Me, A Youngest Sibling: FINARFINFINARFINFINARFINNNNN THE POOR GUY HE WAS PROBABLY SO LONELY AND SAD AFTER

I was thinking of Beren and Lúthien and how their story is so much more interesting than they get credit for. I mean, on the surface it reads like a fairy tale but it also elevates the rest of the story, it uses common fairy tale tropes but turns them upside down, and the way we see the heroine asserting her agency in this story is so fascinating. I think the story of Beren and Lúthien provides much needed contrast for the rest of the Silm, and both become more poignant because of this contrast. 

The familiar fairy tale goes like this: there's a a poor but resourceful peasant, set with a difficult task (which is in fact designed to be impossible to complete), but thanks to some magical help he is successful, retrieves treasure, and as a reward he wins the king's daughter and lives happily ever after as a prince, gaining all the earthly glory one can have in this life. But in the Tale of Beren and Lúthien, the hero is a traumatised outlaw, the king's daughter IS the magical help, she is an active and equal participant in the quest for her own hand in marriage, the treasure may actually be cursed, the hero and heroine die, and the ultimate reward is not a social rise from rags to riches. Beren does not become a member of the power-wielding elite of Doriath and he and Lúthien are not promised that their second life will be happy or long. But just that chance is worth it, and by choosing it they actually change the course of history. Lúthien is offered all the bliss that is possible to have in Arda, if she will give up Beren, but she decides that the love she has for him is still more valuable. And that idea, of loving someone so much that your love shifts the world, is so compelling to me. 

And I love that the story of Beren and Lúthien is also a rendition of Orpheus and Eurydice, and that just as the world was created in the Music of the Ainur, so is Lúthien's song powerful enough to change what those original notes dictated. She changes it with hope and a song. That is so simple and yet so beautiful, in the way some of the best myths are. (Insane that this is essentially a love-letter to Edith Tolkien.)

There is this fascinating contrast between Beren and Lúthien: at the time of their first meeting, Beren has lost literally everything and his family is either dead or lost beyond retrieval. Stumbling across Lúthien, he is fresh from terrible ordeals and suffering. But Lúthien's life has been full of happiness and without care, and she has lived in a literal fairy kingdom as the most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar. She could have her pick of any prince of Eldar. But here she comes across this mortal, who has nothing to give except for his love and even that only for a brief time, and she is willing to risk all she has for it. The gall and courage it takes to take such a chance! She chooses this man and her choice changes everything. 

And that is brilliant! Because Lúthien starts with so little power and agency, and she is constantly belittled or even abused by those with more power around her. She is treated as a pawn, her will is undermined and she is coerced and imprisoned to make her compliant. But Lúthien shows her determination and courage in holding fast to her choice even when it's just her and Beren against the world. In the end, she wins agency and freedom to determine her own tale. In her beginning Lúthien is a maid dancing in the woods; by the end she will have faced Satan and death itself, and changed the world forever. Truly, to call her story "Release from Bondage" is more than appropriate. How insane is this all from Beren's point of view? He has lost everything, he is an outlaw, and has nowhere to go. What is left of his family is scattered who knows where. He has nothing but the clothes on his back and nothing to give. But here is this immortal princess, and she will go to hell and back with him! She will cross the Sundering Sea to bid him farewell! She pleads with inexorable death and for her, an exception is made!  It's so on brand for Tolkien that these two achieve with their love, and precisely because they act out of love, something that others with armies behind their backs can't even imagine doing.

Yeah. It's such a good, hopeful, bittersweet tale.

one of those days

Now I can’t get the idea out of my head of Finrod talking to every sea creature he can, trying to get messages to Maglor. Everything. Crabs, seagulls, pelicans, you name it. If it’s a creature that inhabits the sea or wanders the beaches, he makes friends with it.

I bet you anything he sings to whales and speaks dolphin.

Maglor doesn’t understand why he can swear he hears them singing his cousin’s songs to him.

I totally forgot to post the whole thing lol. These are my favorite main elves from the silm.

a list of some of my favourite, most ExtraTM Fëanor moments : 

showed up to his dad’s house in full military gear just so he could throw a hissy fit at his brother in a public square , sword-waving theatrics and all

straight up slammed a door in Morgoth’s face , after quite literally yelling at him to get the fuck off his lawn

“Fëanor, lending us your Silmarils to save the Trees could prevent the world from plunging into complete darkness” / “And then what , do you waNT ME TO DIE is that it”

“So dad , are we going back for Fingon now?” / *manic laughter* “Oh, Maedhros, my sweet summer child,”

pulled a total Patroclus and charged on the gates of Angband without waiting for backup , then promptly got into a swordfight with a bunch of Balrogs 

couldn’t help being dramatic even in death and turned into ashes on the spot before his sons could bury him

if you ever feel like your job is hard , just remember that Mandos is gonna have to put up with this dude camping out in his office until the end of Arda

Don’t go sharing your devotion, lay all your love on me (c)

Is Feanor x Nerdanel unstable and problem-ridden ? Yes. Are they in love forever? Also yes. Do I ship them? YEP. Should I draw more of them? You tell me.

Random moments from The Silmarillion part 4

Bro.

The Elves literally gave Manwë and Varda a ship name in the book of lost tales. A SHIP NAME. That's how cute a couple they are.

Tolkien writing kingdoms' moral decay and eventual decline: they exploited nature, destroyed forests and cut down trees

Tolkien writing male characters' moral decay and eventual decline: he stopped listening to his wife

Thinking about how Nerdanel's amilessë apacenyë for Maitimo means "Well-shaped one" and how heartbreaking that really is. Did she see, like some nís are able, the fate that awaited her firstborn son? Did she see some glimpse of the torture he would endure that would permanently disfigure him? Did she name him Maitimo to remind him always that, no matter what happens, he will always be beautiful to her and he is loved?