#theneverfadinglands

[cycas]

Five characters poll game

Tagged by @verecunda, thanks! Rules are: Make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favorite. I've also gone with the 5 different fandoms approach which I suspect means my poll will be Maedhros v Bilbo.

In a battle of blades, clearly Maedhros would win against Bilbo, and possibly also in a straight popularity contest, given that Maedhros would be able to get the crowd riled up with a wild Feanorian speech. None the less, I predict that Bilbo will win, through simple kindly acts like the gift of a bag of potatoes to the poorer hobbits, and also by writing a banging song about Maedhros's father that will give everyone an eye-opener.

Ooh, I forgot to tag 5 people!

OK, I tag: @joyfullynervouscreator @grundyscribbling, @quillingmesoftly, @theneverfadinglands @rekishi-aka

[inky-duchess]

Thank you @theneverfadinglands for the tag.

Rules are: Make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same.

[eri-pl]

Morgoth isn't very explicitely using ice at any point, I think, but well, he does live in the North. And causes really harsh winters at some point (late FA, when he was winning and all seemed lost).

And I have a theory that he's the reason why Helcaraxe is so terrible (compare it to Legolas walking on snow, as someone once very insightfully posted about. Elves have no big problem with cold. But it's an evil cold because Morgoth went there not long ago.)

The Silmarilis were made with good (at least mostly good, we could talk about dealing with the inevitability of loss, but the Valar OK-ed them, Varda OK-ed them! so they must have been quite ok) intent and a lot of evil happenned about them. Three Rings were made with unclean intent (I won't say "evil", but ..low-level evil? The Elves wanted to have it both sides. It was not ok.) and with evil lore, but were used to do a lot of good. Interesting parallel.

Noldor literally mean "the wise". Etymologically. they came with this name themselves, I believe. XD

So, I assume that "It is said among the wise" in Annals-of-Aman-sourced chapters kinda means "the Noldor believe", or, even more so, "I, Pengolodh (or Rúmil) and my friends believe". but it also means "I, JRR Tolkien, want this to be canon but I may change my mind later, and/or also can't find a way for the characters to know it for sure".

And the Noldor generally liked mines and caves once in a while, I think. They did mine gems and whatnot, they must have liked to be undergruond at least to some extent. Also, they're associated with Aulë, which associates them with caves and the like even more than their lifestyle.

Edit: Of course, @theneverfadinglands is right, Melkor did invent ice, it's in the Valaquenta (snow at least. Also, he invented clouds)! And iirc generally his thing was "extremes" so fire and ice, among others. Thanks!

My fiancee and I were discussing the worst metal to use to make armor, and the obvious answers are lead and gold, but she cunningly suggested mercury. Which is a fair point, but then I wondered if solid mercury is any good. Googling told me that the melting point of mercury is -38° c (-37° f), so first you get it really fucking cold. At that point, it turns out that mercury has a tensile strength of 1900 mpa, compared to lead’s 18 and steel’s ~500-940 (depending upon the kind of steel).

Now, I know that tensile strength is not necessarily the best measure of a material’s ability to function as armor, but I’m a liberal arts major and didn’t care to actually do that much more research before going straight to, “EVIL ICE DEMONS IN MERCURY ARMOR. THE PCS CAN’T LOOT IT BECAUSE WHEN THEY PUT IT ON IT MELTS AND KILLS THEM.”

[ambarto]

Hello, quite long time ago I asked about possible black sand for the desert in Harad. You said the minerals of black sand are unstable. Does it mean the desert can turn to normal yellow sand colour over time? Because I'm writing it as black sand desert (black in the middle and lighter on the sides as you suggested), but I would like to know what happened with it. Obviously Arda look different than Earth does now, if it's Earth from long time ago as Tolkien intended, there have to be another sinking of continents and rearranging of Arda in history. So I think maybe part of the Harad desert is now part of our Sahara. Although I have problem with time scale - how long does it take for sand to turn colour due weathering? What if the sand was indeed created by unnatural circumistances. The volcanic activity needed for creation of inland black volcanic sand could be result of the War of Powers and destruction of Ringil in South - so it isn't naturally created. I have question about the winds you talked about - to serve the purpose of continuous mechanical weathering of the magmatic rocks. What geographical conditions needs to be met for such a strong winds occuring in the desert? I was thinking about placing long mountain range with active volcanic activity between Harad and Khand on east across the length of Erumorna (my name of the Harad desert). What would it mean for climatic conditions? I would like it to be extreme place and rather unstable with gas eruptions, cave systems which can collapse and earthquakes. I was also thinking about canyons.

Thank you very much!

Hi I do remember that discussion!

Basically, some minerals aren't very stable under surface conditions. These are usually minerals which form with very high heat/pressure, and so they prone to changing when they come to the surface. These changes are often connected to chemical weathering, basically chemical reactions which alter the composition of the mineral in question. Chemical weathering is very often connected to water.

Here is a site with more details, but basically black sand is due to either volcanic material (with minerals such as olivine and pyroxene, as well as volcanic glass) or because of accumulations of grains of certain heavy minerals (magnetite, rutile, garnet). Our case is the first one, so volcanic material. Olivine and pyroxene are some of those minerals that are unstable under surface conditions, and they will dissolve relatively fast when in water. More stable minerals will be left behind. This can include quartz, clay minerals produced by weathering, and some stable minerals like zircon or iron oxides.

Of these: quartz is light colored, so is zircon, clays are variable depending on composition, and iron oxides are dark but they can can turn reddish due to oxidation (rust, basically).

Unfortunately I can't give you time scales on how long it takes for this to happen, or even how distant you need to be from the volcanic source. I will say that when you are far away from the source there will also be mixing with sands of a different source, which will also work to get the color lighter. Because this is a desert, there isn't a lot of water to go around, which can slow down weathering. Considering the volcanoes are currently active here will also be constant re-forming of dark rocks, and so more available sand.

Wind wise, unfortunately I'm not that much of an expert in this so I don't know what the exact conditions need to be. I have found this page talking about wind in the desert which describes how wind helps erode rock, but not much on actual wind formation in the desert.

What I can say is that on Earth at the same latitudes as Harad (so around our Sahara, let's say) we have trade winds, which flow more or less year round from northeast to southwest. This means that wind will in general drag sand from the area of your mountains towards the sea, and might cause large amounts of dust to rise in the air. It can lead to sandstorms, or it can lead to dust clouds similar to the ones produced by the Sahara - except Sahara storms tend to turn the sky a reddish color, these sands might turn it a darker, deeper red, and partially obscure the sun.

Gas eruptions can definitely occur, as well as cave systems due to underground lava tubes. Canyons can be more complicated, canyons mostly form due to water action and again not much of in the desert. What you could have is one or a few major rivers that manage to cut through the desert (think the Nile). Or you can have temporary streams which form during storms (remember deserts will occasionally have extremely powerful rainstorms, and then no rain for months or years), these will be very strong and over time these temporary streams can also create a canyon.

A possible alternative is also to have your volcanic rock cracking apart. Volcanic rock tends to be very brittle, and if your area is prone to earthquakes and tectonic activity you can have the opening of fissures and small valleys due to the tectonic forces spreading the rock apart. Keep in mind these canyons are more likely to be smaller and more irregular than those created by water or ice

[cycas]

Hello, Cycas! I wanted to ask you about the specific character voice of Maglor. I reread RtA and Quenta Narquelion to do some analysis of the way Maglor construct sentences and which words he uses. I still struggle with him a little bit, I'm missing some piece in the puzzle. I would be grateful if you can tell me more about the way you write Maglor and what character points to not miss?

What I learn about Maglor's speech patterns is the interesting contrast of flowery and lively speech, not being very blunt and dance around topics, but then suddenly being alarmingly blunt and to the point the second later. He is very eloquent and I noticed he is maybe persuasive without the intention to be sometimes? Always in control of every conversation and the way he is perceived by people even in daily life. My problem is I just.. have problem to write him like that and I would really appreciate some tips.

I would also appreciate if you can link me to some good books or essays on the matter of medieval kingship. Useful for the writing of noldorin politics. Thank you very much!

I finally got to answer this, terribly late, sorry. Very flattered to be asked!

I try to write Maglor as someone who enjoys language, and is sometimes a little playful about using it. Both he and Maedhros have a tendency to longer, more complex sentences and are perhaps more likely to use a scattering of Latinate words than many of my characters (particularly Nimloth, who is much more direct.)

But Maglor is more concerned with the sound and rhythm of words, while Maedhros is more likely to be obscure and elliptical when speaking. (Of course, really, they aren't speaking English, but, well, call it a translation convention.)

So on the whole, Maglor says what he means, using words that have a pleasant shape and rhythm. He's very good at that, so one thing he does, as you mentioned, is deliberately vary his sentences length for impact.

But he is also a procrastinator who prefers to avoid unpleasant truths. Such as: we are going to lose this war. Such as, just giving up and going home will go horribly wrong. Such as: you need Fingolfin's help so ffs, ask. (Maedhros faces unpleasant truths head-on, which is one of many reasons that Maglor used to prefer to leave big decisions to him.)

So when he is finally forced to face a situation he would have preferred to weasel out of (for example: the Oath really is still binding, or Elrond and Celebrimbor are in danger, etc) he's often a bit more staccato, because he's uncomfortable and dealing with emotions that he's definitely not going to explain to anyone.

But at the same time, like all of Feanor's sons, he can make a speech at the drop of a hat if he really has to. He has the ability to put on his princely mantle and play the part, the way Celegorm and Curufin did in Nargothrond. When Maglor does this, he does it expertly. Feanor's sons generally do things expertly, of course, and Maglor is an expert in language, and in manipulating emotion with language by telling stories.

So yes, sometimes he finds that he's swaying the people he is talking to with his words, even when he knows that's a perilous path to walk and is genuinely trying to dial things back. His default register, I suppose, is Teller of the Tale, and that is a role that is intrinsically manipulative of emotion and opinion. And controlling that is quite difficult because all of that family grew up using all their many talents as often and as hard as they could. They are not used to restraint. I think this is one of the many things that draws him to Elrond,Finrod and Fingon. Apart from shared history, they are genuinely friends because these are people that Maglor cannot accidentally push around, because they are more than capable of seeing what he is doing, not being impressed, and pushing back harder. After the First Age, Maglor finds that reassuring. He is aware that his own judgement has sometimes led him terrible consequences that he regrets, and he doesn't trust himself: even worse, he can't trust Maedhros or Feanor any more either, and that is really difficult for him.

A younger and more competitive Maglor would be much more irritated by Fingon and Finrod, I suspect, but of course he didn't know Elrond then. I think he gets on much better with reborn Fingon and Finrod than he did when they were children. As to medieval kingship, that's... a big question! And I don't know if I can answer it because I tend to feed in stuff from my long-ago history degree which probably has been superceded and also I can't remember where I read things anyway. But my emphasis tends to be early medieval European- what is often called the Dark Ages - rather than late medieval. Rosamond Mckitterick,J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, and Janet Nelson are relevant historians, maybe also Brian Ward-Perkins on the Fall of Rome. I like Nelson's book on Charles the Bald, but I'm not sure how much fun it would be to read just for fanfic!

But my ideas about Maglor as a leader and his characterisation are also particularly influenced by a couple of novels (neither of them, strictly, medieval!) : Island of Ghosts, by Gillian Bradshaw, and Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff, and I can definitely recommend those as fun to read.

Thank you for the ask, it was a lot of fun to answer, and I hope it made some kind of sense even if rather late.

[cycas]

@theneverfadinglands thank you for the interesting Maglor ask, I will try to come up with some good answers for you. I'm a bit overrun at the moment and promised myself I'd try to do something for Tolkienoc week, so this is just by way of a 'thanks and I have got it!' for now.

[the-haiku-bot]

So I did it! The

mood boards for sons of Fëanor

as metals is there.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

On that note, here's an entirely personal, unsubstantiated headcanon: each one of the sons of Feanor is associated with one of the seven metals of antiquity - but since mercury is liquid at room temperature, the twins share a metal, as they share mother-names

[ambarto]

Not to derail the question about biology but I saw “black volcanic desert” and I couldn’t help getting interested. @theneverfadinglands​ feel free to completely disregard my addition if it conflicts with your thoughts, it’s your setting and you’re the one who gets to play with it, but my geologist brain can’t be turned off.

Now outofangband is right in the fact that black sand is more common on beaches than deserts. Black sand typically derives from basaltic magmatic rocks being broken down, and there’s more than one reason why it’s not so common. One is that the environments that produce large quantities of basaltic lava tend to be in the middle of the ocean - think Iceland or Hawaii. It’s harder to find them in the middle of a continent, continental magma is less often basaltic. Also, the minerals common in basaltic rocks aren’t super stable on the surface, meaning that they can only be transported so much without degrading into different minerals. Minerals that resist better include quartz, some feldspates, clays, certain metallic oxydes, but as a bulk they tend to be lighter colored.

But! If this is a desert, then we could have a certain degree of increased stability. One of the main drivers of chemical weathering is the presence of water, and of course water is rare in a desert. However, less water also means less mechanical weathering, and so less sand. But perhaps if we had strong enough winds we could still have a high amount of mechanical weathering. This would be easier if the rock was already heavily fractured, of course.

Also Arda’s geological history is... pretty short, if Tolkien’s timelines are considered reliable, so not that much time for weathering.

Perhaps it could also make sense to have a desert that is a deeper black color near the center/source of the magmatic rocks, and becomes lighter in color in the outskirts due to weathering starting to do its course? This isn’t my setting of course, but it’s an idea.

The cavern systems could be emptied out lava channels that transported lava while the eruptions were ongoing. If you want inspiration, google lava tube (that’s the technical term yes). There’s even a wikipedia page with a list of lava tubes. Maybe looking up some of them and whether there’s critters living in them could also help you with the biology.

You can also look up pahoehoe and aa lava for inspiration on rock formations. Also columnar joints because columnar joints are just fucking cool.

If you want the area to have some leftover volcanic activity without like actual eruptions warm water springs could be an option. Maybe in the caves? Or in some isolated areas of the environment? Also hydrothermal springs can be connected with the release of dangerous gases, and they are also associated with some incredibly colored formations. Google “Seltun hot springs” if you want an example.

And you are right that black sand would make this place unbearably hot during the day, black rock would heat up very much very fast and make the whole environment pretty hellish. Honestly this environment would be fascinating on a lot of levels

Hello, I have somewhat weird question. I'm doing some world-building of Harad for my WIP. I want to include desert which is black due to volcanic activity in the area after destruction of Two Lamps. There are large lava cave system under the desert too. I was thinking maybe I can introduce some new primitive life forms endemic to these caves, which predate the Years of Trees.

I wanted to ask you, what animals do you think can live in the desert? We know about oliphaunts and camels. I read the hypothetical black desert would be both hotter at day and cooler at night than usual desert, because of the properties of black sand. So what life forms can possible thrive there? I think maybe the camels would have black coats? It look like real camel's color is tan, because it's the colour palette of the enviroment, where they live. Sorry, if it's too many theoretical questions. Thank you for help and ideas.

Flora, fauna and environment of Arda

Thank you so much for the ask! Let me know if you have more questions!

This is a really interesting question as in real life, the black sand that results from volcanic activity is exclusive to beaches rather than deserts and most black sand beaches are temporary as the sand containing the fragments of basalt that give it its color are washed away by tides and winds.

An overview of general desert ecology: contrary to popular believe deserts are not devoid of life and in fact can host a range of species of interest from an ecological perspective given the adaptations needed to survive in a torrid environment

Natural desert as opposed to manually made ones are usually created on the leeward side of a mountain that is the side in which the wind is blowing towards. Moisture in the air is forced upward, cools and then travels dry forming a desert in the so called rain shadow

Even brief and occasional rainfall can yield a variety of plant life as many species found in the desert can remain in seed form for up to a decade until exposed to water. A high percentage of plants found in deserts are solely pollinated by animals and many form symbiotic relationships with one or more specific species. The yucca moth and yucca plant for one example

In addition to a range of cactuses, there are other plants that can survive in the desert like the brittlebush, greasebush, ironwood, desert willow, species of thyme, and more. Some of these can also provide some amount of hydration. 

Biodiversity in the desert can generally be separated into two categories. Those which migrate hibernate or remain and seed form during the long dry periods and those who have adapted to be resistant to drought. 

There are for example species of lizards and snakes which are active throughout most of the year in the desert. Many reptiles particularly predatory ones only need to eat occasionally and get most of their hydration from their food. 

Obviously given the conditions you mentioned there will be some differences however the general ecology of a desert will still apply.

There is definitely the possibility of fascinating life forms in those caves! Obviously this might not be relevant in a Tolkien world setting but primitive bacteria and archaea and other so called extremophiles would exist here.

It also of course depends on how much you want to rely solely on biological mechanisms that exist in real life. There’s always the possibility too of speculative and more fantastical biology and life forms and this in my opinion certainly doesn’t have to mean it’s unrealistic from an ecological perspective! I as always have some ideas for this if you want. 

One possibility to introduce more life forms would be to have Anchialine pools which can form in part due to volcanic activity underground. The pools themselves can also be found underground. 

Anchialine pools or ponds are landlocked with underground connections to saltwater bodies. They provide a fascinating habitat with freshwater on the surface and subterranean pockets and layers of saltwater. Rare species of both vertebrates and invertebrates can be found including blind cave fish and crustaceans that sometimes live only within their particular cave system.

Again thank you so much for your ask and including me in this and let me know if you have more questions!

[cycas]

@theneverfadinglands bet their favorite hat I meant Carnil, my Noldo potter OC who joined up to follow Maglor from Tirion because he happened to be the princely patron of her pottery shop, and on the way became a kinslayer and lost her wife, because her allegiance was to Finarfin and their conflicting loyalties ended up with Carnil in Beleriand and her wife still in Valinor.

But no, the OC that ate my brain on this occasion was Berengar, a Man of a Numenorean family that returned to Middle-earth before the Fall of Eregion and intermarried with the Dunlendings.

Berengar himself saw the Numenorean settlements of the west coast south of Lindon fall to Sauron, and led a force of survivors to Elrond's aid, when Elrond made his doomed attempt to rescue Celebrimbor and Eregion, which ended with Elrond and Berengar discovering Rivendell and being besieged by Sauron in the valley before the Last Homely House was built or thought of.

I'm still hoping I might get the story of his family finished and published soon, though frankly his life and setting is so obscure that I'm not sure many people will be interested. But I am, so that will have to do.

when you make an oc for a minor role in a fic and then they start living in your head rent free

[muse-write]

I love all of these interpretations of Maglor (and Cycas’ is definitely one of my favorites)!

Personally my current WIP’s Maglor is set in the 4th Age, after most other elves have left the shores of Middle-Earth. It’s the Age of Men, and Maglor has to come to terms with what that means for him (and that means dealing with some baggage regarding his family and Elros that he’s been in denial about for centuries).

My interpretation of Maglor has always been more sensitive, but more in how he’s insightful—he wrote an entire song lamenting the history of the Noldor, so he’s definitely able to reflect on his actions and understand that they’ve never been the best. But it’s important to also remember that he was a warrior, like @theneverfadinglands points out! In my 4th Age part of his arc, he’s been a wandering minstrel for centuries, and that means he’s scrappy and kind of impulsive.

He’s used to large-scale battles fighting against evil, not reconstruction efforts or political games (he can be diplomatic, but gaining and keeping power was never a concern, and reconstruction after battle was always Maedhros’ or Caranthir’s fortes). Maglor’s the one who uses battle song magic to wipe out an army, who used lullabies to soothe Elrond and Elros, but never used it to heal or grow or nourish things.

He also doesn’t have much concern for his life—losing the Silmaril AND his entire family hasn’t given him much reason to be self-preserving, and on top of that he doesn’t understand that his relative immortality and durability (and centuries of experience) compared to humans’ short lives means that he’s way more likely to get out of a fight than they are, so he’s often accused of rushing into things headfirst.

Actually, he’s probably more impulsive now than he would have been at any other time, because he’s desperate; the Silmaril has been found and nearly reclaimed in this 4th Age AU (is it AU when there’s nothing saying it couldn’t have happened?) and he simultaneously hates it and longs for it as a memory of his family legacy. But he also knows exactly what a Silmaril showing back up might do to the world, and he doesn’t want to be driven by his Oath anymore than anyone else wants him to.

Alright, unasked for thoughts about Maglor over!

It’s interesting that people always seem to portray Maglor as—a typical theater major. If you know what I mean? A bit of a romantic, lover of playacting and dramatic stories, fashionable, poised, prone to exaggeration, and so on.

But actually, I wonder if Maglor’s brand of music is more like being a historian with a side of art. His finest work is a lament for the entire downfall of his people. That is so much information to pack into a single song cycle! So much research, so much to balance. And Maglor was there for a lot of the important pieces, but for Gondolin and Nargothrond and such? Nope, he had to research that; he’s a scholar. And seriously, cobbling together a cohesive, fair-minded, and complete narrative while it’s also still unfolding in front you is fucking hard. Maglor was good at this.

So actually, the kind of Maglor I want to see is a stuffy, grumpy bookworm dressed all in plain black because that hides the ink stains best. He saves all the charm for the performances, if he even bothers.

[runawaymun]

This is getting so long but oh my GOD @theneverfadinglands​ this is such a good addition to this discourse!

I just find it so weird that Tolkien describes sex as ‘one of their chief pleasures’ and that they literally indulge in it all the time, and then they just stop?? liking it?? Yeah, doesn’t check out.

I do really love the concept of the Laws and Customs being a more religious thing brought about by trying to emulate the Valar, which as @erynalasse​ points out, would definitely change post-flight and as you pointed out would mean that the Avari would have completely different ideals since they never made it to Valinor and (presumably) don’t have the same kind of religious/cultural reverence for the Valar as the Amanyar. 

Which, ah man there’s so much potential for fun culture clashes and language translation errors. Words for ‘spouse’ and ‘marriage’ probably have completely different connotations. Gender roles have to be different, as well as probably gender ideals and expression (I do like to play with the concept of the Amanyar having rather staunch gender roles and gender expression, sitting more along a binary– due to the influence of the Valar tending to pick one or the other), vs. the Avari having a much more open/fluid understanding of gender and gender expression. 

Do elves have children out of marriage? Or is that something that is frowned upon? Have their been any cases of elves having children out of marriage?

As far as I know there haven't been any 'out of wedlock' Elves, purely due to the nature of Elvish marriages, as Tolkien set them up-- it kind of makes that impossible if you're going strictly according to canon lore.

Generally Elvish conception is an intentional thing. They literally have to "think" baby elves into existence. As far as the whole marriage thing goes... if you're going strictly according to lore I believe sex = wedding. So it's technically impossible both to 'have a child out of wedlock' (you gotta have sex to make a baby and if you had sex congrats you're married now), and to have an accident baby, because all Elvish pregnancies are on purpose.

Of course, take from that what you will. Plenty of fic writers and fans throw this out entirely for fun plot reasons which is totally valid. The Tolkien legendarium is incredibly elastic and ever-evolving.

[cycas]

I forgot I posted this back in Spring 2018 till @theneverfadinglands reblogged it just now. Not sure if that was a Hint or just Act of Cat, but it made me think.

How are things going?

1) Celegorm meets Huan in the Halls of Mandos Done! Fierce and Free

2) Translations from the Elvish: Bilbo and Elrond in Rivendell discuss Maglor, Maedhros and the Silmarils. Done! Primary Sources.

3) Lalwen gets together with Cirdan in the First Age. Done! Use Well The Days

4) Elrond finally proposes to Celebrian. Done! Cornflowers in Belfalas

5)  Second Age Sauron, Ghost Fëanor & the Fall of Eregion and Numenor,  Ghost Fëanor &Tom Bombadil in the Third Age, barrow-wights, possibly Maglor in Rivendell, frankly I’m kind of afraid of this one already and it’s only about 5000 words so far but it has a kind of looming menace to it. Not Done. I'm not sure I shall ever finish this now, I left it on the back burner for too long and it's gone a bit black and singed looking.

6) a vague Fingon / Maedhros thing about Maedhros’s first trip back to Hithlum to take counsel after the Feanorians leave to set up the March. Done! Heroic Hearts

7) Translations from the Elvish: Bilbo and Elrond in Rivendell discuss Doriath : Isolationism, Lúthien, Beren, Turin. Not Done. Could still happen.

9) Return to Aman Undying Lands Series:  Bilbo & Maedhros discuss Míriel Not Done. Cool idea, not sure why I haven't written this yet.

10)  Return to Aman :  Maglor meets a Fëanorian supporter who changed sides at Sirion. Frodo is probably in this one. Not Done. Return to Aman is complete, but I have been vaguely thinking of something with Maglor and his wife lately, and that could combine with this.

11)  Return to Aman Undying Lands Series:  Maeglin & Aredhel. Not Done. I really must write something with Maeglin.

12)  Return to Aman : The watch on Maglor in Tol Eressëa from Ecthelion’s point of view. Not Done. On consideration, it would be more interesting to do something else with Ecthelion rather than have him recount the story I already told from other POVs.

13) Return to Aman Undying Lands Series: Mahtan and Maglor Not Done. I rather wish I had written this earlier, BUT RtA is finished and I'm not sure I want to start shoving extra stories into it. But I do have this Maglor & Mahtan (and Bilbo?) story in a document that I shove notes onto at intervals. One day it will happen!

14) Return to Aman :  Maedhros after his return to life with Fingon (& Maglor?) in Beleriand Risen Done! I've written a couple of stories that use this angle: Lands, Lords and Ladies, lost beyond the Sea and Books Should Have Good Endings both have Maedhros & Fingon in Hithlum scenes.

15)  Return to Aman Undying Lands Series: Celebrimbor & Legolas & Gimli. I did manage to get all three of them into Return to Aman, but not together. It might be fun to write a story where they all meet and just have a chat at some point, though.

16) Return to Aman Undying Lands Series: Maglor, Nerdanel, Elrond, Celebrian and Elrohir have dinner with Maglor’s wife. Not Done. May merge this with 10.

17) Return to Aman Undying Lands Series:   Beleriand Risen Curufin and Celegorm …“were we just the bitter draught you people swallowed to get our nobler brothers back?” I am pretty sure Finrod wants to be in this one. Not Done. YET.

18) Return to Aman :  Elrond, Bilbo, Gimli & the Halls of Aulë : I have no idea where this is going but it feels like it needs writing.  I also have a suspicion Fëanor is going to put his oar in. Sort of done. This ended up as an element in The House of Fëanor : Little Pity though they never actually made it to the Halls of Aule, and I'm not quite sure what else I was going to do with it now.

19)  Aegnor / Andreth fixit. Well, more or less fixit. Not Done. Probably not going to be done, unless someone requests it in an exchange or something.

20)  Lobelia timetravels into the past and meets Curufin. no, surely I’m not really going to write that Not Done. Probably not going to be done, unless someone requests it in an exchange or something.

21)  The epic seafaring adventures of Isengar Took & Cirdan. Not Done. WHY NOT?? I WANT TO READ THIS. Bad author, no biscuit.

22)  The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son: Totta meets Daeron of Doriath. Sort of done. It turned out that Totta met Fëanor & Nerdanel instead. Cool Water on a Hot Day

23) why is Caranthir ‘the Cruel’? Not Done. Still want to know the answer, haven't found one yet. Caranthir on the face of it one of the less obviously cruel members of the House of Fëanor.

24) The War of Wrath : Celeborn drags Galadriel back to visit Doriath, and finds it infested with dragons: Galadriel finds out that she is a ‘leader in rebellion’ and banned from returning to Aman, Galadriel attempts to tell Elros and Elrond what to do and kind of gets very politely handed her own ears on a plate. Not Done. WHY NOT?? I WANT TO READ THIS. Bad author, no biscuit.

25)  Nerdanel & Finrod in Tirion during the War of Wrath. Sort of done. It turned out to be a story about Finrod & Edrahil in Tirion during the War of Wrath, instead. Fair Winds and Following Seas

I have also gained two new WIPs since then:

26) A Golden Voice - which I am writing another chapter for and have open in a tab right this minute!

and

27) The Lands of Weeping and of War which I put on hold a while ago... what, December 2018 you say, Ao3? SURELY YOU LIE. Damnit. Anyway, I have a half-chapter waiting to be finished on that, so it will at the least get one more update.

28) Undying Lands Series: Turgon & Finrod discuss Gondolin and Nargothrond. I only started this last week.

29) Secret Thing for Worldbuilding Exchange that I really should have been writing instead of going through this list. WTF self.

I still have a vague half-idea for an original non-Tolkien story too, but whether I'll ever get to that point, who knows. Writing Rexque Futurus (and getting stuck so badly on it) has rather knocked my writing confidence for more original stuff. I mean, OK that's still fanfic but it has more original setting and characters than usual and was written without a deadline, and look how that turned out :-/ Not sure I have the gumption to write an entire long story with no connections to a wider world that nobody might read at all.

Do you have any idea what you're going to write next?

I don’t have definite plans for more Tolkien longfic (then again, I didn’t actually plan to write either Return to Aman or Quenta Narquelion as longfic…).  I do have a list of 25 Tolkien prompts, of which I’ve started writing 6:

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[tolkien-feels]

@theneverfadinglands Um... I'm....... So bad at thinking metaphysics......... I have no idea wth goes on in Iluvatar's head, so I'm skipping that part, though I agree it's Messy to say the least.

As far as what the child of a Maia and a Man would be... That's hard. I presume the Maia would take up a mortal-like body, so the child would look mortal but exceptionally beautiful. But it's a pretty complicated situation. Melian and Thingol are both immortal at least. Would a Maia want to marry a mortal to be separated from them so soon? I don't think Mandos has the authority to make a Maia mortal even if the Maia begged him to, so they'd have to take it up to Iluvatar, and I'm not sure how he would rule. And what of the child? I have to assume they get the Gift of Men. Mostly because there's no such thing as Maiar death, so the child has no other options

I feel like a lot of like, Valar apologism COULF be better worded if people accepted the Valar have very little answers on men. They don’t know why men were created mortal, much less of the edain’s creation myth is right or not (because they weren’t there), they don’t know where men go when they die because like Eru didn’t tell them, and we are told once the age of men starts the Valar have no CLUE what happens really after that. It really feels like Eru took the reigns of the humanity in his own single hands rather than the Valar having a barely a chance to do so if they were ever really ever going be able. Eru’s relationship with men seems actually much more direct than elves since like I for one believe that year god probably talked to men and blew up Númenor, and pushed Gollum in the lava, he’s much more invested in men, but in a way that allows men to mostly like have as much free will as possible. If I was an elf and vala, I’d feel like I was used as a stepping stool for humanity by Eru if I just looked at his like interactions with elves. Like by the end of third age the only god in middle earth is Eru. Maybe that was the plan all along? Idk.

See, most of my problems with the Valar (and Iluvatar!!) are actually problems I have with Tolkien? If that makes sense? The way I see the world and the way Tolkien sees the world are very different. It's part of why I don't enjoy engaging with a big picture view of Arda - if I start thinking about how the universe is run, I quickly stop enjoying the story. Insofar as Arda has been Marred, I'm okay with the unfairness of Tolkien's universe, and the Valar are themselves very flawed and screw up all the time. But Iluvatar, who is perfect, and some of the opinions Tolkien has expressed in letters are things that strike me as Not Good Ways To Run The Universe, which breaks the illusion of the story for me.

It's so hard to express my opinion in a way that makes sense let me see if I can do it. Um... You know how when you read LotR elves seem very cool and wise, and then in the Silm they're all a hot mess? Imagine there was a other book where the Valar were the protagonists, and turns out that even though they are older and wiser than elves, they're also a hot mess. That's how I headcanon it. They have no idea what they're doing, and every misstep has cosmic consequences. They're Good, they genuinely selflessly do what they think is best and wisest rather than have dark agendas, but they're just trying different strategies to see what works, and everything they try only seems to make things worse.

Now where is Iluvatar and what is he doing? No idea. The whole "How can a perfect, good, omniscient, omnipotent God allow bad things to happen?" question is age-old and I'm just not smart enough to even try to come up with an answer. I suspect Iluvatar's role is the exact same as the role of the Catholic God Tolkien believed, but as I'm not even a Christian I really can't speak to what that role is.

More to the point: yes, I agree, men definitely seem to be Iluvatar's favorites and I don't know what to make of that, nor do I think the Valar should be blamed for not knowing that which Iluvatar hid from them.

This answer is all over the place but these are very, very difficult questions that I'm probably not qualified to answer you without double majoring in theology and philosophy 😅