#silm reading

[blueflipflops]

Have you ever read a really good fic then looked up the author's other works and lo and behold a treasure trove of fics that are exactly your kind of shit? Because god that is what euphoria feels like. I love you random fic writers i unexpectedly find

[introspectres]

Sauron burning through Middle Earth in the Second Age, inspired by medieval millefleur tapestries and Tolkien's watercolor painting of Sauron

[thelien-art]

Lúthien Tinúviel

"-for Lúthien was the most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar. Blue was her raiment as the unclouded heaven, but her eyes were grey as the starlit evening; her mantle was sewn with golden flowers, but her hair was dark as the shadows of twilight."

The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien

[agardenandlibrary]

I love seeing Silmarillian discourse. None of this means anything to me. What do you mean people are trying to justify/soften an act referred to as a KINSLAYING. what do you mean THE FIRST TWO.

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

Include repeated volumes.

[inkskinned]

sometimes we just need someone to pay enough attention.

for the longest time i had been trying to read The Lord of The Rings. everyone had sung the praises for it, over and over. i'd seen clips of the movie and it seemed like it could be fun, but actually reading it was fucking horrible.

my parents had the omnibus - all the books squished into one big tome - and in the 4th grade i started sort of an annual tradition: i would start trying to read TLR and get frustrated after about a month and put it back down. at first i figured i was just too young for it, and that it would eventually make sense.

but every time i came back to it, i would find myself having the exact same experience: it was confusing, weird, and dry as a fucking bone. i couldn't figure it out. how had everyone else on earth read this book and enjoyed it? how had they made movies out of this thing? it was, like, barely coherent. i would see it on "classics" list and on every fantasy/sci-fi list and everyone said i should read it; but i figured that it was like my opinion of great expectations - just because it's a classic doesn't mean i'm going to like experiencing it.

at 20, i began the process of forcing myself through it. if i had to treat the experience like a self-inflicted textbook, i would - but i was going to read it.

my mom came across me taking notes at our kitchen table. i was on the last few pages of the first book in the omnibus, and i was dreading moving on to the next. she smiled down at me. only you would take notes on creative writing. then she sat down and her brow wrinkled. wait. why are you taking notes on this?

i said the thing i always said - it's boring, and i forget what's happening in it because it's so weird, and dense. and strange.

she nodded a little, and started to stand up. and then sat back down and said - wait, will you show me the book?

i was happy to hand it over, annoyed with the fact i'd barely made a dent in the monster of a thing. she pulled it to herself, pushing her glasses up so she could read the tiny writing. for a moment, she was silent, and then she let out a cackle. she wouldn't stop laughing. oh my god. i cannot wait to tell your father.

i was immediately defensive. okay, maybe i'm stupid but i've been trying to read this since the 4th grade and -

she shook her head. raquel, this is the Silmarillion. you've been reading the Silmarillion, not the lord of the rings.

anyway, it turns out that the hobbit and lord of the rings series are all super good and i understand why they're recommended reading. but good lord (of the rings), i wish somebody had just asked - wait. this kind of thing is right up your alley. you love fantasy. it sounds like something might be wrong. why do you think it's so boring?

[nobunsonpesach]

No one:

House of Finwë naming their kids:

[saurons-pr-department]

I think we should stop telling people that The Silmarillion is this incredibly dense, dry, practically academic text that you need to be some kind of modern day lore master to comprehend. It's actually a very good book and there's no reason to be afraid of it.

[saintstars]

Melkor seducing bothering Fëanáro

[corsairspade]

every time i interact with the silmarillion i get weirdly excited about the fact that the authorial intent is that it's a translation of historical accounts. it's a tertiary source! none of it is first hand. it makes it so much more interesting. was the legendarium a mannish tradition? what parts of these were written by pengolodh? by rumil? what loremaster has recorded this? would there be bias in the accounting? can i trust what i'm reading, from this viewpoint, this many years after it would have been written?

what has been mythologised, what has been sanitised, what is third-hand written on rumour? it's such an interesting thing to consider.

[azaisya]

@just-another-linguist and @melestasflight both requested Fingon which was v exciting. Fingon is one of the characters that really stuck with me the first time I read the Silm, but I’ve never actually drawn him. In my mind this is like a Valinor-era Fingon!

[queerofthedagger]

if i had a nickle for every time a pair in the middle earth legendarium defied a dark lord, saved each other by song, lost a limb, and got rescued by the eagles, i would have three nickles which isn't a lot but it's funny that two of the most queer-coded relationships get paralleled to tolkien's 'ultimate ideal of a romance' couple like this twice it happened thrice

[isilwhore]

All of my special guys are in here

[ilaneya]

guess who am i drawing when i’m not feeling well? you’re right, maedhros

[bluepickle36]

Maedhros: *trying to have a serious conversation with international ramifications*

Maglor, the greatest musician in Middle Earth, and Daeron, the minstrel and loremaster of Thingol: *playing instruments and singing loudly in the background*

This is absolutely how this went.

[laly]

Maedhros didn't give up kingship.

In the Silm it sounds like he went to Fingolfin and said "I don't wanna be king anymore, it's your turn." because it's so shortened and his giving up of the claim to the crown is put BEFORE the council.

In The Grey Annals is a longer version where the council VOTES, on who should lead the Noldor. And Fingolfin wins. Maedhros ACCEPTS the decision (unlike his brothers) which could be called "waving his claim to kingship", yes, but it's still a very different situation than in the Silm.

The kingship going to Fingolfin not by Maedhros initiative also fits the whole "dispossessed" epithet a little better. The kingship is rather taken than given away.

(Also interesting is that it seems like that Maedhros might have become king if Caranthir hadn't behaved that badly at the council.)

Here's the bit from The War Of The Jewels if anyone's interested: