#gondor

In that last battle were Mithrandir, and the sons of Elrond, and the King of Rohan, and lords of Gondor, and the Heir of Isildur with the Dúnedain of the North. There at the last they looked upon death and defeat, and all their valour was in vain; for Sauron was too strong. Yet in that hour was put to the proof that which Mithrandir had spoken, and help came from the hands of the weak when the Wise faltered. For, as many songs have since sung, it was the Periannath, the Little People, dwellers in hillsides and meadows, that brought them deliverance. 

For Frodo the Halfling, it is said, at the bidding of Mithrandir took on himself the burden, and alone with his servant he passed through peril and darkness and came at last in Sauron'’s despite even to Mount Doom; and there into the Fire where it was wrought he cast the Great Ring of Power, and so at last it was unmade and its evil consumed. 

Then Sauron failed, and he was utterly vanquished and passed away like a shadow of malice; and the towers of Barad-dûr crumbled in ruin, and at the rumour of their fall many lands trembled. Thus peace came again, and a new Spring opened on earth; and the Heir of Isildur was crowned King of Gondor and Arnor, and the might of the Dúnedain was lifted up and their glory renewed. In the courts of Minas Anor the White Tree flowered again, for a seedling was found by Mithrandir in the snows of Mindolluin that rose tall and white above the City of Gondor; and while it still grew there the Elder Days were not wholly forgotten in the hearts of the Kings.

–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age”

anghraine:

Some stuff about the people of Gondor:

- All described Gondorians have dark or black hair.

- Their skin tones range from “pale” to “swarthy.”

- They are typically taller than the Rohirrim, but there are a few areas where they tend to be short.

- They include at least four ethnic groups: relatives of the Eorlingas/Rohirrim, descendants of “the forgotten men” who lived in Gondor before the Númenóreans arrived, Dúnedain (mainly descended from the Faithful, who themselves mainly came from the Bëorian-settled western regions of Númenor), and Drúedain.

- They mainly speak Westron and Sindarin, varying by region, education, and social background. In Minas Tirith, “many” Gondorians address each other in Sindarin, while others seem to prefer the Common Tongue, and later, the amassed Gondorian army shouts out praises in Westron, Sindarin, and Quenya.

- Even at relatively low population density (and we know some of the provinces are highly populated), Gondor would have had millions of citizens during the War of the Ring and, it’s suggested, could have fielded an army of around 30,000 at the Pelennor if not for the threat of the Corsairs.

- Tolkien himself identified Gondorians with Italians, ancient Egyptians, and the Byzantine Empire.

April Tolkien Challenge; Day 10

Crown of Aragorn

tap picture for better quality

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Also known as the crown of Gondor, or the Silver Crown, it was said to have come from a Númenorean helmet, one that the great kings in battle used to wear. When it got crushed in the Battle of Dagorlad, the helmet of Isildur became the next Crown of Gondor.

When Atanatar II The Glorious became king, he refashioned ht helmet into the crown we know to have been King Elessar’s, or Aragorn. The crown was once more lost as Eärnur lay it in the lap of King Eärnil II, his father, in the houses of the dead, and it remained there for 969 long years, awaiting the next king.

It was Gandalf who eventually handed Aragorn, or Elessar, his crown on May 1st of the year 3019 of the Third Age. It was tradition that the helmet be passed from father to son, but as Aragorn had no family left, he let Gandalf bring it to him, to crown him as king of Gondor, reclaiming his title as the last heir to the throne.

——

Sources:
-One Wiki To Rule Them All, Crowning of King Elessar
-One Wiki To Rule Them All, Crown of Gondor
-Tolkien Gateway
-Return of the King, JRR Tolkien,

thinking about my elf OC today that I’ve been developing since I was six years old and now I’m taking a college level course and studying elvish language to further validate him

Hello friends, new and old! Welcome to my new blog!

It’s hard to sell oneself in merely a header, title or description, so I figured - for the sake of anyone who wanders into this place - that I would organize a bunch of fundamental information right here!

Who am I?

Who are you?You needn’t think of that now, unless of course, you’d like to.

My name is Jules, I use he/they pronouns, and I am a lifelong fan of Tolkien’s work and world. As a small child, my mother read The Lord of the Rings to me, and by the age of six I had seen the films. I read the books for myself between the ages of eight and ten, and have done so some times since. 

Tolkien’s work shaped me fundamentally from that starry-eyed chapter in my youth, everything from my fantastical adventures and ambitious in my backyard to my perception of masculinity, femininity, love, power and comradery. The young man I am and grow to be each day is very much indebted to the characters and stories of all The Professor’s work.

What is this blog?

Obviously, this blog is themed around an appreciation for anything and everything Middle Earth. 

In particular, though, I intend to post a combination of quotes from the novels and/or films, and brief observations or notations I find in the margins of my copies of the novels as I re-read them, perhaps with some fresh notes to join them. In addition, I am taking a class this semester in University entitled “J. R. R. Tolkien and Counterculture,” (with our dear @wilderlandranger) and will likely post some notes, food for thought, or even scribbles for assignments. 

There will also likely be memes. Maybe some of my own writing. 

I am very much going to treat this blog like a more organized version of a very disorganized Word doc currently festering on my Desktop called “Tolkien Diary,” if that adds any briefer explanation or flavor to what you expect. 

Additives and Addendums

If I find anything more noteworthy to add to this post of great importance, then it will be listed under this section! But, for now, good day!

mapsburgh:

mapsburgh:

Re-reading The Two Towers, I came upon this passage from the battle of Helm’s Deep:

“‘Yet there are many that cry in the Dunland tongue,’ said Gamling. ‘I know that tongue. It is an ancient speech of men, and once was spoken in many western valleys of the Mark. Hark! They hate us, and are glad; for our doom seems certain to them. “The king, the king,” they cry. “We will take their king. Death to the Forgoil! Death to the Strawheads! Death to the robbers of the North!” Such names they have for us. Not in half a thousand years have they forgotten their grievance that the Lords of Gondor gave the Mark to Eorl the Young and made alliance with him. That old hatred Saruman has inflamed.”

So basically, we have an indigenous people, whose land was claimed by conquerors from across the sea. When said conquerors couldn’t maintain control of the land anymore, rather than granting independence to the native people, the conquerors handed it off to a different set of foreign colonizers, who have refused to recognize the indigenous people’s rights for hundreds of years. No wonder the Dunlendings are upset! This is a war of liberation for them! Tragically, at the end of the battle, the Dunlending POWs are forced to labor at repairing Helm’s Deep as penance for their rebellion.

This all supports my headcanon that Saruman was the good guy in this portion of the war.

Turns out Tolkien more or less agreed with me. From the essay “Of Dwarves and Men,” in HoME XII:

Also it must be said that ‘unfriendliness’ to Numenoreans and their allies was not always due to the Shadow, but in later days to the actions of the Numenoreans themselves. Thus many of the forest-dwellers of the shorelands south of the Ered Luin, especially in Minhiriath, were as later historians recognized the kin of the Folk of Haleth; but they became bitter enemies of the Numenoreans, because of their ruthless treatment and their devastation of the forests, and this hatred remained unappeased in their descendants, causing them to join with any enemies of Numenor. In the Third Age their survivors were the people known in Rohan as the Dunlendings.

Pippin could see all the Pelennor laid out before him, dotted into the distance with farmsteads and little walls, barns and byres, but nowhere could he see any kine or other beasts. Many roads and tracks crossed the green fields, and there was much coming and going: wains moving in lines towards the Great Gate, and others passing out. Now and again a horseman would ride up, and leap from the saddle and hasten into the City. But most of the traffic went out along the chief highway, and that turned south, and then bending swifter than the River skirted the hills and passed soon from sight. It was wide and well-paved, and along its eastern edge ran a broad green riding-track, and beyond that a wall. On the ride horsemen galloped to and fro, but all the street seemed to be choked with great covered wains going south. But soon Pippin saw that all was in fact well-ordered: the wains were moving in three lines, one swifter drawn by horses; another slower, great waggons with fair housings of many colours, drawn by oxen; and along the west rim of the road many smaller carts hauled by trudging men.

- Pelennor Fields. Return of the King, Minas Tirith