#elrond and celebrian do meet and fall in love in this AU because i will unfridge celebrian if it's the last thing i do

[thevalleyisjolly]

AU where Elrond and Elros never choose between mortality and immortality because what’s one good reason for choosing?  To make Mandos’ paperwork a bit easier?  Surely the Valar can sort that out themselves, it’s not like there’s a whole race of half-elves that there needs to be a precedent for.  Plus, it seems very divisive after thousands of years of conflict and war to maintain such a clear distinction between Elves and Men.  This is a new age of peace and cooperation!  Why can’t elves and humans help each other rebuild the world after SOME PEOPLE tore up and drowned half the known continent?

Elros goes off to help some of his mortal friends build a ship so that they can explore the new coastline, while Elrond flags down a passing Sylvan ranger to talk about cartography and properly mapping out the lands beyond Lindon.  Eönwe does not facepalm, because that would be highly undignified for the banner-bearer of Manwë, and silently curses the first mortal that ever looked at an elf with lascivious intent.

(It’s really not Bëor’s fault if an incredibly handsome elf with a beautiful voice just wanders into your camp one day, like what are you supposed to do, not fall instantly in love?)

And Elrond and Elros don’t really know what’s going to happen.  They assume they’ll die eventually.  For a good cause, hopefully, because when was the last time someone in their family died peacefully of natural causes?  Anyways, even if they don’t die valiantly fighting against a Dark Lord (fortunately, the other leading cause of death in their family -unfortunate side effect/consequence of your family members’ questionable decisions- is a great deal more unlikely now due to most of their relatives being dead), what is the natural lifespan of a half elf anyways?  They’re the first half elves that they know of other than Lúthien to survive past 40.  They never knew Dior, their grandfather, Eluréd and Elurín, their uncles.  The last they knew of their mother was that she leapt off a cliff with a Silmaril.  They’ve only seen their father from afar, a brilliant star against Ancalagon the Black, and who knows what he is anymore?  This is the legacy they inherit, learned not at their parents’ knees nor in their grandparents’ arms, but from the tongues of strangers, distant relations with piecemeal bits of legend for the last heirs of more lineages than surviving relatives.

Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen went thousands of years before choosing their fates.  It’s not a mortal lifespan, whatever it means to be a half elf.  But they’re still mortal, and as the Ages pass on, the first signs of age begin to appear.  The beard that Elros insisted on growing, partly because his human friends were doing it and mostly because it’s been a lifelong goal of his to rival Círdan’s beard one day, starts seeing grey hairs near the end of the Second Age.  The warmth and welcome and jollity of Elrond’s house (because there is no world in which Elrond does not create a home again and again and again amidst grief and loss and despair) appears in the crow’s feet of his eyes, the laugh lines around his mouth.  Elros’ new favourite thing is to complain loudly about his creaking joints every time someone beats him in a duel, don’t you know what these old bones have seen?  Celebrían loves to tease Elrond that if he gets any more silver hairs, the two of them can start matching.

All this to say that by the time the Istari show up in Middle Earth in the Third Age, everyone and their mother knows about the “not-elf wizards” (Elrond was the one who bothered to study up on magic from Galadriel, but Elros was the one who fully committed to the aesthetic of the big beard) who give excellent advice and throw legendary parties.  By comparison, these enigmatic wizards with their cryptic riddles and mysterious ways are less fun to have around.

(Saruman fully sulks about it for the rest of his tenure in Middle Earth, Radagast is too delighted with the family of hedgehogs he found to care, and Gandalf decides that the perfect cover for travelling around Middle Earth is to be a professional party wizard, with fireworks for some added zing.  Everyone and their mother soon learns that Gandalf’s parties are also legendary, if a good deal more dangerous than you might expect parties to be)

[runawaymun]

For the wip game: give me sugar baby?

haha yeeeeeees you have a talent for finding the ones I desperately want to be asked about!!

Ok so we all know how I'm really really really partial to Celrond. I'm also really partial to Elrond/Lindir as an otp. Idk they're both just so??? soft???

And I have this dumbass idea for a modern AU romance fic for the two of them. And that name is just a stupid WIP name I slapped on there that a friend gave to me as a joke but now it's sticking oh no---

so ok, here's the concept blurb. This is gonna be long so bear with me. 

Lindir plays sugarbaby to wealthy old-money businessman Thranduil Greenwood, CEO of Greenwood Breweries. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement: Lindir has time to focus on his music and sticks to a part-time job at a coffee shop to make a little extra money for himself. Thranduil has a sweet young thing to hang off his arm and make puppy eyes at him at parties and meetings.

Things get uncomfortable when Lindir starts to develop a crush on Thranduil’s business partner, Elrond Peredhel. He’s mysterious, tall, handsome in a DILF sort of way, and Lindir is hopelessly smitten...which makes it hard to focus on making Thranduil look good.

Oh, and Elrond owns the coffee shop chain where Lindir works. Lindir absolutely hates himself for falling in love with someone so rich, well connected, powerful, and so very out of his league. Lindir is pretty sure that Elrond Peredhel doesn’t even care that he exists.

He couldn’t be more wrong.

More headcannons and also a snippet or two under the cut! This one’s writing itself so I have much more on it than some others. 

Elrond and Thranduil have a love/hate relationship. Elrond despises Thranduil’s arrogance and thinks he’s a little too debauched. Thranduil doesn’t think Elrond is debauched enough. 

Thranduil lives on a giant forested estate near his breweries and wineries. 

Elrond has one of those gorge-overlook type of houses, but maybe he has a suite in town for work. Definitely has semi-adult kids. Maybe Elladan and Elrohir are in college and Arwen is like still in school - maybe abroad? Foster-caring feral bby Aragorn who’s the son of a recently deceased friend. But yeah Elrond’s living in a giant house by himself. (Aragorn is still totally the heir to the throne of Gondor and his parents were assassinated). 

Lindir is pretty grayce and panromantic. Like he doesn’t really care about sex but he does pine a lot (but is also wayyyyy too shy to be in a real relationship). He’s dated a few people but kind of just gives up once they want sex. Thranduil’s an awesome arrangement because Thranduil isn’t at all in to him. Lindir’s more of like, an attractive handbag or tie. The sugar baby arrangement is just for looks. 

Which is a little frustrating because Lindir now can’t date anyone even if he wanted to, just in case their little “doting boyfriend” facade is ousted. 

Elrond totally believes they’re dating though and Thranduil doesn’t have the heart to contradict him. 

Elrond is fairly recently a widower/divorcee. He used to be a doctor but Celebrian developed a terminal illness and he couldn’t save her. And she ended up asking him to let her go and he quit medicine. Elrond is Sad(™). :( I hate to do this to Cel but I mean...it’s kind of canon. 

Thranduil insists Elrond needs to get out more and is throwing people at him left, right, and center in a misguided attempt to be helpful. Lindir is over here being like OH MY GOD STOP TOUCHING HIM and being like “aaaaa i’m so jealous”. And meanwhile Elrond is also really jealous of Thranduil and Lindir but he’s telling himself that he’s just annoyed with Thranduil’s PDA and that it has absolutely nothing to do with how much he likes Lindir no not at all. 

Elrond is really suave and together on the outside, but he’s actually just a really awkward touch-starved self-deprecating mess and he cannot understand why someone as young and pretty as Lindir is into him.

I have even more little headcannons but lmao I’ll stop. Here’s a few snippets of bits that I have written already: 

Lindir stopped to check his makeup in the visor mirror and touched up his lip tint. As they got out, he asked: “Do you want me to talk?” 

It was always a toss-up whether he was here as a distracting social buffer, or the elf equivalent of a handbag. 

“Absolutely not. Denethor is simply such a depressing wretch. I’ll need something pretty to look at so I don’t start fantasizing about throwing myself into traffic.”  

Right. Elf equivalent of a handbag.

Lindir preferred it that way. He was so unbearably awkward and he never knew what to say, but being a handbag didn’t require him to think. He just had to sit there, make puppy eyes at Thranduil, and laugh at his jokes. Easiest. Money. Ever.

The restaurant was stunning. Lindir would never dream of even setting foot inside something like this. Let alone affording to eat anything. Modern drop chandeliers hung from the vaulted ceiling, smooth jazz echoed through the cavernous dining room, and every single person from the guests to the servers looked so sleek. Stepping into it felt like stepping into another dimension. It was busy tonight, but everyone talked politely over their food so that the hubbub was more of a pleasant murmur than anything else. 

The host at the front desk recognized Thranduil the second he stepped through the front door and led them to their table. Lindir tagged dutifully along. 

“Thranduil Greenwood! A vision as always.” 

The voice belonged to an older man in a black suit seated at their table next to an objectively good-looking pack of muscles. Muscles had a scruffy ginger beard and an easy smile. Just Thranduil’s type. The other one who’d called out to them looked enough like Muscles to be his father, but was considerably less attractive. 

Thranduil donned a demure smile and slipped his arm around Lindir’s waist. “Denethor. It has been far too long.” By Thranduil’s tone, it had been nowhere near long enough. “Have you met my sweet Lindir? I hope you have no qualms about him joining us. He’ll be good.”

Denethor’s expression soured. He quickly schooled it into something that was a distant bastard cousin of a smile, but he didn’t say hello. Muscles offered his hand.

“Boromir. A pleasure.”

Lindir shook it. “Like--likewise.” The stutter hadn’t been intentional. He’d just been so surprised that Boromir had paid him any attention at all. As the two of them sat, Thranduil threw his arm over the back of Lindir’s chair. Lindir leaned back into it. Their host came by and Thranduil ordered a bottle of wine. Both Denethor and Boromir already had twin glasses of some kind of amber alcohol with a red layer pooled on the bottom. Lindir didn’t know his drinks well enough to venture a guess as to what kind of cocktail it might be. Something expensive, to be sure.

Thranduil glanced at the one conspicuously empty chair and then back at the two men. “Where is Elrond?” 

“Late,” Denethor croaked, as if it was the worst sin imaginable.

Thranduil’s smile thinned. It was the kind of smile Lindir knew meant he was thoroughly annoyed, but unwilling to relinquish a centimeter of composure.

-

Lindir had been staring at his wine glass. He looked up to see an elf in an immaculate burgundy suit gliding into the empty chair opposite Thranduil. 

“I apologize for my tardiness. My flight was delayed and I had a serious matter to attend to at the district office.” 

The elf, Elrond, Lindir presumed, was so tall it was unreasonable. He rivaled Thranduil, but he seemed a little more athletic. His voice was deep and warm, his expression kind-- if a little exhausted-- and he held himself like a king. And that hair! Receding ever so slightly, but it was so dark and long and neat, with tiny braids that framed his delicately pointed ears and-- he looked so familiar… why did he look so familiar? 

Lindir was blushing. He was actually blushing. Oh, Valar. What’s wrong with me? It only got worse when those gray eyes landed on him. His stomach felt weird.

“Would you care to introduce me?”

Thranduil reclined back into his chair with a cheshire smile. “Lindir. Isn’t he a darling thing?”

Elrond glanced between the two of them. Lindir tried to sit up and relax his shoulders and act as if his blush was simply a product of the compliment. He shot Thranduil another one of his luminous saucer-eyed looks, and Thranduil leaned in to kiss him as if he really was the most irresistible thing in all of Arda.

Denethor cleared his throat. Boromir passed Elrond a menu. Elrond jumped at it, glad for something to look at that wasn’t the two of them. 

“I believe this is a meeting, Thran, not one of your parties,” Elrond said in a tone that was almost scathing. “Do try to behave.” 

Thranduil idly traced the shell of Lindir’s ear with the tip of his finger. “You wound me, mellon nin. I always behave.” 

-

“Do excuse me for a moment. I have to take this. I shan’t be long.”

Thranduil strode off to the patio and Lindir sat there feeling utterly naked without him nearby. He’d been accompanying Thranduil to various engagements for almost six months now, but Thranduil had never left him alone. And of course it had to be today of all days.

Elrond reclined in his chair and took out his phone, coffee poised in one hand. Lindir cradled his own, stealing nervous looks toward the patio where Thranduil was beginning to pace and looked very cross. Lindir shrank in his chair and tried not to fidget.

The restaurant was fading into the closing hour. Most of the diners had filtered out. One of the hosts flitted around straightening chairs and wiping down tables. Another led a late-coming group to the bar.

Minutes dragged by. Five. Ten. Fifteen. Thranduil hadn’t come back. The silence was suffocating.

“I really like your suit,” Lindir blurted, and instantly wished for death.

Elrond looked up from his phone in surprise. 

Lindir, for some Eru-forsaken reason, decided to add: “It’s-- it’s--it’s um-- a really nice...color. The red. Burgundy! I mean--” 

A tiny smile spread across Elrond’s features. It would’ve been a great time for the floor to open up and swallow Lindir whole.

“Thank you,” Elrond said. He looked out at Thranduil, still pacing on the patio, then turned his attention back to Lindir. “You don’t seem like Thran’s type.”

“Oh, I’m not,” Lindir agreed, which was a mistake. His ears burned and he floundered for some way to recover. “He’s, um-- he’s way out of my league.” He flavored it with a laugh he hoped sounded more shy than anxious. 

Elrond didn’t say anything. He just sat there, studying him with his phone balanced in his hand. It buzzed. 

Linder blundered into: “Sorry,” because he didn’t know what else to say. Elrond’s phone buzzed again. “Should you--um-- that’s probably important. Sorry. Don’t mind me.”

Elrond set his phone face down on the table and took a sip of his coffee. “At the risk of sounding trite, what do you do? You said nothing during dinner.” 

Lindir’s head emptied. A few moths might have flown out of it. He felt sure a tumbleweed blew through. Don’t say barista. Don’t say barista. Don’t you dare say you’re a barista.

“Music.”

No. That’s worse. Oh Elbereth, that’s so much worse! Why would you say that?

Elrond looked surprised again. “Music?” He echoed.

“Not really,” Lindir amended. “Kind of. Sort of. It isn’t really a thing. A thing-thing. I mean--” 

“--Not really, kind of music?”

Valar, why wasn’t the floor swallowing him yet? Could he just disappear? A wild fantasy about a meteor falling from the sky to squash him into Lindir-soup suddenly struck him. That would be nice.

“It isn’t a career. I’m not anybody. I just write things-- and um, and play. What--what about you? I mean. That’s a stupid question. Obviously you’re a CEO…”

Elrond rescued before he could embarrass himself further. “I enjoy music as well. I must confess I’m not much good at making it. And I am a great lover of books.”

Despite himself, Lindir lit up. “What kind of books?”

-

“My apologies. That took far longer than I had expected.” Thranduil grazed his hand along the curve of Lindir’s neck. Lindir, habitually, leaned into it.

Elrond picked his phone back up and checked on that text. “No harm done. Lindir kept me company.”

Thranduil looked shocked.

“Did he?”

Elrond simply hummed and stood. He bent to write the check for dinner before Thranduil could beat him to it. “It is very late, mellon nin. But perhaps we can continue this conversation at a later date. I will have Glorfindel call you to arrange it.” He rebuttoned his burgundy suit jacket and, on his way out, said: “He’s very charming, Thranduil. Keep that one.”

Once Elrond was gone, Thranduil turned to Lindir with a withering glare.

“I just said his suit looked nice,” Lindir mumbled. 

“His suit is burgundy,” Thranduil exclaimed with abject horror. “I have been trying to rid him of that dreadful thing for an Age.”

“Sorry.”

Yeah that’s part of the really garbled first chapter. I have most of an outline & planned a lot of scenes. It’s mostly just really gay self-indulgent fluffy garbage lmao. I’ll get around to actually posting the thing one of these days, but I really want to finish And the Stars Shine the Same first! 

[gffa]

I was talking with @himboskywalker​ about Tolkien and fandom and fic, because I’m always curious where people’s “area” of the wider Legendarium are at, whether they’re a fan of the Dwarves or the Humans or the Elves or the Valar or what!  (As a surprise to absolutely no one, the Elves are where my heart is at, where I very much love the Noldor, but if you give me a choice I’m going to run over to that Sindar-centric fic every time.) Which got us onto the topic of fic recs, where, yes, I’ve done a LOT of Tolkien fic recs but I tend to read something of a wide variety and this is a list specifically aimed at those who are familiar with the wider Tolkien world, but haven’t really read much fic and want to know where to start! Other Recs First: - If you haven’t gotten further into Tolkien’s work (like say beyond the movies), I’ve done something of a primer here, which includes fic recs and brief explanations and links to videos that help explain some things.  It’s not as hard as it seems to get involved, honest! - Some other fic recs here, as an addition to the above. - My Tolkien blog (which I haven’t been on in awhile, though, I haven’t let it go in my heart yet) has, I’m not kidding, A LOT of fic recs, I did recs regularly for about three years, so it’s almost as massive as my collection of SW recs. If I Could Only Pick Three To Start You With: ✦ And What Happened After by thearrogantemu - This is the fic that took me from enjoying the Silm characters to diving face-first into really loving them, because it wove such an engaging story about the characters sailing to Aman at the end of LOTR, where various characters you wouldn’t think interacting would be as meaningful as they are, but the fic absolutely sells them on it.  Frodo and Feanor having a conversation about language?  Sam and Maglor sharing a boat to the West?  These things are amazing, as this is a fic about healing and what it means to sail into the Undying Lands.  Also, it has a Feanor and Fingolfin reunion that literally put tears in my eyes. ✦ Interrupted Journeys by ellisk - I’m generally not someone who does a lot of rereading of fic just because I have so many new ones to get to, but I’ve read my favorites in this series (parts 3 to 5 are my sweet spot especially) probably four times through now because “Elfling Legolas growing up in Greenwod with a whole cast of characters around him, as the Shadow so very, very slowly creeps towards them” may sound somewhat simple, but the worldbuilding here is off the scale.  The weaving in of how much the First Age and various Elven politics influenced Thranduil’s ruling of a Silvan people is a major theme, but it’s also good parents raising that precious Elfling right and he and his cousins+friends getting into all sorts of mischief, so it’s balanced between humor and drama in the exact amounts I want.  You can skip the first two fics and jump into the third if you like, which is when Legolas is introduced, but I enjoy the whole thing. ✦ Return to Aman OR Quenta Narquelion by bunn - I can’t pick between these two, they’re both incredible.  Return to Aman is basically “Elrond grabs Maglor and drags him to Aman with them” and it breaths such incredible lift into all the characters of Aman, it doesn’t negate the terrible things the Feanorians did, but neither does it negate Elrond’s love for them and his biological family, too.  It’s another fic that’s about healing and forgiveness and it made me glow to read it.  Quenta Narquelion is basically “Feanor refused the call of Mandos after he died and everything started to snowball from there” and it’s an absolutely heartbreaking look at all our Problematic Fave Feanorians and how they were once good people trying to do the best they could, but bit by bit they slipped into the dark.  It’s especially amazing for capturing the complexities of Feanor, as he hovers over his children as a spirit and it really brought me around on his character. The Silmarillion and other First Age Batshit Faves: ✦ The Starlit Sky by Cirth is the fic that really made me get the potential of reading about Maedhros and Maglor raising Elrond and Elros, where it does such a fantastic job of showing that there was genuine affection there, even the midst of all the angst and trauma and pain.  You really get why Elrond could never give up on them, after reading this fic. ✦ In Courts of Living Stone by ncfan - “What if Maeglin never left Nan Elmoth and instead, several decades later, found himself on an errand to Menegroth and developed a relationship with Finduilas instead?” isn’t a fic I expected to capture my heart, but boy did it ever.  Beautiful characterization and beautiful writing, it really captured my imagination, but also gave me ALLLLLL the Maeglin feelings, as well as made me pine that this Finduilas couldn’t have been more common in fandom. ✦ naught but the shores and the sea by ncfan is more of Elrond and Maglor, where it’s an AU that has Elrond finding Maglor after the disastrous attempt to recover the Silmarils and I loved it a lot. ✦ The Crane Wife by Trebia is one that takes an underused character from Tolkien (Lalwen, in this case) and breathes this incredible life into her, gives her personality and joy and sorrow and meaning and, look, any fic that can convince me that Thranduil would marry a Noldo and utterly believe it, you know it’s well-written! The Second Age Is Kind of Quiet in Fandom But I Love It Regardless: ✦ The Art of Long-Distance Grandparenting by Kazaera is a lovely and bittersweet (but mostly lighter in tone) fic about the separation of the Sea between family members and does a wonderful job with Idril’s character, as she tries to stay connected to her grandchildren while being so distant from them and unable to see them, unless they choose to come to Aman.  There’s joy to be found here and it’s a lovely read. ✦ Relativity by French Pony is a lovely look at the final meeting between Elrond and Elros and strikes the right amount of bittersweetness, where it’s awkward and difficult and heartbreaking, but also feels natural and like this was how it was meant to be.  I had many, many Elven Twin feelings during the whole thing.  (I like all their fic, they’re worth checking out their other stuff for, too!) ✦ A Thing or Two About Elrond by Crookneck is a series of fics about Elrond and the various relationships he has--with Celebrian, with his children, with Gil-Galad, etc.--and I remember being really charmed by all of them and how much shit Elrond has seen over the course of his life. The Third Age, Lord of the Rings Version: ✦ Boromir's Return by Osheen Nevoy - This one is sort hard to summarize, but it’s basically “Boromir lives, makes a friend, and slowly changes everything about the LOTR plot”, but it’s so much more than that, where the worldbuilding is phenomenal, the pacing is incredible, it made me fall in love with Boromir as a character all over again, it contains probably the best portrayal of Denethor I’ve ever read in fandom, and I really loved the OC and so on.  It’s utterly engrossing and honestly I cannot recommend it highly enough, even if you’re not usually into this sort of thing. ✦ The River by Indigo Bunting is a fic where Legolas and Sam get separated from the others for a brief time and I love fics that take two characters who don’t interact much, throw them into an intense situation, and sees what happens.  It’s not precisely a light-hearted fic, it’s very intense, but it’ll make you fall in love with the sheer good in both characters and the friendship they develop.  It’s brilliantly written and I cannot recommend it enough. ✦ A Bit of Rope by Aiwendiel is a fic where Gandalf doesn’t fall at Moria and it changes everything--not necessarily for the better.  The slow, creeping sense of things changing, things going just a little bit worse here and there, until you realize how much darker the Fellowship’s journey could have been, was brilliantly done, and one I thought did justice to the idea, it’s not grimdark, there’s still light and hope here, but it makes you feel like, oh, maybe things happened as they did for a reason, even as hard as that seemed sometimes.  Gorgeously plotted and utterly engrossing. The Third Age, Mirkwood Version: ✦ daw the minstrel has an entire series of fics about Legolas growing up in Mirkwood and there’s absolutely a reason why she was one of the most well-known authors in that corner of fandom.  Her ability to create new characters (including two brothers for Legolas) was incredible, I cared so much about the family dynamics and got swept up in the drama (which was in a very loving family, but Legolas was definitely a mischief-seeker) and they’re fantastic.  If you find yourself in something of a stretch with too many OCs and your attention wavers, you can always skip around, they don’t have to be read in order and a lot of the non-canon characters can be skimmed over, imo. ✦ In a Field of Blood and Stone by ScribeofArda is so much better than what The Hobbit movies gave us of the Battle of Five Armies, it does such beautiful justice to the complicated character of Thranduil and Legolas, not sacrificing the warmth there for how difficult these times are and the war they find themselves in the middle of.  This Bard is also really engaging and fun to read--I read pretty much the entire novel’s worth in, like, a day or two because I could not put this one down. ✦ Swordplay and Swimming by cliodna_bright has an incredible meeting where Thranduil comes to visit Rivendell, runs into Elladan and Elrohir, who are young enough that they speak without thinking, and it’s not precisely a humor fic, but I was screaming the entire time because it’s so sharply written and so absolutely delightful, I LOVE IT. ✦ Deep and Crisp and Even by rivlee made me fall in love with how Elves and humans may look very similar, but there’s this sense of otherworldliness to the Elves, as shown through Bard’s eyes when he has a meeting with Thranduil.  Beautifully written and just the right amount of atmospheric. The Fourth Age Where Everything Actually Does Mostly Work Out: ✦ Far Horizons by Bodkin is the Fourth Age fic of my heart, where the various Elves that we came to know in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are all in Aman and decide to build their own realm there.  Which is difficult because Elven Politics even just amongst themselves, much less clashing with all the established politics of the other Elven realms in Aman!  But it’s a light-hearted fic (for the most part) that’s about healing and moving forward, balancing their ties to their history versus that Middle-Earth changed them, and I love it for soothing my soul.  (Thranduil sailed, you can’t tell me otherwise!!!)(Bonus moments of Glorfindel being pretty hilarious.)  I like all of bodkin’s work, but this one has a special place with me. ✦ Age of Healing by trollmela is one where Maedhros and Legolas have a conversation in Aman and it’s about the bittersweetness of healing and how difficult it is, taking two characters who would never have met in canon and weaving something entirely engaging and poignant out of it. Collections That Span The Ages: ✦ This Taste of Shadow by Mira_Jade - This is a collection of dozens of various shorter stories (or sometimes 10k “ficlets”) that you can largely skip around in if you have specific characters you like or you can just start at the beginning and read through.  It contains looks at pretty much everyone, from Maedhros to Galadriel to Thranduil to Elrond to Caranthir to Glorfindel to the Valar, etc.  I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve read in this collection! ✦ Fiondil's Tapestry and Tales from Vairë's Loom by Fiondil are in the same vein and I have really enjoyed everything I’ve read from both of them!  I especially remember that there was one chapter that had a scene between Thranduil and Cirdan and thinking, ahhhh, why has no one ever written that before!? as an example of the neat things it does.  But also lots about Elrond and Glorfindel and the Valar and so on! This probably doesn’t feel like a super extensive list, but those collection series will give you an excellent spanning of Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Hobbits, etc., not just the same central characters, but giving time to a lot of lesser focused ones as well.  Like, I feel I’ve read a fair chunk of Elwing fic, but I couldn’t point you to a specific one in my list of recs, which means I’m pretty sure it was in the collections ones or else she got some good scenes in one of the Aman-based fics, so I swear the above is at least a solid place to start for dipping one’s toe into Tolkien fic. AS ALWAYS, OTHER PEOPLE’S RECS ARE WELCOME, god knows I haven’t read anything in the last two years (and will have missed a lot even before that) and so I always need more recs, too!