The Silmarillion fandom is genuinely insane. Like, you hang out on tumblr, read fic on AO3 and you think, yeah. Lots of people have read the Silmarillion. It’s Tolkien. Everyone’s read Tolkien. Barnes and Noble has a whole bunch of the HoME and also a bunch of books by people writing about the legendarium. This is mainstream, surely.

But then you actually touch grass and talk to normal people. Not even that, you talk to people who self diagnose as hard core Tolkien fans. And. None of them have read the Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is famously a book that nobody reads.

And yet. On AO3 The Silmarillion and Other Histories of Middle Earth has more works than The Lord of the Rings. Think about that. That’s baffling. It’s ridiculous. Like I realize that LotR fandom is split a bit by the movie, but still. The Silmarillion has almost four times as many fics as the LotR movies. Everybody has watched the movies!

I need to know what percentage of people who actually read the Silmarillion went on to write fic or draw fanart about it. Because it must be insane, surely. Like, I’m pretty sure the Silmarillion wins some kind of record in this department.

Thinking about the fanfic bell curve where on one end you have “Perfect, needs no improvement or elaboration” (LotR sits here) and on the other you have “So bad it’s no fun to even think about” with the middle being the fanfic zone. But I think there may be a secret fourth Silmarillion option. Which is a book that is perfect* but simultaneously non existent. It’s not even a real story! The language is super pretty and deeply incomprehensible (especially to people who, unlike me, were not raised from early childhood on both the Bible and classic literature). And it’s more of an outline and an abstract painting of cultural and world building vibes (not cultural and world building facts and information) than an actual narrative. There are story hooks galore. There are vivid and fascinating characters, but their lives are glossed over and you only get one or two paragraphs of prose that will reorder your brain chemistry and haunt you forever. There are countless more characters who only exist as names, the implication of whose existence is fascinating. All of this is deeply frustrating, both to casual readers who just want a Normal Enjoyable Book, and super fans who want All the Lore. But it is catnip to anyone who engages in transformative work.

*I am aware that not anyone who is a fan of the silm thinks it’s perfect

there is a permanent aura of light and hope that surrounds círdan in the legendarium. he’s like an eternal flame (to me)

Maitimo ~

the silmarillion is wild because you read it and you're like huh okay, and then you read lotr and it turns out everyone's just going around doing their own thing while the surviving elves are living through the final chapters of a post-apocalyptic horror story

'elves are leaving middle-earth and it's so sad :(' they have ptsd samwise.

glorfindel of the golden flower is the only mf in this having any fun to speak of. died valiantly in battle, got sent back and now he's hanging out at elrond's house. he's just hanging out. like it's very important to know that while the fellowship is in tatters there's an absolute chad hanging out at elrond's house and the reason they didn't let him go along is the power of friendship is greater than the power of incredible violence

The Tale of Beren and Lúthien

Aaa! they are revolting!!

Mini Elros and Elrond (1) vs Maedhros (0)

Note: I started this comic on July…….of 2024!….UGH💀. It was in my drafts since lol. AND THEN I decided to redraw it like 2months ago and FINISHED IT ….and then forgot about it again…yeah…. BUT ITS DONE LOL a now I remember to post it FINALLY!! Hehe

Fëanor my friend @streetchicken drew for me!

Maglor. I made this art entirely on a tablet!!

Being an elfling in third-age middle earth must be so annoying. You mention that it's a little chilly out only for one of those first-age elves to pop up and say you think this is cold? back in my day we spent thirty years of torment crossing the Grinding Ice with naught but Varda's stars to provide light in the evil darkness. i lost 3 toes.

Or you mention that your arms are sore and a guy that is more scar than elf screams across the training ground that Maedhros The Tall was hung by his wrist from the peak of Thangorodrim for thirty long years and you never heard HIM complaining.

Eru Ilúvatar, the Father of All, is the supreme being of Eä and sole keeper of Airefëa (the Secret Fire or Flame Imperishable). The Ainur (besides Melkor) were subject to the will of Eru and participated in the creation of Arda through the Music of the Ainur. Eru, the All-Powerful, alone could bring independent life into existence using the Secret Fire, a power Melkor sought for himself.

This pin is an original heraldic device designed to represent Eru Ilúvatar. An element from each Valar heraldic device has been used to create this design. This was done as a way to convey how all the Valar and their power originate from Tolkien's omnipotent creator. In the center of Eru's device is a ring of fire, which is meant to represent the Secret Fire.

This is a limited edition version with unique coloring and glows in the dark. I'm so thrilled with how these turned out! Definitely one of my absolute favorites!

Link to Etsy page.

you are a god's best friend. the world is young still, and you are yet younger. he rides with you and hunts with you, and teaches you how to speak to birds and beasts. you are a god's student. you ride in his train and care for a hound that he gifted to you. gods have taught others before. gods have been kindly to others before. your god is your best friend. he gifts you something of his self, a hound of his own hunt.

you are your father's son. your grandfather is dead. no one has ever called you wise, and you are, above all else, your father's son. he swears a terrible oath. you swear a terrible oath. you don't know if you really mean it, but your mother named you well- you are hasty to rise, hasty to run into things. the hunt teaches you patience but you cannot outrun yourself. you are your father's son.

you are a god's best friend and you have sworn a terrible oath, but it is an oath that you hope that your friend can understand. to hunt the murderer of your grandfather, is something that the god of the hunt can understand.

you are your father's son. the blood of elves on your hands does not feel different than the blood of a deer, except in the tight feeling of your throat. except in the thunderous beating of your heart. you tell your brother, who is trying not to throw up, that you need to think of them like deer. he looks at you like he's never seen you before. you are forever doomed.

you are a god's best friend. he does not say goodbye, but your dog comes with you. surely you can fix this, then, surely you are still a god's friend.

you are your father's son. he dies. he dies but before he does, he tells you to burn the boats. you do. you are your father's son. your father dies and, he tells you to swear that oath once more. it is a terrible oath. you have sworn it once. you swore to your best friend once. surely it will not tip the scales to swear once more, if in your mind, you dedicate this hunt to him.

you were a god's best friend, and it is not enough. you are your father's son, and you speak your father's oath. it proceeds to eat you alive.

exultation in the dead of night

young Celegorm in the Woods of Oromë

Lúthien & Húan on their way to rescue some mortal guy

I was thinking about depictions of Sauron and how often in fanon, it seems he's closely associated with fire and he's depicted as this fiery being, complete with the flaming red hair and all. But I actually don't believe Sauron was originally a spirit of fire - imho he's a spirit of the earth, as his association with Aulë would imply. 

I'm sure everyone is aware of this, but the four major male Valar are also representatives of the four elements: Manwë is the air, Ulmo is the water, Melkor is the fire and Aulë is the earth*. True, Aulë is also a "smith deity", and smithcraft does have to do with fire, but fire is a tool to using metals and ores and minerals, "the bones of the earth", and bending and working them into new shapes. There's a reason Aulë's own people, the Dwarves, are so concerned with stone. It's also notable that Melkor, the prime being of fire, is not a smith. 

I don't think Sauron is ever closely related to fire in the legendarium, or at least I don't recall any such allusions (the imagery in the PJ films is another thing and probably where the idea of Sauron's link to fire comes from). It's always about smithcraft, sorcery and shapeshifting with him. One very obvious proof against him being a fire spirit is that those of the fire spirits that fell under Melkor's sway became Balrogs - a being Sauron emphatically is not. 

The clearest example of Sauron's association with earth comes, I think, in LOTR and the descriptions of Mordor as a nightmarish hellscape, a land so polluted that nothing short of the sea itself washing over it would bring healing. The way Tolkien goes on about the sheer horror of that landscape is not accidental, I believe. It's like Sauron's own corruption and twistedness is bleeding into the element that he began with, mutilating and withering it. He's regressed past his crafts, being a smith no more, maintaining only this weird twisted relationship with the element that was his in the beginning. At this point, he's no longer a sub-creator: rather, he's become just like Morgoth and is only able to mock and ruin, bleeding decay and waste into the very substance of the earth.

* Sidenote, in Ainulindalë, it's told how Manwë and Ulmo have been allied from the very beginning, and I wonder if the four were supposed to form working pairs? Maybe Melkor was meant to be a partner to Aulë, and that's why there's certain willfulness and imbalance in the works of Aulë, and among his followers. They're flawed without that uncorrupted Melkor element in a way many other things maybe aren't. It may also be why Melkor's greatest lieutenant came not from Manwë or Ulmo's people. 

I guess, some fire-relation he(or at least his eye) still has even in canon.

In the abyss there appeared a single Eye that slowly grew, until it filled nearly all the Mirror. So terrible was it that Frodo stood rooted, unable to cry out or to withdraw his gaze. The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing.

and

One moment only it stared out, but as from some great window immeasurably high there stabbed northward a flame of red, the flicker of a piercing Eye.

Also this things about the Ring

As Frodo did so, he now saw fine lines, finer than the finest pen-strokes, running along the ring, outside and inside: lines of fire that seemed to form the letters of a flowing script. They shone piercingly bright, and yet remote, as if out of a great depth.

and

I'm... naked in the dark. There's nothing. No veil between me and the wheel of fire! I can see him... with my waking eyes!

Also this quote about Tol-in-Gaurhoth from Lay of Leithian

An elven watchtower had it been,

and strong it was, and still was fair;

but now did grim with menace star

one way to pale Beleriand,

the other to that mournful land

beyond the valley's northern mouth.

Thence could be glimpsed the fields of drouth,

the dusty dunes, the desert wide;

and further far could be descried

the brooding cloud that hangs and lowers

on Thangorodrim's thunderous towers.

Now in that hill was the abode

of one most evil; and the road

that from Beleriand thither came

he watched with sleepless eyes of flame

Too much consistency for a simple metaphor.

But I would say he is fiery and earthly. I always thought of him as if spirit closely connected to gold as element for the reasons described in original posts.

soldier, poet, king

(thumbnail for a future video)

(art by me on procreate)

Fëanor and mini Curufin “reading” the morning newspaper. ✨📰 Excuse their hair and clothes, they just woke up …

When I found this photo I didn't have time to do this so I just saved the photo with the note. "This is very Curufin and Feanor coded, I have to draw it someday." Today's the day! Yeiiiii!

Baby✨