they mean the world to me

Gift it to the goth girl to win her heart.

Stole a mermaid's actual fucking heart oh my God

i love reading sad books bc when your own grief is stopped up inside you like a clogged drain you can grieve for a character on a page and understand that you're also grieving for yourself a little bit

‘There is a theory that watching unbearable stories about other people lost in grief and rage is good for you—may cleanse you of your darkness. Do you want to go down to the pits of yourself all alone? Not much. What if an actor could do it for you? Isn’t that why they are called actors? They act for you. You sacrifice them to action. And this sacrifice is a mode of deepest intimacy of you with your own life. Within it you watch [yourself] act out the present or possible organization of your nature. You can be aware of your own awareness of this nature as you never are at the moment of experience. The actor, by reiterating you, sacrifices a moment of his own life in order to give you a story of yours.’

-Anne Carson, ‘Grief Lessons: Four Plays By Euripides’

reblog to do this to the person you reblogged this from

A Guide to Historically Accurate Regency-Era Names

I recently received a message from a historical romance writer asking if I knew any good resources for finding historically accurate Regency-era names for their characters.

Not knowing any off the top of my head, I dug around online a bit and found there really isn’t much out there. The vast majority of search results were Buzzfeed-style listicles which range from accurate-adjacent to really, really, really bad.

I did find a few blog posts with fairly decent name lists, but noticed that even these have very little indication as to each name’s relative popularity as those statistical breakdowns really don't exist.

I began writing up a response with this information, but then I (being a research addict who was currently snowed in after a blizzard) thought hey - if there aren’t any good resources out there why not make one myself?

As I lacked any compiled data to work from, I had to do my own data wrangling on this project. Due to this fact, I limited the scope to what I thought would be the most useful for writers who focus on this era, namely - people of a marriageable age living in the wealthiest areas of London.

So with this in mind - I went through period records and compiled the names of 25,000 couples who were married in the City of Westminster (which includes Mayfair, St. James and Hyde Park) between 1804 to 1821.

So let’s see what all that data tells us…

I have a lot of feelings about humans in Tolkien’s work and their hunger. Their dissatisfaction with the world and their determination to change things. They have so little time and they’re so cognizant of that. For all the powerful elf lords, it’s often the humans who push things forward by going, “Actually, no, we don’t have to put up with this.”

Andreth is probably the best example of this, with her barely repressed rage at God and and his creations, but the Numenoreans also stand out as a whole civilization built of raw discontentment. Even the Faithful are full of anger at the status quo and a drive to change things- mark new horizons, build stronger friendships, stage a counter-coup. Beren’s response to being told to get a Chaos Emerald as an engagement gift is “yeah, sure, watch me, new-Dad!” Then of course you have Eowyn, whose existential crisis leads her to stab a ghost, and Boromir, whose desperation for stability leads him to grasp for the Ring. You have the Nazgul who were hungry enough to fall prey to Sauron where all the other peoples mostly stood tall against his temptations. Humans want and humans act and the immortals+mythological creatures that populate the rest of Tolkien’s work make this simmering resentment all the more noticeable. Humans are never fully comfortable in their own skins in his world. It makes their theological backstory as visitors to this entire plane of existence feel all the more apt. For all their fragility and vulnerable physicality, there’s something fundamentally on edge about their psychology. 

I mean, one of the main reasons I think the Noldor in general are such fan favorites is because they hardcore channel that human need for change. They have an antsy quality to them that isn’t quite human (they are still eternally bound to this earth and therefore a bit differently set up than humans psychologically) but is definitely Human Adjacent. 

People talk a lot about Galadriel’s pride, but more than pride she had a thirst for power. She wanted to see new things and be in control and shift the world around her. That’s a deeply human drive, even if she takes it in some weird and inhuman places. Compared to the absolute opacity of Ingwe, or Thingol whose motivations are at least partially centered around his god-wife, Galadriel is surprisingly easy to relate to. Most of her paternal relatives fall into similar patterns as well. They want something, even if they’re not sure what it is yet.

Fingon? Just wanted to kick ass and conquer countries. Ultimately died of reckless alliance forming. Highly human. Finrod? Hard to parse what was going on in his head but seems to have shared some goals with Fingon while also trying to sort through his own complicated feelings regarding religion and the ultimate fate of the universe. Existential doom is a deeply human motivation. Aredhel? Just in it for the kicks, baby. All of Feanor’s sons are ultimately motivated by oath-inspired avarice, but aside from that they all show signs of wanting in a way that’s not purely inspired by aesthetics or whim, but rather underpins some bone deep need to put up a fuss for the fuss’s sake. Maglor’s childnapping, Caranthir’s business sense and desire to shout, Celegorm and the Luthien business. I won’t even get into Feanor’s Everything. These are not settled people. They are the definition of unsettled. 

You can even trace it back to Finwe and his need to be remarried. A perfectly understandable urge to a human person, but really weird to elves. Your wife is right there, an objectively provable ghost! She’s just napping for the next few millennia, dude. But Finwe was restless so Finwe remarried and subsequently things got lit on fire. 

Reading the Athrabeth I was a bit startled at some of the characterizations of the elf vs. human dichotomy, but if you consider the Noldor and in particular Noldorin royalty as terrible outliers and focus on the Sindar and Avar you end up with a much more balanced viewpoint of elves as permanent structures in a permanent world vs. fleeting and structurally unstable humans. A lot of the major characters in the Silmarillion just have clinically diagnosable cases of Human Brain which must be a terrible thing to live with as an immortal. 

Which's even more interesting when The Laws and Customs of the Eldar from "Morgoth's Ring" which's another word for the Arda marred.

At some point the drama (mostly tragedy) of the Tolkien is fundamental "flaw" of the world in which even the permanent cannot be permanent. Thus we have "the Fall" of Aqualonde of a people who...should not be fallen? The insanity that's the Feanorian oath, the imperial conquests of the Eldar, the hunting of the petty dwarves etc. The elves in Middle-earth are arguably just another species of human, structurally unsound because the world they inhabit is also this way. Arguably, they should've never been led away from Cuivenn. And then, there's the whole dub-con of Thingol...

The incredible "yearning" that should've just characterized mortals because a mark of the immortals in Middle-earth as well. Loss and desire went hand in hand. Finwe's the first elf to lose a wife, Feanor the first to lose a mother (then married young). Then, on the flipside, why would Indis want to marry a divorce dad with a son anyways?

PERIOD DRAMA + SLUTTY SHIRTS

Pride & Prejudice (2005) dir. Joe Wright Bridgerton (2020-) created by Chris Van Dusen War & Peace (2016) dir. Tom Harper Poldark (2015-2019) created by Debbie Horsfield Atonement (2007) dir. Joe Wright Jane Eyre (2011) dir .Cary Joji Fukunaga Peaky Blinders (2013-2022) created by Steven Knight Pride & Prejudice (1995) dir. Simon Langton

About the AO3 "No Guest Comments for a while" warning

If you're not following any of AO3's social media accounts you might be in the dark as to what kind of "spam comments" have engendered this banner at the top of the site:

These spam comments have been posted about a great deal on the AO3 subreddit for the past couple of days. Initially they comprised a bunch of guest (logged out users) bot comments that insulted authors by suggesting they were using AI and not writing their own fics. Some examples, from the subreddit:

But it then escalated to outright graphic porn images and gifs being posted in comments, again by logged out 'Guest' accounts. Obviously, I'm not going to give examples of those, but between these two bot infestations, AO3 has clearly decided to act and has temporarily closed the ability to post comments for users who are not logged in with an AO3 account.

Unfortunately, this means that genuine readers who don't have an AO3 account won't be able to leave comments on fics that they enjoy.

If you are a genuine reader who doesn't yet have an AO3 account, I strongly suggest getting yourself on the waiting list for one. More and more AO3 authors are now locking their fics down to registered users only - either due to these bot comments or concerns about AI scraping their work - which means you're probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.

Hopefully guest commenting will be enabled again at some point soon, but I suggest not waiting until then. Get yourself on that list.

Wait times are going to be longer than usual at the moment, due to the current Wattpad purge [info on Fanlore | Wattpad subreddit thread], but if you're in line, then your invite will come through eventually.

Update: There's now a Megathread about this on the AO3 subreddit.

Apparently, I have 9 invitations available, and I think I've used one of them ever, so if anyone out there wants to make an AO3 account, just DM me and I'll send you an invite. ✌️

what's crazy is if magnus were a better scientist and not a cut rate alchedork he would have realized he could totally make lestat into a vampire and then rip his skin off and graft that skin onto himself. i guess he was still kind of scrungled but he could have done this with the bones as well, bit by bit swap them out. if he wanted to be a devastating hottie

Well, he's no Armand :\ But Armand's hardly a "scientist".

This was very fun, thanks to all who participated! I loved seeing your guesses and deductions in the tags!

We have a three-way tie for the winner and…all three are wrong! 🤣

Answers! (Sorry, this is long, because I wanted to be clear.)

The things that are NOT from The Silmarillion are as follows:

Things from “The Shibboleth of Fëanor”, The People of Middle-earth (The History of Middle-earth volume 12):

1) Maedhros was a good-looking redhead

The only thing The Silmarillion says about Maedhros’ appearance is that he was tall! This extremely popular tidbit is from the Shibboleth:

2) Fingon wore gold braided in his hair

Also from the Shibboleth, nothing said about it in the Silm!

4) Maglor played the harp

This was one of the three most-often-chosen options, but it is not from the Silm! In The Silmarillion Maglor is mentioned as a singer, but no specific instrument is named. This is from both the Shibboleth…

…and ‘The Lay of Leithian Recommenced’ in the The Lays of Beleriand (HoME vol. 3.):

6) Fingolfin’s son Argon died in battle shortly after crossing the Helcaraxë

In The Silmarillion Fingolfin has three children: Fingon, Turgon, and Aredhel. Furthermore, Fingolfin’s host are not attacked on their arrival in Middle-earth; they enter. Mithrim, march to the gates of Angband, and then return to to Mithrim, all unopposed, as the Orcs and creatures of Morgoth hide in Angband from the newly-created Sun.

Argon only appears in The History of Middle-earth. The Shibboleth says:

Christopher Tolkien notes in the “Shibboleth” footnotes that Arakanó was added in the making of the genealogies, and that other notes had him dying at Alqualondë, then changed to him dying on the Helcaraxë, and then to this. My speculation: as the Shibboleth also has the crispy-Amrod version of Losgar, maybe at this time Tolkien was thinking of mirroring Fëanor and Fingolfin both losing their youngest sons during the return to Middle-earth?

7) Nerdanel named Amrod ‘doomed’

Also from the Shibboleth, as part of the crispy-Amrod version! None of the sons of Fëanor’s names are given stated meanings in The Silmarillion, not even in the index of names (though meanings are given fir many other names of characters and places). And in The Silmarillion Amrod and Amras both die in the Third Kinslaying.

From the Shibboleth:

I will admit to having glossed ‘fated’ as ‘doomed’, based on words like Turambar (‘master of doom’) and Amon Amarth (‘Mount Doom’).

8) Fingolfin’s wife Anairë was friends with Eärwen

Fingolfin’s wife is not even named in The Silmarillion, and all it says about Eärwen is that she was Olwë’s daughter, was called the swan-maiden of Alqualondë, and married Finarfin. Anairë’s name and friendship with Eärwen are from the Shibboleth:

10) Findis remained in Valinor while Lalwen went to Middle-earth

Neither Findis nor Lalwen appear The Silmarillion. Only in the Shibboleth of Fëanor are they added to the list of Finwë and Indis’ children. This was the least-commonly-chosen answer in the poll. Some of the next-least-common answers were the Argon and the ‘Umbarto’ ones. This makes sense - material that outright conflicts with the Silm would be easier to identify/remember as non-Silm.

11) Idril and Elenwë fell through the ice on the Helcaraxë and only Idril was saved

The only thing The Silmarillion says about this is that on the crossing of the Helcaraxë “Elenwë thhe wife of Turgon was lost”. The details about her and Idril falling through the ice and only Idril being saved are from the Shibboleth:

So eight of the twelve options are non-Silm material from the Shibboleth! Now for the other four.

Things from Morgoth’s Ring (The History of Middle-earth volume 10):

5) Aegnor had a tragic romance with an Edain woman named Andreth.

This is from the “Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth,” an in-depth theological discussion between Finrod and Andreth, in Morgoth’s Ring; it comes up at the end of that comversation. Most people appear to have know that; this was another of the least-commonly-chosen options.

12) Finwë was only permitted to marry Indis because Míriel chose to remain dead

This was another of the three-way-tie for most common choice, but it is not the Silm! Surprisingly, The Silmarillion says nothing even to indicate that Finwë’s remarriage was unusual, much less that it required a special debate and ruling by the Valar. All The Silmarillion says is:

The material regarding Míriel’s determination to remain permanently dead, Finwë’s remarriage, and the debate of the Valar is from “Laws and Customs among the Eldar” in Morgoth’s Ring.

So now we’re down to two options left!

Things from Unfinished Tales

3) Sauron used Celembrimbor’s corpse as a banner after torturing him to death

This is not in The Silmarillion (“Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”). There is in fact amazingly little about Celebrimbor specifically/personally in “Of the Rings of Power”. These are the only two times he is mentioned:

After this it talks about the elves of Eregion (not Celebrimbor specifically) accepting Annatar gladly and making Rings of Power, and realizing they were betrayed when Sauron made the One Ring. Then we have:

I’m surprised myself! I had thought that Sauron torturing Celebrimbor for the location of the Seven and the Three ring was in “Of the Rings of Power” in the Silm, even though I knew him being used as a banner wasn’t.

In fact, the material on Celebrimbor making a last stand against Sauron in Ost-in-Edhil; Sauron torturing him for the location of the Seven and the Three rings and obtaining the locations of the Seven but not the Three; and Sauron using his dead body into a banner; as well as a lot of other material on Celebrimbor such as his and Galadriel’s conflicts over the leadership of Eregion, are all from Unfinished Tales, specifically the section “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn (and of Amroth King of Lórien)”.

It is not easy to read, or find things in, “This History of Galadriel and Celeborn,” due to the many different drafts. The relevant passage is:

So, at last, the correct answer is …. *drumroll*…..

Finarfin was friends with Olwë’s sons!

From The Silmarillion chapter 5, “Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië:

I hadn’t even noticed that fact until my latest reading of the Silmarillion, so I figured it was a good one to camouflage among some of the more well-known non-Silm ones. :D

Congratulations to everyone who got this one right, and thanks to everyone who voted and/or reblogged!

THE CASUALNESS OF THAT COLLIE SLIPPING RIGHT OUT OF THEIR COLLAR. That dude is a Willing Participant of this walk and by god everyone else is going to follow the RULES.

Well I'm gonna say at least some of them didn't

Adjusted for age and socio-economic class (roughly, "percentile of wealth" if we go with US has no social classes) none of them did. Sure, a fast-food worker living in NYC NOW may not have the quality of life of an ancient Roman senator, but that Roman senator definitely had a worse quality of life than any sitting US senator.

They all probably had better bread though.

“This is gonna end in tears.”

Torchwood 2.06 - Reset

For elves, the neat part about taking human lovers is the relatively short time of commitment. After reaching 300 years of marriage, you’re starting to get suspicious of your spouse.

Do you ever think that Gildor Inglorion, possibly Finrod’s son, the one who died because of a mortal-elf’s immortal love affair, take a fairly dim view of be-all-end-all love? He’s also very very old, having lived through the tragedies of the first and second age.

While there have been speculations that he and his roaming band of elves are essentially spymasters, his ready hospitality for Frodo etc and their quick disappearance afterwards also reveal that entertaining mortals is not an infrequent event.

The dreams of lost travelers and their revels with elves have been passed down through folklore. Men and women have spoken of confusion of time, wisdom gained, pleasures partook in the company of elves.

Their lives are grim but their persons fair. Short liaisons with mortals are probably considered something like a good meal or a good book. What is thirty or three hundred years. Is it the same person or their descendants? What does it matter? Familiarity is comfort but familiarity is also rare in a world falling into shadow. The final paths of mortals are closed to the elves anyways. So what if the same person comes back again and again, waiting on the same cross-road for them. It’s not Haleth and her responsibilities or Andreth and her philosophy or even the legendary love but merely the sort of half remembered feeling of relief, in itself also a corruption of world.

No one should remember. Yet they all did.

Today's speed paint is a frankly indecent Feanor: no jewels, no braids, just flowy hair in the wind… I'm almost ashamed of myself! Maybe I should tag it NSFW? XD

I hope you don't mind too much <;

Prints and other stuff on my RedBubble and Threadless

WIP BIG BANG SIGN-UPS ARE LIVE!

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