💛 nolofinwean familial relationships
thank you nonnie for such an intriguing ask! unusual headcanons for the nolofinwëans, in no particular order:
aredhel is as capable an architect and engineer and city-builder as turgon, and was involved in raising up gondolin from the beginning, back when it was only something they plotted about in privacy.
she goes not need any divine vision to know a secret city is the right option. her acts of political defiance regarding orders from barad eithel are ongoing, determined and very deliberate.
idril's silver legs rust, in sirion. the salt and the damp get to them. her movements grows more stilted, mechanical. wooden floors and ship decks bends when she walks on it. tuor cleans them very carefully every night, but they do rust at a quickening pace.
fingon and argon got along better than any other sibling combination in the family.
turgon wears mourning clothes and keeps mourning rituals for elenwe all his life.
nolofinwë seriously considered getting remarried during his kingship. letters of diplomatic inquiry were drafted, but never sent, regarding thingol's only daughter.
small brown birds kept alighting in his windowsill as he wrote. windows broke; mirrors shattered; winds rose, whipping long, thin boughs against the thick walls of his fortress. they left deep cracks, and sap-red scars on the high walls. he took the hint, but never lost the suspicion that this alliance alone might have saved his people.
fingon prays to manwë a great deal during the crossing of the helcaraxë. not for mercy, as such, or guidance. it's testimonial, in a sense. an on-going conversation in confessions. he is by far the most spiritually minded in the family.
his belief in estel is based on dogma, his own theological studies, trust and the certainty that a little of the marred world will be saved, to some degree. his great battle is a prayer, in its way, as well as a dare: he believes in victory wholeheartedly, because he must, but he also knows victory against morgoth will happen, be it his or not.
the only thing he can do, the only good and great thing, is to attempt it while he has the power to do it, and leave the rest to the gods. he is very humble, and very at peace with the possibility of getting his people killed in what might be a failure.
turgon does not pray. he dies in gondolin to stay far from the sea, and nearness to the authority of the valar.
fingolfin's last word - his choked-out war-cry - was his father's name.
