#yes I cosplayed him before only my sister took the pictures and I swear she secretly hates me

[strawberry-cowmilk]

I want to cosplay demon form asmo but those pants make me cry for hours on end

[foedhrass]

Maeglin - why I designed the cosplay the way I did.

Why did I cosplay Maeglin?

Another tragic character. Okay, one could argue that there aren’t any other characters in the Silmarillion than tragic characters, but still. Did Maeglin ever stand a chance? To alter his fate? To not become the person he became?

I pity this character a lot. I think that he really didn't stand a chance. At the latest when Eöl cursed him... there was no escaping that, curses in ancient mythology *always* come true. Maeglin could have slept for a thousand years and probably still somehow ended up dead in the same way as his father.

And that darkness that Idril saw in him... resulting in pushing him away, which lead to more darkness. Could things have gone in a different direction?

Read more about my thoughts behind the design:

Yes, in the end Maeglin becomes the bad guy, whose treachery results in the Fall of Gondolin, but there was a time, when he wasn’t evil. He was just trying, and not even failing.

He comes to Gondolin with his mother, intrigued by her stories, so, having lived in the forest all his live, he suddenly comes to this great city, with 6 strong gates, stones white as the stars he treasures, wealthy, with 12 great houses and great lords leading them. The king, his uncle, welcomes his sister with open arms and her son without prejudice. Maeglin is in awe, and feels like he could be happy here, with his mother and her kin, moreso than in the suffocating world of his father. But Eöls shadow follows them. Eöl follows them, enraged, that his wife left him and took his son with her.

Turgon does his best to ignore the darkness that enters the city with Eöl. Eöl is his sister’s husband, so he is ready to accept him in his realm – as long as he obeys the rules and never leaves again.

And then the unthinkable happens: Eöl tries to kill Maeglin, to not let his son become a Noldor. And Aredhel throws herself in front of Maeglin and since the lance is poisoned, she dies, and Eöl, before being executed, curses Maeglin that he will die the same way Eöl will, being thrown off the city walls.

 So here Maeglin stands, utterly alone. But Turgon accepts him and shows him kindness beyond anything his father ever offered. And Maeglin swears that he will repay this a hundred times, that he will show his uncle that he made the right decision, show all those, that whisper about the shadow of Eöl, the darkness that lingers in Maeglin’s black eyes, that he is the son of Aredhel, not Eöl, that he is a Noldor, not a dark elf, that he is worthy of the trust of the king.

And he grows to be an invaluable adviser for the king. He wears the symbols of the king with pride, and when one of the lords of the Twelve Houses of Gondolin, the Lord of the House of the Mole, dies in an accident in one of his mines – as the House of the Mole is reknown for their talent of delving for riches and finding precious metals, Turgon makes his nephew the Lord of this house. Having learned from Eöl, one of the most talentes smiths in Beleriand, and from the dwarves, whom he often visited with his father, he adds his talent to theirs and soon they dig up the richest veins of Gold, Silver, Copper, and Mithril.

But he doesn’t give up Turgon’s symbols, the sun and the moon and the heart. Time and time again he feels the need to prove himself, to show them, that there is still no darkness in him, making its way to the surface. He wants to be a Noldor of Gondolin through and through, doesn’t want to be looked at like an outsider. Yet the banner of the house of the mole is all black and has no symbol which might be looked at with adoration. Just black, and a creeping sensation, a slight shudder accompanies each look at this black banner, and its new, still somewhat strange lord. The lord that tries so hard yet reminds everyone that his father is Eöl, if not by deeds then by appearance.

The one that does not belong, that has no banner.

Unwittingly the armor Maeglin builds for himself, becomes a symbol for this anxiety. It needs to be dark to honor his house, but he can’t bring himself to make it all black. He is proud of the contributions he and his people – yes, they are his people now! – make for the wealth of the city (and eager to not let them down, further and further he delves!). So he adds golden veins to his armor, giving it a powerful, but cruel appearance.

Yet there is the symbol of the king, showing his allegiance. He needs to show it, so he makes sure, it is there, sometimes simplified, sometimes in full. He does no longer use the original colors, a golden sun, a silver moon, a scarlet heart. He, a child of the twilight, Lomion, as his mother called him, prefers the light of the moon, so silver shall be Turgon’s symbol. Except over his heart. There it is golden, like Idril’s hair, golden, the source of all the gold veins, the origin of all he managed to do.

 He builds himself a double axe, to match the main weapon of his people. From pickaxes they use to dig up metal, their weapons evolved, and he needs to show that they are one, that they are his and he is their lord. They stand out, but not extremely, for which Maeglin is grateful. He yearns to stand out as the right hand of the king, but hates to stand out in every other instance.

But though he tries, the double axe can never be his only weapon. Ever since he held his father’s sword, Anguirel, a masterpiece hewn from iron meteorite, like only one other sword in the world, he cannot neglect it. It can cut other swords in half, especially all that weren’t created by the most masterful smiths, like himself and other masters in Gondolin. It can pierce every armor, maybe even Mithril, every hide, maybe even a dragon’s hide, so he cannot leave it behind. But just as in Anglachel the dark heart of its maker lingered, so it also stayed in Anguirel and stayed with Maeglin, and he was never rid of it.

Fun fact #1: in the first 13 of 14 pictures of the color scheme, Maeglin had blue clothing. The red was the 14th and last try and after sewing 4 different tunics I went with the red. Fun fact #2: Maeglin’s helmet was originally inspired by the Phrygian helmet.