#the flight of noldor

[that-angry-noldo]

today on "sad about finarfin" series: everyone expected him to return, but he didn't expect everyone to go on

[maironsmaid]

Y'all need to see this omfg this is so good holy shit I'm so normal about this

[dfwbwfbbwfbwf]

The Noldor needed to return to Middle Earth.

This is a long one, so I put it under a Read More thing.

I was looking into the Doom of the Noldor, and why the Valar weren't interested in going after Morgoth after he murdered a guy, and I came across the rather reasonable argument that the Valar could only defeat Morgoth after he put a great deal of his influence into Arda, kind of like a giant One Ring, which would weaken him. Which is all fine and good, I guess.

(Not sure why they couldn't just do what they did in the War of the Powers and evacuate everyone out of Beleriand before sending Tulkas in, as that would be far more responsible than what they actually ended up doing, but I digress.)

So that's it then. The Valar plan to just sit around Valinor, chilling, while Morgoth essentially runs around Beleriand with a can of gasoline and a match. And, based off what I've read, it sounds like they were really just kind of doing nothing until Eärendil and Elwing showed up to buy protection. Or it does take three years to sail from southwest Beleriand to the Bay of Eldamar. (It took Eärendil eight total, and four of them were after Elwing showed up, and it is a long journey; there's a reason the Noldor went as far north as they could in Aman before attempting to sail.)

Here's a map for reference. Credit to Karen Wynn Fonstadt. The Helcaraxë is so tiny!

Anyway, I'm going to give those who stayed in Valinor the benefit of the doubt and assume they spent 5 and a half centuries preparing for war.

(Even though the Noldor were plenty ready for it when they left, considering they annihilated Morgoth's army. Yeah, Fëanor died, but who could expect fire demons of nightmares to show up randomly?)

Sorry. I keep getting into tangents. The Valinorians prepare, get a signal from ... something, and sail across Belaegar to destroy Morgoth and save the Men, Elves, and Dwarves. Happy ever after, and the Flight of the Noldor was completely useless and pointless.

Except it wasn't.

Sure, most of that plan would've still worked as intended, except for the "save Men, Elves, and Dwarves" part. Beleriand would have been an utter wasteland by the time they got there without the Noldor's intervention. Morgoth might have conquered even more. Imagine if he got to Cuiviénen, the far south of Harad, even Hildórien.

"That's impossible, dfwbwfbbwfbwf. Even Morgoth couldn't have mustered up the strength to do that."

But is it impossible? Who would have been there to stop him?

Círdan's Falathrim were nearly exterminated, saved only due to Fëanor's intervention. Denethor died because Fëanor was too late. (By how much, it's unclear, but it happened the same Valerian Year, so maybe a few Sun Years. If Olwë had helped, and Uinen not slowed the Noldor, and Ulmo provided a way across, perhaps Denethor would have lived. But I suppose we'll never know.) Melian guarded Doriath with her Girdle, but Þingollo never sent anyone out to engage with Morgoth; he couldn't, because Doriath didn't stand a snowball's chance in Mordor. What Sindar and Nandor were trapped outside the Girdle were certainly no match for Morgoth's forces. I wouldn't be surprised if Morgoth conquered the entire continent (again, save Doriath, but Doriath is about as concerning to him as a mosquito bite) before Iþil rose for the first time. After all, it took him about 19-20 years to take over half the land, and he had about 27 to take the other half.

I don't imagine Morgoth would go after the Khazad, and I don't see the Khazad going after Morgoth. They'd close their doors to all, and Morgoth wouldn't have to worry about them.

Morgoth would still venture east and corrupt the newly awoken Men, and I think some would repent and travel west to become the Edain, but they would either remain in Middle Earth, or be destroyed and/or corrupted upon reaching Beleriand. There would be no Finrod to greet them, no Dorthonion or Brethil or Dor-Lómin for them to settle and thrive in. There would be no Beren, Dior, Elwing. There would be no Hador, Galdor, Huor, Tuor, Eärendil. No Elrond or Elros.

Morgoth would continue south and east. The Nandor and Avari would likely fall - I think the Silvans would be destroyed or subjugated first, as they probably have a smaller population. And with each civilization Morgoth conquers, he has more potential orcs.

I do think Morgoth would still develop his dragons. He's a reptile dad imo.

By the time the Valinorians arrive in this timeline, there's nothing TO save. Even if they manage to defeat Morgoth, it would take longer. More lives lost. More land sunk.

Do I think the Noldor were the only reason this didn't happen? No, but they were a very big one. Their first attack in the Dagor-nuin-Giliath decimated Morgoth's army, something that took him four and a half centuries to build up enough to fight with again. They guarded Beleriand against the northern menace. They made the continent a safe place for Elf, Man, and Dwarf to thrive, something the "King of Beleriand" couldn't accomplish, and the "King of Elves" Ingwë and "King of Arda" Manwë refused to try.

Do I think the original argument of the Valar waging a war of attrition against Morgoth makes sense? Yes. Do I think their plan would have worked? Depends how you define "worked" - they would have defeated Morgoth, but the cost would be too great. This is why Fëanáro was born: to save Beleriand. And even though he was only on the continent for a short time, he did just that. The Valar should have helped him, but they were, at best, foolish, at worst cowards.

Remember to thank a Fëanárion for your existence today.

... No one is going to read this, and if you did, you're insane. But I guess I'm insane for writing it. Have a cookie and milk. 🍪🥛

[wanderer-clarisse]

Ambarussa for day 6 of @feanorianweek!

[eri-pl]

Yesterday I was checking how the Noldor sailed and there's a wonderful paragraph there. It basically goes like: "Ossë didn't attack the Noldor despite his love for the Teleri, because the Valar had said to not interfere with them." And then, after one or it two sentences, "Uinen made some storms and drowned some ships". (Sorry, it's from memory, but this general meaning.)

Which means it basically went something like this:

Ossë: They killed my friends!

Uinen: What are we going to do about it?

Ossë (who is still on probation I guess): Nothing. There Valar forbade us from doing anything. *sniff* Hey, where are you going?

Uinen: ...shopping.

*a few storms later*

Uinen: ... So, my lord, Ossë didn't do anything. And I'm... Well, I'm not sorry, but I'm ready to take whatever punishment you see fit.

Ulmo: You are on clam duty. Both.

Seriously, Tolkien had so many hidden gems. Yeah Ossë couldn't do anything because of course everybody listens to the Valar, well, except Uinen in the very next sentence, she didn't care.

[edennill]

Thinking about Fëanor's speech in Tirion and I'm coming to the conclusion that there must have been huge tension coupled with uncertainty of what comes now in the city up until that moment.

What has just happened is an event of catastrophic proportions, the world they know has just shattered, and it doesn't seem as if there was any organised effort among the elves to even asses the damage, let alone pick up the pieces. They are kingless, they are leaderless, no one has told them what to do. The Valar are convening, but they don't know that, or if they do it isn't helpful for the general mood, because waiting is the hardest thing of all. And then Fëanor appears and takes control of all that energy, and that makes history.

[musingsinmiddleearth]

It interests that Maedhros alone stood back aside when Fëanor set to burning the ships at Losgar. Ever first in his mind was Fingon the friend he loved, yet in obeisance to his father he said nothing when Fëanor determined to abandon those kindred not of his own house.

Maedhros' heart must have grieved for the distance from his friend, and all the more when Fëanor had little more to say but to call them all needless baggage. And when it was Fingon and only Fingon who came to Maedhros' rescue, I think he would have fallen against his friend and begged amid remorse for forgiveness.

[shiroandblack]

I recently watched a rendition of Fëanor's speech to the Noldor on TikTok and I gotta say, hearing it spoken gives it so much more power than just reading it.

While reading the Silmarillion I've always thought that it was a very charismatic speech, even if Fëanor is basically asking his people to leave the only home they've known to literally fight a god. Tolkien wrote an absolute banger of a speech where just reading it already has me going "yeah, yeah that makes sense I get why the Noldor would up and leave after hearing this".

But hearing it being spoken and not only read as part of an audiobook, but actually spoken by a voice actor in an interpretation of how Fëanor would've spoken it really gave it a lot more depth that I wasn't expecting. It was very rousing, it's like your mind was silenced and all you can do is hang onto Fëanor's every word. By the time the voice actor finished the speech, I was ready to pack my bags, cross the ocean to a place I've never been to, and potentially die fighting a god. While my brain still paused at the subtle hints of manipulation (because that speech was manipulative to a degree. But I think that deserves its own post), it was mostly overridden by the 'fuck yeah let's do this' mentality.

The people who stayed back (before the Kinslaying of Alqualondë) during the Flight of the Noldor after hearing that speech are the real deal. It honestly takes strength to not get dragged in by the roaring emotions.

[silvantransthranduiltrash]

What if there were elves that left for middle earth from valinor before the flight of the noldor?

You know the short story “the ones who walk away from omelas”?

Basically, valinor is perfect, except when it’s not. And while most elves are willing to bend to the valar for protection, a few of them will not.

They don’t leave with fanfair. They don’t announce their escape.

But every now and then, you’ll notice that an elf has gone away.

They walk out of the door one night and board a small ship. And they sail away to find a better place. Or go back home to the land in which they were made.

And then over half the noldor make a big deal about fleeing valinor and those elves go “jesus christ, guys, we made sure to leave without causing a ruckus for the sole purpose of not getting ‘punished’ by the valar”

[eccentricmya]

Prompt: The viewpoint of a Noldo on the ships while Uinen’s tears make the sea rougher

Anon! Thank you for this most inspiring prompt! 🤍💛

I've decided to explore this as diary entries for @silmarillionepistolary week! There will be one entry for each day. Hope you like it ^^

Chapters: 1/7 Warnings: Major Character Death Characters: Original Characters, Uinen (Tolkien) Additional Tags: Epistolary, Flight of the Noldor, Psychological Horror

Summary: Some snippets from the journal of Almalindë during the flight of the Noldor on the stolen ships.

[stellavesperis]

I know fanon (including my conception) has Maglor expanding the Noldolantë to include pretty much all the events of the first age he took part in, but as far as I’m aware, canon only specifies the First Kinslaying.

So if it has to end before, say, the battle of sudden flame, where do you think it ends?

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

The refugees in Sirion hearing the grind of metal and angry shouts and thinking it’s happening again.

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

I just finished a re-read of Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s account of his time on the nightmarish Terra Nova Antarctic exploration, and it inspired me to look again at some helcaraxë art. I think Tolkien would have been aware of all of the most prominent Antarctic explorers, who were active when he was a young man and were very famous in their time, and I wonder how much he was thinking about their specific experiences as he worked on the story of the Noldor who were forced to cross the grinding ice.

Some of the real life accounts are truly horrifying and, of course, a bunch of them end with death. You’ve got people forced into unexpected terrain without access to proper supplies, trying to cross a hellish ice plain with a single axe, 15 meters of rope and boots with screws and nails pushed into the soles. 

You’ve got people trapped away from camp and racing against starvation to get back, starting out at full rations before cutting to half and then a quarter and eventually getting down to one biscuit per day per person, and even that is sometimes given up so that the weakest among them can have a little more and perhaps stave off disaster for a little bit longer.

You’ve got groups trudging across a mountainous ice field with snow blindness, hurricane force gales, every mile of forward progress requiring 3 miles of walking because they have to keep doubling back to help stragglers and retrieve supplies, but they’re still gamely trying to sing songs and hymns that can be heard above the screaming wind to remind themselves of better times and places.

You’ve got guys walking along one minute and the next they’ve vanished, swallowed up by a crevasse that didn’t even exist 10 seconds ago and now they’re broken and battered at the bottom of it.

You’ve got people having to hole up in tiny little snow caves to wait out storms that last for weeks on end, everyone so on top of each other that they all end up with dysentery and they can’t keep a fire going because the smoke chokes them, so they’re shivering so hard that their teeth break and every humid exhalation freezes immediately into a layer of rock hard ice on their clothes, gear, sleeping bags, skin.

You have injuries that no longer heal, frostbite that deprives people of the ability to walk, malnutrition that drains people of the energy to do anything at all, and so others are not just pushing forward with the weight of their own bodies and their own gear but the weight of the makeshift sledge that’s pulling their incapacitated friends because all the ponies and dogs have long since starved or been eaten.

You’ve got people who can see clearly that their dear friends’ refusal to abandon them despite their desperately poor condition is endangering the lives of others, and so one night they make their peace with death and quietly walk off into a blizzard on their own.

But despite all of that, some of them survived to tell the tales. They made discoveries. They pushed the limits of human knowledge and achievement. They went home to have families, or not. They became lifelong friends, or forever blamed each other for decisions that were made. They were endlessly proud of what they’d done, or regretted that they’d ever become involved. They went on to great historical acclaim or relative obscurity. They lived.

I don’t know. Feels relevant.  

[dfwbwfbbwfbwf]

There were Teleri who fought for the Noldor at Alqualondë

This is 100% speculation. You've been warned.

You can't honestly expect me to believe that all the Teleri at Alqualondë were of one mind when it came to the ships. Olwë may have forgotten his kin across the Sundering Sea, but not everyone would have. There must have been some who wanted to help the Noldor protect their family. Maybe there were some who desired to cross themselves.

I don't think Olwë was the kind of person to care about their opinions, though. Not enough to put it to a vote. But let's say he did? If they did vote, either the majority didn't want to help, or the majority did wish to help, and Olwë ignored them. The specifics here doesn't matter too much.

In the end, the Noldor were denied passage. Olwë doomed the Teleri in Endórë.

I can't imagine those who disagreed with him would be terribly happy about this.

Olwë told Fëanor that he and his people would not give them the ships, give them a ride in the ships, or even teach them and help them build their own ships. A bit of an overreach and overreaction, for sure. But his people could not disobey him. Not without consequences.

So picture this: a few Teleri offered to help Fëanor steal the ships. Just because Olwë forsook their divorced kin didn't mean they would. Fëanor took them up on it; he needed sailors, and he would never reject help with his vengeful crusade. The Noldor and their Teleri conspirers snuck aboard the ships. Olwë's people attacked first.

Blood in the water.

[wanderer-clarisse]

Caranthir for day 4 of @feanorianweek (unfortunately I'm a day late for this one 😅)

[eri-pl]

Another thing which I haven't seen explored is the Noldor who had made the Great Journey and later joined Feanor in leaving Aman.

How different it must have been for them. It wasn't discovery, it was a return to their homeland (and much harder than the trip to Aman have been). And they remembered the Dark Rider. Not just a vague darkness, and the Trees dying and Finwë murdered (allegedely), but a very concrete experience (trauma) of losing their friends one by one, the anxiety, the terror.

do you think it was a thing?

No typical bald option, because I don't see how there can be a nuanced answer for this.

@dfwbwfbbwfbwf a bonus question for you: …some of the Teleri who had made the Journey; who remembered Thingol and others. Those may be (some of? driving force of?) the ones you wrote about, disagreeing with Olwë about the ships. This feels like something you could make a lot of interesting HCs, or even a fic about. Their relationship with Thingol, with other factions…

(the font here is Amatic; really nice font)