Tove Jansson’s Illustrations Of Bilbo Baggins Are My Absolute Favorite. I’m Obsessed With The Roundness.

Our favorite eldritch and less than sane beach bard, for day 2 of Feanorian week! I drew a very young and pleasant Nelyo for yesterday, so I thought it'd be fun to do crazy old Maglor today. I did try to make a more cropped version so you didn't have to see my messy sketchbook pages, but it just wasn't looking right (and the size didn't work well in a post). So please enjoy the random doodles, smudges, a stick helping me hold the page down, and what may or may not be a sneak peak for what's to come on the left ;0.

Close ups:

Maglor miiiiight be my favorite, so I really enjoyed drawing him!

"And it is told of Maglor that he could not endure the pain with which the Silmaril tormented him; and he cast it at last into the Sea"

A young Celeborn and Galadriel, sometime during the first age

I'm generally very much supportive of different takes on characters in the Silmarillion because a lot of stuff is really vague and can be interpreted in a lot of ways.

However, it is wild to me that some people interpret Feanor as being on the same level (or worse) of villainy as Morgoth. Like, you guys do you, but to me, that is not a reasonable comparison. Feanor stole some boats, engaged in one potentially unintentional act of mass violence in the course of a confusing situation, and did one count of arson. Morgoth infused his evil will into the very heart/core/fabric of Arda so much so that it is still there even after both he and Sauron faced their ultimate defeats and it cannot be undone by any force in Arda other than Eru himself. Not to mention all the torture, slavery, manipulation, and murder he did for hundreds of years both before and after his initial imprisonment in Mandos. Like I'm not trying to absolve Feanor of his actions, but compared to Morgoth, they cast a far smaller shadow.

Feanor and Morgoth have one thing in common in the fact that they both stole something that was important to someone else and committed violence during the act of the theft. But honestly, given everything else Morgoth does in the course of the Silmarillion, I think it's pretty silly to put Feanor anywhere near Morgoth when it comes to villainy.

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.

(insp)

Shout out Haleth. The It Girl of the Edain. Centuries later and all these shield maidens have posters of you on their walls. Showed up, served no nonsense badass, refused to elaborate, left.

I know Manwe's pardon was a stupid idea and he should have think more about it, as King of Arda, but I can't help but feeling so much for him. He's a younger brother, he doesn't understand evil and even if he did, he would have forgiven Melkor anyway. That's his older brother, of course he's gonna give him another chance, of course he believes he can change, of course he forgives him.

That's what younger siblings always do.

day 1: Maedhros - childhood

he's able to form the Union and get a bunch of generals to cooperate with each other because he already has plenty of experience as The Eldest Cousin who wrangled all the kids during family reunions and got them to behave

Celegorm canonically speaking animal languages is so funny because how many times he went to his brothers and told them "A little birdie told me" to embaress them with some gossip and then watch their house descend into complete chaos as his brothers try to figure out who exposed them

And it was really a little birdie, a real bird, with whom he spoke, because he understands his language