The Witchlands

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion💎

Assuming the context is this post of mine asking everyone what their favorite parts of the Legendarium that were discarded I’ve talked about all of these probably too much but I’m delighted to again anyways!

1. Morwen confronting Glaurung in the Book of Lost Tales, insulting him, and telling him bluntly to torture her and spare Niënor. It’s an act of profound courage and selflessness but it’s also so harrowing and kind of upsetting to me. Morwen clearly fears imprisonment and torture far more than death. This is the version where she asks Thingol for a knife with the intention of killing herself if the alternative is capture.

My Morwen in the shadow of Glaurung piece from a couple days ago had this on my mind again.

2. This line about Aerin’s motivation for exiling Túrin to find Morwen and Niënor “and Aerin suffered it not for the love of Morwen, hoping yet to join those twain mother and son in happiness” 🩵🩵🩵🩵 she deserved to join Morwen in happiness…(used the later names for ease but the quote does of course say Airin and Mavwin)

2.5 Not sure if I should count this as its own point but there’s so many great Aerin lines in BoLT. I love her almost sardonic dialogue and Christopher Tolkien’s description of her dealing justice with wisdom and vigor.

3. As seen above, Morwen asking Thingol for a knife. It’s really fascinating to see her character evolve throughout the course of the Lost Tales. In her first mentions, she’s not quite recognizable yet as the reserved, courageous and proud figure she is in the final version. But by a couple scenes in the end of Túrin’s chapter in BoLT2, you see glimpses. This is one notable one in my opinion. It’s very fitting with Morwen’s later character and it mirrors Húrin taking Manthor’s knife in The Wanderings. I’ve always said Morwen can be vicious if cornered and this is such a fascinating aspect of that.

4. Maedhros’s testimony of Finwë’s murder from Morgoth’s Ring. It’s a fantastic little horror piece and I’m always going back to it. The descriptions of the tense atmosphere before darkness fell, the horror of the Fëanorians trapped and forced to hear their grandfather’s murder! My horror tag is named from Maedhros’s iconic “blood and darkness!” cry!

5. The “horror of her life” line about Aerin. I think about it and the wording almost every day.

Lover, lover, joy of my life

I decided to count all the times Melkor and Mairon are described as smiling or laughing in canon, and oh boy… I knew they did it a lot, but I didn't expect it to happen that many times.

Of course, it's when they're either having the time of their lives while doing evil things or eagerly anticipating the fruits of their evil deeds <3

"Thus ere the Valar were aware, the peace of Valinor was poisoned. The Noldor began to murmur against them, and many became filled with pride, forgetting how much of what they had and knew came to them in gift from the Valar. Fiercest burned the new flame of desire for freedom and wider realms in the eager heart of Fëanor; and Melkor laughed in his secrecy, for to that mark his lies had been addressed, hating Fëanor above all, and lusting ever for the Silmarils."

"Therefore Melkor said to her: ‘Do as I bid; and if thou hunger still when all is done, then I will give thee whatsoever thy lust may demand. Yea, with both hands.’ Lightly he made this vow, as he ever did; and he laughed in his heart. Thus did the great thief set his lure for the lesser."

"But Melkor looked north, and saw afar the shining plain, and the silver domes of Valmar gleaming in the mingling of the lights of Telperion and Laurelin. Then Melkor laughed aloud, and leapt swiftly down the long western slopes; and Ungoliant was at his side, and her darkness covered them."

"Many of Fëanor’s people indeed repented of the burning at Losgar, and were filled with amazement at the valour that had brought the friends whom they had abandoned over the Ice of the North; and they would have welcomed them, but they dared not, for shame. Thus because of the curse that lay upon them the Noldor achieved nothing, while Morgoth hesitated, and the dread of light was new and strong upon the Orcs. But Morgoth arose from thought, and seeing the division of his foes he laughed."

"Then Sauron smiled, saying: ‘That is a small price for so great a treachery. So shall it surely be. Say on!’ Now Gorlim would have drawn back, but daunted by the eyes of Sauron he told at last all that he would know. Then Sauron laughed; and he mocked Gorlim, and revealed to him that he had seen only a phantom devised by wizardry to entrap him; for Eilinel was dead. ‘Nonetheless I will grant thy prayer,’ said Sauron; ‘and thou shalt go to Eilinel, and be set free of my service.’ Then he put him cruelly to death."

"Thu laughed: 'Patience! Not very long shall ye abide. But first a song I will sing to you, to ears intent.' Then his flaming eyes he on them bent, and darkness black fell round them all."

"But Lúthien heard his answering voice, and she sang then a song of greater power. The wolves howled, and the isle trembled. Sauron stood in the high tower, wrapped in his black thought; but he smiled hearing her voice, for he knew that it was the daughter of Melian. The fame of the beauty of Lúthien and the wonder of her song had long gone forth from Doriath; and he thought to make her captive and hand her over to the power of Morgoth, for his reward would be great."

"After endless wanderings in corridors they stumble into the pres- ence of Morgoth. Morgoth speaks. 'Who art thou that flittest about my halls as a bat, but art not a bat? Thou dost not belong here, nor wert thou summoned. Who has ever come here unsummoned? None!' "But I was summoned. I am Luthien daughter of Thingol.' Then Morgoth laughed, but he was moved with suspicion, and said that her accursed race would get no soft words or favour in Angband."

'Is it dauntless Hurin,' quoth Delu-Morgoth, 'stout steel-handed, who stands before me, a captive living as a coward might be? Knowest thou my name, or need'st be told what hope he has who is haled to Angband -- the bale most bitter, the Balrogs' torment?' 'I know and I hate. For that knowledge I fought thee by fear unfettered, nor fear I now,' said Thalion there, and a thane of Morgoth on the mouth smote him; but Morgoth smiled.

"Then Morgoth laughed, and he said: 'Death you may yet crave from me as a boon.' Then he took Hurin to the Haudh-en-Nirnaeth, and it was then new-built and the reek of death was upon it; and Morgoth set Hurin upon its top and bade him look west towards Hithlum, and think of his wife and his son and other kin."

"In Menegroth, and in the deep halls of Nargothrond, and even in the hidden realm of Gondolin, the fame of the deeds of the Two Captains was heard; and in Angband also they were known. Then Morgoth laughed, for now by the Dragon-helm was Húrin’s son revealed to him again; and ere long Amon Rûdh was ringed with spies."

"Yet there were ears that heard the words that Húrin spoke, and report of all came soon to the Dark Throne in the north; and Morgoth smiled, for he knew now clearly in what region Turgon dwelt, though because of the eagles no spy of his could yet come within sight of the land behind the Encircling Mountains. This was the first evil that the freedom of Húrin achieved."

"But Morgoth thought that his triumph was fulfilled, recking little of the sons of Fëanor, and of their oath, which had harmed him never and turned always to his mightiest aid; and in his black thought he laughed, regretting not the one Silmaril that he had lost, for by it as he deemed the last shred of the people of the Eldar should vanish from Middle-earth and trouble it no more."

"And Sauron, sitting in his black seat in the midst of the Temple, had laughed when he heard the trumpets of Ar-Pharazôn sounding for battle; and again he had laughed when he heard the thunder of the storm; and a third time, even as he laughed at his own thought, thinking what he would do now in the world, being rid of the Edain for ever, he was taken in the midst of his mirth, and his seat and his temple fell into the abyss."

Courtship -- Under the Autumn Trees of Doriath

"In a crowd of thousands, I'd find you again."

Inspired by a song from Anastasia the Musical

@celedrielweek 2026 Day 1, Courtship

I am not in the mood for writing RN unfortunately, but enjoy a short piece about Galadriel musing on her relationship {explicit content under the cut}:

Galadriel, Galadriel. Maiden crowned with a radiant garland. So beautiful a name, the name of a queen. More beautiful for sure than Nerwen or Artanis would ever be. Artanis: the name of the daughter of a prince, nothing more, nothing less. Nerwen: the name that in theory wanted to be a proof of her physical prowess, but too often sounded like mockery in the mouth of many a Noldorin lord. Celeborn had paid no heed to them both, and had found another for her, a name that talked not of what she was supposed to be, but of what she wanted to be.