#get very opinionated when it comes to tolkien and the entire legendarium

[glorfindel-of-imladris]

How do I say this without getting dogpiled:

I, too, desperately need to see Glorfindel come to life in today's media, but I am not so desperate that I would want it in Rings of Power, do you know what I mean?

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

I swore to myself to stay away from that confession blog, but curiosity sometimes gets the best of me, and then I came across this:

This is not a “controversial opinion”, this is a idiotic one, and once again lets make real women feel stupid for their headcanons about fictional female characters.

Whoever wrote this thinks they are very clever, accusing Sauron fans (and Sauron x Galadriel shippers, too, since this is a popular headcanon in the fandom), of being vapid and shallow. So let’s make a wild comparison between one of the main antagonists of the entire legendarium, with complex lore associated with him (Ainur, “The Fall”; power; the nature of evil; etc.) with a human character whose motivations are very easy to understand (he wants power = immortality).

This is confusing to me, because the folks who share this view are also crying about how “bringing up Tolkien legendarium” scares off new fans, or makes them feel inadequate, and we can’t expect everyone to know Tolkien because we were once new to the world, too. But then they support this kind of crap?

And you don’t want me to say you don’t understand Tolkien legendarium? Yeah, if you think comparing Ar-Pharazôn and Sauron is some sort of flex, you don’t. When I talk about not understanding Tolkien, I’m not talking about the newcomers to the legendarium, I’m talking about these book fans who keep saying the most out of pocket and incorrect stuff about the legendarium and passing their own headcanons as “Tolkien canon”. This is very common in the Tolkien fandom, and it made it’s way into the RoP fandom. And it will give fans the wrong information about the legendarium, and as a Tolkien nerd, I have a problem with that.

No one is saying Sauron is “misunderstood” by the characters of the story he’s in. But I would say he’s misinterpreted by a fandom who instead of reading what Tolkien has to say about his own story, decides to uphold their own headcanons as “Tolkien canon”. Saying Sauron is a nuanced character is not saying he’s misunderstood, but I can really expect this level of complex thinking from someone who thinks this sort of affirmation is clever. Everyone understands Galadriel has a character arc, but Sauron isn’t afford the same treatment by the fandom, even though RoP is giving him one and based on what Tolkien wrote in his letters.

As for “fixing whoever” this is clearly about the “Galadriel could fix Sauron” headcanon. Which, personally, and as they stand, I don’t agree, at all. Mairon needs to stay away from power to “fix himself”, and what he needs is to heal his trauma and feud with the Valar and the other Maiar. He needs a “father figure” to lead him to do good. From a shipping perspective, Galadriel could help him in this path, like Uinen helped Ossë. Oh look, Tolkien had a female character “fixing” a male character, the horror, it’s almost as if the “power of love” isn’t a theme here, and fellowship isn’t a major thing in the legendarium. You people realize this story is from the early 20th century and by a devoted Catholic author, right? Why are you projecting 21th centuries values to the legendarium?

I don’t understand this shaming of others people’ headcanons, though. Why are folks arguing over this sort of things? It’s the same about how “powerful” Celebrían is, when she’s barely a character, and is only there because Elrond needs a wife and to be brutalized by Orcs. Galadriel x Sauron shippers at least are making her character more complex and interesting in their fanfictions. The same for the husband, who’s entire character is bulletpoints to the point RoP can afford to replace his character with others, like they did in S2 with the Battle of Eregion, where Arondir took his place in the narrative. And “Arwen” and “power” in the same sentence can only come from PJ fans, because she’s little else than “eye candy” in the books. This is like the duel of headcanons, because it’s not show canon nor “book canon” either. There’s nothing wrong with having headcanons, but weaponizing them against other fans is nonsensical.

[silmarillisms]

fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinn. give me, and thus all of tumblr, your thoughts on tom bombadil. you said you had thoughts and i wanna hear them.

Old Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow, Bright blue his jacket is and his boots are yellow, Reeds by the shady pool, lilies on the water, Old Tom Bombadil and the River Daughter.

Throughout the whole of the Legendarium, Tom Bombadil is widely considered to be one of the murkiest and strangest parts. He is loved or hated by fans and there are very rarely any middling opinions. The questions about his origins and what precisely he is will never be answered but I actually don't think that's terribly important. I'll get into why later in this meta, but I'd like to open by stating that I love Tom Bombadil and I think that his inclusion in the Legendarium (specifically in The Lord of the Rings - he is not present in The Hobbit or the Silmarillion) provides the reader with an important lens through which we can view Tolkien's world, the themes of his works, and his ethos as an author.

Before I go further, I will state that the fourth episode of season two of Rings of Power was one of my favorite episodes so far across both seasons. I understand why it might not be for some other people, but I think that it captured one of my favorite characters in a way that I never thought I'd get to see on screen.

Before I go further, the origin of Tom Bombadil, his exact nature, and what he represents is possibly the most disputed portion of the Legendarium. What I've written below is my personal opinion and literary analysis at work, nothing more than that. There are other opinions and I'm not going into them, although I have read many of them. This is my interpretation, which is one among many.

Eldest, that's what I am. Mark my words, my friends: Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn. He made paths before the Big People, and saw the Little People arriving. He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights. When the Elves passed westward, Tom was here already, before the seas were bent. He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless, before the Dark Lord came from Outside.

Our first and only real meeting with Tom Bombadil (aside from the poems in The Adventures of Tom Bombadil) comes near the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring in the chapter 'In the House of Tom Bombadil'. The quoted passage above is, in context, Tom's response to Frodo finally plucking up the courage to ask who he is, this jolly figure whose song terrifies the Barrow-wights into flight.

While the entire passage is interesting, it is the last line that I find truly fascinating: He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless, before the Dark Lord came from Outside.

I believe that this is a clear reference to the arrival of Melkor and the other Ainur in the Silmarillion. This means that it was Eru who created Tom Bombadil - Tom was a product of the First Song. Tom wandered the hills and vales of Arda before anything and anyone else was there. But why?

What is he? Who is he to command such power that when he tells Frodo to simply sing a song to call for him if they are troubled and Frodo does so, the utterance of his very name shatters a wall?

Iarwain Ben-adar, Oldest and Fatherless, the Elves and Dunedain call him. Orald, Ancient, the men of Rohan call him. Forn, Out of the Ancient Days, the Dwarves call him.

(As a side note, the goat in episode four is named Iarwain and it's a lovely reference. Dunno who else caught that, but it's great.)

I think that Tom Bombadil is Arda, the personification of the land. He is the rolling hills, the valleys and dales. He is the waterlands where he makes his home in the Third Age. He is the rolling plains of Rohan, the deep forests of Mirkwood, the high fells of Rhudaur, the distant deserts of Rhun.

He is the utterly unselfish and primordial joy of the natural world being permitted by a benevolent deity to know itself. Fitting then that he is wed to Goldberry, the River Daughter, who is herself the turning of the seasons - the Land wed to the Seasons that shape it.

This is fitting in relation to Letter 19 in The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien where Tolkien confirms that Tom, to him, represented the soul of the countryside that Tolkien saw disappearing all around him in Oxfordshire.

And therein lies the reason that Tom Bombadil is so powerful, why his song so surely masters that which it seeks to master. It also tells us why the One Ring has no effect on Tom Bombadil. Remember:

Indeed, so much did Tom know, and so cunning was his questioning, that Frodo found himself telling him more about Bilbo and his hopes and fears he had told before even to Gandalf. Tom wagged his head up and down, and there was a glint in his eyes when he heard of the Riders. 'Show me the precious Ring!' The said suddenly in the midst of the story: and Frodo, to his own astonishment, drew out the chain from his pocket, and unfastening the Ring handed it at once to Tom. It seemed to grow larger as it lay for a moment on his big brown-skinned hand. Then suddenly he put it to his eye and laughed. For a second the hobbits had a vision, both comical and alarming, of his bright blue eye gleaming through the circle of gold. Then Tom put the Ring round the end of his little finger and held it up to the candlelight. For a moment the hobbits noticed nothing strange about this. Then they gasped. There was no sign of Tom disappearing! Tom laughed again, and then he spun the Ring in the air and it vanished in a flash. Frodo gave a cry - and Tom leaned forward and handed it back to him with a smile.

And shortly after this, Tom can see Frodo when he puts the Ring on as well. Why would a Ring that tempts those who have desires for dominion and power have any effect on a creature that desires neither? Who is not able to desire either?

What do the woodlands desire? The creeks, the dells, the rocky highlands? What power does the river desire that it does not already have? You cannot tempt, manipulate, or deceive that which has no desire to manipulate.

There's another dichotomy at play here too: order and chaos, and they are not as obvious as they may at first seem. Sauron desires perfect order, brought about by the domination of industry. In the context of this dichotomy, our heroes are not different. Men, Elves, Hobbits, these are creatures of order too. This is why Sauron is capable of dominating them, and why he wants to! It feeds into his distaste for Orcs as well. Kings, thanes, mayors, cities, civilization in general, these are the things from which societies are constructed.

Tom Bombadil is chaos. He is a song echoing through the woods. His marriage to Goldberry is attended by the animals of the forest. When he loses his boat, it is retrieved for him by otters (who forget the oars). He bounces from page to page full of nonsensical rhymes, possessing love for nature and all of the creatures that inhabit it. He's the surprise bluster of a storm that ruins your picnic and the gentle glimmer of sunlight that wakes you the morning after.

Tom provides a necessary dichotomy between the beautiful chaos of the natural world and ordered civilization in a story penned by an author who truly loved the former. There is a reason he was left in the story.

Consider what Glorfindel says about him during the Council of Elrond:

'But in any case,' said Glorfindel, 'to send the Ring to him would only postpone the day of evil. He is far away. We could not now take it back to him, unguessed, unmarked by any spy. And even if we could, soon or late the Lord of the Rings would learn of its hiding place and would bend all his power towards it. Could that power be defied by Bombadil alone? I think not. I think that in the end, if all else is conquered, Bombadil will fall, Last as he was First; and then Night will come.'

Again, it is the later lines of this excerpt that are most important to me. Tom will fall if all else is conquered. He will fall last as he was first. I do not think that Sauron's personal might or his armies would be capable of felling Tom. I think what Glorfindel is implying that Tom cannot exist in a world where all else has fallen to order and industry. That is why Tom would fall last: there would be nothing left for him in a world of steel and wheels.

Tom Bombadil is an intentional enigma. If you read the text and think that you have no idea who or what he is and what his meaning in the story is meant to be, Tolkien's response is good, you're not supposed to. Sometimes, things don't need to be ordered and sensical to be beautiful.

Hop along, my little friends, Up the Withywindle. Tom's going on ahead, Candles for to kindle. Down west sinks the sun, Soon you will be croakin'. When the night-shadows fall, Then the door will open.

Out of the window-panes, Light will twinkle yellow. Fear no alder black, Heed no hoary willow. Fear neither root nor bough, Tom goes on before you. Hey now, merry dol, We'll be waiting for you.

[thevalleyisjolly]

I think part of what troubles me about the opinion that Maglor and Maedhros were the “best” people to raise Elrond and Elros is that many (though not all) such interpretations often refer to fanon interpretations as if they were canon.  Which there’s nothing wrong with enjoying fanon!  But when popular fanon starts being treated as a definitive canon and subsequently starts being used as a lens for textual interpretation and engagement (and in some extreme cases, an excuse for bashing other characters), that’s when it gets a little eyebrow-raising. 

So in this post, I’m going to examine some of the more common fanon beliefs and headcanons around Maglor and Maedhros as parental figures/guardians to Elros and Elrond.  The point is not to debunk them and say that you cannot interpret the texts this way or enjoy them as a fan reading.  Indeed, if there was no textual or analytical basis for these headcanons altogether, they would not exist.  Neither is this meant to bash anyone.  Rather, I’d like to show that many of the assumptions we hold are nowhere near as solid or definitive as they sometimes seem to be, and that there is in fact room for a plurality of different headcanons and readings to coexist without elevating one over the other.

1. Maedhros and Maglor were both involved in Elros and Elrond’s upbringing.

As the wealth of Kidnap Fam content demonstrates, this is a very common headcanon.  However, let’s look at what the Silmarillion says.  Bolding is mine for emphasis.

For Maglor took pity upon Elros and Elrond, and he cherished them, and love grew after between them, as little might be thought; but Maglor’s heart was sick and weary with the burden of the dreadful oath. (”Of the Voyage of Eärendil”)

Nowhere is Maedhros mentioned.  He is mentioned in the version of the story included in The Fall of Gondolin, where the passage instead reads:

For Maidros took pity on Elrond, and he cherished him, and love grew after between them, as little might be thought; but Maidros’ heart was sick and weary with the burden of the dreadful oath. (”The Conclusion of the Quenta Nolodrinwa”)

Christopher Tolkien’s commentary directly interjects after this to observe that the passage was rewritten to be the version in the published Silmarillion, which is an interesting distinction to make when the entire version of the story it comes from is very different from the one in the Silmarillion; it is also worth noting that apart from changing which Son of Fëanor it was, Tolkien kept this passage nearly verbatim in the Silmarillion.

Maedhros is also mentioned in the preceding chapter, in Tolkien’s sketch of the mythology, with the line:

Their [Eärendel and Elwing] son Elrond who is part mortal and part elven, a child, was saved however by Maidros. (”The Conclusion of the Sketch of the Mythology”)

So yes, there was once a version of the story in which Maedhros was the one who spared Elrond (Elros did not yet exist, at least not as Elrond’s brother, at this point in Tolkien’s thinking).  This version of the story differs quite significantly from the published version in the Silmarillion; as Christopher Tolkien comments, the Silmarils were of much less significance and had differing fates (Beren and Lúthien’s Silmaril was lost in the Sea after Elwing threw it in, Maglor threw another into a fiery pit, and the third was taken from Morgoth’s crown and launched into the outer darkness by Eärendil).  Also notably, Eärendil does not intercede on behalf of Middle-earth before the Valar.

Of course, being a Tolkien fan pretty much entails picking and choosing which bits of the Legendarium you like.  If you want to take Tolkien’s original thinking that it was Maedhros rather than Maglor who cherished Elrond and Elros, and mix that with the more common version of events in the Silmarillion, go wild.  You can say that the narrator is unreliable, that it makes logical sense for Maedhros to be involved, or that it’s simply more fun to imagine domestic shenanigans with the last two Sons of Fëanor.  But there’s a difference between blending versions of the story as your own personal headcanon, and asserting that headcanon as the one true fanon.

It is also interesting to observe that at no point are both brothers mentioned in relation to Elrond and Elros; it is either Maglor or Maedhros.  The version in The Fall of Gondolin has Maglor sitting by the Sea and singing in regret after the Third Kinslaying while Maidros saves Elrond; in the Silmarillion, it is only Maglor who takes pity on Elrond and Elros.

2. No one else cared about Elros and Elrond; only Maedhros and Maglor did.

Very explicitly in The Silmarillion, “Great was the sorrow of Eärendil and Elwing for the ruin of the havens of Sirion, and the captivity of their sons, and they feared that they would be slain...” (”Of the Voyage of Eärendil”).  But we also read:

Too late the ships of Círdan and Gil-galad the High King came hasting to the aid of the Elves of Sirion; and Elwing was gone, and her sons.  Then such few of that people as did not perish in the assault joined themselves to Gil-galad, and went with him to Balar; and they told that Elros and Elrond were taken captive, but Elwing with the Silmaril upon her breast had cast herself into the sea. (”Of the Voyage of Eärendil”)

Again, bolding is mine for emphasis.

What we see in the Silm version of the story is that 1) when Sirion was attacked, Círdan and Gil-galad raced to help but were too late, 2) a very large percentage of the population of Sirion died in the Kinslaying, and 3) those who survived reported that Elros and Elrond had been taken captive.  That’s it. 

True, there is no mention of any rescue attempts or negotiations, but there also isn’t mention of anything else because at this point, the narrative returns to Eärendil.  Which makes sense, because the voyage of Eärendil is the whole entire point of the chapter, and arguably the climax of the version of the narrative that’s in The Silmarillion.  It’s not “Of the Captivity of Elros and Elrond,” or “Of the Third Kinslaying,” the main focal point of the story is Eärendil sailing to Aman and pleading for all the people of Middle-earth.

There’s also another version of this story in The Fall of Gondolin, where we read:

...but the folk of Sirion perished or fled away, or departed of need to join the people of Maidros, who claimed now the lordship of all the Elves of the Hither Lands. (”The Conclusion of the Quenta Noldorwa”)

In this version, the survivors do not go to Gil-Galad, but either flee or join Maedhros who now claims lordship of all the Elves.  If you go by this story, then there really is very little possibility of a rescue, since 1) Maedhros is now the most powerful lord among the Elves and claims authority over all who are left, where would they even go if they got away, and 2) it would therefore be a betrayal to stand against or attack one’s lord.  It also opens up the possibility that Elrond (this is the version without Elros) had other survivors of Sirion around him while he was a captive, and was therefore not alone.

What all this means though is that we can headcanon whatever we like regarding what happens in Beleriand during this time, but we really don’t have enough information to definitively say what did or did not happen.  And what information we do have in The Silmarillion at least suggests that Círdan and Gil-galad cared about the people of Sirion and tried to help them, and also that the people of Sirion were not in great shape to be mounting any sort of attack on Maedhros and Maglor.

Also, just because someone who survives a horrifically traumatic mass murder which killed nearly everyone they knew does not immediately go out and fight for the well-being of other survivors, it does not therefore mean that they don’t care about them or that they care less than the perpetrators.

3. Maglor raised Elros and Elrond to adulthood.

This is another one of those instances where the absence of evidence does not make a positive.  We don’t actually know for certain how long Elros and Elrond were with Maglor.  In the early letter where Elros and Elrond are found in a cave, it is implied there that they were left there by the sons of Fëanor after they were taken captive, and later found by other, unspecified Elves.  In another version, in The Fall of Gondolin, it reads:

Yet not all would forsake the Outer Lands where they had long suffered and long dwelt; and some lingered many an Age in the West and North, and especially in the western isles.  And among these were Maglor as has been told; and with him Elrond Half-elven, who after went among mortal Men again... (”The Conclusion of the Quenta Nolodrinwa”)

This is also the version of the story where Elros does not exist and it is “from [Elrond] alone the blood of the Firstborn and the seed divine of Valinor have come among Mankind” (”The Conclusion of the Quenta Nolodrinwa”). 

Then there’s also this which Elrond says in Fellowship of the Ring:

Thereupon Elrond paused a while and sighed. ‘I remember well the splendour of their banners,’ he said. ‘It recalled to me the glory of the Elder Days and the hosts of Beleriand, so many great princes and captains were assembled. And yet not so many, nor so fair, as when Thangorodrim was broken, and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was not so.’ (”The Council of Elrond”)

What we see is that Elrond, at least, witnessed the end of the War of Wrath, including the breaking of Thangorodrim.  Then there is this passage from the Silmarillion:

Of the march of the host of the Valar to the north of Middle-earth little is said in any tale; for among them went none of those Elves who had dwelt and suffered in the Hither Lands, and who made the histories of those days that still are known; and tidings of these things they only learned long afterwards from their kinsfolk in Aman. (”Of the Voyage of Eärendil”)

In most versions of the story, the Elves who lived in Beleriand took part in the major conflicts of the War of Wrath.  Men do -“And such few as were left of the three houses of the Elf-friends, Fathers of Men, fought upon the part of the Valar...” (”Of the Voyage of Eärendil”)- but very clearly no Elves.  So Maedhros and Maglor did not participate in or witness the main battles of the War of Wrath, but according to Lord of the Rings (which I would argue holds the “most canonical” status over every other text in the Legendarium) Elrond was there to remember firsthand, if not take part in, major events in the War, suggesting that they were no longer together at that point (which does not preclude Elrond returning to them afterwards, though it would be a very tight timetable with the Fourth Kinslaying).

Returning to the original point, Elros and Elrond could very well have stayed with Maglor until they were grown, even up to and beyond the Choice.  They could equally have left Maglor and Maedhros at any point, or Maglor could have left them with their other kin.  Tolkien changed his mind a lot about the details of the end of the First Age!  There are a good number of different canons, to say nothing of opportunities for different headcanons. 

4. Elros and Elrond turned out to be great people which is all down to Maglor (and Maedhros)’s childrearing (and therefore they were the best possible people to raise them).

Hear the sound of that old familiar bell ringing again?  Absence of evidence one way does not mean that another way is automatically true!  We actually don’t have any information at all about how Maglor brought them up, only that emotionally, there was some element of mutual love in the relationship.  We don’t know for certain how long Elros and Elrond were with Maglor (a few months? a few years? all the way to adulthood?) and we don’t know how or what sort of things Maglor taught them or to what degree they absorbed those lessons.

Yes, Elros and Elrond became great people.  But there is simply too great a gap of information to correlate (either positively or negatively) all their future deeds and character to Maglor (and/or Maedhros)’s upbringing.  Not to mention, people are not only the products of the people who raised them.  So many people influence us on a daily basis, from friends to coworkers to enemies.  While Maglor (and Maedhros) doubtless did have an influence on how E&E grew up and who they became, it seems a little reductive to credit them as the defining factor in Elros and Elrond’s morality or greatness, when both of them (E&E) lived very long lives for their respective fates and met many people and experienced many things.

Narrative Analysis: What’s this about themes?

Textual analysis aside, there’s one other factor which I think is missing in a lot of these discussions, which is genre.  The Legendarium is full of tragedy.  Good people make bad decisions, or suffer (often unjustly) the consequences of another person’s decisions.  People are placed in terrible situations where there is no “good” or “right” decision, where anything they choose has tragic consequences.  Sometimes people make decisions believing that it is justified or for good, only to discover that it was very much the opposite.  Sometimes people know that what they are choosing will hurt them or others, but for one or many reasons, they do it anyways.

The point being that many of the characters Tolkien wrote are purposefully nuanced and tragic.  Yes, there’s a Dark Lord and some very terrifying spiders who are unequivocally evil, but otherwise, nearly every character is some shade of grey.  Characters make decisions with both positive and negative consequences; they exist simultaneously as figures of both heroism and antagonism.  In short, they’re complex!  That’s why they’re so compelling and enjoyable!

So why set up a dichotomy of “So and so is better than so and so”?  Rather than pitting the sons of Fëanor as “the best” in comparison to other characters, why not embrace the complexity of the narrative? 

In order to save the entire world, Eärendil and Elwing had to leave their young children forever.  They could have decided to go back and try to rescue their children, and in doing so they would have also doomed the entire world.  Whatever they chose, someone would suffer for it.  It’s a question that we see explored a lot in fiction but which most of us will never have to confront ourselves: if you were in a position where you had to choose between your loved ones and the fate of the world, which would you choose?

Maglor, a character who has acted almost exclusively as a follower throughout most of the narrative, for once realized the consequences of his actions and, crucially, took active responsibility by caring for and cherishing the children he kidnapped.  It does not absolve him of responsibility for the Kinslayings because children are not tools to redeem the adult figures in their lives, and in any case, it is a fruitless pursuit to attempt to moralize fictional characters existing in a very particular setting and narrative.  However, it is a significant moment in his character arc, especially as we afterwards see him begin to openly contradict and disagree with Maedhros, multiple times within the same chapter after being a relatively silent follower throughout the narrative.  Which makes it all the more tragic later when he slays the guards with Maedhros and steals the Silmarils because we know now that he did not want to, that he might have chosen differently, but ultimately he did not.

Maedhros knew that the kinslayings were wrong and repented of them, and did not attack Sirion for many years.  However, he still did it in the end.  *mumbles in V for Vendetta “I have not come for what you hoped to do, I have come for what you did do”* He did not kill Elrond and Elros, and in some early versions of the story, was indeed the one to save them rather than Maglor.  He also continued to kill in the name of the Oath.  Rather than isolating any one of these things as proof of goodness or badness, all of them work together as part of his tragic figure - a prince, once great, with good intentions, who has fallen to such a point in his life that all he can see around him anymore is death and despair.

(On a side note, Maedhros-Hamlet AU when)

Elros and Elrond were young children who survived a horrifically traumatic event.  They were able to develop some sort of loving relationship with Maglor (or Maedhros), and as adults, they took pride in Eärendil and Elwing as their parents.  Rather than pitting Maglor against Eärendil and Elwing, is it not more important that amidst the apocalyptic horrors of late First Age Beleriand, Elros and Elrond had adult figures in their lives who loved them and cherished them, both before and after the Kinslaying?  Love is not the only important thing in the world, of course, and it is not meant to justify any of the actions taken by the aforementioned adults.  But.  Amidst the tragedy of the broken world they lived in, they were loved. 

Summary: Headcanons are great and can co-exist with each other

Not to belabour the point, but there is really so much we do not know about the end of the First Age.  Tolkien changed and developed his thoughts on his world throughout his life, and even with what he did set down in writing, there are plenty of gaps where we can only guess.  That’s part of what makes the Legendarium so fun to engage with as readers!

With all that in mind, there’s nothing wrong with having a preferred version of the story or a favourite set of headcanons, so long as we acknowledge that they are not the only way to engage with the text.  Furthermore, fiction and fan engagement is not meant to be about the moral high ground.  Especially with the complex characters and world that Tolkien created, you don’t need to put down other characters or narratives in order to justify your preferred reading.  It’s First Age Beleriand!  To modify a parlance from Reddit, Everyone Sucks At Least a Little Bit Here.  Characters can have good intentions with tragic consequences, make bad decisions but have some good come out of it nonetheless, or do things which have both positive and negative impacts.

Eärendil and Elwing do not need to be horrible or unfit parents in order for Maglor and/or Maedhros to genuinely pity and cherish Elros and Elrond.  Those are separate relationships with no correlation.  And none of them need to be perfect parental figures in order for Elros and Elrond to have real loving relationships with all of them.  It’s not a competition for who can “best” raise Elros and Elrond or who loves them “the most.”  You can love Maglor and Maedhros as good parents!  There’s just no need to go putting anyone else down, or to treat it as the one definitive interpretation of the characters and the story.

[thenotificationmachine]

A Rant About the State of My Favourite Stories

I bet you're all wondering by now why I keep ranting about my annoyances over Helluva Boss instead of just talking about something else. First of all, I should definitely start doing that; there's no point dwelling on this painful abortion of a series/setting when I have other things to enjoy.

But secondly, I was so invested in Helluva - and hence so, so disappointed when it began to fail (both in terms of my expectations and its own continuity) - was because it was something NEW when so many of my interests have essentially stopped growing.

That's not to say they're dead - on the contrary, in many cases they're still alive and kicking - but there's no way I'm invested in what new stuff is being produced. I was really into Star Wars until I realised how badly Disney was destroying it with the "sequel" trilogy and all the horrible retcons, but at the very least I still have the movies, the Clone Wars and Rebels cartoons (yes, I actually liked Rebels) and - if absolutely necessary - the old, confusing but still somewhat interesting Legends continuity (aka the old Expanded Universe), even if it's way too messy for my liking.

Warhammer 40k has certainly become weird since the Gathering Storm, but since the staff at GW put out what essentially amounts to a license to ignore the Primaris marines, Votann and any other botched modern lore I dislike by saying that "everything is canon, but not everything is true", even if that wasn't their original intent, I'll happily take it. And then there's the Horus Heresy if things get REALLY bad.

Doctor Who has certainly declined HORRIBLY since Chinballs took over and politicised everything while destroying the Doctor's backstory, but at the very least I can just ignore everything that came out from 2018 onwards.

And as for the Lord of the Rings (and the rest of Tolkien's legendarium), it was always a static work once Tolkien and his son passed away and so any bad adaptations mean even less than they do in any other context since I can just go back to the books (and Peter Jackson's movies, since they're great).

But all the same, I can't look forward to any new things coming out of the above fandoms besides fan works (except Warhammer) and have to rely on the old stuff otherwise. Not exactly the most ideal situation for a fan of something. So Helluva, which was something entirely new, was genuinely exciting with its worldbuilding and captivating characters (especially a certain pink succubus). This made it all the more painful when it began falling apart since there was no extensive mine of past material for me to fall back on and since the story direction and characterisation has (in my opinion) begun falling apart so (relatively) early in, it will always feel... incomplete to me and I can only rely on my own headcanons and fan materials, which don't feel the same as the canon, botched as it is. Combine that with me being tired of losing most of my interest interest in almost all of my former fandoms and the fact that my favourite character, the only one I've truly managed to make a connection with, is a side character that has way more potential than screen time than Viv is willing to give her, feels genuinely heartbreaking to me. Melodramatic, I know, but that's how it feels to me.

Alright, now that I've said my piece, I'll get back to enjoying the remaining fandoms I have and try to stick to Helluva through the fandom side of things. Who knows, I might even try to tell my own versions of the story someday - I doubt I could do as badly as Viv, anyway. And at least I have video games to enjoy; Metroid and Zelda still have expanding storylines that I don't have to ignore!

[diversetolkien]

Hey yal! Below is a submissions I received regarding my Eol and Maeglin post. My responses are indented with the grey line! OPs are not!

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First of all, it is absolutely necessary to draw attention to the things you’re drawing attention to. Whether you are “right” or “wrong,” or whether anyone is “right” or “wrong” is beside the point of the argument in my opinion: these issues simply need to be addressed! We need discussion and different points of view and they all need to be considered and we need them now more than ever. There are clear examples that are sketchy to say the very least: good guys are fair-skinned but the evil men ((, Haradrim) are not; orcs, clearly bad guys, are “swarthy” and “slant-eyed”. However, I do believe your point about Eöl and Maeglin on June 10 are off the mark. I believe you get too carried away by the title “dark” and hang your entire argument up on that. As far as I know, there is no textual evidence that Eöl was a dark-skinned elf at all.

Hello there! Thank you for the message. I do want to emphasize that I’ve been incredibly reluctant to answer this. As of resharing my meta I received a terribly racist message from a user on the website, and will tread cautiously with addressing any messages regarding Eol and Maeglin due to that. I completely agree that we do need discussion, and I’m open for it. This is the only way we can progress. But I won’t tolerate blatant racism.

I’m not accusing you of doing such, but for future references I want to make this clear.

While you believe I may get carried away on the aspect of dark or ‘swarth’, I think it may be important to explain what racial coding is, and also to remind you of Tolkien’s history with coding and with people of color. I talked about coding on my twitter, but in short coding is ascribing real world traits to fictional characters.

This includes attributing the historical and social context to the text to prove a point.

We’ve discussed how Tolkien has borrowed from cultures aside from his own, and with The Silmarillion published in the late 70’s, it’s not impossible to see how influence from America and racial influence there have played a role in his writings.

I also wouldn’t call it being ‘carried away’, when, as we both agree, Tolkien has a history of racism directed at people of color.

And at the same time, I think it’s important to note that while you dismiss the possibility of Tolkien considering Eol dark despite the use of swarth, you ascribe swarth to the orcs and their skin tone in the same breath. I don’t see why it’s impossible for the two to mean the same thing. Not when we do have a racist author who grew up in a very racist society already using dark skin to describe evil characers. Not when Eol’s narrative of the brute mirrors that of the orcs (ie: Celebrian and the Orcs).

And regardless if it is explicit or not, Eol is still coded. Again, we know this because we have canon stories that mirror his completely. This being, again, Celebrian and the Orcs.

We can also accept that Tolkien’s constant use of “dark” to describe evil things, and “light” to describe good things comes from a place of racism. So why is there such push back when we analyze that further?

Tolkien was known to ponder about problems, such as missing words in the Germanic languages. The term asterisk-word is coined by August Schleicher for exactly this purpose: words that should have existed in a (dead) language but aren’t recorded and needed therefore to be reconstructed. For example, Tolkien doesn’t have a recollection of how he came upon the word “hobbit” but to make it fit his Legendarium he made the asterisk-word *holbytlan, supposedly an old English word meaning “hole-builders” because hobbit language was akin to Old English. This word doesn’t exist in old English but could (and maybe should) have. Tolkien also wrote a long argument about a particular difficult passage in the Beowulf-poem which you can read in “Finn and Hengest.” Now normally I would never try to talk straight what’s curved, but Tolkien is a bit of a different case as I hope the above examples show.

The case of Eöl is a trick(s)y problem that stems from the “Prose Edda” written by Snorri Sturluson, an Icelandic poet who lived in the 12th century. This is thoroughly explained by Tom Shippey in his essay “Light-elves, Dark-elves, and Others: Tolkien Elvish Problem”. A quick summary is (but one really ought to read Shippey’s essay to understand it) that there are light-elves, dark-elves, dwarves and black-elves in the “Prose Edda.” Germanic scholars such as Nikolas Grundtvig and Jacob Grimm bent themselves in all kinds of shapes to explain the “error” that Snorri made. Are the black-elves the same as the dark-elves? Are both black-elves and dark-elves dwarves? What about twilight-elves? Tolkien pulls all the different strands of this one problem together and called it Eöl the Dark Elf. He could never have done this in an academic work if he wanted to be taken seriously, so his fiction seemed a great outlet to deal with this. Maybe it was all a private amusement because Tolkien never mentioned it as far as I know.

I personally can’t recall Eöl ever being called dark-skinned. He is considered “black” due to the armour he’s wearing made out of the metal galvorn that he made himself after coming into contact with dwarves (which also ties in masterfully with the whole elf-problem, again, see Shippey’s essay), but it’s not skin colour. Eöl was called the Dark Elf because he lived in a place where the sun never came. It was called Nan Almoth, the valley of the star pool, and he loved the stars, and loved to live in the twilight. The twilight-part is important in the above discussion as well.

I understand you are trying to be informative but please don’t be patronizing. Please do not explain to me what I already know. In the future, I will not be answering messages like this again. This is incredibly rude. You are assuming I don’t know about what I made a meta about, and that’s an insult to what I’ve written.

Please read my blog fully before you attempt to whitesplain something I already know. I understand debate, but there is a clear different between wanting to have a healthy discourse, and flat out patronizing me and treating me like a child.

Back the the point; The same, again, can be applied to the orcs. The orcs wear dark armor, were tortured by a creature who is often described as dark, reside in dark areas—but we know clearly that they are coded off of people given the description of them being swarthy.

The same attribute that’s given to Eol. And again, we have a clear historical context and in-canon context. And we know that Tolkien borrows from American history, and that England itself had a huge role to play in that history.

Finally, the citation from the Book of Lost Tales (BLT) where Maeglin is called swart is problematic to me. I think it’s as much proof against your point as it is in favour of it. Many, many things have changed since the BLT was written and turned into The Silmarillion (I mean Sauron was a giant cat at first!). The BLT version of Maeglin being “swart” is a discarded  version and in The Silmarillion, a way later revision, “his skin was white”. I think it would be wrong to conclude Tolkien discarded the swart skin of Maeglin as he realised it was racist. I think he simply hadn’t figured out the elf problem of the Edda when he wrote the BLT.

I think this is all negated by the fact that Tolkien has canonical characters of color, and that they have been coded. I’m having an incredibly hard time wrapping my head around why that’s accepted, yet when it comes to Eol and Maeglin it isn’t. We can accept that Tolkien has a history of racism with people of color, based on evidence far less than what I’ve provided. Maeglin’s light skin can be attributed to the fact that his mother was light. It’s possible to have a dark parent and be born light.  

And regardless if it was changed or not, it’s incredibly important to discuss it due to the fact that it was racist, and deserves to be brought to light.

I want to stress, again, that I think your work and thoughts are important, no matter if I or anyone else agrees or disagrees. It is of the utmost importance to address issues of racism, genderism and any other kinds of ism that is out there. Discussion is what matters!

[vanimeldes]

can you elaborate a bit what made you divorce from asoiaf/got as you say?

Ooof, so, after the G0T finale, I think my reasons should be obvious, but you also mentioned the books and yes, I lost my interest in books too and I will try to not make this answer too long, but in the same time, to convey all my thoughts on this matter.

*Putting it below cut because.... when I`ll explain the problem of Martin`s fans later, you`ll understand why*

It`s amazing that just a year ago, AS0IAF was my second favourite franchise ever, second only to Tolkien legendarium, but even then, I didn`t love it for the fantasy elements in it, but rather for its characters and some twists and how Martin does forshadowing and writes the dualistic nature of the human being, but...as I read other fantasy series that do these four things AND have fantasy elements, I paused a bit and thought that these series would be just as popular, if they had popular adaptations such as G0T. But I got that AS0IAF was the first that had the opportunity to be adapted and I accepted that. Yet the show highlighted (and in some cases, amplified) some of the very big issues of these books and yes, D&D have many things to be blamed of, but it`s not as if they didn`t have a basis for their fuckery in the books. Martin is just as guilty. So here we go.

1. I am not sure if Martin has ever seen a 13 year old girl, but he writes grown-ass men having fixations and being sexually attracted by Daenerys and Sansa, two prepubescent girl. Martin would call it the gritty realism of the medieval times, but last time I checked, he was writing fantasy, not historical fiction. Fantasy means you can do what you want in your world, so even if you are inspired by the medieval times, it`s still YOUR fictional world and no one will question your research or accuracy if you want to have a female character married when she is at least, say, 18, not FUCKING 13. Not to mention that even in our real world, child brides existed but, guess what, in most the cases, both spouses waited until the wife reached a certain age (16 or older) to consummate their marriage. @eyes-painted-with-kohl explained in the notes of one of my posts and even gave an example or two. I can think of Isabella of France and Edward II. They were married when she was 13 (according to some historical evidence)/16 (according to others). Yes, I know he was homosexual, but he still needed heirs, so they still had children...4 years later, when she was 17/20.  

2. In this same vein, the treatment of his female characters (with the exception of Arya and, maybe Catelyn) is egregious. Daenerys and Sansa are sexualized by the male characters (don`t get me started of the bullshit that is S/ansan, because The Hound is still a murderous man who is aroused by a 12 year-old girl, who invaded her personal space and even pointed a knife to her; do not get me started on book!Jorah, who is a creep). Cersei is paraded naked on the streets and needless to say that during the walk of atonement for an adulterous woman in medieval times, she was never stripped naked; she only had her hair shaved and walked BAREFOOT. That`s it. What Martin did to Cersei is just disgusting. We are shown how Arianne uses sex to have Ser Arys help with her plans and it is implied that Margaery uses sex also. I get that sex is Cersei`s mechanism, but you have two more feminine (this is important) women in power and both of them explicitly use, or are implied to use sex as a mean to gain that power. I get Brienne`s point, her treatment bothers me the least, but it`s annoying from time to time how most of the other characters see only her ”ugliness” and nothing else. Of course, this is the result of the heavy patriarchy in Westeros world that I will discuss in the next paragraph.

3. The heavy patriarchy in Westeros world is nowhere similar to the patriarchy in the medieval times, and that was Martin`s choice and his only. A clear example is what was dubbed the Dead Ladies Club, namely a group of dead female characters whose only purpose was to serve as object of desire for one or more men, to give birth AND to die (gruesomely in some cases). Joanna Lannister is meant only to further fuel the enmity between Tywin and Aerys and Tywin`s hatred towards Tyrion. Elia exists solely to die gruesomely and motivate Doran`s desire for vengeance. Lyanna (the most explored dead lady still exists mainly to give birth to Jon and to be one of the reasons behind a war started by men. Rhaella exists solely to be raped by Aerys and give birth and die. Ashara Dayne exists solely to commit suicide. Ned, a POV character, spends chapters thinking about his father and siblings and never to his mother. Martin had the audacity to say that Tolkien himself didn`t left notes about Aragorn`s mother, but Tolkien had an entire story when Aragorn`s mother and her impact of his life is explored (more than his father, for that matter). The heavy patriarchy serves as reason for the utterly disgusting right of the first night (read Fire & Blood for more). I am not so versed into history as @mydaylightruyi who discussed this, but I too know that in our real world, this practice was a MYTH. But GRRM made it very present in his world because of reasons I guess. 

4. The racism is just rampant and disgusting and even I didn`t notice all the racism until I read @polysorscha `s insights. There`s a to be discussed here, mainly about the portrayal of the Dothraki and how they are reduced to barbaric rapists - interestingly, they are supposedly inspired by Huns, but guess what: the Huns formed a very permisive society, where any religion and culture had its places, where women were very respected and, while cruel  in the European people`s POV, were never....like THIS. 

5. The rape cultures. The Ironborn. Similarly to the Dothraki, their culture is reduced to pillaging and rape. That scene when Euron conquers that castle in the Reach ( I forgot its name) and how he had the daughters of that lord stripped naked and serve his men the meal, and how his men started raping them was....honestly, I wish I could have skipped this chapter. I still read fantasy books written by men more than I read fantasy books written by women, but never in my life did it occur to me to read something like this in a novel that is so hailed for fantasy (?) and realism (???????). I`m not saying that things like that didn`t happen in our cruel history but, again, Martin writes a fictional story. He could choose not to include the rampant violence against women, cultures whose practices are reduced to this utterly gross things, racist and orientalist elements, but he chooses not to. Why? I don`t know. I am not sure I want to know. And Victarion`s POV...oh boy. Or Theon, in ACOK, when he literally rapes that Kyra girl after takes Winterfell. Not only that it`s very disturbing, especially coming from a character that is supposed to be redeemed in some way (yes, I know how he`s been through in ADWD and I also know this is meant to be his redemption arc, but I personally still can`t get over this). And in the same time, while we`re still at the redemption discussion, Theon will surely undergo a redemption of some sorts, Cersei (a female character) will most likely be killed by her lover/brother, who will strangle her to death, most likely while he will embrace her, without a second chance of a droplet of redemption. 

6. I love Tyrion and I love Tywin but in the same time, I acknowledge their misogyny, but Martin chose to write them as misogynists, but in the same time, writing them in such ways that they are inherently labelled as „badass”. He also says that Tyrion is his favourite, but his POV is utterly misogynistic. The reason he kills Shae is because she dared to sleep with his father, but let`s unpack the things a bit: she was a former sex worker with no power, who was forced by the most powerful man in Westeros. She had no choice. She couldn`t refuse him. Yet, for Tyrion, she is ”the lying whore” and that`s it. We are given no chance to try to see the things from her POV (I am not implying that she should have been a POV character, but Martin should have written Tyrion considering for a moment what other choices Shae had). 

7. I discovered that Martin straightly ripped-off many plot points and themes from another series who isn`t half as popular, sadly. 

8. Last, but not the least, the snake pit that is THE FANDOM. You know, as much as I tried to stay away from its toxicity because „it`s just an internet thing, it can`t affect me”, it did affect my online experience in ways that I hadn`t imagined. To sum up, if you don`t like a character or hate another, you are  a pariah. You are dumb because you don`t understand that character or you are a misogynist (because, sadly, this discourse is mostly about the female characters). If you dare to voice up your thoughts about a certain event and/or a certain character and tag your post as #asoiaf or #asoiaf meta (you know, because this is it to me: a meta; plus, I want to have an ordering system in my blog so that whenever I want to look for a certain post in a certain topic or fandom, I would only look into the tag) or #my meta (highlighted „MY” because this is also important, as in it`s MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION), and those thoughts happen to not fit into the general consensus of the „great AS0IAF bloggers” (namely those meta writers with many followers who sound like they already read TWOW and ADOS), you are trashed and called an idiot. Granted, I met enough great people, meta writers included, in this fandom, and it was a real pleasure to chat with them, but I also had bad experiences with others and idk, I thought we were all mature people, but the way they reacted can hardly be described as mature. And in the same point, it`s just funny to see the hardcore Martin stans reacting in front of the clear evidence that Martin isn`t half as original as they thought (see 7) and acting like they are personally attacked.

Ok, it took me an hour. There is a lot more to discussed, but I got bored and I honestly want to shut the door to this fandom forever. To answer another question, yes, I will be reading the last two books  if when they will come out. I invested many months in this series not to finish it. I`ll probably block all the ASOIAF-related tags to avoid any interaction with its fandom during those times.

[tolkienuntangled]

Fact for Fans #3 - Galadriel Untangled: Ambition VS Wisdom

One of the reasons I love the wider Legendarium of Professor Tolkien so much, is that when you scratch the surface, he takes a number of the characters we all know and love from The Lord of the Rings, and he illuminates a whole extra layer of their story and character. And in my opinion one of the best examples of this, is the Lady Galadriel. Now everyone who's read The Lord of the Rings knows who Galadriel is, but it's only after reading The Silmarillion that we truly discover who Galadriel is at her core, and who she was before that. So today's fun fact is going to chronicle the Ages of Arda from the perspective of Galadriel. And hopefully this information will make her character seem even more awesome!

So the first thing to say about Galadriel, which I feel like every single one of you will know, is that she's old. Like very old. Like older than the sun kind of old. And she wasn't even born in Middle Earth. She was born in the Undying Lands that lie west of West. The Land of Valinor. And even from birth, Galadriel was kind of a big deal. Her father was a Prince of the Noldor, her mother was a princess of the Teleri, and her grandmother was a Lady of the Vanyar. So Galadriel can trace her lineage to all three of the clans of High Elves in Valinor. But Galadriel's story truly begins when she develops a close relationship with her uncle. Fëanor.

Now I feel that at the very heart of Galadriel's character, there is an internal duel between her ambition and her wisdom. On the one hand, she's among the wisest beings in the entire Legendarium. The only other people on her level (at least in the Third Age) would be the likes of Gandalf, Círdan, and Elrond. And yet unlike the other bearers of the Elven rings, Galadriel is not defined by her humility. Quite the opposite in fact. For better or for worse, Galadriel is afflicted with ambition. And more than once throughout her story, Galadriel is forced to choose between her conflicting wisdom and her pride.

But anyway, in a group that's all about the Silmarillion, I reckon you'll all know about Galadriel's uncle Fëanor. The arrogant genius who forged the titular Silmarils. And in the beginning, his story is very closely connected to his niece's. You see, Galadriel actually served as a sort of inspiration for Silmarils of Fëanor in the first place. Or at least her hair did. In the Unfinished TalesTolkien tells us that Galadriel's hair was "held a marvel unmatched. It was golden like the hair of her father and of her foremother Indis, but richer and more radiant, for its gold was touched by some memory of the starlike silver of her mother; and the Eldar said that the light of the Two Trees had been snared in her tresses." Now this is particularly special because of course these Two Trees are the source of all light in the world. And this light comes from the gods. So Galadriel's hair is a lot more than just pretty to look at.

Anyway, the first example of Galadriel's internal conflict between wisdom and ambition comes when she begins to discuss the lands of Middle Earth with her uncle Fëanor. Now it's important to remember that Middle Earth is a place that neither Galadriel nor Fëanor had ever seen or set foot upon. They were both born in the Undying Lands. They are natives of paradise. And yet in her youth, Galadriel's ambition blinds her to this reality. You see, at this early point in the tale, both Galadriel and Fëanor seek power above all else. And Galadriel makes the decision that one day, she will leave the Undying Lands and rule a kingdom of her own in Middle Earth.

But, I certainly don't want to imply that Galadriel was ever foolish. She may be ambitious, but her wisdom is ever present. And we can see this in the unravelling of her relationship with Fëanor. So Fëanor's wrath and temper, mixed with his fiery pride, soon becomes too much for Galadriel to bear. And this is where her hair comes back into play. So just before Fëanor forged the Silmarils (the thing he's most famous for doing) he asked Galadriel for a strand of her gold and silver hair. But Galadriel saw darkness in her uncle and she refused him. Three times Fëanor requested a tress of her hair and three times she refused him. Not even a single strand. Now what makes this especially interesting is that if we skip forward in time about 7500 years, we'll come to a familiar scene from the Fellowship of the Ring. And Gimli will also ask Galadriel for a strand of her hair. And what does she do? She gives him three. So make of that what you will.

But anyway without wanting to get too bogged down in details, the darkness of Fëanor eventually erupts into a full blown rebellion, when he leads a small faction of the most radical and prideful Noldor away from the West, in the hopes of going to war in Middle Earth. And every single woman of the Noldor rebukes Fëanor. His wife, his sister, his step-mother, all of them refuse to join him on his outrageous mission. Except for Galadriel. Due to her ambition, she stands alone as the only woman amongst the Eldar to march to war alongside Fëanor. But once again, Galadriel is soon forced to choose between ambition and wisdom.

Because before Fëanor can sail east, he first needs ships. And the only fleet of ships in Valinor belongs to the Teleri - the Sea Elves of Alqualondë. So Fëanor demands that the Teleri give their ships to him, and when they refuse, Fëanor initiates the first ever elf on elf violence. So this is one of the first true turning points for Galadriel. Because although she's loyal to Fëanor, and she desires to sail to Middle Earth as much as he does, Galadriel is not a murderer. She has the option to do evil, but she wholeheartedly refuses. And this is a very good thing, because remember Galadriel's mother is one of these sea-faring Teleri. In this moment, her wisdom far exceeds her ambition. But her ambition doesn't disappear.

So at this point, you would definitely be forgiven for thinking that Galadriel would simply turn away and leave her (psychotic) uncle behind her. But this isn't what happens. Her hands are completely unstained by the murders at Alqualondë, and so unlike her uncle, Galadriel has the choice to repent and turn back. But she doesn't take it. She refuses to beg for pardon. She no longer has any love for her uncle, but her ambition still wins out. She still wants to rule a kingdom in Middle Earth.

So Galadriel sets off with her other (much much better) uncle, and she leaves the Undying Lands behind her. Which is kind of crazy because, again, she didn't have to do this. Her own father begged her to return with him to paradise, but she won't do it. And she journeys away across the frozen sea. Her pride and ambition effectively drive her to banish herself from heaven!

But, it seems that the violence at Alqualondë truly did affect Galadriel, because when she does finally arrive in Middle Earth, she almost immediately passes out of the spotlight. For the rest of the First Age she lies low. She meets and marries Celeborn of Doriath, and for 500 years, she lives a peaceful life there; in the kingdom of someone else. Extra fun fact, it's at this time that Galadriel learns to make Lembas!

Now throughout the following 7000 years, Galadriel's ambition seems to soften, and her wisdom seems to grow. During the Second Age she is given Nenya, the Ring of Water, but she uses it only to preserve and defend that which is good. And despite the fact that Tolkien tells us she was "the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth," Galadriel was not mighty in the way that she and Fëanor had perhaps once intended to be. She was no warrior. She didn't fight in the wars of the Second Age, and she didn't fight much in the Third Age. Despite what the Hobbit movie would have us believe, by the Third Age Galadriel's might is almost entirely founded upon her wisdom.

And this is explicitly demonstrated when she and Celeborn come to live in the Golden Wood of Lothlórien. When Galadriel and Celeborn first arrived there, the realm was ruled by an elf called King Amroth, and Galadriel was simply his guest. But when Amroth died, Galadriel had the perfect opportunity to declare herself the Queen of Lothlórien, and to finally rule a kingdom the way she'd always wanted since she first met Fëanor. But she doesn't do it. She never declares herself Queen of anything. Instead she is simply "the Lady of the Golden Wood." She is its protector but not its monarch. It seems that by the time the Third Age was in its prime, and Galadriel was an ancient being, she had truly learned to place her wisdom over her ambition. That is, until she faced the ultimate test.

So in the year 3019 of the Third Age, this whole internal conflict that's defined Galadriel's character throughout her entire life, suddenly comes full circle when Frodo Baggins arrives in Lothlórien. And as we all know, he brings with him the One Ring. A source of unlimited power. And Frodo offers this power to Galadriel freely. Now in this moment Galadriel is faced with the most important choice of her life. On the one hand she could take the One Ring and claim immeasurable power to rule all of Middle Earth as a "queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth!" Or she could let it go. Ambition versus wisdom.

Now we all know that in this moment Galadriel makes the right choice, and this is the reason for her statement that she "passed the test." Finally, her wisdom overcame her ambition. And so this casts a whole new light on Galadriel's final scene in the Legendarium, only two years later. Right at the end of Return of the King Galadriel stands with the other ring bearers on the deck of the White Ship, and for the first time in millennia, she is able to return West, to sail home, and to end her 7000 year long banishment.

And Galadriel does not return home in shame. She has nothing now to atone for. The misdeeds of her past are utterly redeemed, and she is free to "diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel."

Now when I first read the Lord of the Rings, I knew nothing of the Silmarillion, and so I assumed that Galadriel was just this inherently perfect character. But that's not the case. She's so much more interesting than that. Galadriel isn't great because she was born perfect. She's great because she made mistakes, and she learned from them, and those mistakes are what caused her to grow into what she finally became. "The mightiest and fairest of all the Elves...in Middle Earth."

So, thank you all for reading. Over the course of this year’s lockdown I’ve been working on a series of Tolkien themed YouTube videos called Tolkien Untangled. So far I’ve uploaded 10 episodes explaining the beginning of the Simarillion, the Beginning of Days, and the tale of Fëanor and the Silmarils. I’ve also released four episodes about the differences between the Lord of the Rings books and movies, and I’m currently releasing a weekly series of Tolkien lore videos. So check out Tolkien Untangled on YouTube if you’d like to learn more.

Thanks again everyone. Much love and stay groovy ❤️

[elvellonath]

In Defense of Earendil - Meta

Okay, so I’ve written this rant in response to some things I’ve seen concerning Earendil, and considering I play an Earendil I can’t exactly leave it unspoken. It’s long as fuck, so please know that before you click the read more, but as a long story short I will say this:

Earendil is a complex character who should not be so simply looked at. He’s not a villain, and the fact that everyone seems to have little compassion or consideration for him as a character should be thought over twice. Now to each his own, but do not expect me to sway on this without a well thought out explanation from any haters. Don’t bother if you haven’t looked at Earendil from his point of view.

Before we begin, I would like to say a few words concerning Earendil. I know the fandom is split between two factions: Those who believe that the Feanorians were wrong to adopt Elrond & Elros, and those who believe that Earendil was a shit father to begin with and have no respect for him whatsoever. Both of these, I might add, are completely and totally biased, and are far too one dimensional for me to give any credence to. While I will not disagree that Earendil could have done better, I would like to point out a few things in both arguments that are amiss.

Namely:

Think out side the box

Now, let's start with facts and counterpoint that second statement of Earendil being a shit father.

Earendil's Heritage.

This is a factor that gets so often overlooked when those who have this argument look at Earendil. For starters, he is of the house of Finwe. The house of Finwe was --clearly-- a house of those who were incredibly familycentric. More specifically, the house of Fingolfin is from where he hails, and just by the interactions of all the rest of the family with each other it's clear that no matter what family always came first. Always. That being said, Earendil was raised by Idril, daughter of Turgon, and frankly I doubt Idril would have raised her son to be the prick so many seem to think. Here's further proof of the family itself: Fingon.

Fingon, who when everyone was angry with the Feanorians and wanted nothing to do with them went into enemy territory to save his cousin. Fingon, who was so greatly loved, who had his own faults, but it's clear he was admired etc. You see where I'm going with this? Shall I list all of Earendil's family who by proxy would have affected him with the stories of them, who show the very grain of how Finweians think of family? No? I'll go on then.

Secondly, the house of the Edain-- fucks sake, just look at every single person from these houses from Turin to Haleth --there is a line of loyalty and family honor which is so deeply ingrained in these houses there's no way that Tuor didn't put that same family value in his son in any way, shape, or form.

Proof of this in Earendil himself? Mom and dad sail off, and Earendil builds a ship to find them because it's his parents, and for whatever reason he's trying to get them back. Now this has a drawback: frankly he married a woman who was nowhere near his equal in family ties, probably because her own family was slaughtered when she was a small child. Now Earendil had his faults, I'll give anyone that, spending so much time away from growing children is something that can harm them. HOWEVER, let us consider things from his point of view.

He marries Elwing, he has a wife, his parents sail to the west and NO FURTHER WORD IS HEARD FROM THEM. His family and therefore his upbringing would demand that he has answers, that he makes sure everything is alright, etc, etc. Now, he has kids, kids who he worries about and doesn't abandon, he leaves them with his wife. I repeat: he didn't abandon them. It would be against his very grain. His very upbringing. He left his children with someone he loved and trusted, with someone who he believed would do what was best, and I'm sure he visited in between months at sea.

My own father was in the navy when I was very young, and he was gone for almost a year at a time, I won't lie and say it didn't affect me --it did-- but that didn't mean he was a bad father. There's plenty of people who can say the same I'm sure, who were raised with men who weren't around much. Men who didn't have a choice. But that doesn't mean the father's don't love them, and in turn just because Earendil would sail away and come back, and sail away doesn't mean he didn't love Elrond and Elros. Furthermore, he left Elwing with them, which for all intents and purposes is something that every single military man does with his family. And yet no one blames them.

Here's another aspect that should go into his character and should be understood. Think for a few seconds one specific character that is mentioned by name that Earendil looked up to and loved.

Ecthelion.

Now we don't know much about Ecthelion, but in general it's clear what sort of elf he was. He was the type of elf that was looked up to greatly, the type of elf who was willing to lay down his life for the lives of everyone around him. The type of elf who stood in front of a balrog and died so that others could live.

But moving on.

The Opinion of Others on Earendil

Now this is something which should be noted for all those who condemn him: when Tolkien created Earendil as the first part of his  legendarium. Earendil's mythology was his first written part, and thereby sets the tone for the entire mythology. Entire. Mythology.

Earendil is clearly in high regard in Middle Earth, from Galadriel to the Valar themselves. The Phial of Galadriel is made from the light of the Silmaril which Earendil carried through the sky, he was known as Gil-Estel ...the star of hope. Now tell me this: if Earendil was the ass that he is seen as, just why would anyone give him such high honors? Furthermore, why would Tolkien who clearly knows what a son of a bitch is like (i.e., look at Eol please), make Earendil such a centerpiece of his writing if he was as horrible as people seem to think him?

'The light of Earendil, our most beloved star'

Either Galadriel is supporting a man who was atrocious to his own kids, calls him 'our most beloved star' in complete lies, or he wasn't atrocious to his own kids. Just Saying.

Earendils fate

This is something that boggles my mind so seriously. If Earendil gains anything, it is my compassion. Now to do this, I'm going to need you to open your mind just a fraction and look at things from Earendils perspective. Now, some might say this is conjecture, but I'm looking at the personality of Earendil as given in canon, plus some logic.

Earendil's parents leave, they sail west, and no word of them ever returns. So, he sets out to find them, which is completely reasonable given the ban on the Noldori to return to Aman. He builds a ship, and he sails off, scouring the sea as best as he can in hopes that either he'll find his parents, or if he doesn't at least he'll find some word of what might have happened to them. He leaves his wife and children for months at a time, though comes back because he loves and misses them (because he would, people), though he's driven to have this one last loose thread closed.

He sails off one time, and he is completely cut off from the mainland, and the next thing he knows a swan lands on his ship, and the next morning this swan turns into his wife. Naturally he asks what happened, and naturally she answers him with her side of the tale of what happened in Sirion. Given his drive over his parents disappearance, I doubt he'd take a "oh I left when the feanorians (who were provoked by Elwing, don't forget) were going to kill me"

"What happened to our sons?" he probably asks, as would be normal. And here is where it's questionable just what the answer was, but based on his reaction I think we can probably guess that somehow he got an idea that their sons were no longer alive for him to rescue. Why do I say this? because he immediately sets sail for Valinor, not caring for the ban, and intending to plead to the Valar to intervene because this is getting out of hand.

Is this the reaction of a father who doesn't give a shit about his kids and abandoned them? No. this is the reaction of a father who is so grieved by what he probably believes is the death of his kids, that it gives him a mission, it gives him a purpose beyond his parents, and whether or not he'll succeed he's gonna die trying. He sails west, and he begs the Valar to intervene, and they do.

Things happen, yadda yadda, war of wrath etc. The Valar then give Earendil a choice: immortality or mortality. Earendil wanted mortality, which would mean he'd be sent back to middle earth. Elwing wished for immortality, and due to his love of her he chose immortality himself.

And here is where I wonder how the fuck nobody has any compassion for him.

What happened to Earendil? Was his ending a happily ever after? Hell. No. Earendil was given a fate that in many ways sucks. Think about it. His immortal life is spent alone, sailing the sky with the silmaril which he's given custody over, he gets to look down on everything that happens, and who knows how he responded when when he first found out his kids were alive. He gives hope to others, but has anyone ever considered what it must be like for him? He sails the skies, a hero to so many-- but to quote The Song of Achilles 'give me one hero who was happy'.

Then consider thousands of years pass, his one son is forever parted from him because he chose mortality, his other son eventually sails to Valinor, imagine all that time that they had lost that now must be caught up on. Like he should incite your compassion, people, not your contempt.

The Feanorians

Something that frustrates me is the idea that to support Earendil must mean that one cannot like Maedhros and Maglor for what they did. This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I adore what the Feanorians did for Elrond and Elros, the adopting of the twins when I read it actually helped me to fall in love with them so much. It was beautiful how admidst this blood and terror there was a moment that they took, and they did some good. The fact that Elrond is the way he is in later installments because of them is beautiful.

In addition, the Feanorians had the same family oriented thinking that Earendil might have had people. Just something of note.

But to villainize either the Feanorians OR Earendil as if to say one had to be wrong because the other was right is absolutely absurd. Tolkien didn't do it, so why does anyone else? There's a complex situation here, people, there's a situation that should be thought of from all sides. Earendil is no villain. The Feanorians are not villains. They all played their parts, and when their part was over it was passed to someone else.

Conclusion:

Do not look at Earendil so simple minded, or we will have issues. He is as complex of a character as any other character in Silmarillion, and should be treated with the same respect anyone might give Sauron, or Finwe, or Feanor, or Fingolfin etc. etc. etc. 

Therefore, think. Just think. Take yourself out of your shoes and put yourself in his for a moment. If you can't do that, then I'm sorry, I don't know what else to say to you. Hate is an immature response, and born from not taking in enough facts. That’s all I have to say on it.

[elfwines]

At times you come across people in Tolkien fandom who seem to think Éowyn's ending, her becoming the Princess of Ithilien and marrying Faramir, is somehow not a good conclusion to her story. To tell you the truth I often I get the feeling it's because people are projecting what they want her to be instead of observing what her motivations actually are and what is her storyline. In good part, her marrying Faramir and moving to live in Ithilien being somehow a lacking ending seems to stem from this idea that's prevalent in a lot of fiction that you can only be strong and badass and worthwhile if you're this mighty soldier type who slays left and right. In this point of view, being - or becoming - soft and kind and committing yourself to healing doesn't bring much glory, and thus it must be a bad ending especially for a woman. I guess it's inevitable in this age when films and tv seem to be striving to create the ultimate epic scene with maximum drama and huge explosions all around.

Which is really against what Tolkien is about. In the core of his story, what his heroes are fighting for, is the celebration of the simple and quiet life. Yes, Tolkien describes some massive battles, but they are not the endgame (Frodo and Sam are), and they are not what the story really is about. Tolkien's heroes are not heroes because they strive for glory - they achieve greatness because they do what they must, sometimes even at a great personal cost. Éowyn doesn't become a hero because she rode to the Pelennor fields - she's a hero because she tries to protect her beloved uncle against an overwhelming enemy. Another notable instance of Tolkien’s described heroism are those four little hobbits coming to save the world not because they are great and powerful, but because they are trying to save their Shire and their seemingly small way of life.

And why does Éowyn go to the battlefield before the walls of Minas Tirith? It's because she's so full of despair, because she feels caged in her life, and because she thirsts for the idea of glory in battle (which makes sense, considering Rohirrim are a warrior people). It’s also the idea of glory that she loves in Aragorn. But though she wins the greatest renown in the Battle of Pelennor fields when she slays the Witch-king, she doesn’t feel any less empty when she wakes up in the Houses of Healing. War doesn't end her unhappiness, and how could it, anyway? Only when she starts to seek peace and a life of healing does she find a way out of her despair. And that is a beautiful thing in itself. The ending of Sauron doesn't mean that she spends rest of her days in idleness. It's told Ithilien has long been neglected and parts of it are stained by Sauron and his servants. But together with Faramir, Éowyn settles down there and wishes to become a healer in a land that needs just that: healing. And who can understand it better than her? She went into darkness but came back and was healed. As such, Éowyn has an unique perspective to mending what has been broken by and in war.

I think a lot of people who live now don't really understand where Éowyn comes from and what her change of heart signifies -- what it means that she desires to put aside the sword and tend to living things. Tolkien was a veteran of the First World War and he had seen what war could be. He saw the other side of the idea of battle glory. But in later years he took pleasure in nature and simple joys of life, be it a pipe or a pint of good beer. He even stated he's a hobbit in all but size. In my opinion, this is very telling if you consider Éowyn's character.

And this is also where, I think, one of the things Lord of the Rings draws its beauty and its bittersweet spirit. It is also another way in which Tolkien's legendarium is unique not just in fantasy genre. This is a story that, in the end, celebrates the value of peace and good, simple things in life, but at the same time it shows just how fragile they are and how easily they can be lost. Tolkien had witnessed this intimately, both in his personal life and in a larger scale. In fact, if you consider Éowyn's character arc as a whole you might argue she gets one of the happiest endings in the entire story. Éowyn begins as this dissatisfied, shut-in-herself, trapped person whose despair grows so bad that it becomes a deathwish. However, after her ordeals she gets to heal, to leave behind her despair and darkness. She learns to understand herself and her feelings, and she rediscovers the joy of living. She doesn't need glory any more to validate herself. She goes to live in a beautiful, rich land where she can work to make it better not just for herself but others, too. She gets to love a wonderful man who returns her feelings, and she is given a chance to be a part of rebuilding the world. How this can be considered a "poor ending" for her, I will never know.

Éowyn deserves happiness, and that is exactly what Tolkien gives her, never mind people who think a woman's story can't be valid and good if she marries a man and settles down to live a life of peace.

[lindeaewen-a]

Posting my rules here as a mobile friendly version for mobile users before I mess about with the code.

Note: Please don’t be discouraged by anything in my rules that sounds harsh or mean. To be able to have a positive experience writing together, both parties should be assertive about what does and doesn’t make them comfortable and happy. These rules are subject to change as I feel the need to update them.

A Quick Warning

This, as well as all of my other roleplay blogs, is canon divergent, unintentionally in some places, but mostly by my own design. None of the characters I am currently writing are entirely straight. This is just because of my own opinions on the legendarium, especially pertaining to Elven culture. If you aren’t comfortable interacting with characters that are or have been in same-sex relationships, I don’t recommend following this blog. 

OOC

Don’t hesitate to IM me if you need/want to talk about anything, whether it pertains to our threads or not. I find that the best written relationships that my muses have are the one with muns who don’t mind talking about them OOC, because that generally leads to countless hours of plotting, speculating, and headcanoning events that fill in the gaps between our threads.

Memes and Starters

All memes reblogged can be found in this tag, and all open starters are here. Don’t hesitate to send one if you’d like to write with me; I’ve found that this is the best way to get going writing with someone. Also, if you’d like to do a thread, I prefer to plot things out OOC beforehand. 

No Godmodding, Metagaming, etc.

Please refrain from godmodding (controlling my character through your writing) or metagaming (assuming that your character knows everything about mine) when we are writing together. Lindir is light in weight and doesn’t have particularly developed self-defense skills, so picking him up and things like that aren’t an issue as long as you are writing the actions of your character, and not the actions of mine. 

Verses

I’m always open to crossovers, group verses, and the like. Generally, crossovers with other fandoms work out well in my modern verse(s). I do prefer to have basic familiarity of crossover fandoms, however, and currently the list of fandoms other than Tolkien I am comfortable with are limited to Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts, DCTV (The Flash, Arrow, and Supergirl only), and possibly some Marvel and Doctor Who (modern verse interactions work best for this). Exclusive verses are also available for mutuals. Verses page is coming soon.

Selectivity

This is a semi-private (that is, I don’t write with everyone but I am open to roleplaying with new people) blog. See this post for more details and reasoning on this on this policy.

Formatting and Icons

I tend not to format past the most basic things for neatness using X-Kit, although you may see an icon every now and again (all of which I make myself). If you need me to format in a particular way (for our threads only) don’t hesitate to ask. I am fine with any formatting, but if you are going to use icons, please make sure that the largest dimension is no larger than 200px. If your primary face claim is an animated character, I ask that you provide a real person as an alternative if we are writing together. To be able to write well, I need to be able to visualise the scenes, and my brain just can’t do this with animated characters.

Triggers and Tagging

There is some potentially triggering content on this blog, and I try to catch all of the things I can think of. If there’s something you need tagged, please let me know. For now the triggers that have come up in threads and are/will be tagged are as follows: panic tw, panic attack tw, death tw, abuse tw, child abuse tw, past abuse tw, blood tw, torture tw.

NSFW

There will be some sexual/nudity NSFW on this blog, which I try my absolute best to tag. (If I forget to tag something or reblog something that I don’t think is necessarily sexual but you would like tagged, send me an ask or an IM; it isn’t an issue.) I don’t write smut here, but there are some threads that involve scenes leading up to sex. For this reason, I ask that you don’t follow me if you’re under the age of thirteen, because the thought of someone that young reading my NSFW disturbs me and you shouldn’t be on tumblr anyways.

About Pages

Firstly, please read mine - my Lindir is heavily headcanon based. Secondly, regardless of whether you are an OC or canon, I do prefer that you have clear rules and an about page for your muse(s) so that I am able to get a feel for your version of them before writing. I’m unlikely to follow or write with you if there is no easily accessed information about your characters on your blog. I am very selective about fandomless OCs, multi-muses with characters from multiple fandoms, and crossover interactions that I don’t already have verses for.

Shipping

First, the usual about ship forcing. Please don’t assume that we are shipping unless we’ve explicitly talked about it OOC. Unrequited feelings are fine. Shipping guides for each of my muses are coming soon. We must be comfortable talking to each other OOC to ship together; this is essential in building something realistic and meaningful. Lindir is bisexual in the canon verse, but he’s much more likely to engage in friends-with-benefits type relationships than in romantic relationships. In most third age verses, Lindir has or has had some sort of (usually quite intense) feelings for Elrond at some point, which is something to bear in mind. In the modern verse, Lindir is gay and because I usually play him at around 30 years old, he’s secure about his identity as a gay man, and therefore I will only ship modern Lindir with male-identifying characters.

Replies

How long it takes me to reply to something varies based on several factors. It could be anything from twenty minutes to three weeks. I tend to reply in order of what I’m most excited about and what is easiest to write in response to in that moment. If you’re wondering about the state of your reply, please IM me and ask directly, but please don’t constantly pester me for it. This makes me hesitant to reply to anything and really ruins writing for me. Do be aware of the fact that 

Things I Won’t Do

Reblog Karma: generally I try to send things in before reblogging memes if at all possible, and also send things to people who reblog memes from me if I can, but I don’t expect the same from anyone, and I will never enforce reblog karma or allow anyone to force it onto me.

Certain characters: OC children of Elrond and/or Celebrian are a no, especially the secret/neglected ones; Other OC siblings or children of characters that have established canon families (for example, we know who all of Feanor’s children were); characters created with the intent of shipping with a certain canon character that I play (e.g. OC wives of Glorfindel); most wives of Thranduil/mothers of Legolas; and most cisswapped/genderbent characters other than Ainur. 

Comply with LaCE: I choose to reject most parts of LaCE. I will still write with LaCE compliant blogs because it’s rarely an issue unless our characters are married, courting, or having sex. I do not believe Elves are immune to desire, and any references about Men being lesser because of their lust will be lost on all of my characters. I do think that different groups of Elves have different attitudes towards sex, marriage, and general affection, though, and this may come across in my writing.

Mpreg: Unless your character is a trans man, or there is some sort of magic or advanced technology involved that provides another reason for a male character to have the physical means to conceive and birth a child realistically within the boundaries of their universe, I am not interested in writing about male pregnancy. I also am unlikely to ever write in any A/B/O verses.

Incest: this is a difficult one because of all of the incest in the source material (i.e. Elrond is the fourth cousin of his own grandchildren; Aragorn and Arwen are first cousins a bunch of times removed), so it’s a case by case basis for the most part. Since my version of Lindir is only related to my portrayal of his brother on nerevoite and to other NPCs on this blog, it’s unlikely that I’ll ever have to worry about accidentally writing an incestuous relationship for him.

Sexualization of children: Firstly, I will not write with, follow, or talk OOC with anyone who writes pedophilic relationships; has a character or themselves have pedophillic thoughts, desires or tendencies; or who condones pedophilia in any other way. In terms of older children, even though I do understand that many young teenagers do have sexual desires, please refrain from describing graphic sex that involves anyone under the age of 16 or sex that involves an adult and a minor.