dmmono – MisbehavingMaiar: Tumblr Archive

Hello! If I remember correctly after Melkor was released from his imprisonment he was allowed to reside in Valinor under the ‘watchful’ eyes of the Valar. I think it was mentioned somewhere that he did actually impart some of his knowledge to the Elves besides the rumors/whispers he started to sow discontent. After killing the Trees do you think the knowledge Melkor shared was banned somehow?

Good question!

It’s hard to imagine the Valar expressly banning any knowledge, even dangerous knowledge like sword making, but maybe certain trades or lines of inquiry became taboo amongst the Elves, even unlawful. Certainly the Valar wouldn’t stop the Elves from deciding amongst themselves that Melkorish Activities were no longer acceptable.

I’d give my left leg to know what information Tolkien thought Melkor was giving the Elves during that time; my guess is something related to ~the tainted realm of Science oOooOoOooO~ but what variety, I don’t know. They already had Aulë teaching them metalworking and mining and smelting etc., and the rest of the Valar were there to teach their specialties. Melkor’s contribution might have been to explain things in more depth than the other Valar. I could also see him giving more information about the Spring of Arda than his brethren, and spreading a less accepted telling of the Ainulindalë from his perspective– definitely biased, but not without truth. He might just have been teaching them crazy sex positions, who knows. ~~And that is why double-reverse-upside-down-cowgirl is forbidden in Valinor to this day…~~

Hi! I just wanted to ask, do you have any headcanons for what happened to the first elves to awaken? Specifically, Imin, Tata, and Enel? Thank you for your reply in advance!

I….. don’t! :O I’m shocked and horrified by my own lack of headcanons!

I have some vague ideas about the first awakened elves and their lives before meeting the Valar, surviving in the dark world with only terrible creatures and the stars– but nothing I could really pick details out of yet, no real firm grasp of individual personalities. Most of my headcanons about that whole epoch have to do with Melkor and Sauron’s thoughts on the newly awakened elves, which can be summarized as “raw materials”.

I know this is a rich vein that other writers and artists get a lot of inspiration from, and I must defer to them for the time being. If I get any more specific headcanons on the first elves, I’ll try to put them on paper for you.

Hello! I know Tolkien left it open to interpretation what happens to human souls after death but in your personal opinion what’s the deal? What are your headcanons about it?

This is a tough one! The boring answer is that my headcanon for the fate of mortals after death in Tolkien-verse is…. pretty much just whatever happens to mortals after death.

More specifically, I think the humans and other mortals of Middle Earth have a variety of beliefs about what happens to their spirits after death but no one knows for sure. (…Of course, the one MAJOR difference between Arda and the IRL is that human souls in Tolkien-verse can manifestly be detained from the afterlife, and otherwise bound to certain tasks or fates. But temporary postponements aside–)

I think the ambiguity of what happens after death, the mystery of it, is an important unknown; it’s the biggest question mark, the only question mark that matters to many characters and philosophies. Life and Death are exclusively the province of Eru, who remains silent; everyone else is fallible, childlike facing the universe, including the Valar. I think the fate of mortals being a mystery, and conversely, the source of life being a mystery, is invisibly at the heart of the Silmarillion and its dramas.

I do have a second answer that’s more story-specific, and that is that the Arda of the books is a trial-run of Earth, and that after the foretold Second Music rolls around, everyone who endured the first cycle will have a second run as mortals. They may not be the same specific people they once were, but rather the same collective energy and souls, variously rehoused. ~~I’m trying very hard not to say “the lifestream”, but it’s like…. the lifestream~~. This is the Story Specific answer because I really really really need that human-ainur redemption arc. >_>

…And on a like SUPER META and personal level, I think human spirits are withdrawn back to the source of the Fire, where they cease to be isolated entities and return to a collective and holistic state of Being; not separate yet not alone, unburdened by whatever transpired during their lives. In truth, a gift– but only once one leaves behind the value of ‘selfhood’.