Finrod's Dagger Was Canonically Forged By Fëanor Which Means That On Top Of Celebrimbor Using Fëanor's

Now I can’t get the idea out of my head of Finrod talking to every sea creature he can, trying to get messages to Maglor. Everything. Crabs, seagulls, pelicans, you name it. If it’s a creature that inhabits the sea or wanders the beaches, he makes friends with it.

I bet you anything he sings to whales and speaks dolphin.

Maglor doesn’t understand why he can swear he hears them singing his cousin’s songs to him.

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Rían’s story breaks my heart.

She was only 10 when her dad was killed along with all the other outlaws except Beren. We don’t know anything about her mom; who knows if she was even around?

Then she fell deeply in love with a great man, they married, she got pregnant, it looked like they’d have a life together, but then he went off to war and disappeared. The grief and trauma coupled with anxiety about Morgoth’s looming presence was clearly almost unbearable for her - and she carried all that pain while pregnant.

She took all the necessary steps to ensure her baby was born healthy, but then she knew she couldn’t take care of him. She was in no mental state to do so. Postpartum depression seems likely in this situation, which must’ve only added to the emotional agony she was already in. So she let him go and went looking for the ghost of the love of her life.

Then she found a pile of bodies.

And finally she just snapped and lost all hope, and her suffering was so great that her spirit left her body behind to lie among all those brutally slaughtered by the enemy, including her husband’s.

It just guts me whenever I think about how hurt and alone she was. Morwen was clearly too preoccupied to help her and she did not seem to understand the Elves. She was completely isolated and depressed and couldn’t handle it.

I wonder if Tolkien was inspired to create this tragic character upon witnessing the grief of young WWI widows.

Maglor & Nienna

Not pictured: Maglors brothers being an absolute nightmare to mandos. He has them together, they immediately start making plans to break out. He separates them, they are somehow going more insane. At some point he just doesn't stop their escape attempts anymore. They are now the only elves to be illegally reborn.

btw niennas design is vaguely inspired by a statue of Mary

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Galadriel: *lying face down on her bed*

Finrod entering her room: Hey, are you doing okay?

Galadriel in a muffled voice: I just need a break from everything. Including existing.

Finrod: Alright, if that's what you want.

Finrod shuffled in and plopped face down on the bed with her.

Galadriel looks up confused: What are you doing?

Finrod looks up at her and smiles softly: I'm taking a break from existing with you.

After a couple hours, their other brothers found their way into Galadriel's room, turning it into a cuddle pile, the four eventually drifting off to sleep.

A young Celeborn and Galadriel, sometime during the first age

every day I think about how insane Tolkien was for having Aegnor, Fell Fire, Sharp-flame, the flame to Andreth's moth, die during the Battle of Sudden Flame

"A king is he that can hold his own, or else his title is vain" says Maedhros and it reveals something interesting about how he sees kinship and his role as leader.

A king is he that does not delegate and when wants something done, goes himself. He leads by example, he negotiates (attempts to, at least) with Morgoth, he places himself at the northern border of Beleriand, and the text tells us that he is even "very willing" that Morgoth's force falls heavier on him. He is ever watchful, he goes personally into battle, and is at the frontline, doing deeds of surpassing valour.

And when he is king no more, when Himring has fallen, and what little hope they had of defeating Morogth has vanished, he has his oath. He loathes what the oath makes him do, this the text says plainly, but the fact remains that he does it all the same.

He clings to the oath, terrified of what could happen if he breaks it. In his last conversation with Maglor, he appears to be more concerned to be an oathbreaker, than anything else, convinced that the doom of an oathbreaker is worse than that of a kinslayer. Because a king that breaks his oaths, is no king at all.

He is trapped in the condrum that the 'heroic' mentality poses. Until the bitter end. When faced with the very fact that the oath was void, his entire worldview, his certainties crumble, and his life has no meaning anymore.