While These Visions Did Appear by oshun

Eärendil

I was watching a PBS TV series about the Medici and saw the face of a boy who looked to me exactly as I would have envisioned a young Tuor or Eärendil. So I ran and looked at the B2MeM prompts and found one for him.

Day 1 - Escape: “They will think we had a very strong magic to pass through all those locked doors and disappear.” Eärendil escaped the Fall of Gondolin and grew up and went on to change the main storyline of Tolkien's history of Arda. (I know where the quotation is from just in case that is a required, but do not know if I should tell or not.)

Read Eärendil

Escape
“They will think we had a very strong magic to pass through all those locked doors and disappear.”

The First Sundering

B2MeM 2013 Challenge: March 2.

Read The First Sundering

The first of many sunderings of the Quendi. The Marchers and the Refusers define themselves. The Avari decide the outlandish tales of Two Trees lighting an unseen world and a pantheon of demi-gods are not reliable or desirable enough to cause them to abandon their forests and starlight and trek across a continent exposing themselves to clear and certain danger.

A Fanfic Writer's Biography of Sorts (Day 3)

Read A Fanfic Writer's Biography of Sorts (Day 3)

I have been writing Tolkien fanfiction since 2006-2007. I spent the first year writing a huge LotR novel (still a WIP--I add a few chapters a year)--The Princess and the Horse Lord. Not recommending here--it is not one's standard LotR romance and will only frustrate people looking for that. I love it the way one loves one's firstborn, despite its flaws. Randomly, it is still my most read work by a tremendous margin.

I mainly write Silmarillion fanfiction (but not only Tolkien fanfic--I have written stories in the following fandoms: Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint stories, G.R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, Harry Potter. Wraeththu, Mary Renault's Greek novels and modern ones, BBC Merlin TV, and Shakespeare. Recently, have started writing the seeds of something (a novel?) in original fiction based in the War of the Roses, mainly focusing on Richard of Gloucester). I do also a monthly character biography for the SWG almost every month.

My personal favorite fic to recommend to new readers of my work is a short novel of Fingon/Maedhros slash A New Day--if you can read slash at all you can read this--it is a love story of sorts and for grownups, but not over-the-top with the physical details.

I have another 50 or so stories written within the same universe and story arc about the children and grandchildren of Finwe. The majority are NOT actually slash and there is a lot of Gen fic also; check the individual story elements if you are fussy about that kind of thing. There are a bunch of other fics also about the denizens of Doriath and Gondolin; even a novella featuring Haldir and Celegorm. My current compulsion is a novella set in Númenor which I just began a couple of months ago, based upon the circumstances and events in Tolkien's story Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner's Wife.

I write every day very slowly. I am probably the slowest writer I know (only part of it is that I have really bad eyes). I read a lot widely; mainly fiction and history. I read an inordinate amount of fanfiction and try to be supportive of other writers. I talk about my kids and grandchildren all the time. I live in Brooklyn, New York and talk about that a lot also! This is embarrassingly long and I am too tired to edit it and make it shorter. I am so sorry!

Ar-Pharazôn's Fleet Sails

Day 4 - Darkness fell upon the land, and the sea was still, while the world waited for what should betide. Slowly the fleets passed out of the sight of the watchers in the havens, and their lights faded, and night took them; and in the morning they were gone. For a wind arose in the east and it wafted them away; and they broke the Ban of the Valar, and sailed into forbidden seas, going up with war against the Deathless, to wrest from them everlasting life within the Circles of the World.

Read Ar-Pharazôn's Fleet Sails

Awakening of the Elves at Cuiviénen

Day 5 -

Read Awakening of the Elves at Cuiviénen

Their Hope Was High

Day 7

Read Their Hope Was High

Tolkien points out that the chieftains among the Edain and all of their peoples share in the Doom of the Noldor. Despite all this, along with the exiled Noldor and their Princes, these valiant Men accomplished great deeds which are recorded along with the histories of the greatest of the Elven Kings of old.

Cropped and otherwise altered a landscape by Jacob Isaackszon van Ruisdael, 19th century.

A Star Shines in the West

- Day 16

". . . when first Vingilot was set to sail in the seas of heaven, it rose unlooked for, glittering and bright; and the people of Middle-earth beheld it from afar and wondered . . ." The Silmarillion, "Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath."

Read A Star Shines in the West

Banner of the Union of Maedhros

B2MeM third wildcard day task: Finish something.

I finished something! I had a nice star of Feanor I had been holding on my harddrive for a while. I wanted to make a banner of the Union of Maedhros used in the Nirnaeth Arnoediod with it. I did it.

Read Banner of the Union of Maedhros

Toppled Crown

Day 15 - Lúthien uses some heavy magic on the Dark Lord.

Read Toppled Crown

Dwarves in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears

Among the important participants in the great Fifth Battle of the First Age against Morgoth called the Battle of Unnumbered Tears were the Dwarves. “. . . Maedhros had the help of the Naugrim, both in armed force and in great store of weapons; and the smithies of Nogrod and Belegost were busy in those days.”

Read Dwarves in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears

Extensive use of a screen cap of the Battle of Harrenhal from extras from the HBO Game of Thrones, Season 2 DVDs.

Hand Over the Silmarils

 - Day 13
The Valar demand the Silmarils from Fëanor. Only Aulë understands what they ask. ‘Be not hasty! We ask a greater thing than thou knowest. Let him have peace yet awhile.’ The Silmarillion, "The Flight of the Noldor."

Read Hand Over the Silmarils

[Faces are much harder than I remembered! My apologies. He had a rough day, but still he is nicer looking than this!]

The First Divisions within Númenor

March 14

 “And on the other hand was the lesser party, and they were called the Elendili, the Elf-friends; for though they remained loyal indeed to the King and the House of Elros, they wished to keep the friendship of the Eldar, and they hearkened to the counsel of the Lords of the West.” The Silmarillion, “Akallabêth.”

Read The First Divisions within Númenor

Fëanor Exhorts the Noldor

  Day 8

“But if any will come with me, I say to them: Is sorrow foreboded to you? But in Aman we have seen it. In Aman we have come through bliss to woe. The other now we will try: through sorrow to find joy; or freedom, at the least.”

Read Fëanor Exhorts the Noldor

Fingon Approaches Thangorodrim

I don't know if I can find a prompt for this one in the B2MeM prompts. I'll insert it if I find one!

Read Fingon Approaches Thangorodrim