#ungoliath

[chechula]

Every year Tolkien-themed Inktober doodles! Here goes: Melkor and Ungoliath watch tree lights, the light of the golden tree and dancing Maiar, first elves by the lake, Aqualonde, and bridge to Menegroth ♥ I already drew these already for 8years! Previous ones: Hobbit The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers The Return of the King Silmarillion Childern of Húrin Song of Dúrin

[dahairoman]

Hardest part of interact with other MTG players for me is noticing how little does anyone else care for Coherence with theme an aesthetic.

Sure, giving your Giant Spider a Bow is the best and most effective way to take advantage of it's Effect, but do you have ANY ideas how silly does it look? She doesn't even have tumbs, you're completely messing up her balance...

You want me to put an Idea-stractor, skull-piercer helmet into my swarm of locusts? How do you expect it to fit in? And what kind of ideas do you expect me to stract from a bug?

[nenyabusiness]

TOLKIEN TLDR: Why did Galadriel REALLY leave Valinor? (The Exile of the Noldor)

In The Rings of Power, they changed this part of Galadriel’s backstory quite a bit. Yes, I guess you could say that “a legion of Elves went to war,” but the full story is a lot darker and less flattering than that. Want to know what really happened the day Galadriel and her kin left Valinor? Here we go.

(Side note: In canon, Valinor is just a part of Aman, but since the show exclusively uses the name Valinor for the entire continent, I’ll do the same.)

In Valinor, there were once three clans of Elves. The Vanyar (Fair-elves) were the most unproblematic of them all, worshipping the Valar (for more info on the Valar, here’s another TLDR) like they were supposed to, doing very little of interest in general. The Teleri (Sea-elves) lived by themselves near the sea, generally minding their own business. Then we have the Noldor (Deep-elves), our main characters in this clusterfuck. Unlike the other clans who were very content with their lives as they were, the Noldor suffered from this little problem called ambition.

Galadriel was half Noldo, half Teleri, but I think we all know which clan she mostly took after.

This story isn’t really about her, though. The main character is actually a Noldo named Fëanor, who took the whole ambition thing to a new level. He was a craftsman, a smith, and a linguist, and he knew how to hold a good speech. In later ages, he would be known as the greatest Elven smith who ever lived.

In a stroke of genius or madness, Fëanor one day decides that he wants to capture some of the light of the Two Trees (remember: no sun and moon yet, just two trees lighting up an entire island) in a more permanent form, which is how he ends up creating the Silmarils. To describe these three gems properly would take all day so I’m just going to say that they were really, really pretty.

This is where Melkor, who would later be known as Morgoth, enters the story as a strong second lead. After three ages of imprisonment (about 3000 solar years, don’t ask me how that works), he tells Manwë, the King of the Valar, that he’s totally sorry for all the havoc he wreaked in Middle-earth and that he won’t do it again. Manwë, who genuinely doesn’t understand how grudges work, lets Melkor go. After a taking a quick look at the Elves, Melkor comes to the conclusion that the Vanyar and the Teleri are too content with their lives to be of use in his revenge scheme. The ambitious Noldor, though? Perfect. 

It doesn’t take much for Melkor to win the Noldor over. He earns their trust and affection by teaching them new things and helping them improve their craftmanship—and he, of course, uses that trust to slowly turn them against the Valar. He slowly convinces them that they are in fact trapped in Valinor, forced into servitude by the envious Valar. He tells them that if they had stayed in Middle-earth, they would have been rulers of their own domains, free do to whatever they wished, servants to no one. He’s obviously lying, but it’s a strong pitch.  

Though not for the lack of trying, Melkor never manages to sway Fëanor, because Fëanor only listens to Fëanor. He doesn’t want Melkor’s advice, and honestly, he doesn’t need it. He was dreaming about power and freedom long before Melkor was released. On top of this, he now has this growing urge to protect the Silmarils from anything and anyone going on. Even if Melkor had remained imprisoned, Fëanor would probably have gone off the rails at some point anyway.

Melkor and Fëanor don’t get along, but they have one thing in common: they love the Silmarils way too much for their own good. Is this going to turn into a problem? Yes. Yes it is.

The Valar eventually figure out that Melkor is the culprit behind the Noldor’s strange behavior. Melkor makes a run for it and joins forces with a spider-like creature called Ungoliath, the ancestor of Shelob from Lord of the Rings. Together, they sneak into Valinor and attack the Two Trees. Ungoliath sucks the light out of them, and darkness falls over Valinor. During their escape, they drop by Fëanor’s place and steal the Silmarils, killing his father Finwë, King of the Noldor, in the process. The Silmarils have officially claimed their first life.

Fëanor does not take this well. He calls Melkor the Black Foe of the World, Morgoth for short, which is the name that Melkor would always be referred to as after that. 

As I mentioned earlier, Fëanor knows how to hold a speech. He gathers the Noldor, cranks Morgoth’s lies about the Valar up to 11, and starts a full-on rebellion. The Noldor are getting the hell out of Valinor.

If he had just stopped there, The Silmarillion would have been a much shorter novel, but no. He had to go on and swear an oath. Along with his seven sons, he swears the notorious Oath of Fëanor. With the Valar as their witnesses, they all swear to Eru Ilúvatar (God) that they will with vengeance and hatred pursue anyone who would keep a Silmaril from their possession.

No one could have predicted just how horrendous the consequences of that oath would be at the time, but in hindsight, I think everyone can agree that it was a bad idea of epic proportions. Morgoth may be the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, but the Oath of Fëanor is a close second.

Neither of his half-brothers Fingolfin and Finarfin (Galadriel’s dad) swear the oath, but their houses join Fëanor’s rebellion out of solidarity. Some of the Noldor are a little reluctant, while others, like Galadriel, are eager to leave Valinor. Galadriel always disliked Fëanor, but she’s really into the idea of having a domain of her own to rule.  

(Fun fact: Fëanor once asked her for a strand of her hair but she turned him down, which is why everyone goes ??? when Gimli gets three.)

The Valar settle on a not-mad-but-disappointed approach to all of this, because hey, if the Elves think they’re powerful enough to take on a being like Morgoth, then sure, have at it, good luck have fun. Fëanor and his sons are banned though. Those maniacs are not allowed to return.

The rebellion rages on. The Noldor are officially leaving Valinor. There’s this one issue though: Valinor is an island (ish), and the Noldor don’t have ships.  

Remember the Teleri I briefly mentioned? The clan of Elves who lived near the sea? This is where they become relevant to the story, because unlike the Noldor, they have ships.  

Fëanor and his people rush ahead to ask the Teleri to lend them those ships. The Teleri kindly and politely explain that no, their ships are precious to them, and no, they don’t want to play any part whatsoever in this insane rebellion, so the Noldor are going to have to find another way to leave Valinor. Fëanor, who’s gone from overambitious to absolutely unhinged, decides to steal the ships instead. When the Teleri resist, things get really, really ugly.

The Noldor, who had been lowkey preparing for this rebellion for quite some time, came with swords and shields. The peaceful Teleri had basic bows. The slaughter that followed would later be known as the Kinslaying of Alqualondë.

(Most sources say that Galadriel didn’t take part in this. Most sources.)

The Valar are now officially done with the Noldor. In a curse/prophecy that would later be referred to as the Doom of Mandos, the Noldor are told that they are all banned from Valinor now. This is not just a rebellion anymore—it’s an exile. The Exile of the Noldor, even, if you want to use the established name of the event.

The Noldor are now facing a second problem: they have ships, but not enough ships. Not for the whole host, anyway, so… not that much of a problem, according to Fëanor. In a major Dick Move, he fills the ships with as many of his people as he can and then leaves the rest of the Noldor behind. To prevent people from going back (and because of a highly unjustified grudge against Fingolfin), he burns the ships once he reaches Middle-earth. Double Dick Move.  

There’s only one route left that the remaining Noldor can take to get to Middle-earth, and that’s the icy passageway/hellscape called Helcaraxë high up in the north. (Like I said, Valinor was an island, ish.) Though the Noldor suffer major losses on this nightmare of a journey, some of them, including Galadriel, make it through to the other side. Under the rule of Fingolfin, she enters Middle-earth.

And there we have it. This is why Galadriel left Valinor.

The Doom of Mandos is lifted after Morgoth’s defeat, but a lot of Noldor, including Galadriel, willingly stay in Middle-earth anyway. This is why I can’t in good conscience call the “Gil-Galad giving Galadriel a golden ticket back to Valinor as a gift” thing a tweak or a canon divergence. The show made that up. Period. In the Second Age, Galadriel could have returned to Valinor whenever she felt like it. She stayed, because she simply didn’t want to go back.  

And let’s not forget that our girl did eventually get that domain of hers. Good for her.

Sources: Chapter 3-9 of Quenta Silmarillion and The Unfinished Tales: The History of Galadriel and Celeborn.  

[ashenmotive]

What I am taking away from this is the Calaquendi became wraiths in in the Undying Lands. Elven wraiths. Tree wraiths, bound to the trees of Yavanna like the Nazgul to their rings. And it follows that it only became possible* for them to rebel against the Valar, leave the light of Valinor and roam all of Arda again when Ungoliath the Liberator destroyed the trees.

*The exeption being Feanor who gained a degree of independence earlier through the creation of the Silmarils. But their power also made him the wraithiest of them all, as the similarities between the ends of Feanor and the Lord of the Nazgul show.

So, by all means introduce them as living in both worlds at once and having great power against both the Seen and the Unseen, Gandalf. They are fancy Tree Wraiths.

I've mentioned this in passing in this post, but this is hands down my favourite line in The Fellowship of the Ring. The line speaks volumes about Glorfindel, and yet the details are easily missed by a first-time reader travelling along with Frodo and friends, and that's because not once does Glorfindel explain how significant his words and actions were. Yet there is so much to unpack! It is only left to us to appreciate them after learning more about this world.

“There are few even in Rivendell that can ride openly against the Nine…”

Again, Glorfindel only mentioned this in passing and did not explain, but the reason for this is because the only ones Rivendell would send to ride openly against the Nazgûl were special members of the Eldar: the Calaquendi, old Elves from Valinor and who have seen the light of the Two Trees. Gandalf later explains that these Elves “live at once in both worlds, and against both the Seen and Unseen they have great power”. The Nazgûl, as we learn, were wraiths that reside only in the Unseen world, and so to anyone else, they were invisible.

We know there were very few Calaquendi remaining in Middle-earth by the Third Age, and most of them reside in Rivendell. But even among them, likely only the warriors could be sent to go after the Nagzûl, chief of Sauron's servants. This early, we get a clue that Frodo and company have met someone extraordinary.

“It was my lot to take the Road…”

By “Road”, Glorfindel meant The Great East-West Road, an ancient road that cuts across Eriador from the Grey Havens to Rivendell and the Misty Mountains. This would have been the most perilous of the roads because it would have been the most obvious path passing through the Shire. Later, during the Council of Elrond, it would be mentioned that Sauron would be expecting the Ring to go from the Shire either to the Grey Havens or to Rivendell, both routes reached primarily via the Road.

It was to be expected therefore that this is the one path most guarded by the Enemy. Again, Glorfindel only mentions his task securing the Road in passing, but the fact that he got the most obvious and thus most perilous path speaks volumes of his ability and position in Rivendell. Only a few deemed able to ride openly against the Nine were sent out, and out of them, Glorfindel was the one sent to secure the most dangerous route. Let's sit with that thought for a moment.

"I came to the Bridge of Mitheithel, and left a token there, nigh on seven days ago."

The Bridge of Mitheitel, or The Last Bridge, is the only way to cross the great River Hoarwell (Mitheitel) from Weathertop to Rivendell. Aragorn, as much as he could, avoided the Road, himself knowing the dangers possibly waiting for them there. Later though he tells the Hobbits, "I am afraid we must go back to the Road here for a while, [for we] have now come to the River Hoarwell... There is no way over it below its sources in the Ettenmoors, except by the Last Bridge on which the Road crosses."

Aragorn and the Hobbits therefore went to the Bridge dreading to encounter the Nazgûl, only to find it safe. Instead, Aragorn finds an elf-stone in the middle of the bridge, which gives him hope. We now learn that it was Glorfindel who left it there, for he has secured the Bridge, likely knowing how important it was to do so because unlike all other paths, this was the one path that Frodo and company would inevitably need to take. If the Enemy wanted to lay an ambush, they would have done so at the Bridge; strategically Glorfindel understood this, and coming after them at the Bridge was exactly what the company needed from him for them to stay safe.

“Three of the servants of Sauron were upon the Bridge, but they withdrew and I pursued them westward. I came also upon two others, but they turned away southward.”

Here once again is Glorfindel describing something incredible in the simplest of ways: the Nazgûl actually flee from him! Thus far in the book, the Nazgûl were the first source of terror for Frodo's company as well as for us, the readers, yet here Glorfindel was riding about with bells on his horse, not even trying to hide at all. He is the one hunting the Nazgûl and not the other way around, this was made very clear.

Glorfindel has been my favourite character from the start. He got me from their first meeting because he gave the Hobbits a sense of safety, even though they and we perhaps do not yet fully appreciate who he was and what he was capable of. As we read through the rest of the books, and even beyond through The Silmarillion, The Fall of Gondolin, The Peoples of Middle-earth and all these other books that share his history, I only learned to love him all the more. Years later, having read all these other books, I still sometimes just sit in awe thinking back on this first encounter in this first book, in the Fellowship of the Ring, about how Frodo and his friends met this seemingly humble Elf, who in actuality was literally an Elf of legend. Yet apparently one would not think it, encountering Glorfindel on the road.

[ricmlm]

Ungoliath - Until Your Soul (Official Video) I Dark Metal Records

[femmefaramir]

Honestly I've said it before and I'll say it again ungoliant hot

👏 all 👏 monsters 👏 are 👏 hot 👏 if 👏 you’re 👏 not 👏 a coward 👏

[sauroff]

Silmarillion Characters as Zodiac Signs

by someone who spent most of 2020 fooling around with a zodiacsona, and now can't stop assigning signs to characters.

Aries (Aka "Gets shit done" but also "Impulsive mistakes with potentially cathastrophic consecuences): Fëanor, Lúthien, Tulkas, Haleth,

Tauro (Aka "Enjoys the simple things" but also "Headstrong as fuck"): Nerdanel, Yavanna, Ungoliath

Geminis (Aka "Can't stop learning and talking about things I know" but also "Might love you now, stab you in the back later"): Finrod, Maeglin.

Cancer (Aka "Caring and protective" but also "Simps"): Fingon, Ulmo, Beren, Nienna.

Leo (Aka "Natural charismatic leaders" but also "A bit of an airhead"): Fingolfin, Glorfindel, Turin, Finwë

Virgo (Aka "Centered, rational people" but also "Control freaks"): Sauron, Galadriel, Maedhros, Elrond

Libra (Aka "Good and popular with people" but also "Can't decide shit by myself"): Finarfin, Elwig

Scorpio (Aka "Secretive and mysterious" but also "Resentful fucker"): Eöl, Curufin, Turgon, Mandos.

Sagitarius (Aka. "Adventurous & possitive " but also "irresponsable & potentially dangerous"):  Aredhel, Celegorm, Oromë, Galdalf

Capricorn (Aka."I can achieve anything that I set my mind on" but also "Libertarian"): Caranthir, Ecthelion, Saruman

Aquarius (Aka "Unique ways of thinking" but also "I might set things on fire just to see what happens"): Melkor, Celebrimbor, Aulë (optional Galadriel tbh)

Piscis (Aka "Artistic and sensible" but also "I was too busy daydreaming and forgot about all my responsabilities"): Maglor, Irmo, Manwë, Celeborn

Pls let me know your own opinions. Specially about Mae, Galadriel and Elrond. I changed them like 4 times each, I swear.

[abstractef]

Yes, thank you

I got more respect for Morgoth than Feanor after this, at least he confronts Ungoliath

I’ll be honest— I would probably have more respect for Fëanor and his sons if they’d chosen to cross the Helcaraxë on foot like Fingolfin, instead of slaughtering the Teleri and stealing their ships

Besides, if Morgoth and Fingolfin could do it, why not Fëanor? He could’ve easily crossed the Grinding Ice on pure spite alone

That would’ve been more epic and badass instead of literally committing the first mass slaughter in the world and then getting upset when people get upset with you for murdering their kindred

[onthesandsofdreams]

6SS: Melian: Protection

Melian senses the danger as it approaches.

And she knows that she must defend her people. So, without an explanation, she rushes off to meet whatever it is that is coming.

Ungoliath.

The spider is mad, and she will not allow any harm to her and Elu’s people, so she fights her off and sends Ungoliath away.

That is when she decides to create her girdle.

[transmechanicus]

I don’t actually plan anything funny i say, i just open my third eye and let random spirits possess me for a post or two....

Entirely unrelated, but I feel you should know that Ungoliath The Bone-Gulper, Scourge of Khagar-en-drok demands the viscera of the evil and the cruel to devour in his shadowed realm of Ghor Xha. Just felt it might be important.

[alkarinqque]

For ten years I've thought Ungoliant was actually Ungoliath, I've never been so upset with myself

[oestrogenocide]

Tagged by @geheimnisgoth​

1. nicknames: Lilly, Lills ... i hate Lills 2. gender: Trans woman 3. star sign: Scorpio 4. height: 1,77m, 5ft 9 5. time: 18:55 6. birthday: November 12th 7. favorite bands: Moi dix Mois, Lord of the Lost, Sisters of Mercy, Jack off Jill, Lacrimas Profundere, HIM, Nightwish, Wagakki Band 8. favorite solo artists: Emilie Autumn, Tinitus, Alexander Kaschte (that fucking asshole) 9. song stuck in my head: Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley... right now...arghhh 10. last movie i watched: Valerian. It was bad. 11. last show i watched: Shokugeki no Soma - San ni Sara 12. when did i create my blog: I can’t remember anymore. Must have been around 4 years ago, so sometime 2013-2016 13. what do i post: Shitposts, trans stuff, reblogs, gay stuff, ocassionally porn, sjw stuff 14. last thing i googled: ... m to feet calculator.... god damnit america, get a real system, and not this abomination you like to call measurements. 15. do i have any other blogs: I have a porn blog on the side, where i reblog all the lewds to i like, so i can look at them later (It’s @puddle-of-gay​) 16. do i get asks: HAHAHAHA. no. 17. why i chose my url: When i started HRT i explained a friend of mine, how it works. And when i mentioned “and then basically Estrogen is gonna take over the testosterones job”, he screamed out “Östrogenozid!!!” in German, which translates to Oestrogenocide. It’s a bad and horrible name, but i always chuckle because of this idiots joke. 18. following: 154 19. followers: 299 21. average hours of sleep: Not. Enough. 22. lucky number: 10 23. instruments: Guitar, Keyboard, a bit of Flute 24. what am i wearing: a loose top and jogging trousers. Also a pullover. Cold. 26. dream job: Singer. Or start a DND-Twitch stream and play RP for a living. 27. dream trip: Okinawa and Kyoto 28. favorite food: Curry, Sashimi and German Pancakes with lots of cream and strawberries 29. nationality: German 30. favorite song right now: Moi dix Mois - Glorie dans le silence

i’m tagging the beautiful @ungoliath-universe and @thevelveteendork

[skyblueciel]

ungolianth: give me the simarilion

melkor: no

ungolianth: *bites him*

melkor: AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

the world: da fuck was that

[coffin-of-eternal-darkness]

Hawk Mama reminds me of Ungoliath. She was even a spider in one shot.

Well, technically Hawk Mama didn’t exist in the one shot, it wasn’t even a living being but a robot... (Btw I have no idea who or what Ungoliath is)But I do think Hawk Mama is somehow demonic.

[instantlycrookedcollection0]

Fakeathon Day 13: Minotaur

Ungoliathic, The Stone Sentinal Pokemon

Type: Rock

[onthesandsofdreams]

The Silmarils

Fandom: The Silmarillion Characters: Morgoth & Finwë Rating: T Summary:  All he had to do was to find where Fëanáro – that fool – kept the silmarils. Words: 503 Notes: Written for Fictober-Event, day 3: I’ve waited for this.  Warnings: Canonical Character Death

Read @ AO3

That fool Finwë laid dead.

Melkor watched dispassionately the corpse of the late King. He felt nothing but the satisfaction of a job well done. Now, all he had to do was to find where Fëanáro – that fool – kept the silmarils. Those jewels that had been in his mind since the first time he saw that bastard parade them. Soon, they would be his, and his alone. He had already removed an obstacle from them, now all he had to do was find them while everything was in chaos.

He knew that he did not have much time. The darkness would be a beacon, had he not already destroyed sources of light before? He ought to hurry before that buffoon Tulkas arrived ready for battle. He was in no mood to fight him, much less losing in physical combat. For all that Tulkas could be daft, he was still made for battle.

So, he stepped over the former King of the Noldor and began to make his way inside of Formenos. He knew that the silmarils would be under heavy guard, but no elf could be a match for him. He was an Ainu, and mighty.

He rushed as he looked for the treasure room. He found it under guard and locked, but the darkness was an ally to him, the elves in charge of protecting it could not see beyond their noses. He had no such trouble, so he struck fast and deadly.

He had no trouble shattering the locks in the room, opening the doors wide, when he did, he found himself awash in the lights of the silmarils. He felt himself grinning. He had found them, so easily. And now they were on his reach. So close, he could sense the power radiating from them.

Walking inside, he observed those pieces he had coveted for so long. “I have waited for this.” He spoke out loud. And he reached for the silmarils. The stones shone brighter for a moment, but he paid it no mind, he simply observed those perfect objects, glad that at long last, his wish had come true.

Placing them in a bag, darkness fell onto the room. He really ought to hurry now, Ungoliath would be complaining soon and the faster they made their way out of Valinor, all the better. Sooner, rather than later, Manwë would realize his deeds, but he planned to be away on Angamando, and barring the Valar themselves came to him, he would be fine there.

It was time to go, no more need to pretend to be the repentant Ainu. Let him be the Fallen in their eyes, he had rebelled before Ilúvatar himself, he was not about to be cowed by the rest of his kindred. No more he would pretend, it was time to grab that throne he so deserved. If he could not take it in Valinor itself, he would do so in Endor, his time was just beginning.

He laughed as he made his way out.