#silmarilion

Lúthien and Huan in front of Tol-in-Gaurhoth.

Maedhros

Maglor

Celegorm

Caranthir

Curufin

Amrod and Amras

+

The Sun and the Clear Pebbles of the Rain

by @whenstarsignite and glitterlessgold490

Chapter 10: The Tune Without The Words

Pairing: Glorfindel/Ecthelion

Rating: E (but not this chapter) (next chapter tho) (who said that?)

“You will not die,” Glorfindel whispers. He traces Ecthelion’s jaw with his fingertip. “You will not.” Fear is not becoming of a Lord of Gondolin, he reminds himself. Ecthelion is strong and capable. He will wake up, and recover, and be stronger than ever before. If Glorfindel tells himself this enough times, he will start to believe it. “My lord,” Ecthelion’s face crumples into a frown and he twists his head back and forth on the pillow, lost in some dream where Glorfindel cannot find him and help him. An echo, of only a few nights ago, rings through Glorfindel’s mind: You cannot even call me Laurë in your dreams?

I wrote this article for my monthly Tolkien fandom studies column, Cultus Dispatches as part of the OTW's "ten things about fandom" challenge for International Fanworks Day. Normally, my Cultus column begins with a gnarly soup of data, and I often don't even know what (if anything!) will come out of analyzing it. This month, due to the relative lack of data, I thought I was giving myself an easy month of writing. I just needed to come up with ten things, right?? Ha! I think this might be the most challenging article I've written for this column to date.

Here are some fun facts I learned while researching these 10 Important Moments in Tolkien Fanfic History:

Tolkien fanfic is older than Star Trek fanfic.

The first known Tolkien fanfic was an alternate-history Sauron redemption fic.

The first Tolkien fanfic archive was a slash archive.

Three out of four archives opened after the LotR films left theaters used the eFiction open-source script.

The first Angbang story was posted in 2002 (though it wasn't called Angbang yet).

Want to know more? Go read the article! And I'd love to hear what I didn't include that you'd add to your own list. (Or if you make your own list, let me know!)

Answering this for Melkor

❤️‍🔥 Incredibly angry

Melkor's rage has to be earned, believe it or not. From his point of view it was Eru who earned his ire. That was his breaking point, tipping him towards destructive, vengeful behavior that became everyone's problem. But Melkor is not controlled by his rage. And it takes either a lot of work and dedication, and/or a lot of pain to make Melkor loose himself in rage. In the Angband era it was mostly a mixture of both that fueled his rage and malice towards everyone who was not in his camp. Yet when his rage subsided, his most dangerous trait comes to the forefront: Cunning and an excellent memory.

A good example is his treatment of Hurin after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad: Offering him that prime seat on Thangorodrim after the puny human king mocked him was more of an excuse to visit a lot of pain and anguish upon his lineage as an example, than a result of a tantrum. Heck, he even got a seat and did not have to dangle from one wrist like Maedhros had to. Also, that seat was prepared for something Melkor (and very probably Mairon) had cooked up before the battle.

🤎 Alone with nothing they have to do

Ever since the days of Utumo Melkor, enjoyed some alone-time wandering around the depth of his underground fortresses. There were some parts even Mairon would even have to search a little longer before spotting him.

I also picture Melkor to have been one of the first or even the first to know of the nameless things deep down below in the darkness. He even conversed with a few and found exchanging thoughts with them to be fascinating and calming. Some of the nameless things were older than most beings on Arda, and some had come from beyond the void to settle in darkness, unmarred by even the hand of Eru himself. This knowledge was sacred to Melkor, and a source of great solace to him and his yearning for creation beyond his father's reach.