Latest Posts by elthbe - Page 2

day 1: Maedhros - childhood

he's able to form the Union and get a bunch of generals to cooperate with each other because he already has plenty of experience as The Eldest Cousin who wrangled all the kids during family reunions and got them to behave

Don’t go sharing your devotion, lay all your love on me (c)

Is Feanor x Nerdanel unstable and problem-ridden ? Yes. Are they in love forever? Also yes. Do I ship them? YEP. Should I draw more of them? You tell me.

Eowyn & Faramir

mixed media, 53*35 cm

one thing about them is that they will simply insult morgoth to his face <3 full brothers in heart indeed

People who hate Frodo Baggins are my enemy. "He didn't do anything and was useless"--yeah, okay, so what you're not understanding is that he was the sacrificial lamb. He endured physical, mental, and emotional torment that got worse and worse as his will broke. Everyone knew this. EVERYONE KNEW THIS. That's why everyone was devastated about it. Because Frodo was the most innocent among them, that was the entire point. He represented ordinary peaceful people being destroyed by the horrors of war. And as a hobbit he also represented some of the last vestiges of magic in what was basically a post magic apocalypse.

Frodo was basically an innocent puppy thrown into the Torment Nexus so that EVERYONE ELSE could maybe have a hope of surviving. And he did that willingly. HE DID IT OF HIS OWN FREE WILL, KNOWING IT WOULD RUIN HIM.

Frodo haters won't see the light of heaven

It will forever be my Roman Empire that the Sons of Feanor went from widely beloved princes of Valinor to the most despised and wished to be forgotten figures in history. To go from growing up and living in royal luxury, to war torn conditions, starvation, grief, and violence.

Imagine Finwe learning what happened to his beloved grandchildren. He led his people to the blessed to keep them safe, to save them from Morgoth's darkness only for them all to fall.

Here’s a sketch of Maedhros from my work-in-progress fanfic about the Ambarussar starting a religion. Mae hasn’t heard from the twins in years, so he goes to check on them. He soon starts to feel severely overdressed when he arrives at the twins’ isolated ascetic cult community where everyone wears the same brown tunic (he has zero clue what he’s walking into.)

I aim to draw the twins next but alas they will be less sexy since they are quite emaciated, especially Amrod

A5 paper, markers, took about three hours

Fruit harvest festival

Nerdanel & Feanaro

What has become of you ...?

Fëanáro

I don’t think Maedhros stopped praying when he left Valinor, even once the Valar had forsaken his family and banished them. Maybe it was habit maybe it was comfort but I don’t think he stopped.

Nor do I think he stopped when he was captured by The Enemy. I think it became his sole source of hope that someone who cared would hear him and free him one way or the other and in a sense that prayer was answered.

I don’t even think it stopped when Fingon died. I think Maedhros prayed he’d find peace and safety in Mandos. I think he prayed he’d be home safe soon. I think he was grateful that no matter the end the person he loved most was at last out of harms way.

No he stopped praying after Doriath. The night he lost so much. The night he lost three brothers. The night that Celegorm bled out in his arms going out of the world quietly, in stark contrast to how he entered it. But it was not those deaths that stopped his prayers, he knew his brother’s wrongs, the harm they’d done. He knew with as much pain as it brought him they deserved it.

He stopped praying when he lost two little boys in the woods. When in desperation with tears freezing on his cheeks he called out with the simplest prayer you can “please.” He was met only with the bite of the frost and the cold moonlight and the colder indifference of gods that claimed to be loving. When Fingon had reached out in a moment of need despite his own banishment an eagle had been sent. To save Maedhros’ wind and war torn soul. But when Maedhros asked them to save two little princes lost in the woods there was only silence and contempt.

Yes I think he only stopped praying after that. When he was good and sure he was alone.

hug :D

I said in my last post that Maglor needed hugs and now he has a big hug!!!! :D

This drawing has me very emotional, I wanted it to be the 7 brothers hugging each other, Maglor in the center, after many years of him being alone and sad wandering the coasts. Is this a dream? A hallucination? Or is this a miracle and his brothers came back for him? :) ……I actually wrote a whole super silly fic about it but I don't think I'll finish it soon haha ​​mmm we'll see haha

It's 2am and I'm happy, I love this drawing, even though I had a bad time at some moments because of mistakes that were completely avoidable but because of who I am I decided to take the more complicated path hmmm….This whole drawing is on the same layer haha….that wasn't a good idea haha ​​but I love it anyway.

Finrod's dagger was canonically forged by Fëanor which means that on top of Celebrimbor using Fëanor's hammer to forge the Three Elven Rings, Fëanor's work is contained within the Three Elven Rings- and the dagger itself tells the story of Fëanor's greatest work and some of Valinor's history...

AND The Three Elven Rings represent the three Silmarils and their final resting places: Nenya representing Maglor's Silmaril resting in the ocean, Narya representing Maedhros' Silmaril resting in a fiery chasm, and Vilya representing Eärendil's Silmaril, resting in the sky.

Fëanor is quite literally weaving everyone together... like his mother Miriel.

Maglor: rating the places where I've cried!

Valinor: nice place. To nice. Ruins the vibe. 4/10

Himring: has long hallways, great acoustics and a very depressing atmosphere, but also Nelyo is there to tell me to stop being so dramatic. 6/10

Battlefield: absolutely no. 1/10

Beach: amazing. Uninterrupted. People think I'm a siren or a vengeful ghost. Or a crab for some reason. Befriended a seagull. 9/10. One point gets deducted because the sand is impossible to get out of my clothes.

#OMG???? #This killed me

Maglor/ Maglor and Maedhros

Lúthien is such an interesting character. She could’ve easily been written as just a pretty princess sitting in a tower, waiting for her beloved to come back with the treasure he stole from "a dragon". But instead, we get her rescuing him from one villain, then heading straight to the main bad guy and doing all the work herself AGAIN.

And it doesn't mean Beren didn’t deserve her or anything—it just proves they were equals in that journey. They both wanted to be together, and that’s why she was so eager to help and save him. It was her fate on the line too, and she wasn’t about to take a passive role, just sitting around hoping Beren would succeed or accepting failure if he didn't.

And I adore how cruel she could be when she wanted. Remember the words and threats she threw at Sauron—he totally deserved it because, well, he’s Sauron—but still! Seeing her as not just the quiet, lovely maiden all the time, but actually being allowed to express anger and be intimidating? That’s so fucking cool. I wish more people in the fandom focused on that "bloodthirsty" part of her personality, by the way. I want to see more fanarts of her being furious and scary.

I know it doesn’t seem that extraordinary today because we have plenty of badass heroines now, but Tolkien started writing this story over 100 years ago. Sure, he refined it over time, but still. He gets criticized for how he portrayed most of his female characters—rightfully—but I think it’s really impressive that someone who could’ve just been a stereotypical princess actually got the chance to take a large part in the action, even a bigger role than the hero and her lover. (Of course, that’s not the sole reason why she’s interesting and well-written—there’s way more nuance to her personality than just being able to kick ass and cast magic)

Maybe it’s the youngest sibling in me but I too would nope out of my older siblings’ drama and happily stay in Valinor if they were always at each other’s throats and suddenly decided to take their problems an entire continent away.

You couldn’t pay me to get involved, thank you and goodbye. Begone and take your enablers with you.

🍎🍓🫐

Galadriel's Song of Eldamar

I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:

Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.

Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,

And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.

Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,

In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.

There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years,

While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears.

O Lórien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;

The leaves are falling in the stream, the river flows away.

O Lórien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore

And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.

But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,

What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?

-- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring --

.

⭐🕊️

We all think a lot about Maedhros’ relationships with his parents and his brothers since they loom so large in his life, but I think there are really interesting contrasts and parallels between Maedhros and Finwë and Míriel:

Finwë held himself unkinged by the Valar against his will; Maedhros chose to give the crown to Fingolfin.

Finwë was a great friend of Elwë; Maedhros was not, and even made war on his kingdom after he was dead.

Finwë wanted to have more children after Fëanor; Maedhros never had children, but he ended up with children anyway.

Míriel was known for her strong will and her tendency to make her words a law unto themselves; Maedhros swore the Oath.

Míriel chose to die; Maedhros begged Fingon to slay him and he later cast himself into a chasm of fire.

Míriel, and of course Fëanor, were well known for the beautiful things they created; Maedhros did achieve some great things, like the alliances he formed, but he was mostly remembered for what he destroyed.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thinking about how Nerdanel's amilessë apacenyë for Maitimo means "Well-shaped one" and how heartbreaking that really is. Did she see, like some nís are able, the fate that awaited her firstborn son? Did she see some glimpse of the torture he would endure that would permanently disfigure him? Did she name him Maitimo to remind him always that, no matter what happens, he will always be beautiful to her and he is loved?

*based on a real conversation between me and two of my siblings*

Celegorm: where do babies come from?

Maedhros: I don’t know but we found you in a dumpster

Maglor: *nodding sagely* with the raccoons

Celegorm: what! no you didn't!

Maedhros: yes we did, we made Atya and Ammë keep you.

Maglor: and the longer we had you the more you started to be like a little boy instead of a raccoon.

Celegorm: I AM NOT A RACOON!

Maglor: Oh look Nelyo his claws are coming back, we might have to return him.

Maedhros: *picks Celegorm up over his shoulder* Alright lets go

*various sounds of chaos ensue*

Fëanor: *from the other room* I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU TWO TOLD YOUR BROTHER HE'S A RACCON AGAIN

Nerdanel: *at the same time from a different room*: did they tell Telyco we found him in a dumpster again!?!

Anyone else: the hands that cradled your face and tilted it upwards to kiss your forehead are soaked in unfathomable quantities of blood.

Elros and Elrond: But they cradled me, yes?

(Credits to @queen-of-hobgobblers )

Maglor: I only had Elrond and Elros for a moment but if anything happened to them I would kill everyone in this room (okaaay, not you, Nelyo) and then myself.

Maedhros:

Maedhros: We've already killed everyone in this room.

Thingol hating on Maedhros is so crazy hilarious to me because imagine beefing with your bestfriend's grandson

every day I think about how insane Tolkien was for having Aegnor, Fell Fire, Sharp-flame, the flame to Andreth's moth, die during the Battle of Sudden Flame