hello ! for all you tolkien meta/commentary nerds, i have been reading an amazing book by Sebastien Fontenelle called originally “Tolkien contre les machines”. i’ve been reading it in italian, and here it is called “Tolkien Contro le Macchine: Antifascismo ed ecologia nella Terra di Mezzo” (english: Tolkien Against Machines: Antifacism and ecology in Middle-earth). i’m not sure if there has been an english or any other translation yet and i unfortunately haven’t been able to find one, but the book is extremely recent and pertinent (it was published in late 2025 i believe). if you can read french or italian i’d recommend it. it talks about how the far right has co-opted tolkiens works and messaging, all the way from the nazi party attempting to use the hobbit in the 1940s to peter thiel calling his business ventures things like palantir, valar, mithril, rivendell, arda, etc. and people like JD vance claiming that tolkien inspired their politics. i think its important to reclaim this literature for its true anti-war and environmental messaging and not allow it to be stolen by far-right maniacs. it’s super interesting and it’s a lot to explain in a tumblr post but once i finish it i might write something about it. as the banner that was on the book when i bought it proclaims: “Giu le mani da Tolkien! (hands off Tolkien!)”
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Written for day 3 - Son of Denethor/Paternal Family/Thorongil
Cross-posted on Ao3 here; Check out other amazing works at @boromir-week!
Characters: Boromir, Aragorn
Content Warnings: None
Summary: While the Fellowship rests in Lothlorien, Boromir finds a gem that turns him into a child and erases his memories.
First part here; link to masterlist here
Chapter 2
Boromir is woken up by being lifted in the air, which was weird because the all the staff were specifically instructed not to. He opens his eyes to see two elf men looking at him, which is especially weird because Boromir doesn't recognize them or the forest they're in.
“You’re awake,” one says, holding him close.
“What is your name?” The other demands.
Boromir screams in fear and rage, thrashing wildly.
The flailing works. Boromir manages to bite the elf who is holding him before he is tossed to the other elf. Boromir thrashes even more, clawing and kicking and screaming himself hoarse, ignoring the questioning of the elves until a familiar voice pierces through the din.
“Let him go!”
Boromir is quickly tossed to the new person -- Thorongil -- who catches Boromir and holds him close.
Everything becomes fuzzy as Boromir relaxes into the warmth of his ada. There's shouting from the elves and quiet yet harsh words from Thorongil, but it all fades away as Thorongil wraps Boromir in his cloak and spirits them both away into the forest.
Thorongil stops walking when they reach a hill in the middle of a small grove, sitting down on the top of the hill and unwraps his cloak to reveal Boromir. The midday sun shines through the leaves, dappling the emerald grass in soothing patterns, and the breeze ruffles their hair with softness of love carried through the years.
Boromir looks up at Thorongil, pushes aside the anger and confusion bubbling up inside him, and decides that father wouldn't punish him for being rude to Thorongil. With the most innocent look he can muster, he asks "What happened to you? You look as old as grandfather before he died."
The look of exasperation Thorongil gives him is completely worth briefly inhaling the elf's blood while laughing.
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Sometimes I stray so far into the "I'm surrounded by freaks" nature of Boromir's experience among the cryptid Fellowship that I forget he was confronted by an ACTUAL NAZGUL in the defense of Osgiliath.
This event focuses on ALL creative works focusing on disability in Tolkien's universe.
You can do worldbuilding, fan fic, fan art, share a favorite character, your favorite headcanons, write a song, poem, show us your LOTRO Oc!ANYTHING providing-
Absolutely NO USE OF AI IN ANY PART OF THE PROCESS
Ableism and violence against Disabled character should be done with nuance and plot in mind. Remember this is a pride event we are more than willing to have dead dove- provided it is done justly and tactfully.
Tag all your works appropriately and place under a read more.
Tag: "tolkien disability pride" AND "obscuredurins" to get your work featured.
We have an AO3 collection!
This is a spoonie friendly event!We accept past works, WIPS, and encourage this as our time to display PRIDE in our community.
I think it’s important to recognize that Baelor is a politician just as much as he is a good person. I see a lot of people painting him as this honorable chivalrous paragon of goodness and while he certainly is good and does good for unselfish reason, he is still someone who is working within a corrupt system. Bertie even recognizes this and plays Baelor as someone who is sort of playing a character for the people around him, even if much of that character is true to himself.
Baelor is good but he’s not good like Dunk is good, and I don’t mean that as a criticism of him, but Baelor would never be able to be good the way Dunk is because of the station he was born to. Baelor has to know how to cater and mold the people around him, he has to know how to lead and inspire. He can’t just be good, he has to appear great.
What I am trying to get at is that Baelor is complex and he is not all good, and I feel like some people are doing him a disservice by trying to paint him as such. He’s more interesting when he’s a little self serving and underhanded.
That’s actually a really important point people miss when they talk about Baelor Breakspear. The fact that he’s a noble in a feudal system means he’s always operating with competing interests and privileges. Yes, he’s one of the genuinely decent people in that world. He’s honorable and clearly cares about justice more than most nobles around him. But people sometimes jump from “good person” to “he would magically fix the system.” And those are two completely different things.
Baelor is still a noble prince of a feudal monarchy. He’s wealthy and part of the same aristocratic structure that governs Westeros. Even if he personally believes in fairness and restraint, he’s still a prince in a medieval kingdom built on hereditary tyranny.
People think that if he’d become a king he’d make Westeros into California 2026… it’s true a good king can make the system less cruel fewer arbitrary punishments, more mercy, maybe better mediation between lords but he can’t turn Westeros into a modern egalitarian society overnight. The entire framework of the realm is based on hereditary rule, noble land ownership, smallfolk with no political voice and power concentrated in aristocratic families. Baelor could soften that reality, but he can’t remove it without fundamentally destroying the system he himself belongs to.
And GRRM actually writes a lot of characters like this on purpose. They’re morally good individuals trapped inside flawed institutions. Their goodness matters, but it doesn’t magically transform the world around them.
So seeing Baelor as honorable and admirable is fair. But imagining that his reign would suddenly turn Westeros into some kind of modern, just society misses how deeply feudal power structures shape the story. In that world, even the best rulers are still rulers of a system that was never designed to be fair in the first place. Baelor can be flawed because being a noble comes with flaws that even the most honorable person can’t fully overcome.
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The Lord of the Rings takes place in a world that’s analogous to Medieval England, and yet there’s New World crops like potatoes and tobacco. That’s not actually a plot hole: Tolkien himself explains, in the prologue to Fellowship, that pipeweed has been brought from overseas by Numenorians, it follows that hobbits came by potatoes the same way.
But the Hobbit and the early chapters of Fellowship contain much more jarring and numerous anachronisms than post-Columbian-exchange plants. There are metaphors referring to gunpowder, guns, a train engine and express trains! There are commodities that are from the Old World, but were not widespread in Medieval Europe, such as coffee, tea and fireworks. Even silk might be a bit of a stretch. And then there are tons of things that could or technically did exist in a medieval world, but we definitely associate them with later eras: top hats, public museums, clocks small enough to put on a mantelpiece, football, golf, mothballs, umbrellas, metal pens, water bottles instead of waterskins, Christmas crackers, and then there’s the entire question of the hobbits’ written culture. Paper appears widely available and cheap, not everyone is literate but there seems to be a large literate middle-class that owns multiple books, has long legal battles with paperwork involved, sends tons of letters, sends written party invitations, uses anachronistic pre-cut envelopes. Letters aren't carried by random servants, there's an official postal service and a post office: this all implies a level of literacy and written culture more typical of an Early Modern-ish setting. Or Regency? Or Victorian? But definitely super not Medieval.
Conclusion one: when Tolkien started writing The Hobbit he very much did not know where he would end up, which is thematically appropriate.
Conclusion two: Tolkien semi-intentionally wrote the Shire as low-tech but still very recognisably similar to modern England, so that the hobbits leaving its safety to enter an Actual Fantasy World would feel more relatable. (LOTR is a portal fantasy.)
Conclusion three: these are not the aspects of worldbuilding that actually matter, it is actually good that Tolkien is obsessed with mythology and linguistics and only sketches the rest of the worldbuilding out as far as it's necessary for the plot, no need to sweat the small stuff. You should only write about agriculture and taxation if you care about them as much as Tolkien cared about unhinged comparative linguistics.
Conclusion four: in a Watsonian sense, we can take on the conceit that Tolkien didn't write the books, only translated them from a real source, the Red Book of Westmarch. We may then proceed to blame any perceived inconsistencies on his translation.
i’m so sorry elrond i love you and it is not your fault that your sons were left out of the film adaptation and that your daughter made a narrative consuming choice but i just made this a few hours ago and i have been giggling about it ever since
This is an event that will be running from the 27th of April to the 3rd of May, in honour of Aragorn being coronated on the 1st. (Apologies for the first post being so soon to the actual event, everyone.) Bring absolutely anything (fics, gifs, meta, etc) to this event - as long as it's related in some way to Gondor, or Gondor's many characters.
Here's the basic rules.
Prompts:
The Line of Kings, Minas Tirith, "It has come to me, the One Ring. It shall be an heirloom of my people."
The Line of Stewards, Artifacts, "fealty with love, valour with honour, oathbreaking with vengeance"
The Rangers of Ithilien, Nature, "By the blood of our people are your lands kept safe!"
Osgiliath, Grief and Conflict, "I love only that which they defend."
Dol Amroth, Cultural Differences, "the great stone city, vaster and more splendid than anything he had dreamed of"
Minor characters, Tradition, "But there are no travellers in this land: only the servants of the Dark Tower, or of the White."
Fourth Age, Gondor's past, "I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom."
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Day 1 - Races┃Ainur & Elves & Orcs & Men & Dwarves & Hobbits
Day 2 - Cultures┃Different groups in Races
Day 3 - Classes & Professions┃Working class & Upper class & Uniforms
Day 4 - Seasons & Weather & Climate┃What is worn in different seasons and weather & What effect does climate and flora have
Day 5 - Casual┃Under clothes & Layering & Daily life & Children and adults
Day 6 - Formal┃Holidays & Celebration & Rituals
Day 7 - Import & Export┃What materials are imported and what is exported
Day 8 - Differences & Meetings┃Interactions & Trade
Day 9 - Off the Map┃Lands not named & Immigration/Migration & Nomads
Day 10 - Across the Ages┃Years of the Lamps & Years of the Trees & First Age of the Sun
Day 11 - Across the Ages┃Second Age & Third Age & Fourth Age
Day 12 - Hair & Makeup┃Hairstyles & Makeup trends
Day 13 - Fiber & Jewelry & Material┃How is it made & Who makes it & What is it made out off
Day 14 - AU┃AU designs
RUNNING FROM THE 16TH TO THE 29TH MARCH
Master Post
GUIDE & EXAMPLES:
Day 1 (16th) - Races include all humanoids, such as Skin-changers, Peredhels, and Goblins.
Day 2 (17th) - Cultures are about how different groups from the same race can have different clothing and jewelry depending on where they live:
Day 3 (18th) - Classes & Professions is about how fashion looks in one group depending on one's social standing, a noble or a commoner - what material is different and what is useful, and how some professions' clothing looks. What is practical? Is there a uniform
Day 4 (19th) - Seasons & Weather & Climate are centered around showing how the weather changes the clothes.
Day 5-6 (20-21st) - Casual / Formal are to show what is worn daily, what is worn on special occasions, and how they differ.
Day 7-8 (22-23rd) - Import & Export / Differences & Meetings is to show what materials are imported and exported with trades, or as gifts, and the differences between different groups and how they borrow from each other, and form alliances.
Day 9 (24th) - Off the Map is about lands outside the drawn maps. Those who immigrated or migrated, like the Eldar and Edain, e.g., the Eldar who moved to Valinor or back to Beleriand, the Númenóreans, the dwarves in Rohan. Those who move constantly or rarely.
Day 10-11 (25-26th) - Across the Ages is meant to show the influence of time in fashion, and how, when different groups mingle or split, their clothes and jewelry change too.
Day 12 (27th) - Hair & Makeup is to show the makeup worn by different people, groups, social standings, gender, professions, etc., and the fashion trends around hair - loose, braided, covered, etc..
Day 13 (28th) - Fiber & Jewelry & Material is to make clear what is used when making clothes and jewelry, and how the materials used for them are obtained.
Material┃Plants┃Stones┃Metal┃Embroidery┃Animals, used in clothes, bought, sold, kept
Day 14 (29th) - AU, how would it look if sercomtastions had been different? If it were in the modern world? Etc..
