powerful defense of Tom Robinson in the courtroom or never get to solve the mystery of Boo Radley.

... Young people should experience the intrinsic pleasure of taking a narrative journey, making an emotional connection with a character (including ones different from themselves), and wondering what will happen next—then finding out. This is the spell that reading casts. And, like with any magician’s trick, picking a story apart and learning how it’s done before you have experienced its wonder risks destroying the magic.

-- article by katherine marsh, the atlantic (12 foot link, no paywall)

[ao3feed-tolkien]

Cold Pressing Pathway 2

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/l5teCdg

by Alex_Quine

Arwen is determined to untangle the thorny future of one small boy.

Words: 8584, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M

Characters: Aragorn | Estel, Arwen Undómiel, Boromir (Son of Denethor II), Beregond (Guard of the Citadel), OC-Arin/Nan/Orack

Relationships: Aragorn | Estel/Arwen Undómiel, Aragorn | Estel/Boromir (Son of Denethor II)

Additional Tags: Post Mpreg

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/l5teCdg

[imhereforscm]

Thank you for replying. 🙂

Here's a story ( accident actually) * the harp's melodious tunes * -

My sister aka the little demon was browsing through the tv channels on a hot summer night. She found a movie named " The Hobbit part 1". I was roaming in the house like a forest spider * TM *, while talking to a friend on the phone. At that very moment i turned around and my eyes fell on the screen, on the most beautiful dwarf in the history of cinema. I got curious and i had to watch it. So i did until mom came home and we had dinner and we went to bed. The next day i downloaded the movie!!!

Fast forward to my next birthday, mom gifted me " The Hobbit " book. I read it in three days. I discovered fanfiction on wattpad and started reading those because i lowkey hated the fact that Thorin died in the book. 😭🥲

Then for the longest time i avoided reading " The Lord of the Rings ". Until this year when one of my Legolas * insert bow and arrow emoji because i don't have those*🥲 obsessed friends gifted me the book series on my birthday. I fell in love with Tolkien 's writing again this time. Then to top it all of, Youtube recommend me a video titled "Fingolfin - The coolest elf in Middle Earth " 💙

Then i started binge watching the videos on that channel " Tolkien Untangled " every morning while running or exercising. I am preparing myself to read the Silmarallion. Wish me luck 🙃

Those elf characters-

Fingolfin - High King of the Noldor.

Maedhros - Fingolfin 's nephew and Faenor's eldest son. I am in love with him. 😘

Fingon - Fingolfin 's eldest son and Maedhros's best friend and cousin. They care for each other like brothers.

Gil-galad - Fingon's son and the last high king of the Noldorin elves.

Again thank you @imhereforscm and thank you anon for replying.

You're welcome, love😚. I hope you had fun✨

(I knew which anon you were the moment you called your sister a little demon, I'm so sorry HAHA!! I'm sorry to your sister too! Love you guys! <3)

[velvet4510]

Do you like the Rings of Power show?

I’ve never seen it and have no intentions of ever watching it.

The Rings of Power show that exists in my head is the one created by Tolkien Untangled on YouTube - check it out, it’s absolutely brilliant. (It’s an entire playlist, multiple hours long, but well worth it.)

Thanks for the ask!