tamilhobbit

[tamilhobbit]

There is a horn. It is nothing special, made from the tusk of some beast that Aredhel barely even recalls felling.

There had been many such beasts on The Ice after all.

The horn had found its way into her luggage and over so many restless nights watching over little Idril she had made it.

It does not compare to those that The Hunt had used in Aman, bound as it is with scant strips of leather and metalwork repurposed from a necklace that she could not wear on The Ice.

But it is hers. And it is precious, in a strange way.

She does not take it when she leaves her brother’s city. It remains, untouched, in her rooms.

It watches as she slowly fades from a poison bestowed by her husband.

The horn is given to her son, yet he has no use for it. A love of hunting and the great outdoors was not anything she passed on to her only child.

It is gifted to another, to a child borne of his cousin, a more precious gift than perhaps his cousin realises.

(One of the few pieces he has of his mother. A wish and a warning and an apology all at once.)

Somehow it survives the Fall. Somehow it ends up in Sirion.

It does not burn in the destruction. Nor is it taken by the Sons of Feanor as they take their hostages.

It lies, abandoned on the floor, until the King comes (too late) to the aid of the city.

There are too few survivors, but they can ill afford to leave any supplies behind. And besides, Gil-Galad can recall his cousin placing a strange solemn honour upon the hunting horn.

It sits, unused, until the Sons of Earendil are returned to their king, whereupon it, aged and yet bearing a presence is returned to them.

There is little argument over which of them gets that piece of their father when it is time for them to separate. The elder twin takes it, as he took their foster father’s sword. The younger is content with a silver harp and the book of their mother’s herblore.

Elros takes it with him. A symbol of his House, and honour for his heir to bear.

Down it goes, down down down the generations until there is little but a drop of Numenorian blood left in its bearer.

It crosses oceans and continents and Ages of the World, survives battles and sieges and the falls of Great Cities and Great Kings until all that is left is a Steward upon his throne sending a son to find answers for a dream.

Finally, on the shores of a river, overlooked by statues of the Kings of Old, the horn is blown for the last time.

It is blown to summon aid, to draw attention, to allow those it’s bearer would protect the chance to escape.

It takes three arrows to take down the horn’s bearer, and the Falls of Rauros to finally grant the horn rest.

The Horn of Aredhel Maeglin Earendil Elros Numenor Gondor is no more.

#Tolkien #The Silmarillion #The Lord of the Rings #Aredhel #Maeglin #Eärendil #Elros #Númenor #Boromir #Gondolin #Gondor

[tamilhobbit]

We don’t bully Sauron enough for being such a FUCKING instagram villain that he’d only ever steal black horses from the Rohirrim, like he really in canon passed over herds of perfectly good load-bearing horses just for aesthetic fidelity

#Tolkien #The Lord of the Rings #Sauron #Rohan

[tamilhobbit]

So I've been thinking about Glorfindel's horse recently, okay? (I'm listening to these delightful audio books, and just got to Rivendell.) And I am as ever caught by the inconsistency of Asfaloth's tack with Legolas's later "lol what's a saddle? get rid of that shit man, I'm an elf!" schtick in Rohan. And the question that all of that (plus Gandalf and Shadowfax of course) engenders is why the fuck wasn't Glorfindel "riding elvish style" then?

While the Doylist explanation of "Tolkien hadn't come up with that idea yet + Frodo needed to be able to both hold-onto and steer Asfaloth and he isn't an elf so he had to have a saddle" makes sense, it's obviously not satisfying from an in-universe standpoint, is it?

(And somebody made some extremely good points laying-out a very convincing logistical explanation recently, and I like it quite like a lot, and might well use that in fics myself sometime because it's splendid and seems extremely legit, and opens up some fun things to play around with re: elvish history and culture; but while it's an extremely satisfying answer in terms of Accurate World Building Detail, it's never felt entirely viscerally satisfying to me in terms of Tolkienian Style, if you follow me.)

So I posit: what if the reason why Asfaloth had Conveniently Mortal-Appropriate Tack during that section of story was for the convenience of mortals?

Specifically, the Dúnedain.

What if when the Elves of Rivendell are doing something that involves (or might potentially involve) both horses and their human allies, they put enough tack on their horses to allow one of the Rangers to be able to use that horse in a pinch? That would make sense, right? Just a simple little practical precaution!

Imagine being in a situation where you want to stick one of your human companions on your horse for some reason, or you want one of them to look after your horse for a little while you go off and do a thing, etc etc, but you can't because there aren't any reins. And now you're fucked. What a silly self-inflicted problem that could be avoided with just a little bit of planning ahead!

So, because Glorfindel knew that the Rangers would also be searching around looking for Frodo and/or evidence of the Nine, he put just enough extra tack on Asfaloth that if he, for instance, found an injured mortal in the wild, he could put them on his horse and send them back to Rivendell without him...just as a random example of a hypothetical situation that might happen.

(Anyway, that's the headcanon I'm going to be running with from here out, I think. Also I've gone and retroactively added a little scene revolving around this explanation to my Celebrimbor Fellowship AU fic, for anyone who's been interested in that story.)

*Thoughts and arguments welcome!

#Tolkien #The Lord of the Rings #Glorfindel #Asfaloth #Legolas #Frodo Baggins #Dúnedain #Rivendell #Imladris #Elves #Rangers

[tamilhobbit]

Love the idea that Thranduil is still not thrilled about his son marrying a dwarf (old prejudices die hard for equally old stubborn elves) but as soon as the two land in Valinor, it is on sight for anyone who even looks at Gimli the wrong way. Like, that is his family line you're speaking about and to disrespect the dwarf is to disrespect his son and to disrespect his son is to disrespect HIM. No one's allowed to ask how it was possible for Gimli to even BE here in front of Thranduil without him being like " because he is my son's husband and the gods seem to agree that my son is a special baby boy who can do what he wants. You gonna disagree with the gods? Didn't think so, begone with your stupid fucking questions."

#Tolkien #The Lord of the Rings #The Hobbit #Thranduil #Legolas #Gimli #Gimli/Legolas #Gigolas #Gimleaf #Valinor #Elves

[tamilhobbit]

#Tolkien #The Silmarillion #Maedhros #Maglor #Elrond #Elros #Elrond Peredhel #Elros Tar-Minyatur #kidnap family

[tamilhobbit]

Theory: Elrond effectively wears headlamps like a Dad(TM)

Proof:

Elrond, at least on semi-formal occasions, wears “a star upon his forehead” (RotK book 6, ch.9)—that is, presumably, a pale glowing gem on some sort of coronet. This comes across as very classically Elvish (light, jewelry, star imagery), and a nigh-explicit reference to his father Eärendil. However…

Elrond’s children don’t see as well as Elves, as cited here. If his children don’t, then Elrond, even less Elvish by blood, certainly doesn’t. Now, I will admit that I forget if “Elves can see in the dark” is canon or very popular, D&D-enabled fanon, but it certainly makes sense considering that Elves flourished for centuries or millennia under just starlight, before daylight even existed…and it’s equally reasonable to assume that half-elven night vision is as relatively “weak” as their cited distance vision.

Elrond is the proud father of three, and exhibits traditional Dadly behaviors such as being a little bit of a nerd (loremaster) but also one of the most reliable guys you know, adopting any child left in his presence for a sufficient amount of time (Aragorn), and telling his daughter’s aspiring bf that he won’t be good enough for her until he has a steady job (also Aragorn).

My dad irl, who I promise is a pretty typical Dad, was positively delighted when he discovered casual-use head-mounted flashlights about a decade ago, and has self-satisfiedly worn them on every camping trip and nighttime dog walk ever since.

CONCLUSION: Elrond regularly wears glowing, star-evocative gems on his brow, especially while traveling or at fancy evening parties, and he looks great and it make people respectfully murmur Eärendilion (whether he likes it or not)… But really, it’s not a fashion statement or implicit political position or whatever; it’s because if he doesn’t have some sort of flashlight, he will trip on torchlit steps or walk into low-hanging tree branches in the dark. And it’s so much easier if it’s hands-free! (Especially when he’s spelunking for lost texts!)

His kids all go through a phase of thinking he’s mortifyingly dorky about this, then begrudgingly come to accept that it is really convenient to have a hands-free light for dark nights, caves, etc, and start wearing one themselves.

#The Lord of the Rings #Elrond #Elrond Peredhel #Elladan #Elrohir #Arwen #Tolkien #Elves #Aragorn

[tamilhobbit]

types of holidays celebrated in Rivendell:

Noldor holidays, which initially made the Sindar and Silvan residents cranky until they realized Elrond was part of it

Sindar holidays, which initially made some of the Noldor residents cranky until they realized Elrond was part of it

Silvan holidays, because at this point they're going to take any excuse for a party

Tra-La-La-Lally Day, created when they realized they somehow had a month with zero holidays. The festival focuses on getting drunk, singing, and lightly bullying anyone within earshot

Holidays relevant to any visitors or foster children

Numenorian holidays, because they caught Elrond celebrating alone and crying about Elros one (1) time and refuse to let him do it alone anymore

#Tolkien #The Lord of the Rings #The Silmarillion #Elrond #Elrond Peredhel #Elros Tar-Minyatur #Rivendell #Imladris

[tamilhobbit]

Very old bearded joke featuring Celegorm, Curufin and Finrod

Nothing boosts the desire to do something dumb more than approaching thesis pre-defense

#Celegorm #Curufin #Finrod #The Silmarillion #dumb jokes

[tamilhobbit]

I was thinking about Aragorn’s stupidly long legs again and I think it should be canon that he regularly smacks his forehead into low door frames and stuff. Just somwhere in Minas Tirith there’s a loud thunk followed by a long string of Sindarin swearwords and Arwen is like “ah yes, here he comes, the King of Gondor and Arnor, the love of my life.”

#Tolkien #The Lord of the Rings #Aragorn #Arwen #Aragorn/Arwen #Arwen Undómiel

[tamilhobbit]

the idea that restrooms, locker rooms, etc need to be single-sex spaces in order for women to be safe is patriarchy's way of signalling to men & boys that society doesn't expect them to behave themselves around women. it is directly antifeminist. it would be antifeminist even if trans people did not exist. a feminist society would demand that women should be safe in all spaces even when there are men there.

#feminism #fuck TERFs

[tamilhobbit]

#Sauron #The Lord of the Rings

[tamilhobbit]

This porno didn’t fuck around

#cowboys

[tamilhobbit]

Reblogging so I can fill out the form when I'm more awake.

Love Tolkien? Read or Write Fanfiction?

We’ve had one Tolkien fanfiction study- what about Second Tolkien Fanfiction study?

Haleth

Eärien from The Rings of Power

Lothiriel of Dol Amroth

Aragorn and Arwen’s Daughters

If you write or read Tolkien fanfiction about any of these characters, I’d love to talk to you as part of my PhD research into the depiction of Tolkien’s female characters in fanfiction.

#Tolkien #fanfic

[tamilhobbit]

What’s your favourite line from good omens?

The invisible and unbreakable one that joins Crowley and Aziraphale.

#Good Omens #Crowley #Aziraphale #Crowley/Aziraphale #Ineffable Husbands #Neil Gaiman

[tamilhobbit]

Miss Congeniality (2000) dir. Donald Petrie

#April 25th #Miss Congeniality

[tamilhobbit]

Wait, WHAT? I have literally never seen this scene? This film was played on TV a LOT and I'm guessing Singapore just totally censored this bit. 😐

Fuck's sake.

I remember watching Legends of Tomorrow and grumbling on Facebook about how White Canary and the nurse were totally into each other and had such a lovely intimate moment, and the show was written by cowards for not letting them kiss. All my international friends went, "WTF are you talking about? They kissed! Here's the YouTube link!"

Turned out Singapore had just neatly censored it, because that's what Singapore does with every positive depiction of homosexuality in the media. And it looks like it did the same to a beloved movie I grew up with.

This would have meant so much to me growing up. I'm pissed.

Miss Congeniality (2000) dir. Donald Petrie

#LGBTQ #queer stuff #Miss Congeniality #Legends of Tomorrow

[tamilhobbit]

Fun fact:

"Dog" in Middle Quenya is "huan" (glossed as such in 1930's Etymologies).

Which means, you guessed it, Tyelkormo Feanarion, son of a renowned labengolmo, named his magical, given by a Vala dog "Dog". And, quite frankly, should be recognized for that

#Tolkien #The Silmarillion #Quenya #Huan #Celegorm #Fëanorians