#elrond's favorites

[elronds-library]

Prayers to Broken Stone [WIP]

by timelessutterances (@balrogballs)

“The Maedhros who stands before his son is not one thing but many. He is a struck-down statue. He is a fading demon. He is a sword in a nuclear war. He is historical debris. He is the sum of a nation’s ruin. He is the first sunset of the Empire’s apocalypse. He is Elrond’s beloved Baba, who would find him under every starless sky. Archives will dissect him. Historians will redeem him. Writers will swallow him whole.” In 1937, notorious Indian revolutionaries Maedhros Fëanorian and his brother Maglor, take in a British colonial officer's twin sons and raise them to adulthood. Decades later, Elrond Peredhel, trying to leave a family tragedy behind in England, returns to Kerala during a time of political turbulence and finds that everything, from the national landscape to his firebrand father, the ineffable Comrade Maedhros, has changed.

Teen, No Archive Warnings

Words: 103,000

[braxix]

Galadriel: Out of Uncle Feanor 's sons I like Maedhros the most.

Elrond: Why?

Galadriel: Once, in Valinor, I watched him berate his father and then turn around and baby mine.

[fukutomichi]

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power / S1 / 2 Sep. 2022 - 14 Oct. 2022 Robert Aramayo as Elrond Half-elven

[melorambles]

losing my mind that Elrond hasn't gotten to interact with his brother's descendants. Losing my mind even more that an elf went to Numenor and it wasn't him. You're telling me the island nation of people who are extremely long-lived (for Men) don't have lore, and statues, and paintings of their first king, Elros Tar-Minyatur? Famously the half-elven twin who chose mortality??? And they don't have feelings about his brother, Elrond? And none of that gets mentioned.

(I get this is partially a rights thing, but if they wanted to have Elrond and Numenor in the same setting they should have made arrangements to do it properly.)

You can't tell me the elf who goes on to be the greatest healer on middle earth didn't stick around for the birth of his brother's children. That he didn't visit for years or decades at a time, especially in the older days when they lived for multiple centuries. (Especially if he was trying to avoid getting placed in an important position in Gil-Galad's court. Sorry, can't be the heir I'm too busy. it's my great-nephew's half birthday, see you in a decade!)

We could have had Elrond, ageless young Elrond, walking past statues of himself and his brother. Looking like one of those statues just got up and took a stroll. The Numenorians reacting! How do you even address him? Is he your uncle? He looks younger than your own son, but he was here when they build the kingdom. Is he the Herald of a foreign king? And sure, they don't particularly want elvish influence but he's basically your uncle, are you planning on saying he can't visit?? Is he the brother of your first king? What the hell kind of political descriptor does Numenor have for Elrond. Elros had to have prepared for that! He knew Numenor would outlive him. He would have prepared his line for his brother's company (and probably for the eventual family of his brother). For all that Elros made the choice that was right for him, he didn't wish Elrond any grief.

We could have had parallels!!! Elrond calls Durin brother and happily plays uncle/playmate to Durin's children! And we don't even get a flashback that this might not have been his first time doing so???? We don't even get significant eye-contact or a reaction from Isildur/Elendil to a namedrop of their famous many-greats-uncle.

(Though, if they used this backstory, Elrond would be the last elf in existence to forget how fleeting a mortal life can be. Dude is pretty famously sad about the whole thing, many times over. And they got over it in the show fast enough that they could have used something else.)

[sunnyshinesunshine]

I love Kidnap Fam a lot, I really do, but I’ve seen a trend of brushing over the worst parts of Maglor and especially Maedhros’ history in Kidnap Fam works.

And I suppose that’s fine sometimes you don’t wanna deal with atrocities and you just want fluff.

But I think a lot of the time when writing the Kidnap Fam there’s a tendency for mostly Elrond to sort of excuse the actions of the House of Feanor.

I think maybe that’s because it is hard to conceptualise Mags and Mae being both kind to the children and villains at the same time.

And don’t mistake me, I think all the sons of Feanor were villains by their deaths. Maedhros, in my opinion, is the definition of ‘die a hero or live long enough to be a villian’.

Being critically online (guilty) I find it hard to remember that the world isn’t black or white. People are multifaceted. Their goodness doesn’t wipe away the harm they’ve done and vice versa.

All this to say that I’m really looking forward to some more Kidnap Fam fics that explore the idea of Elrond loving and honoring them as his parents, all the while being like ‘yeah they were also horrible but I still love them and don’t think they should be doomed forever’.

Because at the end of the day, neither Mags nor Mae were truly monsters (just straight evil with no goodness), but people who were capable of hunting for hours for a pair of lost boys, and refusing to burn the ships for love, as well as slaughtering an entire city full of refugees.

So yeah! Let’s see some Elrond having complicated feelings about that!! Woo!

[localmdderes]

I wish summer were actually as kind as Elrond.

Or at least half as kind as him I guess.

[pepart]

One of my favorite moments of the Rings of Power - season 01 💍

[i-live-in-my-bookshelf]

My mom likes the hobbit more than lotr because 'there are more hot men in the hobbit'

[dancerinthestorm]

Happy Tolkien Reading Day!

A Tolkien Ask for You: 

From the LOTR trilogy: In ranking order, list your top 3 members of the Fellowship, followed by your top 3 supporting (non-Fellowship) characters. Explain as much or little as you'd like! :)

Thank you so much for your ask, @sotwk! But aaaah! How can you make me choose between our babies??? 😭😄😱 This is going to get looong, apologies in advance! I added gifs for everyone who wants to skip my rambling ^_^

I fell in love with Middle Earth over 30 years ago when my dad first read The Hobbit to me and my sister. And one of the things I love most about it is that - no matter how often or at what time in your life you pick up those books - you always find something or someone new to love. So here's a bit of an mixture of long time favorites and new loves.

My top 3 members of the Fellowship

3. Pippin: My first love and such a fantastic character to latch onto as a kid: funny, street smarts, adventurous. He is not a hero, not an adventurer, not a soldier. But he still actively chooses to do whatever he can to help his friends.

2. Aragorn: Just like Pip Aragorn has been with me since day 1. Definite focus on pre-fellowship Strider rather than King Elessar Telcontar. Making that man take a bath and dressing him up for that coronation scene in the movies was an absolute crime! 😝

1. Boromir: Tried typing down my reasoning several times. Got misty eyed each time. So sorry. No detailed reasoning. Just Boromir, my beloved.

(That being said I am totally prepared to kill and die for all nine of them and Bill the Pony! ^_^)

My top 3 supporting (non Fellowship) characters:

3. Haldir: I know we don't get to see much of him but those are often the characters you can relate to and think about most, right? The poor man's job was already difficult enough and then it all gets political with the Fellowship crashing into Lorien ^_^ Also: a wonderful example that speaking foreign languages is a gift in and of itself. Plus: Craig Parker. Need I say more? 🙃

2. Elrond: I've always had a soft spot for this elf every since hearing about him in the Hobbit (“as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves, and as kind as summer.”... how can you not adore a character introduced like that?!). But somehow 30 years had to pass until I fell head over heels for him in 2024. One of the things I love most about him is that he has been through SO incredibly much and has lost SO many loved ones. But he still chooses to be kind. Also, Hugo Weaving did an absolutely incredible job in the triology (his face acting during the wedding? aaah!)

1. Eowyn: Does that need any explanation at all? Fierce, loyal, passionate, defying repressive authories, slaying the Witchking of Angmar. How can you not fall in love with her as a teenage girl and how could you ever stop loving a woman like that?

[iamnotshazam]

New Gil-galad origin theory: the remaining Noldor realized the High King position was absolutely cursed. After they met the barely adult but still baby-faced Elrond and Elros (freshly returned from the dadnapping), the ranking Noldor all turned to each other, sighed, and then agreed to a random drawing for the kingship. Better to deflect whatever nasty juju is following the position than let either of these two politely blunder their way into leading a people so legendarily Fucked. Especially Elros, who even before he decided what he wanted to do, just kinda had that sheepherding dog energy, and might as well have a sign taped to his forehead that says "will one day lead a large group of people on some zany pursuit"

[elronds-library]

Mockingbird

by Littlewhitemouse (@littlewhitemouseagain)

One of his captains had asked him, “Maglor, do you not sleep beside with your brother when visiting him?” and Maglor had replied, “I do, as it makes it easier for me to sleep,” and his captain had said, “Which is good, because you do not usually sleep,” and Maglor had said, “I do not.” But his captain had then asked, “but doesn’t Prince Fingon also bed with him, on account of their completely secret and frankly astounding incestuous affair that no one knows about (and I certainly don’t myself)?” and Maglor had replied, “Yes, and that makes it harder to sleep.” On account of that being a full and complete explanation, Maglor’s captain had said, “Ah,” and that was the end of that conversation.

Mature, No Archive Warnings

Words: 9,489

[braxix]

Elrond: 500.

Celebrimbor: Ooo, That's a steep price.

Elrond: 400.

Celebrimbor: I have like 80.

Elrond: I won't go a penny less than 40.

[asyourbodyremains]

haven’t drawn anything in MONTHS but after my second watch through of rings of power season two had me itching to draw a very sad elrond

[lendmyboyfriendahand]

Finwe in the third age part iii

Finwe could tell when information was being kept from him.

To be fair to Elrond, the lord of the valley was not trying very hard to hide that there were secrets. Glorfindel had given history up to the rising of the Sun with only a few obvious elisions - Glorfindel had apparently walked to Middle Earth, but Feanor had gotten there years earlier with his sons. Feanor and Argon had "died fighting Morgoth's servants", while Elenwe and Amrod had died in "accidents". The capture and rescue of Finwe's eldest grandson was covered in two sentences as if Glorfindel hoped that Finwe would miss it. (Though how could he - capture by the Dark Hunter had been the greatest fear of his youth, and one that he had thought his kin safe from in Valinor!) The summary had lacked some details, but it had seemed like a reasonable first pass at history.

Glorfindel casually saying "Gondolin was isolated and I died when it fell, so I didn't witness much of the first or second ages. I was sent to aid Rivendell and the elves around two thousand years of the sun ago..." though was incredibly blatant. "Not much" was far from "none", and the fall of a city seemed newsworthy as well.

Finwe asked outright how Gondolin had fallen, and Glorfindel had said "it's a distressing topic let's wait until you've recovered". Glorfindel said that a lot, and after an hour left the room for his guard duties. Finwe was sadly too weak to follow him and demand answers.

He would just have to listen, and bide his time while he recovered. Whatever terrible thing had happened to his family, a few more days would not make much difference after the decades or centuries that had passed. (Finwe was not sure he believed that it had been Ages, but such a great undertaking as the Sun was not the work of a year even for the Valar, and Elladan was undoubtedly both his descendant and a fully grown adult. So it was at least fifty years since Finwe had been in Formenos, given none of his children or grandchildren has been expecting a child when Morgoth attacked.)

_____

Over the next week, Finwe learned more. What Feanor had done at Alqualonde was a tragedy, and it sorrowed him that such a great city was known now only for the pain and evil that had been done there. He shared stories of the city as it had been with his great-great-grandsons when they came to visit, and they listened eagerly even though Artanis-called-Galadriel could have told them just as much. Elrohir was unguarded enough in his speech for Finwe to learn a little bit more about the years immediately after his death, though the topic was quickly redirected to the present.

Finwe asked for more people to talk to and to fill his days, but was told that few in the city spoke Quenya, and none spoke Gnomish as he had in his youth. Instead most spoke Sindarin, which Finwe was not enough of a student of languages to follow along with in conversation. Elrond provided him with a Sindarin language history of the so-called Last Alliance to practice reading (written in Feanor's tengwar rather than Rumil's script, he noted), along with a dictionary obviously designed for those fluent in Sindarin reading older texts. That the word "kinslaying" and "unbreakable vow" were each given a paragraph of cultural context was concerning, but it was still a useful exercise. (While figuring out that his old friend Elwe had taken the title Grey-cloak, Finwe skimmed past the word "Therinde" and noticed his own name. He deliberately did not read that entry, as he was gaining plenty of reasons for new pain without reopening old wounds.)

The War of Last Alliance was not easy reading, but it was very informative, and not just about the years described. Finwe learned that even two Ages after his death, he was still seen as the standard for royalty and the authority by which later Noldorin kings derived their title. Elrond was Turgon's great-grandson, but had been taught by Maedhros, who was seen as both a villain and a powerful warrior opposed to Morgoth. (Finwe paused for a moment to boggle at his descendants have children with each other. It was not particularly strange after a few generations, but he did not feel nearly as old as Tatye or Imin!) The Secondborn and Aule's children had been found, and things had not always been easy but they became allies in time. Geography had changed some in these lands since Finwe's youth, both in ways as small as the course of streams and in new mountain ranges to the south.

Oh, and there was Sauron. Morgoth's second in command who had taken on his master's mantle and much of his army. The Valar had apparently not learned from letting Morgoth walk freely in Tirion, as Sauron had the run of a whole continent for many years. And even at the conclusion of the battle, Sauron was only beaten back, due to the difficulty of truly unmaking Maiar by incarnates.

Finwe asked Glorfindel if Sauron was still around, and got the unreassuring answer of "probably yes, but he's still building power and we aren't certain where."

Difficult was not impossible, though. And though Finwe could not get vengeance against Morgoth personally, it was clear that Sauron had done much harm to his family. If Sauron dared show his face again, Finwe would be ready.

[lovebeatriceplz]

The look of love

[mag-lore]

Ëarendil Ardamírë the Mariner