Tag: the silmarillion

thelioninmybed:

Previously: 1, 2, 3

“You always were my favourite nephew,” Fingolfin said, once they knew Fingon would live. 

It was patently untrue and had Galadriel hissing like a kettle come to boil and Curufin pursing his lips against a smile. Maedhros, fresh from rinsing clots of his cousin’s blood out of his hair, thanked him gravely and moved the subject on, to the matter of kingdoms and supplies. 

“Fool,” Curufin snapped afterwards. “We can use this. The crown-”

“Is something we are well rid of.” Our priority is the Oath, he would have added, not long ago. “Fingon will not take well to being maimed,” he said instead. “If you’re so concerned with winning hearts, see what you can do for him.”

“It was not so bad as all that,” Fingon insisted, when he was well enough to insist upon anything. “Merely dull.”

“Boredom was the worst torture they could imagine for you, no doubt,” Maedhros said and held him through the nightmares without comment. It was, perhaps, the worst torture he could imagine for himself but that was a maudlin, self-indulgent thing to think.

“The ballad that I shall make of this!” Maglor cried. All his resentment over being left to rule as regent had vanished in the face of such a song. “A light of hope, blazing against the dark! A triumph of love and loyalty over wicked cruelty!”

Maedhros remembered well the eagle’s words and remembered too that Morgoth’s followers were loyal. He let Maglor have his song though, for they were in desperate need of hope and because it would likely annoy Fingon a great deal. 

“I cannot believe you let them make a song of it,” said Fingon, greatly annoyed. “Fingon the Valiant they called me and yet in this great accounting of Noldorin deeds I am a useless, swooning lump. First my hand and now my epithet. What will you steal from me next?”

“Keep the Valiant,” Maedhros said soberly. “But add that stuffed horse I never returned to the tally of my crimes.” 

“Do not think I have forgotten. Cloppy will be avenged once I can wield a sword again.” That Fingon could and would learn to fight with his left had not been in doubt since the moment he first woke.

There were apologies to be made. For the ice and the docks and for not being handier with a file. But when Maedhros opened his mouth and saw the look on Fingon’s fair, scarred face, he knew they would not be welcome. He kissed Fingon instead, and that was accepted with unprincely enthusiasm.

Love was not sufficient reason for so many things. But for some it was. 

But there are, I fear, no hobbits in The Silmarillion (or history of the Three Jewels), little fun or earthiness but mostly grief and disaster. Those critics who scoffed at The Lord [of the Rings] because ‘all the good boys came home safe and everyone was happy ever after’ (quite untrue) ought to be satisfied.

J.R.R. Tolkien, from a letter (n°227) to Mrs E.C. Ossen Drijver (1961), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (via

vanwatano

)

Silmarillion: there are no good boys and no one comes home

(via verymaedhros)

Elves and Eating

verymaedhros:

aranedhel:

verymaedhros:

So, we know elves fear (souls basically) and hroa (body) are linked. Ex, if the elf is upset as hell their body just…degrades. That part is canon.

So, I think it would make sense that a sad, their body would require more sleeping, food, etc to sustain itself. 

This takes stress-eating and breakup-icecream to the max. We know elves typically aren’t the biggest eaters in the world. But if an elf was very upset, they would just eat and eat and eat, sleep all the time, etc. Which leads to a few things.

1. To a smaller degree, emotion snacking is basically mandatory. “Fuck, I just failed a test. Aaaand I could go for like five hamburgers right now.”

2. This could also go for larger things. Just like human’s depression-nap system, a sad elf will just. Sleep. For weeks. 

3. Perhaps it’s an elvish custom to hold huge feasts after times of sadness. Beloved town member just died? Thier funeral will have a shitload of food. Everyone will need it. Post-battle? Better start a huge potluck, shit, these elves need a lot to eat to keep up their souls now.

4. FOOD GIFT BASKETS ARE A MUST. Flowers? No one needs them. The real thing to do to cheer up your elf friend is send them several crates of protein bars. 

5. Maedhros probably ate an absurdly huge amount, all the time. Even on top of how much he would eat being so tall. Invite this guy over for a buisness dinner? Better have an extra four portions for him. 

6. “Elrond dude there’s like hundreds of chip bags scattered in your office” “I KNOW but i am WORRIED”

-“Perhaps it’s an elvish custom to hold huge feasts after times of sadness. “

Well, that would explain why Thranduil holds so many feasts in Mirkwood

oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh shittttt

erotetica:

You see a lot where the Feanorians all inherited bits of their dad, and I love that. They’re all angry nerds, but I mean specifically. Maedhros has the Charisma. Maglor got the artistry, the thing for aesthetic. Caranthir got the pedant thing. Will also fight you in a Waffle House at 3am. The Ambarussa are insatiably curious. Curufin…exists. But! You also see a lot where Celegorm Does Not Have This. Which makes sense, because he’s a muddy, bloody fukboi, but!! I raise you!!! The languages!! Granted, not linguistics proper, there wouldn’t be an essay written about him and his Thing about digraphs, but languages! ‘All the tongues of birds and beasts he knew.’ He likes to communicate. He’s the kid who travels after high school and comes back semi-fluent in more than one language, because he kept accosting people in pubs like hey, what are we doing, what are we saying. Also! Fighting styles. Less apparent, because Feanor only started fighting things like a week before combusting, but their fite-moods are similar–i.e, real fuckin fell and fey. Someone should really kill them–not you, you’re running, but someone should get on that.

gurguliare:

my favorite thing about galadriel’s tangled revision history is how the whole “did the valar ban her from returning west or did she refuse their explicit invitation” makes a huge difference to how you interpret the story… unless you’re galadriel, in which case it’s like, hey, oh, what was the question, did i stay in middle-earth of my own free will or was i trapped there by the consequences of past hubris? great question! the answer is fuck you