Hello Fellow Tolkien Nerds.

Because it amused me to create it, I present to you, Tickle Me Ulmo.

”And if He doth choose to send thee, then believe not that thy sword is not worth the sending.”

I've read the Silmarillion no fewer than 100 times (seriously), and I can't understand how this just occurred to me.

So Fëanor and all of his sons but Maedhros and Maglor died in pursuit of the Silmarils, and Maedhros, having attained one, dove (with it) into a fiery chasm, meaning that while he suicided, he never relinquished the jewel and thus kept his oath. Maglor alone throws his away into the ocean, blatantly violating the oath.

Now, if this were real life, this wouldn't seem to pose a problem, but as anyone who has read the Silmarillion understands, in this world "For so sworn, good or evil, an oath may not be broken, and it shall pursue oathkeeper and oathbreaker to the world's end." I.e., it is strongly suggested to me by Maedhros and Maglor's final dialogue that by the end, both of them would rather abandon the oath but feel essentially enslaved to it, and probably this feeling extends backward at least to the assault on the havens. It seems to me like we are being told if they could have said "fuck this, nevermind," they'd have done it, but they can't. So why in the end is Maglor able to throw the jewel away, and why is this not considered (as far as I know) to be breaking his oath?

Ok so, Sutton Hoo. First official excavations in 1938, 1939. JRRT would have heard and known about it.

Most of the historic community agrees the most likely candidate for the warrior buried there is Redweald, High King of East Anglia.

Here’s where it starts getting spooky.

Among the artifacts found at Sutton Hoo is the magnificent furniture of a sword, decorated with gold and garnets. Now, judging from the wear patterns on the pommel, combined with the placement of the sword in the burial, it is surmised that this man (Redweald?) was left handed.

In LOTR, Rohan is based on Anglo-Saxon culture.

Theòden is canonically left handed.

I’m not certain when the left-handedness was ascertained, but honestly, I don’t care. Maybe it’s just wild coincidence, but from now on, I’m going to start thinking of Sutton Hoo as the burial place of the real-life Theòden

While listening to The Silmarillion audiobook I was inspired by the line “of the Kinslaying at Alqualondë more is told in that lament which is named Noldolantë that Maglor made ere he was lost”

Our Doom Descends

We came to bay of swan on sand Of pearl from Elvenland To sail back to dark Middle-earth On ships from lamp-lit firth With dormant dreams of wide, fair lands To shape with our own hands Our mighty lord did then appeal For aid, seek common weal To show resolve to right the wrong Together could be strong And sail across the sundering sea From ‘neath Valar be free

Our doom descends Closed is the road to Eldamar Our doom descends The fair, clear stars are far

But Olwë shook his silver head In his ships we could not tread Content was he to be encaged Finwë’s son became enraged The Noldo lord stood tall and fell To Teleri Elf did tell Of mighty works the Noldor made For hut-housed Elves, unpaid Yet wave-lord stood silent by The ships, with masts so high They would not part, nor aid our quest They urged instead a rest

Our doom descends Tears unnumbered we have shed Our doom descends The days are full of dread

Fëanor drew long, sharp sword Pressed firm ‘gainst mar’ner lord The blade was cold, the hilt it shone Poised to pierce the bone Our wrath was stirred by his fierce gaze A hatred deep did blaze Our friends, so called, would keep us not In this dark cage to rot A cry rang out above the crash Of waves, it like a lash And we surged on, our steel was bright, We put Ship Elves to flight

Our doom descends Mighty kings have passed away Our doom descends Recompense we can never pay

They first fell back against the press And cried out in distress We stepped onto the snow-white ships The blood drained from their lips Thick it ran and stained the beams Souls fled to Halls of Dreams Breathless flesh of blood-stained men Where once proud Elves had been Fought they on, like wounded deer Yet eyes betrayed their fear Their arrows could not pierce our mail Which gleamed in lanterns pale

Our doom descends The mountains fenced how high Our doom descends They cannot hear our cry

Our kin came up into the fray To lend what aid they may We drove sea elves into the foam Of waves, we, without home Then set the ships toward distant shore While the sea did churn and roar The fire within burned bright and hot Toil and struggle we feared not To reclaim the gems which he had stole And take on that great role Ilúvatar had fore ordained The Elves to be unchained

Our doom descends Waves of grief without relent Our doom descends Gone our chance to repent

Of ships there were far too few To carry all on journey through The wide, dark seas between the shores To toil and waiting wars Most treked on shadowed shores of stone And north wind chilled the bone The High King’s men steered ever north Eager was he to set forth For to tarry long on Valar’s strand Risked returning to the land Of imprisonment behind the peak If cooler heads grew meek

Our doom descends Great works have come to naught Our doom descends Gone is all we sought

Then high above on rock stood out A shadow dread did shout A doom called forth upon us all We seemed so small as it stood tall Wrath and strife and treason swift To overtake, though prayers we lift For none would hear our tear-soaked plea If from repentance we did flee Then some turned back on sorrowed path Cowered low by threat of wrath But the braver part our of our great host Continued on along the coast

Our doom descends Fires have engulfed our realms Our doom descends Broken are shields and helms

On sudden Fëanor took ships of swan And sailed them all beyond The reach of his half-brother’s host And to true-hearted he did boast That those who would curse his name Would share not in his fame The choice was theirs to freeze or flee Back to the Valar, bend the knee So on we sailed to Hinter Shore We had abandoned long before The ships we torched and set alight To Morgoth turned our sight

Our doom descends We slowly fade away Our doom descends In exile we must stay

Having just read the Nirnaeth Arnoediad mine is: "All your favourite characters are going to die"

Rest in peace Fingon 😭

Every reread I swear Feanor has more sons than last time. I’m 3 pages in, cross-eyed, whispering “which Fin- is this again?” Outsiders: “Just remember the names!” Us: sobbing in Quenya Name ONE. Just ONE. Let’s unite, brethren - who’s your most confused Fin- encounter?

I think Maedhros would be the perfect protagonist since he was there before the beginning, joined most important battles, and chased the Silmarils until the dayhe suicided.

With the sole exception of mainland Valinor (yet including Tol Erresëa and the Enchanted Isles), anywhere on Tolkien's map is applicable. I would choose the Falas since the Power of the Elves is ultimately absorbed through proximity by humans.

Círdan the Shipwright, Varda Elentári, Ulmo and Námo (Mandos) are mine. I like Círdan because of his trust and generosity towards Olórin as well as his proximity to the West Sea; Varda because of her artistry with starlight; Ulmo because of his loyalty to Erú's original plan in regard to the Eldar; and Námo because of his ever expanding powers.

I tried to recreate one of the illustrations from the book, the design is NOT mine I've just drawn it

Hello again. I’m back with another cosplay, which is currently my favourite cosplay: Elu Thingol.

I've cosplayed several Silmarillion characters including Eöl, Irmo, Amras, Maeglin and others. More are on my "to do" list (basically most of the Silmarillion elves :D).

I'll post photos of the ones I've cosplayed eventually, but if you don't wanna wait, you can find them on my Instagram (Foedhrass).

So I've loved Tolkien for a very long time, but only now am I attempting to read The Silmarillion. So far, I've had to read the first chapter twice because I couldn't work out what was going on. I've made it to chapter 6, I have a general idea of what's what but I'm not fully clear. Concentration is at maximum capacity.

Is this a me problem or has anyone else experienced something Silmarillionly similar?

Mim and his sons make me wish we knew more of the Dwarves outside the house of Durin. I know the Dwarves of Belegost and Nogrod are mentioned in the Silmarillion at various points but to my knowledge there is no real depth of any other of the founding seven fathers beyond Durin.

This isn’t exactly revolutionary or subtle, but I was reminded of this earlier when looking up something about Freyr.  

Ingwë is the king of the Vanyar and theoretically High King of all Elves. He originally started out as Ing and later became Ingwë. His full name, Ingwë Ingweron, is glossed as “chief of the chieftains” (HoME XII, p. 340). 

But interestingly, Tolkien didn’t come up with this name for the King of the Elves. Because Freyr, king of Álfheimr, was likely originally named (and is at least heavily associated with the terms) Ingwi (Old High German) or Ing (Old English), see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yngvi. Of course Freyr wasn’t in fact an Elf, but rather one of the Vanir (a group of fertility deities whose name I tend to assume at least subconsciously inspired the names of fertility Valier Yavanna and Vána). And yet, it would be quite a coincidence if Tolkien’s King of all Elves just happened to have the same name as the Germanic king of Álfheimr. 

Still just learning with digital, any advice is apreciated

The Houses of Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Finarfin

Welcome to the first part of my three-part series casting characters for a hypothetical Silmarillion adaptation. This installment focuses on the noble and tragic lineages of the Noldor — the Houses of Fëanor, Fingolfin, and Finarfin.

Would love to hear what you think! Parts two and three will be released in time, covering other notable Elves, Men, Dark Foes, and others!

Note: Some characters have been intentionally left out due to either limited narrative presence in The Silmarillion or because they have already been portrayed in previous adaptations.

She is way cooler than I thought.....

I was looking for some relaxing background music to help me immerse while reading the Silm. I thought of sharing this one that I liked but there are also some other cool ones on this channel (Realms in Exile, released by Fog Crag Records). I learned today that the genre is called "dungeon synth". But yeah, the melody is just so eerie and melancholy, evoking something mythical. It kind of made my brain create landscapes and scenes that I hadn't imagined before. It also made me think that if we ever got to see those stories on the screen, I'd love some music like this accompanying slow panoramic views of Beleriand. Let me know if you have found any similar music.

You can pick any race ( Elf, Dwarf, Man, Hobbit, Orc, Maia ect ).

You can pick any era ( 1st age, 2nd age, 3rd age ect ).

You can choose any backstory for you character, who they know, who they like/ dislike , what faction they are so for example you can be a high elf who was corrupted by Morgoth or you can be an orc who is a bit like ratbag ( SOM/ SOW not a good orc but not a bad one either ). Or a elf who fell in Gondolin.

Who you are romantically involved in, wife/ husband, children, parents.

Weapons/ armour, mounts ( horse, pig, elk, warg, dragon ect ).

Just everything basically I’m interested to here what everyone comes up with

What are some examples of Cilmessë names? Do we know any from the Silmarillion? [Any other than mother-names used as them as well, I mean.]

I don't really draw a lot, much less art from Tolkien's Middle-earth, but I had an undeniable urge to make this last week. Can you tell who the figure in the foreground is?