#the nature of middle-earth

[queenmeriadoc]

New book, The Nature of Middle-Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien

[myfanfictiongarden]

"[Sauron] sees that he has met his match (or at least a very serious adversary) in Galadriel; he dissembles his wrath, and gets round Celebrimbor. The Noldorin Smiths under Celebrimbor admit him and begin to learn from him (so in a sense the story of Feanor is repeated)."

The Nature of Middle-earth

(video source)

[drowninginabactatank]

My Tolkien shelf gives me serotonin just looking at it 🥰📚

Featuring: The Fall of Numenor, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The Nature of Middle-Earth – all deluxe illustrated slipcase editions.

16 Hill Lane (Halloween Edition) hobbit hole model from Weta.

The Lord of the Rings: Black Gate Little People Collector 4 figure set – Lurtz, Saruman, Sauron and Gollum.

[readinginithilien]

After a discussion about the fertility of elven women, I found in The Nature Of Middle-Earth the following:

Elves lived in life-cyles? sc. birth, childhood to bodily and mental maturity (as swift as that of men) and then a period of parenthood (marriage etc.) which could be delayed for a long time after maturity

This "cycle" proceeded until all children of the "first period of parenthood" were grown up. Then there was a youth-renewing.

Though it is later said that with their "fading" in middle-earth the cycles worked less and less. This has several interesting implications:

elves age! but then they apparently get younger again from time to time

elves can have children again after their first sets of children are grown up. I've never seen examples of that, and it doesn't really fit with the few children they usually have

elves apparently mature as swift as men. This, as far as I remember, directly contradicts what is written in the Silmarillion about Nellas and Turin

elves can get younger again?

fertility seems to be tied to several factors. It seems to happen not necessarily once, but elves are still not always fertile. Marriage, previous children and age/fading/exhaustion play an important role

elven fertility is or becomes less in middle-earth; it sounds as if the elves there at least after the first age didn't renew

My original question - do elven women menstruate - was unfortunately not answered, but there's definitely a few hints to build a theory, and things to think about.

[raphexim]

A footnote in the Nature of Middle-Earth says the talking eagles were Maiar and it's rocking my whole understanding of the world haha

[that-dinopunk-guy]

I got some books in the mail today.

I'm not doing very well on my goal to read more fantasy that isn't just Tolkien or Tolkien-adjacent.

[orofeaiel]

Journey through Middle Earth

[vigilantegreen]

I honestly feel like nobody in lotr mentions how fucking weird Legolas is. He stays up pacing the floor and singing to himself in the dead of night. He deadass stares straight into the tree line in the absolute pitch black when no one else can see anything. He yells goodbye to a river he has heard about in songs. He's so strange and not one character mentions it AT ALL. I absolutely love him.

[demaparbat-hp]

Golden Boy (and Silver Girl) for the Kintsugi AU.

[morgulien]

“Tolkien wasn’t good at writing women” well explain this

[baddybaddyadardaddy]

see here's the thing about Adar...

MY MAN JUST KEEPS WINNING!!

Sauron at the beginning of the Second Age? STABBED.

Orodruin? ERUPTED.

Eregion? SIEGED.

The Ring of Power? SECURED.

Like ffs, if the elves had just DONE WHAT HE ASKED, my man would have dealt with Ost-in-Edhil's Sauron infestation by LUNCHTIME.

JUST LET HIM COOK.

[alexmurison]

The Ent This absolute stunning veteran oak tree hidden away in Cannock Chase is one of the most stunning trees I've ever seen. A true Tolkien Ent if ever i've seen one.

[thesummerestsolstice]

I don't know if this is what Tolkien intended, but whenever I picture Maglor's Gap I picture it in the spring; a meadow in full bloom, with colorful flowers and gentle bumblebees. While Himring is icy for much of the year, the lower plains around it are warm and welcoming for a good few months in the spring and summer, and have much milder falls and winters.

I feel like it's important for Maglor's Gap to be not just a strategic choke point, but a genuinely beautiful piece of Beleriand that Maglor and his followers loved dearly. Somewhere they thought of as a home. Somewhere they eulogized in songs long after it was destroyed.

Maglor sings of the Gap, in the Noldolante, but the only part of it remembered there is the part where it was scorched into nothingness.

But he also told Elrond and Elros about his old home; keeping its better memories alive. Elrond, as Gil-Galad's minstrel in the Second Age, often sings songs about the wildflowers and songbirds of the Gap in Spring. Not many know that's what he's singing about, but he does, and that's enough.

[jazzymini]

𖦹⋆✧°.🫧magical earth, sea and sky🧚🏽⋆｡˚

[anghraine]

Fun fact: Imrahil of Dol Amroth is only ever described in LOTR as Denethor and Faramir's "kinsman", with no distinction ever made between how he's related to Denethor vs to Faramir. It's only later, when Faramir briefly thinks of his long-dead mother, that she is called "Finduilas of Amroth" and we can deduce that the family connection was likely between Denethor's wife and Imrahil, making him an in-law of Denethor but blood relative of Faramir. We're still not told exactly how Imrahil and Finduilas were related, though.

I always had the impression of a certain degree of tension between Imrahil and Denethor, and also of Imrahil being particularly concerned for Faramir, but his exact relationships with them are quite vague in the narrative. A lot of the names, dates, and family connections among the members of the house of Dol Amroth that we now accept as a matter of course are mainly from a separate document published in Peoples of Middle-earth that explains the most probable origin story for the house of Dol Amroth and has an attached family tree. IIRC the entire existence of Faramir and Éowyn's son Elboron is based on his inclusion in the Dol Amroth family tree in POME and he's never referenced in LOTR (and possibly not in anything else, actually?).

Tolkien definitely did imagine Imrahil and Finduilas as siblings regardless (e.g. I think he mentions it when observing that Denethor's natural beardlessness as an Elrosian Dúnadan would be reinforced in Boromir and Faramir by their additional Elvish heritage through Imrahil's sister), but he didn't actually say it in LOTR.

I do think it's important, though, because it's with this later information that Imrahil taking charge of Faramir's fallen body is conclusively revealed to not be simply a prince rescuing a vague "kinsman" of political/military importance, but specifically a man carrying his dead sister's last surviving child from a battlefield.

(No wonder he and Éomer bonded so much, honestly!)

[aracaranelentari]

Here's another Nature of Middle-Earth quote that I keep thinking about:

"[Years of the Trees:] 2223. The "Ambassadors" return. Great Debate of the Quendi. A few refuse even to attend. Imin, Tata, and Enel are ill-pleased, and regard the affair as a revolt on the part of the youngest Quendi, to escape their authority. None of the First Elves (144) accept the invitation. Hence the Avari called and still call themselves "the Seniors"." (NoME 96)

I think that's super interesting! Tolkien gives multiple potential versions of this whole sequence, when the Three Ambassadors return to Cuiviénen, so this is only one of them, but it's kind of my favorite. I like the idea that the Three Ambassadors sort of usurped the leadership of the Three Fathers, and that Imin, Tata, and Enel are potentially still out there, and may have a grudge against those three descendants of theirs.

Imin especially is a pretentious asshole, as he claims to be the "Father of all Quendi", and seems to want control over all the Elves. I want to write a fic where Morgoth or Sauron ally with Imin, maybe they tell him they can help him regain his authority over the Elves? It would certainly be an interesting premise if the Three Fathers showed up at Valinor or Beleriand one day, with the intent of taking back their kingship.

It's also always been bizarre to me that Fëanor was so worried about Fingolfin usurping the throne when Finwë was king in a place where kings do not die, and do not really need heirs (theoretically). But if Finwë was a usurper before Fingolfin was, then Fëanor's fears have a bit more ground, I think, especially if Fingolfin had the greater love from their people. It's happened before, Fëanor would think, therefore it could happen again. Elves seem to follow who they prefer as a king rather than who technically has the most claim, which is shown both in the Three Ambassadors vs the Three Fathers, and also with Fëanor vs Fingolfin during the Flight.