Category: Uncategorized

fialleril:

seasons-in-hell:

“The secrets do not know you. Prepare: they’ll whisper you your fate.”

Just a little bored morbid here. What’s yours?

The crystals are gone when you look away. Prepare: they, too, have teeth.

@scowlofjustice, @kdweaver a potential writing prompt for you?

Your teeth do not know you. Prepare: they, too, have teeth.

rencat replied to your post “Send me any number 1-50 and I’ll answer with a factoid or expanded…”

42

Family and wolves!

This is a short one, and when I am forced to pick my absolute favorite Silm Fan Fic that I’ve written, this is the one that I usually want to answer – or at least place it in the top five. Partially it is because it is short but does not need to be any longer or any accompanying story. And for all that it half-hinges on personal head-canons and interest in a character that is solely a name in a footnote of a supplementary text (Elmo), the meat of it is canon and the relationship between two characters that are of central importance to The Silmarilion and even during a key moment in the text. This isn’t me playing around in the margins, but having the confidence to write under the spotlight of center stage.

…I will have to check, but this might count as the first fic I wrote with Beren.

Change-of-heart where the in-law goes from hostile to begrudging to this moment where it is full acceptance – that is a story that we as humans deeply approve of, so no wonder I love it and want to celebrate it.

Commentary notes:

Behind them are the howls of the Great Wolf and Hound, trumpeting the echo of the wars of the Valar, the titanic struggle from before the mighty spirits’ entry into Arda, and it is nothing but noise.

I was tempted to add a hyphen or italicize or something to hammer the clean break of the shift in tone and focus, this grand mythic practically cosmic epic fight in the background- and that it is dismissed to the background because that’s not the focus. The focus is this quiet gesture and a man’s emotions.

 The last line I switched from Elu to Elwë (and was very tempted to make it Elwê), because it’s a neon flashing sign that in that moment, he wasn’t reacting as King Elu Thingol with a few millennia of experience, but as the young man barely reaching adulthood scolding his family.

…I can write Elu the oldest sibling of three easier than Elu the King.

iaearcanvennamar:

Another one of @squirrelwrangler ’s original designs, they are all so pretty. The roses were the most work and the symmetry is a little off, but otherwise I’m happy with it. I think it’s quite elvish in design, so perhaps a Doriath elf who was like ‘beautiful but quite literally with a lot of thorns this one’. And red commands attention like no other colour.

I also like the references to Beor and Hador. I tried to add more blue, but couldn’t fit it in.

kareenvorbarra:

squirrelwrangler:

crocordile:

kaywinnet:

I was looking through Description of Númenor in Unfinished Tales looking up the bit about Aranrúth for something totally unrelated, when I found this absolute gem in one of the footnotes:

The King’s sword was indeed Aranrúth, the sword of Elu Thingol of Doriath in Beleriand, that had descended to Elros from his mother. Other heirlooms there were beside: the Ring of Barahir; the great Axe of Tuor, father of Eärendil; and the Bow of Bregor of the House of Bëor.

I almost screamed, because THAT’S SO COOL I DID NOT KNOW THAT!!!!!! BREGOR IS MY FAVORITE THAT’S REALLY EXCITING!!!!! Also, now I’m wondering who held onto that bow for all those years and brought it to Númenor. Maybe it was Erendis’ relatives?

AMICABLE MEMORY REFRESHER TO MYSELF, i keep forgetting Bregor was an archer

Yeah naow~ HOW DID THE BOW SURVIVE TO GO TO NUMENOR?

okay okay…I already have head-canons that Belegund and Baragund were excellent archers, so one of them inherited their grandfather’s bow. And when they send their daughters away to safety with Aunt Emeldir, the bow goes with them as something for them to remember dad by, and also because they worry about their safety and thus vague notions of giving Morwen and Rían a weapon they can learn to use (even if Uncle Barahir looks at them and says no matter how tall Morwen grows, she’ll never be as big as Grandpa Bregor; he was a huge man.) The thought that counts. Aie~ now is this in Morwen’s possession or Rían? Because if Morwen, then it’s sent down with the Dragon-helm and somehow survives the destruction of Doriath and the destruction of Mouths of Sirion. If Rían, then she leaves it with Annael for Tuor when he grows up, and Annael holds onto it, hands it back to Tuor when they’re reunited at Mouths of Sirion, and has to somehow survive that destruction.

And now I’m getting tangentially related Dírhavel feelings, because we know he was composing his masterpiece of the history of the Edain and the great deeds of Túrin and Húrin, so I think he’d be interested in these heirlooms as well. And aahh~ now I have this image of this old man hiding the heirlooms and the copy of the Narn that his granddaughter copied out for him (as he was too old and blind to write it out himself, but she would copy his words as he dictated them, as the Lady Elwing demanded a hard version be made, knowing how so much knowledge was lost when Doriath fell and the lore-masters were killed). And Dírhavel is able to hide them right before he is killed by the Fëanorians, and when the few survivors and Gil-galad and Círdan return to look for anyone and anything that survived, they find his manuscripts and the few heirlooms of the royal house that had been lent to Dírhavel to study.

HEY i found this old post while i was looking for stuff for the Edain blog, and it reminded me that i do actually have headcanons now for how the bow got to Numenor! I basically just built on my speculation in the original post (that it was Erendis’ relatives) but here’s the more detailed version. 

In Unfinished Tales, Erendis’ father Beregar is said to be descended from the House of Beor, although not the Line of Elros. There’s a note in The War of the Jewels that he’s specifically descended from Beleth, Bregolas’ oldest child and only daughter. Beleth has no spouse or children listed on any of the family trees, but according to this note they must have existed (making her husband one of the few examples of an unnamed canonical male spouse in the Legendarium). 

In my headcanon, Beleth’s husband and two sons die in the Dagor Bragollach, but she and her young daughter survive to take refuge in Brethil. Bregor’s bow was passed down to Bregolas, and later to Baragund (I like your headcanon that he and Belegund were great archers, and I tend to think of Bregolas as more of a close combat guy). Before Beleth leaves Dorthonion with the other non-combatants and Emeldir, Baragund gives her their grandfather’s bow, both as a family keepsake and to help her defend the group during their journey (i don’t think Beleth was a warrior in the same way that Emeldir was, but maybe her father taught her to shoot, just in case she ever needed to). The bow is passed down to her daughter and her daughter’s descendants, who hold onto it through the fall of Brethil, the Third Kinslaying, and the War of Wrath, and eventually bring it to Numenor. Unfinished Tales doesn’t specify who exactly owns the bow – Thingol’s sword and presumably Tuor’s axe belong to the Kings of Numenor through Elros, and the Ring of Barahir was theirs as well until Tar-Elendil gave it to his daughter Silmarien – so it’s possible that it remained with Beleth’s descendants until the Fall. UT does confirm that the bow was lost in the destruction of Numenor, so maybe it entered the line of kings when Ancalime took the throne.