Elanorpevensie - Dreaming Of A Castle Library

Inspired by Nate Philbrick’s Writer’s Life series (link to my favorite one here..this whole series is hilarious by the way) I wanted to try my hand at it

The writer’s life according to The Lord of the Rings

lurking in your favorite corner of the coffeeshop

looking for that scene you know you wrote even if you can’t find it right now

Finishing a draft

Starting revisions

Writing the last happy scene before tragedy strikes

Seeing your beta readers catch the foreshadowing of the said tragedy

When your character does something almost unbelievably stupid without your consent and you have to make it work

finding typos in something you’ve read a thousand times

Writing that scene too well and getting sucker punched by your own feels

Introducing a new character

Headcanon: Bilbo eventually evolves into something of a Santa Claus figure to Hobbits.

“It became a fireside-story for young hobbits; and eventually Mad Baggins, who used to vanish with a bang and a flash and reappear with bags of jewels and gold, became a favourite character of legend and lived on long after all the true events were forgotten.”

Mad Baggins was remembered for randomly appearing with money, but Bilbo Baggins was well known for being extremely generous with his, especially to people who weren’t too well off. Frodo, of course, is just as free with his fortune as Bilbo was, as is Sam when he comes into it, and even Lobelia with what she has left after Saruman’s occupation, and as “Baggins” begins to decline as a name, it becomes somewhat synonymous with charity, and this gets mixed up in the legends about Bilbo’s funny adventures and ridiculous stories until everything’s too tied together to separate.

Bilbo would give out lots of gifts in the winter, to ensure everyone had warm clothes and a roof that didn’t leak, which is how he eventually became tied to Yuletide, and the legends start out as, “Mad Baggins will share his fortune with those who truly need it,” and eventually evolves into, “Good little Hobbitlings might get gifts from Mad Baggins,” and there are all sorts of pageantry and games, like someone will dress up as Mad Baggins and use Hobbit stealth magic and sleight of hand to “appear” in various places, set off a firecracker, and then run for it, and anyone who can catch him can have some candy out of his bag.

Long after Hobbits stop having dealings with Dwarves, and perhaps even after they stop believing in them altogether, they become mystical figures attached to the Mad Baggins legend, coming and going as they please and answering to nobody; anybody who catches a Dwarf may get cursed, but they also may win a treasure off of them like nothing else (and the curses, of course, are the sorts of dreadful things Hobbits can think of; thin foot-hair for a season, or never finding something until you’re looking for something else).

You know those creepy ornate woodland Santas, or like, the horrible Victorian illustrations? They have those too: Mad Baggins (a bright red nose and curly golden hair around his ears, bald on the top of his head and wearing boots of all things) accompanied by thirteen dwarves and a troop of ponies, passing out gifts and then disappearing with more than Hobbit skill. But the classic image of Mad Baggins, the one that springs to mind when children think of him, and appears in whatever their version of The Night Before Christmas is, garbs himself in green and silver and carries a sword (quite an outlandish thing among Hobbits!), and laughs often, being a great lover of song and good food and drink and practical jokes.

And if sometimes the perfect gift does appear out of thin air with no reasonable expectation, well. They say he learned from wizards too, and even though all things are diminished in the latter days, nobody ever said they were going to dwindle to nothing, did they? And it sits well with certain entities that at the end of the day, this is what’s left of a certain Dark Lord’s legacy; a legend borrowing the incidental property of his magic talisman to grant invisibility to bring gifts to children.

sophie hatter finally lives out every customer service worker's dream of retaliating to a mean customer AND telling them they suck and then when she thinks "wow standing up for myself was really liberating" she gets a curse put on her literally five minutes later

L.M. Montgomery, letter to E.B. Weber, 7 April 1929

Back to Middle Earth Month - "Shoot"

@spring-into-arda

Amrod and Amras had been the acknowledged experts with the longbow among his brothers. They had offered to teach Maglor more than once, but his interest had been minimal. He had learned enough to be proficient in hunting, but he had never been a lauded marksman. War had not changed that; he had always preferred other weapons.

Proficiency did not seem enough now.

“Come on,” the orc captain jeered. “Let’s have our game! No backin’ out now.”

One bow, warped from ill keeping. 

One arrow.

Not enough to fight his way out of the horde circling around him, baying for blood.

One target, farther than he liked from where he stood, foot chained to a stake thrust in the ground.

One target.

One small form chained to it, a withered fruit ever so slightly trembling on his head.

Help was -

Not here. Not coming in the next few seconds.

He did not deserve for it to come. It would be pure justice to leave him to this. But Elrond -

The blood calls were growing impatient.

He raised the bow.

He had been warned, very clearly, the cost for not playing this game.

They had muzzled him like a rabid dog. He wished they hadn’t; wished he could call to Elrond some last desperate word, wished he could sing the arrow straight, wished he could sing his way clear -

Elrond stood as still as he could. Almost perfectly steady.

It had to hit the rotting fruit. To miss entirely would bring down the orcs’ torment; to hit him -

The night was dark; the Enemy’s smoke was thick on the air.

Only the light of a single star broke through. 

He drew back the string.

And let the arrow fly.

Agents of B.A.R.B.I.E. -> Phil Coulson

This Barbie is losing it!

The thing about Wentworth is. If Anne rejected him you know he'd go straight back to sea and take all the most reckless assignments cos life just ain't worth living without Anne in it. Sorry but Darcy would absolutely not throw his life away like that. He has Noblesse Oblige (bullshit) responsibilities. He has a kid sister he has to in loco parent. Knightley would probably marry Jane Fairfax lbr. Tilney would be just fine. The sense and sensibility crew are so yawn idk but we do know that colonel Brandon suffered heartbreak but p much got over it by being grumpy.

Wentworth is 100% a true romantic hero. Anne was absolutely right to spend 8 years pining.

Windows of Opportunity - Drag0nst0rm - The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien [Archive of Our Own]

At this point, Gil-Galad had not had any particular expectation of ever meeting Maedhros.

He certainly did not expect to turn around and see him climbing through a window.

being an older sibling is like. you've never known a life without me. mom yelled at me and it taught her she never wanted to yell at you. I painted my room purple and grey and then you did too. we live in the same house but I haven't spoken to you in months. I don't know your favorite color. I saw it was going to rain so I picked you up from school on my way home so your books wouldn't get wet. i was so worried when you woke up sick when you were three. you don't remember being sick. mom and dad made their worst mistakes with me and I'm glad they didn't make them with you. I'm doing everything for the first time so you won't be in the dark. I don't know any of your friend's names anymore. I used to know them all. if something happens to mom and dad you won't have to worry because everything will fall to me. you don't like to be home alone but even if you don't see me just knowing I'm there makes you feel better. at least that's what mom told me. you still give me jars to open for you because you can't quite get them. I only see you during dinner. i'd never even think about missing one of your concerts. I stand at the counter when I eat and now you do, too. when offered a selection of books you picked the same one I did when i was your age. I'm terrified you compare yourself to me. I love you. I don't know if you like me. I want you to. mom says dinner's ready

Petition to start referring to Susan Pevensie's arc as "The Tragedy of Susan" rather than "The Problem of Susan." Her arc is not defined by the "problem" of growing up; it is the tragedy of forgetting she is a queen.

In Prince Caspian, we see the seeds of this. "It's no good behaving like kids now that we are back in Narnia," Peter tells her when she is afraid of entering the treasure chamber in the ruins of Cair Paravel. "You're a Queen here." Aslan does not chide her for being too grown-up to believe in him; he lends her his breath for bravery so that she can stop listening to her fears. Susan's "problem" in this book is in fact that she behaves more like a child than a queen.

In many ways, Susan's arc parallels Prince Rilian's in The Silver Chair. He is the Lost Prince; she becomes the Lost Queen. He is enchanted to forget who he really is. The Green Lady twists his birthright so that he is going to conquer his own land and rule as a usurper--the land where he is meant to be the rightful ruler! He unconsciously trades his role as the true prince for a false kingship (similar to Edmund trading his birthright as a true king of Narnia for the Witch's false promise to make him a prince ... hey, you'd almost think this was a theme or something).

Susan likewise trades her identity as queen for a false substitute in England, exchanging the substance for the shadow. She is a child pretending to be a grown-up, not actually being grown-up. Lewis never says there's anything inherently wrong with "lipstick and nylons and invitations," but they are merely the outward trappings of society. What makes a person a king or queen comes from inside. When Rilian returns to Narnia, he is instantly recognized for being a prince, despite his lack of a crown or any of the other formal trappings of royalty. He is recognized because he is no longer hidden by the armor of the Green Lady--and so he looks like himself. In fact, he not only looks like himself, he looks like his father. (Which is also how Lord Bern recognizes Caspian in the Lone Islands, despite Caspian not having any outward proof of his kingship--Caspian looks and sounds like his father. Shasta is recognized as a prince because of his resemblance to his brother--oh hey, we've got another theme going.)

Susan has put on the armor of the world, and in doing so has lost herself as queen. That is what makes her arc a tragedy. But! There is always, always hope. Rilian is rescued. Shasta is restored to his true identity as Prince Cor. Edmund is redeemed. Aslan breathes on Susan. Caspian's kingship restores right order to the Lone Islands. No one is ever irredeemably lost.

Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia.

Even when they themselves have forgotten who they truly are.