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Things that are really fucking me up today

Just how close in age Elrond and Elwing are, by the Elf standards. It must be so strange when they finally meet, to look at each other and realize the difference between them is only a little over thirty years.

Like, in comparison Finwe was a thousand years older than Finfarin, and Elrond was already roughly 4000 years old when he had Arwen.

So idk it just must have been so strange for them. A mere thirty years is such a wildly negligible amount of time. They’re basically peers when they first meet.

a librarian’s hoard

[ID: Digital illustration of a red dragon surrounded by their colorful hoard of books. A worn, blue scarf wraps around their neck, and a pair of gold glasses sits on their snout, held in place by a gold chain. The dragon’s lair resembles a huge, airy library with multiple levels of bookcases, tall mountains of books, and floor-to-ceiling windows revealing open sky. Decorative gold chains drape across the space. The dragon smiles as it holds a small book in its mouth, stretching to offer it to a distant human standing atop a book tower. End ID.]

By the way! BBC Merlin, in its ongoing quest to achieve ren faire levels of historical accuracy, used Actual Old English as the magic spell language. They got a professor to do a lot of the translations, though they didn't spend much effort on the pronunciation.

There are two ways that this is very funny if you watch the show while knowing OE. One is that usually when they do the "wave your hands to smash your enemies around" type spells they're literally saying very simple stuff like "jump back" and "fall." The other is that whenever they have a long incantation to read, they say vaguely related stuff for a sentence or so and then just transition into reciting Beowulf.

[ID of final image: screen cap of a nun with the subtitles "Please, please, do not come crying to me."

End ID.]

If you allow me to add to your Celebrimbor post... I think something that gets underestimate in just how effective Annatar was as a disguise is the fact that in any other occasion in which we see Sauron being his manipulative lying bastard self, he is up against people who EXPECT him to be just that. Clear example is in Numenor, where he has to start from the position of "dangerous captive enemy". But as Annatar, he starts as a blank slate, only thing going against him is a general mistrust in Demigods Walking Out Of The Woods. So I imagine him just starting by being nice, and observing, and then morphing his all mask in the perfect tool to manipulate Celebrimbor. This isn't a question of being stupid, it's a very experienced manipulator making himself into the perfect disguise (probably even including enough defects not to be TOO perfect). Incidentally, i also headcanon this as the reason why everybody else (Gil-Galad, galadriel...) mistrust him immediately: the disguise is tailor made to bypass all the defences of one specific person, cannot be one size fits all. So, yeah, our Feanorian boy is everything but stupid for not managing to see what is going on, and it's actually impressive he eventually manages to catch up with enough to decide to make the three in secret...

You are totally welcome to add anon!! 

ajfsjfd anon I just love this SO much, I don’t know where to start. Especially the part about Galadriel and Gil-Galad because I think you are so right. Annatar doesn’t need to fool them in the way he has to fool Celebrimbor. They can be suspicious, it won’t ruin his plan. 

And I completely agree. I love that you bring up Númenor because it is an excellent example of Mairon being Mairon since that is who he is supposed to be as you said. 

Anon everything you said here, I agree with so much. Especially the part about Annatar’s beginnings. He has to gain Celebrimbor’s trust so of course he’s going to be tailor-made to be someone who can be friends with Celebrimbor. I also don’t believe there is an exact date for this (please correct me if there is) but I can’t help but wonder if Celebrimbor had recently (recently for an elf) lost Narvi. I see them as being incredibly good friends and I think it would seriously hurt him, leaving him in a state of vulnerability. Annatar fills that void. Not completely, he’s not Narvi, but it’s something that soothes the rough edges and makes him feel less empty inside. 

But yes, Annatar is honestly a tribute to Mairon’s genius. It’s his greatest scheme. However, Celebrimbor, like you said, was still too smart for him in the end. Or smart enough. Either way, Annatar isn’t able to get what he wants and Celebrimbor has one small victory in the end. 

I just love the way you summarize all of this since I think it hits the nail on the head for all of this. Thank you so much for sharing!

Celebrimbor: So here are my designs for the gates.

Narvi: Darling, I asked for a riddle, not a dumb pun; you can’t put the password directly on the doors, that’s not safe!

Much later

Gandalf: *Spends hours trying to find the password to the Gates of Moria*

Celebrimbor: *Watching from the Halls of Mandos* VINDICATION!!!

Word Count: 1781 words

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Fandoms: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth

Characters: Elrond Peredhel, Elros Tar-Minyatur, Maglor | Makalaure, Maedhros | Maitimo

Additional Tags: One-Shot Collection, Non-Linear Narrative, Elrond-centric, Maglor-centric, Character Study, Family Feels, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Everyone Needs a Hug, let Elrond not lose anyone 2k20

Summary: Scenes of the kidnap family through Elrond and Elros’ childhood, featuring difficult questions, buried feelings, and the fragile hope of a happy ending.

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Just thinking about the absolute gut-punch that Elrond and Elros must represent to Maedhros.

The text is pretty clear that they take after Elwing’s line in looks, not Eärendil’s. There’s not another dark-haired, grey-eyed ancestor in the twins’ paternal line since Turgon. But Turgon also looks like his brother Fingon, and I think Maedhros would have seen that resemblance easily.

And what’s more, Elrond fully grown is supposed to look like his daughter, who looks like Lúthien. The first of many generations of her descendants who the sons of Fëanor destroyed. Dior, Eluréd, Elurín, Nimloth, Elwing.

And, of course, we cannot forget they are twins.

I can’t imagine what it must be like for Maedhros, seeing that. A neat summary of his sins; reminders of his most badly wronged victims all bundled up into one. And there isn’t a damn thing about it that he doesn’t see as his fault.

You know the ambiguously timed event that Tolkien describes as "Elrond sends for Arwen, and she returns to Imladris; the Mountains and all lands eastward are becoming dangerous"? I was thinking about it, and here's a half-baked Arwen headcanon:

Arwen immediately correctly assumes if her father, who never became controlling even after what happened to Celebrian, is telling her what to do, he's got a legitimate reason to be afraid and it would be wise to listen.

(Bonus points if he sends the twins to fetch her and the three of them spend the trip back home discussing the situation because "Get your sister away from incoming danger" is not something Elladan and Elrohir have ever heard before)

Arwen hasn't spent all these long visits to her grandmother doing nothing. She's been learning to be an elf queen, thank you very much. Who did Galadriel learn to be a queen from? Melian. Arwen's education is probably the best a queen can get by the Third Age tbh

Arwen doesn't make any dramatic announcements or anything, but she quietly decides she is the Lady of Imladris now that Celebrian is West, and she is going to make sure Rivendell remains the last refuge in the world if the worst comes to pass, like Galadriel does and like Melian once did

Elrond can proceed to spend the rest of the war focusing on ensuring Rivendell is protected and doing the thing canon seems to imply he does, which is to try and guess ahead of time what will be needed and provide that - the day to day matters which were his responsibility during peacetime are all seamlessly claimed by Arwen

By the time she marries, Arwen has effectively been running Rivendell for like 3 years (or 10 depending on which timeline you favor), so she technically has more experience with ruling than Aragorn does? She's just objectively a skilled queen, what can I tell you