Pope Francis Has Died.

2 other things i really love from this translation of finrod song battle!!!

1) the use of "a lo lejos" (far away) to describe nargothrond, and in the next line the use of "mucho más lejos" (much farther away) to describe the western sea. it feels to me like an emphasis on how far from home finrod is in this moment. its very bittersweet to me

2) "EL VIENTO SE LAMENTA" FOR "THE WIND WAILS." ALSJAKDHSHJAH. ok let me explain. this is the first phrase following the description of the kinslaying at alqualondë. yes lamentarse can technically be translated as to wail but it also has an obvious connection to lament, regret, grief, and so on. much more powerful i think in this context (probably not intentional but i could also connect this to manwë mourning the fall of the noldor and the slaying of the teleri...... just saying)

give elrond a break challenge failed

Made this a little while ago, I'll be doing more when I have the spoons for it lol.

The Silmarillion as Vines

"there is no platonic explanation for this" when characters hug, care for each other, support them, are worried when they are in danger, smile at each other etc

Some of yall just don't have any good friends and it really shows

The tapestries made by the Aubusson manufacture based on the art of JRR Tolkien are currently exhibited at the Collège des Bernardins in Paris until May. @actual-bill-potts and I went there yesterday, they're so beautiful!!

These are all handmade tapestries, each is based on a Tolkien artwork (the Rivendell one has the facsimile on the right for scale).

Under the cut: group ID and bonus details

ID: 7 photos of the tapestries, which are each about 3m high, located in a 13th century monastery. The first is the map of middle earth, the others are illustrations Tolkien made of his books. The bonus photos below are details of the tapestries.

Rings of Power meme dump part 6!

The first has the correct vibes but actually my pet peeve this season was the elves' seeming incredibly lax views on forge safety (as someone who's done a bit of metal working). Like okay, Annatar is excused. But Eru Mirdania, pull your damn hair back girl. (Mini rant over)

Character Thoughts - Elwing

I don’t think that Elwing throwing herself into the ocean had anything to do with possessiveness about the Silmaril. For me, it recalls two other scenes in Tolkien’s work.

One is Frodo’s defiance at the Ford of Bruinen: “By Elbereth and Lúthien the Fair, you shall have neither the Ring nor me!” A desperate defiance against evil when you’re at the end of your rope and the end of your strength (and retreat to water, and unexpected rescue).

And the other, even more strongly, is the Fall of Fingolfin. She’s just lost a desperate battle; she sees everything she knows and loves and has built falling into ruin and fire; she can’t stop any of it. But she can fight the people who did this to her, and she can hurt them, even if it kills her. She can’t outright duel Maedhros (he’s been probably the greatest swordsman in Beleriand for ten times longer than she’s been alive; that would quite possibly be a more unequal fight than the Duel of Fingolfin and Morgoth), but she still has a way to hurt him. You don’t get the Silmaril, and you don’t get to kill me. You don’t get to win.

The central thought underlying it is not ‘mine’; it is ‘fuck you’.

It is not about her keeping the Silmaril; it is about the Fëanorians not getting it.

I don’t think she knows just how well she’s succeeding at hurting them - everything in her life tells her the Fëanorians are monsters as bad as or worse than anything from Angband, not beings capable of remorse - but she knows she’s denying them the one thing they want. And Maedhros and Maglor are left knowing that the worst thing they’ve ever done was, as far as their goals are concerned, completely pointless.

She’s not ‘abandoning her children’. She’s already lost her children. She has no way to save them. She has no reason to believe they would be spared, whatever she did. The twins are of no use to the Fëanorians. The Fëanorians have already shown themselves willing to murder children, her brothers, that actually did have value as hostages. If Elwing handed over the Silmaril there’s no reason for her to believe they wouldn’t just kill her and her children for spite.

It can’t be emphasized enough that the Fëanorians are the monsters of Elwing’s life. Angband is a distant name and a threat. The murderers of Elwing’s father, her mother, her brothers, the twice-destroyers of her home, are the Fëanorians. They are her Morgoth.

it's crazy how people will use AI, something that kills trees, to 'create' Tolkien 'art' like JRR Tolkien himself wouldn't have hated AI with his entire being just for the tree murder alone... and that's not even getting to the artistic theft.

Rings of Power meme dump part 2!

Rings of Power meme dump part 9!