#non arda stuff...

[theelfmaiden]

I just watched 'A New Hope' from start to finish for the first time, so there's them cuz I love them 🌟

#'the empire strikes back' tomorrow 😅 #non-arda stuff #star wars #star wars a new hope #luke skywalker #leia organa #fan art #my art #joli's art

[kaleb-is-definitely-sane]

Welcome to the Family

If you want your description changed just tell me <3

According to @justarandomhumanpassingby I'm the paradesi philosopher <3

This is a (in progress) list of my tumblr family:

@dori-and-gray: my irreplaceable bestie who i love to the moon and back

@goodoldfashionedluvergirl: the beautiful, talented, lovable and honey voiced older sister

@the-eternal-seeker: the chill, oldest and wisest quadruplet who's always there to help; the only one in this family possessing anything resembling sanity

@technically-bean: my incredible quadruplet sister who always laughing and crying with me and whose probably either covered in dirt or reading another sad book)

@maddipoof: my other incredible twin quadruplet who thinks on the same wave length as me

@anyavaramyr: he therapist of my friend group who needs therapy herself heh(I'm broke, tumblr is less expensive than therapy). That one anxiety riddled perfectionist of the group tbh but I've been told I'm like the chaotic yet caring younger sister<3

@loverliner: my lil sister whos always vibing

@just-another-godless-god: my mischievous lil sister

@king-of-dholakpur: the oldest, deep thinking cousin who always knows what to say

@non-possum-invenire-bonum-url: the older, unhinged cousin who says everything i think but would never say (love your bio by the way)

@starlit-epiphany: my amazing supportive cousin who's been helping me in my identity crisis

@remen-nyoodles: my secret keeping cousin who I love dearly

@writingwitch007: my other secret keeping cousin who i love dearly and teases me incessantly

@chandrayee: the slightly fucked in the head cousin who randomly drops by animal facts!! (her words not mine; i can't tell you how hard i laughed at that 🤣)

@merapehlapyaarwaapasaagaya: my wonderful mother who i'd never forget

@midnight-rainnnn: the adorable cousin who is loved by everyone

@ishqhai-aapse: roach in my house that is secretly your granny that likes to sit in silence and read books xD

@yehdilkahehaye: the fun trying-to-act-like-an-adult cousin who will give you wise advices from time to time but will actually end up supporting you in all your insane decisions <3

@the-phantom-of-arda: The creative cousin who is quietly supportive of whatever you do. Who's DMs are a judgment-free zone and are willing to talk about anything.. she's too shy to DM first but wants to be friends.

Indumathi: my secret, anonymous admirer 🌕💘

@sincerelyyoursg: my beloved wife 💍

@shyamsakhii: hill dude who just likes to rant to friends and gossip and always misses it when the gc comes alive 😀🔫

@ell0ra-br3kk3r: the neighbor friend who's part time musician, part time author part time sane but unhinged at the same time; love to go by their house when they're back from paris

@ultimategenius: neighbor who i've adopted (welcome to the family)

@offo-yashika: one of the cousin's queer girlfriend who always rocks the stage with their dance<3

@kaagazkefool: the beloved latest addition to the fam who's excited and nervous of they'd fit

@thebestieyoureinlovewith: the friend that will give endless headpats

@mee-iykyk: the extroverted friend who adopts introverts

@insanity-is-my-vanity: my new friend (you’re mine now)

@inxj-ghxfa: the mom friend who gives out questionable, but reliable advice

@justarandomhumanpassingby: some person i claimed off the streets; saw them and was like "you're mine now" <3

@morningmiss: the cousin who checks up on me from time to time ♥

@vamp-rom-stuff: ellora's friend she brought back from her trip to France

@a-really-hot-caterpillar: we ain't mutuals yet but i'd be an idiot not to add him so he's my newest unhinged brother (adopted <3)

@hopefulmillennial: my favorite aunt (you remind me of my favorite aunt irl <3)

I love that like 80 percent of my tumblr family is desi 💖💝💕

reply what description you wanna be added with <3

@yehdilkahehaye, @humapkehaikaun, @hell-lit011019, @shyamsakhii, @anyavaramyr, @bookish-alone, @bibliophile-dendrophile, @iservemydog, @oh-sita, @moons-scar, @loverliner, @woahlifehitsyahuh, @the-phantom-of-arda, @puppy-coded, @sanskari-kanya

literally anyone who wants to join can join :)

If your name isn't up here please tell me; some of them are just disappearing.

[gerardspuppy]

Thoughts on the Valar and Maiar and their styles from someone who knows nothing about fashion beyond "diy everything".

Manwe and Varda - All white, very swoopy very fine fabrics, sometimes translucent, often skin tight with flowy skirts or sleeves. Not the most practical or comfortable looking but beautiful, white corsets and tiaras, lots of white glitter absolutely everywhere, on clothes, makeup, skin, hair, etc. Mostly minimalistic silver jewelry. White feathers appear a lot. (Wearing all white also helps to cover up the presence of bird shit on your clothes but they would never say this out loud).

Aule and Yavanna - Full on hippie look, bright colors and messy patterns, chunky jewelry with various wooden beads or gemstones, patterned headbands, large loose pants and shirts, lots of organic looking designs, goggles with tinted lenses, messy hair, usually done up in Maiar of Aule and loose in Maiar of Yavanna. Maiar of Aule also switch to leather work clothes and metal welding masks in the forges when required.

Orome and Vana - Who needs clothes anyway?? Lots of animal pelts flung hastily on, various pigments (blood) used as war paint like makeup, but otherwise not much in the way of style. Very practical clothing is favored, stuff which is loose, blends in with the forest, and is easy to move around in. They often wear animal masks carved out of wood with designs painted on.

Irmo and Este - Pastel colors, poppies are very popular both as crowns or as designs, dreamy, hazy patterns often depicting moths or owls, thick veils and shawls, long night gown like robes, bare feet or comfortable slippers, iridescent colors, pale pinks and oranges like sunsets, hazy greys, blanket like capes with moths wings on them.

Namo and Vaire - Black so dark you can't make out form, long veils that you can see nothing through, low hoods, no jewellery, no visible faces or hair or skin, dark silk gloves that are incredibly soft and make you want to take their hand, dark slippers that make no sound, the occasional glimpse of smokey breaths from behind the veil, no patterns, utter emptiness. Vaire weaves their clothes out of darkness and death itself.

Nienna - Extremely simple, drab clothing and colors, lots of greys and browns and dark greens, translucent veils which are often the only decorated part of the outfit and have patterns of weeping eyes or bones on them, thick comforting fabrics, often with hoods, the Maiar are always ready to shrug off a layer of their clothes to give to any who need it more.

Tulkas and Nessa - Clothes that lend themselves well to movement, whether that be dancing or fighting. Lots of bright reds and warm colors, often no shirts with loose pants, or close fitted sleeveless shirts. Many belts and loops to hang ribbons or weapons or maybe both from. Armored masks are often seen, in the shape of a deer to honor Nessa. Colorful ribbons and small metal charms for luck are braided into the hair.

Ulmo - Very few clothes but most are made out of dead sea animals. Skin tight suits of seal skin, shiny objects and seabird feathers as jewellery to attract fish, glittery body paint swirled around to mimic the shapes in seashells. Fish scales are sometimes stuck to the body or to clothing. Any fabrics used are rough and stiff to survive prolonged salt and sun exposure, and are thick enough to withstand stings from any sea animals. Sea urchin spines are stuck onto clothes as defense, and the most fierce Maiar have the fins and spines of dead lionfish stuck to their clothes, kept alive and potent through magic (mishaps and accidents happen much more frequently than anyone wants to admit). Extremely bright colors in everything that they wear, often for non everyday wear clothes many colorful frills and tendrils are attached to mimic the looks of certain fish and sea slugs.

Melkor - The original punk rocker of Arda. All black clothes, often form fitting, leather gloves and straps, silver or black jewellery everywhere, especially rings and piercings, teased gothic hair, masks with horrifying blank expressions and horns protruding out of them, heavy gothic or death metal makeup, metal spikes absolutely everywhere, thick heavy duty boots. Very gruesome designs often depicting severed bodyparts, bodies deformed through torture, and rotting bones. Parts of bodies are often mummified and used as accessories, especially hands, eyes, or entire heads.

Bonus third age Sauron because he was practically a Vala in his own right by then and Mordor followed his look - Steampunk, grotesque rotting bodies held together by beautifully polished metal parts, metal armor hammered into the very flesh of soldiers, lots of golds and reds, gold piercings and rings (hah), bodies half split open and their whirring mechanical insides visible through the flesh, steam rising from every surface, elegant, tight fitting black fabrics with red and gold accents.

#silmarillion headcanons #this is just a reminder so i dont forget to draw them #the valar #manwe #varda #tulkas #este #vaire #nienna #orome #namo #irmo #ulmo #aule #yavanna #nessa #vana #mairon #sauron #the silmarillion #tolkein

[outofangband]

x x x  x x x  x x x 

Natural Dyes used by the Elves and Humans Part One (by color)

Part of a series on fabric, textiles, and fashion throughout Arda

Other posts: Hairstyles among the Edain, Elven and Human Crowns, Noldorin fashion, Telerin fashion (contains other topics too) Vanyar fashion(contains other topics too)

I always love world building like this so please feel free to request topics! I also can’t cover all cultures in each post so feel free to prompt me others to cover!

Finally you can also always ask me to cover peoples or places through the lens of real world locations

Red, orange, yellow

Note: salt and tannic acid are the most common mordants. I can make a separate post on that though if there’s interest

The roots of Common madder and other madder species was used primarily by the Bëorians of Ladros as well as the humans East of the Ered Luin. The method was learned by elves and dwarves in and around the Ered Luin as the Bëorians moved West. It was the plant they used most commonly for dyes and produced the color for their ceremonial sashes among other things. It was used for wool and flax fabric

Alder bark is used by the Sindar both in and outside Doriath (especially in Mithrim) and by the Halidan to make both red and yellow dyes and thus orange dyes. It was used mostly for wool

Saffron was used by both humans and elves in Northeastern Beleriand and East of the Blue Mountains. It made a yellow dye that could be used for linen, flax and cotton fabrics

The pollen and flower of fennel was used for pale red dyes in Nevrast by the Sindar and in some parts of Ossiriand by the Green elves.

Roccella tinctoria, a lichen was used to create a red dye mainly found on rocks in Nevrast and was collected by the gray elves and Falathrim.

Dyer’s weed or Reseda luteola was used throughout Beleriand and to the East though most commonly by the Falathrim and the Green elves.

Hypericum perforatum (St. John’s wort) was found throughout Beleriand and to the East though was used primarily by the Hadorians to make yellow dyes for non woolen fabric

This is just a selection I put together while at work! As always please feel free to ask more! I love ethnobotany and similar topics about plants and stuff

#the silmarillion #dorthonion #nevrast #halidan #beleriand #musing and meta #edits

[mk-writes-stuff]

WIP Folders Game

Rules: post your WIP folders and people can ask questions if they want

Thanks @kaylinalexanderbooks and @modernwritercraft for the tags!

I don’t really have expansive WIP folders so y’all are getting my Stories folder which contains my old and abandoned stuff in addition to current WIPs, I hope you enjoy :)

Arda Tomorrow

Castlevania Stuff

Character Profiles

Discovery Stuff

Ellesmera’s Dark Tower

Good Omens Stuff

Grishaverse Stuff

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stuff

Legend of Zelda Stuff

LOTR Stuff

Magic: the Gathering Stuff

Mainland Island

Merlin Stuff

Mistborn Stuff

Pokémon Stuff

Prompts, Drabbles, Etc.

Short Stories

Shovel Knight Stuff

Sky City

Star Trek (Non-Discovery) Stuff

Stardell

The Masks We Wear

The Seven Station Chronicles

The Three Islands

TLOS Stuff

Underwater

Wacky Stories

Witch Hat Atelier Stuff

Words

In case you can’t tell, I’ve written a lot of fanfiction (any folder ending in “stuff” is fanfiction, the rest are original pieces). I’m happy to talk about any of it if y’all have questions but keep in mind most of these are dead WIPs. I can also share doc names of folder contents if people are interested.

(The Pirates’ Roost and To Kill a Dead Thing are both in Magic: the Gathering Stuff btw)

I think you’re supposed to tag equal to the number of folders but there’s 29 of them so I am Not doing that. I think I’ll just leave this one as an open tag :)

#writeblr #tag game

[sparklecryptid]

hah, bet Anordil is responsible for some interesting folklore and legends across middle earth! Banshee type spirits perhaps? And a few 'if you meet this particular spirit at a crossroads and challenge them to a musical contest, you could win neat stuff' type legends (money, a neat instrument, some unique teaching, etc) if the spirit is impressed (The Devil went down to Georgia, arda style!)

And probably a few cautionary tales about fools trying to trap and marry beautiful spirits and that ending very very badly for them (bc the whole trap a 'fairy bride' legend is very common).

I can see someone bringing some collected tales of the eastern peoples to Imladris and Anordil is like;

A: Yeah, this one is me. And this one, and these three here too.

E: *blinks at a page for a minute* This one is about a foolish lord who bound a fairy and tried to marry her.

A: Eh, yeah, it's been embellished a lot tho! He didn't actually get as far with me as it says.

G: *teakettle noise* I'm sorry W H A T-

A: It was a thousand year ago! Literally! I deafened him and bolted before ANYTHING happened!

*snickers* oh DEFINITELY. She has travelled everywhere. She has done so many things. There are so many folk stories where she’s the fairy being trapped or the devil teaching forbidden knowledge or whatever! She doesn’t even realize half of her exploits are folklore now!

Glorfindel: exactly how many people have tried to trap and marry you!?

Anordil: *far too casual about this.* uh…. Hm…. Last I checked it was about twenty. But most of those happened when I was young and too trusting. Now most of the deals with fae and devils from this area right here? That’s me.

Erestor: *slowly entering feanorian vassal Murder Mode* twenty you say?

Anordil: *not cluing in to the fact that Elrond and the others and even Celebrian are becoming very overprotective* I mean; there’s probably one or two I missed. But it’s not that big of a deal? I always got away, and they always wound up uh - well - dead or something.

Elrond: you know that doesn’t make it better right?

Anordil: *slow blink* I don’t see why not?

(Someone leaks it to the remaining feanorians that served under Maedhros and Maglor and now serve Elrond and remember when Anordil was just a little girl what happened.

They are DISPLEASED. That is their Little Dawn. Theirs!!

Anordil: *surrounded by people who knew her as a child* oh hey guys! :D why are you so angry?

Someone: if you leave imladris you need to take a guard

Anordil: what? No!

Someone: it’s non-negotiable. What would your father say if we let anything happen to you?

Anordil: ….. that’s unfair. Im supposed to play dirty not you!

Someone: who do you think taught you to play dirty :/?)

#Anordil: yeah it’s fine these things happened to me because I dealt with them! #Anordil: if anything like this happened to anyone I love I would kill tho #the light of dawn verse

[toomanyhobbiesandthisisoneofthem]

Sheesh, AOT songwriters

Okay so I just want to talk about this because I get excited whenever it comes up in my head.

I'm wanting to relisten to a lot of the aot music and recheck lyrics and stuff, because there's a lot of stuff even in the earlier songs that just blew right over everybody's heads until the end of the series when they look back at the lyrics to various aot songs and suddenly go, "wait…waaait…WAAAIIIIIT"

Now, I realize a lot of people who haven’t seen/read Attack On Titan might think I’m exaggerating on this, or just not really know what I mean in the first place, so for any non-aot fan readers out there…Let me…Let me just put this into perspective here.

Imagine you're watching…say…The Hobbit.

Now, this particular version of The Hobbit exists in an alternate universe where not only were the movies made in chronological order, but they also were being developed shortly after the first book came out, before the LOTR novels were written.

So imagine in this hypothetical scenario, one of the songs in the ending credits of that first Hobbit film makes references to a seemingly vague figure that could…potentially be talking about Smaug.

The hypothetical lyrics (I just came up with these on the spot lol) go something like: "Dark Shadow of the East that threatens all our lands, your day of reckoning will come. When the Ringbearer makes his journey, your battle will be over before it has even begun." (But like, in Latin or Elvish or something so that people have to actually translate it to know what it's talking about)

The thing is, at this point in time, all the people watching the movies will automatically assume that the “dark shadow” is referring to Smaug and the “Ringbearer” refers to Bilbo, because as the story plays out, Smaug is supposedly the main obstacle/threat, and Bilbo finds a magic ring, so obviously he must be the Ringbearer.

It's vague enough that it's hard to say for certain whether it's Smaug or not, but since fans of the story in this alternate timeline haven't seen any evidence to the contrary, and Smaug lives in the Eastern half of Arda, everyone just chalks up any discrepancies to artistic license and lets it go at that.

Now, fast forward to the Lord of the Rings books/movies being published. You learn about Sauron, you see Frodo go off on his quest, and then one day you're listening to that song from that first Hobbit film again, only to abruptly realize that- "WAIT A SECOND, THIS IS TALKING ABOUT SAURON???!!!!!! WHAT THE HECK?!?!?! THE LOTR WASN'T EVEN OUT YET???"

… That. That sense of, “WHAT???!!! HOW DID I NOT SEE THIS BEFORE!”- is how Attack On Titan fans feel when, having finally finished the overall story, they're relistening to previous openings, endings, and OST songs and they go to check out the English translation of the lyrics just for fun and then suddenly:

“Foolish indecisiveness, nothing more than an illusion, what even now may be reckless bravery The pawn of liberty. The charge of the assault. Victory to the slave that runs!”

followed by:

“The absurdity in life is the beginning of the onslaught, the stolen lands, the world itself as Eren desires.

As unstoppable rage penetrates him, to the dusk he brings violet skies”

Just. I’m not gonna say anything specific about the lyrics themselves, but… These lyrics make so much more sense now, and I hadn’t even realized there was anything wrong with my previous understanding of them.

#attack on titan #attack on titan openings #music #i can’t even #I mean yes I can but the sentiment is there #Did isayama talk about the ending to the music artists or something? #attack on titan ending

[theelfmaiden]

Christmas is time of fortune telling. People light up candles in walnut shell boats and let water tell them of their families' fate.

Regardless of what water will foretell for next year, I wish all families and people stricken with sadness this Christmas good fortune, stronger bonds and peace in their hearts.

❤️

(A lil doodle 🤗 for everyone 🌟 a pro spolužáky z fildy UK od přírody UK 🙏)

#non-arda stuff #christmas #christmas2023 #czech culture #czech christmas #moravian christmas #čumblr #art #digital art #joli's art #clip studio paint

[eriochromatic]

Arda from Black Survival

#black survival #arda #arda evren #erio art #erio stuff #first time doing lineless art... #so I heavily referenced the official art lmao #need to remember how to do non chibi stuff.... #there's a fuck ton of mistakes but I have other shit to do so #just gonna leave it like this

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

celebrimbor has this tendency to come off a lot less fëanorian than he actually is

admittedly that’s partially because of the stereotypes. if all you know about the house of fëanor is the murder, a lot of celebrimbor’s blatantly fëanorian characteristics - the mad science, the conspicuous lack of a braincell - look like personal quirks rather than family traits. it’s also partially because celebrimbor may not be a slavering hellbeast, but he is an unstoppable maniac, and he’s seen enough of the damage unstopped maniacdom can do he’s actively trying to rein it in and not cause too much collateral damage

but it’s also because celebrimbor does a lot of stuff that seems on the surface to go against fëanorian logic, but if you actually dissect why he did the thing the reasoning is extremely fëanorian. certainly he’s working from a fairly different interpretation of fëanorian rules than his uncles used (and even that’s half because he’s not doing a war) but he still thinks in the same way they did

and honestly, the rules he’s working from aren’t as different as they seem at first glance. like, everyone who went anywhere near east beleriand back in the first age knows the fëanorians were xenophobic as hell. how aggressive they were about it varied from region to region - thargelion was better than himring was better than himlad was better than ossiriand was better than the gap - but there was always a tangible barrier between the fëanorian host and the rest of the world. compare that to how welcoming celebrimbor is to folks from all over middle-earth, and the obvious conclusion is that he’s completely ditched that aspect of their culture

but that’s not quite how it works on the inside. some people pinpoint noldorin cultural chauvinism as the root cause of fëanorian isolationism, and while that certainly was a thing, it wasn’t a super critical factor? it was more that they had an enormous us-against-the-world mentality, with solid barriers between ingroup and outgroup that might be permeable on an individual level but definitely not on a societal one. combine that with the incredibly defensive mutual protection networks so key to their functioning, and you wind up with a situation where - okay, it is an exaggeration to say the fëanorians viewed the other free peoples of beleriand with as much hostility as they did the capital-e enemy, but it’s not nearly as big an exaggeration as it should be

here’s the thing: celebrimbor does not disagree with this analysis. he does divide the world into an ‘us’ and a ‘them,’ and does consider ‘them’ to always be a potential threat to ‘us,’ possible to work with but never to be fully trusted. it’s just that he defines ‘us’ as every single non-morgoth-aligned incarnate to ever dwell in arda. he’s so welcoming to people and ideas from the most far-flung places because as far as he’s concerned they’re all on the same side, all seeking to create the same beautiful world. ask anyone who was there at the time: no matter how nasty they were to outsiders, within the fëanorian host there was this great all-encompassing feeling of community. celebrimbor just applies that to absolutely everyone he’s ever met. even craftspeople he’s feuding with, or foreign powers with questionable relationships to ost-in-edhil - he’ll disagree with them, yes, argue his points as hard as he can, but there’s never a hint of the flagrant disrespect that characterised half his uncles’ interactions with their ostensible closest allies

even annatar, a maia and thus technically part of the outgroup, is given a chance. celebrimbor is determined to not automatically see an enemy where there could be an ally, and so while he initially defaults to mild suspicion once annatar has proven himself Cool celebrimbor enthusiastically classes him as part of the team. at first it looks like it’s paying off, he was right and his dad was wrong, they’re going to be best friends forever!

and then annatar betrays him, and fëanorian culture has a thing about traitors. some of the gwaith-i-mírdain inner circle are expecting to have to talk the notoriously conciliatory lord of ost-in-edhil into fixing this problem with swords instead of words, but instead celebrimbor’s putting the old minions back into war mode and gleefully expositing about how he’s going to rend sauron into his component atoms as painfully as possible

#silmarillion #celebrimbor #feanorians #feanorian minions #sauron #gets just the one name tag because fuck him #my terrible headcanons #celebrimbor is extremely feanorian in the leadup to the war with sauron #he's still super chipper about it which just makes it creepier #in the following millenia debate will rage as to whether this was the bad genes reasserting themselves #or just him emulating an (admittedly extremely well tested) model of doing war #tyelpe is the sweet sunshine child of the feanorian set #it's just that he's still of that set

[absynthe--minded]

What is the chronological order for Tolkien's work?

This is my best guess, it's not perfect but it's as near as I think I can get off the top of my head. I'm just including Arda, I'm not sure of the timeline of his non-Arda stuff like Roverandum except that Smith of Wooton Major is very late

The Book of Lost Tales 1/2

The Lays of Beleriand

The Shaping of Middle-Earth (I want to comment that Lays and Shaping might be intertwined and written concurrently, I don't remember for sure, there are definitely parts of Shaping that are earlier than Lays based on the names used, but reading Shaping third won't do much harm)

The Lost Road

The Hobbit (this is at best a guess, I'm not 100% certain if TLR predated TH or vice versa but reading TH here is the right move.)

The Return of the Shadow, The Treason of Isengard, The War of the Ring, Sauron Defeated, which are all the collected rough drafts for

The Lord of the Rings

Morgoth's Ring

The War of the Jewels

The Peoples of Middle-Earth

Unfinished Tales is a collection of a bunch of stuff from different periods so I'll admit that putting it here is 100% a personal choice but reading it after reading everything else is what I would personally recommend

The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin are what I'd recommend putting here - they're both constructed narratives from nearly-finished or half-finished drafts and were published posthumously. The stuff that's in The Fall of Gondolin and Beren and Lúthien is all available in HoME, but those books collect the "best" versions, so I'd say that those specific volumes also go here.

#replies #neveryoumindhowthetrainislost #tolkien #absynthe's meta

[fatalism-and-villainy]

Top 5 non-fiction books? (top 5 in the last year/top 5 in your favorite non-fiction subject if that's too broad)

A lot of the nonfiction I’ve read in the past few years has been very niche academic writing about queer Renaissance lit. But fortunately I keep a list of everything I’ve read, so I could pick out some other stuff:

1.  Captive Victors: Shakespeare’s Narrative Poems and Sonnets (Heather Dubrow)

This is one of my favourite things I read for my undergrad thesis. It really gets deep into the paradox of English Petrarchism that I love, which is the demonstration of absolute power and mastery on the part of the author, but affect centered on complete abjection and powerlessness. There’s really a paucity of research specifically about Shakespeare’s nondramatic work, which is a shame because that’s where my main interests are. 

2. Epistemology of the Closet (Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick)

I made up my mind to only include one Sedgwick monograph here for variety’s sake, and while Tendencies really hit me in a personal place, this is really the more coherent and superior in overall quality work. I think “Axiomatic” should really be read by everyone, because it really digs deep to the root of our assumptions about sexuality and relationships and identity. Sedgwick is so methodologically compassionate and open-ended, and lets contradictions and ambiguities speak for themselves, and there’s an acknowledgment of the sheer breadth and diversity of human experience here that really hits everyone that I show parts of that section to. 

3. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (Toni Morrison)

I already got at what I really liked about this work here, but it really is a wonderful, incisive, accessible work that illuminates a about the functions of race and blackness in American literature that white criticism fails to take into account. And I think that in the age of social media, which encourages an approach to media that jumps to condemn “problematic” media, rather than actually do the analytic work to deconstruct it, this book really presents a good portrait of how to more productively approach media criticism. It’s one that takes bigoted and pernicious media seriously, and worth thinking about and examining in detail, while still not letting it off the hook in the slightest. It’s the kind of approach - not, “is this good or bad,” but “what attitudes and assumptions does this expose; what conclusions can we draw from this” that I think we are sorely missing right now.   

4. Arda Reconstructed (Douglas Kane)

This is a very referential (but opinionated!) book that traces the sources of every single passage in the published version of the Silmarillion. I read it last December (almost a year ago, holy shit) and it really soothed the curative fan inside me. It’s always fascinating to be reminded of how patchwork our version of the Silmarillion is, and how much arduous work was put into piecing together Tolkien’s different versions and shifting interpretations of his own work to make one coherent narrative. It really reminded me of my love for the story and was part of what got me back into tentatively creating for the fandom again. 

5.  The Gay Science (Friedrich Nietzsche)

I love Nietzsche. I also read On the Genealogy of Morality in the same school year, and enjoyed that one as well, but it was this work that really spoke to me. I say this all the time, but canon Nietzsche is really much better than fanon Nietzsche - like, you see so many posts on here that are like “I’m so tired of depressing nihilism, we need more positive nihilism!” but that’s! literally Nietzsche! He’s actually extremely disdainful of passivity and apathy, and his work here is so full of passion and so affirming of life. I mean, just look at the title! (He means “gay” as in “happy”.)

(There’s a passage about the idea that painting the devil on the wall will make him appear, and Nietzsche reinterprets it to say he will paint his happiness on the wall. It’s my self-help manual.)

Also, this is one of the most relatable summations of the writing mindset. 

#awkwardly memes #book blogging #replies #huanglaoshu #help me sedgwick

[mariska]

one of my moms got me a really pretty lace front wig from my fav wig site (arda) cus i've been wanting this one in this color shade for a while so i can do some cosplay stuff as my oc paige and im so happy that i have a wig for her now omg ive wanted to cosplay her for almost a decade 😭😭😭😭 its such a pretty wig too even just for non cosplay stuff like i am absolutely gonna wear it with regular outfits too i love it 🥺🥺🥺 i feel bad when my moms buy things for me so we did a trade off where i made some custom jewelry for her and she got me the wig so i wouldnt feel bad ;v; 💜💜

#its so soft too i love arda's wigs sm theyre always rly nice quality

[vardasvapors]

VERY mean stuff under cut lol:

don’t read tbh unless ur also mean

gondor stans are the most bafflingly tedious and unbearable ppl in tolkien fandom, even feanor stans can’t match them. and like....very much not in a MEAN or WRONG way, just in a.......wtf are you guys even Doing here. why aren’t you reading the 78 other gigantic fantasy series that gives u all the gondor-style geopolitical intrigue yawnfests combining ‘ancient rome’ and ‘italian renaissance’ (aka the two most unpalatably insufferable and boring periods of all of earth history) in a form that’s 2000x longer and more detailed and more respectful and realistic and better-executed than the bottom-of-the-barrel almost-utterly-irrelevant-to-anything-else-in-the-history-of-arda scrapings lotr gives you???? i promise you that there have been LOTS of REALLY good fantasy series of that type outside of asoiaf, especially in recent years. tumblr’s rumors of non-tolkien and -jemisen high fantasy having all the complexity and progressiveness of 1980s Dungeons and Dragons is 100% dead wrong. i’d give you guys a list of recs if i was able to keep my eyes unglazed for those kinds of books for more than half a page.

#vardasvaguers

[masonmerger]

The Ring, Horcruxes, And  Silmaril Conspiracy Theories

So all this nonsense is because I’ve been fulfilling these fic prompts recently and frikken @mywoesaregranular​ hit me with Eonwe/Melkor/Mairon and I have a chronic need to try and address crack prompts in the most believable way I can figure out but ALSO all my silm fic takes place in the same time line/universe and I didn’t want to fuck it up by resolving Eonwe/Mairon tension pre-fourth age.

ANYWAY -- I’ve always been partial to the conspiracy theory that the Silmarils contributed to (or were even directly designed to instigate) Melkor’s post-Mandos madness/behavior shift. I’ve enjoyed heavily implying that Eru provided Fëanor with the raw materials to make the weapons/jewels explicitly with the purpose of fucking Melkor up. Now we know from Tolkien that early on Melkor is constantly putting his substantial power into shit (Balrogs etc) which later is echoed in Mairon|Sauron pouring his soul/power into the one ring. The comparison with Horcrux’s seems apt since destroying them fucks the original owner up but they’re a nice little stay against death too (I think it’s fair to say that Sauron couldn’t be fully killed while the ring continued to exist?)

Well, I was chewing on the Horcrux angle and god knows Tom Riddle’s diary provided fodder for many an unlikely pairing/fanfic and it got me thinking about how the Silmarils and how, if you buy into the idea that they were supposed to fuck up Melkor, they might work. Previously I’ve been team “they encourage paranoia/greed/etc (very Arkenstone x1billion, with a specific victim in mind)” and I stand by that read but then I figured -- WHY THE FRICK STOP THERE?

The Silmarils are bright and pure but seem to result in greed and fuckery. I’m going full lizard people/hollow earth here, but maybe they absorb purity so that all that is left is the madness/paranoia/etc. In their presence you may feel whole but when they are taken from you, what is good in you (if you are a long term wearer) goes also.

All this to say -- if you make the Silmarills into slow-acting non-consensual Horcruxes you can have the best, sanest part of a low-powered Melkor (and man you’re probs gonna have to stuff Feanor in their too) trapped in some missing jewels READY to get his Tom Riddle on. And fuck it, the ocean is washing shit up ALL. THE. TIME. How long is a jewel like that (which lets be real probs has some of its own sentience at this point) gonna stay lost? HOW LONG CAN FOURTH AGE VALINOR EXPECT TO GO ALONG ITS PEACEFUL LITTLE WAY BEFORE THIS WATERY BITCH RETURNS TO GET IT’S CHAOS ON?

I mean, it’s Arda; I don’t think it’s allowed to go more than one Age before a Metaphor for the Transience of Material Wealth shows up to fuck up everyone’s day.

....All this to say, @mywoesaregranular, you asked for Eonwe/Melkor/Mairon and you are probably going to get SILMARILION TWO: THE BIRD BOY FOUND A SHINY  ROCK THAT’S ONLY SUPPOSED TO SHOW UP BEFORE THE END OF THE WORLD AND MAIRON IS NOT HELPING

#lord of the rings #tolkien #tolkien fandom #silm #silmarillion fandom #fanfic #my fic #my fanfic #the silmarilion #silmarilion #mairon #eonwe #eonwe/mairon/melkor #what is this pairing #I don't even know #eonwe is really stressed out a lot #a lot a lot #dagor dagorath #sauron/morgoth #fourth age #angbang #angbang + eonwe #melkor/mairon #Horcrux #fun and games