#adrahil

[anghraine]

While I'm being self-indulgent (is Self-Indulgent Sunday a thing?) wrt the Aranor (f!Aragorn/f!Faramir) fics/verse, some of my favorite details that have yet to appear in the fics:

—Andreth (f!Denethor) had a much more complicated path to the Stewardship than in canon and was the first woman to ever rule Gondor in her own right. In a case of extreme dramatic irony, Andreth's successful fight for the Stewardship helped pave the way for Aranor to become the first Ruling Queen.

—Andreth married relatively late in life for a first marriage. Although her marriage to the much-younger Gwindor of Dol Amroth was forwarded by both their families, they were passionately devoted to each other. But Gwindor longed for the sea of his home and wasted away in Minas Tirith, under the shadow of Mordor. (I particularly enjoy the reversal here, ngl.)

—Andreth refuses to leave Minas Tirith when she sensibly evacuates most of the other women and children, including her daughter and last surviving heir, Míriel (f!Faramir). Before Míriel's departure, Andreth places her in charge of the evacuees and instructs her to take up the Stewardship and lead their people to Gondor's refuges should Minas Tirith fall.

—The Northern Dúnedain have long prided themselves on the unbroken father-to-son line of the heirs of Isildur. But Arathorn dies leaving only a daughter, Aranor, far too young to forward her claim as heir of Isildur. The N. Dúnedain are inclined to pass the heirship to the nearest patrilineal male relation, ideally one already grown—until Elrond intercedes on toddler Aranor's behalf and takes on her care.

—When Aranor, a lean, greying, middle-aged woman, arrives in Gondor at the head of the army of the Dead and leads the defeat of the Corsairs, the southern Gondorians are grateful but also a bit "bzuh?" That was definitely not on their fantasy bingo cards.

—Even without an Aragorn/Arwen situation (Aranor's love is real but unrequited), Elrond comes to Gondor to see Aranor—as beloved as his natural daughters—become Queen Elessarnë. He ends up having a very kind talk with Míriel, who faces an uncertain future even as she still dreams of Númenor.

—Speaking of the unrequited Aranor/Arwen, Aranor is so used to loving Arwen in a very fairy-tale kind of way that she herself doesn't realize her feelings have shifted until well after the fact, and later, when she realizes she's in love with Míriel, it seems natural to assume this will also be unrequited. (Pining. This is a verse for pining.)

[thanaredreamtof]

the winter solstice

closed starter for @athaexnen

Felicity could not believe it. She had not felt grass beneath her feet for almost four years, and now she was wandering through a forest all through the night. The girl was shivering, but it did not matter, she was outside at long last. She had left under the cover of darkness, and now the sun was starting to rise, and the misty fog of the morning settled over the land. Each step brought a crunch with it, as the ground had not yet thawed from the nights frost. She was freezing cold, and hugged the makeshift cloak around her, but she did not care. She was outside. She was outside. She had escaped. And with two weeks to go till the Winter Solstice, all she had to do was lay low and remain hidden until it had passed.

She had no idea where she was going, or when she would get anywhere, but so long as she could put distance between herself and that castle, that prison, she would keep moving forward.

She was still recalling the nights events in her mind when she heard something. Like a deer spooked by a hunter, Felicity's eyes darted to the source, and her blood ran cold as she made eye contact with a man. She froze in her tracks, apart from the King, and the guardsmen who would throw her some food, she had had no contact with anyone in the four years she'd been locked away. Her breath caught in her throat and she looked at him, she should have been more careful not to be seen, and now it was too late.

"Good morning sir" she said, once she finally found her voice again, though it quaivered.

[athaexnen]

“i have to end this now before it escalates into you being hurt.” Felicity to Adrahil

Adrahil paused for a moment, jaw setting as he found himself staring at the girl before him. Had he entirely planned on developing feelings for Felicity, no, but life worked in mysterious ways. "What are you talking about? If it means you're safe, I care not for my own being," he replied as he shook his head. "You come first. As long as you're by my side, you're safety is the first thing on my mind."

Not that he would outright tell her how he felt, not just yet. He wasn't even sure if she felt the same way. Taking a step towards her, he carefully took one of her hands. "Nothing needs to end."

@thanaredreamtof

[aspenrockymountainhigh]

THE PRINCE IMRAHIL OF DOL AMROTH

"That is a fair lord and a great captain of men. If Gondor has such men still in these days of fading, great must have been its glory in the days of its rising." --Legolas (RotK)

At the time of the War of the Ring Prince Imrahil was the chief nobleman of Gondor. He was the son of Adrahil and brother of the Lady Finduilas (wife of Steward Denethor II). After his father's death in T.A. 3010, he became the twenty-second Prince of Dol Amroth. Imrahil was the father of Lothíriel, who married Éomer of Rohan.

Art: Gandalf and Imrahil, "On the walls of Minas Tirith" by Meneldil-Elda

[emyn-arnens]

Hello! hope you're having a good week!

I was wondering if you have any headcanons about Imrahil's family (specifically Ivriniel because I have an obsession but really I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of them)?💚

Hi! Thanks for the ask! 💛 Friend, I think you’re telepathic; the Dol Amroth fam has been on my mind constantly lately. I’ve been spinning lots of Finduilas and Ivriniel thoughts around for a fic I’ve been poking at, so here’s some of them:

Ivinriel and Finduilas were very close growing up and into adulthood. Finduilas would often paint the flowers in Ivriniel’s gardens or read books or letters out loud to Ivriniel while she tended to her gardens.

Ivriniel the gardener, of course, and acclaimed horticulturist of Dol Amroth.

When they were younger, Ivriniel tended to appoint herself as Finduilas’ protector, as she was both the eldest and had a stronger personality than her sister (Finduilas was perfectly capable of standing up for herself but generally didn't mind Ivriniel's intervening).

Ivriniel was concerned about Finduilas’ marriage to Denethor (and afterwards blamed him in part for Finduilas’ death and held no small amount of resentment towards him) and wanted to make sure that Finduilas really wanted to marry Denethor and wasn’t just accepting his offer out of duty to their parents (she was). (Side note: I’ve always interpreted Finduilas and Denethor’s marriage as either arranged, or that Denethor offered and Finduilas felt like she couldn’t let her parents down. Regardless of how it happened, I think she ultimately didn’t have a lot of choice in the decision and agreed out of obligation/duty.)

Neither sister was particularly inclined towards marriage, but Ivriniel was even less inclined than Finduilas, so Finduilas felt it was her duty to present herself as the marriageable sister (and maybe—I just had this idea—volunteered to marry Denethor instead of Ivriniel. You know what, that’s tasty, I like it. It gives Ivriniel a generous helping of guilt that she’d rather pawn off on Denethor).

Finduilas is big on duty. Wonder where Boromir and Faramir get that from.

I’ve been spinning LOTS of thoughts lately (read: have been reading too much into) about the connection both Finduilas and Ivriniel’s names have to Finduilas of Nargothrond (this is what the fic centers on). Ivriniel has the same root as Faelivrin, and I think it’s very interesting that the sister who lives was given the name inspired by the one that Gwindor gave Nargothrond Finduilas during a happy part of her life…and Dol Amroth Finduilas didn’t get that. She got the name Nargothrond Finduilas died with. Something something Dol Amroth Finduilas was doomed from the start something something. Maybe her mom had a little bit of the Elvish mom foresight thing going on.

Regardless, I think Adrahil and his wife were perhaps obsessed with COH. Or Nargothrond Finduilas. It’s just too coincidental.

Finduilas has many complicated feelings towards her name and namesake. When her despair set in in Minas Tirith, she felt that she was doomed to meet the end that she hurtled toward.

When Finduilas began ailing, her letters to Ivriniel slowed and then eventually stopped. Ivriniel, having gotten a sense of Finduilas’ declining health and emotional state from the letters she received before then, started sending pressed flowers, cuttings, and seedlings that she knew Finduilas loved with her letters to remind her sister of their home, in the hope that they might raise her spirits. They didn’t, of course, because Finduilas’ despair was too deep, but she treasured them all the same. The cuttings and seedlings inevitably died (Symbolism ™️), but Finduilas refused to let anyone throw out the dead plants.

After Finduilas' death, Ivriniel always wondered if there was more she could have done to save her sister—if she had visited her more often in Minas Tirith, if she had pushed against Denethor’s insistence that Finduilas stay in Minas Tirith where her physicians were and just taken her back home to Dol Amroth, or if she had married Denethor and prevented Finduilas from ever having to go to Minas Tirith.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Favourite Female Tolkien Character Poll - Round 1, Match 29

Finduilas of Dol Amroth

Was married to Denethor, and the mother of Boromir and Faramir. She died when Boromir was 10 and Faramir was 5.

[Denethor] had married late, taking as wife Finduilas, daughter of Adrahil of Dol Amroth. She was a lady of great beauty and gentle heart, but before twelve years had passed she died. Denethor loved her, in his fashion, more dearly than any other, unless it were the elder of the sons that she bore him. But it seemed to men that she withered in the guarded city, as a flower of the seaward vales set upon a barren rock. The shadow in the east filled her with horror, and she turned her eyes ever south to the sea that she missed.

Ioreth

A talkative elderly woman of Gondor who worked in the Houses of Healing. Also chats with her country relative during Aragorn’s coronation.

Then an old wife, Ioreth, the eldest of the women who served in that house, looking on the fair face of Faramir, wept, for all the people loved him. And she said: “Alas! if he should die. Would that there were kings in Gondor, as there were once upon a time, they say! For it is said in old lore: The hands of the king are the hands of a healer. And so the rightful king could ever be known.”

And Gandalf, who stood by, said: “Men may long remember your words, Ioreth! For there is hope in them. Maybe a king has indeed returned to Gondor; or have you not heard the strange tidings that have come to the city?”

“I have been too busy with this and that to heed all the crying and shouting,” she answered. “All I hope is that those murdering devils do not come to this House and trouble the sick.”

[lesbiansforboromir]

"hands of the king" anon here again. im LOVING it so far. it's incredibly well-written! haven't gotten very far into it -maybe around chapter 14? also, no worries about TWs, but feel free to list them here for anyone who may find them useful! 💖

AAAAH It's Borondir time for you! Oh and time to begin to hate Adrahil, and be SOOO annoyed at these two and their ineptitude with this whole undying devotion thing, love this for you! But yes so well! Hands of the King TW for incestuous abusive relationships, sexual harassment, child abuse (abusive fathers and mothers), graphic descriptions of burns, anti-sex work which is not really addressed but is certainly canon compliant, incredibly uncomfortable discussions of sex and cultural ways of handling sex that are deeply uncomfortable, sex scenes most of which are lovely but some of them also slip into being very uncomfortable and most of them are so goddamn plot relevant somehow, REALLY ableist language surrounding one specific character which is I think an attempt to be not ableist but it slips a lot, abortion and miscarriage and a good amount of plot surrounding characters being pregnant, A PLAGUE that I'm putting in here because dang does that plot hit different these days, spousal violence in a variety of ways and degrees... I feel like there are more but those are what i can think of off the top of my head.

It seems astounding to say it's such a good damn fanfic after all that but it really is, the writing is genuinely that good and the characterisations (except for a few scenes I have particular hatred of) is just so perfect, I still have to recommend it.

[anghraine]

So, we know very little about Faramir and Lothíriel's relationship beyond the facts that a) they're first cousins and b) they marry siblings.

They're first cousins through a particularly important family tie across many cultures (Faramir is her father's sister-son). And although he looks like a young man, he's actually quite a bit older than Lothíriel is. But we have such bare table scraps about Lothíriel herself that there's really very little to go on.

The parallel between their marriages has always interested me, though, even if my take on Éomer/Lothíriel is decidedly unromantic. So I like to imagine that there is a bond of some kind there that influenced that parallel, even if the age gap (and potentially, distance) complicates things and she's the baby of their generation of Adrahil's descendants.

Faramir wouldn't actually describe her as his baby cousin or whatnot, given his speaking style and the norms of their culture, but I can imagine his description of her to Éowyn or Éomer or both giving the impression of someone very young and comparatively dainty. And then it turns out that she's over six feet tall with elaborate black braids, the education, manners, and habits of a Númenórean princess—and, like certain relatives, she has a preternatural command over horses.

[sulfin-evend]

Aragorn and Eowyn are closer related than Aragorn and Arwen

Human genetics travel. They seriously get places, especially when we factor in that so elusive female line.

Eowyns maternal grandmother is a Dunedain lady named Morwen of Lossarnach, afterwards the Queen of Rohan. She is from an elite Gondorian family, the cadet branch of the Princes of Dol Amroth. The same family Denethor's wife Finduilas hails from.

Seeing that aristocratic families often marry within the same elite social circle, it is almost positive that at least royal princess married into the Dol Amroth family. Also that a Dol Amrothian lady is a direct forbear of the Gondorian line of kings.

Aragorn is descended from the Gondorian royal house from Princess Firiel daughter of King Ondoher about 14 generations ago. To put this into perspective you are 15th cousins at the least with the most distantly related member of the same ethnicity as yourself. And 50th cousins at most remove with the least related to you human on the planet.

Within Firiel is the genes of most of Gondorian aristocratic houses. It does not matter for instance if her mother was from Dol Amroth or if her grandmother was one of a pair of sisters who married into the Royal house and the House of Dol Amroth respectively. Or if Firiels first cousin was the forbear of the lords of Lebennin for instance, and a daughter would eventually wind up as Morwen's maternal or paternal foremother. Simply due to the exponentially large amount of ancestors every individual has and the massive amount of generations between Aragorn and these forbears. So that makes Eowyn and Aragorn at least 15th cousins if not closer. Their shared common ancestor probably lived 1300 years ago. Compare this to Aragorn and Arwen who's common ancestors Elwing and Earendil had their children about 6 millennia ago.

Also Faramir and Eowyn are 5th cousins at most.

Faramirs mother Finduilas, and Eowyns Grandmother Morwen are from the same family, the Princely house of Dol Amroth, though Morwen's father was not the Prince but a younger son of the line. Morwen and Faramir' grandfather Adrahil are contemporaries. The impression is they are not first cousins, but much further distant the prestige of association with the house would fade. So I would place Morwens grandfather as the you get brother of Aglahad, her father as first cousins to Angelimir. Morwen herself as second cousin to Adrahil, and their respective grandchildren as fourth cousins. Maybe fifth cousins if you want to add another generation of separation. At any rate the relationship was close enough that Prince Imrahil acknowledged Eomer as a kinsman.

[athaexnen]

45﹕ sender  kisses  receiver’s cheek - felicity x adrahil

Adrahil blinked for a moment, registering that Felicity had indeed just leaned up and kissed his cheek. He couldn't help but smile, almost amused by the fact as he looked down at her. "What was that for?" he asked gently.

[elfwines]

[Princes of Dol Amroth] were a family of the Faithful who had sailed from Númenor before the Downfall and had settled in the land of Belfalas, between the mouths of Ringló and Gilrain, with a stronghold upon the high promontory of Dol Amroth (named after the last King of Lórien).

1. Aglahad (T. A. 2827 - 2932) 2. Angelimir (T. A. 2866 - 2977) 3. Adrahil II (T. A .2917 - 3010) 4. Imrahil (T. A. 2955 - F. A. 34) 5. Elphir (T. A. 2987 - F. A. 67) 6. Alphros (T. A. 3017 - F. A. 95)

[arofili]

the line of elros ≋ princes of dol amroth ≋ headcanon disclaimer

          Adrahil II was the son of Angelimir, and the twenty-first Prince of Dol Amroth. He ruled during the time of the Shadow’s lengthening, though outright was not waged until after his death. Adrahil spent much of his youth in Minas Tirith, where he met and married Branniel, a noblewoman who was a distant cousin to Steward Ecthelion II. After the birth of their first child, Ivriniel, they removed to Dol Amroth to raise their children in a quieter land.           Ivriniel was a strong-willed woman and a great rhetorician. When she came of age she was eager to leave Dol Amroth and return to Minas Tirith, the city of her birth, an environment she found much more intellectually stimulating. She valued her independence and remained happily unwed for all of her days.           Her younger sister Finduilas was in many ways her opposite. She was of great beauty and gentle heart, loving her sea nearly as much as she loved her sister. While visiting Ivriniel in Minas Tirith, the Steward’s son Denethor II became enamoured of her, though he was many years her senior, and begged her to stay and become his wife. At her mother’s encouragement, Finduilas agreed, though nearly as soon as she settled into her new home she began to yearn for Dol Amroth and the shores of the sea.           Finduilas bore Denethor two sons, Boromir and Faramir. Her husband cared little for the younger son, and thus she did her best to raise him on her own despite her own dwindling health, which Denethor refused to believe was caused by her confinement in the stone city. The Shadow of Mordor lengthened over Minas Tirith, filling her with great horror, and her despair at being so far from the ocean became so great as to make her ill in spirit as if she were an elf afflicted with sea-longing. Not even the company of Ivriniel her sister lifted her heart, and before long Finduilas died at the age of only 38, incredibly young for one of the Dúnedain.           Finduilas’ younger brother Imrahil never forgot that it was Denethor’s stubbornness that prevented his sister from returning to the sea that was her home, and treated his law-brother coolly from thence forth, though he came Minas Tirith often to visit his young nephews.

[morwensteelsheen]

Days of Cold Pity

Prologue

Stewards, kings, and women without crowns in the age of war.

On Ao3

Fandom: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien

Rating: Mature

Archive Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Denethor II/Finduilas of Dol Amroth; Éowyn/Faramir (son of Denethor)

Characters: Aragorn | Thorongil, Ecthelion II, Adrahil II

[chemsexholmes]

they should just straight up start naming antidepressants after tolkien characters. who gives a fuck

[wanderinghurin]

Finduilas, the Lady of Dol Amroth, and wife of Denethor II, the Steward of Gondor (T.A. 2950 –???) - Finduilas and her Family [1 of 3]

Finduilas was born June 2950 of the Third Age to Lady Ilmr and Prince Adrahil II of Dol Amroth. Ilmr would recount the day of Finduilas’ birth as stifling and unforgivably hot until the moment of her daughter’s entrance into the world, and they were greeted by the smell of the sea and the cool air of the mountains from the window of her mother’s bedroom.

Finduilas was the second child and daughter born to Ilmr and Adrahil, after her elder sister Ivriniel (T.A 2947-???), and second eldest sister of Imrahil (T.A 2955-???), the youngest and last of Ilmr and Adrahil’s children who was named after both mother and father.

Finduilas shared a close kinship with her siblings. Though she was closer to Ivriniel because they shared only a slight gap in age, neither sister would allow their connection to their little brother to languish, for to blame him for the lateness of his arrival in the House of Dol Amroth would be unfair. When Imrahil was old enough to play with them outside, they spent hours on the beach and ran about the harbor(s) until they were forced to go home.

Ilmr and Adrahil’s children were perhaps closer in likeness to Adrahil’s elven kin, the Silvan Elves, than the Númenoreans. Fair hair that shined like silver in the moonlight and eyes green as jewels and blue as the sea; Ilmr daughters were oft compared to Mithrellas, handmaiden of Nimrodel, and wife of Imrazor. How reliable the comparison was, however, was something Finduilas contemplated every now and again. There were no true portraits of the elf maid, only a rough sketch that was faded and protected too late and she couldn’t see much of a likeness between them.

Ilmr was the daughter of archivists, and often preoccupied herself with the history and lore of Dol Amroth. She was rarely outside of the company of her mother and father until she met Adrahil. Following her marriage to Adrahil, a Prince of Dol Amroth and namesake of Adrahil of Dor-en-Ernil, Ilmr, who’d taken up the task of her parents, who later passed in 2955 the Third Age, brought her children into the tradition.

The years spent under their mother’s tutelage was an essential part of their education in Gondor, and it was not long before their places in the political and education world in Dol Amroth were made clear to them. Imrahil preoccupied himself with matters of military history, knowing he would eventually lead the Swan Knights of Dol Amroth (or so he hoped); Ivriniel saw to the restoration and preservation of artifacts left in the care of Dol Amroth’s dynastic leaders; Finduilas remained enraptured by the dusty halls of the archives, for there was no one subject that its walls were not learned in.

Of the siblings, Finduilas structured her life around that of order and straight lines. She hated messes and was often easily irritated if something was knocked out of order. Her family was undaunted by the way information piled up against walls and curved around the floor from disuse and wandering hands that misplaced books and scrolls, but Finduilas would see the archive restored to some semblance of cleanliness and order. From her early twenties well into her sixties, Finduilas worked tirelessly on the reorganization of Dol Amroth’s libraries.

As a young woman, Finduilas’ long face and sharp features were considered a terrible sort of beauty. She smiled little outside of the company of her family (and would not be hassled to do otherwise), and watched others in such a way that many in Dol Amroth believed became they became bewitched and lost their good sense, and thus could not lie to her even if they wanted to. The idea made the Finduilas and Ivriniel laugh and it was decided that the malign rumors of her bewitching gaze sprung from guilty hearts that were terrible at lying to begin with. Imrahil would argue in the favor of the rumor, claiming his sister did in fact have a way of rattling man and woman to the very core with her eyes. Others simply thought Finduilas unkind, and never broached an attempt to correct their assumption otherwise.

The passing of age made many less preoccupied with her appearance, though the downside of her graying hair and softer features meant that many who were where she was once was in age believed it was a simple thing to manipulate her. Perhaps that was when her temper began to shorten and fray. It was nothing short of frustrating for the Lady of Dol Amroth (and Minas Tirith), to be treated like a fool. Unconsciously, she overcompensated in the demonstration of her knowledge much of the time and was prone to losing her temper far easier than when she was a young woman.

The upside, of course, was that she no longer had to mind her tone as much as she did when she was expected to both put on airs and raise two young men (already short tempered and smart-mouthed) without swearing in front of them.

Alyssa Sutherland and Daphne Selfe as Finduilas