#come to middle earth!

[tomoleary]

Barbara Remington “The Lord of the Rings” Ballantine paperback cover, study (1965) Source

Final Art

Concept art and a poster derived from the image above

[sauronism]

celebrimbor pointing out the imperfection in sauron's fabricated reality, as both of them match in skills as a creator. sauron can craft the most appealing illusion in the entire world, but celebrimbor will always sees right through the deception, due to sauron's need for order. the reality he crafted is perfect. too perfect. nothing in this world is perfect. the patterns of the mouse, and the candle is the flaw within his works. celebrimbor merely critiques it.

[anghraine]

I know I've ranted about it a million times, but every time someone brings up Roman, Byzantine, and Egyptian inspirations/influences on Gondor in more mainstream Tolkien fandom spaces (not me, because I don't even talk about it off Tumblr/DW), it seems like there's always someone who gets super weird and defensive about it. I've seen so many "well actually there's no need to consider any influences outside of England, mythology for England blah blah" responses.

And it's like! Oh, you want to play the decontextualized Tolkien quotes game? How about this one:

“But this [the setting of LOTR] is not a purely 'Nordic' area in any sense. If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence [in Italy]. The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient [Gondorian] city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy [in Turkey]. Auden has asserted that for me 'the North is a sacred direction.' That is not true. The North-west part of Europe, where I (and most of my ancestors) have lived, has my affection, as a man’s home should. I love its atmosphere, and know more of its histories and languages than I do of other parts; but it is not ‘sacred’, nor does it exhaust my affections. I have, for instance, a particular love for the Latin language, and among its descendants for Spanish ... The progress of the tale ends in what is far more like the re-establishment of an effective Holy Roman Empire with its seat in Rome than anything that would be devised by a 'Nordic.'”

Or this one:

we come [in ROTK] to the half-ruinous Byzantine City of Minas Tirith

Or:

In the south Gondor rises to a peak of power, almost reflecting Númenor, and then fades slowly to decayed Middle Age, a kind of proud, venerable, but increasingly impotent Byzantium.

Or:

The Númenóreans of Gondor were proud, peculiar, and archaic, and I think are best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms. In many ways they resembled ‘Egyptians’ - the love of, and power to construct, the gigantic and massive. And in their great interest in ancestry and in tombs. […] I think the crown of Gondor (the S. Kingdom) was very tall, like that of Egypt, but with wings attached, not set straight back but at an angle. The N. Kingdom had only a diadem (III 323). Cf. the difference between the N. and S. kingdoms of Egypt.

Or:

Thank you very much for your letter. … It came while I was away, in Gondor (sc. Venice), as a change from the North Kingdom

Middle-earth is not equivalent to England, or northern Europe in general, and Gondor especially is not northern at all!

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

Tolkien being like “and THEN Tuor—” who has already been raised by elves, escaped thraldom, and lived as a wild outlaw for some enrichment “—took his harp which he carries with him ALWAYS and also he’s quite skilled :3” like. I know you love your guy but have you ever heard of less is more.

[aigoos]

Middle-Earth Obikin Art

I've been on a Bagginshield/Hobbit/LotR fanfic re-reading kick, but Obikin still stayed in the back of my mind . . . and then the two merged when I had this vision of elven prince Anakin and Dunedain ranger Obi-Wan a la Arwen and Aragorn. No Sauron or Palpatine craziness in this Middle-Earth!

Anyway, the vision stayed with me for a few days, and I had to reach out to @kana7o for her to do my first commed art of 2025. Like always, she delivered this beautifully. Holy kriffing wow. Honestly, Anakin makes for an excellent elf with his facial structure and height . . . SO PRETTY. Obi-Wan also looks ruggedly handsome . . . and that forest background . . . *SWOONS UNTIL THE END OF TIME* Words honestly cannot express all my awe and love for this piece combining two of my favourite fandoms together. This art is just what I needed after a super long week. What a great way to begin my weekend!

[rey-jake-therapist]

Someone mentioned on Twitter today that Galadriel was the only one who had chosen to wear her ring on her LEFT HAND. Gil-Galad and Cirdan both wear theirs on the right hand...

How didn't I notice before? Did it escape me that it looked like a wedding ring? NO. But the left hand...!!

They don't even try to be subtle about it. In the movies she wears it on the right hand, so it's not even as if they were trying to copy it.

This show will be the end of me, I swear.

I must say I don't understand the complains... Season 2 is basically a long, excruciating long distance slow burn between two characters who can't be together at the same place, are supposed to hate each other but think obsessively of each other almost 24/7. This is delicious.

[lilaccatholic]

I am once again thinking about the reluctant ruler whose arc justly and correctly includes assuming the throne and taking responsibility for the people set before them

[thelordofgifs]

hot take but you guys are maybe a little too obsessed with elrond. he's just a guy.

[edennill-archived]

Finduilas of Nargothrond, shamelessly based off Alphonse Mucha's "Juin"

To see in better quality, click the image. Tumblr seems to be messing things up.

[ano-po]

Naalala mo yung tito o kapitbahay mo'ng asa sa nanay kase hindi ganon kalaki yung sweldo n'ya para magkaroon sya ng sariling bahay? Sabihin pa ng ibang magulang na batugan s'ya kase andali lang naman sana magkabahay. Ikaw na bata, may pangarap magka mansyon tapos feeling mo kaya mo kase masipag at matalino ka naman. Tapos pagtanda natin wala satin kaya maka-afford ng bahay at 25 even though 4-7 years na tayo nagta trabaho 😆. At hindi lang 'to problema ng kapitbahay mong batugan, kase ikaw manager or tl na, pero nakatira parin sa nanay mo. Okay lang, kase napauso naman yung 'take your time, 30s is the new 25', hindi beh, by the time na 30 na ako, 6million na ang basic unit. 'take your time, 40s is he new 30s'. Just tell me nalang beh that I will never afford a house ever. You're just making me surrender my right. Kase kahit ma promote pa ako, the ratio of house prices to sweldo will never change, worse, lalaki pa. Ewan ko kung may sense tong sinasabi ko pero... Mabuhay ang rebolusyon.

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

chinese guzhuang fashion

[anghraine]

My Rings of Power re-watch is continuing slowly now that I have more time (though not always more attention span for anything except games, thanks dissertation -> my mother nearly dying -> getting COVID). But one of the things I'm really enjoying about Galadriel in ROP is that it doesn't always frame her as the wisest and most insightful person in every interaction she has, and in fact it is clear that she's fucking up in very significant ways because of how hard and relentless she's become through her eons of suffering and her determination to exact a price for it. She is not well!

However, she is nevertheless right about some very important matters that most people don't want to see, and she's being condescended to by men of her people who are much younger, less experienced, and less correct than she is, and it's continually emphasized that she is the most individually powerful and competent Elf around regardless of any of this and that her fuck-ups, while disastrous, are cool and sexy of her also.

So many male action heroes are troubled men haunted by whatever their particular tragic pasts are, but these men are also super impressive and badass (often to a degree far beyond all probability) in a harsh, capable way founded on never giving up ever, so while they are permitted to make major errors, it's in a cool and sexy way that just makes them more appealing.

This isn't a condemnation of that; there's a place for that kind of action hero and I tend to enjoy them when it's not copaganda or something. But I like women, and I like women to benefit from a full package of tropes that are often watered down when female characters get any part of them at all, so I enjoy a female character in something that historically has been such a dudefest getting full unhinged brooding hypercompetent action hero treatment.

I even fully support the show prioritizing Galadriel getting the good wig. Her hair flowing dramatically in the wind is actually more important than someone like Celebrimbor getting dramatic impractical action hair (with love, he's an arts and crafts nerd hung up on his academia celebrity grandfather, nothing about this demands good hair).

But I also like it not only in general and not only for a female character, but also for Galadriel specifically. I was just re-reading the description of her in the Shibboleth of Fëanor, and (Teleporno aside) it tracks pretty well. The whole thing about young Galadriel's burning determination to pursue Fëanor to the ends of the earth and thwart him in whatever ways she could seems exactly the sort of thing ROP Galadriel would do, and while ROP is set much later, the Shibboleth suggests that Galadriel was still recognizably that person for long afterwards:

"Pride still moved her when, at the end of the Elder Days after the final overthrow of Morgoth, she refused the pardon of the Valar ... It was not until two long ages more had passed, when at last all that she had desired in her youth came to her hand, the Ring of Power and the dominion of Middle-earth of which she had dreamed, that her wisdom was full grown."

There's a lot of Galadriel material that Tolkien wrote and he continually overhauled, revised, discarded, and amended the Galadriel backstory to such an extent that her history is one of the most chaotic, tangled, and irreconcilable zones of Tolkien lore. I don't think anyone is obligated to prioritize Shibboleth Galadriel if they have a different preferred version. But I really love that version of Galadriel and it does make her seem like probably the best canon female character option of this era for Action Hero Disaster Area (In A Cool and Sexy Way).

[musingsinmiddleearth]

"...and [the race of Men] sang because they were glad and believed they had escaped all perils" is an absolutely wild and heartbreaking sentence to read, especially when the very next chapter is literally of the Ruin of Beleriand.

[black-sapphire57]

Fëanor when he tries to take the Teleri ships:

[lotr-sesa]

The Lord of the Rings Secret Santa posting deadline is in TWO WEEKS!

There are now TWO WEEKS left to get those fills in! That means we're halfway to deadline. We hope the writing is going well! Claiming will run all the way until the posting deadline on December 27th.

Currently, just under half the prompts have been claimed. Our goal is to make sure every prompter gets at least one of their prompts filled, so all signal boosting is VERY appreciated as we would love to see more prompts claimed! ❤️ There's gen prompts, kinkfic prompts, serious and sillier prompts, m/m and f/f as well as m/f prompts, so come have a look and see if anything tickles your fancy. There's prompts for The Hobbit, The Rings of Power, Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.

You can find all the prompts HERE as the prompt meme format doesn't allow for linking to individual prompts.

Claiming a prompt: use the "Claim" button next to the prompt you want to claim. (You can find open prompts under "Prompts" in the sidebar.) Several people can claim the same prompt. You can also claim a prompt without having submitted any of your own.

If you are new to the format, AO3 has a helpful FAQ here.

This year's timeline (2024):

Prompt Posting: November 1st to 25th.

Claiming: November 26th to December 27th.

Collection Open for Posting: December 1st to December 27th.

All Fills Due: December 27th.

Reveal: December 31st

The Rules (2024):

Your fill is due December 27th 11:59 pm Pacific Time (you can find a countdown here). Please post it to AO3 (and nowhere else, until January 10th) via the prompt page.

As a matter of fairness, please make your story more than 750 words (1000 is better).

Once claiming has opened, please only claim a prompt if you plan on actually fulfilling your end of the bargain, and please only claim one prompt at a time. After you have completed your fill, you may claim a new one.

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