Maglor: I Only Had Elrond And Elros For A Moment But If Anything Happened To Them I Would Kill Everyone

What does your mad uncle and a broken clock have in common

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.

Something quick and simple with Feanor and Fingolfin

The arrow is kind of random because I didn't want to give swords to both of them. Don't judge me!

Galadriel: *lying face down on her bed*

Finrod entering her room: Hey, are you doing okay?

Galadriel in a muffled voice: I just need a break from everything. Including existing.

Finrod: Alright, if that's what you want.

Finrod shuffled in and plopped face down on the bed with her.

Galadriel looks up confused: What are you doing?

Finrod looks up at her and smiles softly: I'm taking a break from existing with you.

After a couple hours, their other brothers found their way into Galadriel's room, turning it into a cuddle pile, the four eventually drifting off to sleep.

every day I think about how insane Tolkien was for having Aegnor, Fell Fire, Sharp-flame, the flame to Andreth's moth, die during the Battle of Sudden Flame

The reality of my Silmarillion fan experience is this: Yeah, sure, I feel the tragedy of the Fëanorians and like Maglor with the best of them but... but... look, there's this other elf to be found on the seashore. He's a procrastinator. He's a bloody procrastinator who had a mission from his king and yet spent years hanging around a place doing nothing because he liked the nature there. And then he got his ass kicked by the sea and lost all his companions. And somehow that did not make him bitter and when he was told by a random human on the shore that he needed to go to the secret city because Ulmo, the Vala of the sea, told him to, his reaction was "Okay, we're going."

As an adult, I guess the reality of my Silmarillion / Unfinished Tales fan experience is that Voronwë is the ADHD hero I needed in my teenage years.

Currently thinking about the phrase "argue like an old married couple" and how elves live for thousands of years. Do you think there's been verbal domestic arguments that have gone for a week straight, no food, no water, no sleep, just one trying to leave the room only to say "AND ANOTHER THING!" before bringing up something that happened 750 years ago, pushing the argument on for at least another week?

Also thinking about interspecies relationships, imagine being married to an elf with a long ass life span where time doesn't mean anything and having to yell "fine you pronounced that stupid wine blend correctly, now can we stop talking about it, it's been TWO DAYS!"

We all think a lot about Maedhros’ relationships with his parents and his brothers since they loom so large in his life, but I think there are really interesting contrasts and parallels between Maedhros and Finwë and Míriel:

Finwë held himself unkinged by the Valar against his will; Maedhros chose to give the crown to Fingolfin.

Finwë was a great friend of Elwë; Maedhros was not, and even made war on his kingdom after he was dead.

Finwë wanted to have more children after Fëanor; Maedhros never had children, but he ended up with children anyway.

Míriel was known for her strong will and her tendency to make her words a law unto themselves; Maedhros swore the Oath.

Míriel chose to die; Maedhros begged Fingon to slay him and he later cast himself into a chasm of fire.

Míriel, and of course Fëanor, were well known for the beautiful things they created; Maedhros did achieve some great things, like the alliances he formed, but he was mostly remembered for what he destroyed.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you are a god's best friend. the world is young still, and you are yet younger. he rides with you and hunts with you, and teaches you how to speak to birds and beasts. you are a god's student. you ride in his train and care for a hound that he gifted to you. gods have taught others before. gods have been kindly to others before. your god is your best friend. he gifts you something of his self, a hound of his own hunt.

you are your father's son. your grandfather is dead. no one has ever called you wise, and you are, above all else, your father's son. he swears a terrible oath. you swear a terrible oath. you don't know if you really mean it, but your mother named you well- you are hasty to rise, hasty to run into things. the hunt teaches you patience but you cannot outrun yourself. you are your father's son.

you are a god's best friend and you have sworn a terrible oath, but it is an oath that you hope that your friend can understand. to hunt the murderer of your grandfather, is something that the god of the hunt can understand.

you are your father's son. the blood of elves on your hands does not feel different than the blood of a deer, except in the tight feeling of your throat. except in the thunderous beating of your heart. you tell your brother, who is trying not to throw up, that you need to think of them like deer. he looks at you like he's never seen you before. you are forever doomed.

you are a god's best friend. he does not say goodbye, but your dog comes with you. surely you can fix this, then, surely you are still a god's friend.

you are your father's son. he dies. he dies but before he does, he tells you to burn the boats. you do. you are your father's son. your father dies and, he tells you to swear that oath once more. it is a terrible oath. you have sworn it once. you swore to your best friend once. surely it will not tip the scales to swear once more, if in your mind, you dedicate this hunt to him.

you were a god's best friend, and it is not enough. you are your father's son, and you speak your father's oath. it proceeds to eat you alive.

Me, a youngest sibling: FINARFINFINARFINFINARFINNNNN THE POOR GUY HE WAS PROBABLY SO LONELY AND SAD AFTER EVERYONE LEFT BECAUSE AS A YOUNGEST SIBLING YOU’VE NEVER BEEN ALONE, LITERALLY ALWAYS SURROUNDED BY FAMILY AND THE BURDEN OF TAKING THIS CROWN THAT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE HIS BECAUSE THERE WERE LITERALLY ALL OF FËANOR’S THEN FINGOLFIN’S KIDS BEFORE HIM AND THEY’RE AN IMMORTAL RACE ANYWAY SO IT NEVER EVEN CROSSED HIS MIND AND HE PROBABLY THOUGHT OF HIS BROTHERS EVERY TIME HE HAD TO PUT THE STUPID CROWN ON HIS HEAD AND SILENTLY WEPT BY HIMSELF BECAUSE WHO WAS LEFT TO UNDERSTAND THE LOVE ARAFINWË STILL HELD FOR HIS BIG BROTHERS-