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celebrimborium · 1 year

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the rings of power + tolkien’s descriptions of canon characters

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trahald-the-burrower · 9 months

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Mentions of Gollum/Sméagol in JRR Tolkien's Letters (Part 1):

(in order of when they were written.) (And also occassionally split up by my own writings ((written in RED)), and important or interesting facts) (I highlighted the Gollum bits, though sometimes the entire passage is worth reading as it may still relate to the character in a subtle way)

(Ariel and Caliban are characters from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest".)

(JRR Tolkien seems to have drawn inspiration from Shakespeare, indeed -- particularly this play. Caliban is alike to Gollum in more ways than just one. He may have been named after the word "cannibal", which Gollum technically is.)

"One of the most prominent suggestions concerns Caliban being an anagram of the Spanish word caníbal (Carib people), the source of cannibal in English."

(He is also disproportionate in shape -- Creature-like.)

(He becomes a servant for Stephano, at a point, and this relationship is also quite similar to the relationship between Sméagol and Frodo, with Trinculo as Sam.)

(Here is a version of the play.)

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(Now we continue with Tolkien's Letters.)

(This is the drawing Horus Engels did of Gollum:)

(Above: Tolkien talking about needing to make changes to THE HOBBIT, specifically Gollum offering to give the Ring away.)

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("I do a very pretty Gollum" -- that he does! Here are a couple of his recordings:)

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(Above: "Being stung by a tarantula when a small child." I love that he believed tarantulas stung. That's why Shelob stung?! He thought that was a thing! I love it. It works in his magical world.)

(Below: What he has to say about Sméagollum in the following letter is very important:)

("Dawning love of Frodo was too easily withered by the jealousy of Sam." I took this as meaning "Sméagol couldn't handle being antagonized by jealous-Sam", but I've seen others taking it as meaning "Sméagol was unable to repent because he was jealous of Sam". I didn't get that impression when reading that particular scene in the book, but it's also not entirely out-of-character. Sam definitely antagonizes Sméagol due to his jealousy, it's made clear more than once, but Sméagol, too, is obviously an envious and possessive person -- not just towards the Ring, but towards Frodo. It's much more obvious with Sam, but, Gollum, when at the Forbidden Pool, is upset with Frodo "not nice Master!" because he believes that he "left poor Sméagol" and "went with new friends". He's actually incredibly agitated by this, to the point that he's reluctant to do as Frodo says, despite his being Master. But… that being said, on the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, when Sméagol found the hobbits sleeping together, he didn't express jealousy -- he actually softened and felt love for Frodo. I think if jealousy were the cause, in that moment, that he'd not have softened once finding them sleeping together, that he wouldn't have had a momentary change of heart at all. And Gollum reacting to Sam's accusations, that was more defensive than it was jealous. Sam, on the other hand, has always antagonized Sméagol out of jealousy, and that fits very well with the Stairs scene. "The jealousy of Sam" also matches well with "the clumsiness in fidelity of Sam", so I do believe Tolkien was referring to Sam's jealousy rather than Gollum's. That's not to say Gollum wasn't somewhat envious, but, rather, that wasn't the main reason he was unable to repent -- I think it was simply that Sam's antagonistic behavior triggered his Gollum side.)

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(The following letter has a lot of important information about young Sméagol! This entire thing should be read, honestly.)

("Déagol, evidently a relative (as no doubt all the members of the small community were)". "I imagine that he [Sméagol] was an orphan." I love that his gift to his grandmother, a fish, was given "grudgingly". I can't say that I blame him, considering Stoors were known to be rather merciless. "As a rule, they were a rough, blunt, and hearty people, whose values were territorial and emphasized the importance of loyalty, nationality, and provincialism. They did not take kindly to mischief, even of the most innocent and harmless kind, and they were generally rougher and harsher on their children than most Hobbits". "It was with the Stoors that the practice of "canning" ((that is, beating a delinquent individual with a walking-stick)) originated and was propagated for the most part." On Farmer Maggot: "he even cruelly and brutally abused Frodo Baggins in his youth by beating. Nonetheless, such behavior was common to Stoors."

(And here we find out that it's the reason they went fishing. In the book, Déagol's in the boat while Sméagol noses about the banks. So Sméagol was planning on gifting his grandmother with the fish Déagol caught hahaha, and this implies Déagol was willing to go along with that.)

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#gollum #sméagol #the lord of the rings #lord of the rings #smeagol #smeagolsfriend #the hobbit #lotr #jrr tolkien #tolkien #tolkien letters

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i-want-to-see-mountains-again · 2 years

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Omg Tolkien means “mad”! The Professor was the real life Mad Baggins! 🤯🥰

#tolkien #tolkien quotes #tolkien letters #name origins #name meanings #fool of a took #not surprised but I am too

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great-and-small · 7 months

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Need y’all to know that in the 1970’s a letter to the editor was published in Daily Telegraph where the author offhandedly used the phrase “Tolkien-like gloom” to describe an area with barren trees and JRRT himself wrote back an incensed rebuttal at the use of his name in a context that suggested anything negative about trees.

#Tolkien #trees #letter 339

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wordbunch · 1 year

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"Of course [The Lord of the Rings] does not belong to me. It has been brought forth and must go now its appointed way in the world, though naturally I take a deep interest in its fortunes, as a parent would of a child. I am comforted to know that it has good friends to defend it against the malice of its enemies."

- J. R. R. Tolkien in Letters from Tolkien

🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

#tolkien #jrr tolkien #Lord of the rings #Lotr #Letters from Tolkien #Quotes #Literature #from my pocketses

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camille-lachenille · 15 days

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Day 1: childhood

#tolkien #the silmarillion #maglor #makalaurë #maedhros #maitimo #for this one I imagine a small maglor pushing his letter under maedhros’ door while pouting #silmarillion epistolary #i decided last minute i wanted to try and do the whole silmarillion epistolary week #i won’t follow prompts tho just going with the vibes in my brain #i’ll be having so much fun with calligraphy these next days!

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cantsayidont · 10 days

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In an undated letter written in the late 1950s, reproduced in THE LETTERS OF JRR TOLKIEN, Tolkien alludes to the legal difficulties Sam faced after returning from the Grey Havens at the end of LORD OF THE RINGS:

When Master Samwise reported the ‘departure over Sea’ of Bilbo (and Frodo) in 1421, it was still held impossible to presume death; and when Master Samwise became Mayor in 1427, a rule was made that: ‘if any inhabitant of the Shire shall pass over Sea in the presence of a reliable witness, with the expressed intention not to return, or in circumstances plainly implying such an intention, he or she shall be deemed to have relinquished all titles rights or properties previously held or occupied, and the heir or heirs thereof shall forthwith enter into possession of these titles, rights, or properties, as is directed by established custom, or by the will and disposition of the departed, as the case may require.’

You can see how the residents of Hobbiton might have seen Sam's return as the premise of a kind of Agatha Christie mystery plot: favorite servant of eccentric middle-aged local resident departs on an unexpected journey with his master; returns home alone two weeks later; and then conveniently produces a copy of said eccentric local resident's new will, naming the servant the heir to all his property — and the only account the servant can offer of his master's whereabouts is a preposterous story about Elves. Suspicious! Very suspicious indeed!

#books #lord of the rings #lotr #jrr tolkien #the letters of jrr tolkien #letter 214 #sam gamgee #frodo baggins #the grey havens #this is funnier if you bear in mind the scene at the beginning #where the hobbits in bywater are gossiping about whether frodo's parents actually murdered each other #rather than being *accidentally* drowned in the brandywine river

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charmwasjess · 1 month

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It's very dear to me that Dooku is a canonical book nerd who put an entire library on his stupid solar sail ship so he could read whilst ignoring Sidious's increasingly shrill and furious calls

#count dooku #showing up in the spaceport Hudson Booksellers with his New Yorker tote and those thick black rimmed glasses #he hates every book you like #big “Christopher Lee explaining that his version of Whatever Harry Potter Is was penning Tolkien beautiful hand written fan letters” energy

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goldfarthing · 8 months

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I did the Riddle of Strider 🫡

#lotr #lord of the rings #lotr fanart #tolkien #tolkien fanart #hobbit #hobbit lettering #lotr art #tolkien art #middle earth #jrr tolkien #artists on tumblr #my calligraphy #video #aragorn

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the-quiet-fire-of-defiance · 9 months

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Melian and her Descendants as Native Aotearoa Birds

For day 4 @tolkienofcolourweek

A detailed image description is at the bottom of this post but I've listed the characters and their matching birds below.

Melian: hūia. A sacred bird, often considered to be one of the most beautiful birds in Aotearoa. Their feathers were traditionally only worn by people of high status.

Hūia were forest songbirds who paired for life and were utterly devoted to their partners. The pairs would fly and hunt together, caressing each other with their bills, singing duets back and forth. Often when a hūia died, its partner would die of grief a few days later (typically due to failing to eat or drink).

There was a sharp decline in the numbers of hūia after the arrival of European settlers in the 1840s. By the early 20th century, they had disappeared from our forests forever.

Lúthien: tūī. The most talented of our songbirds, a stunningly beautiful creature with iridescent blue-black feathers. Their double voicebox allows them to mimic almost any sound, including human speech. They often sing all day long.

Tūī are messengers to the gods. In Māori culture we might compliment a singer by saying that they have korokoro tūī, the throat of a tūī.

Also I'm feral about this quote:

Farmer and ornithologist Herbert Guthrie-Smith, writing in the early 20th century, observed of a female tui singing on the nest (tui are the only bird in the world to sing on the nest): “We were close to her, yet she sang as if her song could have no ending, as if the world was too full of the ecstasy of life for wrong and rapine to exist. The sun was shining above the flowing river, the leaves green, of every shape and shade; her great love had cast out fear.”

(Source)

Díor: kōtare, aka the sacred kingfisher. (Yes, okay, this is partially a joke about Dior being a sacred king.) Although kōtare are native to Aotearoa, they're also found in other countries. Most Eastern Polynesian cultures, including many Māori iwi, believe that kōtare have power over the ocean and waves.

Kōtare can sit motionless for hours while waiting for their prey, watching with perfect stillness. For this reason, a person who is alertly watching for enemies is sometimes compared to a kōtare.

Elured and Elurin: tara iti, aka fairy terns.

For Māori, terns in general are associated with people of high status. Tara iti are the smallest species of tern in Aotearoa, weighing in at about 70 grams (or 2.5 ounces). They're also our rarest breeding bird. Sadly, there are only about 40 individuals left.

Elwing: kōtuku - I expanded on this in another post

Elrond and Elros: North Island kōkako and South Island kōkako (respectively). Kōkako are blue-grey songbirds who often have a similar call to tūī, although with a slightly less extensive range of sounds. They love to sing duets; in fact, they sing the longest known duets of any bird in the world.

The North Island and South Island kōkakō are closely related but distinct sub-species. Although the North Island kōkako has been the subject of a successful conservation campaign, the South Island kōkako is considered possibly extinct. (The last two reliable sightings were in 2007 and 1967.) However, some people who walk the remote tracks of the South Island swear they've heard it singing.

Elladan and Elrohir: tīeke, aka the North and South Island saddlebacks. The two species are very difficult to tell apart for all but the most trained eyes. They're close relatives of kōkako and hūia.

Tīeke are notoriously fearless. In Māori culture, they're guardians and guides.

Arwen: Chatham Islands tūī. While these birds look extremely alike to mainland tūī, they sing a very different song.

(Since this bird is from the Chatham Islands, the Arwen faceclaim is a Moriori woman. Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chathams.)

Image description below cut due to length.

A series of paired images. Each pair has one bird and one faceclaim. All of the faceclaims, except for Arwen, are Māori.

1: Hūia and Melian. The hūia is a black bird with an orange wattle, long curved beak, and white at the end of its tail feathers. Melian is a dignified woman with light brown skin, brown hair, and a traditional chin tattoo. She wears traditional clothing and a pounamu (greenstone) ornament around her neck.

2: tūī and Luthien. The tūī is in flight. The light has caught its wings and tail feathers, making them look a vivid blue. Luthien is a light-skinned (but distinctly Māori) woman with long dark hair. She wears a black dress and a pounamu necklace.

3: a kōtare and Dior. The kōtare is a blue/black bird with a white neck and underside. It's in flight, carrying something in its mouth. Dior has dark brown skin and facial tattoos that mark him as someone of high rank. He wears a carved bone ornament in his hair, a pounamu necklace, and a traditional feather cloak.

4: tara iti and Elured and Elurin. The tara iti is visible from behind, its white wings spread, either landing or taking off. Elured and Elurin are infants swaddled in blankets side by side.

5: Kōtuku and Elwing. The kōtuku is a gorgeous white bird with a long neck and stilt-like legs. This one standing on a tuft of grass surrounded by water, looking down at its reflection. Elwing is a light-skinned, dark haired pregnant woman wearing a white cloak and cradling her stomach.

6: North Island kōkako (kōkako o Te Ika a Māui) and Elrond. The kōkako is a blue-grey bird with a black beak and blue wattle. The Elromd faceclaim is Alex Aiono (Ngati Porou, Samoa), a man with light brown skin and dark curly hair. In this photo he's shirtless, holding a flower and facing the righthand side of the image.

7: South Island kōkako (kōkako o Te Waipounamu) and Elros. The kōkako looks very similar to the bird above except for its orange wattle. The Elros faceclaim is also Alex Aiono, but in this image he's standing on a beach in front of the sea, smiling.

8: North Island saddleback (tīeke o Te Ika a Māui) and Elladan. The tīeke is a medium sized bird with a red wattle and mixed black/red-orange plumage. My Elladan faceclaim is Jordi Webber (Te Atiawa, Ngāti Toa, Te Arawa, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Maniapoto). He's a young man with pale brown skin, wavy black hair, and grey eyes.

9: South Island saddleback (tīeke o Te Waipounamu) and Elrohir. He is also represented by Jordi Webber.

10: Chatham Islands tūī (tūī o Rēkohu) and Arwen. This tūī is sitting on a flax plant, but it looks very similar to the tūī photo from earlier. It has blue-black plumage, a white tuft at its throat and orange pollen on its head. The Arwen faceclaim is a smiling Moriori woman in front of trees. She has long brown hair, light brown skin and a white dress.]

#melian #luthien #dior #elured #elurin #elwing #elrond #elros #elladan #elrohir #arwen #silmarillion #tocweek2023 #māori-fying tolkien #mine #long post #thank u to Toi for showing me how to do the letters thing #i very definitely didn’t overdo it in the slightest

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vitagraphia · 7 months

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#tolkien #jrr tolkien #anarchism #leftism #letters #philosophy

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rivermask · 7 months

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Tumblr Book Clubs I am Currently Following, in order of how hard I think they would be to catch up on if you wanted to join the fun:

Around the World Hourly (Around the World in Eighty Days with entries sent according to the in-story hour of events, started Oct 2)

The Public Domain Book Club (started Frankenstein for the month of October on Oct 1)

Lord of the Rings Newsletter (started late September with some very long posts, but will be variable length as they follow the dates of events in the story)

Dracula Daily via Re:Dracula (chronological Dracula by Bram Stoker - OK, you've missed most of this one, but the audio format is very engaging - you could still catch up for the exciting conclusion!)

My Dear Wormwood (The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis - 22 short letters so far, posted on a weekly basis)

What Manner of Man (original vampire romance by St John Starling - 24 shortish and very fun chapters so far, posted on a weekly basis)

Whale Weekly (Moby Dick by Herman Melville with roughly chronological timescale - we're 70-some chapters in but there are often long breaks between them so you could probably catch up)

Les Mis Letters (a chapter of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo every day for a year - catch-up difficulty level: impossible)

Please add your own!

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trahald-the-burrower · 9 months

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Mentions of Gollum/Sméagol in JRR Tolkien's Letters (Part 2):

(in order of when they were written.) (And also occassionally split up by my own writings ((written in RED)), and important or interesting facts) (I highlighted the Gollum bits, though sometimes the entire passage is worth reading as it may still relate to the character in a subtle way)

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(The following letter says one of the most important things Tolkien has written about Gollum, in my opinion. It's worth reading all I've shared, for context, even if a lot of it relates more to Frodo.)

"His new love", "regeneration by love". Beautiful. I would have preferred this ending for Sméagol. I don't like that he died against his will. Well, I don't like that he died AT ALL, but. It's nice to know that this scenario was possible, that there was a piece of Sméagol that was capable of loving Frodo so entirely that he would have been willing to sacrifice himself for Frodo's sake. That's quite a feat, considering the strength of the Ring and how long he bore it. Knowing that Sam's cruelty was the reason that Sméagol had a much less pleasant ending makes it difficult for me to like the character. Fortunately, I'm not obligated to I think Tolkien could have gotten away with just having Sam not wake up, on the Stairs -- making it so that he didn't have the chance to antagonize Gollum. Sam could have stayed in-character, and Sméagol could have been redeemed. But, well, it was his story, and I suppose he felt it was necessary to keep most of the focus on Frodo and Sam rather than Gollum.

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The fact that the Gladden Fields were named after the flower present in the GOLLUM GAME amazes me! They really did their research!

Iris pseudacorus, the yellow flag, yellow iris, or water flag, is a species of flowering plant in the family Iridaceae.

#gollum #sméagol #the lord of the rings #lord of the rings #smeagol #smeagolsfriend #the hobbit #lotr #jrr tolkien #gollum game #iris #tolkien letters #tolkien

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stitcherofchaos · 6 months

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On The Matter of Oaths

...Specifically on the oath of Feanor.

Tolkien was a catholic, so how do catholics believe oaths work?

Let me explain: If you use the name of God in an oath that forces you to sin (ie, murder, lying, adultery... etc) that makes the oath automatically invalid due to the contents of the oath forcing you to sin. It is- of course- still a sin because you used the name of God in a blasphemous manner, but the oath you made is not binding.

Oaths are only valid if they do not force you to sin and if they are said with 100% knowledge of what you are promising in the first place. Think of wedding vows or vows taken by those in holy orders.

The tragedy in the Silmarillion is the fact that the oath was in vain the whole time, which is why all the Feanor's sons died brutally, Maedhros took his life, and Maglor 'mourned himself to death' essentially.

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eloquentsisyphianturmoil · 3 days

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So what if the Valar foresaw that a balrog would be reawakened, and sent Glorfindel back as a precaution against this?

Then when Elrond is picking the company that it is Glorfindel’s life’s purpose to be in he gets upped by some silvan weirdo.

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i-did-not-mean-to · 5 months

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Letters & Cards

Prompt: Letters & Cards

Characters: Maedhros & brothers

Warnings: /

Maedhros, The Tall, The Kinslayer, The Dreaded, looked up sharply as the young servant slipped into the room hesitantly.

“These have come,” they said waveringly. “Seasonal greetings…”

Unable to conceal the rare burst of unabashed joy painting his stern face a delicate pink, the Lord of Himring grabbed the missives and pressed them to his chest fitfully.

“To our brother, are your toes frozen yet?” The twins.

“Nelyo, I shall arrive soon—I hope you’ll have mulled wine at the ready.” Káno.

“I am alive. Are you?” Moryo.

“Warm greetings to a cold man!” Turko and Curvo.

Grinning, Maedhros sighed.

Here is the song that inspired this drabble. Disconnected by Jazz Morley!

Lots of love!

-> Masterlist(by @cilil)

#og post #December Drabbles #Fluff #IDNMT writes #fanfiction #writing #tolkien writing #jrrt #Maedhros #Maglor #Caranthir #Amrod #Amras #Celegorm #Curufin #Cards & Letters #family feels

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