Tag: tolkien

Beren uplifting him, far him flung,
and cried ‘Begone!’ with stinging tongue;
‘Arise and go, and no more work
like Morgoth’s slaves or curséd Orc;
and deal, proud son of Fëanor,
in deeds more proud than heretofore!’
Then Beren led Lúthien away,
while Huan still there stood at bay.

Lay of Leithian, Canto XI, lines 251-266

(via squirrelwrangler)

When George handed Tolkien the tape recorder, his skepticism towards it as a machine was deeply rooted in his personality. Because the machine could record and play back a human voice, Tolkien joked around that the tape recorder was possessed. That was why he began a recording session with exorcizing any demons living inside the machine. He did this by recording himself reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

But Tolkien didn’t recite the Lord’s Prayer in English. Neither did he recite it in Latin, which would have been expected considering that he was a devout Catholic. No, Tolkien being Tolkien, he recited the Lord’s Prayer in Gothic.

from J.R.R. Tolkien and the Exorcism of the Tape Recorder
(via bookriot)

And now this robe she round her furled,
and veiled her garments shimmering white;
her mantle blue with jewels bright
like crystal stars, the lilies gold,
were wrapped and hid; and down there rolled
dim dreams and faint oblivious sleep
falling about her, to softly creep
through all the air.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lay of Leithian (via tolkien-minor-characters)

Something I realize I don’t know the answer to, help me Tolkien fandom.

Who is the (in-universe) author of the Lay of Leithian?

We know Dírhavel the mortal of the people of Hador writes the Narn i Chin Húrin, and Pengolodh as our author of a lot of the lore, especially Gondolin. Songs about Eärendil are very common, enough that Bilbo makes his own version. Maglor’s Noldolantë gets name-dropped. Elemmírë’s Aldudenië is known by all elves. We don’t know the authors to the various hymns to Varda/Elbereth, though between their appearance in LotR and Fingon singing a hymn to Manwë, I can assume there is a wide body of such devotional songs and some of them can be dated back to the Great Journey and before, what with the Eldar and universal star-adoration. Folk tunes, natch. So probably a mix of Silvan/Sindar and Vanyar/Noldor authorship. (Tunes from the Lindar as the first singers among the elves, though in Valinor I’d say Vanyar, as they’re the ones noted for composing songs and closer/more holy for the Valar, but the songs spread outside Valmar by the Noldor)

But if we go by explicitly stated most popular stories or those agreed as known and beloved

by practically all Eldar – it’s Beren and Lúthien and then the tale of Túrin, then hymns to stars (lumping Eärendil in this).

I’m assuming the author was Sindar. I think it would have been noted if was it another mortal composition in an elven style. It wasn’t Daeron. It sure as hell wasn’t Maglor. Then again, it would be really weird if the Lay was a translation of another of Elemmírë’s universally popular songs.

IDK, this feels like something Tolkien would have provided the Wastonian answer to.

Note to self- fix Lindar proportions when talking about Elwë’s persuavise skills

“According to the Noldorin historians the proportions, out of 144, that when the March began became Avari or Eldar were approximately so:
Minyar 14: Avari 0 Eldar 14
Tatyar 56: Avari 28 Eldar 28
Nelyar 74: Avari 28 Eldar 46 > Amanyar Teleri 20;
Sindar and Nandor 26″

So at the start of the Great Journey, Finwë was able to convince half the Noldor to go, but Elwë and Olwë, thanks to strong kinship ties among the Lindar, was able to bring slightly more than half (a little over 3/5ths). And funnily enough, it isn’t until the split with Olwë that the proportions of the elven population change so finally the combined numbers of the First and Second Tribe outnumber the Third Host. Even during the March there were more Teleri than Vanyar and Noldor combined.

And of course there had to be more than 52 elves arriving in Valinor so that the population can be anywhere remotely close to needed for the story purposes.  

Of the Athrabeth- one of my favorite segments on how humans see and interact with the world compared to elves:

Finrod and Andreth and how humanity sees and deals with the world (physical and otherwise) versus the true alien nature of elves. Where I think it resonates with Platonic ideals and Christian theology but as I have no grounding in spirituality, I feel like Andreth – a heart stirred by a truth recognized but not comprehended. How elves are ‘embalmers’ and tied to Arda and fate, and how they don’t suffer boredom the same way we understand it, or restlessness. Elves don’t make sense otherwise. This passage I hearken back to every time I have an elf (especially Angrod) or the Valar contemplate mortals:

‘Yet otherwise. Each of our kindreds perceives Arda
differently, and appraises its beauties in different mode and degree. How shall
I say it? To me the difference seems like that between one who visits a strange
country, and abides there a while (but need not), and one who has lived in that
land always (and must). To the former all things that he sees are new and
strange, and in that degree lovable. To the other all things are familiar, the
only things that are, his own, and in that degree precious.’
‘If you mean that Men are the guests,’ said Andreth.
‘You have said the word,’ said Finrod: ‘that name we have given
to you.’
‘Lordly as ever,’ said Andreth. ‘But even if we be but
guests in a land where all is your own, my lords, as you say, tell me what other
land or things do we know?’
‘Nay, tell me!’ said Finrod. ‘For if you do not know, how
can we? But do you know that the Eldar say of Men that they look at no thing
for itself; that if they study it, it is to discover something else; that if
they love it, it is only (so it seems) because it reminds them of some other
dearer thing? Yet with what is this comparison? Where are these other things? 
‘We
are both, Elves and Men, in Arda and of Arda; and such knowledge as Men have is
derived from Arda (or so it would appear). Whence then comes this memory that
ye have with you, even before ye begin to learn? 
‘It is not of other regions in
Arda from which ye have journeyed. We also have journeyed from afar. But were
you and I to go together to your ancient homes east away I should recognize the
things there as part of my home, but I should see in your eyes the same wonder
and comparison as I see in the eyes of Men in Beleriand who were born here.’
‘You speak strange words, Finrod,’ said Andreth, ‘which I have
not heard before. Yet my heart is stirred as if by some truth that it
recognizes even if it does not understand it. But fleeting is that memory, and
goes ere it can be grasped; and then we grow blind. And those among us who have
known the Eldar, and maybe have loved them, say on our side: “There is no
weariness in the eyes of the Elves”. And we find that they do not understand
the saying that goes among Men: too often seen is seen no longer. And they
wonder much that in the tongues because the Elves have lasting life and
undiminished vigour. “Grown-up children” we, the guests, sometimes
call you, my lord. And yet – and yet, if nothing in Arda for us holds its
savour long, and all fair things grow dim, what then? Does it not come from
[the] Shadow upon our hearts? Or do you say that it is not so, but this was ever
our nature, even before the wound?’
‘I say so, indeed,’ answered Finrod. ‘The Shadow may have darkened
your unrest, bringing swifter weariness and soon turning it to disdain, but the
unrest was ever there, I believe.