Prehistory of the Eldar by Lyra

Fanwork Information

Summary:

A collection of illustrations about Elves in their pre-Aman days.

Major Characters: Elves, Oromë

Major Relationships:

Genre:

Type: Illustration

Challenges: B2MeM 2016, Love Actually

Rating: General

Warnings:

This fanwork belongs to the series

Prehistory of the Eldar
Posted on 17 July 2022 Updated on 17 July 2022

The Vanyar Hunt The Woolly Mammoth

Inspired by Elleth's fic The Beautiful Ones, which tells the story of Indis and her lover's life in Cuiviénen before Oromë changed Elven culture forever. At one point, the characters hint at a mammoth hunt that's planned for the near future. Although it hasn't yet been written, I found the mere idea irresistible. Spear-Elves in action! The primeval forests around Cuiviénen! A mammoth! So there you go...
It has since been brought to my attention that mammoths did not in fact live in forests, but I'm sure we can imagine that the Elves drove the poor beast from its native plain into the big scary forest to make it disoriented and easier to kill. You've got to be wily when hunting something that's so massively oversized....

(No, Tolkien doesn't actually say whether the prehistoric Quendi ever met mammoths. But he does mention beasts of tusk and horn and brute strength walking the woods around Cuiviénen, so there may as well have been mammoths!)

A watercolour painting of a mammoth hunt in a dark forest, lit only by the torches of the Vanyarin hunters. The hunters, pale-haired Elves, are wearing simple undyed clothing. They are armed with spears. Some are confronting the mammoth, which is just breaking through the coverings of a pit trap, while others are driving it from behind or jumping from hiding in the trees. The mammoth has raised its trunk in agitation.

Oromë among the Quendi

Painted for a prompt in the “Love Actually” challenge:
Oromë loved the lands of Middle-earth, and he left them unwillingly and came last to Valinor; and often of old he passed back east over the mountains and returned with his host to the hills and the plains. ~ Valaquenta
It was during one of these trips to Middle-earth that Oromë discovered and befriended the Quendi in Cuiviénen, of course. Here he’s already telling them about the splendour of Valinor, hoping to convince them all to come there. Audience reactions vary...

Oromë is trying hard to fit in, but he can’t quite turn down the light. I have also decided that he can’t entirely down-size his hroä. A lot of being needs a lot of space. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Most of the Elves are just random NPCs, but there are a couple of named characters (supposed to be) among them: Míriel, Finwë, Indis, Ingwë, Mahtan, Morwë, Nurwë, Olwë and Elwë, as well as Elleth's OC Kalrê. Possibly Círdan, as yet young and unbearded, too! The rest of them are whoever you want them to be.

A watercolour painting showing Oromë speaking to a crowd of Elves. Oromë, in the form of a tall human man with luminous skin and long black hair, is sitting cross-legged on a large stone and gesturing animatedly. He is wearing boots, leggins, a sleeveless tunic with a high collar, a deerskin half-cape, and leather braces. The Elves are sitting in a half-circle around a campfire. Some are listening intently while others are busy doing other things such as braiding hair, nursing babies or spinning fibres.

Stories in the Mud

Gentle warning for non-sexual nudity of the breastfeeding kind.
Inspired by Dawn Felagund's fanfic Reembodied.

I kept carving Tatië's stories into the mud with a fallen branch, and soon, she appeared to watch me. The infant suckled eagerly, draped in the crook of one arm. Around her throat and wrists were adornments, and when I exclaimed over them, she came to show me how some of our people had mastered piercing wooden bits and even rock and stringing them upon fibers made of plants. She asked not after my art, for perhaps she didn't even realize what it was, and the lake took it in short time anyway. ~ Tata

Reembodied is a wonderful story that puts a new spin on the Cuiviénen story of Tatië and the other Unbegotten. In this scene, Tata has returned from some time spent alone with Rúmil during which he learned the letters Rúmil invented. Tatië and Baby Finwë watch as he writes in the mud by the lakeside.

A watercolour painting of three Elves (two adults and a baby) by a lakeshore under a starlit sky. The Elves are naked except for their long dark hair. One of the adults is carving Sarati into the ground next to the lake. The other is sitting on a stone, holding the baby and watching the writer. In the background there are cliffs topped with dark conifers, with some waterfalls rushing down into the lake.

Comments

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This is so interesting, we don't see a lot of speculation about what the Elves were doing before they mastered all the things we see them show mastery of in LotR! Love these depictions of the early days of the Elves, when they were still figuring stuff out. I'm so impressed you fit so many characters into these pictures! I wipe myself out trying to draw more than two at a time XD Very nice work!

Thank you!

We really don't, and it's a pity - there's so much potential for exploration there. I guess it's because so many of the most intriguing characters (and events) only appear at a later point in time, but there still should be more love for early Elvish culture, I think.

I severely regret the decision to fit so many characters into a single picture whenever I make the mistake of making it. More than two or three at a time truly are an ordeal, and it's always a relief when it's done! Glad the finished pictures don't show how many curses I uttered while paintign them! ;)

I wrote a whole long comment, a bit for each, and even a justification for forest mammoths based on the adaptation to forest life by the Tsitikamma elephants,...

...and it all got vaporised by a phone gremlin. Grrrr.

I'm too sleepy to retype just now, but the general gist was that I really like all three of these!

(And I was wondering who the snogging couple behind Míriel and Finwë are!)