#estrid x isildur

[rey-jake-therapist]

As I rewatched episode 8 the other day and the scene where Estrid tells Isildur that her bethroded started building a house for them, that until then she believed his kindness was love and that she felt sick when she realized that the man she loves now is standing before her, I couldn't help but think of Galadriel, Sauron and Celeborn. And I think it was wanted, because Estrid and Isildur's romance totally mirrors Galadriel and Sauron's.

We know how Galadriel felt about Halbrand/Sauron, and it's not platonic friendship. Even before we knew that Halbrand was Sauron, Morfydd Clark said that this man had changed her forever; that's just not something one says about a friend, at least not when referring to a scene that has very heavy romantic connotations (the Haladriel scene in the woods). Galadriel is just as much in love with Saurbrand as Estrid is with Isildur.

The one time that Galadriel mentions Celeborn, she describes their meeting as happening in a time of innocence ("We met in a glade of flowers. I was dancing and he saw me there.", "war was so far away then "). Celeborn was most probably Galadriel's first lover, and she was his. What she felt for him was certainly different than what she would later feel for Saurbrand. Don't get me wrong : I'm not saying at all that Galadriel didn't love Celeborn (I don't want this post to feed a ship war, to be clear), only that this love was certainly different, like.. Purer ? Because she was pure herself then, and so was Celeborn. When she meets Saurbrand, she has lost her innocence a long time ago and is not the same she-Elf who fell in love with Celeborn in a glade of flowers. This she-Elf would have probably not fallen for Halbrand, wouldn't even have considered him as more than a low-man who didn't deserve her attention.

Hearing Estrid say she felt sick when Hagen asked the gods to bless their love, made me wonder how Galadriel will feel when she and Celeborn build Lothlorien together, or how Sauron will feel when he builds his fortress of Barad-Dur, where he will find himself all alone.

I also wonder if Estrid will become Isildur's wife in the future (it's possible since said wife is left nameless in LOTR), or if he meets someone else while she stays with Hagen, both being haunted all their lives with what could have been...

[wildwren]

NIA TOWLE as ESTRID

2.03: The Eagle and the Sceptre

[boromirswife]

Isildur & Estrid + Almost Kisses

[crazyaboutto]

Hear me out

that sexy spin, that lock she can't escape and those toned arms 😶‍🌫️🔥🔥

My OT3 of season 2. They share one braincell and insane chemistry. Hope nothing bad happens to any of them :)

Isildur looking at Estrid with lovesick eyes, Arondir's sexy twist and Arondir saving these two from wildmen. Then that advanced groot scene...

Of course there is also a moment they truly shared one braincell.

P.S: 3 episodes left for me to finish the season so no spoilers from them please

[mai-komagata]

today's thoughts on isildur

i was thinking how i think every season sauron should seduce someone new (pharazon is probably next), and how isildur is being portrayed as a bit of a sad sack/unlucky in love character. But also how once you have been seduced by him you can never fully heal/get over it/abandon him. And how it would be interesting if sauron maybe seduced isildur in some fashion and *that* compounds why he cannot throw the ring into the fire and keeps it instead. Because Isildur as portrayed seems like a very sensitive man, not a man drawn to greed and power, and it is hard to imagine them leaving it as the simplified version of "he got the ring and got greedy" when the ring works in really nuanced ways. Also gives a special evil twist to accusations of someone being "isildur's heir" -- not just an heir to his greed but somehow even more tainted by sauron.

Also as much as I love charlie vickers, if we got a female incarnation of sauron, even for an episode or two (not just him mimicking galadriel), omg i would be over the moon with that. Like if he takes Estrid's form, making it a very concrete manifestation of what he wants.

anyway i don't think this will actually happen but if i write it down i can manifest it.

[flilisskywalker]

I was rooting for Isildur and Estrid, but oh no her husband showed up, so now I'm still rooting for them but with cheating involved.

[sluttyseacadet]

Not the Time

Isildur/Estrid || Mature - Graphic Depictions Of Violence

While journeying across Middle Earth, Isildur and Estrid are ambushed by a pack of orcs.

(Sidenote: I wrote this well before s2 came out so consider it an au of sorts 🙂‍↕️)

As the last light of the sun began to fade, the forest seemed to close in, the growing shadows creeping up over them and shrouding them in darkness. Isildur handed her the reins, his fingers briefly brushing hers. He suddenly stiffened and leaned forward, his voice a low whisper in her ear.

“Up ahead,” he warned, his lips brushing the tip of her ear before hovering over her neck, just a hair’s width away from her skin. She squeezed her eyes shut, letting loose a string of silent curses toward him, as she was never quite sure if he did this deliberately, or if he was completely unaware of his effect on her. Her back was now pressed flat against his broad chest and his breath on the back of her neck sent a warm flush spreading over every inch of her skin.

Now is not the time, she chided herself through gritted teeth. Now was never quite the time, it seemed, as she spotted a faint orange glow up ahead, the flickering of torches; what he had been warning her about.

She slowly veered Berek in the opposite direction, hoping they would be able to pass by unnoticed. But as they moved deeper into the forest, the flickering light in the distance now seemed to move along with them. They quickened their pace, but it was too late; they had been spotted.

Read on AO3

[isildursestrid]

estrid means divinely beautiful is it any wonder isildur is drawn to her like he’s drawn to the sea, to middle earth or to the ring of power?

[lineycantdance]

The Rings of Power S2E4 "Eldest" (2024) Hotel del Luna E3 "In a Dream" (2019)

[olessan]

The Rings of Power 2x08: Shadow and Flame

"My place is here. You know it is."

[bluetiefling]

I don't know if you can earn a thing like that. You just have to accept it as a gift. One that she gave freely because you were precious to her.

[wildwren]

Destined for Darkness • An Estrid Character Study

part of a series with @aadmelioraa

On the ride to Pelargir, Estrid works to understand the stranger she met on the road, and Isildur shares a terrible story.

Read on AO3

Estrid had been walking for too long.

“You should always count your steps,” her mother used to tell her. “When you get lost, you can retrace them .” It was sound advice — Estrid had been a careless child, always half lost in her own head, and she’d learned to make a counting game out of her mother’s warning. Three stones to hop across the stream, two trees bent just so at the entrance to the forest.

One mountain on the horizon to guide the way home

But there was no use counting the trails Estrid had walked by now, the paths she had beaten across this wasted land. She could only sort her journeys into two categories: the ones she’d taken before she bore the mark of Adar; the ones after. She’d walked so long that her shoes had worn through, and she had lifted another pair from a bloated, ash-choked corpse. By now, Estrid had stopped thinking of it as stealing.

It was merely accepting what was offered by the dead.

Estrid had walked long enough, fear deepening the ache into her bones, the burn of a brand searing into her neck with every step. So she could not control herself when Isildur reached down his hand and pulled her onto his funny, proud steed. She could not stop herself from leaning forward onto the narrow shelf of his shoulders, letting her bones stack against his bones, tucking her arms around his waist so she was certain she wouldn't fall off.

As they rode, Isildur spoke almost constantly. He spoke of his horse Berek, how he’d found Isildur in the wasteland and saved his life. He spoke of his father, of the Numenorean ships that would be waiting for them in the bay of Pelargir, and this made Estrid bite the inside of her mouth so much that the skin began to bleed again. She found his chatter strange at first, like he was speaking a different dialect, but after a time, she realized it was simply that they had lived lives quite alien to each other. They had grown in different soils.

After that, his life became a puzzle for her to solve, a knot to chew over until it was untangled. She only asked questions when she needed clarification. Otherwise, she listened. As he spoke, the hum of his voice moved out the back of his chest, vibrating into space between them. It was like the purring sound of some pleased creature, and soon it migrated into Estrid’s own chest — a warm, comfortable sensation — like the steady rush of water or the squeeze of her mother’s hand. For a few moments, she let her eyes drift closed, and the ache of her own vigilance retreated into a far corner of her mind.

“I am thinking of something,” Isildur said, as if starting a traveling game, “something that happened to me before I met you. It’s such an unfathomable thing… it’s hardly possible to believe it happened at all, except…except that I can still feel the memory of it crawling underneath my skin.”

Estrid fidgeted in the saddle. “What is it?” The sense of peace had fled her chest with his words, and she became wary again, a wearyingly familiar sense. “What happened?”

“I’m afraid you won’t believe me if I tell you.”

“Tell me,” she said, a little harsher than was necessary. “I’ve seen my share.”

Isildur shifted, as if he had the urge to turn back and look at her. But then his posture stiffened and he stared forward, his face remaining a mystery to her.

“After the fire mountain…and the burning waste…I found myself in a tunnel underneath the Earth.”

The fire mountain. That’s all it was to Isildur, but to Estrid, it had always been Orodruin, the Ancient Place, the Old Crone of the Southlands.

“See Her white hair? ” Her mother used to say. “She’s lived longer than any man, or any elf. She’s as old as the Earth, and She’s earned Her wisdom, I should say. She shan’t lead you astray.”

But Orodruin’s white hair was gone now. She wept tears of fire and blood, red tears of sorrow in grief for the Land.

“Orcs must have dug it,” Isildur continued, swallowing noisily around his words. “Or…or something else. I walked for as long as I could manage, trying to find my way out, but…I don’t remember. I don’t remember when I lost consciousness.” His voice was turning very strained.

“When I woke, I was in the clutches of some terrible thing.”

It was then Estrid realized Isildur was shaking, a slow shudder moving up from his root until his shoulders were taken with it. She clutched him on instinct, trying to still his terror, and when she squeezed the tops of his arms, Isildur grew still.

He brought Berek to a halt and turned to look at her in earnest. “Have you ever heard of spiders — spiders as large as beasts?”

It was Estrid who shook this time, only for a moment, only long enough for Isildur to notice. Not long enough for him to do anything about it.

“No,” she said, honestly. “I’ve not heard of that. But I’ve heard enough of other terrible things to believe it.”

It was strange — the expression that crossed Isildur’s face. It wasn’t until he spoke that Estrid understood he was relieved. “I’m glad,” he said, “I’m glad you haven’t met this particular monster.” He smiled at her then, his soft, closed-mouth smile, as if trying to reference some secret he assumed she was in on.

“And I’m also glad I didn’t make it up.”

“Who’s to say you didn’t?” she teased.

Isildur snorted. “No, don’t do that.”

“Who’s to say you didn’t get hit ‘round the head with a burning timber and —”

“Don’t,” Isildur said gently, the smile still in his eyes. He placed one hand on Estrid’s wrist, as if this might still her words.

“I’m sorry,” Estrid said, looking away. “I know what you mean. Sometimes you need someone beside you. Someone who understands.”

It wasn’t a very deep statement; Estrid couldn’t speak as clearly and complexly as Isildur on these matters, but she was trying hard to understand him, and she thought he could see that well enough.

“What — what have you seen?” He asked. He was growing concerned — concerned about her. He wanted to understand her in return.

This was something Estrid could not allow.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said curtly. “It’s clear enough this land is lost to the worst sorts of the world. Even a fool knows it can always get worse.”

“You’re not a fool.” Isildur spoke with much earnestness, but Estrid did not respond.

He watched her for another long moment, then turned himself forward and nudged Berek along. The horse had to be coaxed away from a bough of graying leaves before he would go forward.

They rode for some time in silence, and though it was not strained, it kept Estrid on a sharper edge than Isildur’s storytelling had. She fidgeted constantly in the saddle. Finally, Isildur reached for her hand and pulled it around his front, rooting her against his body. She let her thumb curve over the strap of his belt and leaned closer to his warmth.

“It may sound strange to you,” he said, and Estrid had to quell the urge to laugh. Everything he said sounded strange to her.

He continued: “I knew there was something waiting for me in Middle Earth, something important. Turns out I was right. It was an… unspeakable horror. Better that than nothing at all, I suppose.”

“Don’t say that,” Estrid said, trying to hide how disturbed this made her feel.

“Why not?”

“Because you can’t give into it. You can’t give into that despair.”

“I thought you would understand.”

“No, I only mean…you’re going to make it. You’re going to survive this.” She spoke with a confidence she did not truly possess. She was fueled by a sense of desperation, a sudden refusal to accept that this strange, kind man might, too, be doomed for the darkness — doomed along with her homeland, along with all her kin and everyone she’d ever known, along with herself.

“You’re going to survive,” Estrid said again.

You have to, you have to. You can’t give up. Not like me.

Read on AO3

[boromirswife]

Isildur and Estrid in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power s02e04 ‘Eldest’

[luzriels]

"Why are you telling me this?" — Isildur & Estrid The Rings of Power 2.08 "Shadow and Flame"

[earthshine-moon]

I’m completely normal about this

[ceris-x]

We got a Disa and Durin kiss, an Isildur and Estrid kiss, poppy kissed a guy she met a couple of days ago, we even got an Elrond and Galadriel kiss!! But still no Elendil and Miriel kiss!!!! They could have at least hugged!! 😭