Tolkien - Blog Posts
Am I the only person who thought this was really fucking funny
How do teachers expect me to finish my homework when I can be doing this instead
(Boromir is a little messy, still figuring out how to draw him)
you guys are so annoying. why do i have to see discourse every year that's like "was tolkien really a woke king or was he your conservative uncle?" the guy was a devout catholic and a genteel misogynist who maintained lifelong friendships with queer people and women, and this isn't even paradoxical because that was part of the upper-class oxford culture he was immersed in. tolkien told the nazis to fuck off (and in doing so demonstrated a real understanding of what racism is and why it's harmful, beyond simply "these guys are bad news because they're who my country is at war with right now") but his inner life was marked by internalized racism that is deeply and inextricably woven into the art that he made. he foolishly described himself as an anarcho-monarchist, and it's kind of crazy to see people on this website passionately arguing that he likely never meaningfully engaged with anarchist theory, because...yeah, no shit, of course he didn't. tolkien didn't have to engage with most sociopolitical theory because as an upper-class englishman of his position, he was never affected by any of the issues that this theory is concerned with. what is plainly obvious from reading both his fiction and letters is that tolkien's ideal political system was that the divinely ordained god-king would rise up and rule in perfect justice and humility; he didn't want a government, he wanted a king arthur, even though (obviously) he was aware that outcome was impossible. why is it so hard for people to accept that he was just some guy! his letters aren't a code you have to crack. no amount of arguing or tumblr-level analysis is going to one day reveal a rhetorically airtight internally consistent worldview spanning jrrt's fiction, academic work, and personal writings, thereby "solving" the question of whether he was a woke king or your conservative uncle. his ideology was extremely inconsistent because, at the end of the day, he was just some guy.
Okay, so, today on deeply nerdy things I'm working on (and also looking for advice on; vote at the end of the post!)...
So I've been working on coloring Worm's page from the quarantine coloring book (this is what I have so far), and I decided that I needed to put a name on the side of the boat. Because this stream was the first thing I watched with Gerard and Worm, I decided that “Daydream Believer” would be a good name for the boat (fair warning, it’s a pretty violent game they’re playing in that stream, but to summarize, the part I’m referencing is from Gerard’s turn as the murderer when he starts playing Daydream Believer by the Monkees to creep out Worm and the other dude they’re playing with, which is the moment I linked to.)
But then I thought, this is an alien creature’s magical space-boat. I can’t just title it Daydream Believer in English. So I whipped out my D&D player’s handbook (5e) and went to the Elvish alphabet.
But then I thought, I can’t just write Daydream Believer in English with Elvish letters. I need to translate it into proper Elvish first. Which, of course, the only correct Elvish languages to use are Tolkien’s--Sindarin and Quenya. (In any case, I don’t believe that there is a complete D&D Elvish language.)
So, I brought up a few Sindarin and Quenya online dictionaries and translators, and I came up with a few different translations for “Daydream Believer”, and I wrote them out and transcribed my favorites to try and see which ones looked best in the D&D Elvish alphabet (I know Tengwar is technically the correct Tolkien-based Elvish script to be writing in, but I was already rolling with the D&D Elvish transcriptions, and I think I like the look of them for an alien space boat better, so I stuck with the D&D Elvish). But now I’m kind of stuck between three, and I thought, why not ask tumblr?
The two on the left with the blue highlights are Sindarin translations, and the one on the right with the green highlight is Quenya; I know there are differences in use between the two languages but I figured there’s no particular reason an alien couldn’t speak either of them. The first of the two Sindarin translations is “celain ely thenid pen”. ‘Celain’ means daylight, ‘ely’ means dream, and since I couldn’t find the word ‘believe’ in Sindarin anywhere I looked, I used ‘thenid’ which means ‘faithful’ and ‘pen’ as a pronoun meaning ‘one’. So, the first translation is really “daylightdream faithfulone”, which is fairly close. But I chose that translation mostly for aesthetics, and I worried I had strayed from the truest translation of the words, so I did another.
The second Sindarin translation I did was “eraid ely esteliad pen”. ‘Eraid’ is just ‘day’ instead of ‘daylight’, and ‘esteliad’ is ‘trusting’, which seemed closer to the meaning of a daydream believer as one who is trusting in their daydreams rather than one who is faithful to their daydreams, although that could lead to a whole debate on the meaning of the original song, which--let’s be honest I’m way overthinking this already. I’m just trying to find pretty letters to write on the side of this boat, lol :) But nerdy linguistic overanalysis for a random obscure reference that pretty much no one is going to get is what I’m here for, haha.
So, the third and final of my top three translations is the Quenya one, “árë maur savindo”. Quenya actually seemed to translate the phrase more easily, if only because there’s a word for “believer”. ‘Árë’ is day, ‘maur’ is dream or vision (which, I like the idea that the daydream believer’s daydreams are visions of a sort--oh no I’m analyzing the song again, I said I wouldn’t do that, I’ll stop, haha. I actually have thought about the meaning of the song quite a lot), and ‘savindo’ is believer. The Quenya translator that gave me ‘savindo’ warned that it was fan-created, but ‘sav-’ is in fact the Quenya verb for believe, and there was a whole section in the Quenya-English dictionary I looked at for “one who ___” verbs and they all ended in ‘indo’, so I think it’s a correctly derived translation.
Tl;dr--those are the three best translations I came up with, and I highlighted where I wrote each of them out in Elvish in the image above. So, now I’m asking you to vote: which Elvish translation of Daydream Believer should I write on the boat on my coloring page? “Celain ely thenid pen”, “eraid ely esteliad pen”, or “árë maur savindo”? Vote in the replies or reblog with your vote! :)
Postscript: If anyone wants to see my full Elvish translation scribblings which led to this, here’s what my process in my sketchbook looked like:
(There was a reflection from an old art class in the top left so that’s what I roughly photoshopped out if you were wondering.)
It’s always fun to have an excuse to mess around with translations and practice writing things in Elvish script :)
You know, it's kinda funny how much of high fantasy centers around kings and nobility and courtly intrigue considering that the archetypal high fantasy, Lord of the Rings, had the rather explicit moral of "saving the world is up to this backwater hick and his gardener because no politician, least of all inherited nobility, would have the ability to see past their own ambition and throw away a weapon". Oh sure, Aragorn is a great king and all, but there's a reason he's over there running a distraction ring while the hobbits do the real work. Sauron loses because he gets distracted by kings and armies and great battles (i.e. typical high fantasy stuff) letting Frodo and Sam sneak through his back door and blow it all to hell.
Just saying, maybe old Jirt knew what he was saying when he said that the small folk doing their best and holding to each other was more powerful than a dozen alliances and superweapons and we should respect him for it.
IT’s LORD OF THE FUCKING RINGS! NOT GAME OF THRONES, you dumb FUCKS!
?!?!?!?!?!?!!???
who tf is gonna be nude? the ents???
Based on a really rude drawing I did in Elemantary School where I compared my friend’s obsession with his phone with Gollum and I can see now why he wasn’t a big fan of it. So if you follow me here, no clue who does and doesn’t, I want to say again, I’m sorry for my past behavior. But also interesting how it still seems relevant all these years later with everyone being on social media and wanting more likes, more followers, more activity and I think there’s a little bit of Gollum in all of us. I try to stop myself from this and have removed all kinds of notifications and just want to focus on the fun part of all of this. I draw what I like and I share it, then I will have no clue of people will like it our not and I try not to care too much. . #photoshop #photoshopart #digitalart #digitalillustration #fanart #gollum #smeagol #lordoftherings #hobbit #tolkien #jrrtolkien #middleearth . #commissionsopen (på/i Middle-Earth) https://www.instagram.com/p/CkqfdCUMJPE/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
“6) Tolkien’s hero was average, and needed help, and failed. This is the place where most fantasy authors, who love to simultaneously call themselves Tolkien’s heirs and blame him for a lot of what’s wrong with modern fantasy, err the worst. It’s hard to look at Frodo and see him as someone extra-special. The hints in the books that a higher power did choose him are so quiet as to be unnoticeable. And he wouldn’t have made it as far as he did without his companions. And he doesn’t keep from falling into temptation. A lot of modern fantasy heroes are completely opposite from this. They start out extraordinary, and they stay that way. Other characters are there to train them, or be shallow antagonists and love interests and worshippers, not actually help them. And they don’t fail. (Damn it, I want to see more corrupted fantasy heroes.) It’s not fair to blame Tolkien for the disease that fantasy writers have inflicted on themselves. […] Fantasy could use more ordinary people who are afraid and don’t know what the hell they’re doing, but volunteer for the Quest anyway. It’s misinterpretation of Tolkien that’s the problem, not Tolkien himself.”
—
“Tolkien Cliches,” Limyaael
(via mithtransdir)
The whole point of The Lord Of The Rings… like, the WHOLE POINT… is that it is ultimately the hobbits who save the world. The small, vulnerable, ordinary people who aren’t great warriors or heroes.
Specifically, Sam. Sam saves the world. All of it. The ultimate success of the great quest is 100% due to a fat little gardener who likes to cook and never wanted to go on an adventure but who did it because he wasn’t going to let his beloved Frodo go off alone. Frodo is the only one truly able to handle the ring long enough to get it into Mordor - and it nearly kills him and permanently emotionally damages him - but Sam is the one who takes care of Frodo that whole time. Who makes him eat. Who finds him water. Who watches over him while he sleeps.
Sam is the one who fights off Shelob.
Sam is the one who takes the Ring when he thinks Frodo is dead.
Sam is the one who strolls into Orc Central and saves Frodo by sheer determination and killing any orc who crosses him. (SAM THE GARDENER GOES AND KILLS AN ACTUAL ORC TO GET FRODO SOME CLOTHES LET’S JUST THINK ABOUT THAT). And then Sam just takes off the Ring and gives it back which is supposed to be freaking impossible and he barely even hesitates.
Sam literally carries Frodo on the last leg of the journey. On his back. He’s half-starved, dying slowly of dehydration, but he carries Frodo up the goddamn mountain and Gollum may get credit for accidentally destroying the ring but Sam was the one who got them all there.
Sam saved the world.
And let’s not forget Pippin and Merry, who get damselled out of the story (the orcs have carried them off! We must make a Heroic Run To Save Them!) and then rescue themselves, recruit the Terrifying Ancient Powers through being genuinely nice and sincere, and overthrow Saruman before the ‘real’ heroes even get there.
Let’s not forget Pippin single-handedly saving what’s left of Gondor - and Faramir - by understanding that there is a time for obeying orders and a time for realizing that the boss is bugfuck nuts and we need to get help right now.
Let’s not forget Merry sticking his sword into the terrifying, profoundly evil horror that has chased him all over his world because his friend is fighting it and he’s gonna help, dammit and that’s how the most powerful Ringwraith goes down to a suicidally depressed woman and a scared little hobbit.
Everything the others do, the kings and princes and great heroes and all? They buy time. They distract the bad guys. They keep the armies occupied. That is what kings and great leaders are for - they do the big picture stuff.
But it is ultimately the hobbits who bring down every villain. Every one. And I believe that that is 100% on purpose. Tolkien was a soldier in WWI. His son fought in WWII. (And a lot of The Lord Of The Rings was written in letters to him while he did it.)
And hey, look, The Lord Of The Rings is about ordinary people - farmers, scholars, and so on - who get pulled into a war not of their making but who have to fight not only because their own home is in danger but so is everyone’s. And they’re small and scared but they do the best they can for as long as they can and that is what actually saves the world. Not great heroes and pre-destined kings. Ordinary people, doing extraordinary things because they want the world to be safe for ordinary people, the ones they know and the ones they don’t.
Ordinary people matter. They can save the world without being great heroes or kings or whatever. And that is really important and I get so upset when people miss that because Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli and Gandalf and all the others are great characters and all but they are ultimately a hobbit delivery system.
It is ordinary people doing their best who really change the world, and continue doing so after the war is over because they have to go home and rebuild and they do.
If nothing else, I have to reblog this for the phrase “hobbit delivery system.” So accurate it hurts.
(via elenilote)
What I love too is how even the foretold king and the assorted great heroes themselves all come to recognize that their main (and by the end, only) role is to distract Sauron. To the point that by the end they’re all gathered up before the black gates of Mordor in order to keep his attention focused on them, with only the hope - not the certainty - that they can buy Frodo whatever remaining time he needs, if he’s even still alive.
One thing the movies left out but has always been such a key part of the books for me was how when the hobbits returned home, they found that home had been changed too. The war touched everywhere. Even with all they did in far-off lands to protect the Shire, the Shire had still been damaged, both property and lives destroyed, and it wasn’t an easy or simplistically happy homecoming. They had to fight yet another battle (granted a much smaller one) to save their neighbours, and then spent years in rebuilding.
(via garrusscars)
In many ways, the entire POINT is that homecoming. A quest, an adventure, is defined by the return home, and the realization that not only have YOU changed, so has your home.
(via mymyriadmusings)
“My friends, you bow to no one.”
(via sorrelchestnut)
@daisyfornost
(via roselightfairy)
if anyone is need of a long, entertaining adventure with a hero who never set out to be a hero but was just TRYING TO DIG A TUNNEL DAMMIT, Ursula Vernon’s Digger and its delightful wombat heroine might be up your alley.
(via beatrice-otter)
this is all so good and important i only have to add as i am contractually obligated to do that gollum didn’t “accidentally” destroy the Ring, frodo’s geas took effect and kicked his ass when gollum broke his word, so the credit for that goes back to Frodo again who absolutely anticipated he would do so and set up the geas for just that reason
So this is entirely @tygermama's fault
HOKAY, SO. This the earth … I mean, no.
Let’s talk about Éowyn Éomundsdaughter for a bit, shall we?
Keep reading
Title cards for a 3-part Gondolin podcast special
And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air. And the Shadow departed, and the Sun was unveiled, and light leaped forth.
Another Faramir/Eowyn scene from the booksss
That’s it, the Professor is truly the King of Sass
tbh nothing is weirder to me than manly grimdark dudebro lord of the rings bc it’s just??? the epitome of light and love to me???? no narrative embodies hope and gentleness and healing like lotr does why must you insist on talking to me about badass aragorn vs. useless frodo. that’s not the point brad
im gonna redraw this one day but yknow,, that scene from the return of the king
((click bc tumblr quality suckss))
Finally finished the set! This took a crazy long time to complete, but I’m happy with the result
These are beautiful illustrations of three most important female characters in Lord of the Rings series: Galadriel, Lady of Lothlorien, Arwen Undomiel and Eowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan, all done by amazing mori raito.
*chanting from the distance*
Hobbit Generation! Hobbit GENERATION! HOBBIT GENERATION!
Today weather is so sunny! what a nice day for studying and reading outside the classroom!
Today we were talking about our “Perfect Job”, which parameters you are preferring, etc.
And then Legolas did a totally sick backflip and decapitated 15 orcs. It was fuckin' sweet
J.R.R. Tolkien (apparently)
Main Masterlist
Hi, readers! My pen name is Camille Wright, and I'm so glad you've decided to check out my stories. A huge thank you to those who've supported me over the past few months. My Tolkien masterlist is here, may add for other fandoms too!
Tolkien Masterlist
Have fun exploring and requesting!
Merci, Camille
so sweet they give me so much life
Hii! I just wanna say, your blog is life to me! Literally come here to scroll on tough days, and seeing all the character designs and funny comics makes everything better! Really love your art style and designs. I know this has been asked before but I'm wondering if I could use your art as profile pictures? I really appreciate the joy your art brings!
hihi hello!!! first off, thank you so much for your kind words! i'm sorry for how delayed this response has been (im just getting back into tumblr after one of many hiatuses... AGAIN!!!), but it warms my heart on my own tough days to hear you enjoy my designs and comics! it means a lot, so thank you again!! ❤️❤️
now onto your question about using my art as a pfp: that's absolutely fine! by the time i'm answering this it's likely a bit late already, but i hope this clears things up in the long run. im absolutely ok with anyone using my art as pfps/icons, just so long as you remember to credit me, don't claim as own, dont use for AI training, etc etc.... hope that clears things up, and sorry again for taking so long to see this!
Requests are open!
Since holidays are approaching, I'd like to open requests! In about a week, I'm going to be starting my school holidays, and I'd like to take the time to relax and unwind from school before starting on holiday assignments. Writing does that for me, so requests!!!
Rules
What won't write: NSFW, gore, sensitive topics (you can DM to ask)
How to request
Send me an ask in my inbox, and I'll see to it!
I'll be writing for Silmarillion and Rings of Power elves, Valar and Maiar.
When requesting, please include:
Name of Silm/RoP elf (if it's characters like Elrond, Celebrimbor etc, specify if you want Silm or RoP version)
Nature of relationship: platonic or romantic?
If you want me to write an OC, give me all the details about your OC (race, gender, appearance, backstory, relationships with other characters etc, everything!)
Prompt! (very important, what is the premise of the story? angst, fluff? what exactly)
Note: I won't accept anonymous requests, because I may need to follow up with the user about their character. If you don't want your username to be shown when I post your request, you can tell me in your request. However, when you request, I need you to do so with a username!
I have the right to refuse requests! I'll be going overseas, and with assignments, I may not have time for everything. Especially if requests are inappropriate in nature, I'll have to turn them down and delete from my inbox.
Have fun sending requests, and give me time to process everything, okay?
Namarie! Happy holidays all!
Love, Lady of Lindon
The High King and High Queen of Lindon are trying to have some downtime (they've just woken up from a nice long sleep) and some elf walks in.
Gil-galad is understandably pissed off (but trying not to show it) while the High Queen (Itarille, in my story she's Elrond's sister) is trying not to smile or laugh.
A scene from a book I'm writing, High Queen of the Noldor.
@queenmeriadoc (because I think this would fit well with Lady Merry and High King Gil-galad), please let me know if this is in character for them, but I think in her case Celebrimbor is the one who walked in on them
Hello ✨I hope you are doing well)You can request Glorfindel (if you are not writing for him, then Gil Galad/Celebrimbor/Eonwe. For whomever you feel more comfortable🤗)Some light melancholy with the atmosphere of the phrase "In a room full of the best works of art, I would still look at you." The reader says this to the elf and calms his worries and insecurities.Reader Maiar Namo.I want to surround these elves with maximum comfort, support and strong hugs🥹🫶🏻English is not my native language, I apologize in advance for mistakes😅
Work of Art (Glorfindel x female Maia of Mandos)
Glorfindel had a hard time adjusting to the Halls of Mandos. He had been there since the Fall of Gondolin, and he had to come to terms with dying, since he had been raised to believe that the lives of the Eldar were eternal, that they wouldn't end.
Yet, here he was, in the halls of the dead. He had a hard time accepting his new reality, but there was one who made it easier.
Nolwendë, she was called, the lady of wisdom. A Maia of Mandos, an ethereal being. Her alabaster skin shone even in the gloom. Her hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall. When he had first laid eyes on her, his only thought was: she's beautiful. As time went by, however, she became so much more than that.
In Glorfindel's view, she saw far beneath the surface of his thoughts. In her presence, he always felt that she understood him better than any other ever had. And so he found himself spilling his thoughts and confiding in her, even more so than to his close friend Ecthelion of the Fountain.
"You're deep in thought, Laurë," Nolwendë noted. "What troubles your mind so?"
"It is nothing," Glorfindel sighed, though he knew it was pointless to hide his thoughts from her. In truth, he had felt this way for a while now, the feeling of not being enough. Especially in the Halls of Mandos, where the souls of elves far greater than he rested.
Why did she keep coming back to him, when there were other souls she could have tended to? He could understand why she stayed away from the sons of Fëanor, but what about Fingon the Valiant? What about Finrod Felagund? Why him?
"Your mind wanders far," she spoke softly as she walked, almost like a glide, up to him, her fingers reaching to trace his jaw. "You're tense."
"Why do you stick with me?"
Her grey eyes widened, and Glorfindel stared into their depths, mesmerised by the ethereal colour of her irises. "Why I stick with you?" she murmured.
"Your thoughts are fascinating, for one," she replied. "You've had an interesting life, crossing the Helcaraxë to Middle-earth, living in Nevrast and finally Gondolin."
She reached out and caught one of his long gold locks in her hand, playing with his hair. "You have beautiful hair, and its radiance far outshines that of Fingon or Finrod..."
"But the most beautiful thing, Glorfindel the Golden, is your soul," she finally looked at him, her eyes boring into his. "You're thoughtful, kind, compassionate. To me, those qualities matter far more than anything superficial."
She shifts to lean her forehead against his back, her arms coming to encircle him. "In a room full of the best works of art, I would still look at you. You're beautiful, in every way possible. Your heart is as golden as your hair."
She presses a kiss to his forehead, which elicited a small smile from him. "You're precious to me, Laurë, and that's all that matters. Until the end of time, I will look at you."
"Even if the Valar choose to return you to Middle-earth, I will go with you. I will never leave you, never leave your side."
Her lips curved gently upwards. "Because I love you, Laurë. And you're the most precious to me. Don't you ever forget that."
Bonus: Glorfindel brags to everyone he encounters in the Halls of Mandos, and later when he gets re-embodied, that the Maia of Mandos loves him