#tarannon

[bretwalda-lamnguin]

I definitely think cultural prejudice factored against Berúthiel in Gondor, but I've been having thoughts about what an interesting situation her marriage is. I think there's a lot more to it than prejudice and a few cats...

Berúthiel was a Númenorian, but one descended from the Kings Men, as opposed to the Faithful ancestors of the Gondorians. Both sides of Númenor still exist in middle earth, but for the most part the Gondorians seem to want to claim sole right to Númenor's legacy, certainly after Arnor's collapse, and deny the existence and legitimacy of other groups of Númenorians (either by ignoring them or claiming them to be of “impure blood”). Umbar, other Númenorian colonies and Númenorians in the service of Sauron (e.g the Mouth of Sauron) obviously fly in the face of this. Gondor has at all times its own dark inversion to face. Umbar exists as an aspect of Gondor's dark shadow, reflecting the aspects of their culture and history that they are most uncomfortable with, but that still (to a lesser degree) exist within themselves. We see it most in Castamir the Usurper, a Númenorian blood-purist whose descendants do end up ruling Umbar. This makes Tarannon's marriage to Berúthiel interesting. Rather than deny the existence of the King's Men in middle earth, this seems more an attempt to reconcile the two, and re-unify the two halves of Númenor. There would have likely been some elements in Gondor all for this, Númenorian blood-supremecists who were King's Men in all but name, Castamir didn't come from nowhere. But this involves legitimising their political enemy in an attempt to reconcile them, by marrying Berúthiel Tarannon was acknowledging her to be a Númenorian, this was before the Kin-Strife. It cannot be an easy thing to walk back. Tarannon and Berúthiel did not love each other, this must have been an arranged marriage, and Berúthiel a prominent princess, likely growing up steeped in the local forms of Númenorian King's Men culture. So, with so much riding on it, why did it fail? I think there are two possible answers. The Gondorians were either repulsed by how similar the King's Men were to themselves, or by how different.

For the first, perhaps Berúthiel often talks in ways which are less veiled than the Gondorians, openly talking of Númenorian superiority, that other Men exist only to serve them, mocking those of "lesser bloodlines". This makes those who would consider themselves Faithful uncomfortable, she represents an unmasked version of Gondor, with all its rhetoric and justification swept aside and the horrible truth of Númenorian imperialism laid bare.

Alternatively, many in Gondor may have hoped that the years in exile may have set the descendants of the King's Men right, they can't surely still hold slaves and carry out human sacrifice by immolation, can they? Only for Berúthiel herself to dash this. Treating Tarannon's servants as slaves, calling for enslavement of defeated foes and burning of political enemies.

Perhaps it was some of both, to different people. Either way I think this is an interesting moment in Gondorian history, we never hear about any more attempts at reconciliation before or since, and the Gondorians post Kin-Strife (and especially from Mardil onward according to Faramir) take a different path. There are still dark elements there, but Gondor definitely becomes less like the King's Men, not more. Though this only seems to increase their resolve to deny them, and their right to claim Númenor's legacy. This would also explain why Tarannon was so keen to have her existence forgotten, this wasn’t just a failed marriage, it was failed geopolitics and diplomacy. Something that would potentially hurt Gondor for decades, even centuries.

[remusjohnslupin]

TOLKIEN LADIES: Berúthiel

Berúthiel lived in the King's House in Osgiliath, hating the sounds and smells of the sea and the house that Tarannon built below Pelargir "upon arches whose feet stood deep in the wide waters of Ethir Anduin;" she hated all making, all colours and elaborate adornment, wearing only black and silver and living in bare chambers, and the gardens of the house in Osgiliath were filled with tormented sculptures beneath cypresses and yews. She had nine black cats and one white, her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew those things "that men wish most to keep hidden," setting the white cat to spy upon the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed when they saw them pass.

[edennill-archived]

topics of contention among historians of Gondor:

whether Ar-Pharazon or Tar-Miriel should be considered the last ruler of Númenor. Pharazon is traditionally named as such, but once in a blue moon you have someone point out that he was an usurper and these aren't supposed to count. the refutations tend to come in the form of (a) but we're reluctant to make changes in the books (b) that it's definitely Pharazon's actions that are what comes to mind when you think about the last years of Númenor and Miriel shouldn't be linked with them

the rohirrim (not) being descended from the house of Hador. this is a story someone had more or less made up wholesale based on very little evidence, but calling them close relations makes people feel better about Gondor having given up a third of it's territory in their favour. every once in a while some young scholar realises this, tries to make his case, and is promptly shut down.

a slight lost-cause-ism problem regarding the kinstrife in some circles, for that matter, though thankfully it's a rather niche view (or at least one mostly kept silent about)

whether assorted first age figures were villains or tragic heroes. kind of like this fandom, tbh, though with way fewer uncritical fëanor stans and a lot more you do realise he would have hated you, right? (no morgoth fans though, because first of all, what the heck, and also that would be a very hard position to defend when his most important servant is actively trying to genocide you)

whether the ship-kings' conquests were that needful or advantageous, actually, and just how much historical reason the peoples of harad might have to not like gondorians

do. not. cite. the legend of beruthiel. as. a. historical. source, please! (seven stars! she hated gondor, gondor hated her, she was suspected of nefarious doings and tarannon had her sent back home. that's IT. she MIGHT have had cats, and the rest is common fancy)

who actually raised the first king of númenor after his parents, um, entered the realm of legend. yes, I know what the most fanciful story says, but it has to be just story, right? it would be so weird and ironic and our legendary progenitor can't have been raised by murderers...

surprisingly fierce battles over very obscure first age edain with legends attached. you can't imagine how much shouting can get involved.

[magicalmanhattanproject]

The Falasturiel Conspiracy

Okay, this is gonna be a grimmer one, but hear me out. I think I'm onto something.

So on my last Appendices diving post, I talked about Fíriel Ondoheriel, wife of Arvedui and how Arvedui tried to claim Gondor's throne by claiming that Fíriel had a right to the throne according to the Númenorean laws of succession. Last time I was mostly focused on Fíriel and how that deals with her, but there's something else weird about it.

How has this not come up before? Ondoher is the thirty-first king of Gondor. The Council of Gondor don't reply to Arvedui's claim. There's no "Yeah we already figured out that particular issue of succession like two dozen generations ago" message.

Somehow, in thirty-one generations, Gondor has never had an only or even an eldest daughter. Compare that to three ruling queens and three more generations of women that could have been queen but weren't (Silmarië, Tar-Súrion's sisters, and Tar-Míriel) in 25 rulers of Númenor. That... seems implausible.

Now, the Doylist explanation is simple: Tolkien forgot women exist again. But, if we want a Watsonian explanation, let's turn our attention to one of the very few women who does get mentioned in Gondor's history: Berúthiel.

Berúthiel is infamous in Gondorian history. She's a Black Númenorean from Umbar. She's evil, she's wicked, she's "nefarious, solitary, and loveless", she hates the Sea, she spies on the men of Gondor, and she's exiled and stricken from the Book of Kings but still lives on in reputation. She is also the wife of Tarannon Falastur, the 12th king of Gondor and the first who had no heirs.

So, like. Let's lay it all out.

It Just So Happens that there aren't any women who could possibly inherit the throne until Ondoher and all his sons are killed. Just So Happens. By Sheer Coincidence.

The first king of Gondor who dies without an heir has a foreign wife who may not be familiar or comfortable with Gondorian norms or political necessities.

The wife of that king really fucking hates her husband and refuses to live in the same city as him and spies on any man that has anything to do with her.

Are y'all picking up what I'm putting down?

[ruiniel]

A @tolkienrsb​ fic by @aprilertuileviresse /Aprilertuile on AO3, with art by @ruiniel

Artwork Rating: G | Fic rating: G | Warnings: No archive warnings apply, arranged marriage with all that implies nothing graphically described though | Relationship: Berúthiel/Maglor | Characters: Maglor, Berúthiel, Tarannon Falastur | Word count: 13k 

SUMMARY:

Beruthiel is set to wed the king of Gondor in an arranged marriage to ensure the safety of her people. Unhappy and alone in the city of her husband, she meets Maglor, also exiled from his own people. 

READ ON AO3: He taught me to love the sea

VIEW THE ART on Tumblr

[gaindragon]

THE TARGARYENS OF MIDDLE EARTH; A SHORT HISTORY.

while much is stored in the archives of minas tirith and the scrolls of imladris, true scholars know this is but a meager part of the land's great history, and untold accounts have either been long forgotten or their record has been kept secret. that which has been put down in the telling of house targaryen comes largely from when their heraldic banner has been seen upon the field of battle. what has been passed down by the chroniclers and lore-masters gives but a brief tale of one of númenor's oldest persisting houses.

the targaryens were one of the many noble houses of númenor aligned with the king's men, later to be known in part as members of the descendants of the 'black númenóreans'. their house was not one of prominence, keeping no strongholds nor governance amongst the lesser men of middle earth, preferring instead to hold to their ancient seat on númenor. in the year 3262 of the second age, when sauron was brought to númenor as the prisoner of ar-pharazôn only to shortly be elevated to role of advisor to the king, the targaryens were the first of the númenórean houses to hearken to the dark lord. the targaryens partook in the proffered dark magicks, of which they already had an affinity for, and it is said that sauron presented them with a vial of dragon's essence, to which their blood and the blood of their lineage would be eternally bound. deceiving them into thinking this would bring them power nearer to the likes of the eldar and the valar, the targaryens were misled by sauron to consider their house as more akin to gods rather than mere men; a notion that has since spread like a fire.

some years before the downfall of númenor, one of the targaryens had a vision of the destruction that awaited them lest they depart and build a new stronghold in middle earth. thus it was that the targaryens and their household left númenor, choosing to settle in the withered heath rather than the havens of umbar. it is there that they came upon the last dragons, and thus their many-towered citadel was named dragonstone. long had the dragons become disobedient, heeding naught but their own fancies and obeying no summons. it was the targaryens who finally brought the dragons to heel, as sauron intended, for now he had a tool to bend the dragons back to his will; the targaryen dragonriders. when the downfall of númenor swept the island beneath the sea and sauron returned, in the coming decades many of the targaryens left dragonstone to fly to the aid of barad-dûr during the years-long siege. many a dragon and a targaryen were slain, and in the wake of sauron's defeat in the year 3441 of the second age, the remaining of house targaryen retreated back to dragonstone.

some travelled and married with house velaryon, another remnant of the 'black númenóreans' who resided as a power in umbar. in order to put an end to the battles waged between them in the following centuries, a lady of house targaryen wed the gondorian king tarannon falastur in the year 830 of the third age. named berúthiel by the men of gondor, though this was not her name, she brought with her seven dragon hatchlings, and was much detested by the gondorian people for her love of these evil creatures. she was later exiled, and further enmity deepened between house targaryen and the gondorian houses. as the targaryens dwindled due to their custom of intermarrying to keep their gifted blood pure and infighting for the seat of their inheritance, so did their mark upon the annals. one of their last more notable contributions were as dragonriders flying beside the ranks of the armies of angmar against the men of arnor, for with the bond to their dragons came an eternal oath sworn to sauron's forces that they could not break, until such time that the king who was promised fulfills the legend of the targaryen dream, releasing them and their dragons from their oath.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Favourite Female Tolkien Character Poll - Round 1, Match 28

There are three polls today, all featuring women of Gondor and Arnor!

Berúthiel

A queen of Gondor remembered for her cats. From a note in Unfinished Tales:

She was the nefarious, solitary, and loveless wife of Tarannon, twelfth King of Gondor and first of the ‘ship-kings,’ who took the crown in the name of Falastur (‘Lord of the Coasts’), and was the first childless king. Berúthiel lived in the King’s House in Osgiliath, hating the sounds and smells of the sea and the house that Tarannon built below Pelargir ‘upon arches whose feet stood deep in the wide waters of Ethir Anduin’; she hated all making, all colours and elaborate adornment, wearing only black and silver and living in bare chambers, and the gardens of the house in Osgiliath were filled with tormented sculptures beneath cypresses and yews.

She had nine black cats and one white [my note: sonehow this feels like a metaphor/imagery for Sauron and the Ringwraiths], her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew those things ‘that men wish most to keep hidden’, setting the white cat to spy on the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared to touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed when they saw them pass.

…her name was erased from the Book of the Kings…and King Tarannon had her set on a ship alone with her cats and set adrift on the sea before a north wind. The ship was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow.

Vidumavi

She married Valacar prince of Gondor and their son was Eldacar (if you followed the Obscure Tolkien Blorbo poll tournament, you may have heard of him).

Gondor had sought good relations with the Northmen, who lived the plains surrounding the south of Greenwood the Great. King Rómendacil II of Gondor sent his son Valacar to live for a while with Vidugavia, the king or chieftain of lands east of southern Greenwood. Valacar went further than he expected in marrying Vidugavia’s daughter Vidumavi. People in Gondor did not like this, regarding the Northmen as lesser than them, and fearing that intermarriage would make their descendents shorter-lived. After Vidumavi’s death, when Eldacar became king, there was a rebellion and civil war called the Kin-strife, in which Eldacar was ultimately victorious.

[vidumavi]

Who of the married into Gondorian nobility trinity worked the best? Seems like there could be multiple answers here.

I think it really depends on how you define “worked best”! The reason I lumped Mithrellas, Berúthiel and Vidumavi into one category in my head is that to me, their stories (or how I think about their stories because lbr, the canon information is sparse here) all involve a strong sense of alienation and othering from the culture they’ve married into.

Vidumavi was probably the happiest with her life- she married her husband out of love, there are no hints that she did not have a loving marriage and a good relationship with her son and she died before the civil war started and her grandson was murdered. Still, she left her home behind to become Queen of a country whose nobility- including her husband’s relatives- considered her racially inferior, and no matter how happy she was with her family, that grief and anger and worry for her children and grandchildren would have probably followed her her whole life. But she did ultimately have a choice in coming to Gondor, which doesn’t seem true for Berúthiel, whose marriage was likely political and who despised her husband (both Vidumavi and Berúthiel have to change their names to Sindarin, though, an interesting parallel of having to give up parts of their identity).

(Most mentions of Berúthiel that we get have a sense of historical mythmaking and dramatization about them and I tend to read them as a wild, one-dimensional exaggeration by people who did not understand her at all. She should get to do a little bit of dark magic and cat-communing, though. As a treat)

Berúthiel was probably ostracized and treated as cruelly as Vidumavi, it’s just not mentioned because her entire role is to be a semi-legendary villain (and to be a vehicle for Jirts weird hatred of cats. Booo.). Her stint as Queen of Gondor ends with her husband possibly attempting to murder (??) her and like 20 years (?) later Gondor conquers her home, so whatever diplomacy might have been attempted by her family in marrying her off to Tarannon was probably no success. She gets one good hit in, though, by refusing her husband heirs (possibly through cat magic, we don’t know. this is one of those “Jirt scrabbled it onto the back of a receipt and it’s illegible to human eyes” drafts). And I suppose if “traumatize the population of Gondor so much that they whisper her name thousands of years later” was something she would have considered a victory (based if true), she won that one too.

Mithrellas is the odd one out here, mostly because we know so little about her and because she didn’t really have an impact on geopolitics, but I’ve always found it hard to believe that her marriage to Imrazor was a happy one. People who vanish into the night alone immediately after giving birth never to be seen again are probably not in a very good situation, though I go back and forth on how consensual the marriage was in the first place. She was entirely alone, lost in a strange country and had just lost all her companions when he found her and I think it would have been very easy for him to take advantage of her in that situation, even if she agreed to marry him of her own free will (I’m having thoughts about her and Berúthiel both rejecting motherhood in some way, but god help me this post is already long enough).

I love rolling these three around in my head and looking at parallels and juxtapositions between them. All three of them are in fraught positions with limited power despite their status, considered Other, all three are, in a sense, alone. I think Vidumavi “works” best, because she actually has a family around that loves her- she's the only one, I think, who wouldn't change much about her life if she looked back at the end of it- but of course the society around her is so bigoted that what should have been simply a marriage makes someone start a civil war that permanently destabilizes the kingdom.

[hobbitwrangler]

For the WIP ask game, I can’t be the only one interested in Queen of Cats! I assume this is Beruthiel, which would be amazing because the little bit that I know about her is so intriguing. But even if it’s not Beruthiel, that would be equally amazing because then it’s a total blank slate! Either way, I’m very interested to find out more!

Yess @from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras you are correct! (Also thank you to @glorf1ndel for your ask about this as well!)

This fic is set years after Tarannon's death when Hyarmendecil I is king. It follows one of Gondor's spies as he enters Umbar and comes across a strange woman with a lot of cats (totally not Berúthiel *wink wink*) who offers him shelter. A+ decision-making, I'm sure he'll be fine.

Probably the thing holding me back most in this fic is figuring out how to portray Berúthiel physically/stylistically which unfortunately involves me working out what Black Numenóreans and people of Umbar are like when it comes to their culture, which is a level of effort my brain just runs away from at the moment.

“Have you not realised who I am?” Farnon frowned slightly, unease growing in his throat. She looked at him, an oddly quizzical expression on her face, as if were a rabbit who had not jumped through the hoop as expected. There was something disconcerting about her eyes. They stared straight ahead, not directly at him. Yet the tilt of her head, the quirk of her lips, made it seem as if she could read the growing fear on his face.  Even as he watched, one of the cats leapt up onto her lap. It stretched, opening wide its red mouth to reveal sharp white teeth. The old woman reached long, sharp-nailed hands to scratch behind the creature’s ears and it arched its back, purring thunderously. Something rubbed against his leg and Farnon jumped, realising that it was another one of the cats slinking past him to curl up at its mistress’s feet.  “I …” Another black shape gazed at him from across the room, its eyes glinting yellow in the firelight. They are all black. He did not know how, but he was suddenly overcome by the feeling that he was being watched. Of course you are being watched. And yet he felt as though she was looking at him, not across the fire, but from above. His eyes rose, slowly, heavy with dread, and he saw it. On the rafters above them, sat another cat, its tale switching as it stared at him out of gold-green eyes. Its fur was luxuriously thick and white as bone. 

wip title ask game

[sweetearthandnorthernsky]

tarannon falastur

[potatoobsessed999]

1, 8, 14 & 16?

1. Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi-chaptered fics?

Oh, one-shots for sure. I love reading multichaps, and I’ve got so many ideas for ones to write - and several that have been in progress for, uh, a while. But it’s really hard for me to actually finish longer projects, so one-shots are nicer and give me more of a sense of accomplishment.

8. Do you prefer the beginning, middle, or end of a story?

Huh, that’s a hard question. I guess I generally prefer writing the beginning? That’s when I’m the most fired up and excited about the story idea.

14. How do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

I just wallow in the feels, and I am so very dramatic about it. Sometimes I draw from personal experience, but generally the big thing is just that I’m identifying with the characters while I write. I tend to act out their body language to get a handle on what that would look like, too.

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

Oh, SO many! It’s hard to decide on just one to share! One I’m really excited about even though it’s coming along super slowly is my alternate character interpretation of Queen Berúthiel. When it’s done, it’ll follow her from childhood through to being set adrift by Tarannon. She’s heroic and Tarannon is villainous, but she’s misunderstood and disliked in Gondor due to racism against her Haradrim heritage, as well as her Autistic flat affect getting misinterpreted to mean that she’s uncaring. She’s a devotee of Nienna, and a lot of her more macabre canon behavior has to do with that - her garden full of tormented statues is her “mourning garden,” for instance, and she meditates there on the sorrows of the world.

[valinorbr]

Berúthiel foi uma rainha de Gondor, conhecida por ser nefasta e solitária. Detestava gatos, mas os escravizou 10 deles (um branco e 9 pretos) para espionar e torturar inimigos. Após causar temor em Gondor, foi exilada pelo rei Tarannon Falastur, sendo seu nome apagado dos registros. Berúthiel voltou para sua cidade natal, mas a memória dela e de seus gatos perdurou.

[twilightcitadel]

Brynndor:

God(s): Zephyrus, Seraphina.

Capital City: Twilight Citadel

Ruler: The Arcane Sovereign Guild

Native Race: Eirwynar

Description: Brynndor is geographically divided into two distinct halves. The lower half is characterised by its lower altitude, featuring green, rolling hills and expansive meadows. This region is filled with large green spaces and dense woodland areas, all infused with the essence of Seraphina. The upper half of Brynndor is defined by a high-altitude mountain range, where clouds and thunder are prevalent. The mountains vary in height, gradually reaching their highest near the border of the Snowdrift Dominion (north). This part of Brynndor has the essence of Zephyrus. Brynndor has 5 separate regions, Stormspear, Tarannon, Derwenholt, Elderwood, and Greenbriar.

Read More

[ao3feed-tolkien]

The Queen and her Cats

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/JRvFwyE

by KayleeArafinwiel

Glassiel (known to history as Queen Beruthiel) was just a slip of a girl when she was brought to Gondor to wed Tarannon Falastur. However, he hated her, and she never found solace in Gondor or its people. Still, being summarily packed off to who-knows-where is heartbreaking in itself.

Words: 100, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 18 of B2MEM 2023 Bingo

Fandoms: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/M, Gen

Characters: Berúthiel (Tolkien), Berúthiel's Cats (Tolkien), Berúthiel's White Cat (Tolkien)

Relationships: Berúthiel/Tarannon Falastur

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/JRvFwyE

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Quotes on both characters, because they’re intriguing and I didn’t remember them well!

Pearl Took (from Letters of JRR Tolkien, letter 214; fair warning, pretty fatphobic in tone)

Lalia the Great (or less couteously the Fat) …ruled the Tooks and the Great Smials for 22 years, a grand and memorable, if not universally beloved, ‘matriarch’. She was not at the famous Party [Bilbo’s 111th birthday], but was prevented from attending rather by her great size and immobility than by her age. Her son, Ferumbras, had no wife, being unable (it was alleged) to find anyone willing to occupy apartments in the Great Smials, under the rule of Lalia. Lalia, in her last and fattest years, had the custom of being wheeled to the Great Door, to take the air on a fine morning. In the spring of Shire Year 1402 [the year after Bilbo’s party] her clumsy attendant let the heavy chair run over the threshold and tipped Lalia down the flight of steps into the garden. So ended a reign and life that might well have rivalled that of the Great Took.

It was widely rumoured that the attendant was Pearl (Pippin’s sister), though the Tooks tried to keep the matter within the family. At the celebration of Ferumbras’ accession the displeasure and regret of the family was formally expressed by the exclusion of Pearl from the ceremony and feast; but it did not escape notice that later (after a decent interval) she appeared in a splendid necklace of name-jewels that had long lain in the hoard of the Thains.

To me this doesn’t suggest intent, just that Lalia wasn’t particularly mourned; but definitely a fine source of hobbit gossip!

Queen Berúthiel

In the main text of LOTR, the only mention of her is a reference to her cats. This is elaborated on in the notes to “The Istari” chapter of Unfinished Tales (summary by Christopher Tolkien):

Berúthiel was the nefarious, solitary, and loveless wife of Tarannon, twelfth king of Gondor (T.A. 830-913) and first of the ‘Ship-kings’, who took the crown in the name of Falastur ‘Lord of the Coasts’, and was the first childless king [of Gondor]. Berúthiel lived in the King’s House in Osgiliath, hating the sounds and smells of the sea and the house that Tarannon built below Pelargir ‘upon arches whose feet stood deep in the wide water of Ethir Anduin’; she hated all making, all colours and elaborate adornment, wearing only black and silver and living in bare chambers, and the gardens of the house in Osgiliath were filled with tormented scupltures beneath cypresses and yews. She had nine black cats and one white, her slaves, with whom she conversed, or read their memories, setting them to discover all the dark secrets of Gondor, so that she knew the things ‘that men most wish to keep hidden’, setting the white cat to spy upon the black, and tormenting them. No man in Gondor dared touch them; all were afraid of them, and cursed them when they saw them pass. What follows is almost illegible in the unique manuscript, except for the ending, which states that her name was erased from the Book of the Kings (‘but the memory of men is not wholly shut in books, and the cats of Queen Berúthiel never passed wholly out of men’s speech’), and that King Tarannon had her set on a ship alone with her cats and set adrift on the sea before a north wind. The ship was last seen flying past Umbar under a sickle moon, with a cat at the masthead and another as a figure-head on the prow.

RIP Berúthiel but I’m different, I would love a house on stilts in the ocean. Nonetheless, a literal goth queen, and I want fanart of that last scene.

Obscure Tolkien Blorbo: Round 2

Berúthiel vs Pearl Took

Berúthiel:

A Queen of Gondor noted for her unhappy marriage and her cats.

An evil sorceress who is also a cat lady. Need I say more

Pearl Took:

The eldest sister of Pippin Took.

Ok but can you IMAGINE being Pippin Took's eldest sister. This girl DEFINITELY has eldest daughter syndrome. She dealt with it by casually murdering an elderly relative :)

Round 2 masterpost