Hi! I LOVE your sigils, and I was wondering if you would consider making a sigil (or sigils) for Elured and Elurin. I’m very fond of the Nandorin legend that they were led to safety by the birds and beasts of Doriath (and my personal headcanon is that they were found and fostered by Nellas).

Ooooh…I stopped myself from making theirs a long time ago, but an excuse for more Iathrim aqua and art nouveau forest imagery and Nandorian greens (Also- I don’t think I’ve made Nellas and that won’t do)

Hey, so I requested a sigil a few months ago, and I know you said that the program doesn’t work with your method the way it used to which is why you haven’t made sigils in a while, BUT if you are ever able to get back to making sigils, I would just like to request the Celebrimbor sigil in Fingolfinian blues.

You know what – it’s been four years, more or less, but I finally got fed up. I found a 30-day trial of the newest version of the editing program that I used so that I can at least open those old files. Celebrimbor wasn’t one that I had saved the WIP with layers. But you know, sweet anon, I miss my sigils. I have more OCs that should have them. And if all you want is as close a re-approximation of the first sigil on this page (http://squirrelwrangler.tumblr.com/post/51144569186/hegets-silmarillion-sigil-set-your-daily-dose) with a blue background – By the Belain, I’m going to try!

37, 38, 39, 40, 41?

37) What’s the funniest story you’ve written?

Okay, reader poll right now, but I think as far as posted up on AO3, the clear contenders are Tears and Whatcha Gonna Call it?, with Milk as the other fic that I wrote as pure comedy (even if the punchline is one of those delayed reactions unsaid but viciously and personally amusing). Or Feasting with the Lions of Valmar, because Ingwion being utterly aghast at his inappropriately randy royal parents is never not going to be funny to me. But to be honest, my funniest moment is still going to have to be the title for this thing.

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

Writers? Honestly, I could find it easier to collab with artists (any fanartist), and while I feel inspired and hope to inspire other writers, an actual collaborative effort on a single fic with another writer is a separate writing skill of which I’ve never done and feel very hesitant about trying. But if I had to, I’d love to spitball and try a write something with @swampdiamonds because we have helped to beta each other fics once (which, i don’t beta so again, lack of experience) dealing with Nargothrond, because we both write a lot with that place, especially OCs, except she writes Túrin and I’ve only ever done pre-Túrin. And @kareenvorbarra and @heckofabecca as two long-time mutual writers would share a similar interest in character tastes, especially minor background female Edain. Uh, honestly since I’ve never done it, I’d try it with any once if they were open with the caveat that I’d have no idea if it’d be successful.

39) Do you prefer first, second or third person?

With very rare exceptions, third person. It’s the most natural (common) to read and thus to write.

40) Do people know you write fanfiction?

Off-line? NO.

41) What’s you favourite minor character you’ve written?

You had to ask this. You had to. Do we count OCs? When we talk the Silmarillion, is the fact that Elu Thingol, Oromë, Melian, Beren, and the mostly off-screen cameos of Finrod the only characters that have graced my stories what would be considered a main character in a conventional novel? Heck, Ingwë is a very minor character.

Short list of some minor characters I’m proud to have created or expanded on and are fun to write:

Ingwë. Ravennë. Kreka. Faron. Former Warg Bitch. Ilsë. Eärwen. (Elwing is too major to count). Consael. Fân and Aereth, Heledir. Findis. Borte. Angrod may or may not count. Alako the angry ghost. Gilrean the tiny bat Maia foster sister of Dior needs a story to count.

aw i had a huge smile on my face reading the water lovin posts . one of my fantasies is that i don’t have to breath so i can dive and be surrounded by water for as long as i want 🌊🌊🌊

It’s a weird thing because I love the ocean at a distance, tbh – but that distance is not all that great. When both of your parents were officers in the navy, but neither in very nautical-like positions or roles, when the literature and heroic figures and poetry were more often than not that of sailors and the sea – if you ask me to name a poem, the first I will think of is the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, even if I don’t have lines memorized, yet still it is my prototypical platonic ideal of ‘concept of poetry’, when you never went fishing or played on the beach or swan in the ocean as a child, but that “seagull to pigeon ratio” and you know what the ocean smells like more than what a forest smells like, that yeah, the most terrifying place on earth is going to be the deep sea- and yet the most beautiful- that it isn’t ‘a great wave as tall and terrible as a mountain’, oh no- it’s that the mountains themselves are frozen waves sculpted in stone.

That I love the Edain, but it boggles my mind that Tuor would be the first of any of them to see the ocean, and thus I fell in love with him in those first read-throughs because he fell in love with that sea.

Also- no breathing removes only some sea terror, but is does sound like a fun thing to do. Also- anon, are you Tuor?

Ingwe!

His canon wife – of whom I have named Ravennë and spent a long time developing into my own character. Branching out from “Of Ingwë”, there is that badwrong ship him with Imin. I’m an outlier in that I don’t ship Ingwë in any way with Manwë, and of the three elven prophet kings, although I really only like Ingwë and Elwë of that trio, to suggest any romantic feelings among the three, I can only imagine it with Finwë to Elwë.

But yeah. Ravennë

Balrog: wings or not?

We be pulling out the OLD SKOOL WANK

The physical mass of a balrog is flame and smoke- there may or may not even be armor that a balrog wears and the whips are probably not a separate object but a thin tendril extension of itself because the visual should be more like genie than an ogre. If there are wings, it is the smoke flaring up into the shape of wings, which it might do for dramatic intimidation. Out in the sunlight or on the battlefield the smoke and flame may harden and tighten down into a humanoid shape, like lava cooling into igneous rock, brittle and hole-ridden as pumice but as cutting as obsidian, and that form has no wings.

Have you done sigils of Glorfindel/Ecthelion antwhere ?

You’d think the Lords of Gondolin would have been easy for me to do, but I never got around to them before my old, old program stopped working. But there were plans for some of them (what does it say about me that Meleth the nursemaid does have a sigil?)

Huh, looking back through my blog, I don’t think I released the Glorfindel one in an official post. But here it is:

It makes me really sad that the fandom made you dislike Maedhros. If it’s okay, I’d like to bring up a couple non-Thingol aspects to his character: presumably seeing Morgoth in person, getting tortured, recovering from torture, having to deal with Feanor, dealing with his brothers, finding Finwe’s body, having to witness all the consequences of his actions play out, directly killing other elves, killing himself, giving up his crown. Those are some things that I think make his character Good.

And frankly, while dealing with Fëanor and his brothers would garner sympathy from me, the towering hypocrisy of Maedhros, that he does repeatedly murder civilian populations and unlike Thingol isn’t overwhelming motivated out of a desire to safeguard his people- which is one of the many reasons I love Thingol… One of my favorite characters in the Silm is Maeglin- who also has the captured by Morgoth and tortured (though only caused the destruction of one elven city), had a troubled home-life (and if Fëanor was written in fandom more emotionally abusive whom his sons were constantly fearing to lose their father’s affection and thus the Oath motivated in part out of that fear- I’d be more receptive). I’m not saying Maedhros isn’t interesting as a character- just that I’ve seen enough of it, it no longer appeals to me- what little did the first year or two in this fandom, now it’s been over ten years I’m sick of him.

But if Maedhros wasn’t rescued and instead spent the majority of the Silm hanging from that cliff? [shrug] I’d be fine with that.

Oh wait, where does it say that Thingol allied with humans? I only remember it saying that humans weren’t allowed into Doriath, what am I missing?

Haladin.

Now Brethil was claimed as part of his realm by King Thingol, though it was not within the Girdle of Melian, and he would have denied it to Haleth; but Felagund, who had the friendship of Thingol, hearing of all that had befallen the People of Haleth, obtained this grace for her: that she should dwell free in Brethil, upon the condition only that her people should guard the Crossings of Teiglin against all enemies of the Eldar, and allow no Orcs to enter their woods. To this Haleth answered: ‘Where are Haldad my father, and Haldar my brother? If the King of Doriath fears a friendship between Haleth and those who have devoured her kin, then the thoughts of the Eldar are strange to Men.’ And Haleth dwelt in Brethil until she died

This is really funny too, because the Noldor didn’t devour but they certainly murdered and stole from Thingol’s kin, and yet he doesn’t deny some of them friendship.

You also have the March-wardens led by Beleg fighting alongside the Haladim in the Dagor Bragollach to defend Brethil. It’s not the direct lord-vassalage of Dor-lómin or Dorthonion, but it was an alliance or an allied vassal-state, take your pick. But Elu doesn’t demand – or suggest to Haleth- the loss of autonomy that made her reject Caranthir’s offer.

Also:

But Túrin and his companions passing through great perils came at last to the borders of Doriath; and there they were found by Beleg Strongbow, chief of the marchwardens of King Thingol, who led them to Menegroth. Then Thingol received Túrin, and took him even to his own fostering, in honour of Húrin the Steadfast; for Thingol’s mood was changed towards the houses of the Elf-friends. Thereafter messengers went north to Hithlum, bidding Morwen leave Dor-lómin and return with them to Doriath;

Plus, Thingol’s anti-human feelings were dream-Doom premonitions that a mortal man entering Doriath would eventually lead to its fall, not the fear of humans xenophobic rhetoric Fëanor used to incite the Noldor to follow him.

I don’t think fanon!maedhros is canon!thingol? I mean idk, I think the most interesting things about each of them are not things that they share?

Well, as I like Thingol and find Maedhros to be not only vastly overrated but very close to the top of my list of most disliked characters in The Silmarillion – yes.

So yeah. Thingol was a good king and did not REPEATEDLY attack and murder civilian populations or play into Morgoth’s hand (and here I’m not talking about Maedhros’s parley that ends with his capture but that the Fëanorian threatening and then committing various assaults on allies -or at least neutral non-evil- groups and kingdoms and refugee camps, is and I quote: “But Morgoth thought that his triumph was fulfilled, recking little of the sons of Fëanor, and of their oath, which had harmed him never and turned always to his mightiest aid.”)

But that I saw quite often fandom making a big deal about Amlach going to serve under Maedhros or that Azaghâl and the dwarves of Belegost joined the Union of Maedhros, and conveniently ignoring or forgetting that Thingol was long allied with the dwarves and the Haladim (enough so that all three used axes as their primary battle weapon). The really tall and good looking and eldest brother was an amusing parallel. Also that Thingol has a sincere regret and acknowledgement of how he fucked up with Beren and Lúthien (and adopts Túrin and loves him as a son in repentance) as to me a far more authentic and actual admission of fault than Maedhros’s -oh wait, that was Maglor with the maybe we have been anti-villains this whole time woe-is-me maybe we should regret our actions and stop them.

It was a slow process and it’s partly a backlash against the overwhelming fandom bias, but the longer I’ve been in the Silm fandom, the more I’ve grown to love Thingol and find him interesting, and the less I’ve found Maedhros interesting, appealing, sympathetic, etc…

Anyone coming to me for Silm feelings gets informed straight away I like almost all the characters to some degree but the few I loathe are Fëanor and his sons, and frankly for the most part don’t care about them, don’t want to read fanfic or reblog fanart of them, don’t want to read any more meta trying to defend them for the various Kinslaying or get back into that cycle of trying to argue with their fans, I had a policy when following back other Silm fans on tumblr that if they posted more than one piece of Maedhros fanart on the first few pages of their blog I didn’t bother following, …

*shrug*

So yeah. One I find interesting. The other it was fun to finally type out this list.