#and I’ve found like one or two Hobbit things

[as-kind-as-summer]

Actually heartbreaking how terrible most LotR merch is and how nonexistent The Hobbit and Rings of Power merch is

[river13245]

hii :D

i’ve a request, could u write kili durin x male!reader where the reader asks to braid kilis hair not realising that it’s courtship in the dwarfish culture. kíli has the biggest crush on the reader and takes this as a sign that the reader likes him back. the reader did not realise that’s what braiding a dwarfs hair means and was also totally oblivious to kilis crush on him and never noticed he was flirting and always assumed he was just very friendly, but obviously the reader likes kili back and it’s just total fluff 😋😋

thank you smm 💞💞

Braids and Courting

Kili Durin X Gn Elf Reader

Being an elf wasn't as great as some beings would think. Of course with being an elf there was skills you had to learn, that were useful. The long and beautiful hair, the soft skin, the pointed ears and the youthful look. All those were great of course.

What wasn't that great was being part of the higher class elves. This meant that eventually you would have to marry and usually you didn't love the person next to you. It was just part of the routine in everyone's life. However you didn't want to wake up next to someone that didn't love you. Or someone you didn't love.

So that's exactly why you left home when you did. It wasn't long before you met Gandalf the Wizard. Him knowing who you were of course, because that man had a lot of knowledge after all his years of living. He had stayed with you for a bit, and it didn't take him long until he invited you to join the group. Of course you could never say no to an adventure so you agreed.

That's exactly how you ended up right here. You had been with the group of dwarfs for a long while now. Even before the hobbit came along and joined you guys.

You were fairly close with fili and thorin, those two were like your best friends. The others you were like a family with except for one. Kili who was filis brother, he was someone you felt strong feelings for. Feelings that go past platonic or familiar feelings. No these were feelings of love, however you never knew how to express these types of feelings because you never really saw it being done.

Over the span of time there had been many moments where Kili had done very sweet things. Things that made your heart pound and your stomach feel weird but of course you thought it was just him being friendly.

-----

Walking around with Thorin in comfortable silence as you both looked for another path was interrupted when you hear someone join you. Turning to look who it was you saw Kili beside you. He looked up at you and held out some berries. "here I had a feeling you would be getting a bit hungry around this time. Have some of these, I have extra"

He grabs your hand and places the berries in your hand. "thank you but don't you need them?" Kili shakes his head "No take them" he squeezes your hand gently before walking back towards his brother. Leaving the quiet thank you that left your lips just drifting into the air.

It was too dark to see the faintest of smile form on Thorin's lips as you go back beside him and eat the berries that Kili had given you.

-----

There had been many times like this

There was one day when all of you had found a big field of flowers. You were so focused on drawing the scene. You liked to draw pretty things and so you were sitting by a tree drawing on a piece of parchment with a pencil you had brought.

In fact you were so focused you didn't even notice how Kili had been picking flowers and making you a flower crown. Eventually when he was finished he came and sat next to you. You rested your head on his shoulder for just a second before looking over at him "hi Kili"

Just the sound of his name coming from your lips made him smile. "hi y/n" he replied before grabbing the flower crown he had made you. "here put this on. Have to see if it fits"

You lower your head a bit so he could place it on your head. It fit perfectly and when you sit back up and look at him. He smiles and nods "perfect, it looks good on you" You smile and blush very softly. "thank you" he nods and walks away.

When he is a good distance away his brother. Your best friend comes and sit on the other side of you. "how long are you going to be blind to the fact that my brother is infatuated with you?" The shocked look on your face makes him laugh. "what? what do you mean, infatuated?"

He looks at you and sighs "You cant tell me you havent noticed the way he always makes you things and gives you things. Always making sure your cared for" Your silent for a moment before it all comes together. "oh"

Fili places his hand on your shoulder "i will let you decide what to do with this information" He gets up and walks away leaving you to think about what to do.

Kili had made something for you and given you things so you decide you should do something for him. You've recently noticed that he has been pushing his hair out of his face more frequently than normal so you decide you would braid his hair for him. Just so its out of his face.

You get up after putting your things away back into your bag. Then begin to walk over to where Kili is. When you get to him he notices you right away and looks at you. "hey Kili. Could you come sit with me for a moment?" He nods and walks with you and sits against the tree next to you.

"everything okay?" he asks a little worried but when you give him a nod and take a breath to calm yourself. "would you mind if I did your hair. I've noticed you pushing it out of your face a lot recently and id like to help?" He looks at you for a moment before turning around.

"what are you going to do with it?" He asks

"i'm just going to braid it. I promise I will make it look good" you reply

Kili looks straight ahead so you don't see the smile that's forming on his face. In the dwarf culture braiding hair is a sign of courtship. He didn't know if you knew that or not but either way he decided to play it cool. Not wanting to make you uncomfortable and you stop.

You kneel behind him on your knees to get in a more comfortable position. Then you begin to gently get all of his hair and pushing it back so you can split it into three sections. Once its in three sections you begin to twist them all with each other, braiding his hair very nicely.

Kili was sitting there patiently not saying much. But you do notice the way he rests his head against your hands. His whole body seems to relax under your touch and a sigh escapes him when you begin to gently massage his shoulders.

When you are finally finished you pull away and he turns around and looks at you. "thank you" he says and you nod. "you look very handsome Kili. I hope you will let me do it again sometime"

He nods and brings your hand up to kiss the back of it. "of course, you are the only one ill let touch my hair." You smile and nod "great ill be honoured" when the both of you get up and go your separate ways Kili gets a few looks since most of them know what this means.

You on the other hand are pulling your bag back over your shoulders. Doing your own thing, when Thorin walks up to you. "y/n" he says which causes you to look over at him. "Thorin"

Thorin looks at Kili and then back to you. "i'm assuming that you are the one that braided his hair?" You nod in response "yes I am, is that a problem?" He shakes his head "no of course not. I just have one question, Do you know that braiding a dwarfs hair means you are courting them?"

A smile forms on your face, no second thoughts are needed. "I know that now. And I find myself rather pleased that people will know that the both of us are together" Thorin smiles and nods placing his hand on your shoulder. "well its about time" he jokes a bit.

This causes you to smile and decide to tease him back. "how about you and the hobbit? When will you two decide to court each other" Thorin blushes very lightly and shakes his head "I don't know what you mean by that"

"mhm sure you dont" you say with a smirk before walking up to Kili. This time instead of standing beside him, you slip your hand into his and hold onto it. From that day on everyone knew that the two of you were spoken for.

[nostalgicnarrator]

Over Hill and Under Mountain

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Word Count: 1,555

Parings: Thorn X Bilbo

Description:

Thorin leaves Erebor to visit his dear friend Bilbo, will new feeling shine through? What will happen?

Chapters: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

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─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───

Note:

Listen to me I’ve never done anything like this before, I have written and sure I have posted one of two things and immediately abandoned them. If you want to give me constructive criticism or feedback please do I wanna get better at this kind of thing.

─── ⋅ ∙ ∘ ☽ ༓ ☾ ∘ ⋅ ⋅ ───

Thorin had sent a letter to Bilbo not too long ago by raven, telling him of his departure from his kingdom and hopefully swift arrival. It had been a year since he had last seen his hobbit.

Thorin had found himself missing his hobbit. Even with the regular letters between them, now It had only been a week since he had gotten the last letter and Thorin had begun to feel a sort of ache in his chest the longer he went without contact from Bilbo.

Now the King Under the Mountain found himself hundreds of miles away from his Lonely Mountain, the one he had left in questionably capable hands, right back were it all began a year ago now, and getting himself lost once again on the roads and in the Shire. passing farms and burrows, even at one point finding himself on the road to brea. He had turned red when he realized, though he wont tell you that, and turned back hoping to find the burrow of his hobbit.

Thorin grumbled as he thought to himself and took another turn down a path he swears he’s seen hundred times before. ‘Now if I can just- have I already been here before?’ Thorin thought, sighing. ‘Mahal, am I even in the right place?’

When Thorin passed a deceptively familiar-looking farm, one he had to have passed twice now, he sighed and swung his pack off his shoulders to fish for a map. Maybe it can help him figure out where he was.

That’s when he heard a very familiar voice. “Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain, as lost as a chicken with no head.” The voice was full of a teasing tone as it spoke.

Thorin whipped around and looked at the familiar small hobbit, his caramel-colored curls wild on his head, suggesting that he hadn’t done much more than wake up and throw clothes on. The hobbit seemed to be wrapped and almost gilded in gold in the light of the early sun, the old dwarf couldn’t fight himself from blushing at the hobbit.

His undershirt was a buttery yellow, a little warn but clearly loved, and his pants an emerald green that could put any gemstone that the king had seen to shame. The bottom of his pants were embroidered with flowers and other things hobbits seemed so enchanted by. The hobbit had no waistcoat, so his suspenders were visible. He stood not a few paces behind where Thorin stood. Thorin only just began to notice how long he had been staring at his hobbit.

Bilbo was smiling broadly, chuckling fondly at the sight of the bewildered and red faced king. Thorin didn’t wait long to rush forward and embrace his friend in a hug, which the hobbit gladly returned it with just as much enthusiasm. Thorin patted Bilbo’s shoulder affectionately and looked down at him when he pulled away from the hug.

Thorin smiled as he spoke. “Bilbo Baggins, and here I thought I’d have to stumble around here for a day until I found you.”

Bilbo laughed and grasped at the dwarf’s arms as he leaned a little closer before teasing. “Now what kind of hobbit would I be if I let one of my guests stumble his way around here like a newborn fawn?” Bilbo said as he moved to hook Thorin by the arm to lead him up a path toward his burrow. “Let’s get you inside and I’ll find you something to eat! I’m sure you are starving.”

And that’s where Thorin found himself, sitting in an uncomfortably comfortable armchair in the living room of Bilbo’s burrow. He watched the small hobbit as he made tea, to quote, ‘hold him over’ till Bilbo was done cooking.

The warmth that wafted from the kitchen seemed to almost lull the king to sleep. The next time his eyes opened, Bilbo was handing him a warm mug of tea that smelled and tasted sweetly of elderberry and mint And a cloth that held a sweet blackberry tart.

Bilbo headed back to the kitchen to continue his task of making breakfast for the two of them. Thorin stood to follow after him, leaning against the door frame as Bilbo mixed something together in a bowl. He found himself observing the hobbit’s every movement, from the way his curls bounced as he worked to the concentration furrowing his brow.

‘He really is quite charming,’ Thorin mused, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. ‘The way he moves about his kitchen, so at ease, so… endearing. Why didn’t I see it before?’

Bilbo grinned at Thorin when he pulled himself a chair over. After a brief silence, Bilbo asked, “How are the renovations of your kingdom going?”

Thorin sighed, closing his eyes as thoughts of Erebor’s restoration filled his mind. They had found that the old techniques of his forefathers had been forgotten or abandoned for more useful skills during the time they had lost their home. But Thorin couldn’t help the pride that swelled within him at the thoughts of his people and how he and his Company had reclaimed his home. And how he feels that his hobbit was to thank for that.

Thorin let his voice sound as tired as he felt, as he spoke, “They are progressing well, but it seems many of the secrets of my people have seemingly been forgotten over the years.” He looked at the mug he held, now half full and tart long gone. He rolled the mug in his hands, it being a tad bit smaller than any other mug he was used to. It had flowers and soft things painted underneath its glaze.

“Still,” Thorin hummed and looked to Bilbo now. ‘Have his eyes always been so sweet?’ “It will be grand and restored to the best of our ability.”

Bilbo hummed and went back to cooking. He scrambled eggs in a hot pan. “Well, I wait patiently to see. You better keep me updated properly this time.” Bilbo said with a bit of a teasing tone and smile. Then he stopped what he was doing, looked at Thorin again as he set a plate down on the counter, and started plating food.

“I dare ask, you are staying a few days, are you not?” Bilbo asked. Thorin felt his breath catch in his throat. He had to think a little harder than he was used to, to speak.

“Yes,” Thorin nodded as he spoke. He found himself once again thinking of Bilbo, the way his eyes sparkled with curiosity and care. ‘Why does my heart quicken every time he looks at me?’ Thorin wondered, a bit confused by his own feelings.

“Then, who is running the kingdom in your absence?” Bilbo inquired.

“Fíli,” Thorin replied with a fond smile. “He is capable and eager to prove himself. And I am not one to disappoint.”

Bilbo nodded, seemingly satisfied with that answer. “Ah, well, I am sure he is quite excited, and I am sure Lady Dís is not pleased at your sudden absence not too long after you have taken back your mountain.” Bilbo teased lightly as his eyes shined with mischief.

Thorin found himself chuckling and nodding softly. “No, she is not, but it will be a good experience for the lad to practice how it truly is to run a kingdom.”

“I see…” Bilbo hummed and pulled a loaf from the oven, setting it at the table to cool.

“How has the Shire been?” Thorin found himself asking as he helped Bilbo’s food find its way to the dining room table.

Bilbo’s face lit up happily as he smiled “Oh! Well, the Shire has been peaceful, as always. You know how things can be here, quiet!” He started digging through the cabinets for more plates. “And! I’m sure you saw on your way here but the fields are green with new crops, the harvest looks promising.” He said.

As Bilbo went to grab his cutlery as he spoke he gasped and looked to Thorin before almost yelling. “Oh! Do you remember what I told you happened a week ago well! It had happened again!!Lobelia Sackville-Baggins has tried to make off with my good silver again!”

Thorin watched Bilbo with growing affection and amusement as he animatedly recounted the events of the Shire. ‘He gets so heated over these things,’ Thorin thought, finding it endearing. ‘How could someone be so fiercely protective and yet so gentle?’

They continued to talk as Bilbo and Thorin prepared and set up breakfast. The aroma of freshly baked bread and bacon filled the air. As they sat down to eat, Thorin felt a deep contentment.

As Bilbo went on about the Shire and what had been happening since his last letter to the king only a week ago, Thorin thought to himself, ‘This visit with Bilbo,’ he mused as Bilbo went on about how some children had trampled over his marigolds, ‘will be as lovely as I imagined.’

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There it is, please don’t get to mad at me if I have made a mistake or messed something up. Okay, please leave feedback! Let me know what I can do better next time!

[justsomerandomfanfic]

Emerald Green - Frodo Baggins X GN Reader

Title: Emerald Green

Frodo Baggins X GN Reader

Additional Characters: N/A

Requested by: @almost-gabrielle! (I'm sorry it's a bit short!)

WC: 936

Warnings: Fluff

The beautiful green forests in Hobbiton were always so peaceful. The sun shone bright and the trees seemed to dance in the wind. It was a nice day to be outside. You held a woven basket in your hands, filled to the brim with berries and flowers. A breeze blew through your hair as you walked down an old dirt path. It was a lovely day. And finally, the Hobbit that you were looking for, you found him. Sitting under the base of a tree, reading a book. He looked so angelic, so ethereal. 

“Frodo Baggins! I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” You exclaimed, walking towards him. Frodo didn't even flinch, looking up from a book.

"Y/N," He smiled as you walked over, "You've been looking for me?" He asked as you sat down beside him, placing your basket down between the both of you.

You inhaled a large breath of the morning air, letting out a sigh. Looking over at Frodo, you leaned over slightly to see what he was reading. "What is it that you are reading, Fro, dear?" You asked. His eyes met yours, and his lips formed into a small smile. 

He placed his book back down on his lap, covering it with his hands, and for some reason, he looked rather nervous, "I doubt that you would be interested in it."

You hummed, nodding your head as you looked at the basket of berries. "Are you alright, Frodo?" You asked, concerned. Frodo's expression became more panicked. He shook his head frantically, not meeting your gaze. You grabbed his hand, holding it tightly. This action seemed to calm him a little bit. You squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Frodo... Whatever it is, you can tell me." You encouraged him. He stared at you for a moment before speaking up again.

He took a deep breath before beginning, "I was..." He paused again, seeming unsure if he wanted to continue.

After a few moments, you gave him a gentle nudge. "It'll be okay, Frodo," You said, smiling reassuringly.

He nodded slowly before continuing. "I was wondering... If you'd like to take a walk with me."

Your eyes widened slightly, a bit shocked as you felt your cheeks burn, "A walk?"

Frodo nodded, "I, uh, yes." He answered, before grabbing the book that he was reading from his lap. "I got this for you." He offered it out to you. Your face warmed up even further when you realized that he had gotten you one of your favorite books. 

"So that's why you hid the book away." You chuckled, accepting it from him. You turned it over in your hands, the cover was an emerald green, the pages a cream. It was one of your favorite books that you had lost a long time ago. Before you moved to Hobbiton. You had told Frodo about it so many times, it must have been seared into his mind. "Thank you..." You muttered, looking over at Frodo; seeing his blushing cheeks. "I will treasure this book always. And, I'd love to take a walk with you, Frodo, dear." You added.

Standing, Frodo cleared his throat, offering his hand out to you. "My dear," He spoke, "Shall we go for a walk together?" You laughed lightly, taking his hand.

"Of course!" You replied, grinning widely, grabbing your basket. Together, you began your journey, hand in hand. You talked about random things; food, music. Eventually, a comfortable silence settled upon the two of you. A comfortable quietness that made you feel at home. The leaves rustling in the breeze, the soft sounds of animals making their noises, and the sun's gentle warmth as it began to set. It was peaceful. And the two of you shared it. It was just the two of you, enjoying each other's company - whilst also snacking on the fresh berries that you had previously collected.

As you and Frodo continued your walk through the serene Hobbiton landscape, you stumbled upon a beautiful patch of wildflowers. With a twinkle in your eyes, you both decided to take a break and make flower crowns for each other. Frodo's nimble fingers weaved together a lovely crown for you, adorned with vibrant blooms, while you fashioned one for him, your laughter filling the air as you both got caught up in the moment.

After adorning each other with the flower crowns, Frodo suddenly leaped up, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "A game of chase, perhaps?" You suggested, and a playful grin spread across his face. And just like that, the two of you were off, darting through the meadow, giggling like carefree children.

As the game of chase came to an end, you found yourselves back on the path, breathless and exhilarated. Frodo caught your hand, twirling you around in a dance-like spin, the setting sun casting a golden glow around the two of you. Amid your laughter and the gentle twirl, it became apparent that the walks in Hobbit culture held a deeper meaning - a sign of courtship. A sign that love was in the air. And you knew it was true. You had always had a certain fondness for Frodo, it was only a matter of time.

And the warmth of Frodo's hand in yours, the joy in his eyes, and the shared moments of happiness, laughter, and overall connection created a bond that transcended words. And as you continued your walk, hand in hand, it felt like the beginning of a beautiful journey together. A journey of a lifetime. 

Who knew what was in store for the both of you in the future.

---

Main Masterlist | The Hobbit/LOTR Masterlist

[chaussetteblanche]

just like the wind - I

A/N : Hi everyone !! This is actually an old series of mine I wrote a while ago that I will be rewriting ! The original work can be found here: https://www.quotev.com/story/12076040/just-like-the-wind-lg-x-oc/1 word count : 1'625 warnings : none

Rain pelted down on the ground as the wind made the “Prancing Pony” sign dance to its will. The sound of water hitting the thin glass panels separating the people inside the inn could barely be heard over the sound of glasses clinking together and lively voices. You blew a strand of hair out of your face, growing more impatient by the second.

“They were meant to be here hours ago. Are certain they’re coming?” The way you kept you voice low did little to hide the frustration behind it. If there was one thing you did not like, it was wasting time. And waiting, hiding in the shadows of an old inn smelling of beer and smoke, was clearly a waste of your time. Especially if the people you were so impatiently waiting for did not come.

“Gandalf told us to meet them here. He was delayed.” You notice the way Strider does not directly answer your question and resist the urge to groan. He seems just as irritated as you as he pushes his head even deeper into the hood of his brown cloak. The corner you’re sitting in is especially dark and you can only distinguish the long pipe protruding from his mouth as he sighs.

When four smaller-than-average creatures enter the bar, your hand flies to your dagger by instinct. You sigh out in relief as your fingers curl around the familiar hilt of your favourite weapon. Finally. You watch attentively as they sit down and talk in quick, panicked whispers. You turn to Strider to see his light eyes already trained on the Hobbits. He meets your gaze and gives you a slight nod.

Staying put for the time being, you push yourself back further into your seat. You observe as the Hobbits continue murmuring between each other. You recognise the dark-haired one as the Ring-Bearer thanks to Gandalf’s description. You meet his apprehensive blue orbs as he sends you and Strider a worried glance. You pull your hood further over your face, letting the shadows conceal your face. 

As the bartender hurries past the Hobbits’ table, the Ring-Bearer reaches out and stops him by the sleeve. Thanks to your elf-hearing, you can listen to the words exchanged by the two men.

“Excuse-me, those two in the corner, who are they?” Frodo’s eyes nervously flit between Strider and you as he speaks. You see the bartender’s eyebrows raise and are reminded of your reputation as Rangers.

“They’re two of them Ranger, dangerous folk they are. Wander in the wilds. What is frightening is that I’ve never heard of them around here. Names are Strider and Ira,” he whispers hastily, as if wanting to stop talking about this as soon as possible. 

You are distracted by a man who keeps glaring at you and your companion for a short moment. Your eyes find the Hobbits as soon as one of them leaves the table and heads to the bar. You raise an eyebrow and watch, unimpressed, as he starts hollering around the room, loudly answering the man who had been staring.

“Baggins?! Sure, I know a Baggins! He’s over there! Frodo Baggins!” the Hobbit all but screams. “He’s my second cousin once removed from my mother’s side...” The ignorant Hobbit continues telling the suspicious man about the Ring-Bearer, unaware of the danger behind his actions. Frodo gets up and rushes over to his companion, grabbing his shoulder to get him to stop talking. Suddenly, he slips and falls on the slippery and dirty floor. Eyes wide, you see the One Ring fly out of his grasp and into the air. You shoot up immediately, feeling Strider doing the same next to you. The Ring falls back right onto Frodo’s finger, turning him invisible. You hear the crowd gasping as Strider sucks in a sharp breath. You’re already in action, striding forward. You grab the invisible Hobbit’s arm and drag him up the stairs with Strider. You push open the door to an empty room. Strider roughly pushes the Ring-Bearer onto the ground. 

“You are bringing far too much attention to yourself, ‘Mr. Underhill’,” the other Ranger warns coldly. Frodo hastily takes the Ring off and shoves it into his pocket. 

“What do you want?” he asks bravely, his voice shaking slightly. You almost feel bad for him. 

“A little more caution to start with, that is no trinket you carry,” you answer, staring down at him with a neutral expression. Strider starts putting out the candles inside the room.

“I carry nothing,” the Hobbit denies, as if you hadn’t dragged him up a row of stairs while he was completely invisible.

“Indeed,” you scoff, “I can avoid being seen if I wish, but to disappear completely, that is a rare gift.”

“Who are you?” Both Strider and you ignore his question. 

“Are you frightened?” Strider asks from where he stands, looking out of the window, now the only source of light in the dark room.

“Yes,” Frodo replies hesitantly, eyes flicking between you and your fellow Ranger.

“Not nearly frightened enough.” Strider purses his lips, sending you a look. You look down at the Hobbit.

“We know what hunts you,” you elaborate, a shiver running down your spine at the thought of the Nazgûl.

Seemingly out of nowhere, three Hobbits burst into the room. Your sword is drawn in a flash, the tip of your blade pointed at the middle one’s throat. He swallows before bravely yelling out: “Let him go or I’ll have you long-shanks!”

You bite back a laugh as you sheath your sword, deeming the threat undangerous. “Now we’re done for,” you mock, struggling to hold back a smile. Strider sends you a reproachful look.

“You have a stout heart, little Hobbit, but that will not save you. Ring-Bearer,” Strider turns to Frodo, “you can no longer wait for the wizard.”

You nod as he speaks, all traces of previous amusement gone from your features. “They are coming,” you add. 

Strider walks the Hobbits to another room where you would all be spending the night, explaining to them the message he got from Gandalf to collect them. You stay behind for a moment. Stuffing everything you can under the sheets of the beds, you make the room look like it is being slept in before joining the others.

When you get back to the others, all the Hobbits seem to be asleep. The room is cold and humid and you tighten your cloak around you. Strider is looking out the window. If you didn’t know him better, you would not notice the tension in his shoulders or the way he is biting his inner cheek.

“They’ll be here soon,” he speaks. You place a warm hand on his shoulder. Your voice is soft when you speak.

“We have done all that we could. Sleep, you need to rest. I will stand guard.”

“Are you cert-�� You cut him off with a shake of your head.  “Sleep, my friend,” you smile, “I do not need it the way you do.” After a second’s hesitation, he nods and pulls his hood on before getting comfortable against a wall. You listen to his breathing until it gets deep, until you are sure he’s asleep.

Then, you sit on a stool and look up thoughtfully at the clouds. 

Your elf-hearing picks up on Frodo’s twisting and turning. He sits up in his bed and rubs his face. You realize he never fell asleep.

“Try to sleep, Frodo. A long journey awaits us tomorrow. You should rest while you can,” you advise, your eyes trained on the stormy sky.

“Well, I know, but... I’m sleeping in the same room as you two,” he looks between you are Strider, “it’s- unsettling.” He wrings his hands together, afraid to have crossed a line with his honesty. Little does he know it is the trait that you value the most.

“Why is it unsettling?” you ask softly, careful not to wake the others, as you turn to face him. 

“Well, I mean, you are Ira,” he reminds sheepishly, as if you could ever forget the way your name had turned into a threat, a promise of death and violence.

“Ah, of course. The legend, the horror story,” you smile sarcastically to mask the pain, moving your hands theatrically. 

“The story parents tell their children when they won’t behave,” he adds. Clearly, he’s speaking from experience. The thought saddens you more than you care to admit.

“Do not believe everything you’re told, young Hobbit,” you chide softly. “Plus, do you not think that if we wanted you dead, we would have killed you already?” He does not answer. “You have your answer. I promise you, Frodo Baggins, that we only wish to get you and your little friends to safety.” 

“Yes, Miss.” 

“Goodnight, Frodo.” He falls asleep a few minutes later. You are lost in thought until you hear the awful cries. You shoot up immediately, hand wrapped around the hilt of your dagger, every muscle tense. The Hobbits and Strider wake up, gasping. You don’t even need to spare them a glance to know the halflings are terrified, as they should be.

“What are they?” Frodo asks in a frightened whisper.

“They were once men,” you speak, staring holes into the room’s door, “Great kings of men. Then Sauron the Deceiver gave to them nine rings of power. Blinded by their greed, they took them without question, one by one falling into darkness. Now, they are slaves to his way up. They are the Nine Wraiths. The Ring Wraiths. Neither living nor dead. At all times they feel the presence of the Ring. Drawn to the power of the one, they will never stop hunting you."

[aeondelirium]

Here is my gift for the White Oliphaunt event! Have a lovely, healthy, happy new year. ❤️

Frodo had been intrigued by the elf since he first saw a glimpse of his injury; a thin sliver of greyish flesh spotted between the the cuff of a sleeve and the trimming of a glove. Illness was rare among the elves, and it had begun to make a small loneliness in Frodo’s heart that grew as Bilbo went from old to ancient and he himself was getting on in years. Master Elrond was a healer of great skill, nor was he the only one eager to see to the comfort and health of the hobbits; still he could not halt the march of time. Frodo felt that it pained the elves to witness the slow failing of their mortal bodies. More than once he had seen their neighbours flinch or quickly avert their eyes when Bilbo struggled to rise from the bench outside his home, or when an indrawn breath gave away a sudden pain in his joints. Frodo felt reminded of an old yellow tomcat who had liked to sleep on the warm cobblestones by the well outside Bag End, and the way he had flinched to see him limp away in the evening as his days drew near their end.

The elf with the injured hand drew similar looks of mingled pity and distaste, though Frodo had been made to understand that he had earned the latter. He found it difficult to picture soft-spoken, withdrawn Maglor either as a joyful minstrel or a ruthless warrior; rather he felt as though an invisible hand had plucked kin strings in their souls, and loneliness sung in both of them.

One afternoon, Master Daeron’s beautiful harp had been carried out to the shore by no fewer than four strong elves, and the hobbits had spent a delightful time listening and singing until Bilbo’s rhymes reduced most of the audience to tears of laughter. Frodo’s smile had grown somewhat fixed when he found he was no longer certain that the merriment stemmed from his uncle’s cleverness, rather than the jolly nonsense of his wandering mind. Frodo’s gaze lingered on Maglor, who had not laughed along with the others.

“Does it hurt still?” he found himself asking. Maglor did not turn his eyes on him, but his burned hand twitched inside its glove.

“The hurt is less a thing of the body and more an ache of the soul” he said softly.

Frodo nodded. “I’ve some of those hurts myself.”

“I miss my harp” Maglor confided, his eyes still fixed straight ahead as though he were speaking to himself. “That is perhaps the greatest hurt of all.” There was a silence. Frodo knew no comfort to give the elf.

“Pimpinella Bracegirdle”, said Bilbo beside him, stirring from a brief rest against his shoulder, “loved to dance.” He fixed his watery old eyes on Maglor with an intensity that finally forced the elf to turn his head and acknowledge him. Bilbo manoeuvred himself upright with a huff and a puff and wet his lips, ready to spin yet another yarn.

“Now the trouble was”, he continued, “her dear Hugo was lame in one leg whenever the weather was about to change, an old injury from when he was a lad … I seem to recall he’d stepped on a bee and rolled down the hill up near Sandson’s farm …”

Frodo felt a slow flush creeping up his neck and put a gentle hand on his uncle’s arm, hoping to dissuade him from his tale. Bilbo, however, was undeterred. Maglor simply looked at the old hobbit, his face betraying neither amusement nor disdain. He listened with the careful attention of a minstrel.

“Now, a little further down Bagshot Row lived a hobbit who didn’t care much for dancing, despite having two good feet at the end of two good legs. We called him Daddy Twofeet, if you can believe it, for he’d more sense in his toes than that foolish head of his, heh. So on every other feast day, if the weather was about to change, and Pimpinella wanted to dance, Hugo would limp over to Daddy’s hole, and borrow his good right leg, on the condition of course he’d have it back by morning. And then he and Pimpinella would dance the night away, and they didn’t care who knew about it.” The old hobbit finished with a snort and a shake of his grey head.

“Oh Bilbo”, Frodo sighed. 

His uncle bristled. “Don’t you take that tone with me, young hobbit! Hugo and Daddy were my neighbours for many years, and every word is true.”

“Bilbo-”, Frodo began, but the old hobbit shook his hand from his arm.

“Why, I ought to send you to bed without your supper!” he sputtered, now truly querulous in a way only the elderly can muster.

“To bed, yes”, Frodo agreed wearily, and made to rise. “Perhaps it is time for bed.”

“Perhaps you ought to listen to your uncle, Master Baggins.”

All three of them stopped and looked up to where Daeron was watching them, a twinkle of merriment in his bright eyes.

“I think there is some wisdom in his tale”, he went on, and raised a graceful hand in beckoning. Beside the hobbits, Maglor stiffened where he sat, not unlike a rabbit hoping to elude the hunter’s searching gaze.

“Come, Maglor. Sit with me.” Daeron’s voice was gentle, yet brooked no argument. Maglor rose, but doing so cast a sideways glance at Frodo, who could not help but feel he had done the elf a bad turn.

“Show me”, Daeron said as Maglor settled himself on the smooth rock next to him. He opened his hand in invitation, and received Maglor’s own in return. None around them spoke or even shifted as Daeron gently peeled the glove away, a shadow of pain passing over his features at the sight of the marred flesh.

“The skin has hardened”, Maglor said in a voice barely above a whisper, forcing the words out quickly as though they hurt him. “The fingers are too stiff to play.”

Daeron hummed a soft note of agreement, turning the hand over and gently extending the scarred digits. “Yes”, he said at last, “that hand is hardly fit to pluck my harp.”

His finger’s tightened around Maglor’s wrist to prevent him from drawing away. Daeron removed from his shoulders his own lovely blue scarf, and, resting Maglor’s hand in his lap, gently pulled the soft fabric over it.

“Between the two of us we have three good hands to play.”

The tune was halting and strange at first. Taking half of two famed minstrels did not, Frodo thought to himself, make a whole one of outstanding skill. Yet there was not a face in the audience that did not smile, or shed a tear, or both.

Beside him, Bilbo rested his wizened head back on his shoulder. An elf maiden draped a soft woollen blanket around him against the evening chill. And when the old hobbit begun to hum along in his faltering voice, the music was sweeter than any that had been heard on that shore in a long time.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hello! Do you have any advice on how to deal with the fear of bad-faith readers? Thanks to spending too much time online during Covid, my confidence took a huge hit, and now I’m quite worried about random online users discovering my writing and complaining that my writing is not good enough, not diverse enough, not social justicey enough, etc. It’s often made me hesitate a lot during my writing recently, so any advice to deal with this would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Fear of Negative Feedback/Reviews

Three things to keep in mind here:

#1 Reviews and comments aren't feedback. Unless you post your story to a place dedicated to writer feedback or where you're specifically asking for feedback, any commentary or review you receive is not there to educate you. It's either there as thanks and/or flattery, or it's there to let other readers know what to expect. On sites like AO3, for example, unless you specifically ask for concrit, you will probably only get neutral or positive commentary which isn't feedback. If you get negative comments, just ignore them if you didn't ask for them.

#2 Reviews are for readers. Let me say that again...

Reviews are for readers to let other readers know what they liked and didn't like about a book. They are not there for the author's harm or benefit. They're not there to educate the author. They're there for other readers, full stop.

Write the best story you can write, and if you can, utilize feedback tools meant for writers (alpha readers, writing groups, critique partners, sensitivity readers, beta readers, editors...) to ensure your story is everything you want it to be.

If your alpha readers, writing groups, critique partner/s, sensitivity readers, beta readers, or editors have concerns about representation in your story, those are the issues you need to address.

Once your story is out in the world, let it go, especially if negative reviews hurt your confidence and mental health. If you inadvertently do something terrible that blows up, listen, apologize, and take steps to do better next time. That's it.

#3 Everyone isn't going to love your story. All writers get bad reviews. If you expect to receive only glowing praise on every story, you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is a beloved classic that has sold an estimated 500 million copies worldwide since it was first published in 1605. Among the reviews on Amazon: "repetitive and frustrating," "book is trash, don't know why it's a classic," "I absolutely hated this book," "silly, lengthy, display of low humor."

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is another beloved classic, and it has sold an estimated 200 million copies worldwide since publication in 1859. Among the reviews on Amazon: "boring as heck," "incomprehensible jibberish," "has significant flaws," "great if you want a nice nap," "way too slow and boring."

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is a classic that is still very popular and beloved today, and has sold an estimated 100 million copies since its publication in 1937. Among the reviews on Amazon: "very slow paced and confusing," "I found it mind-numbingly dull," "the worst piece of writing ever," "zoned out because I was bored."

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is a hugely popular contemporary book that has sold an estimated 80-million copies worldwide since its publication in 2003. Among the reviews on Amazon: "One of the worst, if not THE worst book I've read, ever," "much ado about not much," "couldn't overlook the shallow characters, boring car chases, and general lack of quality," "unnecessary ramblings about scenery," "horribly written, full of cliches."

All stories have people who don't like them. Period.

It's something we have to accept as writers.

As long as we're doing our best to put the best possible stories out there, and as long as we listen and learn when legitimate concerns are brought to our doorstep, we're doing all we can.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[frodo-with-glasses]

25 Questions with Phil Dragash: YES, SERIOUSLY!

So y'all know how I was reviewing Phil Dragash's audiobook of LotR last year, but kinda fell off somewhere in the middle of Rohan?? Well, guess what! A couple weeks ago, I received a tumblr message from the man himself, saying he'd read through all my reviews, had really enjoyed the little blast from the past, and was open to answering questions if I had any!

So of course, I had LOTS of questions.

The first one being: "Are you actually the real Phil Dragash??"

But I'm delighted to say that after exchanging emails with the work email listed on his website, I can confidently say that it is the real dude, and I've had a blast chatting with him! So for those of you who urged I listen to this audiobook—especially @laurelindorenan for her glowing recommendation—and for everyone else who likes the audiobook and/or enjoyed my reviews: I am delighted to present, ladies and gentlehobbits, this peek behind the curtain!

But of course I'm putting it all below the cut, because this man rambles like I do 🤣

Obligatory disclaimer: All opinions presented by Mr. Dragash are his own, I am not necessarily condoning any of them; please do not come after me for his opinions regarding pineapple on pizza.

25 QUESTIONS, LET'S GO!

1. Tell me how you got into Lord of the Rings!

I was ten years old when my dad took me to the library, and found a VHS copy of Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 animated Lord of the Rings film. I was already a fan of the “Chronicles of Narnia” and my dad just handed the tape to me and said “Look, C.S. Lewis’s friend made this”. I watched it, and had no idea what was going on. It was so hard to understand.

Fast forward to the year 2002 when “Fellowship” was out on DVD, and we had a movie night at my older cousin’s place, and watched the film for the first time. My 13 year old self was enraptured by it. Dad bought the DVD first thing the next day, and I’ve been a fan ever since! I, my brother, and our dad watched “Return of the King” in theaters four times, which was saying something, considering we only ever saw a movie once in cinemas. Between “The Return of the King” opening in December ‘03, I picked up the books and read (as well as I could) through them. A lot of friends kept joking “tell us how the damn story ends!”, good times.

2. When and how did you decide to make this audiobook? What’s the story behind the entire project? 

I was a very ambitious lad, and my first and biggest interest was filmmaking. I used to direct short films with my friends ever since my 11th birthday, and was the youngest in class at the filmschool I attended a few years later. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that I had massive ambitions to direct “the Hobbit”, which is silly in retrospect considering I was 16 years old at the time. I even sent my portfolio and DVDs of my films to Peter Jackson’s manager (who actually got back to me with a wonderful response, despite not being able to accept my ‘completely reasonable’ offer) When I was heartbroken and torn to pieces knowing I wouldn’t be directing the movie, a few more years went by, and I decided to reread some chapters of the “Lord of the Rings” books. I remember really well that this was late at night, laying in bed, and going through “King of the Golden Hall” and seeing how close to the movies it was, but also far more expanded. I thought “my extensive home-made short movies experience with sound design and sound mixing could work here, and I could just read a few chapters and try to make the soundscape as realistic as possible. Why not try it?” 

So, the next day I tried. The first two chapters I tried were “King of the Golden Hall” and “A Journey in the Dark” (which partly answers your other question about that chapter). I was so absolutely surprised by how well it was going, that I decided to upload them onto YouTube in March 2010 I think. I got a fairly good response, and I was planning on doing a few more random chapters. I never intended to do the whole thing. But this one comment on YouTube I’ll always remember, it said: “I think you should go from start to finish, because you’ll probably get used to the characters and sounds and people can also follow along in the story gradually”.

Taking that suggestion to heart, in August 2010 I went from Chapter 1 onward. 

3. Were you inspired by any other audiobook versions of LotR (such as the BBC radio drama)?

I was not, I actually haven’t listened to the BBC Radio drama until far ahead into the project I was doing. I did some research on what other audio productions anyone did with LOTR, from The Mind’s Eye edition, to the ‘60s Hobbit Radio Play; so I felt pretty confident. I just fell in love with the way the films brought Middle-Earth to life and seeing their incredible dedication for authenticity (from the props department, to the music), you really couldn’t do any better than that visually or audibly - at least in my opinion. I just wanted to hear Tolkien’s text but with the realisation of the films. 

However, if you listen to Chapter 1 of TTT, and hear how Legolas laments their absence from not being there to help Boromir at Amon Hen, you can clearly hear the inflection from the BBC Radio play’s version. I just lifted that because I thought it was a fantastic way to deliver the line.

4. Did you have any rituals for “getting into character” before recording?

If I were to show you the raw unedited recording sessions, you’d probably be surprised at how underdeveloped it is! I had no real rituals or warmups, I just went for it. Usually went in cold, and tried reading the entire chapter and doing all the voices at once. Then I’d be exhausted, and afterwards start cutting all the mistakes, and separating each character into different tracks – and then re-recording 50%-70% of it, as I was laying in the sounds. 

I think any character just needs a few words for me to say in their voice, and that helps for the rest of their dialogue. For Aragorn it was usually: “You cannot wield it! None of us can.” for Pippin it was: “Sometimes”, just random things that make things ‘click’ in my head. If I got lost or didn’t feel like the performances were working, I’d simply just watch scenes from the films to hear the real actors again!

5. Who was your favorite character to voice? Who was your least favorite? And why?

People who know me, know I love doing the villains. Sauron, the orcs, the Nazgûl, etc. I just love the idea of personifying things that scare you. Something completely the opposite of who you are. Always a fun time! Any character I can nail extremely accurately always makes me happy, but I’m always very critical of my own work, so it’s a rare thing.

My least favorite characters to voice are: Imrahil, Denethor, Arwen, Celeborn, Galadriel, Erestor, Lindir, Haldir, Goldberry, Gildor… I think the pattern is pretty obvious if you realize that I am incapable of providing a satisfactory voice that feels unique enough. They just sound to me like “I wish I had a broader range. They weren’t done justice.” I have feelings for most of the characters in this situation, but I’m a mere mortal. I can’t do all of them as well as I wish I could. I wish Aragorn was more like Viggo Mortensen’s voice (I tried with the nasally yells you mentioned!), I wish Gandalf had a richer tone, I wish Saruman sounded more majestic, and I wish Frodo was - in retrospect- more older sounding, too. There’s so much I wish I could do better, but to hell with it, I tried.

Fun fact: my least-favorite to voice are also Orcs because they destroy my throat after a while. Which is ironic, because of my first statement.

6. I noticed that you gave the men of Rohan and Gondor slightly different dialects! Are you pulling from any real-world accents to make that happen?

I did try to listen to Anglo-Saxon, and ancient norse but I just tried to make Rohan and Gondor slightly distinct in any way I could. I never really tried to make things too obvious, but admittedly, I think I just used my intuition (smoothing the R’s for the Rohirrim, making the Gondorians more ‘proper’, etc.). I do want to emphasize that this was a one-person project and keeping things together or consistent is definitely an extraneous exercise when you’re just trying to get something finished by yourself! 

7. Some characters (like Beregond and Quickbeam, to name a couple of my favorites) aren’t in the movies, so they don’t have an actor for you to imitate. How did you decide what they would sound like?

Well, in the case of Beregond, I realized he was just “your ordinary guy”, and seeing Minas Tirith through his eyes (and Pippin’s)  is such an amazing and interesting opportunity. It made the city feel so real, and I wanted to take advantage of that. I think I started with a ‘generic’ voice, but when I re-recorded him knowing more and more of the context and what he was saying to Pippin, and as a result who he is, made me adjust what I felt were more his personality. But still that ‘ordinary guy’ idea was the bedrock, and it’s been years since I heard that chapter, but I hope it holds up! (I just remembered Bergil is in that too, another voice I wish I could have done better) 

Another fun fact: when Pippin scares the kids in Minas Tirith, the audio was from something I videotaped when I was 10 years old with my friends, it had the perfect “kids-going-aaah!” sound.

If I had it my way, I’d have a cast of dozens in this Audiobook, so a lot of times I never felt like my voice was enough to truly capture the “We’re in Middle-Earth, we just have microphones to record it” idea. So I have to make compromises since I was the only one doing the voices. That being said, Quickbeam was a fun surprise because he felt like, as you said “young treebeard”, and these things just worked out through experimentation! I think Quickbeam turned out pretty nice. I like Quickbeam.

8. HOW—I ask with great enthusiasm—DID YOU DO TREEBEARD’S VOICE? How did you get that resonance and woody sound? Did you send your voice through a wooden box and re-record it on the other side like they did in the movies?

It’s really great that you know all the behind the scenes stories from the films! Especially what Ethan Van der Ryn, David Farmer, and the late Michael Hopkins have done with their incredible creativity. I had no such resources to produce Treebeard’s sound. What I did was a digital facsimile: a special ‘room’ reverb, with some other equalizing effects to boost the bass and (maybe, I can’t remember) another higher pitched track of the same voice faintly in there. 

You won’t believe this, but I was not going to do The Two Towers audiobook unless I could do a good Treebeard voice. In 2011 after finishing “Fellowship”, I was on the fence about continuing, and only committed once I knew I could do Treebeard right. Treebeard was the key to all this. This should come to no surprise to the ones who played the game, but I used a lot of sound effects from ‘Battle for Middle-Earth’ which contained a lot of clean sounds for ents, trolls, the balrog, the ringwraiths, and other monsters from the films. I used the ent’s footsteps from the games, and recorded my own foley for some of the trees snapping and leaves rustling as well. The “fart” sounds were the low creaking of tree branches, and - as they stated in the making-of for the films - very pitched down cow moos. 

9. Tell me about the foley work! Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been that nerd who watched the Behind The Scenes featurettes for fun, so I’m very interested to hear how you made the sound effects for footsteps and whistling arrows and jangling horse harnesses and such. 

I’m glad you are! I’ve collected sound libraries (ripped from video games, and finding and buying sound packs) for a literal decade, because I always needed sounds for the short films I made when I was younger. I just kept learning about how to mix sounds together, and it’s very creative and very enjoyable! That being said, the foley work itself is mostly recorded by me. If I can’t find a sound in the library I have, I will record it. Clothing rustles, and touch are all recorded while I listen to the audiobook playback and ‘perform’ each character. It’s a really arduous process, but I think it adds so much life into the sound. 

I went out into the woods (or backyard) with my mic to record footsteps, sometimes I would listen to the audiobook with headphones while performing the footsteps. When I would have traveled somewhere with different terrain I would be sure to record more foley (rocks being moved, or pebbles being stepped on) knowing I’ll use it for certain chapters. I do not want to reveal a huge secret about the predominant foley for the character's clothes, but an old backpack I used were 90% of the characters’ ‘movements’. Some wingflaps of the fell beasts were just my jeans. It’s a really creative process trying to find things that ‘sound’ right for an environment or action. The magic is putting them all together and hearing the result. Also, yes Sam’s pan is my grandma’s frying pan, and I know it’s sometimes annoying, but - look - Sam has a lot of stuff to carry.

I start with the background sounds (wind, tree rustles, water if there is any, etc.) lots of layers of them just to make them sound unique and not the same. Then I move to selective and nearer environmental background sounds. Then, the ‘hero’ sounds, the effects that are integral to the story (if it’s sword clashes, or an explosion, or who knows what), and finally the foley (footsteps, clothing rustles, breaths, etc.) - I had a friend record her own horses breathing and moving for a lot of closeups of the horses in the audiobooks. I think even if you can’t really hear some of their low breaths, their presence is still ‘there’. I personally think I got a lot better by the end of LOTR than when I started! 

I wanted to add, the sounds for little Elanor in the very last scene of “The Return of the King” (the baby sounds), I was not happy with the stock baby sounds I had, and asked my older cousin (an audio person too!) to send me recordings he made of his then-1-year-old daughter in a studio. So, my first-cousin-once-removed is Elanor! She’s 22 now. I feel old.

10. Do you have a favorite sound effect from this project? Mine is the “pat-pat” against cloth that’s used to denote a hug.

Absolutely, do you remember the two “watchers” before the tower of Cirith Ungol? The vulture-like statues that block the hobbit’s path out? The alarm sound is a wholly original sound design I did, and I’m really happy with it. It’s just ugly sounding, and that’s the point. I always wished I had more Nazgul, and I think the worst moments I had with mixing were the battle scenes. There’s just too much to handle and make it sound good. But I really tried.

I’m very glad you heard the ‘pat-pat’s. I try my best to perform every character when recording foley, and want even some of the sounds to convey something in the telling of the story.

11. What's the thought process behind your use of the various musical motifs from Howard Shore's score? (Read: Why do you use the Shire theme so often, and why does it get me in the heart every single time?)

I want everyone to know that this is a really important and valuable question, and one I never really get to talk about: To me, Howard Shore’s music is one of the very best things to come out of the films. He truly made an opera out of the story, and all his leitmotifs and orchestrations are a stroke of genius. They work on their own, and when reading the books as well, and as a nerd for films and all that stuff, I wanted to put a lot of care into how I’m placing the score, and for what scene, emotionally and leitmotivically, if that’s a word.

The Audiobook I did is obviously a ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ situation, so I can’t credit myself for the majority of the Audiobook I did, but I wanted to use all my filmmaking intuition to properly use the music to enhance the telling of the story. So, just like the filmmakers had to change and mix lines from the book, or make changes to make it work as a film, I felt like a lot of instances happened with the music for the audiobook. Obviously, I used the score when applicable to the intended scenes, but there are very often cases where they won’t work. I read as much as I could in the past about what the motifs were and where Shore used them in the movies, so I followed that trajectory for the most part. Gondor is Gondor, Rohan is Rohan, Mordor is Mordor, etc. 

Changes happen when I feel the emotions for a scene in the books do not match up to the ones in the films, and then there are brand new scenes and characters not in the movies at all, that I have to figure out! Take the pause from music between Gandalf falling into the chasm with the Balrog, and the fellowship successfully escaping. It’s perfect in the film, but I knew I couldn’t put the lamenting heartbreaking music in there yet, since the descriptions all drive the idea that escape is paramount. So I treated it as a ‘shock’ moment. No music until they’re completely out of the mountain, then the grief comes in. Things like that, a lot of fun creative thinking to get those emotions working!

I recall you mentioning the ‘Gimli / Legolas drinking game’ statement and how I used the hell out of it throughout the Audiobook, which is a good example. I pitched it up and down, for different moments, and it just has that hobbit mundane and jolly quality to it. So, in it goes to fill moments from the books. 

I also edited and modified existing motifs for completely different scenes and ideas. One of my favorites is when Treebeard talks about the Entwives. I needed this melancholy yearning sound that was really essential, and found it by reversing Eowyn’s theme, and pitching it down so the violin sounds like a cello/bass. To me it just felt extremely appropriate for the sound of a long-lost relationship while portraying a larger-than-life creature. 

Let’s also say Bombadil. I made up the idea that the last statement in the credits for “Return of the King”, was Bombadil’s theme. It’s actually just a reference to Der Ring des Nibelungen by Wagner, a very verbose beautiful crescendo, but I thought “I’ll pretend like it’s Bombadil, he’s last in the score even though he’s the first in Arda”. So I used that musical progression in his songs, that’s his leitmotif now (to me, anyway) He sings in that wavy up-and-down melody. Which is why you hear a lot of that in those chapters.

I also try to use recordings not from the original score: I looked far and wide for alternative recordings, predominantly the album by the Royal Prague Philharmonic, and the “LOTR Symphony”, just to make the Audiobooks feel different. I pitched down and moved and reassembled a lot of different cues for different scenes as well.

There are not a lot of instances of music from other movies, however, they do exist! I used music from “Battle for Middle-Earth”, the game “War in the North”, and for the last few chapters, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” since it just came out at the time. I used a lot of music from Howard Shore’s “Seven” and “The Game” during Shelob (I think), and for the Barrow-Downs. I used a tiny bit of underscore from the brilliant Don Davis’s “The Matrix Reloaded”, it had a really eerie choir which made me feel like it would be perfect for the fatigue and dizzying unreality of Mordor when Sam and Frodo were on their last leg, trying to get to Mt. Doom. Lastly, I used a little bit of music from Howard Shore’s “Twilight: Eclipse” for some dialogue scenes during Return of the King! And music from the independent film “Mongol” by Tuomas Kantelinen for the Woses when Theoden has to get help from Ghan-Buri-Ghan. Also the ending of ROTK has a few cues from “The Lord of the Rings musical”, lovely stuff.

It may surprise you that there is a small amount of score I actually ‘wrote’ with help from my brother (he’s a musician). It’s in the coronation of Elessar. It’s not very good but I needed something. There is also a cello version of “to the edge of night”, which I kindly asked permission to use by YouTube celloist, but I sadly don't think that video is up anymore.

Lastly, I use the Shire music so much because - just like Howard Shore said - it becomes a ‘hymn’ or an ‘anthem’ for the hobbits as they leave their comforts behind and are in a wide and unfamiliar world. Every little bit that reminds them of home, or relates to each of them, usually deserves a little ‘shire’ statement here and there. I feel if it’s in the characters’ hearts and minds, it has to be expressed in the music!

12. Out of all the chapters I’ve listened to so far on the Internet Archive, “A Journey in the Dark” is the one most plagued with editing issues; Sam’s temper tantrum over leaving Bill the Pony is cut out entirely. Which is a shame, because I was really looking forward to hearing your take on that. (Is it strange to say that I wanted to hear you break down into blubbering tears? Probably. Let’s ignore that and move on.) Is there any chance that you have a cleaner edit of that chapter somewhere?

I think you’ll be very unsurprised to know that “A Journey in the Dark” is the first chapter I ever recorded. I think you’ll also need to know that I did FOTR when I was 21 years old, and my grasp on doing better sound mixing or even getting the characters right was still a work in progress. I learned so much going chapter-by-chapter and felt that each succeeding one improves from the former. As a demo-run, I did “King of the Golden Hall '' and “Journey in the Dark” in early 2010 (in fact, I did only the first half of “JITD” back then. Stopping right after they are barred inside the mines, as the Watcher destroys the gate. I did the second half once I caught up with the story going chapter-by-chapter.)

There are so many issues with it, and I haven’t listened to it since. If you have headphones you’ll also notice that none of the voices really pan from left to right, or feel like they’re ever anywhere else except the dead-center. I was lazy back then. 

When I read the chapters, at the time, I was sharing an ‘office room’ with my younger brother, and as a teenaged younger brother does - continues strumming his guitar no matter what the other brother is doing. It was really fun, and funny and I was extremely sloppy with editing things out, and taking it too seriously. So, for sure you can hear ‘someone’ in the background during the early parts of FOTR, and I was too lazy to re-record or edit out the noises that weren’t supposed to be there.

Forgive me if this part is a lot longer, but now that you mention it, I want to get on my soap-box and rant about how many things I agree with about the Audiobook’s shortcomings and how many things have changed since the wee days of 2010: 

I didn’t really get a grasp on the characters, and I had no idea I was going to do the entire book. I did not take enough care with sound mixing (it’s a highly technical and rigorous practice, I’ve discovered. Even now, ten plus years later - it’s too technical for me to fully understand yet), and I did not thoroughly re-listen to the chapter when I was done with an edit or a sound-effects pass. Therefore there’s always been mistakes still in there, and just unpleasantly careless placement of sounds and music. I have often thought about re-recording it to get it up to scratch, but it’s been over a decade and I haven’t properly preserved all the sound stems without having to re-sound-mix the whole chapter again, and there is that little thing called ‘burnout’ which is hard to ignore. So, I apologize to everyone who has to suffer through that huge drop in quality with “A Journey in the Dark”. It quite literally was my first attempt, and it definitely shows. 

The good news is that a fan asked me the same thing about the missing piece in that chapter (the one you mentioned! With Sam and Bill!), and I’ve heard the same comments about it throughout the years. Why is it missing? I don’t know why! I recorded it, but in my loose run-and-gun past when I was a wee lad, I was careless, and just had the mp3 with that part missing. A rendering error, perhaps! Stupid 21 year old Phil just hodgepoging everything.

A Few months ago, I did get another email about that missing piece. I thought “okay, once and for all, I’m going to find that missing part.” - and I searched my old harddrives for some kind of archival copy with that part in it. Amazingly, it was a lot harder to find than I thought. Every rendered version of JITD either stopped right before that scene, or had it omitted. I actually found one half of it as a ‘demo’ piece I rendered years ago for a ‘sound trailer’, and then I finally found the original YouTube video I made - which had it intact! Now the hardest part was stitching it together with the rest. Took longer than I thought, but I finally amended this horrible incompetence. And yes, I will share the link to you! And be prepared to be disappointed at the 2010-era quality!

I don’t know if anyone knows this, but with the mp3s circling around, I have taken the liberty of re-recording and re-working some chapters from their original versions. I try my best to preserve the originals, but I also wish people to listen to the re-records. I have actually re-recorded and re-mastered “A Long-Expected Party” three times. 2011, 2013, and 2014. I re-recorded “King of the Golden Hall” in 2013, and “Shadow of the Past” in 2014. I usually try labelling the dates on the mp3 files themselves. The one I’m most proud of re-recording bits of, is “The Pyre of Denethor” as the first time I had Denethor say his last words he was mildly raising his voice, but I listened to it again one day and went “this man should be at the edge of sanity.” - so he absolutely yells now, and it’s such a night-and-day comparison.

Another addendum: I completely understand the complaints about ‘the sound/music drowning out the dialogue’. It’s been the #1 complaint over the decade. I completely understand. I never had professional sound mixing gear, nor did I have proper mixing headphones or speakers or a proper studio (most of the audiobook was recorded at my grandmother’s house!). The balance of the audio making it sound immersive, (like you are there!) and having clear dialogue to hear is - like I said - an extremely technical and complex process that I’ve never had the ability or tech to master. Let alone for a book that’s 48 hours long, and has so much sound and music to it. Nothing would bring me more joy than to work with an experienced sound mixer, and find all my audio stems, and for us to work together to clear up any and all issues. But as this project was a simple fan-made work, and I haven’t distributed it myself for a decade, who knows?

This is also why I never went on to do “The Hobbit”. Burnout is real, and I’ve never recovered from LOTR. The burnout… “it’s never really healed, Sam.”

13. What was your favorite scene to record and mix?

Mount Doom. Can’t get better than trying to make the climax as horrible and eucatastrophic as that. It all led up to this, and it was such a rush to work on. I remember how I was at the edge of my seat watching ROTK in cinemas for the first time, and how amazingly they pulled it off, and I wanted to definitely imitate that, but using Tolkien’s own writing. Just so cool.

I have two favorite chapters: The first one is “The Scouring of the Shire”. I remember well, when I was working on it, I realized this has never been ‘dramatized’ before. At least not in full. I felt so special being the first one (probably) to do it. I could imagine the entire chapter in my head like a film, and I could bring it to life with very little outside influence. Such a poignant and shocking chapter. 

I don’t think I would have done it as well without the experience I gained doing the rest of the Audiobook. Showing the strength of the four hobbits, portraying the dignity and resolve of their kind, giving that pathetic yet dangerous authenticity to Sharkey, and the ruffians, illustrating the battle of bywater with sound… this was done in 2013, so we all were able to listen to new music by Howard Shore (for The Hobbit), and I would be able to transpose motifs from that, into “Scouring”, and honestly I wouldn’t know how it would have worked out if the Hobbit films didn’t come out just at the right time. I think the score fits so well with the events of “Scouring”, there is a ‘mordor’ theme but it feels ‘unfinished’, like the remnant of an old defeated foe; there’s that wily progression for Radagast in the films, that I used for the hobbit’s rebellion and the conflict, and there’s a new ‘hobbit/shire’ motif that worked so perfectly for a ‘wounded, but recovering’ Shire. I feel so silly talking about decisions I made for this, but I always wanted to share some thoughts I had! 

Fun fact: I had a wonderful person ask if she would be able to play Rosie Cotton back in 2013, and I asked her to perform her lines. She was great, but I realized a very strange thing: when I put her in the audio mix, it would actually break the immersion, because you can hear a voice that wasn’t mine, and as a result - I couldn’t help but keep thinking - my voice for Rosie’s mother sounded like a Monty Python skit in comparison! And thus her lines had to be unused. It kind of just opened the fourth wall, breaking the illusion. Which is a shame, because I always dream of having a fully-cast LOTR Audiobook, maybe someday officially.

The other favorite is “The Tower of Cirith Ungol” just because I listened to it one day in 2014, and heard no errors. I was so proud. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to change substantially. No one dislikes all the errors more than I do!

14. What’s your best memory from this entire project?

My late dad drove me and my brother out into a clearing at midnight in the forest. The sky was so clear and starry. And we were here simply to just yell at the top of our lungs to record material for “Helm’s Deep”. All the clear yells: “Elendil!!!” “Gúthwinë! Gúthwinë For the Mark!”etc. Etc. - I lost my voice, it was a fun time. He held the microphone for me as I splashed around a stream (for Gollum), once again at midnight since there were fewer background sounds.

I also tell this story a lot: A friend of mine who was listening to the chapters as I finished them - she hated the sound of knuckles cracking. And hated spiders. So, obviously, Shelob would have to have knuckle-cracking sounds for her limbs. So I recorded my own knuckles cracking and tried using it as much as I could for Shelob’s legs moving about. My friend was soooo ecstatic to know this fact.

15. If you could do it all again today, what would you change?

I would consider doing a ground-up re-recording of everything. With a budget, with a cast, with a lot more understanding of the story and intentions behind them. With VR sound options. With extra original music. That’s the dream. 

If we’re back to reality, I guess I’d just re-record a bunch of chapters since they could always be better, and tighten all the technical errors. But that would require a lot of assembling of the raw archived files, and re-building of sounds, and re-recording of lines. Also, as I stated before, I do not want to distribute my unofficial fan work just because I know that it’s a copyright nightmare. And burnout… “it’s never really healed, Sam.”

I like taking other people’s opinions to heart, such as the issues with Frodo’s youth or inflections and intonations for certain scenes that I didn’t quite fully grasp the first time. I would love to adjust things and make it closer to the book now.

- - - - -

And now! The Silly Questions Lightning Round!

(With thoughts from Lady Glasses in parentheses and italics!)

1. In Fellowship, long stretches of dialogue would often have someone randomly cough in the background. Tell me about the Cough. Why is the Cough there?

No one hates the coughs more than me. That’s either my brother minding his own business in the other end of our ‘office room’. I think you now know I was 21, I didn’t care, so these things are just left in because I was careless. However, sometimes there are intentional coughs to make it feel more realistic. It’s been years since I listened to it, so unless I somehow do a massive commentary stream someday (thinking about it), your guess will be as good as mine! The coughs heavily subsided once I did Two Towers, since I was by myself.

2. During the dinner scene with Farmer Cotton, someone burps. Who was that?

Mine. I have no regrets with that one. Or Pippin. I guess it could be Pippin.

(Darn! And here I thought it was Farmer Cotton, LOL)

3. How did you manage to make Bill Ferny’s voice so perfectly obnoxious?

I imagined Bill as an obnoxious guy. The image in my head gives me a good idea of what he’d sound like, and I’m so glad he’s so obnoxious that you had to mention it.

(He sounds perfectly punchable. Thanks, I hate it.)

4. Did you crack yourself up at any point in the recording?

Oh yes, in fact I have a whole outtake reel just for you!

(Warning to anyone who clicks the link: the April Fool's audio had me ON THE FLOOR)

5. Voice acting aside, who is your favorite character in LotR and why?

If you asked me in 2002 it would be the Balrog, if you asked me now it would be difficult because so many of them mean so much to me, and each of their aspects have something to aspire to. Gandalf, Aragorn, Sam, Frodo, Galadriel, the list goes on and on.

(That's beautiful, and so true. The story really grows with us, doesn't it?)

6. What’s your favorite color?

Blue. Always has been.

(Blue is a good color! 💙)

7. Political question: Pineapples on pizza, yes or no?

Yes, I still don’t get what the fuss is about

(Oooh, controversial)

8. Is a hotdog a sandwich?

No, it’s a hotdog!

(Counterpoint: A hotdog is a taco.)

9. What’s your opinion on geese?

They’re racist

(Racist against the entire human race, apparently)

10. How much would I have to pay you to say “I love boats!” in Merry’s voice? (It’s an inside joke with my friends.)

Nothing, it’s on the house!

(HOLY CRAP I LOVE YOU)

- - - - -

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us! What are you working on nowadays?

I’ve actually had a few people ask me if I’ll ever do more audiobooks like this, and I seem to have tapped something. Yes, in fact! I’m working with a few creative collaborators on a small company to do the exact same sonic experience with other books! Since we’re very small, we are starting with stories in the Public Domain, and have successfully kickstarted (and finished) “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling. Which will be out (hopefully, officially) by early September! I’m really excited and hope this will lead to more projects, and - hopefully- back to Tolkien someday, in an official manner. Please follow my Instagram or Facebook for more info about it. (I also have a Twitter and Tumblr and more, but they’re all completely unrelated to LOTR and are just me drawing doodles and being a nerd, very unlike the Audiobooks I did, which is a bit confusing, I admit.)

- - - - -

And that concludes our interview! As I told Phil, it was so much fun to discuss a fellow fan's passion project like this. The more I read about it, the more I realized just how similar it was to my own experiences as a fan creator. We all start out as just a noob with a few unpolished skills, making something because we love it, and we learn and grow and hone our talents along the way. It's legitimately inspiring.

Needless to say, I am stoked to finish listening to the rest of this audiobook! Is it a bit weird knowing the creator of the thing might drop in and read my reviews?? Yes. Yes it is. But I'm gonna do it anyway. No holds barred! If I hear another cough, you're gonna know about it, Phil!

Also I may or may not do something with that audio of Merry because I'M STILL DYING OF LAUGHTER HELP

Anyway! If you made it to the end of this, you deserve a cookie! Everybody say thank you to Mr. Dragash, and go check out the other stuff he's doing nowadays! Namárië!

[fandoms-in-law]

Muddy Letters - The Beginning

Authors Note: I have 2 possible summaries for this fic and neither really work for posting it all in one story. Instead both the summary I want to use and the story is in 3 parts: The Re-Beginning, The Beginnging (you are here), The Conclusion

Contrary to normal expectations, I suggest reading the Re-beginning first.

Summary: It starts with a car theft an apology note. It ends with a fathers anger and another apology note.

/\/\

Dear kids in this house,

Dad says he had to steal the car but I’ve passed here before. You’ve got an angry dad too. I’m sorry if he takes it out on you or is angrier because my Dad did this. I hope you’re okay.

I’ll bury this in your garden hoping you find it. Dad’s don’t dig but kids do.

Sorry again, Eddie, that isn’t my real name in case your dad sees this.

>

To Eddie

Do you like that name cause I wanna keep calling you it?

He was angry but I could hide. They’ll be on a trip soon so I’m not worried.

I’m Steve, and you’re forgiven if you need me to say that. My nanny says that’s how I should respond to apologies but you’re apologising for something your dad did so I’m not sure. You’re forgiven anyway.

From Steve.

<

Hey Stevie

I like Eddie more than my real name, Please do.

This is fun, burying letters, much better than sending the,. It’s like we’re rebels planning to take down a corrupt kingdom in secret-

>

Eddie?

Were you hurt? You looked hurt or I think it was you I spotted from my window. Do you need help? I can try to do something. Just tell me what.

Steve

<

Stevie, don’t worry.

Dad got mad and interrupted me writing that note but never fear, I am fine.

I don’t like my Dad. We’re staying with Uncle Wayne now, or I am. Dad keeps disappearing. I think it’s cause he’s stealing things and Uncle Wayne says I’m smart for noticing that. My teachers and Dad never thing I’m smart.

You’re my friend, my digging friend, so I can tell you all that. And about this book Uncle Wayne has.

It’s called ‘The Hobbit’ and is about more people who dig! Just like us! But they have hobbit holes or smiles and dwarven mines. They’re so awesome. When we’re older we should dig a hobbit hole and live in it together. Eddie and Steve of the Hole in the Woods!

From Eddie

>

Eddie

That sounds fun! I can get blankets and pillows. Let’s just start digging now actually. A bit further into the woods than this so my Dad won’t notice. I’ll start looking for where there’s a glade or something we could manage it now.

We could make it our secret den if you want to meet?

I tried asking if I could read the Hobbit but Mom doesn’t think quests and battles should be read about and Dad called it ‘fantasy mumbo-jumbo unbecoming of our family.’ That means I’m sure it’s brilliant but don’t think I’ll get to read it for a while. Can you tell me more about it?

From Steve

<

Dear Eddie

You’re my friend. I was surprised but you’re my friend and you know who you are better than me. If you say you’re a boy called Eddie then that’s who you are.

Please come back, Steve

<

Stevie

I shouldn’t have run so quickly before. Thank you for being so sweet. See you here on the weekend?

Eddie

>

Eddie

I know you were still sad when you left. Men can have long hair. I saw it on Dad’s last city business trip. We could grow our hair out together if you want, be two long haired boys. That’ll make growing it out of the buzz cut more fun, right?

Look at this book. It’s got tons of hairstyles we could try.

Steve

<

Dad’ll never let me do that. He’s so pissed I cut all my hair off I don’t think he’ll come back for a while. He even his Uncle Wayne when he called me Eddie. I don’t want him to take me away again, Steve.

You keep the book. I bet you’d look great with any of those haircuts.

Eddie

>

Eddie

My dad found the letters so I have to stop. He – I – I’m saving the letters I can but I have to stop. I’m sorry.

We’ll get our Hole in the Woods one day, I swear.

Steve

<

Steve

Here are the ones you sent to me. Uncle Wayne would keep them but he clears my room out occasionally. Look after them. I’ll find you again.

Eddie

>

Eddie

I wish I wasn’t a Harrington. I’m sorry, so sorry for everything Dad wants me to be. I – I don’t want to die but I can’t survive unless I become him. I’m sorry, please hear that, read this.

Steve

<

I guess you never checked for this. I hope I can give it to you one day. I’m Still Sorry.

[emyn-arnens]

Hi i was just wondering if there are any resources you recommend for writing fics? For names, maps, info about characters and places, anything like that.

I love your blog by the way and your fics are awesome!

Thanks, anon!

I've put together a list of some of my favorite resources that cover the topics you're asking about, with a few extra favorites thrown in. I’ve included both resources that stick purely to canon and worldbuilding resources that expand on canon but are not strictly canon (these are marked with an asterisk). There’s some overlap between some of these resources, but I’ve often found that if I can’t find what I need from one website, another one probably has what I’m looking for.

I’ve broken the resources down into general resources, Silm resources, and LOTR resources for ease of reading. It's a lengthy list, so I've put it below a read more.

And of course, although all of these are good, canon-based resources, it’s always best to verify the information against the source text and double check quotes and citations.

GENERAL RESOURCES

Sources not specific to Silm or LOTR.

Arms and Armour of the Eldar: This webpage lists relevant quotes from Tolkien’s writing about the weapons and armor of the Elves. It predominantly focuses on the First Age but does go into the Third Age.

@askmiddlearth: This blog is a great general reference for all things Tolkien. Although no longer active, the blog has many great guides about the people groups and cultures of Middle-earth, as well as a slew of information accessible from the blog’s tag list about events and time periods, places, races/people/cultures, characters, languages, and objects. 

The Atlas of Middle-earth: The Atlas of Middle-earth contains maps of Arda during the First, Second, and Third Ages. There are also maps focusing on the events of The Hobbit and LOTR, as well as thematic maps illustrating the landforms, climate, vegetation and population, and languages of Middle-earth. I have the physical copy of this because I use it all the time and love looking through it just for the sake of looking through it. If you don’t have a copy of this, you can find a lot of Karen Wynn Fonstad’s maps online. @askmiddlearth has shared a number of them on their blog.

Do note, though, the inconsistencies and errors in some of the maps, identified and listed at the Tolkien Gateway link above.

The Dwarrow Scholar*: The Dwarrow Scholar has many resources about Khuzdul and neo-Khuzdul (a fan-created expansion of the language heavily inspired by Semitic languages). The site also has worldbuilding resources covering Dwarven holidays, feasts, seasons, folklore, traditions, marriage customs, succession customs, food, naming conventions, and much more. 

Encyclopedia of Arda: The Encyclopedia of Arda has thousands of articles covering topics from Tolkien’s world. It also has a searchable chronicle to discover what happened on a particular date, a calendar to translate dates and events, a glossary of archaic and unusual words in Tolkien’s works, a lexicon of names (mainly in the Elvish languages), and more. 

Flora of Middle-earth: I don’t yet own this book, so I can’t personally speak to its usefulness, but it covers all of the plants mentioned or described in Tolkien’s work. It addresses climate zones and plant communities, plant morphology, plant identification, the Two Trees, and the plants of Middle-earth.

Henneth-Annûn Research Center: Henneth-Annûn is a goldmine for quickly finding all of the information given in canon about a character, place, thing, etc. You can search for timeline events, character bios, places, and things, and the site will display all relevant passages from the book that address your search term. There is also an A-Z index of characters, places, things, and events. (There is a full-text Boolean search as well, but at the time of posting this, it doesn’t work.)

LOTR Project: LOTR Project has created timelines and interactive maps for the events of the Silm, The Hobbit, and LOTR. The site has also compiled statistics on the demographics of Arda’s various people groups.

Parf Edhellen*: Parf Edhellen is a dictionary of all of Tolkien’s invented languages, with an emphasis on Elvish languages. Parf Edhellen imports other trusted Tolkien sites’ dictionaries into its own, so it has a vast number of words listed. You can filter your searches by language and time period (when Tolkien created/reworked the language), parts of speech, and the website they were taken from. There are reconstructions (fan-created words formed using Tolkien’s language rules) in the dictionary, but they can be filtered out if you would prefer not to use them.

RealElvish.net*: RealElvish.net provides a slew of resources about Tolkien’s languages (and for more languages than just Sindarin and Quenya), including name lists, phrasebooks, pronunciation guides, and word lists. The site’s Trustworthy Websites page is also worth perusing for links to more sites focusing on Tolkien’s languages.

Tolkien Gateway: Tolkien Gateway is well-known in the fandom as a Tolkien wiki with articles on almost anything you can imagine, but I want to highlight its Silm timeline (covering the days before days, the Years of the Trees, the First Age, and the Second Age), Third Age timeline, and Fourth Age timeline. All of the years listed in the timelines can be clicked on to get a more detailed breakdown of the events that happened that year, which is especially helpful when writing about Third Age events. 

SILM RESOURCES

Sources specifically focusing on the First and Second Ages, including Tolkien’s writings beyond the Silm.

@melestasflight's food and cuisine worldbuilding posts*: Melesta’s posts cover both Valinor and Beleriand.

@outofangband's societal and environmental worldbuilding posts*: Outofangband’s societal posts cover people groups in general, fashion, food, education, architecture, festivals, traditions, and more. Their environmental worldbuilding posts cover Beleriand’s flora and fauna, rivers and streams, lakes and springs, forests, marshes, geography, and more.

Silmarillion Writers’ Guild's character biographies: The SWG has an index of character biographies covering many of the characters in the Silm and Tolkien’s other First and Second Age writings. Very useful for a quick refresh about a character or for learning about more obscure characters. (Alternate link to the old site, which lists the characters in alphabetical order.)

LOTR RESOURCES

Sources specifically focused on LOTR and the Third and Fourth Ages.

The Logistics of Minas Tirith*: This short essay by Anders Blixt addresses the logistics of food supply to and distribution within Minas Tirith and poses possible solutions.

Shire of the Hobbits: Shire of the Hobbits has many resources about the Shire, including hobbit customs, typical food and drink, hobbit history, hobbit names and meanings, and a list of hobbit sayings. The site also has information about hobbit calendars and chronology, the various writings produced in the Shire, and the Shire’s geography.

The Religious Rituals of the Dúnedain of Gondor*: This essay by Michael R. Hickman explores canon information about the Dúnedain’s religious customs and ceremonies and uses that information to expand on how those religious customs and ceremonies might look in Fourth Age Gondor under Aragorn’s rule. I haven’t yet read all of the way through the essay, but it is well-cited, using an array of Tolkien’s texts on the subject.

Travel Times in Middle-earth*: This site has generic info about how long it would take to travel in Middle-earth (focusing on major Third Age locations), based on the mode of travel. There is also a table that lists the time it would take to travel from one location to another. The table is incomplete but still very helpful.

[kimmberleeex]

Chapter 1: Happenstance

You had heard the talk around school about Eddie Munson, the resident “freak” of Hawkins High. Everyone had something to say about him. He was hard to ignore, as you had seen him in the lunchroom everyday this school year. Always going on rants and terrorizing the jock crowd that seemed to pick on him and his friends. You never really understood why people were so afraid of him.

The thought never occurred to you that he ever really noticed you, as you normally went unnoticed. You were an outsider, a new girl that wasn’t the prettiest or the shiniest thing to look at. So no one ever did. You kept to yourself mostly, which never really bothered you. You found solace in your solitude. A comfort only found in being alone. However, you often found yourself staring at Eddie and really admiring him when he wasn’t paying attention.

A soft giggle would escape your lips every time you found him focusing on something, a determined look on his face with the little tip of his tongue peeking out of his mouth. You’d watch the way he would anxiously bounce his leg and fiddle with the rings on his hands when he felt uneasy. He had such a calm and cool exterior but you could see past all of that. A few times you had seen the pain behind his eyes when no one was watching him. It would gnaw at your curiosity as to why he was so sad.

A large part of you wanted to talk to him, you imagined it countless times. But your own shyness would stop you in your tracks every time. It wasn’t until you were walking down the hall during 3rd period. Making your way back to class from the bathroom, your head down and buried in the current book you were reading. You were lost in the magical words of Tolkien and suddenly it was like you walked into a brick wall.

The book slips from your hands and onto a pair of white, well-worn Reebok sneakers. Then, you notice the ripped black jeans and the wallet chain hanging off of his hip. You gulp nervously as your eyes slowly drift up to meet the two gentle, chocolate brown pools staring at you. A pink warmth begins spreading across your cheeks almost immediately as he startles you.

“I-I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean to…” you go to bend down and pick up your book off of his feet but Eddie has already bent down and grabbed the book for you. His ring studded hand grazes across yours as he hands it back to you. The touch is electrifying and sends a shiver down your spine. A warm smile is tugging at his lips.

“The Hobbit, eh?” He had an interesting look on his face. You could feel your cheeks turning a deeper shade of pink.

“Uh…yeah…have you read it? It’s my second time through…” you chew your bottom lip, a nervous habit you’ve picked up over the years. His smile is growing wider and it’s making your heartbeat go off rhythm.

“Wow, that is the single most attractive thing I’ve ever heard. I’ve never seen a chick into Tolkien.” He looks you up and down as if he’s inspecting you for the first time. You look away, unable to keep holding his gaze. Backing up a little, you suddenly feeling like you’re too close to him and it’s driving you crazy.

The smell of stale cigarettes and a slight hint of weed masked by the faint smell of some musky cologne fills your nostrils. And it’s absolutely intoxicating. He reaches out and touches your arm gently, which pulls your gaze back up to meet his.

“Sorry, I’m not trying to make you uncomfortable. But I really haven’t met any girls around here that read “The Hobbit”. And I have got to say, you are absolutely breathtaking, sweetheart.” The light in his eyes shone bright and you can hear the sincerity in his voice.

The pitter patter of your heart is growing louder in your ears. You swallow hard, was this really happening right now? By now, the glowing warmth had spread to the tip of your ears and they were burning hot. You chuckle nervously and Eddie’s laugh echoes yours.

“Sorry, that was too much. I’m Eddie, King of the Freaks as the mouth breathers call me. And you are…m’lady?” He extends his hand to you, a soft blush is spreading across his freckle spattered cheeks. His smile never fades as he patiently waits for you to introduce yourself.

Your finger brushes your hair back behind your ear. Gently, you put your hand in his. It feels like a perfect fit and your heart is thudding loudly against your chest. “I’m Y/N. Newcomer and also a freak.” A grin is pulling at the corners of your mouth and Eddie laughs quietly.

“I knew it! Do you play D&D?” He tilts his head to the side.

“No, but I thought about learning how to play..” his grin grows wider.

“I could teach you!” He blurts out, his excitement super evident. His cheeks grow a deeper shade of pink.

A soft giggle escapes your lips and you cover your mouth quickly. Eddie smiles, “Now, that was just adorable…” he murmurs.

The roll of your eyes is inevitable, your teeth gently gnaw your bottom lip anxiously. “So, when would we be doing these D&D lessons?”

He smirks and crosses his arms over his chest. “Well, what are you doing after school? We can go to my house and I can give you some lessons.”

You chew your bottom lip as you mull it over. An evening spent at Eddie Munson’s? Alone? The butterflies fluttering around your stomach are undeniable. “S-sure. That sounds good. I have nothing else to do…” Wishing like hell your cheeks would quit burning in this moment.

His face is beaming with excitement. “Okay, meet me here after the final bell? I can just drive you.”

You nod your head, desperately trying not to seem as desperate as you felt. “Sounds good, Eddie..” Offering him an awkward smile before parting ways, you’re eager to get back to your class. Your mind is still reeling from that encounter.

[wormtime123]

AAAAAAAAAAAA DRAMATURGY EPILOGUEEE

I love the lengthy wrap up of so many loose ends, the slow mend of things torn and that utter contentment to be found with people just existing right there. This is going to be my go-to comfort fic for found family to re-read over and over and over and over

Now I wanna pick your brain on all the bits; worldwalker shapeshifting Gem? Its so coool I love it. When did you decide to give her and others (Scar, Cub?) powers? What did Cub actually do at the end of Grumbot there? What was your favorite part of the epilogue to write? And which part was the most emotional for you? (tough question, I know I can't choose between Pearl & Gem's or Pearl & Grian's conversations)

WHEW dear god thank you for presenting me a pass to go insane on a silver platter. i’ll be putting my answers under a read more so i don’t explode people’s feeds with nonsense

most of the magic decisions made are based ~mostly in what i know about canon, i just ended up filling in some blanks and playing around with what’s already there! i’m endlessly fascinated by gem’s dimension-hopping (empires isn’t addressed in dramaturgy, but i operate on everything she said about her powers in e2) and i think the idea that she can open portals at will and freely travel between worlds/universes in a way that other players can’t is amazing. then the shapeshifting just made sense to me in how she changes her appearance around to fit into whatever character she wants to take on in each world.

cub and scar lore i’m a lot less familiar with since i only know of certain clips about their vex deal, but i kind of treat it similarly to gem in that i assume they can shift their forms around (ie. how often scar changes to fit a character like gem does, cub going from old man to s8 e-boy skin) and have a peculiar knowledge around portals (ie. the big dig, scar using his “wizard portals” to travel between seasons.) however i think gem has a different kind of expertise working with portals with how often she dimension-hops, so those two were kind of just doing unethical science at the rift to see what stuck lol.

the rift on its own is its whole thing in my Fanon Brain, but i have a strong image of it as a living, breathing entity that sucks things in and spits them back out in other spaces indiscriminately. dramaturgy scar describes it as hungry and i think that’s about as apt as it gets. stuck perpetually wanting to consume yet unable to hold anything in. then one of my biggest plot problems to solve was making the story line up with grian’s lore, aka grumbot (prime) getting tossed in the canon timeline ominously hinting at the other grian’s crimes, so i asked myself how dramaturgy hermits could have weaponized the rift and that’s where i landed! i admittedly don’t have a specific answer to how cub would have aggravated the rift enough to make it go hogwild in chapter 10, but i personally just imagined him figuring it out at one point or another by throwing shit in until something worked

dear god this is already getting long but epilogue!!! my answer for favorite scene to write is a little anticlimactic but i love writing all the evo flashbacks. if you couldn’t tell i am completely evo enamored. i love the strange, off-putting, nostalgic innocence of “something unpreventable and life-altering is about to happen and they Don’t Know.” i love them working together to get to the stronghold and entering the end portal thinking it’s going to be another task of teamwork as always and then just *silence* on the other end. amazing incredible tragic love it

(also on that note i loved writing the scene atop the mansion. just one last hermit acting entirely too normal while subjecting pearl to cursed knowledge before we go)

and lastly for most emotional to write i’d definitely say the scene at the hobbit hole! i’ve had that one as well as the sleepover at impulse’s in the back of my mind for so long i’m just glad i got it out. getting there was like the end of an era for me. everything with grian and pearl finally being back together but still not quite on the same page. i think pearl seeing grian so taken aback in the face of the tangible proof of his actions and mumbo’s feelings was the straw that broke the camel’s back, because at this point in the story pearl’s finally willing to see herself in mumbo’s situation. she’s finally realizing how badly she needs this specific closure but grian’s too busy going ???my actions… have consequences? i can’t just run off into the night with no negative impact on the people around me?

(which is of course also a matter of a warped sense of self-image and understanding emotions, but grian will go on murder sprees in the 3rd life time loop box before exercising an ounce of self-reflection, more at 11.) and only after seeing pearl shaking like a sad wet chihuahua clutching this random notebook of his like it’s the sacred texts does he really start to grasp how genuinely bad it’s been for her. like that would have been obvious to anyone who’s normal but whatever. i love studying skyblings like bugs

ANYWAYS. i hope you enjoyed this thought dump and thank you again for the ask i owe you my life

[shirefantasies]

hey hi hello!! i saw that these were open and i wanted to take part in them. new follower by the way (^_^) and happy 300 followers!!

im an introvert, usually very quiet and calm and rather hard to provoke at times. i'm easily irritated and lack patience with people who don't really think things through (though i grow warm over time as i grow tolerant in SOME cases). im very loyal and reliable as told by my friends and act similarly to a nagging aunt of sorts?? i'm rational and rather stubborn in the things i do but i relent depending on the severity of things. im also quite petty in certain cases.

i've been told it's easy to be around myself as a person, and people are really comfortable to be themselves in my presence. generally, i'm very blunt since i don't know how to phrase my words any better and some people (& even friends) at times, take the things that i say the wrong way without meaning to. i tend to get along with most people as long as they deal with the same mutual respect back.

i'm rather sarcastic and tend to tease a lot out of the fun of it. it's really easy to get me flustered, especially with flirts because the first thing i'd do is laugh and try to get out of there as soon as possible 😭 i think use both my words and actions equally since i (usually) follow up with what i say. i have tendencies to be a people watcher and observe people going about their day..

i wouldn't really consider myself the most passionate or enthusiastic person either but i really enjoy listening to those who have one. really makes me happy to see people enjoy the things they do. in a sense, i like when people have the things that i lack (energy, passion etc) i just love seeing it A TON. at times, i also have trouble in wording the things that i want to say so it ends up falling flat at times. so i wouldnt say im the most persuasive person either.

appearance wise, i'm about 5'4 and on the chubbier side of things. i have brown skin, really dark brown eyes and 4B black hair. i have small hands and lots of moles on my body but specifically i have 1 on each cheek. as for interests im really into anything that interests me since i get bored easily. most things that catch my attention are typology, videogames, music and gardening. im also learning to play the bass guitar as well. id prefer male interests from the hobbit, thank you!! hope that you have a good night/day!!

Thank you for joining the following! Hope it’s been a pleasant stay 💚 Hopefully I’ve found the right man dwarf for you when I say…

Fili!

One of your first conversations involves you rolling your eyes about having to show one of the older dwarves how to use something; Fili overhears and adds some sass and the rest is history. You’re quiet, he grants, but you provide the best commentary he’s heard beyond all the jokes with his little brother and it’s relaxing to sit by your side as you practice your instrument. Soon he begins making more normal conversation, asking things like what you want to do when this whole journey is over. You aren’t sure, you admit; you went on this quest because you were tired of simply watching life go by. “Then why not stay in the Lonely Mountain?” Fili asks. “Won’t be so lonely when we’re done with it, after all.” “What will your uncle think?” You arch a brow. “Don’t worry about him,” the golden-haired dwarf waves a hand, “I can handle him. Convince him denying outsiders is a bit elven of him, you know.” You can’t help giggling at that.

Soon you two are at each other’s sides more often, backing each other up in fights and moving in great sync. Your strikes build off his and vice versa, and he once convinces you to essentially let him toss you into the fray. You, him, and Kili are quite the menaces together! They always save you a seat between them at fireside, quips flying between you three. Kili holds you there so Fili can flirt with you, having learned you're quite a runner when you get flustered. Nice try, Fili thinks you're too cute like that!

Sometimes you get frustrated with each other, and interestingly enough it is over a shared trait- both of you are very self-sacrificing. Loyalty dominates, leading both of you to block thoughts of self out to save others and put yourselves in compromising situations and danger. The other confronts and sometimes things snap or blow up, but these are the moments when you realize how much you care about each other. Fili takes you in his arms and tells you he loves how stubborn and caring you are, but it would kill him if anything were to happen to you. It is during one of these arguments that you admit your feelings for each other, biting them out in the heat of the moment and effectively halting the argument in favor of battle by your lips instead.

He loves to cut off flustered words with a kiss to each cheek or a quick peck on your lips. Your small hands fit perfectly in his; he loves holding one between his or both to keep them warm! One of his favorite forms of affection with you, that as well as walking arm-in-arm. Fili absolutely adores your hair, too. Gorgeous curls he would be happy to learn how you care for and of course braid if you let him! At least once, so he can show the world you're his king/queen and no one else. "That's right," he adds the proud remark every time he says those words.

Your enjoyment of gardening intrigues the dwarf, who grew up with the pride of mining, jewelry-making, and chemistry in his people. Loving growing things is quite charming, bringing the prince to investigate what plants can stay underground as you move with him into your lovely mountain nook. He helps you dig up the freshest soil and buys you the most beautiful stoneware pots for your plants. Also insists on naming them, so have fun with that! It's just one of his habits, like the little jigs he does when you get playing your music. He's stubborn and silly and selfless and that is why you love him.

[stealthclaw1]

Silly Game Time: Who are some of your favorite magician characters? And what do you like about them?

They can be of any class or variety of magic-user (wizard, witch, sorcerer, warlock, healer, druid, etc.), of any race or species, so long as using magic is *primarily* their thing in the story. Not just something they do occasionally, but something that is a major element of their role and their identity.

One of my favorite wizards that I’ve grown fond of the past few years since getting into Middle Earth is a popular one: Gandalf. I love the inspiration and words he gives to the Fellowship, his fondness for the common folk like the hobbits, his wit, all the good stuff you’ve likely heard many times, so I won’t spend too much time on him.

My two favorites that I have come to love fairly recently (last year or so now) are characters from Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer the Age of Sigmar: Nagash and Balthasar Gelt.

Nagash, also known by such names as: The Great Necromancer, the Supreme Lord of Undeath, the Undying King, the Great Betrayer, and He Who Shall Not Be Named, is one of THE most powerful wizards in the fantasy setting of Warhammer. Necromancy wasn’t even a THING until he made it. He raised zombies and skeletons, he created vampires, he was so powerful that when his attempts to cast spells to kill all life on the world to turn into a kingdom of the dead it was always treated as a genuine threat because to do so was FULLY in his power. To the point when the End Times of the setting came about and he returned, the very Chaos Gods were terrified of his power. Even the world literally ENDING AND EXPLODING didn’t stop him, because by that time he had consumed all of the gods of death and the afterlife to become a full blown god himself. In the Age of Sigmar he’s only become more powerful as god, now having a realm of his own known as Shyash. Almost everything that dies has its soul go to Shyash and belong to Nagash, and god help you if you’ve done anything to displease this petty jackass of a god. He’s condemned souls to tormented existences as wraiths in one of his armies, the Nighthaunt I believe, for the “crime” of being a healer or doctor and prolonging the life of those whose souls belong to him (which is everyone, he’s entitled like that lol).

Balthasar Gelt, while also a bit of an asshole, is more on the “haha funny asshole things to read about” way rather than Nagash’s “funny to watch a guy in fiction being the Ultra Worst” way. Balthasar Gelt is a very powerful wizard in the Lore of Metal. An expert on all things with metal, such as transmutation. He once paid for a ship to take him to a city in the Empire of Man, I think it was Altdorf(?), in bars of gold for the trip. A day or two later, the captain of said ship found that the gold bars he was given had turned back into lead. It should be noted: transmutation isn’t temporary in this setting, there was no need for those gold bars to become lead, Gelt just did that to be a dick. He got a bounty on his head for it, but the problem is that shortly after this he became one of the leading people of the Empire, I think as head mage(?), so it’s not like anyone can ACT on that bounty. I only found out about this guy like a month ago but he’s become a favorite of him to learn about lol.

[goodluckdetective]

This is a Tim Drake Essay, I guess

Hello and welcome back to my blog. I’ve been recently getting back into comics and as a result, I’ve been kind of chewing on why out of all the Robins, Tim is my favorite.

I think everyone can agree that the new 52 did Tim 0 favors, as it just didn’t know what to do with him. Outside of that generally shared opinion, there’s a lot of general conflict within Tim fans about how Tim should be characterized. You have “super detective” flavors of Tim where he is painted as the “smartest of the Robins” which I don’t hate, but I also think is pretty simplified (Tim is smart, but I don’t think that’s his defining factor and to label him the smartest I think is off base given intelligence is a multitude of different skills). Then you have “woobie Tim” where he’s essentially “a poor little meow meow” which I personally cannot stand for a variety of reasons (but one of the biggest is how it paints Dick and Damian as malicious actors). Now if you like the previous two, I’m not going to come and shut down your party, that isn’t really the intent of this post. My intent here is more to explain to people who don’t understand why people like Tim who are mostly familiar with the fandom depictions above, a different perspective. If my opinion doesn’t sway you, that’s cool, I just wanted to leave my two cents out here.

The character trait Tim has that I generally really enjoy in characters who occupy a “sidekick” role, is this trope of characters whose motivation to participate in heroics not because of some past trauma or destiny, but mostly because it’s the right thing to do. This isn’t to bash characters who have motivations in destiny or trauma; I also love those(and of course they also choose their lives: Dick didn’t have to be Robin either). But I have always found something really fascinating about characters who, for all intents and purposes, could easily leave the danger of the narrative but stay anyway.

I think Frodo and the Hobbits are a good example of this? Yes, Frodo is somewhat forced to set off by Gandalf but by the time he reaches the council, he is given the option to opt out. He’s in fact told multiple times that he can opt out. But he stays instead and while the ring’s grip on him has something to do with that, I think a larger part is because he knows it’s important to do. He wants to make sure the right thing is done.

Frodo isn’t specially trained to be our protagonist and neither is Sam or Pippin or Merry. They aren’t trained fighters. They commit to this dangerous quest because of loyalty to each other and the greater good (also as a WW1 metaphor I know). And I think it’s always really interesting to have characters like this in a narrative who come outside of a life of danger, a life they could still go back to, and yet choose to stay. It asks questions about what makes a hero, is being a hero something for everyone, what is the cost of heroism, and how we place heroes on a pedestal often to their detriment. They can bring the plot back into focus on the people who aren’t heroes, the reason the heroes do what they do, and the impacts on that group.

And that’s why I really like Tim. Tim doesn’t seek Bruce out to become Robin: he wants Dick to take it back. The only reason he puts on the costume in the first place is to save Bruce and Dick. After that, he could have gone home to a wealthy upbringing (with less than ideal parents but that’s a whole other story) and done anything else. But he stays. Because Batman needs a Robin and someone has to do it.

That’s an interesting character motive to dig into! Tim absolutely is a bit naive about the danger ahead but he knows what happened to Jason, and he is, for all intents and purposes, an ordinary kid. What makes him interesting is that he decides to commit to heroism, a decision that is far from ordinary (there are a lot of capes in Gotham but it’s not exactly an every teen hobby without some wild backstory). And it raises super interesting parallels with Bruce. Bruce has chosen this life trying to prevent others from experiencing his interrupted childhood; Tim interrupts his own by choice. Bruce doesn’t often see himself as capable of having an ordinary life; Tim clings to keeping his cape separate from his day to day activity. Bruce’s commitment to the mission causes him to do harm to those he loves; Tim’s commitment to try to have a normal life causes him to harm those he loves. And this dynamic continues once he outgrows Robin: when do you stop being a “normal” person? How do you define yourself when the job you dedicated years towards is filled by someone who needs it more (I love Damian, this is a pro Damian Robin blog). Do you try to go back to being normal or is it too late for that? And even if you could go back, would you even want to?

I find Tim interesting because of all of that: the commitment to help other people and to reach out to others who are hurting despite not being obligated to. Because a lot of people who aren’t obligated to help don’t, and even a lot of people who are obligated to help don’t. And that I think is interesting! Especially when packed into a teenager who slacks in school, makes terrible choices sometimes and can sometimes let his ego get ahead of him.

Anyway those are my two cents.

TLDR: Tim is interesting as a character for the fact he chooses the heroic life despite having a relatively normal upbringing.

[spacemanxpaninis]

Whose your favorite characters from the fandoms you listed? Hope you have a good day :)

I hope you had/have a great day too thank you so much 🥺 but

OH HO HO FRIEND THE FLOODGATES YOU HAVE OPENED.

My term for these individuals collectively is Blorbo High Council™ & every time I hyperfixate on a new character a seat is added. Absolutely feral for the chance to introduce them I’m so sorry

Presenting…Blorbo High Council™…or at least some members of it

• Abed Nadir- it kind of started right away because when I first started watching Community I had a huge crush on him lol not me exposing myself because I thought he was super cute & vibed with him. Every time I watched I was like That One™ *pointing Leo meme*. As time went on & things progressed in the show I felt even more of a connection to him, feeling like no character has made me feel as seen & validated as a person because wow, this person is living & describing experiences I’ve had & things I’ve felt like an outsider for & oh my gosh. Things that made me feel unfit & unseen & here they are being represented by a fictional character, someone others will see & love & that has always served as an escape for me. I’ve gone to fiction & lived in my own head since I was a kid so wow. I think that was part of why I fell so hard for him, it was like here’s someone I finally get & feel a connection to which is so hard for me to find irl. By extension Troy also gets a throne because those two are a package deal dangit 😤 plus I have a lot of feelings about Troy & how he’s such a good representation of going from your teens to your twenties, being more unabashedly yourself & learning that the world doesn’t revolve around you & you don’t have to perform & it’s just so 🥺

• Hobie Brown is just totally a type of character I like & I love his style as someone with something of an alt style too. The moment he entered the screen I thought ‘oh this one is going to be my favorite’ & guess what I WAS RIGHT. He’s just so sassy & funny & I love a character who spends a ton of their lines just doing a bit (because like many of us I’m convinced he was screwing with Miles during a bunch of his intro). Also seeing him with Mayday? My heart. Hobie’s the kind of character I have a whole playlist of songs I think he would like that I wish I could show him hehe

• Ever since first watching LoTR as a kid I loved Pippin! I tend to fall for funny characters & also I just related heavily to him, he’s clumsy, neurodivergent-coded, & my heart just breaks for how he gets treated sometimes. He’s a symbol for how war changes innocence & the maturity that develops from all the experiences the characters have. Since childhood I thought he was so cute & fell for his singing voice, I just love him so much! Plus his moment in the wedding scene is so funny it’s literally one of my favorites in the whole trilogy.

• From The Hobbit as much as I love Bilbo & the Line of Durin, Bofur was the one who managed to really snag & hold my heart! He’s such a sweetheart & one of the first dwarves to really show care for Bilbo. Such a kind jolly soul! Plus the hat. Literal boots with the fur. Iconic. Peak.

• Sergeant Carter is a longtime blorbo. I just loved his infectious whimsy & innocence & found him so adorable! Another neurodivergent-coded character that charmed me act shocked! But no I love a ‘dumb smart’ character who’s a genius in one area but clueless in others, I see it, I feel it, I love it. I must protect him at all costs!!! Except he can protect himself because he is the sweetest man but also loves arson & has the highest canonical kill count on the show by far. Duality of man 😌

• Radar, Klinger, & Father Mulcahy all hold special places in my heart! Especially in the later seasons as with all the characters, but my side character loving heart just adores all of them! Radar’s a cutie pie, Klinger’s costumes are amazing & he’s so funny, & the good father I just have a soft spot for 😌 William Christopher & I share a birthday too 😁

• Barley Lightfoot is a big part of why I love the movie Onward, like big huggable metalhead D&D nerd my beloved 😌 Second member of the playlist squad FOR SURE. I just know he listens to Nekrogoblikon. Another character I can both relate to & am incredibly endeared to. Poor guy being seen as the family screw-up, I feel like that’s me a bit being the ‘wasted potential’ sibling 😔 I just want to give him a hug so bad.

• Gladstone Gander is a character I’ve just randomly loved since I was maybe 13-15. I just found out about him & loved him for no explicable reason 😆 I have a pin of him & it’s one of my prized possessions lmaos. I was happy to see him included in the new Ducktales & even had an OC I shipped with him…but unfortunately I think I saw a spoiler with a canon character that may render that comfort character sort of moot 😔 y’all are like thank God now she won’t post about it 😂 maybe I’ll still keep her in my heart.

• Huey, Dewey, & Louie got seats in the council of course ☺️ I joke how it was my first experience having child blorbos & wanting to live vicariously through my OC (who is family to them) & spoil them instead of my usual doodling hearts around them like with most blorbos 😆 the triplets are so cute & I love how they all have their interests. Of course I have a soft spot for Huey because he’s adorable & my friend recommended I watch Ducktales just because I love his voice actor… ya girl also just loves nerds 🥰

• I love the whole Moon Knight system of course but I’m a Steven Grant Girlie at heart!!! Once again, cute nerds…

• From BG3 well none of them have *fully* seated at the high council but my favorites thus far would have to be Karlach, Gale, & Halsin feat. Astarion because why not??? I want someone with a personality like Gale or Karlach in real life tbh

• My favorite Brooklyn Nine Nine character kinda changes??? & same as BG3, maybe not full high council membership but characters I’ve loved for almost 5 years now so very special! I like Charles but overall Jake & Amy have my heart. I love their relationship & they’re both so funny! It’s a bit of a joke with friends too that my personality is a mix of both of them & I look like I could be their child 😂 having Peraltiago as parents sounds like so much fun hehe