#textual ghosts

some rumil doodles in response to @whimsicallywiddershins who asked: Oh my god I love your art!!! I'm curious about Rumil. I've never really heard of him and I'm curious about what happened to his eyes....

thank you for the ask!!!! im real happy to hear you like my art, and even happier you took the time to ask about rumil! <333 it took me until your ask to realise that, despite him frequently appearing in group concept sketches n doodles, i've never really elaborated on him haha 😅 i tried to illustrate and summarise some of the key points in the art, but more detailed yap incoming under the cut!

Falmalótë Satariel (1283-1495) was wed to Lord Castamir in 1322 at the age of 39. Her birth name Falmalótë means "wave foam flower". His equal in zeal, she supported his usurping of the throne wholly and completely. Even after Castamir himself had been slain, she held the throne room of Osgiliath against Eldacar with her personal guard. After a siege lasting several days, her guard agreed amongst themselves to surrender to Eldacar and turn her over to him. Eldacar kept her imprisoned in the Queen's apartments for the rest of his reign. She was given the mocking regnal name "Satariel" which means "surrounded by loyal companions".

"But to Elros, who chose to be a king of Men, still a great span of years was allotted, many times that of the Men of Middle-earth; and all his line, the kings and lords of the royal house, had long life even according to the measure of the Númenóreans. But Elros lived five hundred years, and ruled the Númenóreans four hundred years and ten." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, "Akallabêth"

@halfelvenweek day 3 ⇢ heritage + númenoreans || THE LINE OF ELROS

[ID: four graphics in shades of brown and desaturated dark blue.

1: A large image of Cherokee Jack framed by a brown rectangle covers the left side of the graphic. He is an aniyunwiya model with light brown skin and long, straight, dark brown hair. He is shown in profile, facing left and looking slightly down. The right side of the graphic shows a diamond-shaped image of ocean surf and rocks, divided into four sections and framed in brown. Below that, white serif text reads "Elros, later called Tar-Minyatur, was the first and founding king of Númenor. Born of Elwing of the line of Lúthien and Eärendil the Blessed, he chose to be numbered among the Edain and led his people to the hallowed island of Elenna. Elros was long-lived, as were all of his House, and he ruled for many years in great splendour and wisdom. He was exceedingly devoted to his spouse Saelhenien and their children, as well as to his brother Elrond."

2: Same format as Image 1, but the sides are switched. The large image shows indian model Shonali Singh. She has brown skin and black hair tied back in a bun, and is looking to the side. The small image shows birds flying over the ocean, and the text below it reads "Saelhenien, a descendant of Bëor, was gentle and wise, though firm of will. As queen of Númenor, she took the name Tar-Maiwendë, but though Saelhenien occupied her role with grace, she knew herself to be at heart a man. Elros her husband encouraged Saelhenien to live as his true self, but Saelhenien feared civil unrest, and remained Tar-Maiwendë for the sake of practicality. To honor this sacrifice, Elros gave his spouse a new name in secret: Meldaro, he who is beloved."

3: The whole graphic is framed in brown, and contains two smaller rectangular images each with their own frame. The image on the right side shows Reef Titcomb, a young man with brown skin and dark curly hair, facing to the side with his eyes closed and head lifted. White text below the image reads "Vardamir Nólimon was the eldest child of Elros and Saelhenien, and first heir to the throne of Númenor. He preferred scholarship to politics, however, and largely deferred to his sister Tindómiel in matters of state." The second image shows Logan Alcosiba, a native hawaiian/filipino/mixed european model with freckled brown skin and straight dark hair. She is looking at the viewer intently, turned slightly to one side. Text below the image reads "While still young Tindómiel declared her affinity as a woman, to the great joy of her parents, especially Saelhenien. She proved an adept and clever diplomat, and helped to construct the earliest Númenorean courts of law." Between the two pictures is a small drawing of a white crown.

The good posts about sexism baked into Tolkien’s works have shaken a few old thoughts loose in my brain. I think it’s a little sad that we often assume the textual ghosts of canon wives have to exit the story. Maglor’s wife, Caranthir’s, Curufin’s, Orodreth’s—we don’t know who they are, but I rarely see fanfic where they explicitly survive their husbands in Beleriand. They die, or they vanish. For the Fëanorions, sometimes their wives are just written as staying behind in Valinor altogether.

And I think that’s a little sad because I think we’re sleeping on some excellent character potential here! Maybe I have weirdly specific tastes. But I’d like to read this story: a woman marries a prince in paradise, but heads East with a Kinslayer into the unknown. I want the tale of how they fall apart, whether it’s because the wife rejects the husband or the story rips them apart. And above all, I want the story of how the wife learns to live again in the peace after Beleriand sinks, and the story of what she makes of herself in the absence of a husband.

This blog celebrates both characters of Tolkien's world and our own characters that need more love, by creating and reblogging all kind of fanworks, like fanfiction, fanart, fanvideos, fancrafts, headcanons, playlists, edits, moodboards etc. NSFW text entries are allowed and we’ll tag them accordingly when we reblog them, but please put them behind a “read more”.

We're tracking the tag tolkienocweek!

The event is modded by @niphredilien, @elamarth-calmagol and @stormxpadme and will take place between 26th July - 1st August 2021 for the first time.

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The event schedule for 2021:

Day 1 (26th July): Shipping - create a piece of fanwork about an OC that you ship with a canon character.

Day 2 (27th July): Family members - create a piece of fanwork about a character who fills a gap left in a family tree (e.g., Legolas' mother, Maglor's spouse, Aragorn and Arwen's younger children).

Day 3 (28th July): Background characters - create a piece of fanwork about a character who is in the background of canon scenes and is either never mentioned or barely mentioned in the story (e.g., an extra from Laketown, a Teler defending their ships during the First Kinslaying, the Haradric man that Sam sees die) and show their view of the events.

Day 4 (29th July): Self insert/reader insert - create a piece of fanwork that includes yourself being in Middle Earth, or write a reader insert story.

Day 5 (30th July): Worldbuilding - create a piece of fanwork about a character who lives in a different place or time from the main canonical events (e.g., a character from Rhûn, a character who stays in Valinor after the Darkening, a character living in Gondor when the kings were still ruling etc.) and flesh out their world.

Day 6 (31th July): Forgotten characters - take a character who is neglected (e.g. Bob and Nob in Bree, Eärwen) or abandoned by Tolkien (e.g. Trotter the hobbit) and make them your own by creating a piece of fanwork about them. Or, completely redesign a canon character to make them yours (e.g., Gil-Galad becoming Fin-Galad).

Day 7 (1st August): Freeform - create a piece of fanwork about whatever resonates with you.

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Since we want to celebrate creations about neglected characters all year long, the mods will occasionally reblog posts and fancreations about OCs and underdeveloped characters. If you would like to see your post on our blog, you're very welcome to tag tolkienocweek. Since tumblr's tagging system is often being faulty, don't hesitate to message us, too!

Celebrating the launch of the new Art Section by the @silmarillionwritersguild​​!

Illustration for Lake Helevorn: A Summer Romance by Himring

@tolkienocweek Day 3- Gaps and Ghosts.

Hey guys, we're back with another one! Instead of artwork today, I've decided to go with poetry since the textual ghost I've decided to tackle is Maglor's wife/mystery spouse (imagined here as his husband, Ringwë or better known to fam and friends as Ringo. His name means “frost” so that’s where I got the idea from)

This is one of the first poems Mags ever wrote for him while they were courting and since an artist is their own worst critic, he thought it was super cheesy and horrible but Ringo adored it and kept it for the rest of his life.

Its become clear to me over the last couple of months that the Silmarillion and associated histories have a lot of nameless textual ghosts and a lot of unanswered questions, and not a lot of commonly used fanon to fill in answers; people do name them and answer them often enough, but it's often unclear whether individual fic authors feel proprietary about the names and backstories they use. Rather than making everyone come up with their own names, why not build a community collection of ideas people can use when they have to put in something but don't have strong feelings about what?

I know fanon is looked down upon, but I think at least fanon names (where, after all, there are not and will never be canon names) would be helpful.

--And if not all-out fanon, at least a pool of possibilities people can draw from without worrying they'll step on someone's toes.