My Favorite of the Race of Men

Okay, so in no particular order, my 10 favorite humans: Tar-Ancalime: Numenor’s first ruling queen, Tar-Ancalime is probably the best thing I got out of reading The Unfinished Tales (and that’s saying something, because I freaking love that book.) And I’ve written before about how much I relate to her (except for the whole monarch…

And Tuor looked down from the lowest terrace and saw, leaning against its wall among the stones and the sea-wrack, an Elf, clad in a grey cloak sodden with the sea. Silent he sat, gazing beyond the ruin of the beaches out over the long ridges of the waves. All was still, and there was no sound save the roaring of the surf below.
     As Tuor stood and looked at the silent grey figure he remembered the words of Ulmo, and a name untaught came to his lips, and he called aloud: “Welcome, Voronwë! I await you.”
     Then the Elf turned and looked up, and Tuor met the piercing glance of his sea-grey eyes, and knew that he was of the high folk of the Noldor. But fear and wonder grew in his gaze as he saw Tuor standing high upon the wall above him, clad in his great cloak like a shadow out of which the elven-mail gleamed upon his breast. 
     A moment thus they stayed, each searching the face of the other, and then the Elf stood up and bowed low before Tuor’s feet.

The Unfinished Tales (”Of Tuor and his Coming to Gondolin”)

starlightoldetomato asked, for the Middle Earth Quote Meme, “5!”, #5 being a quote I prefer in another version. This version of Tuor and Voronwe’s meeting, found in the Unfinished Tales, is (in my opinion) much preferable to the version found in the Silmarillion: “But in the morning when the storm was passed, Tuor came upon
an Elf standing beside the walls of Vinyamar; and he was Voronwe, son
of Aranwe, of Gondolin, who sailed in the last ship that Turgon sent into
the West.”

This is an excerpt from “The Fall of Gondolin.” Though the story is part of the Silmarillion, this is a much older and more detailed version found in The Book of Lost Tales (Part 2.) If any of the name seem weird (like sometimes elves are called “gnomes”, and Morgoth is called Melko), that’s because it’s…

Turin: Fate vs Free Will

Okay, so Turin is kind of like Feanor in that everybody’s interpretation of him is a little different and that’s okay – just like “real world” historical figures are constantly being interpreted, reinterpreted, and misinterpreted, this reaction to Tolkien’s characters is more a testament to his writing than anything else. Anyway, my point is that…

Tuor and Turin

It’s hard to say, since Tuor had such a bizarrely isolated life (especially compared to Turin, who seems to have met about half the people in Beleriand before he died.) He was raised by elves, who clearly knew enough about his heritage so that Tuor knew about his father Huor. I’d also assume that he…

Timeline of Gondolin

Hope you don’t mind, but I expanded this a bit to make it a more general timeline of events in/concerning Gondolin. All dates take place in the First Age. 50: Ulmo sends his vision to Turgon and Finrod, encouraging them to build hidden kingdoms. 53: Turgon discovers the valley of Tumladen, the future site of…

The Havens of Sirion

The Havens of Sirion, the great refugee camp of the First Age, is absolutely fascinating to me. It was first founded after the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, when Cirdan’s coastal cities were destroyed (along with many other settlements of men and elves.) In The Silmarillion Tolkien says that The most part of Cirdan’s people were slain or enslaved.…