Yule Love It

I saw daddy kissing Felagund Underneath the mistletoe last night...

(If you want just a Finrod in his beloved ugly Edain sweater he's under the cut)

FAIREST AND MOST BELOVED 😭😭😭

H: We're not gonna stay C: Haleth, there's orcs out there H: We're leaving today C: And terrible wargs out there H: This battle has been C: Sorry for your lost kin H: A living hell C: I'll give you lands in which to dwell

H: My father and brother gone C: Beautiful when you're mad H: We're going west, so, so-long C: What a bond we could have had H: So, we're all heading out C: Let me send out a scout H: I really don't care C: Haleth, there's orcs out there

Ecthelion and Glorfindel

Elvish lords of Gondolin

My Favorite Things

Melian’s singing and tree branches swaying, Luthien dancing to Daeron’s fair playing, Menegroth’s caverns, Esgalduin’s springs, These are a few of my favorite things.

Meeting new kin on diplomacy missions, Setting impossible marriage conditions, Keeping the gem he surprisingly brings, These are a few of my favorite things.

Was too reckless With the necklace, Now the Dwarves are mad; I just like acquiring favorite things, How did this turn out so bad?

The Long Peace. Ard-galen.

Sulking In A Winter Hinterland

Oh the weather outside is frightful And I'm feeling rather spiteful Staring north at our foe Full of woe, full of woe, full of woe

sad king felagund doodle

My version of the landscape of the Harad, baking under the intense sun.

I wanted to add some little figures but didn't have the courage.

Seasons Greetings

He sees you when you're sleeping He knows what you did take He knows that you've been very bad And your spirit he will break Oh, you're going to shout You're going to cry You're gonna find out The strength of The Eye Santatar has risen again

mk.ndure by yvonne.spiegelhauer

That Was a Long Way To Go

for this joke...

Okay, I am utterly tired of claims that Thingol was somehow to blame for not letting Celegorm and Curufin’s forces into Doriath after the Bragollach (and that this somehow justifies/excuses/explains their kidnapping, attempted rape and later attempted murder of Lúthien during the Leithian).

You’re suggesting that Thingol should let an army - composed of people whose demonstated reaction to any difficulties or challenges is to murder civilians and take whatever they want - wander willy-nilly through the lands inhabited by his own people whom he bears a resposibility to! An army that already has a record of an unprovoked attack on his brother’s kingdom and the slaughter of most of his brother’s people! And an army that have not made any secret of their contempt for Thingol’s people and their view of them as being inherently lesser in both ability and worth! (There’s little doubt that Angrod repeated Caranthir’s words to Thingol, during the conversation when Thingol learned of the Kinslaying.)

Doing that wouldn’t be generosity and charity. It would be gross irresposibility as a ruler in allowing robbers and brigands into your land to wantonly target your people.

Doriath isn’t closed to or isolated from other people as a whole. Elves from Ossiriand and the Falas go there freely, whether to stay for a time or to live for the long-term. Large numbers of Sindar specifically do retreat there during and after the Bragollach (The most part of the Grey-elves fled south…many were receieved into Doriath). Dwarves still come regularly and are on good terms at this point. Doriath sends forces to defend the Haladin living in Brethil during the Bragollach:

This tells us that 1) Doriath has open lines of communication with the Haladin, and they are comfortable sending to it for it aid, and Doriath answers with a substantial force; 2) this makes Doriath the only kingdom that has an equal alliance with a group of Men, as opposed to the relationships in which the Noldor are liegelords to Edain; and 3) the actions of Doriath and the Haladin are highly beneficial to the security of Beleriand and of Nargothrond in particular. (And it contrasts with the situation in Dorthonion, where the house of Finarfin, which has specific responsibilities as liegelord towards the Beorings - in a way that Thingol dies not towards the Haladin - conspicuously fails to fulfill those resposibilities.)

Keeping the Fëanorians out isn’t Doriath hiding within its borders and doing nothing. This is Doriath not admitting a force that they have very good reason not to trust, and that all evidence suggests would pose an immediate threat to their civilian populace, a threat that Doriath would not have the ability to contain (the size of a military force that would be necessary to escort that kind of an army through their territory is immense, especially during the ongoing war with Angband when their forces are needed on their borders). And all this is assuming the Fëanorians would even ask to be let in, which we have no evidence of in The Silmarillion.

The Silmarillion explicitly states that Celegorm and Curufin went “south and west by the marches of Doriath”: that is, south, and then west to Nargothrond, not through Nan Dungortheb (which would be west and then south). This is the same route Aredhel could have taken if she had been less impatient. Celegorm and Curufin could have gone south to Ossiriand if thet chose; they didn’t, whether because Nargothrond was a more secure and comfirtable location, or out of contempt for the green-elves, or for some other reason, we don’t know.

(The fact that they retreated at all is telling. It can’t help but stand out to me that Maedhros and Maglor, who are holding a much more challenging stretch of open ground, manage to hold their position in the north, and even to close the Gap of Aglon after Celegorm and Curufin have retreated, while their brothers retreat south; it suggests that C&C weren’t especially good fighters/commanders, or weren’t trying very hard.)

And finally: if better relations with Doriath were something the Fëanorians wanted, they had four hundred years to seek them, to offer some form of apology or weirgild or concessions. There is no indication that they made any attempt whatsoever at this, and lack of trust from a people who have every reason to distrust them is, therefore, again, on their own heads.

There serms to be a concerted desire to make every assumption which is favourable to the Fëanorians, even at their worst, and every assumption which is unfavourable towards anyone they harm. And it is in no way necessary. It’s not even necessary for allowing the characters to be “complex” or “not flatly evil”. I have a proposed character-analysis-based explanation for Celegorm and Curufin’s choices in Nargothrond; it’s just based on their own demonstrated character flaws rather than trying to concoct some rationale for grievance that displaces the resposibility for their actions onto the shoulders of their victims.

There are some good points here, and I think this would make the heart of a great retelling from the POV of the Havens, particularly the refugees of Doriath who lived there.

However, I think there are a couple of issues with it, particularly the stuff about Doriath not having a closed border.

Doriath very much DID have a closed border at one point, and it was not only closed to Celegorm's people.

The Northern Sindar of Hithlum?

Men?

And also:

The Haladin? By the time of Dagor Bragollach, relations with Doriath had improved, but fifty years earlier, when Haleth led her people west, they travelled through Ered Gorgoroth because the route through Doriath was closed to them.

I can't agree that "south and west by the marches of Doriath” means that C&C went around Doriath on the southern border, because having spent way too long staring at the map, I don't think there IS a route to Nargothrond along Doriath's southern border. For one thing, that passage about Men I quoted above makes it pretty clear that to go from Estolad westward, you had to go North and through Dorthonion or maybe even across Ard-Galen. South of Doriath is a massive marshland, Aelin-uial, the Meres of Twilight, the Fens of Sirion, 'heavy with enchantment' where the River Aros met the mighty River Sirion. I don't think we hear of anyone passing that way. And the argument that they went 'south and then west' rather than 'west and then south' doesn't take into account that Celegorm and Curufin had fortified the Pass of Aglon, which is to the North of Himlad. So they were driven south, along the pass, and then turned west along the road shown on the map that runs north of Doriath, and close to Gorgoroth.

I am not sure it's right to say that Doriath had an equal alliance with Men, unlike the Noldor. The Haladin were only allowed to live freely in Brethil because Finrod interceded for them with Thingol. And it's also pretty clear that there were Men who didn't take service with any Noldor lord, but still lived on Noldor lands:

Estolad is explicitly within the lands of Amrod and Amras. There's also the Haladin, who specifically went into Caranthir's lands because of the 'unfriendship' of the Green-elves, and Caranthir's people 'paid little heed to them' until they were attacked by orcs, at which point Caranthir rescued them, and offered them a safer place to live in return for alliance, which they freely declined.

Furthermore, the House of Marach, (which would become the House of Hador) also lived independently of the Noldor for a while. They went to Hithlum originally, but they then *left* and formed an independent grouping on the southern slopes of the Ered Wethrin. It was Hador who led them back to Hithlum, where they were granted Dor-lomin. It's hard to read that as Noldor subjugation, since Hador's people had their own lands already and could have stayed in them.

However, I do think that's exactly the sort of opinion that the few survivors of the Haladin (and possibly the Elves of Doriath) would have. Not perhaps the whole story, but then, nobody has that. I don't think that it is victim-blaming by the fandom to assume that Celegorm and his supporters probably did resent the strong borders of Doriath. I mean, yes, of all people, Doriath would not want Celegorm or Curufin to cross the border, and they would have excellent reasons for that (though personally I am against leaving refugees in danger, even if the refugees are dangerous, as a matter of principle. But it's certainly a concern with weight behind it. )

Tossing on my take of the 'south and west by the marches of Doriath' line:

I was unusually proud of that one. Especially the tag #treason's greetings which nobody appears to have caught 😂

—

-Turin Turambar, immediately after killing Orgof (via incorrecttolkienquotes)

Yeah, seriously, Saeros, that was not a good idea. 

I mean it’s not like Turin intended for Saeros to leap to his death, that was an accident, but he definitely meant for him to go running naked as a deer through the woods clothed only in his hair.  That’s what you get for insulting Turin’s womenfolk.

The Shaming of Saeros by ralphdamiani

“Saeros, there is a long race before you, and clothes will be a hindrance; hair must suffice” (p. 89, The Children of Hurin)

Túrin Turambar and Saeros, based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

December; the 13th

Elros

I will usually draw Elros in the clothes I use here but I wanted to try something different for him and I think it turned out pretty! Maybe this was before he became king?

Anyway, Happy Lucia day! - white version↓

Bling Under the Mountain

🎁⚒🔥 From our Forge to yours 🔥⚒🎁

Felagund (2023)

watercolour

that one painting with the shirtless warrior guy holding his helmet at just the right level it looks like it’s giving him the good succ but it’s Túrin with the dragon helm