#thingol and melian were the first ones i did. so they may look a bit weird

[violecov]

Doriath gang!!

(next ->)

[galadhremmin]

hmm I'm not fond of Thingol at all, but thinking about how I've seen him saying to Turin that "but there is little hope that one Man alone can do more against the Dark Lord than to aid the Elf-Lords in their defence, as long as that may last," interpreted as being demeaning to humans.

But that does very much overlook the 'one Man alone' bit. It also overlooks the fact that Thingol here is trying to discourage a teenage Túrin from setting out alone! He's a parental figure in this scene. Túrin has just turned eighteen, and he wants to set out alone without any experience whatsoever.

(also the next sentences are actually very funny-- Then Turin said: 'Beren my kinsman did more.' 'Beren, and Luthien,' said Melian. thank you Melian. None of that 'mere elfmaid' nonsense).

Turin is right Beren (AND LÚTHIEN. Lúthien and her powers are the only reason why he got anywhere near a Silmaril. And Finrod! He did do quite a bit too) did more, but of course Beren has Protagonist Syndrome, or a 'great destiny' as characters in the Silm call it- and generally it's probably true one man alone is not going to do much against the Dark Lord alone. You could bet on your being a protagonist also, but you might be surprised by the kind of story you are the protagonist of (in Turin's case, a tragedy). That's more or less what Melian says, too ('Not so high is your destiny, I think, Turin son of Morwen, though greatness is in you, and your fate is twined with that of the Elven-folk, for good or for ill. Beware of yourself, lest it be ill.').

As for the 'aid the Elf-Lords' part-- unfortunately due to elvish-human relations being anything but equal in the first part of the First Age.

Humans are all 1. vassals 2. or not strong/many enough to be of much of an independent force (Haladin, Druedain) 3. allied with Morgoth (part of the Easterlings). Helping the Elf-Lords is is just what fighting Morgoth looks like in the First Age. Even Beren and his father were doing that, before Dorthonion was overrun. They're Finrod's vassals. Independent human kingdoms are a thing of later times.

[thebookoflosttalesproject]

The Tale of Tinuviel

The Tale of Tinuviel starts with linguistic discussions, as usual :) And with the story of Tinwelint (Thingol) and Gwendeling (Melian), which is pretty much as we know it from The Silm: Tinwelint gets lost on his journey from Palisor, falls under Gwendeling’s spell, then they build their kingdom, have a daughter Tinuviel, who dances in the woods, gets spotted by Beren, kinda starts liking his attention...

Arwen and her ancestors: seducing innocent elves/men in forests since the Great Journey from Palisor (Cuivienen) :D

* * *

I love that Tinwelint’s place (Artanor) is described a bit like a wild and unpredictable fearie court:

(…) many a wild and woodland clan rallied beneath King Tinwelint. Of those the most were Ilkorindi – which is to say Eldar who never had beheld Valinor and the Two Trees or dwelt in Kor – and eerie they were and strange beings, knowing little of light or loveliness or musics save it be dark songs and chantings of a rugged wonder that faded in the wooded places or echoed in deep caves. Different indeed did they become when the Sun arose, and indeed before that already were their numbers mingled with a many wandering Gnomes, and wayward sprites too there were of Lorien’s host that dwelt in the courts of Tinwelint, being followers of Gwendeling, and these were not the kindreds of the Eldalie.

* * *

Okay, so Tinuviel had a brother, Dairon (sounds familiar :)), who was one of the most skilled Elvish musicians. He played musical instruments, and she danced.

Beren was a Gnome (which may or may not have been even worse than being a man at that time, because, fear and politics...)

* * *

Tinwelint's first meeting with Beren went just like in The Silm:

“O Beren son of the Noldoli, what dost thou desire of the Elves of the wood ere thou returnest whence thou camest?”

translation: what can I do to make you go

And then a classic:

Tinwelint: you want to wed my daughter? Sure, just do a small thing for me - bring me the silmaril from Melko’s crown

Beren: watch me

#LegendsOnly

* * *

Beren... hadn't really thought this endevour through, though... Eventually he got caught by the Orcs and was brought before Melko; but then he survived by flattering his way through exactly like Fan Xian in Northern Qi lying through his teeth about wanting to marry the Saintess :D

Now the Valar must have inspired that speech, or perchance it was a spell of cunning words cast on him in compassion by Gwendeling, for indeed it saved his life, and Melko marking his hardy frame believed him, and was willing to accept him as a thrall of his kitchens.

Enter Tevildo, the Prince of Cats! Who has his own palace, in which Beren is now supposed to work:

(...) those halls were ill-lighted and were full of growling and of monstrous purrings in the dark.

(I don't think Tolkien liked cats...)

Anyway - it's like this:

A cat. Employs a human. To catch mice in his palace. But the human sucks at this, so he gets relegated to washing the dishes and such.

#what :D

* * *

Meanwhile, in Artanor:

Dairon is a snitch, Tinwelint learns about Tinuviel's plans to go after Beren, so he imprisons her in a luxurious tower. Surprisingly, it works for a while, but then Tinuviel misses Beren again, and magics her way out of the tower (I love the descriptions of her weaving her spells!)

After Tinuviel finally escaped, Dairon went looking for her and never came back.

#what

#WhyIsThisSoDark

I also love that some time after her escape Tinuviel actually had a moment of “what am I doing???”

Same, girl. Same :)

* * *

Okay, so, there are like gang wars between the Cats, led by Tevildo, and the Dogs, led by Huan. Fortunately, Tinuviel met Huan on her way, Huan turned out to be friends with Beren, so together they laid a trap for Tevildo, and everything played out as if it was a Diana Wynne Jones story :D (yes I know she was JRRT's student)

Seriously, this story has such fairy-tale vibes, I love it ^^

Melko's reaction to Tevildo being defeated by Huan:

(...) afterward Melko heard all and he cursed Tevildo and his folk and banished them, nor have they since that day had lord or master or friend, and their voices wail and screech for their hearts are very lonely and bitter and full of loss, yet there is only darkness therein and no kindliness.

(I don't think Tolkien liked cats: exhibit no.2)

* * *

Now, onto the silmaril theft!

This time it was a well-thought plan (kind of).

Beren impersonated a cat. Tinuviel danced and sang everyone to sleep, incuding Melko. It is implied she could make LORIEN sleep.

#what

Then Beren used a stolen KITCHEN KNIFE to pry the silmaril out of Melko's crown. Yep, it went just as well as it sounds. In the end Beren's hand (with the silmaril) ended up inside the biggest baddiest wolf's stomach.

Beren and Tinuviel managed to escape into the woods and just... lived there, until they learnt of the unforeseen CONSEQUENCES of their deeds:

(...) the king had been distraught with grief and had relaxed his ancient wariness and cunning; indeed his warriors had been sent hither and thither deep into the unwholesome woods searching for that maiden, and many had been slain or lost for ever, and war there was with Melko's servants about all their northern and eastern borders (...)

"(...) for long has the Queen Gwendelig sat aloof and smiled not nor spoken, looking as it were to a great distance with haggard eyes, and the web of her magic has blown thin about the woods, and the woods are dreary, for Dairon comes not back(...)"

"(...) there has broken upon us raging from the halls of Evil a great grey wolf filled with an evil spirit, and he fares as though lashed by some hidden madness, and none are safe."

yeah...

So Beren and Tinuviel go back to Artanor, make peace with Tinwelint, a hunt for the wolf is organized, the silmaril is regained, the wolf slain, but in the process Beren sacrifices his life for Tinwelint. They bring him back to Artanor and Tinuviel has like 5 minutes to say goodbye to him. THE END

#WHAT

#ATrueC-dramaEnding

Then the storytellers go into headcanons/fan fiction teritory :D There are two versions of what happened later (a fix-it and an angsty fix-it):

- Tinuviel’s magic kiss healed Beren and they lived happily ever after, or

- Tinuviel died of grief not long after Beren did, and then the two of them got reincarnated as mortals because Mandos took pity on them.

* * *

So that's the story! The core is always the same as in the later versions, so it's all about the details :) I really liked this fairy-tale-esque early take, with its dark elements (like Tinwelint and Gwendelig losing not only their daughter, but also their son at the same time...).

[sweetteaanddragons]

You said that you went heavier on the hurt than the comfort in that fic. I know it was supposed to be an AU, but would you consider writing a second half where Elrond is exchanged for Gil-Galad? The shock on the faces of the other elves when they realize that Gil-Galad wasn't killed and that Maglor really does love the twins would be beautiful. Also, poor Elros needs his brother back. The reunion of the twins and Maglor could be the comfort. (I'm not crying over this. Ok, maybe a little.) (2/2)

Thank you for your lovely comments in your earlier ask! Here, as requested, is the second half of the AU that I originally wrote for @swirls-of-randomness in which Elrond becomes king and Gil-Galad gets kidnapped by Feanorians.

Quick note: Elros and Gil-Galad have a discussion about the situation; not all views presented therein accurately represent my own.

. . . .

Gil-Galad is not at all sure why he’s not dead yet.

It’s not a new thought. It’s one that’s been plaguing him since they handed him a crown and told him he was king. 

The other kings in exile had all died - Fingon, who had looked so impossibly strong when Gil-Galad was small, Fingolfin, who had been able to challenge Morgoth himself, even Feanor, who, whatever else everyone said about him, had at least not lacked for might.

The other kings too: Finrod, whose death he had imagined in a thousand nightmares, Turgon, whose daughter really should have been the one to take the crown, Thingol, who had attracted Melian herself . . .

He knows all their deeds, all their power, all their strength.

And he knows how they all died.

Gil-Galad has never once seen the light of the Trees. He does not have any legendary deeds to his name. He does not feel strong.

He doesn’t know why he’s not dead yet.

He can’t ask anyone that, though, of course, because even he knows that’s not the kind of thing kings say.

He asked Círdan once anyway because he can ask Círdan anything, and he still remembers the terrible grief that had swept over Círdan’s face before the older elf had pulled him close and said, “Because I am not dead yet, and they will never reach you so long as I can yet stand in their way.”

He had known intellectually, even then, that no one could make that promise. Not really.

He knows it in his heart now, because he is tied to a post in a Feanorian tent, the blood of his kin still drying on his rope-burned hands, and Círdan isn’t here.

The Feanorian lord had been badly injured, he’d seen, before he was hauled away. If he dies -

Gil-Galad is going to die. He forces himself to take away that comforting if and confront himself with it. He is going to die, and he might as well get used to it.

The tent flap opens, and he braces himself for fury, for swords, for anything. 

He does not brace himself for a boy just entering adolescence that is carrying food.

The boy looks weary past bearing, but he does his best to smile anyway. “Hello,” he says. “I’m Elros. Did you know your men stole my brother?”

. . . 

Gil-Galad learns three things in the many visits that follow:

First, that Prince Maglor is apparently recovering and expected to live after all.

(“He has to live,” Elros says the first time, fiercely. “He has to,” and Gil-Galad is not at all convinced, but with each subsequent visit Elros gets a bit lighter, and Gil-Galad slowly comes to believe with considerable relief of his own.)

Second, that there is considerable debate in the camp what to do about their new prisoner.

(“No one really wanted you,” Elros explains before smacking his forehead and saying with surprising intensity, “Of course someone wants you, that’s not what I meant at all,” and he waits before Gil-Galad nods a bemused acceptance of this before continuing on. “It’s just the people that want you are all over in your camp, and we didn’t mean to take you from them, it just sort of happened, and now we can’t decide how to get you back without getting shot at and whether or not we should ask for something when we do.”)

That we is the third thing he learns: that Elros has some very odd and somewhat concerning ideas about who constitutes that we and exactly who was stolen from whom.

(“Of course we were stolen,” Elros says, frowning, “but that doesn’t mean it was alright for you to try to steal us, anymore than it was alright for them to try to steal those stupid gems from Sirion just because the gems were stolen from them first. Stealing is stealing.”

“That’s not how the law works,” Gil-Galad tells him. “And my men weren’t trying to steal your brother from you, they were trying to save him.”

“Stealing is stealing,” Elros says stubbornly, and he sits there and glares until Gil-Galad allows the subject to drop.)

. . .

He doesn’t try to convince Elros to let him go so that they can run away together because a) he’s almost entirely certain they’d be caught before they left camp, b) it would take a miracle for the two of them to survive the trip to the Isle of Balar alone, and c) he’s nearly positive Elros would refuse point blank.

That does not quite stop him from wishing he’d tried it when a man with faint scars still covering his face and missing one hand entirely enters the tent.

“Prince Maedhros,” he says, and he’s proud that his voice does not shake and that he sounds like the king he spends most of his time thinking he is only pretending to be.

“Cousin,” the prince returns, irony not quite covering the pain and bone deep exhaustion all too evident in his voice. “You’ll be pleased to know that Maglor is well on his way to a full recovery.”

Gil-Galad is pleased, both for the obvious reason and for Elros’s sake, so he’s able to say so quite sincerely.

Maedhros looks at him, a little surprised, and in the silence that follows, Gil-Galad can’t quite refrain from blurting out, “So now what?”

Maedhros looks at him for a long moment and says, in a voice now entirely void of all emotion, “So now we can spare the men to escort you and Elros back to your home.”

Gil-Galad’s second thought, after disbelieving relief, is, “Have you told Elros that yet?”

Maedhros leaves without answering, but that doesn’t matter.

Gil-Galad already knows that the answer is no.

. . .

It was a good plan, Gil-Galad thinks in all fairness. A generous plan, even, since the Feanorians weren’t supposed to get anything out of it. It was just a slow progression of the hostages - Gil-Galad, who still can’t quite believe this is happening, and Elros, who is refusing to speak to either Gil-Galad or Maedhros - between the two sides.

Except halfway across the field, someone suddenly breaks off from Gil-Galad’s side and takes off running towards them. Gil-Galad looks sharply to the archers, fearful that hostilities may be about to break out, but it is just one small form that he abruptly realizes must be Elrond.

Elrond, who grabs his brother’s hand and takes off running with him, the movement so smooth that it’s like the two of them have been planning this.

They are running towards the Feanorian side.

He should stop them, he thinks, but he can’t, not without shattering the fragile balance already teetering on the edge of violence.

Instead, he walks forward.

Círdan is there the moment he’s in range, and though they’re both careful to preserve the dignity necessary for such a public moment, surely there can be no harm in an embrace.

Círdan holds on just a little too tightly, and Gil-Galad presses that memory into his mind, to keep and hold onto when he inevitably lets go.

“I thought we’d lost you,” Círdan says hoarsely as he steps back.

“So had I,” he admits, finally daring to look back across the field. “We did lose them,” he says, and his heart aches for the little boys who refuse to be stolen twice.

But Círdan has an odd look on his face. “Maybe,” is all he says, and he keeps a hand on Gil-Galad’s back as they turn to walk away.

. . .

(Maglor weeps when he sees them, and Elrond isn’t sure if they’re sad or happy tears.

“I’m sorry,” he says helplessly, feeling his own tears well up at last.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Maglor says fiercely. “Not to me. Not ever,” and he opens his arms a little: always an offer, never a demand.

Elrond burrows into them immediately, gently as he can after he feels Maglor’s silent flinch. Elros is right there next to him in the embrace, and for the first time in weeks, Elrond doesn’t feel that horrible blankness hovering anywhere near him at all.)

[jaybeeart-vardathebeloved]

Melian! ^__^

character: hate them | don’t really care | like them | LOVE them | THEY AREMY PRECIOUS

ship with: Elwë/King Elu Thingol

friendship them with: Elwë/Elu Thingol, Lúthien, Beleg, Túrin, Nienor, Morwen, Galadriel, Finrod, Celeborn, other Sindar elves

general opinions: Brace yourself, this might be extensive and long, lol.

I think Melian is great! She’s one of my favorite maiar in the Silm, being the only one to have copulated with one of the Children of Ilúvatar. I think there’s more to her than meets the eye. She’s said to be extremely beautiful, and wise, and was very skilled in songs of enchantment. This last part gets controversial to some people who have a negative opinion of her, and in all honesty it does upset me a little (then again, who wouldn’t be a bit upset to hear negative stuff about their favorite characters? It happens).

I guess most of the controversy stems from her first meeting with Elwë/Thingol which I have to admit is a little bit…unusual. However, I don’t believe she purposely put a spell on him to make him love her. Here’s a passage: “and it chanced on a time that he came alone to the starlit wood of Nan Elmoth, and there suddenly he heard the song of nightingales.Then, an enchantment fell on him, and he stood still; and afar off beyond the voices of the lomelindi he heard the voice of Melian, and it filled all his heart with wonder and desire.” So, to me, he was first enchanted by the song of the nightingales, then he heard the voice of Melian. Yet, when he finally gets to her, here’s what happens: “She spoke no word; but being filled with love Elwë came to her and took her hand, and straightway a spell was laid on him, so that they stood thus while long years were measured by the wheeling stars above them; and the trees of Nan Elmoth grew tall and dark before they spoke any word.” Alright. I can see how that may be taken in a weird way, but like, it says he was “filled with love” BEFORE a spell was laid on him, and I personally think that spell had only to do with the fact that they stood in place for many years. Granted, I do think it’s a little ridiculous for them to be standing still for years and years not even saying a word to each other, and I guess Melian wasn’t being all wise in that instant. However, I truly believe she was just as spellbound by Elwë, and that she too fell in love with him at first sight (as mushy as it sounds).

Now, even though it’s many years later, they do snap out of it and go find the Teleri group that remained in Middle Earth. Melian becomes their queen and under her teachings “they become the fairest and the most wise and skillful of all the Elves of Middle-Earth.” So there you have it. Melian was good to her people. She offered her wisdom and counsel when she could, and did everything in her power to make sure her people were safe. Her powers weren’t ‘evil’ or used for ‘selfish’ reasons. Even when she fenced them in her Girdle she didn’t mean to ‘trap’ them inside. Okay, so they mostly needed ‘permission’ to leave it, but that’s not uncommon for those under the rule of a King and Queen. Plus the Girdle was for protection against Melkor/Morgoth’s forces, to keep them safe in a region where peace was still held. Essentially, her powers were used for good.

Melian and Thingol were equal rulers and beloved by (most) of their people. Oh, and she was generous and kind too. She let Beleg take some Lembas with him on his journey to join Túrin. Lembas had never been shared with the race of men before, yet Melian generously allowed this because she cared for Túrin as hers and Thingol’s foster-son. Also, she looked after Morwen and Nienor, Turin’s mother and sister, when they went to Doriath.

Let’s also not forget that without Melian (and Thingol), Lúthien wouldn’t exist and therefore neither would Elrond, Elros, Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen.

I guess the only thing that I’m not exactly okay with, is that after Thingol perishes she lifts up the girdle and goes back to Valinor. That’s kind of inconsiderate of her, to leave the people she ruled for so long defenseless. Yet, I can understand this as her being stricken with grief because I mean, her husband was murdered, and her only daughter was bound to the fate of Men, so they would never be together again. That must’ve hurt her a lot.

Thanks! :3

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