Penelopes-poppies - Lots Of Tolkien And Autism, No Actual Poppies

Kids 🤝 autistic people

Blunt honesty

ive realised there isnt a huge market for shakespeare shit posts

funny how Queen Elizabeth II is trying to make today all about her, when its LITERALLY my first day of school today🙄🙄

Metaphysical question - what do you suppose Tolkien meant to indicate by making the 'Flame Imperishable' so important in the early Valaquenta? It's supposed to technically be the thing that really drew Melkor off-course, is the stuff of souls, yet it winds up as this very mysterious, undefined force. Do you think it's the same light that filled the trees (and thus the Silmarils)? Tolkien loves his light, but I wonder how much these forces are connected in canon.

Oh my friend, you just ask the best questions. *evil cackle*

So, as for what the Flame Imperishable does, literally, that's pretty straightforward. (It's also sometimes called the Secret Fire, in case you wanted to search for that in an electronic version.) Eru uses it to kindle life in all beings from the Ainur to the Children, and without this force, that's impossible. Melkor goes searching for it and can't find it, and Aulë makes little dwarf puppets until Eru sparks them to life personally. Ye Olde classic subcreation examples, so on and so forth. Probably sounds familiar from our first thread ever!

I think that this theme of subcreation is really what Tolkien meant to hammer home with the Flame Imperishable, especially in the Ainulindalë. It's a force to give to living beings, not for them to control—and we never see it outside of this "life force" application. So, I don't really think that the Trees or the Silmarilli literally contained the Secret Fire, though I admit that would make a neat explanation for why Melkor was so obsessed with destroying the first and keeping the second.

But neither are we supposed to put the Flame Imperishable out of our minds when we think of these things. Remember how I mentioned searching for "secret fire" in an electronic copy? Well, I did! And the only time it's mentioned outside of the capitalized, proper force of Eru is in reference to... Fëanor.

...Fëanor grew swiftly, as if a secret fire were kindled within him. He was tall, and fair of face, and masterful, his eyes piercingly bright and his hair raven-dark; in the pursuit of all his purposes eager and steadfast... He became of all the Noldor, then or after, the most subtle in mind and the most skilled of hand.

And there's just too many connections here to dismiss, because when the man named Spirit of Fire grows to become a creator like there's a secret fire, the force of creation, inside of him? And he when makes three jewels with literal bits of his spirit, like a secret fire, inside? Isn't a coincidence. And notably, Tolkien says "as if," not "with," so this is still a simile—but it's a deliberate and telling one all the same.

kidnap dads pillow/blanket forts !!! 🥺

48. Pillow/Blanket Forts

Maedhros halted abruptly as soon as he crossed the threshold of the boys’ room. “What are you doing?”

Elrond and Elros froze guiltily. Elrond looked down at the ground, while Elros scrunched up his nose.

“Building a blanket fort?” he said.

A blanket fort? Maedhros blinked, re-examining the mass of pillows shoved beneath chairs, blankets draped over them, the cozy little cavern the twins had created for themselves. He’d done similar things as a child, he recalled, though there had been no concept of “forts” in Aman. It stung his heart to think that they had never known peace, had been born and raised in a land where even forts did not stand for long...

But this would would, this blanket fort within a fortress. Maedhros would defend Amon Ereb, so the children could defend their quilted creation.

“A fort should have defenses,” Maedhros said, crouching down to inspect it. “It should be strong enough to withstand enemy attack. I would know—I held Himring for centuries, and hold Amon Ereb even now.”

Elrond looked up, eyes wide. “Will you help us, Atya?” he blurted out. “So if Atar comes we can—defend it from him?”

Maedhros laughed, ruffling his son’s hair. “Of course,” he said. “First—let’s spread these chairs out, and find some poles and books to build with, so we can expand our fort and I can fit inside...”

~

“What are you doing?” Maglor asked, baffled, as his brother and their sons marched past him with arms full of blankets, books, and...stilts?

The twins scampered on ahead, completely oblivious, but Maedhros paused, a cheery sparkle in his eyes that Maglor hadn’t seen there since...before Fingon died.

“I’m instructing them in siege warfare,” he pronounced. “Keep out of their room for an hour or two, alright? You’ll be playing the enemy, eventually. Just like our drills back in the day!”

“Atya!” Elros called. “C’mon!”

Maedhros grinned—grinned!—and all but pranced away, more excited than Maglor could remember him being in a very long time. A little morbid that it was battle tactics that put such a spring in his step, but, well, that was Maedhros...and Maglor saw the truth. His brother was happy to feel useful, instructing the twins on something important, something he knew well, and able to spend time with his sons as well.

He shook his head with a smile, already turning over ideas of how to play the game along with them. If Maedhros had a hand—hah—in the fort they were building, it would take a little more than knocking over a chair to take it down...not that he’d really do that. He’d let the boys take him hostage.

After all, of the four of them that comprised this strange little family, he was the only one who’d never been kidnapped before!

anyway I do think Smeagol could have been redeemed/rehabilitated if the story had played out differently

You know those edits that are like "(fandom) + Greek words for love" usually being Eros, Ludus, Storge, Mania, Pragma, Philia and Agape?

Why oh why has no one done an edit that is like "Sons of Feanor + completely fucked up ideas about love"? I feel like this could be done

Dancing under the stars and calling clients while lightly bouncing on the trampoline are not mutually exclusive with adulthood.

Don't deprive yourself of joy because you think maturity is being serious and worried all the time.

“Long before, in the bliss of Valinor, before Melkor was unchained, or lies came between them, Fingon had been close in friendship with Maedhros.” 

Okay honestly I am fascinated by this line and I feel like it doesn’t get touched on much in fanon. The implication here (”lies came between them”) seems to be that whatever friendship Maedhros and Fingon had was already deteriorated to some degree by the time of the Flight of the Noldor, that they had begun to mistrust and be in opposition to each other which in a way, makes Maedhros’ apparent betrayal in Alqualonde/Losgar worse for Fingon–it may feel like the nail in the coffin to a friendship that was already on ice. It also makes it potentially more powerful for Maedhros that Fingon comes for him anyway, in spite of everything that had broken between them.

It also sets up a more awkward dynamic going forward in Beleriand. These are not necessarily two bosom friends reunited after a single misunderstanding. Clearly this relationship had issues before the Exile and while Fingon’s rescue of Maedhros was a grand gesture (although far from lacking in political considerations) recovering trust from someone you’ve lost it with is not easy, especially if they don’t yet realize the hand Melkor played in what went down in Aman.

It would also be fascinating to examine a more contentious and possibly even competitive dynamic between Fingon and Maedhros in Tirion, as their friendship goes downhill and they begin to mistrust each other as Melkor works the knife in between Feanor and Fingolfin. Which makes Fingon’s kingship in Beleriand even more interesting, particularly in light of the fact that by the Maedhros Rule (rule by the oldest/most experienced of the royal family), he could make a second bid for the crown, and Fingon has to be aware of that.

There just seems to be a lot of room for exploring a more complicated friendship between these two and how that affects them going forward.

You're telling me that I can't eat plain marinara sauce for lunch, even if it's my safe food? Who came up with that rule?