Tag: luthien

Y’all requested the best shit thank you for saving me 

@sathinfection  this was a clever ruse to force me to look at that george costanza picture for five minutes I hope you’re pleased with yourself (I didn’t draw the wolf rug but Sauron is wearing glasses and sock garters so I feel this makes up for it)

@askrossiel Magnificent-One is just Angela Bassett with horns tbh

@sirensofmisery @feralandfair A happy happy hobbit! Bilbo is fun to draw i gotta have more halflings in my life

and for Anon, one dancing Luthien, Melkor implied. 🙂

I’ll prolly do at least one more because these are fun and also I’ve been meaning to draw some of these characters for a million years so this is a good excuse. 

And Lúthien now was left alone.

A magic song to Men unknown

she sang, and singing then the wine

with water mingled three times nine;

and as in golden jar they lay (275)

she sang a song of growth and day;

and as they lay in silver white

another song she sang, of night

and darkness without end, of height

uplifted to the stars, and flight (280)

and freedom. And all names of things

tallest and longest on earth she sings:

the locks of the Longbeard dwarves; the tail

of Draugluin the werewolf pale;

the body of Glaurung the great snake; (285)

the vast upsoaring peaks that quake

above the fires in Angband’s gloom;

the chain Angainor, that ere Doom

of Bauglir had by Valar been wrought

of steel and torment. Names she sought, (290)

and sang of Glend, the sword of Nan;

of Gilim, the giant of Eruman;

and last and longest named she then

the endless hair of Uinen,

the Lady of the Sea, that lies (295)

through all the waters under skies.

The Lay of Leithian; Luthien’s enchantment to make her hair grow long so she can Rapunzel her way outta town. 

I happen to think the list of invocations here is quite interesting; as with her bat-skin costume, Luthien is one of the few Tolkien characters who uses “darker” or “evil” elements in her magic in order to accomplish noble goals. She’s also one of the few to ever have words of sympathy for a servant of darkness, specifically one that was born and bred as such and was never given the opportunity to know anything but thralldom. She talks her way into Melkor’s graces before zapping him with the sleeping spell. She threatens Sauron with the consequences he’ll face from his own master, rather than from a higher moral judgement. She whisks her boyfriend clean out of Mandos, and after all that, her end goal is simply to be left alone– mortal and happy.
I think Luthien occupies a rare niche in Tolkien’s lore as a “grey” character, in a cast that is mostly polarized into light (stemming from Valinor) and dark (stemming from Melkor). The rule of thumb is you can’t use bad things for good intentions, the bad things will always corrupt or ruin the result; but a few characters are able to accomplish their goals using whatever means are at hand; not limited to purely light or dark qualities, they instead utilize more neutral heroic cunning. This position is reserved mostly for hobbits and wizards, and appears far less frequently in the Silmarillion. ~Wes

Silm Prompt: Luthien and Thuringwethil– RivkaZ 2016

I haven’t totally solidified my vision of Thur, but I’m happy to have an excuse to draw Luthien again! 
This was going to be, shall we say, shippier, but seeing as I haven’t worked out all the bugs in the character designs yet (how do the wings ATTACH, GODDAMNIT), I figured I’d leave it here for now. Thuringwethil looks suitably enamored of Luthien’s milkshake, so that’s good.  (Thanks to @askrossiel for the sapphic foeyay prompt! )

atariince:

I’m not convinced by the idea of arranged marriages in the elven societies. I know it’s a popular trope and my opinion might displease a few persons, but even when I put aside my personal issues and horror at the idea of arranged marriages in any kind of setting, I can’t see how it could work among the Eldar.

Arranged marriages in human societies aren’t exactly idyllic to say the least, but I reckon that it sometimes ended up quite well, that there could sometimes be respect from both sides, including regarding the sexual aspect.

But elven marriages happen through sex, which means that there would be no marriage is the two persons involved don’t have sex with each other.

An arranged marriage among the Eldar would mean; parents actually making their kid have sex with someone for a specific purpose. I suppose you can understand why I’m basically horrified by this idea, especially when you know how the LaCE treat marriage, love, family and sexuality.

Two elves sharing strong platonic bonds and deciding by themselves to get married for various good reasons, that’s a thing
(e.g. my Curufin is aromantic but decided to get married and proposed someone he respected, liked and admired.) An arranged marriage, where they don’t really have the choice and/or decide to get married only for the sake of politics, parental authority, etc is another thing.

I can already hear the arguments about Curufin and Celegorm’s idea concerning Luthien, and people replying that “They planned an arranged marriage between Celegorm and Luthien.” But that is not how I’ve understood the text.

My interpretation is different, and yet it is simple. The plan was that Celegorm would seduce Luthien, to make her fall in love with him, or at least, like him enough to accept the wedding. And Curufin’s talent for persuasion would help her understand what (they think) is the best for her.

Celegorm after all, is a powerful, handsome lord, he’s smart, charismatic, and he’s of royal blood. There must be many elves courting him. In their pride, the Fëanorians are convinced Luthien will fall for Celegorm, in his pride, Celegorm is convinced he will make her forget Beren. How could she refuse such a handsome, strong suitor?

I always reckon the narrative bias in the text we have in the Silm, but it is said that Celegorm and Curufin planned to ‘force Thingol to give her hand to Celegorm’. Not to force Luthien, but to force Thingol; the nuance is important; We know the elves would rarely get married without the approval of their parents. And Curufin already lectured Eol about it (“For those who still the daughters of the Noldor and wed them without gift or leave do not gain the kinship with their kin”), Luthien isn’t a Noldo, but the patriarcal authority is still a thing among the elves, all of them, so Curvo knows the father’s approval is a law and he would not go against this law. Especially when he and Celegorm actually want to gain the kinship of Thingol! Stealing his daughter without his or her approval wouldn’t get them any kind of kinship,  and their plan would be reduced to ashes!

And for Curufin and Celegorm, Luthien could not refuse a marriage with *~Celegorm the Fair~*, they’re convinced she will accept, so the only thing they have to do is to convince her father. They’re wrong, of course, blinded by their pride. But there never was any plan to force her. The plan was to seduce her, and then to make her understand that a marriage between their two houses would be good for everyone. But their plan wasn’t good, Luthien didn’t want Celegorm and Thingol, who already hated them, panicked and took their words as a threat,

So yeah… all of this to say that arranged marriages among the Eldar? Basically I don’t see how it could happen, unless the two persons involved actually want it to happen and already have a strong connection, platonic or not.

toradh:

Design sketches for the Silmarillion. Hair „studies“ for Galadriel and Lúthien (would have been smart to do that before the last painting, but I‘ve never been a smart person), wtf-anatomy-Melian.

Let’s pretend Galadriel’s hair went on like that. She’s Rapunzel. Seriously.

I tried an old Greek-ish dress on Melian to distinguish her from your average Doriath elf. Not sure whether that‘s a good idea or not. She should meet Thingol in the woods either wearing nothing or wearing nothing but a blanket.

Oh yes, Thingol and some Noldor are next on my to-sketch-list…

*_* HAIR ❤ DRAPERY ❤ ❤

Source: toradh
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