#feanorian stan

[gardensofthemoon]

i’m on my first silm reread since highschool i think (so more than eight years), and it’s the first time i read it in english — and i JUST finished the flight of the noldor and i’m an emotional wreck, my hands tremble, i cried so much, i didn’t expect to be so angry at the valar. look how they massacred my boy

after so much introduction and infodumping (affectionate) there is SO MUCH happening here, i thought i could handle it since i’ve been in the fandom for a few months already and i’m familiar with the plotline but DAMN i had such a gut-punch, i’m sobbing

[red-winters]

Apparently lots of people find Finrod attractive because he’s: 1) friendly and not depressing to be around and 2) is able and willing to rip a man’s throat out with his teeth

[sauronwantshisringback]

I can’t relate to Maglor because he’s a sad beach cryptid and I despise the feeling of sand in my shoes. Go Maglor for fighting through it though, king shit 💪🏻

[serregon]

10. worst part of fanon

one thing I don’t see talked about enough is the vilification of characters who are opposed to the Fëanorians. the downside to the popularity of the Fëanorians is that their rivals get slandered by the kinds of people who need to justify liking a villain by woobifying them until they’re no longer a villain in their eyes. like you guys do realize that the Fëanorians are the bad guys, right? right??? Elwing is the most obvious example but I’ve also seen it with Thingol, Galadriel, Dior, and I’ve even seen it with Beren and Lúthien

[ellrond]

Maglor killed himself btw. He sank with Beleriand and the line of feanor ended with “speak friend and enter” Celebrimbor. Maglor didn’t roam Middle Earth and he never found peace and Elrond barely remembers him

[annoyinglandmagazine]

I think I don’t need to go into all the reasons Elrond seems to be universally adored in this fandom. Elrond’s the best. But I will say one of the most weirdly in character things about Elrond is that he is sort of a unifying figure in the Tolkien fandom just as he is in universe. The movie fans? Some of us may have issues with certain out of character things he did but clearly something about his portrayal was compelling in and of itself because he defo has a movie fanbase as well (a lot of this could be put down to Hugo Weaving apparently being a bit of a DILF but as a lesbian I couldn’t possibly comment).

People who’ve read Lotr and the Hobbit? How could you not love him, kind as summer, excellent father, wise and welcoming, what isn’t there to like? He’s great.

And Silm fans….. oh god do we love him. Whichever fanbase your coming from, wherever you focus your attention, chances are you interact with Elrond content. Feanorian Apologists? Adoptive feral child of Maglor and Maedhros that flaunts his upbringing wherever possible. Nolofinwean stans? Turgon 2.0, loving father, lives in a hidden valley, largely defensive before all else and less inclined to rush into things. The adult in the room essentially. Edain obsessives? Descended from all of them, and the Numenor connections and parallels are enough to scream into the void about for eternity. Sindar fans? Luthien come again, anybody? Seriously though, he’s such a Melian just look at that shit with the river.

[whiteladyofithilien]

Feanorian Fancast

Now let me just say I definitely don't want any media touching Tolkien for a hundred years after the train wreck that is Rings of Power but if somehow someone capable decided to do a series on the Feanorians this is my mental cast

Cillian Murphy as Feanor

Eleanor Tomlinson as Nerdanel

Tom Hiddleston as Maedhros

Sebastian Stan as Maglor

Sam Heughan as Celegorm

Eoin Macken as Caranthir

Richard Madden as Curufin

And for Amrod and Amras we have actual brothers who I don't know if they can act but they have the aesthetic

Holden & Leland Fraser (sons of Brendan)

Or actual twins who are also actors

Harry and Luke Treadaway as Amrod and Amras

[valacirya]

OH, YOU'RE AN ELU THINGOL STAN?! A THINGOL STAN!! HI HI HI I AM A THINGOL STAN TOO!!! WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT OUR EIFFEL TOWER ELF THO? I THINK HE IS COOL!! I'M THINKING OF POSTING AN APPRECIATION POST ABOUT HIM SOON BUT I GOTTA SEARCH WELL FIRST!

I am! We may be few in number but we are mighty!!

Honestly, what's not to love about Thingol? He married a Maia! His people were so loyal to him! Elrond preferred to claim his descent from him (this is in HoME, The Problem of Ros)! He was friends with the dwarves, they built Menegroth together! He made dad jokes!

Thingol is one of the only characters who actually changes for the better in the Silm; he gets character development! He accepted Beren after he proved himself. He loved Turin like a son. He respected Hurin. He had a mutually beneficial alliance with Haleth. The man stopped being prejudiced (against Men) after he learned better.

Of course he was far from perfect. He was a bit of an asshole and he should have listened to Melian. But we see him change in clear ways, we see him become kinder and more open-minded. And despite this, most fans just make him out to be this cartoonish villain who was mean to the cool Feanorians.

So yeah, I'm 100% a Thingol and Doriath stan. In fact, this ask inspired me to make a post about how almost all his actions were justified and in the interest of his people.

[cloudyysworld]

Part of me want The Silmarillion to be on screen but part of me did not because if the First age is on screen the fandom will devided into: Feanorians apologist / "Feanor is a villian" / "They did not do this in the book"/ "The writers did them dirty" /Russingon ship war / Inc*st shippers /Glorfindel and Ecthelion fancam / Fingolfin's thirst tweet /Celegorm's war criminal supporters /"I have only seen LOTR" /"Where is Legolas?" /Luthien girlboss slay stans/ "The wigs look bad" /"The costume is cheap" /"The casting choice is horrible" /"They was cast so perfectly" , also 17749 edits of Finrod with his long blond hair and sick ass outfits on tiktok and twitter ,arguments between #TeamFeanor and #TeamFingolfin everytime new episode is outed ...etc...

[imakemywings]

probably didn't word this right, cause I'm seething so much but

honestly while I do like the "kidnap fam" since canonically the book says there was great love between the twins and maglor, I wouldn't go as far as boasting that as an achievement of the feanorians (like some posts and fics do) seeing as they destroyed doriath and then destroyed sirion, which is full of refugees cause like suddenly saving the twins (sorry elrond and elros, love you tho) absolves them of the sins of the many innocent people they killed like ??? it's a good thing the twins grew up nice tho I never gave that credit to the feanorians, I always assume since earendil was nice af, they inherited that from him

some would even go as far as portray the murderers as the good guys while the mother whose life was destroyed TWICE by these murderers is implied to be the fucking villain like they drove the twins mother into committing suicide (and I know some of y'all wouldn't admit that because despite whining about having less female characters in silm, y'all still hate complex female characters like elwing) and y'all were like THAT HORRENDOUS BITCH And the fact that there are less fic of elwing reuniting with elronds family says so much lol

im sorry for the rant, because as someone who discovered silmarillion recently, this hate towards elwing and earendil was THE greatest disappointment I've ever encountered in the fandom

Oh don't apologize anon, I basically agree with all of this lol

I was stunned to come into this fandom after finishing the book and find out that Elwing and Earendil are controversial characters. Headcanons and AUs all you want, but the book makes it very clear they are heroes and Tolkien portrays them as heroes (albeit tragic ones)--Earendil slaying Ancalagon and Elwing convincing the Teleri to aid the war effort is more proof of that.

The Feanorians are the closest thing we have to true protagonists in the book and they're fan favorites, so there's a tendency to see other characters (Turgon, Thingol, Dior, Elwing, etc.) through the lens of how well the Feanorians like them or get along with them. If a character has conflict with the Feanorians, they're likely to get the villain treatment in certain circles of the fandom no matter how reasonable their actions were.

Under the cut because I rambled also lol

Above the cut I'm just going to link here to my tag for Elwing metas from other people.

There's also in some cases, I think, a discomfort with rooting for characters who have done so much wrong (see: "stanning villains" discourse), so in some places there's an effort to downplay what the Feanorians did because of course you can't like a character who is genuinely terrible! So this is where we get into making Dior and Elwing look worse than they are, so that the Feanorians look less bad by comparison (here we get the "good thing the twins were saved from their shitty and neglectful mother!" ...by the dudes who just slaughtered their entire hometown).

This is made easier by the fact that since Silm is told in such an epic fairytale style, we as readers don't have to confront the personal level of the violence the Feanorians committed. We don't see Elwing's reaction to the twins being taken hostage (besides being told that "great was [her] sorrow" for their captivity), we don't see Dior and Nimloth discussing the decision not to respond to the Feanorians' threats, we don't get a description of what Menegroth looked like after it was sacked by the Feanorians, we aren't told about Elrond and Elros trembling in fear as they're taken away by these terrible, violent Elves who killed their grandparents and their uncles and just now their mother and who may very well kill them also. That makes it easier to gloss over the practical realities of what they did (which is why it's something I'm always interested in exploring in fic).

And you're right--there is a draw in the relationship between Elrond and Elros, and Maedhros and Maglor, just because it is so improbable that they would develop any affection at all for each other. And yet, a relationship can be loving and still abusive or unhealthy, and I just cannot buy that it was healthy for Elrond and Elros to be in Maglor's care. Given where Maedhros and Maglor are at this point, they are unlikely to be doing well mentally/emotionally, and even if they were, they can't just detach themselves in the twins' mind from being the monsters who have been haunting Thingol's line for generations (See: Kidnapping and attempted forced marriage of Luthien, attempted murder of Beren, threats to attack Doriath, the Second Kinslaying, killings of Dior and Nimloth, leaving Elured and Elurin to die of exposure in the woods, threats against Elwing, the Third Kinslaying, driving Elwing to suicide). There's also a significant level of cultural loss with Elrond and Elros, which Maedhros and Maglor simply do not have the knowledge to abate. E/E are deprived of being raised in either their maternal or paternal cultures, and with the virtual extinction of the Iathrim by the end of the Third Kinslaying, much of that knowledge is simply lost, and the few people who still hold it (Oropher and his people) are kept away from the twins. Is it any wonder Elrond becomes fascinated with collecting knowledge as an adult?

Personally, I see Maglor's having kept the twins (for however long you imagine, although most of us seem to picture until at least mid-adolescence, if not full adulthood) as a deeply selfish act. They could have released the twins to Gil-galad or Cirdan or Oropher--but they chose not to, for years. I think he loved them--and I think that's why he didn't want to let them go. I think the best and most redeeming thing Maglor ever did with the twins was allowing them to leave to join Gil-galad.

And I do agree with what you said there that Elrond and Elros grew up kindly and generous more in spite of their childhood than because of it.

The Feanorians' descent into villainy in pursuit of their oath is, imo, key to their arc, and one of the most interesting things about it, so I'm not here to downplay it. Even Maedhros and Maglor realize how far gone they are! Maglor himself calls continuing to follow the oath "evil" and says that "less evil shall we do in the breaking" and Maedhros stands with the Silmaril in the end and sees that all the violence and horror he's committed has been for nothing and finds it so unbearable he is one of only two named Elves to ever commit suicide (the other being his victim, Elwing). He literally kills himself because he can't deal with what they've become (or at least, that's how I read it).

The other fascinating thing about these two is how at the end Maglor makes a couple efforts to turn away, to let go of the oath, to do something better--but he can never quite manage it. He's not willing to do it alone, and Maedhros won't do it with him, so he keeps himself stuck on this path until he's the only one left.

Rewriting them as characters who did nothing wrong deprives them of all their complexity. And honestly, you (not you you, anon) just sound like a clown when you're arguing they were justified in sacking a refugee camp because uwu property rights.

With Elwing especially I think there's also a misunderstanding about how exactly things were handled.

I think people forget that Elwing did not make the decision to keep the Silmaril alone--it was Elwing "and the people of Sirion." This was a group choice, not something Elwing imposed on them.

I think people forget the Sirionites believed the Silmaril was protecting them. This would have been especially relevant in the minds of two refugee groups who had both survived a brutal and bloody sack of their cities.

I think people don't realize that the correspondence between Elwing and Maedhros prior to the Third Kinslaying all seems to have taken place during a single voyage of Earendil's. She tells the Feanorians she can't make a final decision on the Silmaril while Earendil (one of the rulers of this city!) is at sea--but they don't wait for his return, they just attack.

And of course, once she and Earendil reached Aman, they were literally prohibited from returning to Middle-earth, so it's not like they made a choice not to come back for the kids.

Earendil and Elwing are forced to look at the big picture--that after the Third Kinslaying, even if they did return a) How exactly are they supposed to get their kids back from these notably brutal and ruthless warlords?; b) Morgoth is still there. Doing his Morgoth thing. Someone has to make it to Aman to get them to intercede. If Earendil and Elwing turned home instead of continuing West, it would be dooming the rest of the continent--yes, their kids included--to eventual destruction by Morgoth. The fact that Elrond and Elros are able to live so long and raise such prosperous realms is directly related to Earendil and Elwing's decision to keep trying to reach Aman.

You might find it reassuring how in LotR how much connection Elrond is given and expresses with Earendil and Elwing. Clearly he still views them as his parents and if he harbored any resentment (which honestly wouldn't be unreasonable as a child/teenager with a less mature understanding of the situation), it's gone by then.

And finally I just think there's a general fannish fixation on the concept of found family, so people want to force Kidnap Fam into that dynamic so badly they'll completely rewrite Maedhros and Maglor to be E/E's "true" family and ignore all of the horror of what they did leading up to literally kidnapping the twins.

ALL of which is a long-winded way of saying: yeah! you're right.

[transsexualhamlet]

for the sensory asks 1 and 14 for any feanorian

hehehehehe it is fëanorian week isnt it

ask game

1- Their most visually striking feature

I think all of them have quite 'severe' features, the sort of sharpness and hardness to the face that comes from descending from fëanor that translates so well into people's memories as frightening. That and their glowing eyes. All of the calaquendi have those of course and I think that's probably pretty wild to witness. I think the eyes of Fëanor himself were much brighter than is normal to the point that by the time he died you could not see his pupils, but this was not something inherited by his sons because that was just his own personal insanity.

Everyone knows about Maedhros. Everything about Maedhros is striking. I mean look at him. *gestures at my imagination*

For Maglor, I think it's the length of his hair. I imagine this man with shampoo commercial hair. This just stunning jet black slick mane that trails basically all the way to the floor, it's longer than Fëanor's, which was also Very Long. It's not as noticable or remarked upon in Valinor because it was usually braided and it's somewhat normal in Valinor to have the luxury to maintain ultralong hair. This is not the case in Beleriand. I think over time he loses the motivation to do anything with his hair and it just hangs loose and ridiculously long and kind of unkempt. Cue guy walking sadly along beach with 7 feet of windswept tangled hair. Also I think he has really deep eye bags. He looks like he hasn't slept in 20 years . He kind of looks like Míriel.

14- Their favorite type of music

Well I must admit there are only so many types of music in first age Beleriand, though I suppose Valinor could have gotten pretty weird with it. Wish I could say something crazy like "electrofunk" but well they dont know what an electricity is.

I think Maglor has probably played every instrument known to society and plenty more, (except percussion which he always wants one of the brothers to accompany him with) but despite it the same personal style seems to come through to it. Some of the brothers love it and some of them I think have gotten a little tired of it.

Maedhros certainly prefers it. He's one of those guys who will wholeheartedly be like 'no one understands music except this guy right here.' The two of them have the Oldest Siblings bond because I think it was just the two of them for quite a while before the others came along.

Something that stands out about them is that none of the Fëanorians are very passionate about the Beautiful Choirs Of Valinor which everyone is always talking about (those being made up of Maiar). Pretty much every other high elf is like yeah thats the peak of music. Not the Fëanorians! They're Special. Maglor loves to say his favorite music is 'The Sounds The World Makes.' He would have loved to sample ambient nature noises and remix them but sadly none of that in ye olde middle earth. Celegorm and Curufin love very fast and upbeat stuff that gets you Pumped Up. they would love going to the gym /neg

Caranthir is an "I just don't really like music" guy all the way until he realizes he just sort of doesn't like the way elves make music. And I think the twins are also Maglor stans but somehow in an entirely different way than Maedhros is and they actually have arguments about what makes Maglor's music so top of the line.

[runawaymun]

Oh no oh wait your thoughts on Eärendil are similar to mine. Can I dare to ask your thoughts on Elwing too? I’m personally Not A Fan but understand her more favorable interpretations

When looking at Elwing I think it's important to understand just how young she was. I'm not an Elwing stan, nor am I an Elwing hater. She was a single mother and a child queen, with an immense amount of trauma and responsibility and a Silmaril hanging around her neck. I think she did her best and it wasn't enough. I think there was a level of emotional (and perhaps physical) neglect in her raising of E&E but that's not because she is a bad person, that's because she is ill-equipped to parent, overburdened with ruling a city, stressed to the absolute max, and poorly handling her own trauma. Just from a real-life standpoint I think it stands to reason that there would have been emotional neglect at the very least.

We don't really have evidence one way or another as to what kind of mother she is, but I don't think she abandoned Elrond and Elros in favor of the Silmaril. That's not a take that I think makes a lick of sense. Elwing was witness to her entire family being massacered over the Silmaril, and the Oath goes: "whoso hideth or hoardeth, or in hand taketh, finding keepeth or afar casteth" -- even if Elwing gave the Silmaril back, technically the Oath would still call for her death. And after what happened to Elured and Elurin she also has no reason to believe that the Feanorians would spare the lives of little kids. What she does know is that they are focused on one thing, and basically one thing only: the Silmaril.

I read her leaving E&E in a hiding spot and jumping into the ocean as her last ditch effort to protect them. Like, yelling screaming jumping up and down waving the Silmaril "OVER HERE HI ARE YOU LOOKING FOR THIS!!!!! COME AND GET IT" and that's incredibly brave of her! I don't read it as "this is my birthright and I'm hanging on to it and fuck everyone else", I read it as grabbing the one thing the Feanorians are looking for and getting as far away from Elrond and Elros as she possibly could, in the hopes that they would survive.

And also idk I think there was maybe the smallest hope that Maedhros and Maglor were so far gone in the Oath that they'd jump in the ocean and drown with her.

All that to say I don't think Elrond really registered that this was her reasoning for leaving him and Elros behind until much much later, possibly not until he meets her in Valinor and she has a chance to explain it to him on an adult level. Our feelings about our parents are complicated and we often look at them through the lens of how we felt when we were little, and I'm sure how Elrond felt in that moment was "why am I getting abandoned in the midst of the worst night of my life?! I'm TERRIFIED and I want my MOM" because he was six -- and I think that stuck with him until it was later challenged. Trauma is Trauma.

[serregon]

something something Feanorian stans just want a Túrin but they can’t stan Túrin bc he doesn’t have pointy ears

[veilder]

How about 2 and 11 for the fandom asks? :)

Ooh, thank you, friend! :D (For the Fandom Year in Review Asks here.)

2. Favorite ships this year Oh man, what a loaded question, lol. Well, as I'm sure many of you know, I've fallen hard back into Trigun in 2023, lol! So I just have... a whole shitload of ships I've been reading for that, omg. Fave is probably Millyons (Knives x Milly lol) at this point, though, omg. (I blame @eomma-jpeg fully for this. >_>) But I still have such a huge soft spot for VashMeryl, too, as well as some other rarepairs like KLR (Knives/Livio/Razlo) or Kniveswood (Knives/Wolfwood 😅). Yes, there is a trend here... No, I won't examine it. >_> As for other media, I'm still well in to Genshin Impact as usual and my favorite Chili bois have yet to be unseated as my all time faves, lol. (I.e. Childe/Zhongli) I'm still like moderately invested in the Cyno/Alhaitham rarepair as well, though I haven't read as much for them. But perhaps the biggest surprise of all though is how down bad I am about Neuvillette x Furina. Like damn son, me stanning a straight ship in Genshin? XD This hasn't happened since Ayaka x Thoma. XD And I'm way more invested in Neuvy and Furina anyway, goodness. The whole Fontaine story arc absolutely destroyed me and I loved the two of them in it so much. I hope they get to be happy soon in the future. 😭😭😭

As for other IPs... Y'all know I still love DBH in my heart and still stan Convin and North60 with my life. I'm also still riding that FFVII Remake train and may or may not have read a bunch of Sefikura this year... >_> (Sephiroth/Cloud for those who don't know. Because the inherent eroticism of being sworn enemies will never not appeal to me. >_>) And also IkeSoren and Dimidue (Dimitri/Dedue) from Fire Emblem still live in my heart indefinitely. But also, a lot of my fandoms I've read this year I've been reading a lot of platonic stuff for, too. Haha, can't even list LotR/Silmarillion on here because all I ever read for that is Feanorian family feels. XD

11. Biggest squee moments of the year (For ye youths who no longer use such awesome terminology, that means the fandom moments that made your heart cry out in overwhelming joy. Can y’all believe that “squee” didn’t quite stand the test of time??)

Oh man, I'm trying to think here... Tbh, I've not watched very much new media this year and the stuff that was new was usually also pretty sad, lol. 😅 However... though it's a tad bit bittersweet, the end of Genshin's Fontaine Archon Quest just... destroyed me in the best way? Especially Furina's reaction to everything... (I'm trying to be vague here to avoid spoilers. XD) Like, I felt such palpable relief and joy for her after it all went down. Maybe not exactly a squee moment, but I was definitely inordinately happy, haha. XD

And you know what else? Her damn character trailer. XD It was so fun?! Absolutely chaotic and whimsical and so over the top and I've watched it so many fuckin times. XD Dang, I love her. 💙

Also, just mark down like a bunch of fanfic moments, lol, because of course. XD I couldn't list them all if I tried but... The two that immediately came to mind for me were Milly and Knives' whole relationship in @eomma-jpeg's exeptional fic In the Meadow, and also the last posted chapter of Bgtea's ridiculously long and ridiculously good Genshin fic, Entirely Out of Spite. (I recommend these both wholeheartedly.)

But yes, hope my meandering answers were satisfactory, @keltii-tea. Thank you for the asks! XD

[child-of-hurin]

yours tags going (#i honestly believe fandom could be healed if there was a ban on thinking about the feanorians for a mere two weeks#challenge: engage with the vast world of the legendarium without mediating everything through these five tertiary characters#sorry. six).............i've been peripherally aware of the silm for YEARS and never read it because the people i was around (feanorian stans of a certain strain....) made it sound like the dullest and most flat, classics-y, interchangeable thing, that had nothing in common with lotr or the haunting things around its edges. after reading excerpts from your blog and other actually good blogs i finally read the whole silm last week and it was incredible, i barely thought about the feanorians once the entire time unless they were being put in front of my face by the text, but that's ok because they take up so little pagetime. (feanor was better than all his sons put together and he still wasn't in my top 10). absolute delight of an experience <3

🥺💖 I am SO happy my soon blogging helped in any way convince you to give it a chance, and that you didn't regret it!! It IS a delight, no???The feeling of vastness & time in it are arresting to me, I feel invited to inhabit sentences and paragraphs, and I think it has such a delicate/skilled touch on the cosmology of it all -- which I also feel in LOTR! I would not enjoy it nearly as much if it was a parable, which is how soooooooooooo many fans around here seem to see it as... zzzz

I think Feanor + Feanorians work so well in the text for what they are meant to be and for the space they are given tbh, like, whenever I manage to dodge most of the fandom for a while, I remember I truly, honestly appreciate them, and even what some fans do with them! (They're none of them my top ten either though ^^)

The classic-y thing gets me, god, I think it's because that's the cultural lens so many bloggers here primarily have to look at stories that they take it for granted. Obviously, unavoidably, unapologetically , there's a lot of classics inspiration in it, but Tolkien's inspirations and aspirations with this work are essentially, avowedly and perceptibly other mythologies. That's not just Tumblr either, some months ago a friend was live blogging this published essay that tried with all it had to shoehorn meaningful parallels between The Fall of Gondolin and the Aeneid.

It also annoys me immensely when people act like this book is essentially a Catholic fantasy -- that can be a relevant lens to look at free will vs fate in Tolkien (avowed by the man himself in some extra-canonical texts), but not when looking at the Ainur, for example, or specific storylines and characters. No offense to people who find real meaning in it, but statements like "Earendil/Aragorn/Frodo is Middle Earth's Jesus" and "Galadriel is a Marian figure" are to me proof of lazy thinking and/or fundamental ignorance of catholicism :/

[imfromthemiddlekingdom]

If I had to choose between one, Feanor or fingolfin, when they’re both hanging off a cliff, I would, without hesitation, pick fingolfin every single time. I love Feanor but I love his sons more and beyond my love of Feanor exists my love for Indis’ sons. And I’m also pretty sure the spite that fills Feanors heart will not allow for him to die such a demeaning death and he will probably make it my problem if he survives but I honestly love fingolfin more than Feanor no matter how much of a feanorian Stan I am.