A Sense of History: Straight Road
The next in a series of articles about ships passing to and from the West, Simon uses "The Fall of Númenor" to attempt to arrive at Tolkien's reading of the exordium to "Beowulf."
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[Writing] Meeting the In-Laws by awwyeah107
Caranthir is nervous about meeting Haleth’s father and brother for the first time. Haleth is sure everything will go well.
[Reference] Straight Road by Simon J. Cook
The Fall of Númenor offers the evidence used to arrive at Tolkien's reading of the exordium to Beowulf.
[Artwork] Morgoth's prisoner by elennalore
Maedhros in Angband
[Reference] Fandom Voices: Comments and Feedback by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Over thirty people contributed their thoughts on the experience of leaving and receiving feedback on fanworks. Emotions run high on all sides, but community and connections emerge as factors that promote feedback while easing its difficulties for readers and viewers.
[Writing] Coincidences of Fate by cílil
Sometimes Eönwë wonders if his life is just like Manwë's romance novels. Sometimes he even thinks the One may be laughing at him from above.
A story told in exactly 4 1/3 drabbles.
[Writing] Tengwar Drabbles by cílil
A collection of Silmarillion-centric drabbles written for the Tengwar Challenge. Short and sweet!
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Bollywood
Prompts this month are films, songs, and tropes from India's dazzling film industry, Bollywood. Read more ...
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New in References
Straight Road by Simon J. Cook
The Fall of Númenor offers the evidence used to arrive at Tolkien's reading of the exordium to Beowulf.
Fandom Voices: Comments and Feedback by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Over thirty people contributed their thoughts on the experience of leaving and receiving feedback on fanworks. Emotions run high on all sides, but community and connections emerge as factors that promote feedback while easing its difficulties for readers and viewers.
Fandom Voices: Using Fanon in Fanworks by Dawn Walls-Thumma
Sixteen Tolkien fans contributed their definitions of and experiences with fanon or fan-generated theories about the legendarium.
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Staging a Battle by StarSpray
He and Diamond were visiting, though Pippin had been disappearing every afternoon, and taking Frodo and Elanor and most other lads and lasses in the neighborhood with him—though why they couldn’t use Pippin’s own pony, Sam couldn’t imagine.
[Writing] From whose bourn no traveller returns by losselen
So gathered they were to Bree, what lieutenants who could be spared, from their scattered watches west and east, for their chieftain had returned from his long sojourn in lands godless and mountains strange.
Aragorn returns from the South to tells his tales. Halbarad listens.
[Writing] Sand Sorcery by StarSpray
It is well known that Psamathos does not leave his cove. He does not like to get his feet wet, and prefers to spend his days dozing under the sun.
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In the Light of the Trees and After by Lferion
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Inspiration in Iron and Copper
Written for the Fan Flashwork challenge 'Hair' and the SWG Roaring Twenties challenge: Jazz Age bingo card, Square I3 - Art Deco.
Posted here on Fan Flashworks, and here on AO3
Many thanks to Zhie for encouragement and sanity-checking.
The iron-and-copper hanger-loops and the bead strands I made -- the loops and two of the strands for this challenge. The pins are by Rick Hardin, known as Thorvald Olafson in the SCA. Photography by me.
Copper strands, as fine as Nelyo's hair and as red, wound about the curls of the iron, holding the loops together so the extra length on the central loop did not make the hanging loops spread apart. Findekáno used the tweezers to tuck under the last fine end. Finished. Just needed a pass with the finishing cloth to shine things up a bit. He'd finished the pins the loops were to hang from several days ago, and the bead-strands were a project from a different learning session altogether, but they would look very nice arranged together in the learner's display.
He hoped Nelyo would not mind that he'd taken inspiration from untangling the snarl that had resulted from wearing Ambarussa's infant efforts at hair-ornaments. His fingers remembered the feel of Nelyo's hair, springy, soft and strong against his fingertips. The copper-red color such vibrant contrast against the silvery-black foil, tangled around the points of the inexpertly cut stars. Ambarussa had been so happy and proud to see Nelyo wearing them. Findekáno was even more touched that Nelyo had asked him to untangle them for him, once the twins had left. That their friendship had reached a place of such trust.
Inspiration could come from anywhere, and what better place than a moment of personal importance? He'd tried to put some of that feeling into the work, the happiness, the warmth, and it felt right to do so, even if it wasn't necessarily apparent in the loops themselves. He gave the copper a final rub with the polishing cloth. It glowed against the iron like he had hoped. They weren't perfect -- the loops were not quite identical, the curls on the ends of the wire were all a little different -- but he was still a learner, learning in many different ways.
