#the peoples of middle earth

[lamemaster]

Dangweth Pengolod- The Peoples of Middle-Earth

I just finished reading Dangweth Pengolod from The Peoples of Middle Earth, and it is one of the most beautiful writings I have read from Tolkien (excluding Athrabeth).

This excerpt details a conversation between Pengolod the Wise of Gondolin and AElfwine (I seriously don't know how to say his name).

Here are some of my favs from my reading for this section of the book and my iddy-biddy thoughts about them.

Firstly its Manwe (call me a simp idc)-

"Yea, even from his first coming into Ea from the side of Iluvatar, and from the young lord of the Valar in the white wrath of his battle with Melkor unto the silent king of years uncounted that sits upon the vanished heights of Oiolosse and watches but speaks no more: all that is he whom we call Manwe." (The Peoples of Middle Earth)

Something about this just speaks of the growth of Manwe as the King of Arda. He started as the King who cared gently (if not too much) for the children of Illuvatar. He intervened in the events of Arda with wars and other events but this last bit demonstrates his maturity. Even during the war with the Numenorians, Manwe and the rest of the Valar stepped down from their ownership of Arda, to let Eru decide the fate of the second children. Manwe, now wiser, lets the world play its music and witnesses it happen. There's resignation and increased faith in Illuvatar's plans. But also certain weariness of witnessing ages of sorrow and pain.

"A great tree may outlive many a Man, and may remember the seed from which it came ere all the Men that now walk the earth were yet unborn, but the rind upon which you lay your hand, and the leaves which overshadow you, are not as that seed was, nor as the dry wood shall be that decays into the mould or passes in flame." (The Peoples of Middle Earth)

This excerpt is an allusion to the process of change in Elves with the passage of time. Despite living longer than any (except the Valar), Elves age and wear down with the passage of time. The growth of Elves is like that of a tree, it is gradual but happens in discernable phases.

Throughout the section, Tolkien just goes off with all the details about the linguistic dynamics between elves and men. And how they differ in changing over time (there so many other beautiful parts in this excerpt and this post can definitely be phrased better but...I don't have enough braincells).

"changefulness of Ea, to weariness of the un-changed, to the renewing of the union: to these three, which are one, the Eldar also are subject in their degree." (The Peoples of Middle Earth)

As a human (mostly), I find it hard to understand the weariness associated with immortality but the notion of remaining unchanged in the world that continues evolving must be a heavy burden. I've never felt clearer about the concept than after reading this.

This also reinstates my favorite belief that in some extent Elves are waiting for union with their younger brethren (Men).

"in the wars of Beleriand, when the Sun was young." (The Peoples of Middle Earth)

Just so damn impactful on its own. This puts into perspective the fact that the Elves and other magical beings, we read about are ANCIENT.

"For that Arda Healed shall not be Arda Unmarred, but a third thing and a greater, and yet the same." (Morgoth's Ring)

My favorite concept of all. The difference between Arda Healed and Arda Unmarred. Healing is such a deep concept in Tolkien's world.

[demaparbat-hp]

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

[caniinae]

[anghraine]

I've seen some posts lately assuming that the Rohirrim are basically descendants of Hadorians who didn't go to Númenor. It's an understandable assumption because that is an in-story belief about the Rohirrim. However, Tolkien repeatedly suggests this is essentially a Gondorian myth.

They're not lying—by the WOTR, they genuinely believe it's correct—but it isn't true. In "Of Dwarves and Men," Tolkien wrote (c. 1969) that Gondorians "attributed to them [the Rohirrim] actual direct descent from the Folk of Hador in the First Age." Furthermore, he said:

This was a general belief in Gondor at that time [the War of the Ring], and was held to explain (to the comfort of Númenórean pride) the surrender of so large a part of the Kingdom to the people of Eorl.

In a footnote, he adds that the Rohirrim had no ancestral traditions or cultural memories of the wars of Beleriand at all. They don't really have any reason to care about this version of their history, though they accept it as it contributes to the strength of their alliance with Gondor.

Then there's a marginal note about the footnote (because this is Tolkien) that says this belief in an ancient Edainic kinship with Men of Middle-earth could have actually been true of some of the Men the Númenóreans found when they came back to Middle-earth, but not of the Rohirrim specifically. The Rohirrim may be similar to the Hadorians in appearance and temper, but they are at most related to the larger group of First Age Men that all the Edain had originated from and not any of the Three Houses in particular.

This "Edainic" concept of the Rohirrim's history is also thrown into doubt in Lord of the Rings itself, right before their first appearance, when Aragorn explains to Legolas and Gimli:

'they are true-hearted, generous in thought and deed; bold but not cruel; wise but unlearned, writing no books but singing many songs, after the manner of the children of Men before the Dark Years ... They have long been the friends of the people of Gondor, though they are not akin to them. It was in forgotten years long ago that Eorl the Young brought them out of the North, and their kinship is rather with the Bardings of Dale, and with the Beornings of the Wood...'

You know who are actually kin to the Edain, though?

Also it must be said that 'unfriendliness' to Númenóreans and their allies was not always due to the Shadow, but in later days to the actions of the Númenóreans themselves. Thus many of the forest-dwellers of the shorelands south of the Ered Luin, especially in Minhiriath, were as later historians recognized the kin of the Folk of Haleth; but they became bitter enemies of the Númenóreans because of their ruthless treatment and their devastation of the forests, and this hatred remained unappeased in their descendants, causing them to join with any enemies of Númenor. In the Third Age their survivors were the people known in Rohan as the Dunlendings.

[brethilach]

The Silm talks a lot about Morgoth "marring" Arda and mutating the creations of the Valar, but beyond the geography of Arda (including entire continents, the Lamps, The Misty Mountains, Two Trees etc), along with certain vague implications (that may or may not be true) of his "monsters" originating from mutated people or animals (Orcs from Elves, Trolls from Ents, etc), there doesn't seem to be much information about WHAT creations Morgoth actually destroyed and/or changed. So I've been thinking about it

Millions of years ago the tectonic uplift of the Appalachian mountains created a lot of weathering and sequestration of CO2, consequentially changing the entire climate (from a greenhouse climate to an icehouse) and chemistry of the ocean(s) — What if, by raising the Misty Mountains, Morgoth forced Arda into a Glacial Ice Age? (It's already canon that Sauron caused at least one of the Long Winters in Eriador!)

What if Morgoth delving Utumno created volcanic activity and tectonic uplift that triggered a mass extinction event? What if prehistoric animals or plants were alive during the Spring of Arda but were destroyed by Morgoth? Like it would make total sense that the Sleep of Yavanna, "a time of darkness and stillness of nature", is just a poetic way of describing something like that

WHAT IF MORGOTH MADE DRAGONS FROM DINOSAURS AND PTEROSAURS

the possibilites are endless

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

“All your words are but to say…when the men have died in battle and honour, you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more.” – Éowyn

We all love this line, where Éowyn is really giving it to Aragorn over the unjustness of her exclusion from battle with imagery that is jarringly evocative. But what if she isn’t just painting a powerful rhetorical picture but is referencing the life of an ACTUAL WOMAN: Aerin of the House of Hador and kinswoman of Húrin (seen in the Silm/Children of Húrin)? What if Éowyn’s language is letting us know that these stories and legends of First Age communities of Men are still alive and well in Third Age Rohan’s oral history traditions?

I love this idea, which made its way to me from @outofangband (who shares a love of Aerin but also knows WAY more about her than I ever will!♥️). For those who don’t know, Aerin lived in Hithlum and was forcibly married to the Easterling leader Brodda after Hithlum fell in the Nirnaeth. She suffered greatly but didn’t let Brodda’s abuse stop her from secretly aiding the remnant of her people who were living then as beggars and thralls. Túrin eventually came to make a bloody mess of it all (as is Túrin’s way) and ran off with many men of Aerin’s community after stirring the Easterlings to wrath. Then Aerin, among the women left to deal with that wrath, lit Brodda’s hall on fire and perished in the flames. Sound familiar???

I simply can’t read Éowyn’s words now without thinking that she knew the story of Aerin and had it in mind as she spoke to Aragorn. There’s already some evidence the Rohirrim are familiar with the history of First Age humans even as they don’t know much high elven lore (I refuse to accept that they got the name “Haleth” by coincidence!), and this seems like an even more direct and natural connection, especially because the Rohirrim are distantly related to Aerin’s Hadorian people.

The thought that the Rohirrim have songs and oral poetry – their means of “documenting” and transmitting history – about these First Age figures is lovely to me. Tolkien makes such a big deal out of how much the elves and Gondorians love and revere lore, how they have libraries full of texts, etc., while positioning the Rohirrim as less sophisticated in comparison (they’re called “unlearned” and Aragorn suggests they barely remember things that pre-date the founding of Rohan itself!). They’re treated as though their lack of books and the fact that they don’t happen to be interested in the exploits of the Númenoreans or the Noldor means that they’re ignorant of everything or don’t care about history at all. But that’s not true!!

They’re absolutely invested in and take care to preserve the history THAT MEANS SOMETHING TO THEM. And what is that? Well, it’s not Fëanor or Tar-[Insert King Here], but apparently it is Haleth and Aerin – women who found different but equally impactful ways to lead their people and resist oppression. And for those to be stories that resonated in Rohan enough to be remembered and passed on from generation to generation makes a lot of sense to me. It’s a land of shieldmaidens, a land where women are still looking for and creating ways to resist and defy, a land where both women and men sometimes have unexpected views about gender roles.

Those are people who would be interested in the experiences of Haleth and Aerin, even as (and maybe especially because) those women aren’t particularly remembered and celebrated by folks like Aragorn or the Gondorians and the elves. Húrin is the man of legend from that time and place to most of Middle Earth, and Aerin lives in the margins of the history just as she lived in the margins of life. But an underdog people will love an underdog story and keep it alive while others have forgotten.

It’s also interesting to consider what “lesson” the Third Age Rohirrim are taking from Aerin’s tale. On the face of it, you might read Éowyn’s words as being scornful of Aerin, as she points to Aerin’s situation as one lacking honor. But I don’t think that means she thinks that *Aerin* is lacking honor. Their situations are very different – Éowyn lives in an unconquered land that is going to battle now to stave off their fall; the main events of Aerin’s story take place in a post-war environment, where there is no battle to be had but just the daily grind of living under brutal occupation. Aerin does everything courageous and meaningful that can be done in her scenario (other characters in the Children of Húrin basically say this, confirming that Aerin is good, strong of heart, and the very essence of righteous defiance), and I don’t think Éowyn finds any fault with Aerin’s choices or behavior. What Éowyn finds dishonorable and inglorious is the circumstance of being forced to live under occupation in the first place. She wants to go to battle so that she is never faced with the life that Aerin had to live. She learned from Aerin’s tale that she’d rather not be the resistance to oppression but instead the conqueror of it.

Anyway. Now I’m just rambling (as is my way!). But if even a hint of this was interesting to you, I urge you to check out @outofangband ‘s blog for all kinds of additional context and detail about Aerin and the infamous firing of Brodda’s hall, expressed in a more articulate way than here! Thanks for sharing this very cool connection with me, friend!

[lilaccatholic]

I am once again thinking about the reluctant ruler whose arc justly and correctly includes assuming the throne and taking responsibility for the people set before them

[adobedragon]

"You would make me a tyrant."

"I would make you a Queen."

(Allura considered this and said, "Yes. Let's do this. Let's rule this place.")

@loturaweek2024 Sci-Fi Fusion

[foreststarflaime]

I am descending into pumpkin madness. I have been carving for hours straight and all my limbs are shaking. I have been up since like 3am for another thing and still I carved for hours and hours. I can feel the nerves in my wrist shifting. And I still intend to carve another one tomorrow. I will not be stopped, not for my beloved Halloween. I can see the light it is a giant jack-o-lantern and I’m going towards it

[armenelols]

Actually. Star crown Elrond is important to me because it keeps the theme of his family carrying stars with them, their connection to the stars and skies far beyond what even all other elves have. Thingol, who fell in love with a Maia from beyond Arda and Aman and from before time itself existed, and who, of all the elves, was alone named Elwë, after stars; Lúthien and the nightingales, birds, free with their wings, soaring the skies; Dior who carried the silmaril with the light of the Trees inside it; and Elwing who inherited it, and turned into a bird, flying as Lúthien's nightingales once did; Eärendil, a literal star; and Elros, who followed his father's star to Númenor, a star-shaped island where eagles dwelt. Star crown Elrond is important to me okay

[mrkida-art]

Beornings from the East

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

chinese guzhuang fashion

[mag200]

rip gandalf you wouldve loved poppers. hes ten thousand years old he should be at the clubb

[strawberri-draws]

Me when assassins r in a classroom (and are all in middle school)

[anghraine]

My Rings of Power re-watch is continuing slowly now that I have more time (though not always more attention span for anything except games, thanks dissertation -> my mother nearly dying -> getting COVID). But one of the things I'm really enjoying about Galadriel in ROP is that it doesn't always frame her as the wisest and most insightful person in every interaction she has, and in fact it is clear that she's fucking up in very significant ways because of how hard and relentless she's become through her eons of suffering and her determination to exact a price for it. She is not well!

However, she is nevertheless right about some very important matters that most people don't want to see, and she's being condescended to by men of her people who are much younger, less experienced, and less correct than she is, and it's continually emphasized that she is the most individually powerful and competent Elf around regardless of any of this and that her fuck-ups, while disastrous, are cool and sexy of her also.

So many male action heroes are troubled men haunted by whatever their particular tragic pasts are, but these men are also super impressive and badass (often to a degree far beyond all probability) in a harsh, capable way founded on never giving up ever, so while they are permitted to make major errors, it's in a cool and sexy way that just makes them more appealing.

This isn't a condemnation of that; there's a place for that kind of action hero and I tend to enjoy them when it's not copaganda or something. But I like women, and I like women to benefit from a full package of tropes that are often watered down when female characters get any part of them at all, so I enjoy a female character in something that historically has been such a dudefest getting full unhinged brooding hypercompetent action hero treatment.

I even fully support the show prioritizing Galadriel getting the good wig. Her hair flowing dramatically in the wind is actually more important than someone like Celebrimbor getting dramatic impractical action hair (with love, he's an arts and crafts nerd hung up on his academia celebrity grandfather, nothing about this demands good hair).

But I also like it not only in general and not only for a female character, but also for Galadriel specifically. I was just re-reading the description of her in the Shibboleth of Fëanor, and (Teleporno aside) it tracks pretty well. The whole thing about young Galadriel's burning determination to pursue Fëanor to the ends of the earth and thwart him in whatever ways she could seems exactly the sort of thing ROP Galadriel would do, and while ROP is set much later, the Shibboleth suggests that Galadriel was still recognizably that person for long afterwards:

"Pride still moved her when, at the end of the Elder Days after the final overthrow of Morgoth, she refused the pardon of the Valar ... It was not until two long ages more had passed, when at last all that she had desired in her youth came to her hand, the Ring of Power and the dominion of Middle-earth of which she had dreamed, that her wisdom was full grown."

There's a lot of Galadriel material that Tolkien wrote and he continually overhauled, revised, discarded, and amended the Galadriel backstory to such an extent that her history is one of the most chaotic, tangled, and irreconcilable zones of Tolkien lore. I don't think anyone is obligated to prioritize Shibboleth Galadriel if they have a different preferred version. But I really love that version of Galadriel and it does make her seem like probably the best canon female character option of this era for Action Hero Disaster Area (In A Cool and Sexy Way).