what news of the mark?

Middle Kingdom LoTR by Leia Ham

《 Parasite 》

There he took up again his great Ring in Barad-dur, and dwelt there, dark and silent, until he wrought himself a new guise, an image of malice and hatred made visible.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

The homoerotic subtext of lotr/the hobbit is all very well and good, but I would also like to point out, since this isn’t talked about very often, that these books are, in fact, canonically very queer, considering that asexuality/aromanticism run rampant in them

Could you expand on this? It sounds interesting but I can’t think of what you’re talking about off the top of my head.

I’m so glad you asked!

So the first thing that comes to mind is Boromir. I remember reading a quote from LOTR, which I don’t have right now, so if someone knows what I’m talking about and would like to add it, please do, but basically it talks about how Boromir never cared much for romance or finding a partner, and he was dedicated to Gondor.

The second thing I’d like to point out is the dwarves. Here is a quote from Appendix A:

“The number of dwarf-men that marry is actually less than one-third. For not all the women take husbands: some desire none; some desire one that they cannot get, and so will have no other. As for the men, very many also do not desire marriage, being engrossed in their crafts.”

So basically this passage is confirming that about 2/3 of the entire dwarf population is aro/ace, which personally I find really very cool!

I would also like to note at this point another aspect of the dwarves just in general being very canonically queer, which is that they don’t really have any sense of gender roles, so while they presumably have biological gender, it’s not something that really influences their culture. But that’s a whole other thing.

On top of Boromir/the dwarves, the majority of Tolkien’s characters live out their lives as bachelors. Neither Bilbo or Frodo ever married, and Tolkien confirmed in the appendices that neither did Thorin. Legolas and Gimli of course live out their lives together, and you can interpret that how you will. Now this is great for homoerotic subtext, and personally I love headcanoning many of his characters as gay/bi, but it also just shows that in Middle Earth, romance in general isn’t necessary to live a happy life.

Anyways, these are just my cursory thoughts. People are welcome to add on with their own!

relevant quote from appendix a: “Boromir, five years the elder, beloved by his father, was like him in face and pride, but in little else. Rather he was a man after the sort of King Eärnur of old, taking no wife and delighting chiefly in arms; fearless and strong, but caring little for lore, save the tales of old battles.”

Thank you! That is just what I was looking for

The Ainu are canonically sexless.

I would happily make the argument that the elves are on the ace spectrum. Despite all our jokes about The Nature of Middle Earth being a sex book, it’s honestly a lot about when they don’t have sex. Ignoring the first few generations who were super horny.

Sex is a ‘delight’ but they do it just to have children and then eventually the desire for intercourse fades. They also marry for love and companionship, not sexual desire.

Don’t forget they don’t have sex outside marriage. Because, again, sex is just a thing you do to have kids. And that’s how I, as an ace person, feel about sex. It’s just a thing, I have no strong feelings either way.

I get that a lot of the sex stuff is in line with Catholicism, but it also sounds like “a Catholic trying to make asexuality godly, decades before asexuality was a concept.”

LOTR is, to me, the ultimate asexual fantasy. So much of the love in those books is defined by the love between friends, platonic bonds of affection, not sexual desire.

Eowyn loved Aragorn and Faramir for how they treated her, not because they were hot.

Elrond loved Celebrían, but put off marriage because it was the right thing to do, he didn’t rush to have sex.

Galadriel’s love for Gimli is purely platonic and a jab at her uncle.

Merry and Pippin follow Frodo because he’s their cousin and they care about him.

Celebrimbor and Narvi forged the Doors of Durin as a testament to their friendship.

Mairon: In light of what you did for me, you can hug me for four to five seconds.

Legolas: FORTY FIVE SECONDS?!?

Mairon: No! Four to five seconds!

Legolas: Too late!!!

I have no excuses nor regrets, sometimes you just get the urge to draw a problematic fire Maia

Found dem twunk tiddies you were after @councilofelrond

the TITS omg and the LITERAL FIRE HAIR this is gorgeous

My love, it kills me slowly

Slowly, I could die

.

(In my defence, Your Honour, I really do have a thing for Annatar burying his hands in Tyelpe’s hair, and I think that’s fair.)

"And men wondered, for all that he said seemed fair and wise."

Tar-Mairon,Sauron, in the temple of Melkor .