#mini posts

Gender of the Reader: female

Status: unedited

I have no clue why or how I started thinking about it but I really think I am going to cry when C. Tolkien passes away. Hearing of his resignation from the Tolkien Estate was like the first time I read the ending of LotR (so frickin sad and heartbreaking but still such a beautiful and respect-inspiring thing), but I know the time’s coming when he’ll be on his own ship into the West and just...ugh.

I am so excited for the book on Gondolin he’s releasing later this year, but then I realized that this might possibly be his actual last book ever (he did say the Beren&Luthien one would be his last). I mean, he’s turning 94 in November. Just thinking about that and his resignation made it hit me just how much he has gifted us.

I mean, he didn’t have to do this. He didn’t have to do any of this. I really do hope he’s somehow aware of how much we absolutely cherish his father’s work, of how much we indescribably appreciate all the work he himself has done to expand on it and provide us what his dad couldn’t before he passed away. This story, this whole legendarium...it had such a profound impact on my life that I can’t imagine a life having not read it, not having dived into it and loving it so damn much.

I wasn’t alive when JRR Tolkien died. And it just feels like with C. Tolkien, the last page of the book will be turned, and closed, a book of an absolute masterpiece that’s been open and explored for decades, all thanks to him.

I REALLY want to talk about that thing the fandom’s done, how Fingon’s rescue of Maedhros sparked that saying. It’s a long-established fanon by now in the fandom so you know everything about what I’m talking about. The joke’s been a source of much humor and I absolutely love it when it comes across my dash. 

But I was thinking about it today and the thing that makes it so great to me is that there’s really nothing to counter it. Nothing to counter the possibility of that being an actual thing, whether something couples might joke with or even a serious thing (I can totally see people asking each other in all seriousness after the rescue “would you do it?”).

And the reason I love it so much is because it transcends whether you ship them or not. You don’t have to ship them for this crack to be a legitimate possibility. The canonical action alone Fingon took became legendary. Valar, their whole friendship became legendary and I can’t see it not becoming rooted in legend the way that kind of stuff typically does.  

And one thing I really love to imagine is that eventually among Men, a lot of humans don’t even know where the saying comes from anymore. It’s just an expression that’s been used forever. Some learnt in lore may say “it came from the story of Beren and Luthien aww how sweet” and Elves are just all haha no. Keep studying kid.