#morgoth corrupted the earth by putting a lot of “himself” in it

[hailturinturambar]

There's something I always think about a lot. And it's the similarity between Morgoth's crown and Sauron's helmet/crown.

In TROP, I would say that this similarity is even greater. When we have the shadow of Morgoth and his crown appearing in his shadow. When we put the two scenes side by side (Morgoth and his shadow and Sauron and his army) this detail becomes even more notable.

I enjoy creating theories and filling in the gaps left unfortunately because Tolkien could never publish all of his works, I wonder why Sauron chose a model similar to his master.

Did Sauron wish to be a copy of his master? Let's remember that he calls himself Morgoth reborn in the books. Or did he want the beings of Middle-earth to respect him and notice the similarity between the Dark Lords?

Did Sauron want them to be similar to please Morgoth and feel connected to him? I don't know, we'll never know what Tolkien thought. But I can't help but think about this similarity. Often, creating an object similar to a previous one refers to a sentimental or symbolic value.

Sometimes, late at night, I imagine Sauron alone in Angband, despairing. Unsure of the loss of his master and fearful that the others won't follow him. I think of Sauron in the forge, alone working on his helmet, thinking over every detail of Morgoth's crown that he can remember.

These beautiful arts by @feyhatesapplepie, represent well my thoughts on Sauron's loneliness and search for approval forged in desperation for similarities with Morgoth. These thoughts dominate my mind.

Do all good things die when a spirit becomes corrupt? Perhaps. Unfortunately, I am not like Tolkien, I do not see in black and white, my vision is fooled by gray.

Not even I, who always try to be skeptical in my analyses of Sauron and Morgoth, can't help but wonder another side at times. When Morgoth was still Melkor, created by Eru. And when Sauron was Mairon, a Maia in Valinor.

Well, I leave Elrond's words with you to reflect on as you read the analysis.

“And that is another reason why the Ring should be destroyed: as long as it is in the world it will be a danger even to the Wise. For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

(I can imagine Sauron in Barad-dûr laughing, because I would be one more in Middle-earth deceived by his guile and deceitful lies.)

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

Sorry if this seems like a random question, but what's your take on Sauron's alleged repentance during the First Age after Morgoth's fall? Do you think it was genuine?

don't apologize anon! i might not talk about sauron as much as i do other characters but i am happy to talk about him. actually i'm glad you sent me this ask because i've been meaning to make a post like this, and you just gave me the perfect excuse <3

i first want to say that i am not a sauron "expert", so to speak. i have read only snippets of the supplementary material on him, and while i love him, he and the periods he's most active in are not my main focus when engaging with the verse. that said, i think his repentance was more genuine than he's given credit for. which is still not very genuine -- but i don't think it was wholly predicated on only his fear of the consequences of his actions and nothing more, which from my experience is... a common enough take, i guess i should call it?

we get this passage in the silm:

When Thangorodrim was broken and Morgoth overthrown, Sauron put on his fair hue again and did obeisance to Eönwë, the herald of Manwë, and abjured all his evil deeds. And some hold that this was not at first falsely done, but that Sauron in truth repented, if only out of fear, being dismayed by the fall of Morgoth and the great wrath of the Lords of the West. But it was not within the power of Eönwë to pardon those of his own order, and he commanded Sauron to return to Aman and there receive the judgement of Manwë. Then Sauron was ashamed, and he was unwilling to return in humiliation and to receive from the Valar a sentence, it might be, of long servitude in proof of his good faith; for under Morgoth his power had been great. Therefore when Eönwë departed he hid himself in Middle-earth; and he fell back into evil, for the bonds that Morgoth had laid upon him were very strong.

and then in letter 131, tolkien writes:

[Sauron] repents in fear when the First Enemy is utterly defeated, but in the end does not do as was commanded, return to the judgement of the gods. He lingers in Middle-earth. Very slowly, beginning with fair motives: the reorganising and rehabilitation of the ruin of Middle-earth, ‘neglected by the gods’, he becomes a reincarnation of Evil, and a thing lusting for Complete Power – and so consumed ever more fiercely with hate (especially of gods and Elves). Sauron was of course not 'evil' in origin. He was a 'spirit' corrupted by the Prime Dark Lord (the Prime sub-creative Rebel) Morgoth. He was given an opportunity of repentance, when Morgoth was overcome, but could not face the humiliation of recantation, and suing for pardon; and so his temporary turn to good and 'benevolence' ended in a greater relapse, until he became the main representative of Evil of later ages.

lots of interesting things going on here. first of all, sauron does repent, but tolkien head-on asserts that he does so out of fear. and, crucially, despite perhaps feeling bad for his actions, he is too proud to return to valinor and receive a sentence; he is too proud to cast himself into the mercy of someone else. which is one of the most important parts of genuine repentance imo -- the "i was wrong, i'm sorry, and i'm willing and prepared to receive your sentence for me." so in that vein, sauron's repentance isn't sincere. it most certainly isn't the kind of wholehearted remorse that would strongly motivate him to work on becoming a better person.

however, it is also explicitly stated in the letter that he did have some good intentions when he stayed in middle earth. he does have a "temporary turn to good and 'benevolence'", and judging from the phrasing "reorganising and rehabilitation of the ruin of middle-earth," my conclusion is that he seems to have thought that the place was a mess and he could fix it up, which is in line with what we know about his personality. in other words, at this point he genuinely wanted to make the world better. that, to me, demonstrates that while he doesn't go all the way in his repentance, he does have some qualms about his previous actions. now whether these qualms are moral -- i.e. he hurt a lot of people, he feels bad and he's going to stop -- or practical -- i.e. this did not give him the results he wanted, he's quitting -- i'll get into a bit later. for now suffice to repeat that i believe his renouncement of his actions in front of eonwe is not only out of fear and nothing else. he's not thinking "i stand by everything i did, but i don't want to get in more trouble so i'll act sorry," he's thinking "okay, i recognize that what i've been doing up until now was a poor way of going about things."

so. imo sauron at this point between the first and second ages was caught in an in-between of sorts of: while he's not willing to bear himself to another person's judgment, he does see that morgoth's actions were harmful and not as in-line with what he wanted as he thought they would be. and i do think, once having realized that, sauron casts off morgoth completely. hereafter he no longer considers himself to be in his service. off the top of my head, sauron's invocation of morgoth when establishing the cult of melkor during his tenure in numenor was explicitly done out of pragmatism, not out of any continued reverence and fealty to the man. regarding it, tolkien says this:

His cunning motive is probably best expressed thus. To wean one of the God-fearing from their allegiances it is best to propound another unseen object of allegiance and another hope of benefits; propound to him a Lord who will sanction what he desires and not forbid it. Sauron, apparently a defeated rival for world-power, now a mere hostage, can hardly propound himself; but as the former servant and disciple of Melkor, the worship of Melkor will raise him from hostage to high priest.

in other words, sauron founded a cult to melkor of all people specifically to elevate his own status in the eyes of the numenoreans as melkor's right hand during the first age, wherein melkor tenured as the ruling dark lord. he does not do it because he still reveres morgoth and wants people to worship him. granted, those things aren't mutually exclusive, but with the way tolkien phrases sauron's intentions here, as a "cunning motive," i'm inclined to think his aim to elevate himself in the eyes of the numenoreans was far and away his driving motivation.

this separation from his former position as morgoth's servant is why i say i think his recantation at the end of the first age was genuine, but it was always more practical than moral in terms of motivations. he does renounce his past actions as morgoth's servant, and he does so with sincerity -- but this is not because he repents them in the purest sense, but rather because he's determined that morgoth's mode of operation was incompatible with his own aims of efficiency and organization. and these aims, mind you, are the very reason he followed morgoth in the first place:

[Sauron] still had the relics of positive purposes, that descended from the good of the nature in which he began: it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and coordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction. (It was the apparent will and power of Melkor to effect his designs quickly and masterfully that had first attracted Sauron to him.)

sauron was attracted to morgoth because he perceived how morgoth's power enabled him to enforce the "order and coordination" that he loved, and eliminate the "confusion and wasteful friction" that he disliked. but morgoth by the end of the first age is in what tolkien described as a "stage of nihilistic madness" -- he hates the existence of the world itself and wants to destroy it. that is not what sauron initially and for much of his story wants; in fact it's quite incompatible with what sauron initially and for much of his story wants. and i think after seeing morgoth's second defeat, sauron becomes fully cognizant of just how contradictory to his goals following morgoth was, and that's the crux that drives his repentance. so there's more to it than just fear of what the armies of valinor will do to him if he acts otherwise, but it's not true remorse or regret. he does genuinely repent his servitude to morgoth, but only because he believes it ultimately hindered his own ends.

also, if you'll let me go on a tanget here, anon -- referring to the quote from letter 131, i find it fascinating that tolkien puts emphasis on sauron's greater wickedness after his failed chance at repentance. initially sauron serves morgoth and in doing so is deemed less evil than him, if only for the sole reason that he is in service to somebody else and not himself. the statement with "his temporary turn to good and 'benevolence' ended in a greater relapse, until he became the main representative of Evil of later ages" is that he becomes worse. he becomes even more evil than he was previously under morgoth, because he's taken on the attitude that morgoth had when he rebelled against eru: the attitude "i know best, and i can do whatever i want with the world, because the world would be at its greatest under me." and at that point he's no longer subservient to morgoth; whatever he's doing, he's doing it now for himself and himself only. this is another thing that makes me believe that sauron after the first age ceases to consider himself morgoth's servant, ceases to consider morgoth his lord, and instead considers himself an ultimate authority unto himself, the same way morgoth was before his defeat and banishment to the void. tolkien believed that one of the worst things you can do is impose your will on other people because you believe that your vision, your direction, your knowledge, your worth, is superior to everyone else's. in doing precisely that, sauron becomes an ultimate evil in his own right, not an instrument of morgoth's. which again goes back to my perspective on his split with morgoth and how it informs the sincerity of his repentance.

tldr: sauron's repentance was far from genuine, but not entirely insincere either. he has a redemption arc imo, but it's a failed one. which i think is unique! it's probably one of the most engaging things about his character to me

[marta-bee]

Rachel Maddow's recent piece on J.D. Vance reminded me of an intersting fact about him. I don't really buy her analysis for why Trump chose Vance for V.P., but I also don't want to do a deep dive into that. Rather, let's talk about the Tolkien element.

See, among other things Vance was a venture capitalist who was groomed by Peter Thiel, the ultra-rightwing even bigger venture capitalist investor who among other things provided some early funding for Facebook. His views on freedom and the common good aren't so far from Elon Musk's. He's also owned or invested in companies like Palantir, Anduril, and Mithril; Vance himself is part-owner in another investment firm, Narya.

Apparently the Tolkien schtick is a bit of a thing with the far right.

I'm not surprised; I've certainly heard of a certain kind of fan who ties Tolkien's good guys to a kind of northern-European heroic past. And I'm not blind to where that reading comes from, if you plot Middle-earth on a map you can draw some pretty racist one-to-one connections. Shire=Englad, Rohan=old Germanic highlands, Gondor=.... Italy I guess? or Greece? some sort of Mediterranean high-classic society? And the less said about Harad, Easterlings, Druedain and Orcs in this analogy, the better, obviously.

I do wish these tech-bros cosplaying as heroic white-saviors would read a bit of the Silmarillion. (When is that not the case?) Or even The Hobbit, because the idea that evil folk are centered in what we might think of as Arda-Africa and Arda-Near Asia just doesn't hold up. Smaug attacked Erebor from the North. Angmar, as in Witch King of? Also from the far North. Similarly for Angband, Morgoth's fortress in the First Age. And without looking it up, I'm pretty sure Ungoliant -- you know, the devourer of light, the giant spider allied with Morgoth when he destroyed the Two Trees -- was from the wastes to the far north of Valinor. So much for a fantasy of Nordic white power resisting the corruption of the hordes.

Which isn't to say Tolkien didn't have his problems with race, he clearly did. But this idea that the heroes of the Free Peoples of the West were all from fantasy-northern Europe is so very simplistic, it makes my teeth hurt. The closest I can get to this read of Tolkien is that all Middle-earth was meant to be northwest Europe, but that would include the free folk and the baddies alike. Minas Morgul is right there across the river from Minas Tirith. Ditto Dol Guldur and Thranduil's halls. Ditto again for Rohan and Isengard. The map just doesn't line up the way these idiots need it to, to make this fantasy work.

(Never mind anyone trying to put Tolkien on the side of historic-Nazism is just cuckoo bananas. Do I really need to dig out Jirt's admittedly hilarious response to his German publisher demanding he certify if he was of Aryan blood?)

But as fun as it is to bop the far right on the nose again and again, I think this focusing on literal racism misses the bigger point. I think a lot of the far-right drawn to Tolkien and other similar fantasy writers see the wolrd in rather apocalyptic terms: an existential threat to their civilization and everything they consider noble, a need for a hero to stand up against this age's Sauron. War must be, etc., etc.; and the stakes are so high, any niggling concerns we have about the proper way to obtain and exercise power must be overlooked. Our noble leader is the only one who can protect us against the encroaching darkness, and anyone who would stand against him might as well be an agent of Mordor.

The thing is, that doesn't sound like Gandalf, or Aragorn, or Frodo. If anything it reminds one of Denethor, who "saw in all the deeds of that time only a single combat between the lord of the White Tower and the Lord of Barad-dur; and mistrusted all others who resisted Sauron, unless they served himself alone."

Assume the Right is correct that we're facing an apocalyptic struggle against... entitled socialism-enabled laziness, or moral relativism, or multiculturalism, or wokeness, or whatever exactly it is. That people aren't doing noble and worthwhile things, they aren't working hard to build something that's worth preserving, that we are slipping into laziness and hedonism and whatever else and we're certainly not embracing virtue. If that was true, it's something I'd like to fight against. But the point of the far right, of Vance and Trump and all the rest, is it takes a singular hero to fight that fight for us. That we need to be marshalled and gathered under a single banner and commanded by a single voice.

There's no room for Smeagol to find the ring in the marshes of a certain riverbank, or for Bilbo's riddle-games, or for a decent Baggins of the Shire to stand up and say: I will take the Ring to Mordor, though I do not know the way. There's no room for chance meetings, or chance in any form; or for grace, or eucatastrophe, snatching joy from the jaws of despair.

And the thing is, Denethor was wrong. Not just because it wouldn't have worked, but his narrow vision came down to "mere politics," doing what must be done rather than what was truly right. That's kind of central to the narrative. It hurts me deeply to say that, because I'm usually so keen in my defense of him, and I truly do believe he's one of the most unfairly maligned characters in LOTR. But it's also true that the War and the necessity of Gondor's survival, the palantir and even his pride has really twisted his character, and he's just not capable of coming back from that. Gondor wouldn't have survived without him, I don't think, but precisely becuase of the way he had to shape himself to make that survival possible, there's very little place for him in the Gondor-to-Come. Moses didn't make it to the Promised Land, either.

J.D. Vance is no Moses, or even a Denethor. He's certainly not an Aragorn. And as for Frodo, if Vance would even deign to see himself as one of the Little Folk? Fuggedaboutit.

I'm rambling. This is my barely-edited, first-flush response to how wrong the idea that Tolkien's legendarium could be telling the same story as Vance & Co. I mean, I get it, I do, but also they're so very very wrong. The fact the wrongness is so blindingly obvious should probably tell us all something.

I would pay good money, though, to see him try to defend Elrond's letting Isildur walk away with the One Ring. Colbert should really get on that.

[tolkiendefiled]

Season 2 Episode 1

Well, the Rings of Power is back, and it’s still the worst hate-fiction ever.

I’ve got to admit: it was hard to watch the first episode because I can’t see anything when I’m constantly rolling my eyes. The narrative decisions made in this episode are mind boggling. The show continues to change the story in ways that make the events of the Lord of the Rings either impossible or nonsensical. Everyone but Elrond acts completely out of character compared to their book counterparts, and they also do things that, in context to the show’s story, are so unbelievably stupid that you’d be hard pressed to call the Elves the wisest of all beings.

I want you to understand that the showrunners and writers had two years to fix the problems they caused in the first season. Not all of the problems could be fixed because many of them were part of the show’s half-ass plot. However, the writing problems, the dialogue, the pacing and the new narrative choices could have been fixed - but they weren’t. This is more of the same from the terrible dialogue to the inexplicable plot points, to the incessant copying of the Lord of the Rings story structure and Peter Jackson’s films.

Ironically, the least bad thing in the episode is the thing that will probably catch the most flak - their introduction of the good man Sauron and the scoundrel Elves and Men. The show opens with the crowning of Sauron at the beginning of the Second Age. He tells the Orcs of his plan to unite all the races into one and claims that, when he and the Orcs have achieved domination over the other races, the Orcs will no longer be feared and hated but worshiped as saviors.

Now, let me get this out of the way: much of what Sauron says is actually lore accurate. Why he says it, not so much. There are going to be a bunch of people complaining about this part of his speech.

“The Valar will never forgive you. Elves will never accept you. Men… Men will never look upon you with anything but horror and disgust. A corrupted and ignoble race, worthy only to be hunted and slaughtered.” - Sauron, The Rings of Power, Season 2, Episode 1: “Elven Kings Under the Sky”

Saying things like “Orcs’ lives matter” are going to be the people who have never read the books because this bit of the speech is lore accurate. Both Morgoth and Sauron control the Orcs partly by telling them that Men, Elves and Dwarves would fear and hate them, and kill them on sight. This is in the Silmarillion, the Unfinished Tales, and the History of Middle-earth books, so if you see anyone bitching about that part, they either didn’t read the books, didn’t pay attention to what they read or they’re lying.

The same goes for anyone complaining about Sauron acting as if he just wants order. That’s literally his MO. He favored order above all else, and although he wanted to be the one in charge, his initial motives were actually good because he was, in the beginning, himself good. He sided with Melkor (Morgoth) because of how Melkor put his plans into action. Don’t take my word for it. Take JRR Tolkien’s word for it. Go read Morgoth’s Ring, chapter five: “Myths Transformed,” “Notes on motives in the Silmarillion” paperback edition pages 394 to 398.

I’m being pedantic about this because I know there will be people who love to go “You didn’t do your research” any time anyone disagrees with them. Well, I did, and that marks the fourth time I’ve read that book, which is probably four more times than any of them. 

What Sauron says in this scene is lore accurate. Why he says it definitely is not. The show changes a lot of things - the first being why Sauron is even talking to the Orcs. The show makes it sound like he appeared out of nowhere to randomly help the Orcs. That’s not at all the case. In the books, Sauron works with Morgoth throughout the First Age. After Morgoth’s defeat, Sauron puts on a fair form and repents for his actions. When summoned to stand before the Valar, he instead fled and didn’t show up again until about 500 years later, when he thought the Valar had forgotten about Middle-earth. At that time, he worked with the Easterlings who had already been corrupted by Morgoth. He doesn’t work with the Orcs until 500 years after that when he starts to build Barad-dûr.

The second change is the idea of Sauron negotiating with the Orcs. That’s not only something he would never do, but it’s something he wouldn’t need to do because the Orcs were so corrupted by Morgoth that they’re essentially genetically coded to fall in line with the Dark Lord or, really, anyone with a greater will. This turns them into drone-like creatures who simultaneously hate being controlled that way, but also need the influence to have any sense of order or unity. Sauron wouldn’t need to talk the Orcs into doing anything. His power alone would make them side with him. The show tries to present Sauron as a tragic figure - one who tried to help the Orcs only to be betrayed by them. At that point, my eyes were rolled so far back in my head that I almost missed the part where the Orc tries to stab him in the back, but then he catches the Orc and brutally kills him.

Adar is also there and, the whole time, it seems like he’s actually controlling the Orcs with these side glances. He tells the Orcs to pledge allegiance to Sauron. They do. Then Adar gets the crown to place on Sauron’s head, but stabs Sauron with it instead, and the Orcs treat Sauron’s ass like Caesar turned up to 11. If you’re wondering why the Orcs would do this, you’re in good company because I don't know either. In the prologue of the first season, we saw Sauron with an army of Orcs, so you’d think they knew him and would obey him. Even if he changed his form, he’s still using the same name and has the same powers, so why do they turn on him? If they don’t know him, which undermines the prologue, why do they turn on him when his plan would put them in power? None of this makes any sense, so it’s like the first season all over again.

Speaking of not making any sense, when Sauron dies, Adar kicks him to make sure he’s dead and Sauron’s spirit erupts and freezes the land around them, despite Sauron being associated with fire. But, see, he doesn’t really die because his blood falls through all the cracks in the ground and collects in a cave. Presumably, after hundreds - if not thousands - of years, Sauron’s goop attacks a rat and uses that stolen life to drag itself out of the cave and the mountain and down to a road where it kills a woman in a wagon, and then Sauron takes on his new form of Halbrand. Now, it is true that any Maia taking on a living form can be killed in that form, but that would only strip them of that body. Their spirit would be fine and, depending on their power, they could take on a new form again. To have Sauron turn into a puddle of blood does not make any sense, neither does him killing other things to take on a new form. The show makes no attempt to explain why this would even happen.

Oh, but then it gets nuttier because then Halbrand randomly bumps into some people fleeing an Orc attack and he meets an old man who has the crest he later uses to claim that he’s the heir to this kingdom, but the old man’s family were actually the servants of the real king’s family and he keeps it as a reminder. Apparently, Halbrand wants to kill himself after just resurrecting, but the old man convinces him to join his group leaving on a boat, which then gets attacked by a sea monster. Halbrand then steals the crest from the man when the dude gets trapped under a beam. This connects to the scene when Galadriel spots the remains of the boat when her dumbass tries to swim across an ocean to get back to Middle-earth.

To recap, Sauron goes full JD Vance, and then gets shanked for being so weird, settles in a pool of his own blood for a couple hundred years, then springs back to life killing creatures to get a new form, only to decide to try to kill himself once he’s human, but then changes his mind when he talks to the old man, but then backstabs the old man, and then teams up with Galadriel seemingly to get revenge on the Orcs and Adar who backstabbed him without ever telling anyone why he’s doing it. This is the first 15 minutes of the show and the best part of the episode, and it doesn’t make a lick of sense. This guy drags himself out of a mountain where he was dying just so he could die again, and then randomly changes his mind? Now, this is where someone will say that maybe he was looking for the Orcs, which is fair. But we don’t see that and he doesn’t say that, so how do we know that? What he says is that he’s seeking death, so there’s a problem because he was already dead, so why did he come back to life?

Speaking of problems, you remember how, in the Fellowship movie, Arwen got chased by the ringwraiths? You remember how cool that was? Now imagine that, instead of nine riders chasing down smoking hot Liv Tyler, it’s just Galadriel chasing down Elrond literally trying to grab his sack. That’s just a very unfortunate double entendre, and it will not be the last. Also, that’s actually not the problem with this scene. The problem is that we have no idea why she’s chasing him. I have a pretty good memory, but I couldn’t remember anything from the last episode of season one that had Elrond take the rings and try to keep them from anyone, so I checked the episode, and the last we see of Elrond and Galadriel is her smiling about the rings and him looking dour now that he knows that Halbrand isn’t what he claimed to be, but there’s nothing about Elrond taking the rings, so why is he running away with them? How did he even get them? There’s a story beat that’s missing, which happens a few more times in this episode, and it was a recurring problem in the first season too. We need context for why characters do things.

It seems like the writer for the episode decided to invert the explanation, so we get the reason for Elrond taking the rings after he’s already taken them, but before he knows the reason. The rings were crafted by Sauron. The way this goes down is: Elrond races to tell Gil-galad about Halbrand, and he has the rings for some reason. Galadriel tries to chase him down, but fails, so Elrond reaches the High King first. Galadriel then admits to the king that Halbrand is Sauron, which pisses off Gil-galad, who never believed Galadriel’s claim that Sauron was alive anyway, so his anger makes no sense. I’m going to have to correct myself here because I said, in conversation with friends, that everyone knew that Halbrand was Sauron, but that’s not true. Galadriel only told him that Halbrand was not who he claimed to be and not to trust him. She never told Elrond or Celebrimbor that Halbrand was Sauron, so one, my mistake. And two, why does Elrond take the rings? He doesn’t know there’s anything wrong with them. As far as he knows, the rings can still help heal the tree that somehow ties the Elves to immortality in Middle-earth, which also doesn’t make a lick of sense, but I’ll get to that later.

Now that Elrond knows the rings were created with Sauron’s materials, he refuses to hand them over to the king because he doesn’t know what control Sauron might have over them, even though Galadriel says Sauron never touched them. This is the biggest problem in the show. Elrond is so obviously right that it makes Gil-galad and Galadriel look dumb and dumber to want to use the rings. This massive issue only happens because the showrunners decided to invert the order in which the rings were created. In the book, the Seven and the Nine were created first, with Sauron’s help, while Celebrimbor makes the Three on his own. This is how the Elves know for sure that Sauron has no direct power over the Three. By reversing the order of creation, the Elves now have no way to know what, if any, control Sauron has over the rings because they have no point of reference. There are no other Rings of Power. Why would anyone put on these rings when the enemy could control them?

This is probably why this show has this nonsense about the tree being tied to the Elves’ immortality. If the tree’s light fades and the Elves can no longer stay in Middle-earth, then they will leave the Men and Dwarves to the machinations of Sauron, while the Elves flee back to Valinor. The only way for the Elves to stay and fight is using the Three Rings to restore the light of the tree, granting them immortality in Middle-earth again. I guess that works in a kind of backwards logic. Of course, that begs the question of why we never hear anything about this damn tree in the Lord of the Rings. It would be the first thing Sauron would destroy because they’d get rid of the Elves, but it never comes up. Remember, the Rings of Power is supposed to connect to the Lord of the Rings, so that’s a major change that breaks the story because all the Elven cities on the west coast are more or less abandoned by the Third Age, so what happened to the tree? Did they just leave it? Did they take it somewhere else? How does this fading light affect half-Elves like Elrond? Does he half die? Since half-Elves have the gift to choose mortality, should he choose a mortal life? Does his light go back to the tree? All of this nonsense could have been avoided by telling the story in the proper order. There was no reason to change it. The change doesn’t even add anything to the story. It doesn’t fit with the lore at all, and it’s so convoluted that the show can barely explain it.

Anyway, Gil-galad wants the rings to save the tree, but Elrond won’t give them up and jumps into the waterfall to get away. He somehow survives this, which would be surprising if half the cast hadn’t survived a volcanic eruption at point blank range in the last season. Meanwhile, Halbrand has somehow wound up as a prisoner of the Orcs, still claiming to be a king, which is strange because the last time we saw him, he was smiling with Mount Doom in the background. How did he end up with these people, and why is he in chains? Anyone? Anyone from the show want to explain what happened? While you’re at it, would you like to explain how much time has passed between the last episode and this one, just for reference? No? What? I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that. Say it again? “This isn’t that kind of show.” Got it.

Halbrand is in chains and gets taken in front of Adar, claiming that he will help Adar find Sauron if Adar frees his people. So, he went from Caesar to Moses. Is he going to do an impression of Jesus next? That’s a rhetorical question. I’ve already seen the clips. The answer is yes. Anyway, I think Adar suspects that Halbrand might be Sauron, but it’s not clear.

Either way, Adar orders his men to torture Halbrand before later coming to talk to him about the story about how Adar and the other Moriondor, the “sons of the dark,” came into being. They were promised power by Morgoth and locked away on a cliff to starve. Eventually, Sauron brought Adar wine and it’s implied that this is the wine that changed Adar, which is why he hates Sauron. This is fine. It does borrow pieces from the Silmarillion, but it works. It’s just buried midway in the episode between the convoluted plot about the rings and the Stranger and Nori wandering around in the desert eating bugs.

Another moment that works in the scene is when Halbrand pledges his allegiance to Adar, but instead of saying Adar, he says the Dark Lord and then smirks because he’s the Dark Lord. We also see in this scene that he uses his power to control a warg that later attacks the Man torturing him. In short, we see Sauron being evil, but with the implication that he’s just getting revenge against Adar. The show tries to make Sauron a tragic villain. I don’t know why they did this with Sauron when they already have the character Adar to use for that concept. It works better with him because he’s a corrupted Elf, whereas Sauron is a growing Dark Lord. But then again, I’ve got this nasty habit of wanting things to make sense, so of course, I would find it weird for the greatest evildoer in the land to be treated as a tragic victim of circumstances.

Speaking of tragic circumstances, let’s talk about the Stranger (totally not Gandalf, by the way) and his damn Hobbit because their scenes killed the already glacial pace of the show. If, before, the show moved like molasses, these scenes make it move like glass. The first scene was barely seven minutes long; I swear it felt like twenty minutes. And what do we get for our struggle? A bunch of clunky dialogue either borrowed from the Lord of the Rings book and film or trying and failing to sound like it came from Tolkien. I just watched Kung Fu Panda 4 and part of the story was Po trying to come up with wise sayings. That’s what this scene was like, but slower and not entertaining. All this just to establish that the mystery man is having wet dreams about grabbing his staff and things erupting when he does. I told you that there would be more unfortunate double entendres.

Nori asks the Stranger about his dreams, but that’s not the kind of thing you share with a young lady. He also tries to use his power to make a tree grow because they need food, but he can’t control it and destroys the tree, but calls up some bugs for him and Nori to eat. Off in the distance, he sees a light and realizes they’re being followed. We all know who this is, but they don’t. Later, they set a trap to catch the person and it turns out to be Poppy, who followed them this whole time and they never noticed. On the plus side, she brings food, a map, and a hint of how to find the right way. Apparently, the Hobbits came from this direction and their walking song tells them how to find their way through the desert. Of course, Poppy isn’t the only one following them. One of Xerxe’s minions from 300 spies on them the whole time. I mean, why steal from Peter Jackson when you can also crib from Zack Snyder? 

The rest of the episode is about the Elves finding Elrond. He goes to the Grey Havens to Círdan the Shipwright, who Elrond convinces to destroy the rings. Círdan won’t even look at the rings, and just takes Elrond’s word that they’re dangerous, and decides to toss them into a chasm in the sea, which might be a reference to Maglor for throwing one of the Silmarils into the sea. But when Círdan tries to throw it into the water, something bubbles up and the rings fall back into his boat. He finally opens the pouch and sees the rings and changes his mind. Meanwhile, Galadriel arrives with Gil-galad and tries to talk Elrond into giving her the rings, but Círdan already has them. Because of this, the group goes back to the tree and Gil-galad sings a sad song about the last leaves falling from the tree - or more like Tolkien weeping in his grave. And then Círdan shows up with the rings, wearing Narya the Ring of Fire, and gives the other two - Vilya the Ring of Air and Nenya the Ring of Water - to Gil-galad. Elrond shouts for the king not to put them on, causing Gil-galad to drop them. Nenya bounces to Galadriel, who puts it on, and suddenly the tree springs back to life, glowing with golden light as if it were a small version of Laurelin - one of the Two Trees of Valinor.

Now, if you hear some shuffling, don’t worry. That’s just Tolkien spinning in his grave. You’re going to hear that a lot in this show, so get used to it. Everything about this is wrong. The idea that the Elves need some tree to survive is wrong. That they need a Silmaril to fix it is wrong. That the Silmaril is a source of mithril is wrong. That the Three Rings are made of an alloy of mithril, meaning they’re part Silmaril, is wrong. And that putting on the rings instantly fixes the tree that’s not even connected to the rings, and the Elves don’t even do anything, is wrong. All that is before we talk about how all the Elves - the most beautiful beings in Middle-earth - look like regular people pulled off the street. Elrond’s face sums it up (below). How did it come to this?

Genuinely, I don’t understand how anyone reads Tolkien’s books and then envisions anything like this scene or anything that happens in this show. The Rings of Power is from a completely different world. It isn’t even in the same vein as Tolkien’s Elves being silly and goofy in the Hobbit and a little silly in the Lord of the Rings, but super serious in the Silmarillion. Nothing from the Rings of Power connects to Tolkien’s world. It’s just using names, locations and ideas from Tolkien’s works. If you watch this show and then read the Lord of the Rings or watch the films, you’d swear you missed something because it just doesn’t connect.

And then you get this crazy ending to the episode where Halbrand shows up at Celebrimbor’s forge. Celebrimbor lets him in, even though it’s only been a few days - maybe a few weeks - since Galadriel told Celebrimbor that Halbrand is a fraud; don’t trust him. Mind you, Gil-galad sends a message to Celebrimbor that Halbrand is Sauron, but because the show makes no attempt to tell you about distance or time, it’s not clear whether that message should have gotten there by now. Why in the world would he let this guy in after the events of the first season? In the book, it makes sense that Celebrimbor works with Annatar because no one knows who Annatar is. Even though Galadriel doesn’t trust him, the other Elves have no tangible reason to agree with her. In the Rings of Power, Celebrimbor knows the dude lied about his identity and ran away. Why does he let Halbrand in? It makes no sense why he would ignore Galadriel’s warning - aside from the fact that she’s the dumbest person in the world because she didn’t realize she was standing next to the guy she’s been hunting for centuries. That’s how the episode ends - with this set of inexplicable situations that come across like the worst hate-fiction ever.

I will give the show some credit. The VFX are better than the first season. The set design for the Sauron and Adar scenes were perfect. The Orcs look awesome. That said, the Elven sets still look like sets. I think that’s because of how they’re lit and the color grading done on the shots. I think more contrast and less saturation might make the Elven scenes feel more realistic. When it comes to the story - you know, the reason why anyone watches this show - yeah, it’s bad. On the plus side, it’s not worse than the first season. On the bad side, it’s more of the same. It’s like no one on the show learned from their mistakes, so they’re just making them all over again. I suspect that they’ll get the same result. They’ll lose most of their audience by mid-season. That might be why Amazon released three episodes up front. That gives them some coverage before the numbers fall off. If that’s the game they’re playing, it doesn’t bode well for the season or the series as a whole.

It’s always a strange choice for people to take something beloved by a large audience and then fundamentally change it and expect that fans will love the new take. I think damn near everyone loves the band Earth, Wind & Fire. I know everybody loves the song September, so when the world’s current mega pop star Taylor Swift decided to cover that song, I don’t think anyone expected to get her Panera Bread rendition, and nobody liked it. Everything about her cover was the wrong choice to make, and the same goes for the Rings of Power.

All the changes made in the show make it harder to tie the show back to the events that lead to the Lord of the Rings. That undermines the appeal of the show because it comes across as hate-fiction instead of an adaptation of the story. It doesn’t feel like Tolkien’s world. You can change a lot of things, like Peter Jackson did, but still make it feel like it belongs in Middle-earth. I think the War of the Rohirrim film will play out this way. It’ll be canonically incorrect, but still feel like it’s part of or could have happened in Tolkien’s world. Hell, even the Shadow of Mordor games managed that, and they’re wildly off.

I’m not interested in Amazon’s hate-fiction. I’m interested in seeing Tolkien’s works brought to life. The more you deviate from his works, the less I’m invested in your story. Even if it’s good, because I’m not just here for your take, I’m here for him; and when it seems like you have no respect for what he did, no respect for his work, I have no patience for yours. I’m willing to accept some changes because that’s the nature of adaptation, but the core story and characters shouldn’t be unrecognizable, and that’s unfortunately what we get with the Rings of Power. 

[skyeventide]

hi, if you are planning on writing the embalmed M.E. post, I'd be extremely interested! amazing topic

oh man okay I'll try to put it together. I'm gonna stick mostly to one single text for this one because, as a topic, memory-embalming is really large and I think you can construct a lot on like, solely the concept of memory and fading and preservation in the legendarium. and I’m not gonna try that lol

the quote where Tolkien uses the "embalming" word is letter 131. I should preface this by saying that more often than not I take great issue with the way jirt talks about his theology-adjacent Goodness and Good Choices, and I think it's pr... pro... pronghhh I don't wanna write that word lmao, please take it as me intending "it has non-straightforward issues that are worth a second look", not as anything else. it’s problematic, there I put it down lol academic gremlin brain won, for anyone who doesn’t wholly align with him philosophically. so I suppose anyone who generally agrees with jirt's own reckons will disagree with my takeaway here, but so are things. anyway, I'll try to explain why I called it a value judgement.

screenshots first:

I know this is a lot of text, but it's needed. so there's kind of a lot to unpack there but to strip it down to the relevant basics:

part of the reason why some of the exiles do not return is that they don't want to return as exiles, but remain where they have power and stand at the top of the hierarchy (this to me feels like, specifically, a very Galadriel motive — but that's yet another post lmao); they also want peace and bliss, and that is another motive, the same peace and bliss that exist in Valinor (and while the first motive I list, I believe, is directly consequential to the status of the first age's survivors, this second motive, having the peace and bliss of Valinor outside of Valinor, has been present and thematic since the speech of Feanor to the Noldor, and likely before that); they can't therefore abide the "fading" of the land, the way it changes with time, and endeavour to preserve it — embalm it (this becomes emblematic in one of the various versions of the creation of the Elessar, or one of the them: a stone that, if someone looks through it, shows things as they would be when healed, whole, and beautiful. in one of said versions, Celebrimbor gives this stone to Galadriel, who is saddened by the change of time. this is Celebrimbor of Gondolin, or perhaps Telerin Celebrimbor, but no matter the origin, the theme persists)(second parenthesis to point out how third-age Lothlórien, preserved by Nenya, is in all effects a land out of time, where ancient things aren't simply echoed but continue living, and where trees literally don't die. leaves change colour during autumn and winter, then fall down in spring when immediately new buds start growing); fourth motive is the healing of the land's hurts and its adornment.

the difference between healing the land and “embalming” it, I suppose, is the acceptance of its change under the sun, so the acceptance of time's passing, while healing and adorning it work in unison with said passing. of course the matter here is, the absence of decay is kind of Valinor’s whole thing. but we know, both from letter 156 and the Akallabêth, that Valinor isn’t inherently a blessed land and it doesn’t give immortality by virtue of being Valinor. in fact: “'for it is not the land of Manwe that makes its people deathless, but the Deathless that dwell therein have hallowed the land; and there you would but wither and grow weary the sooner, as moths in a light too strong and steadfast.” and letter 156: “for as emissaries from the Valar clearly inform him, the Blessed Realm does not confer immortality. The land is blessed because the Blessed live there, not vice versa, and the Valar are immortal by right and nature [...]”

so, really, it’s not the where that counts. jirt, I believe, makes it pretty obvious that it’s the why and how, and through whose counsel. what I think is identified here as the fault isn’t that preservation of the land isn’t possible and therefore should not be attempted (clearly it is), rather it’s the wish to create a paradise of their own, a desire that Sauron identifies and exploits. now, obviously I’m not trying to argue that Sauron is right or anything the like (even at early stages, and despite the partial overlap of motives, Sauron’s goals can’t really be called good, even though you might argue that they gain some form of internal conflict), or that in pursuit of a challenge to the divine harm becomes justifiable — this isn’t really about characters and more about jirt the man himself and his production. 

I just generally take issue with the idea that wanting a heaven of sorts, made with your own skills, which is within the realm of possibility, and by no one’s leave but your own, is inherently a bad thing, or that it must come with harm and corruption, and compromised motives. but in the narrative of these books, from an outside-of-text perspective, it doesn’t seem to be possible to issue the challenge that letter 131 talks about without also giving aid to evil (Sauron, earlier Morgoth) willingly ot unwillingly, without getting closer to “magic” and “machinery”, without it being written and interpreted under a lens of “embalming”, of refusal to let the world live its course. it isn’t possible to have that cake and eat it (yeah jirt kind of wrote that saying wrong lmao), which is identified as a corruptible weak point. 

it isn’t possible because this discontent, or this wish for independence, is in itself a seed that the story connects to evil and lies (Morgoth’s work in Valinor, and possibly earlier than that his discord); because it’s inherently linked to wanting the top-of-the-hierarchy authority granted by Middle Earth. and because the legendarium doesn’t truly leave room for any gods-challenging story that isn’t some form of taint and mistake, a Fall™ (challenges to Morgoth here don’t count, he is the fall; this is about Eru and the Valar).

(I think here it’s relevant to note that the elves not being in ME is elsewhere called out as a loss for Men, who do not have the “elder siblings” at hand who were supposed to teach them and guide them; as well as the fact that Eru in morgoth’s ring mentions, himself, that the elves have been “removed to Aman from the Middle Earth in which I set them”. so it’s not necessarily so straightforward in all aspects — but I think a discussion on that would be going a little too much beyond the scope of this tbh)

I believe my point is exemplified by a note in this same letter:

“preservation in reverent memory” here is not negatively judged, despite being effectively an antiquarian lore memorial to (”good”) tradition. Elrond also rebukes Sauron, and is not at all subjected to the same Ring-related test as Galadriel in LotR. and I think this is sort of the narrative point of the story, part of the greater (in good measure theological) thesis underlying it. and why I called it a value judgement. 

[fortuitousraven]

I made a post way back when, rambling about the Legendarium ships and dynamics I like, but I figured I should do an update and make individual posts for the ships.

First up is my faves of course: Sauron/Tar-Míriel (we need to coin a ship name for them :/) and Sauron/Celebrimbor (Silvergifting)

Out of the two, Sauron/Tar-Míriel wins for my overall favourite ship. My hyperfixation on Númenor, my hyperfixation on Sauron, and my love of the dramatic potential in villain/hero shipping, collided to make one weird OTP XD. Unfortunately, that ship is the metaphorical canoe and not Silvergifting’s cruiser. So I have to row myself for more OTP content, but hey, at least that means I’m relevant for something ;)

I’m discussing them together because I enjoy both dynamics for the same reasons – a villain x hero ship with buckets of dramatic irony and deep ideological conflict? Yes please :3 – and because while both ships are fun when you look at them individually, I find it particularly interesting that they are almost mirrors of each other.

Annatar in Eregion is there in disguise, but despite the suspicion most of the other Elves have, he befriends Celebrimbor and the Mírdain. Tar-Mairon in Númenor is there openly in his own identity, but despite most of Númenor accepting him, Tar-Míriel and the Faithful are the only ones suspicious of him.

Both ships involve pivotal points for Sauron’s character and these points also directly lead into each other. And of course shipping is the best way to underscore character development :p. Plus, this mirroring makes it fun to reference Sauron’s experience in his tragic friendship/romance with Celebrimbor informing how he acts with Tar-Míriel in those reversed circumstances ;)

Sauron’s time as Annatar is right after ill-fated redemption attempt, making this post-corruption Sauron at his least evil. According to Unfinished Tales, Sauron had already fallen back into evil before he went to Eregion, but the Tale of Years is a lot more vague, so there’s wiggle room with exactly how sincere or not ‘Annatar’ was being about his intentions. But whether it’s sooner or later, ultimately he can’t get over his pride enough to stick to his redemption and backslides.

Which triggers the War of the Elves and Sauron, both the end of Sauron’s relationship with Celebrimbor and the start of his conflict with Númenor.

Finally, Akallabêth features Sauron reaching his most powerful and most evil. Second Age Sauron with the One Ring is explicitly more powerful than late First Age Morgoth, this point is the zenith of his power before he is weakened by dying.

Sauron forging the One Ring and killing Celebrimbor is often taken as the point where he’s taken the last step into becoming irredeemable, but I prefer to interpret it as in Akallabêth where Sauron finally gives up completely on his good intentions.

Tar-Mairon in Númenor is (unofficially) ruling all of Middle-earth and dramatically defying lightning bolts of divine retribution. He can do pretty much anything he wants, and achieved his goal of establishing his power over Middle-earth. It just required him swallowing his pride and playing along with Númenor taking him prisoner.

That is the crucial point: Sauron was too prideful to surrender to Eönwë so that he could seek the redemption he wanted, but not too prideful to surrender to Ar-Pharazôn so that he could take the power he wanted. Sauron had good intentions of imposing his rule for his subjects own good that degenerated into his rule becoming it’s own end, and this is where that distinction was put to the test and came out as Sauron preferring his power over his good intentions.

Sauron never was the benevolent saviour of Middle-earth he had wanted to be, but I think at the end of Akallabêth was when Sauron finally stopped lying to himself about that. Which would also be why this is the point where he finally gives up on calling himself Tar-Mairon.

Correspondingly, Sauron finally being forced to admit to himself what he had become and how insincere his justifications are, was also the point could have genuinely understood why he was wrong instead of when he had just repented out of fear. But instead he willfully continues on that path. This is when he really becomes irredeemable; the shadow figure of pure malice we know in Lord of the Rings.

[himboskywalker]

Hello taggy-tag! I remember you saying you're a fan of lotr and I was wondering what you thought of luthien. Cause I just read beren and luthien and like... I love it so much its insane. It's more fairy-tale-y than lotr, but I love luthien and she's just enough of a character to not be a Mary-sue. I'm astonished that a man from the previous century is responsible of writing some of the best female characters in literature ever (sideeying some contemporary authors). Like, kudos to you, professor!

*deep breath* I feel like you lobbed this in my inbox just to watch me vibrate out of my skin like those clacky magnets and shriek. I am a huge huge Silmarillion fan,like the kind that takes notes and does research when I reread it and when Christopher published the standalone Lay of Beren and Lúthien a couple years ago I literally had it preordered for over a year because aside from the core of Lord of the Rings,it’s my favorite thing Tolkien ever wrote.

For those of you who aren’t unhealthily obsessed with Tolkien and have no idea what this is,the story of Beren and Lúthien takes place in the 1st age of Middle Earth. In Fellowship of the Ring when Aragorn is singing and Frodo asks what it is and he says an elf and a mortal who fell in love and then she dies,that’s the Lay of Luthien! And you say,hold on Tag,isn’t that supposed to be a song meant to reflect Aragorn and Arwen’s love,since they’re elf and mortal and in love? To which I say yes,and it’s even more of a parallel when you realize that Lúthien was Arwen’s great great grandmother.

I go absolutely foaming at the mouth feral for Beren and Lúthien for a few reasons. One is that I see a lot of character similarities between Lúthien and Éowyn and Éowyn is my absolute favorite literary character of all time. The basic story is that Lúthien was an elf princess and the most beautiful woman who ever lived in Middle Earth. Beren,just an ordinary human finds her dancing in the woods one night and falls in love with her. Now Lúthien’s father was King Thingol of Doriath and if you think Thranduil was an asshole he had nothing on Thingol. Beren goes before Thingol and asks to marry Lúthien and Thingol laughs and basically tells him over his dead body,the only way in the whole universe that Beren could Marry Lúthien was if he came back to Doriath and bowed before Thingol with a Silmaril clutched in his hand.

The Silmarils are a big deal, a way bigger deal than the one ring in lotr and what the entire collection,the Silmarillion,is named after. They were 3 gems crafted by Fëanor and filled with the very light and power of the two trees of Valinor,basically the sun and moon and all power of Middle Earth. All the great wars in the 1st age were fought over these stones and their power and Morgoth,the biggest of bads and Sauron’s master who the elves and Valar (basically the elves’ ancestors and gods) battled for thousands of years. At the point of Beren and Lúthien things weren’t looking good in Middle Earth. Morgoth has gotten his hands on a Silmaril and had gained a colossal ton of power from it and was ruling a good portion of the mortal and immortal realm from his fortress Angband.

So Beren goes off to fight basically Satan himself and get a Silmaril to marry his girl,only to get captured by Sauron and chucked in a dungeon to die horribly. Lúthien realizes her idiot love has been captured and literally storms Sauron’s fortress to save his ass and then together the dynamic duo of chaotic dumbassery storms Angband itself to take on Morgoth,who all the Valar and elves and all of Middle Earth put together couldn’t defeat. And Lúthien weaves a powerful spell and they rip the Silmaril from his crown and get the hell out of dodge. But Morgoth sends his wolves after them to hunt them down across Middle Earth and the King of the wolves bites Beren’s hand off with the Silmaril in it. The thing about the Silmarils though is that they are pure light and good power itself and if you are corrupted you can’t touch them or they’ll literally burn your skin off,which is why Morgoth wore it on a crown. So hand and Silmaril in its stomach,The king of the wolves proceeds to be slowly burned alive from the inside out by the Silmaril and takes off to wreak unholy hell on Middle Earth. They eventually defeat him and retrieve the Silmaril.

Beren and Lúthien return to her father and Thingol is all haughty and imperious and in the most BALLER of literary moments of ALL TIME Beren presents Thingol with the Silmaril and his motherfucking BITTEN OFF HAND STILL HOLDING IT. Beren dies from his wounds not long after and Lúthien dies from grief soon after him,and this is the only time in Middle Earth history this happens,in Valinor the Valar take pity on them and see their love and sacrifice and bring them back to life,but with Lúthien reborn as a mortal,and so they live and age and die together.

There are several things I love about this story. I love that Beren is so unassuming,he’s not handsome or big and strong,he’s not nobility or extraordinary in any way,but Lúthien sees this valor and strength inside him,she sees an atom deep goodness in him. And I love that Lúthien is not relegated to being a beautiful princess. She’s absolutely kickass and ready to wreak hell because this fucking himbo decided he loved her and she said,okay I will risk it all for 1 (one) mortal man. There is a strength and passion and inherent drive to life that makes up their love,there’s a reason for the almost frantic devotion they feel for one another amidst a total war that feels like it might tear the world apart. And that’s because the story is based on Tolkien’s love for his wife Edith. Lúthien’s very character is based on Edith and it’s quite endearing and heart wrenching when you realize this immortal,ethereally beautiful woman,who is also incredibly brave,smart, and strong and resilient against darkness itself, is the woman he loved and spent his entire life with.

John and Edith lived through great difficulty together and there was not only class divide between them,but also religious,which to a poor,orphaned young man at the turn of the 20th century,must have felt like the divide between an immortal princess and a common,ordinary man. But they fought for one another,to be together,and they survived the Great War together,and they aged and died together. And it may not have been a Dark Lord or a Silmaril,nor giant wolves. But the love Beren and Lúthien felt for one another,with its adoration and unending devotion and passion,was what Tolkien felt for Edith and she for him,and that’s why I ultimately love the story so much,because you can very much feel the real love and goodness and kindness in it. I mean also storming dark lord fortresses and kickass elven princesses and heroic moments of triumph and sword fighting and good against evil,but also the simple true love of a poor academic for his wife.

“I never called Edith 'Lúthien' – but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief pan of the Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire (where I was for a brief time in command of an outpost of the Humber Garrison in 1917, and she was able to live with me for a while). In those days her hair was raven, her skin clear, her eyes brighter than you have seen them, and she could sing – and dance. But the story has gone crooked, & I am left, and I cannot plead before the inexorable Mandos.”

On Tolkien and Edith’s joint graves the names Beren and Lúthien are engraved on their headstones. So you could very much say that my absolute soul deep adoration and love for the Lay of Beren and Lúthien,is my love for Tolkien himself.

[aspenbloomfieldyr2fmp]

The History Of Lord Of The Rings For Casual Fans, So You Don't Have To Read 10,000 Pages

Tolkien's Middle Earth is one of the richest fantasy worlds ever conceived; so rich that few are familiar with the entire mythos. The Silmarillion describes the history before The Lord of the Rings, and acts as an encyclopedic record of how the world of Arda came to be.

As it turns out, there are a lot of things that happened before The Hobbit. Tolkien's most well-known tales — those that have been brought to the screen — stick to covering events from the Third Age, and only allude to the millennia of lore that lead up to the destruction of the One Ring.

Some of the greatest characters Tolkien created aren't that well known. The general lack of knowledge regarding the extended LoTR universe has spawned some incorrect fan theories, and has left a lot of room for confusion among casual fans, even those who have read The Lord of the Rings.

Here are the most important things to know to understand The Lord of the Rings, the creation of the world known as Arda, and all the magical creatures that inhabit it.  

The World Is Known As Arda

Though it's tempting to call the world of LoTR Middle Earth, that name only refers to the continent where the events of the books take place. The world as a whole is called Arda, and consists of two main continents, Middle Earth and Aman.

Then there are the seas: Ekkaia, or the Encircling Sea, is the "mighty ocean" that surrounds the continents; Belegaer, the Great Sea, separates the two continents from one another, with Aman in the west and Middle Earth in the east. This world exists in the universe known as Eä, created by Eru Ilúvatar.

The First Being, Eru Ilúvatar, Created The Ainur

Eru Ilúvatar is Arda's equivalent to God. He was the first being to exist in an infinite sea of nothingness, and so he made the universe, Eä, and other beings to be his companions. He created the Ainur, which are essentially angels, and those are divided into two groups: the Valar, and their servants, the Maiar (the singular of which is Maia).

There were 15 Valar in total, but four are especially important for the purposes of understanding the events in The Hobbit and LoTR. These four are Manwë, Aulë, Yavanna, and Melkor, who in turn fashioned their own servants, the Maiar. The Valar assisted Eru in creating the world Arda, literally singing it into life, but one sang a discordant harmony.

Manwë Made The Great Eagles

Manwë was the king of the Valar, sometimes called the Wind King, as he lived atop the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Taniquetil in Valinor (the realm of the Valar on Aman).

He was the first Ainur, and is considered to be the brother of the evil Melkor. Manwë was appointed ruler of Arda when it was formed, earning him his most frequently used title, the Elder King.

To do his part in thwarting his evil brother, Manwë created the Great Eagles, led by their king, Thorondor. The Great Eagles were integral to the fight against evil, and became the greatest foes of Melkor (or Morgoth) and his lieutenant, Sauron.

Yavanna Made All Of The Animals And Plants In The World

Yavanna was the Queen of the Earth, Giver of Fruits, and wife of Aulë. She brought forth life on Arda in a place known as the Spring of Arda, but the life she created was soon blighted when Melkor released his poisons into the world.

Melkor had also destroyed the Two Lamps, the world's only sources of light, so Yavanna sang into existence the Two Trees: Laurelin (the Gold Tree) and Telperion (the Silver Tree). The trees gave light to Aman, but Middle Earth remained in darkness.

In response to the darkening of Middle Earth, Yavanna put all the living things of that continent into a great sleep, and they would not be awoken until the forging of the sun and moon. Fearing the material greed of other beings, namely the dwarves, she begged Eru to help create guardians to defend her plant life, and so the Ents (those giant tree people) were created.

Aulë Made The Dwarves

Aulë was the father of invention and materials, the smith of the Valar, and husband of Yavanna. He fashioned the substances that comprised the world, along with the sun and moon. Of all the Valar, he was most similar to Melkor, as he appreciated creation. However, unlike his evil brother, he did not revel in destruction, and only advocated for the creation of things that are inherently good.

The Ñoldor, the second clan of elves, became his students when they came to Valinor before the First Age. Prior to the coming of the elves, Aulë was impatient to have his own "children," so he created the dwarves. As he did not have the power to instill them with autonomy, Eru Ilúvatar adopted them as his own, in a sense, giving the dwarves independent life.

One particular elf named Fëanor later wrought the Silmarils.

Melkor Of The Valar Created All The Suffering And Evil In The World

Melkor, also known as Morgoth, was smarter and more powerful than his fellow Valar, and was not satisfied with singing the same tune the others used to create the world. Melkor sang his own melody that rang discordantly against the others, and so disorder manifested in the world, bringing many forms of suffering and evil to Arda.

Among these evils were creatures such as dragons, trolls, and orcs. What's more, Melkor's song attracted some of the Maiar who had previously served other Valar, corrupting them. He and his new servants began to wage war on the other Valar, and eventually on Arda as a whole. That war spiraled out into other conflicts that lasted through all three ages.

The Maiar Are The Powerful Servants Of The Valar

The Maiar (or "Maia" if the subject is singular) are a subset of the Valar, by whom they were essentially created. The Maiar were actually primordial spirits sent into the world alongside the Valar, but it was these greater beings who helped shape them. The Maiar, then, are "low-level angels," if you will, being subservient to the first angels (the Valar).

The Maiar are composed of some of the most important players in Middle Earth, including the dwarves, Great Eagles, Ents, and the Istari, among others.

Wizards Are Called The Istari And Are Not Human

Wizards are not simply humans who learned to wield magic. Instead, they are of the Maiar, and there are only five: Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, Radagast the Brown, and the two Blue Wizards. Wizards were created specifically for the purpose of opposing evil in the world. Of course, that didn't go totally according to plan.

Saruman was initially one of Aulë's Maiar, and was meant to be the leader of the Istari. Despite this, he was eventually corrupted by Sauron, which explains why he is one of the main antagonists in the films.  Radagast was Yavanna's Maia, but he became completely distracted by her natural creations, and was rendered somewhat useless.

The two Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando,  were actually the Maiar of a lesser Vala named Oromë. Not much is known about them other than that they were sent to the East. It's hinted, however, that they created cults of magic there.

Last but not least is Gandalf the Grey, Maia of Manwë. Of course, he becomes Gandalf the White after his fatal battle with the Balrog (another Maia). Interestingly, it was Manwë himself who sent Gandalf back with new power to complete his mission after the wizard "dies" in the first film.

Source

https://www.ranker.com/list/everything-to-know-to-understand-lord-of-the-rings/zack-howe

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

I love Tolkien too!! Who’s your favorite character?

Anon, how dare you make me choose my favorite character when there are so many beautiful characters to pick from? 

In all honestly, I find that I can’t answer that question. I hope you're okay with reading a much, much longer response than you probably imagined originally. I’ll go over my top characters and why they’re so high on my personal list, because many of the reasons are different from character to character. These aren’t in any particular order.

This also isn’t even all of my top favorites, but the answer became so long that I had to limit it to a few. Basically, I wrote whole character analyses gushing about why I love the characters I mentioned - Sauron, Melkor, Manwë, and Varda. Enjoy :’)

Sauron

I loved reading about just because of how evil he is; it makes him very entertaining (and horrifying, more often than not) to read anything he’s involved in. He’s the worst. Literally the worst. I love how cunning and deceptive he is because I’ve always had a penchant for conniving characters. 

“Now the Elves made many rings; but secretly Sauron made One Ring to rule all the others, and their power was bound up with it, to be subject wholly to it and to last only so long as it too should last. And much of the strength and will of Sauron passed into that One Ring; for the power of the Elven-rings was very great, and that which should govern them must be a thing of surpassing potency; and Sauron forged it in the Mountain of Fire in the Land of Shadow. And while he wore the One Ring he could perceive all the things that were done by means of the lesser rings, and he could see and govern the very thoughts of those that wore them.”

But I also find Sauron interesting because it looks like he began as an anti-hero, a Byronic hero, even someone who had good intentions but coupled them with extreme measures and moral greyness. And instead of being your stereotypical angsty brooder who eventually finds “the light”, is redeemed, and finds happiness, Sauron plunged deeper and deeper into malice, ill intentions, and a desire to dominate.

“In my story Sauron represents as near an approach to the wholly evil will as is possible. He had gone the way of all tyrants: beginning well, at least on the level that while desiring to order all things according to his own wisdom he still at first considered the (economic) well-being of other inhabitants of the Earth. But he went further than human tyrants in pride and the lust for domination, being in origin an immortal (angelic) spirit. Sauron desired to be a God-King, and was held to be this by his servants, by a triple treachery: 1. Because of his admiration of Strength he had become a follower of Morgoth and fell with him down into the depths of evil, becoming his chief agent in Middle-earth. 2. when Morgoth was defeated by the Valar finally he forsook his allegiance; but out of fear only; he did not present himself to the Valar or sue for pardon, and remained in Middle-earth. 3. When he found how greatly his knowledge was admired by all other rational creatures and how easy it was to influence them, his pride became boundless.”

Tolkien himself says that Sauron “began well”, and because of his admiration for Morgoth’s immense power, was corrupted alongside him as well. It was also the fault of his arrogance; when he discovered that other beings admired and were amazed by him due to his status as a (former) angelic being, the praise basically got to his head. While I love redemption stories, it’s refreshing to read about a character who had his chance and let it go. And Sauron’s evil is absolutely unquestionable. It’s not up for debate; he is malevolent, selfish, and duplicitous, and through his desire for order, perfection, and control, actually seems to represent what Tolkien considers a very absolute form of evil.

“The most improper job of any man, even saints, is bossing other men.”

And what I find so gripping about Sauron is that he doesn’t carry out his cruelty with professionalism and a sense of necessity; he absolutely relishes it.

“Then straightaway they brought him into the dreadful presence of Sauron; and Sauron said: ‘I hear now that thou wouldst barter with me. What is thy price?’

And Gorlim answered that he should find Eilinel again, and with her be set free; for he thought Eilinel also had been made captive. Then Sauron smiled, saying: ‘That is a small price for so great a treachery. So shall it surely be. Say on!’

Now Gorlim would have drawn back, but daunted by the eyes of Sauron he told at last all that he would know. Then Sauron laughed; and he mocked Gorlim, and revealed to him that he had only seen a phantom devised by wizardry to entrap him; for Eilinel was dead. ‘Nonetheless I will grant thy prayer,’ said Sauron; 'and thou shalt go to Eilinel, and be set free of my service.’ Then he put him cruelly to death.”

Melkor

My initial reason for liking Melkor seems very similar to my reasons for liking Sauron: He’s a stellar villain, and, like Sauron, a complete and utter monster. And he’s intense. He’s terrifying; Tolkien’s descriptions of him are great, and just reading it on a page is captivating.

“… And he descended upon Arda in power and majesty greater than any other of the Valar, as a mountain that wades in the sea and has its head above the clouds and is clad in ice and crowned with smoke and fire; and the light of the eyes of Melkor was like a flame that withers with heat and pierces with a deadly cold.”

Yet he’s also quite different from his lieutenant, in my opinion. Melkor seems to be much more motivated by personal envy than Sauron is: 

‘As a shadow Melkor did not then conceive himself. For in his beginning he loves and desired light, and the form that he took was exceedingly bright; and he said in his heart: 'On such brightness as I am the Children shall hardly endure to look; therefore to know of aught else or beyond or even to strain their small minds to conceive of it would not be for their good.’ But a lesser brightness that stands before the greater becomes darkness. And Melkor was jealous, therefore, of all other brightness, and wished to take all light unto himself.’

He has a very interesting desire for light (tying into the envious aspect of his nature) that does nothing to redeem him in the slightest.

“He began with the desire of Light, but when he could not possess it for himself alone, he descended through fire and wrath into a great burning, down into Darkness. And darkness he used most in his evil works upon Arda, and filled it with fear for all living things.”

‘With Manwë dwells Varda, Lady of the Stars, who knows all the regions of Eä. Too great is her beauty to be declared in the words of Men or of Elves; for the light of Ilúvatar lives still in her face. In light is her power and her joy. Out of the deeps of Eä she came to the aid of Manwë; for Melkor she knew from before the making of the Music and rejected him, and he hated her, and feared her more than all others whom Eru made.’ 

A very interesting quote that has sparked a lot of discussion. Whatever this “rejection” means (I have my own thoughts in this, but I’m trying to keep this objective for this post), Melkor sought spirits of light to recruit to his side, and it seems that Varda embodies light, purity, holiness, etc. Her titles reflect this, as does this statement about the light of Ilúvatar. 

Now this embodiment of light, this spirit of brilliance, rejected to join Melkor’s side, and Melkor ‘hated her’. It’s quite obvious that Melkor is, for lack of a better word, salty, that Varda, whose face shines with Eru’s light, “rejected” him. He cannot have Eru’s light (the Flame Imperishable), and Varda is perhaps the closest he can get to this. But she declines to ally herself to him, and he despises her for it. He’s not just peeved at losing a powerful ally, he loathes her on a personal level because she represents light that he can never have, no matter how much he desires it. (Take that as you will.)

Melkor is compelling, to me, because of how contradictory he seems. He’s absolutely monstrous and evil, no doubt about that, and his malice, like Sauron’s, is unquestionable. But he’s also a very convoluted character; clearly, much of his evil is borne out of personal insecurities. If you think about it, his duality makes perfect sense and is not contradictory. I like that: a character that’s undoubtedly evil embodied, yet is still layered in a natural, human way, and not one-dimensional. 

Manwë

Manwë is a character I adore for entirely different reasons than the first two above. As a person, he’s probably one of the characters I adore most out of any fictional universe. I love how he’s described as majestic and kingly - and he is!

But Manwë Súlimo, highest and holiest of the Valar, sat upon the borders of the West, forsaking not in his thought the Outer Lands. For his throne was set in majesty upon the pinnacle of Taniquetil, which was the highest of the mountains of the world, standing upon the margin of the Seas. Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the sea and could pierce the hidden caverns under the world, and their wings could bear them through the three regions of the firmament beyond the lights of heaven to the edge of Darkness. Thus they brought word to him of well nigh all that passed in Aman: yet some things were hidden even from the eyes of Manwë and the servants of Manwë, for where Melkor sat in his dark thought impenetrable shadows lay. [...] Elves and Men revere Manwë most of all the Valar, for he has no thought for his own honour, and is not jealous of his power, but ruleth all to peace. The Vanyar he loved most of all the Elves, and of him they received song and poesy. For poesy is the delight of Manwë, and the song of words is his music. Behold, the raiment of Manwë is blue, and blue is the fire of his eyes, and his sceptre is of sapphire which the Noldor wrought for him; and he is King of the world of gods and elves and men, the vicegerent of Ilúvatar, and the chief defence against the evil of Melkor.

I apologize for the sudden subjectivity, but in my eyes, you will never read a more badass description of a character. Period. 

Anyway . . . despite his magnificence and power, Manwë is very well-intentioned, very noble, not at all corrupted by his authority, although he is quite literally the ruler of the entire world (Arda). 

Elves and Men revere Manwë most of all the Valar, for he has no thought for his own honour, and is not jealous of his power, but ruleth all to peace. 

As explicitly stated by Tolkien, Manwë is good. And personally, I think he’s one of the strongest characters in Tolkien’s universe. In power, yes - I mean, I believe he’s stated to be the second most powerful of the Ainur, right after Melkor. But in strength of character, Manwë far surpasses his brother and a good amount of the other characters. He shows it several times; for one thing, not being corrupted by the amount of power that he has is impressive in itself, but I also think this is noteworthy. It’s a decision he is often criticized for, but as Tolkien himself insinuated, Manwë choosing to release Melkor and offer him a second chance was a good thing.

“Who then can say with assurance that if Melkor had been held in bond less evil would have followed? Even in his diminishment the power of Melkor is beyond our calculation. Yet some ruinous outburst of his despair is not the worst that might have befallen. The release was according to the promise of Manwë. If Manwë had broken this promise for his own purposes, even though still intending ‘good’, he would have taken a step upon the paths of Melkor. That is a perilous step. In that hour and act he would have ceased to be the vice-regent of the One, becoming but a king who takes advantage over a rival whom he has conquered by force. Would we then have the sorrows that indeed befell; or would we have the Elder King lose his honour, and so pass, maybe, to a world rent between two proud lords striving for the throne?

Of this we may be sure, we children of small strength: any one of the Valar might have taken the paths of Melkor and become like him: one was enough.”

Rather than doing what Melkor would have done - going back on his words out of fear and refusing to extend a helping hand to a defeated enemy - Manwë chose to do what he believed was right, what was according to his morals. He didn’t waver or back away in the face of peril and stayed true to who he was. And to me, that’s the ultimate act showing strength of character.

Varda

Ah, the OG queen I stan. I always loved Varda, truthfully, but @marta-elentari ‘s metas made me love her even more. 

Varda is that character that makes me scream “Yes queen” from the very start. I love the feeling of power and brilliance I get when I read descriptions of her:

‘With Manwë dwelt Varda the most beautiful, whom we Noldor name Elbereth, Queen of the Valar; she it was who wrought the Great Stars; and with them were a great host of fair spirits in great blessedness.’

‘With Manwë dwells Varda, Lady of the Stars, who knows all the regions of Eä. Too great is her beauty to be declared in the words of Men or of Elves; for the light of Ilúvatar lives still in her face. In light is her power and her joy. Out of the deeps of Eä she came to the aid of Manwë; for Melkor she knew from before the making of the Music and rejected him, and he hated her, and feared her more than all others whom Eru made.’

My first impression of her was that she was a very intelligent woman and a very keen judge of character, considering she was the first to sense the darkness in Melkor. I also admired her for rejecting him, because Melkor coerced multiple powerful Maiar to his side, even those with good intentions (*cough* Sauron *cough*), and I don’t imagine his powers of persuasion were any less potent or any less on display when he attempted to cajole Varda to join him. Yet she declined. 

But then, courtesy of @marta-elentari , I found these quotes:

‘And Manwë and Ulmo and Aulë were as Kings; but Varda was the Queen of the Valar, and the spouse of Manwë, and her beauty was high and terrible and of great reverence.’

I find this “high and terrible” description to be very interesting. Insofar I had only known Varda is this Virgin Mary-type figure, but I think that quote added some less ‘holy’ aspects to her personality. And I loved that. We see the word ‘beauty’ juxtaposed with ‘terrible’ in LOTR, when Galadriel is tempted by the Ring:

“Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!”

This quote is an external manifestation of Galadriel’s buried desire for more power, a change from the wise and kind Lady of Lothlórien that Galadriel was initially characterized as. Of course, learning more of Galadriel’s history and her younger days’ desire to come to Middle Earth and rule her own kingdom - another form of power - it makes sense and is not at all odd. 

But the similarity in word choice makes me wonder if Varda was ambitious and desired power and a position of rulership, just as Galadriel did. Because I’m a sucker for ambitious female characters, I latch on to this theory, and it makes me love Varda very much: a Holy Mary figure who is mighty and pure, but also more complex than the surface level seems to indicate, and a woman who isn’t punished for her ambition.