"Sauron was become now a sorcerer of dreadful power, master of shadows and of phantoms, foul in wisdom, cruel in strength, misshaping what he touched, twisting what he ruled, lord of werewolves; his dominion was torment."
Made this for my bestfriend, but I guess it can go here too
okay so i can’t think about maedhros too long or i start to shake and cry and throw up. BUT but but he’s an oldest son. he’s an heir. he’s The Tall. he finds a throne dumped in his lap amid the smoking ashes of his father’s body and for a reward he’s chained to the peaks of thangorodrim. he hangs there until he’s rescued by the friend who believed he abandoned him. he witnesses the ultimate act of divine grace and mercy.
and he still flings himself headlong into a chasm of fire to flee the burn of his own sins. maedhros you beautiful insane man, you tragedy in motion. top tier silmarillion character.
sauron when told being good involves habit building
You know, here's a small rant from me: I hate it when Celebrimbor is shown to be a "softie-boy" or a "naïve child" or just... someone condescending and stupid. Like, yeah I'm guilty of it too (who isn't?) but it just makes me wonder why he's presented as that in fics anywhere.
I read this fic on AO3? Celebrimbor is a stupid duck. Or he's just very naïve and easy to prank. I read another fic? Celebrimbor is a whiny baby who can't stand up for himself. I read another one? He's a man-child.
Look, I get why he's presented in that way, but can we not do that? Especially considering the things this boy has gone through which really wouldn't make him a "child-like" person, but more of a mature adult who has experienced things no one should ever experience.
Before and during the First Age, he's experienced so much:
- Nerdanel and Feanor falling out -- that basically messed up entire Aman back then, but mainly their kids, so imagine how Curufin would have reacted to that.
- The feud between Feanor and Fingolfin and Finarfin
- The time when Feanor threatened Fingolfin
- The time when the Two Trees were destroyed
- The time when Melkor killed his great-grandfather Finwe.
- Feanor going Mad™
- The uprising of the Noldor
- The First Kinslaying
- His grandfather going feral and his father and uncles swearing an oath on a literal suicide-mission
- One of his youngest uncles getting burned and basically died (or lived, depends on which version you follow)
- A time of literal darkness. Like, no light at all. It really messed up the psyche of so many people.
- Feanor abandoning his brother on the shores of Valinor -- that would mess up anyone really.
- A literal battle. Like, more blood is being shed -- not only of elves, but of other creatures Tyelpe has probably never seen or heard of before.
- His grandfather being so consumed by his fire and spontaneously combusting. That too, he either saw or heard of Feanor literally bursting into flames -- that is pretty traumatising.
- The crossing of the Helcaraxe -- no seriously, that would mess anyone up knowing that people they love are literally walking on glaciers and over deathly waters with a 50% chance of survival.
- Maedhros being crowned King of the Noldor, and an unspoken fact that there is more than one king of the Noldor -- the political implications here...
- The abduction of Maedhros. Need this be explained further?
- His uncles and father being concerningly close to starting a whole world-war
- The rising of the Sun and the moon (like, what are those big spheres in the sky? Are they something from Melkor? Are they a sign of the End™? What is it?)
- The arrival of Fingolfin's group, with more dead and furious people.
- The mental health of everyone deteriorating. No, I won't explain because this era was filled with bad times.
- No one knowing what to do now, since Maglor was naturally crowned the Regent King of the Noldor, and he has his own problems.
- After 34 years of wondering what on earth has happened to Maedhros, he returns scarred with no right hand, and presumed torture marks.
- Everyone literally holding their breaths for what will happen next.
- Maedhros surrendering his crown to Fingolfin. That would hurt bad like a blow.
- Literally only a few years of peace filled with tension.
- Fingolfin decides to kick Melkor's arse and dies.
- The Nirnaeth Arnoediad.
- The Second Kinslaying.
- The Fall of Gondolin
- Making the decision of abandoning his father and uncles, going on his own separate path.
- The death of so many of his family members and father and uncles. That is messed up. The amount of psychological trauma he's already been through...
- Like, imagine his guilt of not being there with his father, imagine how much he second-guessed his actions...
- The Third Kinslaying. The deaths of more elves, his uncle (or uncles), and really, just more death.
- The crown of the Noldor being passed on so many times until it reached Gil-Galad. Imagine the humiliation and just the shock of the realisation of the number of people who have been crowned within a span of a few centuries.
- The kidnapping of Elrond and Elros. While it probably wouldn't harm Tyelpe's psychological health, it must have been pretty messed up to find out that your two remaining uncles have committed a few more war crimes.
- The War of the Wrath. Now, while it was mainly against Men, there is no doubt that some elves have been killed due to the war (given Gil-Galad's camps etc), so imagine him getting into some stray fights with the orcs or those Men who follow Melkor.
- The Fourth Kinslaying. No need to further elaborate.
- The death of Maedhros, and Maglor becoming a cryptid. Who wouldn't that mess up?
- Surviving the First Age. Like, give this Tyelpe the recognition he truly deserves. Give him a few rings and trophies for enduring so long and he still hasn't gone down to insanity. That too, all this happened within the span of like, 600 years.
The Second Age:
- Beleriand is under the sea
- His "cousins" (Elrond and Elros) going their separate ways
- The death of Elros (I think this is pretty self-explanatory, given the numerous HCs on the twins and Celebrimbor)
- No one has any idea what has happened to Maglor. Is he alive? Is he dead? Who knows.
- Rumours of a sinister evil lurking in the shadows and really, some tensions are visibly arising.
- He finds this very powerful and alluring stranger who knows quite a bit about the art of smithing. They collaborate despite warnings from Galadriel, Gil-Galad, Elrond and a few others.
- After giving thought to make powerful rings, Annatar watches over as Celebrimbor makes the rings for Men and Dwarves.
- Newsflash: Annatar wants the rings, and he tainted them.
- Celebrimbor makes the 3 Elven Rings in secret so Annatar can't get to them, but he gets kidnapped and tortured.
- Like, really badly tortured. Annatar wants those 3 rings.
- Celebrimbor eventually is killed, and is impaled on a spear, then given to Gil-Galad's camp after years of torture.
- He went straight to his family. Can't tell if this will add to his trauma, but still.
- While he didn't survive the Second Age, this boy went through so much pain, and... really, I feel like he doesn't get much of the appreciation he deserves.
Thank you for coming to my little rant as to why we need more fics that paint Celebrimbor as someone who isn't a stupid and naïve child, but more of a wiser version of Feanor and Curufin. He is not a tantrummy baby, for Ilúvatar's sake!
something that still confuses me about tolkiens world is the general situation of low-born elves with like a job.
Like in general in any age, what does their life look like. Do they just serve the same dude for milennia? Do they get days(years?) off?
What if some silvan elf in the third age that has served Thranduil for like the last 2000+ years gets sea-longing? Are they allowed to leave? Do they have to wait until a significant portion of a household gets sea-longing? Are there any elven lords that got to Valinor sooner because their beloved cook or smth got the west-itchings? All the servants chaperoning a broken Celebrían, did they go west? Did they want to? Are they with her in Valinor and really want to go back east (are they allowed to?)
And what happens in the grey havens, does Cirdan just let any numbers of elves on his boats? Do they have to build new boats constantly? Do some elves need to wait in the havens until a minimum number of elves per boat is reached?
Like how does Tolkiens general world of fealty and feudalism handle the elves strong individualism?
Because sure some elves were loners just wandering about, but what about the ones we never get told about like idk the dude who does Elronds laundry?
Live recording of Miquella yanking Radahn out of Boss heaven for the DLC Final battle
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) dir. Peter Jackson
If I ask nicely who will rb this telling me what is the last song u listened to 🥺
Very funny how the Shibboleth points out that Galadriel’s early dislike of Fëanor was, in fact, not justified;
‘From her earliest years she had a marvellous gift of insight into the minds of others, but judged them with mercy and understanding, and she withheld her good will from none save only Fëanor. In him she perceived a darkness that she hated and feared, though she did not perceive that the shadow of the same evil had fallen upon the minds of all the Noldor, and upon her own.’
- she judges everyone with mercy and understanding - but she withholds her good will from Fëanor, i.e. does not judge him with mercy and understanding - she ‘hates and fears’ the darkness in him, which is in fact exactly the same as the shadow that has fallen on herself. Which I think works nicely with Galadriel’s reaction to hearing his speech in the Silm; inspired by his words about wide lands and ruling because they are really quite similar in their ambitions wrt ruling Middle Earth; ‘No oaths she swore, but the words of Fëanor concerning Middle-earth had kindled in her heart, for she yearned to see the wide unguarded lands and to rule there a realm at her own will.’
Her pre-kinslaying sentiments are a personal, and apparently not that justified.
I wondered why. I think part of it is that she might be close to Indis; they’re both athletes (Indis is a swift runner and Galadriel is noted for ‘athletic feats’). Then there’s that ‘Galadriel was the greatest of the Noldor, except Fëanor maybe.’
Not quite being acknowledged as the greatest because of that one guy seems like something that would make a competitive person a bit spiteful, so maybe that was part of it? The Shibboleth repeatedly calls her proud, moved by pride, etc.
I think this bit is particularly funny because imagine how tiring this must have been to Finarfin, who really just didn’t want to get into any drama– I’m imagining her answering his þ with a very deliberately emphasised s and Finarfin just thinking… I moved here to get away from this. ‘Her father Finarfin, however, loved the Vanyar (his mother’s people) and the Teleri, and in his house þ was used, Finarfin being moved by Fëanor neither one way or the other but doing as he wished. It is clear nonetheless that opposition to Fëanor soon became a dominant motive with Galadriel, while her pride did not take the form of wishing to be different from her own people. So while she knew well the history of their tongue and all the reasons of the loremasters, she certainly used s in her own daily speech.’
I saw somewhere that funny cutout shirts are in for 2024. Is that true? Is that really trending on Tiktok?
Anyway, as with all weird outfits, there’s a Tyelko doodle.
Going through some bad art block recently, so I’ve been doing more crafts and stuff. Gotta figure this out.
So an idea popped up from reading @floating-ping 's reply and I made it into a comic.
It's not exactly how I imagine how Mairon gave the ring to Murazor, consider it an AU.
- In case you don't know any of my old stuff, long black wavy hair is Murazor/Angmar, blond long hair is Mairon and 2nd black hair guy in last panel is Khamul.
- HC that Khamul received the ring before Murazor
how could christopher tolkien leave out the bit where they called the twins Russa 1 and Russa 2