In Numenor, the Narn i Hin Hurin was adapted into a cycle of plays that were performed yearly and which had a Not-so-subtle symbolic (though not literal) conflation of Tol Morwen with Numenor.
There were also many offshoot operas, dances, artworks, etc, focusing on expanding one element or episode of the Narn and building up a very dense and elaborate system of idioms and visual references that became so ubiquitous that without context (say, if you were from a culture who wasn’t familiar with the Narn and therefore didn’t know the significance of a black weapon, a tool that talks, a hight above a rushing river, a chair from which one could have a far view, nakedness in the wild, a staring contest, a death by upright impalement, a prick of the foot, a shivering attack), a fair amount of numenorean literature, art, and discourse would have parts that were pretty baffling.
HC that Mairon reanimates some of his fallen soldiers and that’s how he has so many troops. If their corpse is salvagable, he’ll just keep bringing them back. He probably cobbles together the intact bits of unsalvageable corpses to make Frankenstein’s monster-esque creations.
This is giving me Thoughts. You know how in the Silm when Aule made the dwarves, he was able to move them around like dolls but not give them true life and free will?Â
Mairon can do that, and he does it on a massive scale. It works as a scare tactic, too; sometimes he’ll even puppeteer the remains of fallen elves. When the hosts of the Noldor go to fight against Angband’s might, they’re forced to fight against their fallen comrades. Eventually, they learn to start burning corpses.
oh no what if this happens with fingon and mae in the nirnaeth and mae sees fingon off in the distance but it’s not fingon fingon’s dead he knows fingon’s dead and mae can’t stand to see the horrible violation of his body in that way and he’s forced to do the unthinkable and face it in battle
It seems like not many people talk about Mahtan, let alone his relationships with his grandsons, so I just felt like jotting down a handful of thoughts about them.
– Maedhros and the twins are his absolute pride and joy.  He adores them.  He calls all three of them “Russa” and always ruffles their hair when he sees them. To the casual observer, it would seem like they are the obvious Favorites.  They are the ones he asks about first.  His workshop is plastered with drawings of them made by their mother, and he loves showing off his favorites.  He is super proud of every tiny thing they do, and even when they misbehave, he can’t stay mad at them for long.  He brags about them to everyone he talks to.  He dotes on them almost to the point of spoiling them.  He loves to make them things, always out of copper: jewelry, circlets, play weapons and armor, anything they want.  Maedhros in particular is his Little Prince, and the twins his Little Treasures.
– The one he’s most likely to get choked up over, though, is Maglor.  He’s the one most similar to his mother, and even if he doesn’t have the red hair, every time Mahtan looks at his secondborn grandson, he sees his precious baby girl.  He sees her in Maglor’s smile, in his mannerisms, those little gestures, a thousand subtle ways.  Maglor isn’t a smith, but Mahtan sees the same joy in him when he’s writing and performing his songs as he did in Nerdanel when she was learning her art.  He is there for every concert, every recital.  He can listen to Maglor talk and sing for hours on end and never get tired or lose interest in what he’s saying.  They may not have much overlap in hobbies, but they have the best conversations.
– Celegorm is his Little Buddy.  He learned early on not to let Tyelko into his workshop, but he loves to play with him.  He would give him piggyback rides all the time when he was little, and tickle fights, arm wrestling and other rough-house horseplay were common.  They’d go on nature walks together and Celegorm’s constant chatter and excitement makes him laugh.  Even if he’s otherwise busy, he always takes time to have fun with Celegorm.
– His relationship with Caranthir is a bit more mysterious.  He teaches Caranthir how to channel his temper productively.  He has a ready ear if he ever wants to talk, and Caranthir knows he can tell his grandpa anything and doesn’t have to worry about his reactions.  Sometimes, they can just work beside each other on separate projects, never saying a word, but communicating in small ways.  A hug from Grandpa Mahtan can always make Caranthir feel better if he’s unhappy about something.
– Curufin is his Little Helper. Â Whatever Mahtan is working on, Curufin wants to help. Â
He brings Grandpa tools and equipment or helps clear away things no longer needed. Â
He absorbs EVERYTHING Grandpa has to teach him and he’s eager to show off his ideas and projects.  Curufin is the one full of questions and wanting to know how things work, and he is rapt with attention when Mahtan explains and demonstrates.  He’s one of the people Curufin looks up to most, aside from his father.
My favorite Celebrimbor headcanon is that he was, in fact, suspicious of Annatar. He noticed the things that didn’t make sense, he was very conscious that he was being directed in a particular direction, he often picked up on parts of Annatar’s story that felt off…
But he knows that Fëanor was famous for being too suspicious to collaborate with anyone, for distrusting everyone who tried to correct him, for working alone and never taking advice or direction, and so Celebrimbor distrusts all his own instincts, he’s internalized very very deeply that his intuitions are Fëanorian and suspect and evil and that the right thing to do is overriding them.
Headcanon that even in the twenty-first century, Maglor still makes untranslatable Quenya jokes
“What do you get when you fish with a teakettle?”
“Hamsters.”
… and he just laughs as everyone else stares blankly at him.
Just imagine if he’s finally been dragged into Gondor because no one has any idea who he is, and he’s annoying the guards by making all these horrible jokes when Aragorn walks past and just cracks up. Because Elrond had used to tell that joke all the time and explained the Quenya behind it, and he remembers it.
So there’s these two poor guards staring in confusion between this ages-old elf, who is cracking up so much he’s almost crying, and King Elessar, crown and all, who is just lying on the ground laughing into the floor.
some thoughts for an au where jim and spock are cadets at the same time because I love college aus but some of y’all are weird af with your cadet/professor shit
Spock is a few semesters higher than Jim or doing a second course because one degree isn’t enough
Jim and Bones are best friends, Bones is still those few years older than Jim (maybe sharing an apartment?)
Spock and Uhura are good / best friends
anyway they meet at an event and Jim is like haha he’s cute
but then he can’t get him out of his headÂ
Spock organizes a study/ essay revision group because Nyota said it would look good, that he can organise and teach etc
Jim joins because on one hand he really wants to get to know Spock better and on the other it would be good to have feedback on his papers
he starts really crushing on Spock and his essays get so much better because he’s trying to impress Spock
meanwhile Spock is using every technique known to mankind to respectfully let Jim know that he’s interested
Jim is oblivious as fuck and constantly tells Bones about how much he pines for Spock
Spock grows increasingly frustrated but he doesn’t really want to make a move because Jim does kind of flirt with everyone wtf am I supposed to do Nyota
eventually Spock puts his private comm number in the notes of the essays he reviews for Jim “in case he has any questions”
when Bones finds out he goes wild what the fuck Jim he clearly wants to bone you how can James Tiberius flirtmaster not see that
their date is at the science museum they look at rocks and Spock kisses Jims cheek before they make out in the elevator
I love the Rivendell crew. When everything else gets to angsty, I just imagine a slice-of-life sitcoms about Elrond, Celebrian, and the boys in between wars.
with the subplot of Glorfindel and Erestor falling in love and getting into stupid fights, and Arwen adopts baby animals which are alternately cute and deceptively dangerousÂ
I am such a sap for Glorfindel and Erestor! Arwen and questionable pets is perfect. Celebrian is fine with it because growing up in Lothlórien was a bit more wild than in Rivendel but Elrond is just… concerned.
I also like to imagine Gildor as the wild Uncle who, when he visits, always brings awesome gifts for the kids and brings trouble and strange alcoholic beverages from distant lands for the adults.
Yes! Gildor is the crazy one, he has harp songs that entertain everyone, shiny things which make Elrond slightly uncomfortable (Feanorian upbringing). The first time people saw Drunk!Lindir they were not prepared for it. He goes from timid to…the exact opposite.Â
Headcanon That Lindir will turn anything he can into an instrument. This can be a mix of impressive and annoying when he starts whittling a carrot into a clarinet at a dinner party or blowing grass blade whistles or commandeering a saw or washboard or getting distracted at the archery range by pinching and plucking the bowstring or running his finger around the wet rim of a wine glass
So I was rereading The Two Towers
the other day, and it struck me that there is literally one instance in that
entire book that Legolas speaks without being prompted to someone he doesn’t
know. Â And that out of three instances in
the entire book that he speaks to someone he doesn’t know at all (one of whom
is not even a person, but an Ent, which I don’t think counts since elves talk
to trees anyway). Â And it made me think
back on what we see of Legolas, and come up with the following headcanon which
I present for your perusal: shy Legolas.
Legolas who is fine in his woodland
home, because they’re all elves; everyone basically gets to know each other,
because you have so many centuries in which to develop at least some level of
comfort with each other.  But he doesn’t
really go very far away very often, particularly if you headcanon him as being
kind of young, so he’s not very good at talking to people outside of his
immediate sphere.
So, painfully shy Legolas who takes
on the role as messenger to Elrond because he feels responsible for what
happened to Gollum. Â Legolas who spends
the entire time before the council sweating in anticipation of having to speak
to someone else – to a lot of someone elses, in fact.  Legolas who has been psyching himself up so
intensely and for so long that as soon as someone mentions Gollum, he’s
blurting out his news – no matter that he’s kind of interrupting someone, he’s
been working on these words for the last three days, they’re coming out right
now.
Legolas who goes on this journey
with a ton of people that he doesn’t know.
I imagine he’s met Aragorn, at very least because Aragorn brought Gollum
to them, and he knows Gandalf, because who doesn’t know Gandalf.  But other than that, there are all these new
intimidating people that he doesn’t know, and they seem great, but he has no
idea how to interact with them, and he keeps getting tongue-tied when he tries
to say anything.
Legolas who is actually really
lovely when you get to know him – he’s sweet, and can wield some devastating
sass, and he actually has quite the poetic streak, but you really only get to
experience that part of his personality once he’s become comfortable with you.
So, Legolas who spends the first
few weeks of the Fellowship’s journey saying almost nothing to anyone but
Gandalf and Aragorn. Everyone else thinks he’s stuck-up, but he’s actually just
too uncomfortable to know what to say to them.
And then he finally starts gaining some confidence on Caradhras, because
finally he doesn’t feel like he’s at a terrible disadvantage, but of course he
just ends up aggravating everyone because – now that they’re all miserable is
when he decides to be cheerful? Â So they
all just think he’s self-absorbed and kind of rude, when really he’s just
socially awkward and terrible at first impressions.
And then Moria happens, and Gandalf
“dies,” and they make it to Lothlorien, where Legolas is kind of the only
person who CAN negotiate for them. Â And
he does his duty when he has to – besides, these are wood-elves, the closest to
his people he’s run into anywhere else, so he’s at least able to talk to them
about the Fellowship and ask them for passage.
Besides, Gandalf is dead, and he’s too busy being sad to be anxious.
Legolas who is one of the only ones
who can look at Galadriel for very long because a) he’s an elf, and more used to
this sort of thing, and b)
he’s frankly so relieved he doesn’t have to talk out loud that having her in his mind is nothing.  And
maybe she’s able to sort of gently ease his worries about the people around
him, at least to the point where he starts relaxing enough around the other
members of the Fellowship to interact with them like a regular person – or,
elf.
This headcanon actually makes me
have even stronger feelings about his relationship with Gimli – because a) once
they become friends, the two of them are almost never seen outside of each
other’s company, and b) Gimli often seems to be the designated speaker, but
what he says applies to both of them.
Also, Gimli is very confident, self-assured, and charming. Â Legolas is decidedly none of those things.
So, looking back through their
relationship starting from the beginning: Gimli’s ready to try to look beyond
the elf-dwarf feud, because he’s diplomatic enough to realize that they need to
be able to get along for the rest of the Fellowship. Â So he makes some cautious overtures towards
friendship, which Legolas responds to with one-word answers and lack of eye
contact – which leads Gimli to think that he’s giving himself airs, when actually
Legolas just has no clue how to do this social thing. Â So then Gimli, offended, gets a little snippy
towards him, which makes Legolas withdraw further, and before Lothlorien they’re
both pretty much ignoring each other, with the occasional snappish comment here
and there. Â And of course the blindfold
business doesn’t help matters.
But in Lothlorien, the Lady gives
Gimli the inspiration to try to look beyond the feud again, and gives Legolas a
little more confidence. Â So Legolas goes
to Gimli and tries to apologize for the blindfold thing, and Gimli – while not
quite ready to forgive – does sense that he’s really uncomfortable and is
honestly trying, so he gives him a chance.
They start spending more and more time together, and eventually Gimli
realizes that Legolas is actually lovely one-on-one, but he’s just so
uncomfortable around unfamiliar people. Â
This activates Gimli’s mama-bear
instincts, and he sort of becomes Legolas’s protector.  I imagine that the two of them become really
good at communicating nonverbally in the presence of other people (though of
course they do talk when they’re together), but they just get a really good
feel for each other, and usually Gimli is able to just speak for both of them
after no more than a shared glance and some facial expressions.  And they become each other’s most important
people, and make sure to stay close all the time.
This, of course, makes “he stands
not alone” even more touching and poignant, because this is the only time in
the entire book that Legolas speaks to someone unfamiliar without first being
spoken to. (Which gives me EVEN MORE FEELINGS ABOUT THIS SCENE THAN I ALREADY
HAD) The thing is, Gimli is all set to speak for both of them: Eomer asks why
the two of them aren’t saying anything, and Gimli immediately goes on the
defensive. Â Which would make sense
because he’s not only defending Galadriel, but also taking some of the heat off
of Legolas with his own reaction. Â Eomer of
course reacts – and then Legolas leaps in to defend Gimli without any
prompting. The thing that makes him overcome his reluctance to speak is Gimli
being threatened.
I also – to move things into the
more romantic angle; forgive my shipper heart – absolutely headcanon that Legolas was the first of the
two to realize his feelings, and also the first to bring it up – and I think that
that, too, is heightened by Legolas being so timid and awkward.  Because Gimli makes him feel comfortable –
enough to tease, enough to defend, and enough to confess.  I think it’s even more meaningful if this
poor awkward and socially-anxious elf is the first one to gather the courage to
speak.
Basically: Legolas is shy and
socially awkward and Gimli is confident and protective and they both deserve
all the hugs.
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