Okay so maybe someday I will be able to draw backgrounds..
Maglor after throwing his silmaril into the sea
(also changed Maglors design (not that anyone would notice))
Help I’ve been trying to get through the silm for 3 years now and I’m still only like 30 pages into the Valaquenta how do I do this please my entire family is Tolkien nerds and I’m being upstaged and I love the story it’s just so hard to r e a d
Okay well your first mistake, and I’ll admit this is counterintuitive, is in trying to read the Valaquenta.
Don’t do that.
It’s a trap. (almost) everyone rebounds hard off that or the Ainulindalë. You can go back to it later, when you’re invested, but just. Skip to the Quenta Silmarillion, where the more narrative shit is.
I imagine, if you’re asking me, then you’re already reading fic, but if you’re not then using that to get yourself invested in particular arcs or characters is also helpful for getting through some of the drier bits. Memes and partisan erotica will make it all fly by.
Seriously though, don’t read the Valaquenta.
this is blatant Valar erasure im calling the cops
True facts tho I didn’t read the Silmarillion in order until, like, my seventh reading; in fact I may NEVER have done an honest to god cover-to-cover read. The actual chronology of events will become more relevant once you pick the characters and arcs you like best! And seconding Lion, getting to know the principle players through fanfic and art helps A TON.
That said, one of the things that helped me get through the tough spots in the Silmarillion for the first time was listening to the audio book! 🙂 It’s narrated by the estimable Martin Shaw, and you can listen/download it for free HERE.
Hearing it read aloud is a totally different experience from trying to slog through the text yourself; even the boring elfy history parts that I couldn’t focus on the first time around suddenly started making sense and being interesting when I was listening to it being read.
Daily sketch goal and we’re doing Denethor son of Ecthelion today because that was on my brain and my queue coughed out a meta I did on my personal so 😡
Indian Axe, 19th century, possibly Sind, with crescentic axe
blade, the lower portion encased in gilt-brass decorated with repoussé
with scrolling foliage and flowers, rear pean decorated with an
elephant and a mounted warrior on either side, its chiselled basal
cap incorporating a concealed dagger.
Elf Week: Rivendell,
or Imladris, was a haven of Elven bliss in the Misty Mountains on the eastern edge of Eriador.
redsixwing
replied to your post “I’m feeling v sick today ;v; ask me questions about Silm ships or…”
Moar chubby elf friend, please?
>w> throwing me a softball, eh? I like it!
– I have more headcanons for Salgant than I have any right to. He’s just one of those characters that you can like, take a leaf-clipping of canon, repot, and grow and entirely new character from in your head. Tolkien wrote exactly enough about Salgant for him to become my favorite NPC in the Silmarillion (which he does not actually appear in). I mean, our one canon-confirmed chubby elf? That is my absolute top priority, thank you.
–I can and will ship him with my other favs because no one on earth has the power to stop me from giving love interests to every fat character.
–Soft lads who are just a little bit craven but have a heart of gold, secretly more clever/resourceful than they look, and are generally disliked by their peers but have a surprising friend in the tall-dark-handsome Loner Boy are my weakness. (*cough*SamwellTarly*cough*)
–I can tell you with absolute certainty that Salgant is hot as hell and has The Best ass and everyone in Gondolin is fucking weak for not admitting it.
–The way he’s described in canon makes me think he handles money. Like, House of the Harp is definitely in charge of banking in Gondolin, and this makes everyone salty and the historians are petty. I want my boy to have a good head for numbers and finance and also pastries and literature.
–HE BABYSITS EÄRENDIL. HE IS BABY EAR’S NANNY. HE READS HIM BOOKS AND TELLS FUNNY STORIES. I’M SCREAMING. THIS IS A REAL THING.
–Maeglin was definitely his first kiss.
I’m feeling v sick today ;v; ask me questions about Silm ships or characters?
“Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a grey rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise.”
MisbehavingMaiar: Tumblr Archive 