#do not bend ancalimë

[biginvisiblespider]

Oh my gosh she is losing nooo! I am so glad i have wifi back so I can promote her.

Here is some of her speech and it's the best thing tolkien ever wrote I think. Erendis has this air of bitterness as well as resignation that anyone who has ever faced a systemic issue will find very familiar.

Thus it is, Ancalimë, and we cannot alter it. For men fashioned Númenor: men, those heroes of old that they sing of – of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain. Númenor was to be a rest after war. But if they weary of rest and the plays of peace, soon they will go back to their great play, manslaying and war. Thus it is; and we are set here among them. But we need not assent. If we love Númenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it. We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.

What I find most interesting about this is that it calls attention to one of the most frustrating things about tolkien, the lack of women. It suggests that, in his later writing, tolkien recognised this issue.

So many of the female characters in the silmarillion are barely mentioned, wives that stay behind, daughters that die off-page and mothers who are barely mentioned before they are dead. Erendis - and to a lesser extent Ancalimë - completely breaks this pattern.

She has motives! She has flaws! She is a complete character, much more fleshed out than many of the silm fandom's favourites.

The best thing about Erendis is how realistic she is. At first she ignore the rifts between herself and Aldarion out of love, she marries him even though she knows he will never leave the sea which she hates. She is proud, a descendent of the house of Beor, and when Aldarion returns to her it is her pride as well as Aldarion's that separates them again. She will not forgive him without an apology (and a bit of groveling) and he will not apologise.

She keeps Ancalimë isolated and in her old age she is diminished and that is treated as the tradgedy it is, instead of some punishment for her outspokenness. She 'falls down dim into her own twilight' - a contrast to her earlier role as 'Tar-Elestirnë, the Lady of the Star-brow'.

She dies at the end of the story, after it has become a series of footnotes strung to together and it I only described in a few lines.

'Of Erendis, it is said that when old age came upon her, neglected by Ancalimë and in bitter loneliness, she longed once more for Aldarion; and learning he was gone from Númenor on what proved to be his last voyage but that he was soon expected to return, she left Emerië at last and journeyed unrecognised and unknown to the haven of Rómenna. There, it seems, she met her fate; but only the words 'Erendis perished in water in the year 985' remain to suggest how it came to pass'

Rómenna is the port city of Númenor, so it seems the sea she feared and hated might have been her end.

With Erendis, the story is focused on her life, barely mentioning her death, which is so often not the case for women in tolkien writing.

Anyway you should vote for her even though she doesn't pass the bechdel test because I love her.

I'm sure Bill the pony is as feminist as a pony can be but he doesn't have the emotion behind him that erendis does.

Obscure Tolkien Blorbo: Round 3

Erendis vs Bill the pony

Erendis:

A Queen of Númenor, noted for her unhappy marriage to Tar-Aldarion.

Her speech to her daughter about men is generally one of the best things I've read! I don't want to type it all here but some of the greatest hits: (about men) 'Anger they show only when they become aware, suddenly, that there are other wills in the world beside their own.' 'men, those heroes of old that they sing of - of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain.' 'Therefore do not bend Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink you roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.'

Bill the pony:

Sam Gamgee’s pony.

HE'S SUCH A GOOD AND KIND PONY

Round 3 masterpost

[anghraine]

I forget what the opposite of strawmanning is called, but it's like ... I don't doubt that Tolkien genuinely disliked feminism, I just find it rather odd that his way of addressing this in his work seemed to be writing bitter, hard-edged, and incredibly eloquent women who give fantastic speeches about being fucked over by patriarchy. And either there's no real response from other characters or the response is deeply underwhelming, so I'm like ... okay, what are you even trying to do here?

These women are also usually very beautiful, in the interests of full disclosure, so you get all these ... like, tall hot women who do not fear pain or death!!! and are full of towering resentment at very real injustice and/or suffering. The details and nuances of these characters are quite different, but these characters obviously represent a type that Tolkien found compelling and kept returning to without really finding a solution to the problems these characters raise and pose.

I've read a lot of female characters by a lot of authors, and maybe it's just because my personal taste in female characters is really similar to Tolkien's, but few things click with me so much as Éowyn's speech to Aragorn, or Erendis's to Ancalimë, or Andreth's and Morwen's... everything, or even the shorter defiant responses we hear from Haleth, Aredhel, Niënor, Galadriel. There's even a trace of this with someone as improbable and deliberately unlikable as Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, who confronted Saruman's men, survived imprisonment, and tottered out to hobbit glory.

I don't know, really. Maybe giving angry female characters kickass speeches was as far as he was willing to go with them. And to go by his favored types in male characters, he did have a taste for proud, attractive, talented, often abrasive, and hubristic characters regardless of gender. But it's not only a general type, IMO, when you've got a bunch of these women talking about gender specifically and its impact on them, so—I don't know, sometimes I just shrug and get on with my fandom life without trying to navigate the quagmire of intent. But it's definitely a question I return to.

So there's no real conclusion here. I guess I'll just leave you with my personal favorites! Here's Éowyn's response to Aragorn:

"All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more." (LOTR 767)

But also Erendis, my love:

"...Númenor was to be a rest after war. But if they[men] weary of rest and the plays of peace, soon they will go back to their great play, manslaying and war. Thus it is; and we are set here among them. But we need not assent. If we love Númenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it. We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves." (Unfinished Tales)

[child-of-hurin]

Another thing about Erendis and Aldarion that absolutely gets me is how Erendis seems to reflect about their falling out majorly in terms of gender. We have her famous speech to Ancalimë in the Unfinished Tales:

Thus it is, Ancalimë, and we cannot alter it. For men fashioned Númenor: men, those heroes of old that they sing of – of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain. Númenor was to be a rest after war. But if they weary of rest and the plays of peace, soon they will go back to their great play, manslaying and war. Thus it is; and we are set here among them. But we need not assent. If we love Númenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it. We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.

And in The Nature of Middle Earth* we find this bit:

As Erendis said later, [the Númenóreans] became a kind of imitation Elves; and their Men had so much in their heads and desire of doing that they ever felt the pressure of time, and so seldom rested or rejoiced in the present. Fortunately their wives were cool and busy – but Númenor was no place for great love.’

Aldarion's only gendered comment on this conflict is when he tells his father:

I will go from this misenchanted isle of daydreams where women in their insolence would have men cringe. 

But otherwise he doesn't seem very invested in or aware of the war of the sexes: in fact, he famously changes the laws of Númenor to allow Ancalimë to be heir, and part of his motivation is framed as a desire to strike a blow against Erendis. Erendis is much more insistent (and insightful) on seeing their domestic problems through the lens of a systemic social issue.

OTOH, Aldarion does see their domestic problems as fundamentally tied to the social norms, and reflected on the social sphere. When Erendis sends Ancalimë to attend his ascension to the throne but refuses to come herself, he says:

‘Not for this, at least,’ said Aldarion. ‘It is far below my hope of her. She has dwindled; and if I have wrought this, then black is my blame. But do the large shrink in adversity? This was not the way, not even in hate or revenge! She should have demanded that a great house be prepared for her, called for a Queen’s escort, and come back to Armenelos with her beauty adorned, royally, with the star on her brow; then well nigh all the Isle of Númenor she might have bewitched to her part, and made me seem madman and churl. The Valar be my witness, I would rather have had it so: rather a beautiful Queen to thwart me and flout me, than freedom to rule while the Lady Elestirnë falls down dim into her own twilight.

It's not that he's wrong; it's just that this is his fantasy, not Erendis's. In the tale until that point, whenever they clashed, she withdrawed. Aldarion here doesn't remember that, or realize that they're playing very different games! Erendis is striking on the personal, intimate, domestic sphere; Aldarion's domestic sphere IS public and political (and how else could it be, being the prince and heir!).

The general feeling I get from reading this tale, honestly, is that both Erendis and Aldarion have extremely accurate insights and valid points about the stifling social norms they're bound to... and yet, at the same time, that none of those things were more responsible in their domestic unhappiness than their own personalities and unwillingness to compromise ⚰️

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Favourite Female Tolkien Character Poll - Round 1, Match 18

Both of these are from the tale of Aldarion and Erendis in Unfinished Tales. Character descriptions behind the cut!

Erendis

A woman of Númenor. She loved and, after a long courtship, married, Tar-Aldarion, the fifth king of Númenor; but they were frequently in conflict over his long sea-voyages, and his felling of the trees she loved in order to build more ships. He was away for seven years after they first met, and for five years during their courtship, followed rapidly by another four; and again for six years during their engagement. All these she endured, and loved him still; but when they were married and he left after their two-year-old daughter’s birthday and stayed away seven years, her heart cooled to bitterness, and she went away to live in the pasture-lands of Emerië and raised her daughter Ancalimë alone. When he returned she was cold to him, and he was unapologetic; and from that time they were estranged.

“[Men in Númenor] would be craftsmen and loremasters and great heroes all at once; and women to them are but fires on the hearth - for others to tend, until they are tired of play in the evening…To all they are gracious and kind, merry as larks in the morning (if the sun shines); for they are never wrathful if they can avoid it. Men should be gay, they hold, generous as the rich, giving away what they do not need. Anger they show only when they become aware, suddenly, that there are other wills in the world beside their own. Then they will be as ruthless as the seawind if anything dare to withstand them.

…do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.”

Tar-Ancalimë

The daughter of Erendis and Tar-Aldarion, and first Ruling Queen of Númenor. Strong-minded and determined, she had no desire for marriage, and after a time her father rescinded the rule that by a certain age a female Heir must either marry or refuse the sceptre, due to her determination to do neither.

When she went into hiding as a shepherdess to avoid her suitors, she was courted by a supposed shepherd, and enjoyed his company; when revealed himself to in fact be a Númenorean noble suitor, Hallacar, she was angered at his deception.

“[If I wanted to marry a non-noble], I could lay down my royalty, and be free. But if I were to do so, I should be free to wed whom I will; and that would be Úner (which is “Noman”), whom I prefer above all others.

She did in fact marry him in time, though for political reasons not for love, and their marriage was unhappy. Their son was Tar-Anárion.

She ruled for 205 years, longer than any Númenorean ruler since Elros. After her father’s death she neglected his policies and gave no further aid to Gil-galad.

[maglorslostsilmaril]

“We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.”

I want to know what Tolkien line hits you hard every time. Where you are just left stunned. It can be from the books, movies, a scrap of paper the Professor wrote on once, whatever. Share your impactful line!

[avani008]

Hey! Could you tell me the source of the quote in you description "We are also daughters of the great.."

Of course! It’s a quote from Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales, specifically that of Tar-Ancalimë. Briefly, her mother tells her: 

For men fashioned Númenor: men, those heroes of old that they sing of; of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain. Númenor was to be a rest after war. But if they were weary of rest and the plays of peace, soon they will go back to their great play, manslaying and war. Thus it is; and we are set here among them. But we need not assent. If we love Númenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it. We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.

The rest of the story, unfortunately, is uh—not as fiercely feminist and ends in tragedy, but my goodness, I’ve always loved that quote: plus I hope it echoes common  themes of my blog and stuff I reblog! 

[arofili]

middle-earth meme ☆ 4/5 families ☆ the mariner’s family

Thus it is, Ancalimë, and we cannot alter it. For men fashioned Númenor: men, those heroes of old that they sing of; of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain. Númenor was to be a rest after war. But if they were weary of rest and the plays of peace, soon they will go back to their great play, manslaying and war. Thus it is; and we are set here among them. But we need not assent. If we love Númenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it. We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.

[emerwen aranel pic by LadyElleth on DeviantArt]

[liliaenbaggins]

heliotrope and peony please! :)

Thank you for asking hun! xx

heliotrope; have you ever been in a castle?

I have been in so many castles ahah

Just recently I actually even stayed in a castle in the Scottish Highlands (coolest airBNB ever) and it was amazing!

peony; share a small random book passage that means something to you.

This one from Unfinished Tales comes to my mind: Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.

🌼🌿botanical asks🌻🌙

[lyrainbeleriand]

Just going to throw tolkien's own quote in the Mariner's Wife here:

“Men in Númenor are half-Elves (said Erendis), especially the high men; they are neither the one nor the other. The long life that they were granted deceives them, and they dally in the world, children in mind, until age finds them – and then many only forsake play out of doors for play in their houses. They turn their play into great matters and great matters into play. They would be craftsmen and loremasters and heroes all at once; and women to them are but fires on the hearth – for others to tend, until they are tired of play in the evening. All things were made for their service: hills are for quarries, rivers to furnish water or to turn wheels, trees for boards, women for their body’s need, or if fair to adorn their table and hearth; and children to be teased when nothing else is to do – but they would as soon play with their hounds’ whelps. To all they are gracious and kind, merry as larks in the morning (if the sun shines); for they are never wrathful if they can avoid it. Men should be gay, they hold, generous as the rich, giving away what they do not need. Anger they show only when they become aware, suddenly, that there are other wills in the world beside their own. Then they will be as ruthless as the seawind if anything dare to withstand them. Thus it is, Ancalimë, and we cannot alter it. For men fashioned Númenor: men, those heroes of old that they sing of – of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain. Númenor was to be a rest after war. But if they weary of rest and the plays of peace, soon they will go back to their great play, manslaying and war. Thus it is; and we are set here among them. But we need not assent. If we love Númenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it. We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.”

Just let me laugh a bit about ppl thinking Amazon galadriel is a more feminist approach.

Tolkien:

“tall and valiant”

“for she yearned to see the wide unguarded lands and to rule there a realm at her own will.”

"what wrong did the golden house of finarfin do that i should ask for the pardon of valar"

Amazon:

Nobody calls her lady. Not even one. But we are probably accustom to seeing modern media portraying femininity as weakness.

Okay, not lady, commander then. tolkien himself wrote that there're almost no physical strength difference between different gender of the elves, so while we have our "feminist" commander galadriel, why are all her soldiers male? When literally all the service provider, from the ceremony to everything, are female with their medieval scarf while (also what tolkien said) that hair are so important for the eldars and they are attracted by it, that all the female elves except galadriel choose to hide their hair??? (I'll be fine with it if it's a costume choice apply to all genders but clearly it is not right?)

Also am i the only one who feels real uncomfortable about the scenes where she's completely soaked yet wearing basically just one layer of bed sheet? And the whole storyline in 2nd episode becomes woooo the mysterious man saves her and the day?

And since when the stupidity of jumping ship in the middle of an ocean becomes bravery? Or the writers are trying to copy the fate of her son Amroth， oh wait i doubt they even know that in some version Amroth is her son! Or did they even read the song of nimrodel since they clearly haven't read the fall of Gil galad seeing how they are now trying to portray him as conservative sexist white man?

The whole point of galadriel's wisdom and pride is not to take part in stupidity such as taking unchangeable oath, fighting meaningless wars,

And this is a pattern you see in tolkienian woman, like idril, they couldn't understand what normally considered to be the masculine value system, to take part in meaningless aggression, and the obsession with their own craft, they choose not to enter the system at all but try to create a new order of their own, that, is feminism not this Amazon stereotyping hot headed fantasy female lead stuff

Also personally, as a child who grow up in a culture where femininity is despised, when school force you to cut your hair to ear length, tolkienian woman helped little me so much in terms of finding the gender expression I'm comfortable with, and what Amazon did is just so triggering for me i can't even :(

[dailytolkien]

Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.

[veliseraptor]

Top five quotes that truly speak to you?

I tend to have a hard time with this one because I...never remember quotes, but I’ve been trying to get better at collecting them. So let’s see if I can pull together five. 

1.  Mary Oliver’s prose poem “A Settlement”:

Look, it’s spring. And last year’s loose dust has turned into this soft willingness. The wind-flowers have come up trembling, slowly the brackens are up-lifting their curvaceous and pale bodies. The thrushes have come home, none less than filled with mystery, sorrow, happiness, music, ambition.

And I am walking out into all of this with nowhere to go and no task undertaken but to turn the pages of this beautiful world over and over, in the world of my mind.

* * *Therefore, dark past,I’m about to do it.I’m about to forgive you

for everything.

2. From Khalil Gibran’s “The Prophet”:

You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link. This is but half the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link.To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of the ocean by the frailty of its foam. To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.

3. From Michael Chabon’s “Fan Fictions: On Sherlock Holmes”:

And yet there is a degree to which, just as all criticism is in essence Sherlockian, all literature, highbrow or low, from the Aeneid onward, is fan fiction. That is why Harold Bloom’s notion of the anxiety of influence has always rung so hollow to me. Through parody and pastiche, allusion and homage, retelling and reimagining the stories that were told before us and that we have come of age loving - amateurs - we proceed, seeking out the blank places in the map that our favorite writers, in their greatness and negligence, have left for us, hoping to pass on to our own readers - should we be lucky enough to find any - some of the pleasure that we ourselves have taken in the stuff we love: to get in on the game. All novels are sequels; influence is bliss.

4. From “Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner’s Wife” in Unfinished Tales:

For men fashioned Númenor: men, those heroes of old that they sing of; of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain. Númenor was to be a rest after war. But if they were weary of rest and the plays of peace, soon they will go back to their great play, manslaying and war. Thus it is; and we are set here among them. But we need not assent. If we love Númenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it. We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.

5. From “The Exaltation of Inana” by Enheduanna:

Be it known that you crush heads! Be it known that you devour corpses like a dog! Be it known that your gaze is terrible! Be it known that you lift your terrible gaze! Be it known that you have flashing eyes! Be it known that you are unshakable and unyielding! Be it known that you always stand triumphant!

[thelordofgifs]

Obscure Tolkien Blorbo: Round 1

Erendis vs Tilion

Erendis:

A Queen of Númenor, noted for her unhappy marriage to Tar-Aldarion.

Her speech to her daughter about men is generally one of the best things I've read! I don't want to type it all here but some of the greatest hits: (about men) 'Anger they show only when they become aware, suddenly, that there are other wills in the world beside their own.' 'men, those heroes of old that they sing of - of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain.' 'Therefore do not bend Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink you roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.'

Tilion:

The Maia of the Moon.

Shiny, devotee of Orome. One half of the greatest crackship of all time (Aerin/Tilion - and my girl is disqualified so her man will have to fight in her place).

Round 1 masterpost

[anghraine]

It seems an appropriate day for another fave Tolkien quote (happy birthday!!), and since I’ve been thinking about Númenor lately, I decided to go with one of my favourite Númenóreans:

“If we love Númenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it. We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.”

—Erendis, “The Mariner’s Wife”

[thelordofgifs]

Obscure Tolkien Blorbo: Round 2

Erendis vs Nessa

Erendis:

A Queen of Númenor, noted for her unhappy marriage to Tar-Aldarion.

Her speech to her daughter about men is generally one of the best things I've read! I don't want to type it all here but some of the greatest hits: (about men) 'Anger they show only when they become aware, suddenly, that there are other wills in the world beside their own.' 'men, those heroes of old that they sing of - of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain.' 'Therefore do not bend Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink you roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.'

Nessa:

The Valië of dance.

Nice Valar! Springtime! Dances! Super fast! Happy! :)

Round 2 masterpost

[veliseraptor]

What's your favorite line by Erendis?

I feel like I’ve repeated this line so much but I’m happy to repeat it again because I love it so much.

Men fashioned Númenor: men, those heroes of old that they sing of; of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain. Númenor was to be a rest after war. But if they were weary of rest and the plays of peace, soon they will go back to their great play, manslaying and war. Thus it is; and we are set here among them. But we need not assent. If we love Númenor also, let us enjoy it before they ruin it. We also are daughters of the great, and we have wills and courage of our own. Therefore do not bend, Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink your roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.

[thelordofgifs]

Obscure Tolkien Blorbo: Round 3

Erendis vs Bill the pony

Erendis:

A Queen of Númenor, noted for her unhappy marriage to Tar-Aldarion.

Her speech to her daughter about men is generally one of the best things I've read! I don't want to type it all here but some of the greatest hits: (about men) 'Anger they show only when they become aware, suddenly, that there are other wills in the world beside their own.' 'men, those heroes of old that they sing of - of their women we hear less, save that they wept when their men were slain.' 'Therefore do not bend Ancalimë. Once bend a little, and they will bend you further until you are bowed down. Sink you roots into the rock, and face the wind, though it blow away all your leaves.'

Bill the pony:

Sam Gamgee’s pony.

HE'S SUCH A GOOD AND KIND PONY

Round 3 masterpost