[ID: Screenshot Of Tags Reading, "and The Fact That It Was Invented By A Hobbit Who Knocked The Head

So, I fell down a rabbit hole and learned two cool things in relation to the Irish language and Tolkien!

1) He seems to have tried and failed to learn Irish and thought it sounded awful XD

2) In one of his letters where he’s talking about the origin of the word nazg (Black Speech for ring), he says that he thinks it most likely came from nasc, which in modern Irish refers to a tie/bond/link and in older Irish seems to have also referred to ring-shaped jewellery (by which I mean bracelets, necklaces etc, not just finger rings). Technically, he does say that he didn’t do this consciously. He was looking up some stuff about Irish, came across the word and ‘re-learned’ it as such and thought “oop, that’s probably where that came from!” but I still think it’s cool.

Bonus! In that same letter, he describes the Irish language as “mushy” sounding and like, I get what he means? I don’t know why, but I find this description hilarious. He’s not wrong XD

Hiya ! For the art thing (if I'm not too late !) how about Sokka in 6 and 8? ^_^

not gona lie, this pained me a tiny bit to clour it because these colour are compleatly out of my comfort zone. liek so bright so nearly neon? but it was fun! look at this sleep cozy boy!

uhm... i had only 4 slots open so i am sorry for the one i couldn't do. maybe an other time! --- art - blog: @chiptrillino-art

[ID: Sokka from Avatar the Last Airbender, drawn from the chest up, curled up in a blanket. he is facing the viewer smiling with his eyes closed seeming sleepy. his arms are fisting the edge of a blanket he is wearing like a hood, resting on a table. on the left side on the border of the image above is a text saying "please don't repost" on the right side is a small yellow emoticon showing an expression and 6 circles filled with shades of yellow, orange and purple that are the reference for the drawing challenge. on the left side border of the image centre is the artist's signature "chiptrillino . 2022" End ID.]

You know which bit of The Fall of Gondolin made me go really, truly feral? After Tuor and Voronwë see Túrin, without knowing who it is (my heart), we get this:

The cries of the hunters grew fainter; for the Orcs thrust never deep into the wild lands at either hand, but swept rather down and up the road. They recked little of stray fugitives, but spies they feared and the scouts of armed foes; for Morgoth had set a guard on the highway, not to ensnare Tuor and Voronwë (of whom as yet he knew nothing) nor any coming from the West, but to watch for the Blacksword, lest he should escape and pursue the captives of Nargothrond, bringing help, it might be, out of Doriath.

Part of the reason that they manage to cross the Vale of Sirion (apart from the cloak of Ulmo) is that Morgoth is so concerned with keeping a watch out for Túrin that his scouts keep to the road, and aren’t bothered about pursuing two “stray fugitives” come out of the west into the wilds beyond. He is so preoccupied with Túrin that Tuor slips right through his fingers.

Without ever knowing it, Túrin helps Tuor to reach Gondolin, to deliver Ulmo’s message, to marry Idril and father Eärendil, putting in motion Morgoth’s own downfall. Cursed as he is, he is still able to play his own part in bringing that about, and all without ever knowing it. And that gets me right in the heart.

ATLA writers, let’s talk about steel ships and what can go wrong with them

So, I live on a steel boat. It’s pretty cushy for the most part because it has a permanent mooring on a canal (so no currents and no tides), but guys, there are things to consider when you write your Zuko’s crew fics.

In no particular order, bearing in mind that I am not an engineer:

Steel + water = rust; steel + salt water = super fast rust.

Boats like mine are traditionally lifted from the water or put in dry dock to be painted with bitumen every 2 years to prevent that.  And that’s with fresh water and only the occasonal bump against another boat to worry about.

Anywhere water pools on the deck can have a rust issue (we don’t see any drainage holes on that deck with its solid walls.  Let’s pretend they exist.)  Anywhere that can get hit with salt spray can have a rust issue

The deepest pitting (rust pockets) will be around the waterline, places that get both water and oxygen. If one of those gets deep enough it can actually rust through and you are in a world of hurt.

Coal smoke is acidic. That’s also not great for steel.

Chimneys are another place that rust through pretty quickly, which can put you in a world of hurt because smoke kills, and so does carbon monoxide.

The second deepest pitting  on a boat is generally found on the steel close to the chimney.

If water (rain or salt spray) can get in your chimney you’ve just accelerated that process.

Talking of coal fires…

Anywhere you’ve got a source of fire you’ve got problems if it isn’t well ventilated.  Where is the boiler room? Does it have windows? Does it have vents in the door? How do they control air flow to the coal (and hence the temperature of the resulting fire)?

Where you have coal you have ash. Leave ash sitting too long and it will choke your fire. Leave hot ash in a confined space and you have another carbon monoxide problem.

They’re probably having to chuck ash into the ocean like, every day.

Historically there have been chemical carbon monoxide detectors, which is one possible way you might stop your entire crew dying of a deadly undetectable gas – if Zuko has access to it.

Let’s also talk propulsion

The engine is typically the heaviest part of your boat or ship. It’s normally positioned closer to the stern, which as a result will sit lower in the water than the prow.

Fire nation ships use propellors, which we know because Hakoda’s stink & sinks targeted them.  Where the prop shaft exits the ship is another point where water can get in.  There’s a thing called a stern gland which prevents this by forcing grease into the  area where the prop shaft comes through the hull. This minimises the amount of water that can get in.

Minimum water is still not no water though! There will be a wall to contain water that gets in like this, and modern boats have a bilge pump next to the prop shaft to get rid of it.

This is another point particuarly at risk from rust! Break out the paint again.

If the bilge pump breaks and doesn’t get fixed you quickly have big problems (a neighbour actually sank because of this).

Dark paint + steel + sunlight = surfaces too hot to touch.

Also, interior temperatures that are way, way too hot for comfort.

However, the temperature drops rapidly below the waterline. I spend six months of the year wearing thick woolly socks and legwarmers and the other six months wanting to lie on the floor all the time. And I only have a 2 foot draft.

Cold water + hot boat interior = condensation, which represents guess what? – another rust risk!

Talking of bitumen paint? That stuff gives off fumes that stink and aren’t great for human health.

More to follow when I think of it and have time. I’d love to hear from actual ocean goers on this one because that’s the side of things I know absolute zip about.

I think one of Turgon's weakness and greatness is that he loves too deeply. He doesn't have many who he deems "close," but once he accepts someone inside his boundaries, they become "his people," someone who he carves a part of his mind for. And when he loses them, his grief is too great; so much that sometimes it will clouds his reasons. (This also applies for inanimate objects)

When Elenwe dies, Turgon forms a great hate towards the Feanorians (totally understandable) - his love for her hurts so much that he has to channel it into another emotion; and I think his hate was the answer. Likewise, when Aredhel was killed by Eol, Turgon executes Eol, ignoring Aredhel's last plea to show him mercy. Losing a loved one to Turgon leaves him... more violent, I should say.

And I think that Turgon's love and guilt towards Aredhel was passed on to her son Maeglin; it was the partial reason as to why in the later years Turgon came to favor his nephew's council more so than his daughter's. This needless to say did not work so well for Gondolin. (you should always listen to Idril) As for Gondolin, he loved it too greatly. He did not heed Ulmo's counsel till late. Thus his love for it drove its destruction.

Of course this is not 100% negative; if you love someone/something like that, they tend to be loyal back to you - so maybe that's why so many followed him to Gondolin; him, a secondborn son under an already existing great king. Think of Glorfindel and Ecthelion, all the mighty names and remember that they followed him into unknown lands for a secret city. And he was not High King then.

I try not to post about real life serious stuff, but there’s been a lot of… unfortunate essays written about how it is Zuko’s duty to help Azula because Iroh helped him.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but it is never your ‘duty’ to stick around and help someone through person through their mental illness. That is redoubled when they are abusive or put you in physical danger.

I think most people realize that cartoons do not equal real life and liberties can and SHOULD be taken for fiction, but this trope seems to be gaining traction so I gotta put it out there. When the cabin pressure drops and someone you love is going through a mental breakdown, make sure you put the oxygen mask over your own face first before you help them with theirs. If you know what I mean.

reblog and describe your favorite tolkien character in the tags

I read this little fact in my King Island book and i don't see it come up in any other source and it really makes some other aspects of the culture make sense so i wanted to share:

In Inupiaq cultural tradition, men would fast when they hunted. They would get up at dawn, test the weather by standing barefoot near the entrance of the house, and if hunting was an option, they'd have a little water and no food before heading out. A man wouldn't eat anything that day until he got home in the evening

What I find interesting about Boromir being the first of the fellowship to succumb to the ring is that it wasn't because he was evil or less pure of heart than the others, but because he didn't truly believe the ring was evil or that it answered only to Sauron, he thought he could use it make it answer to him. It was only after he tried to take it from Frodo that he realized he was wrong.

There’s some really disturbing stuff in The Nature of Middle-earth; I’m not sure whether these ideas were some of the ones Tolkien considered for how orcs were created, or if he saw them as something different, but he’s provided plenty of fodder for darkfic writers.

…it is recorded in the histories that Morgoth, and Sauron after him, would druve out the fëa by terror, and then feed the body and make it a beast…it [would become] an animal, seeking nothing more than food by which its corporeal life may be continued, and seeking it only after the manner of beasts, as it may find it by limbs and senses.

Jirt, that’s a zombie. It’s dead, non-sapient, still moving around, and only driven by looking for food. And typically created by an evil power through evil means. You invented Middle-earth zombies.

And worse, [Morgoth or Sauron] would daunt the fëa within the body and reduce it to a stupor of horror, so that it was impotent; and then nourish the body foully, so that it became bestial, to the horror and torment of the fëa.

This does seem like a mechanism for the creation of orcs. Morgoth takes an elf, overpowers the fëa so that it is no longer in control of the body, and then, well, the implication is that he feeds the body the flesh of elves or men to further torment the fëa. In the short term, the hröa is basically a beast under Morgoth’s control; over time, the fëa might become more active, but horrified, sickened, and twisted by the nature of the hröa and the purposes for which it has been used. It is evil because, outside of its control, it has done and been used for horrific things that it can’t process without becoming evil.

Brr.