Tag: Eonwë

*rubs hands together* I actually have A LOT of ideas about Eonwë!

starting with the fact that he’s a total hardass with a bone to pick

AND WHAT BETTER BONE-PICKING BIRD COULD THERE BE TO MODEL HIM ON THAN OUR FRIEND, the Bearded Vulture. ❤

My headcanons for Eonwë: 

He takes his job VERY seriously. 

Eonwë is ready to throw down any time, anywhere, with anyone– and is constantly disappointed by the lack of violence in his job description. 

What is he supposed to do when haughty Elf Criminals mock his Master and laugh at his infinite clemency?? Just sit there and take it??!? JUST LET THEM SAY WHATEVER THEY WANT AND NOT SCOOP OUT THEIR EYEBALLS???

Manwë doesn’t order NEARLY enough smiting, so how is a lawful-good fanatic to cope? Sometimes one just has to take matters into one’s own hands if one wants to ensure that one’s master does not go around pardoning every traitorous backstabber and villain in Arda. 

My theory is that there is a lot that can go on between when a message is given and when it is delivered, and there’s a reason why negotiations between the Valar and the Exiles, Sauron, and the Numenorians, seem to go so poorly. History does not spend nearly as much time considering the impart of scribes, translators, and heralds as it does kings and generals, but just think about how much power is given to a messenger. 

For example, a message saying “come home and submit to a trial by your peers” can sound an awful lot like “go on punk make my day” if you say it juuuuust right. 

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No one is more loyal or uncompromising in their duties to the Valar. He is more than a herald of the Elder King, he his paladin, his standard-bearer, the word and the sword of Manwë. He has no doubt that those who stray from the path of light and the justice of the Valar will get what is coming to them, and he would love nothing more than to deliver that justice, swiftly and without mercy. But his master is too kind, too benevolent to deal out the punishment his enemies so richly deserve. 

If Manwë has one flaw—and Ah! the flaw of a true king!, it is that he too noble to see the evil in men’s hearts; being so elevated in nature, the Elder King fails to see that his enemies are beyond redemption, and cannot imagine that Justice need be meted out with the sword and not only the open hand.  All have seen what becomes of goodness and light when evil is given second chances…

But it is not Eonwë’s duty to judge. His master, infallible in wisdom and insight, has counseled him against violence, forbidden him to raise his hand against the unrighteous without leave from Valinor. So he finds other ways of enforcing justice. He would sooner be unmade than disobey his lord, but he might, within the margins of the law, find ways to accomplish what he knows to be in his lord’s best interests. He knows wicked men are filled with pride and fear; they need only the gentlest push to be convinced that a message of peace holds in store the promise of utter humiliation, imprisonment without end, the banishment of freedom, erasure of selfhood… It is what they would promise, afterall. 

It might grieve Manwë that so few lost souls return to him— that the rebellious High King does not repent, Umaiar who strayed into his brother’s service do not seek redemption, do not fly home to await trial and forgiveness. But this grief is the lesser evil. Valinor is a holy refuge, no place for the wicked who turned their backs on Eru’s appointed powers.

When Eonwë is given leave to smite the enemies of Aman, he falls like lightning from the heavens, wearing lightning and storm as his raiment, the great clap of unseen wings driving a tempest before him. Kings are crushed beneath hills of salt, temples are split asunder, and devils fall before his wrath like withered leaves. He revels in the delivery of justice. 

But more often he is sent to deliver messages concerning Fate and the will of the Valar, and this he does to the very letter, with utmost pride and not a whisper of doubt in his heart. It is a privilege to serve the lords of the West; he would have all remember it.   

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Some notes: My headcanon is that all things relating to Manwë are covered in bells, fluttering pennants, flags, things that catch the wind and glitter or sing, chimes and wind flutes and aeolian harps and so forth. Eonwë’s armor has tassels and small brass bells attached, bringing with it the holy sounds of Valmar. It bears the symbols of the stars and rays of light, as well as the stylized blossoms of Laurelin. 

–I see him as being the unnamed messenger that delivers the ban to Numenor. (In my mind, the ban has a physical manifestation, a sort of glowing handprint that hovers in the air in the court as a reminder. The looming hand fades over the years, and by the time Sauron arrives it is barely visible, long forgotten. He waves away whatever is left of it with great amusement). 

—Eonwë does not eat or drink. He does not want to taint himself with the matter of the world, or in doing so, become bound to it. He finds Maiar who partake of fleshly indulgences to be distasteful and borderline heretical. 

—He doesn’t blink much. 

—Favorite weapons: vajra, glaives, ringed swords (for show). 

—Favorite pastimes include: perching somewhere high in the Pelóri mountains to observe the flight of birds and the passage of clouds for days on end, listening to the wind, playing a simple bone flute which he is surprisingly good at, smiting the wicked, keeping a tally of Sauron’s ever growing list of Treason And Gross Indecencies so he can read the full list to him when he’s standing trial at the end of the world, keeping a separate itemized list for everything he’d like to do to Fëanor in order of most to least poetic, Thinking About Justice, meditating upon the Theme and the Harmony of Eru’s designs, whistling, singing.