The Quendi

 Who Was the Best High King of the Noldor in Middle Earth? First let’s layout some rules: • This analysis only accounts for the high kings who spent the majority of their rule in Middle Earth .  (Sorry Finwë and Finarfin fans!) • Only things each character did during his time as high king will be accounted for (e.g. Turgon founding Gondolin beforehand doesn’t count towards his accomplishments as high king) • Smaller Noldor kingdoms working together do not count as alliances (e.g. Gondolin, Nargothrond, Eregion, and Imladris are still technically under the High King’s jurisdiction) • A “good” high king is determined by his contributions to the Noldor and ability to lead… away from chaos.  Objectively, Gil-galad had the most successful reign. He led the Noldor during the defeats of both Morgoth and Sauron (Round 1). Gil-galad ruled for the longest period of time, had the greatest number of victories, formed one of the largest alliances, and maintained relative peace for a...

 The Role of The Silmarillion in The Lord of the Rings (History for Middle Earth or an embedded fiction?) The Silmarillion is essentially a collection of myths and ancient history for J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe. He wrote the story to give context to his elvish languages, Quenya and Sindarin. It tells the tale of how the Noldor Elves came to Middle Earth, how Morgoth was defeated, and eventually how Númenor fell and the rings of power were created. It’s also referred to many times by characters in Lord of the Rings (for example, Bilbo writes a song about Eärendil).  Now, just for fun , what if The Silmarillion was actually meant to be an embedded fiction within LOTR? As in, the events of the Silmarillion (or at least some of them) never actually happened in Middle Earth, and just like it’s fiction to us in the real world, it’s also fiction to the characters in the book. So, the characters in LOTR reference The Silmarillion like we would reference a really famou...

 The Three Worst and Three Best of Rings of Power Season 2 *Note: This post is highly opinionated* Three Worst 3.) Cirdan’s terrible advice Cirdan tells Elrond that just because the rings were made with Sauron’s help, doesn’t mean they are inherently evil. His reasoning for saying so is sound, but his conclusion is utterly incorrect. All the rings made with the help of Sauron were corrupting, just as Elrond feared. In season 2, we already see the negative effects of Durin III’s ring. There’s literally an entire three volume series about how the One Ring needed be destroyed because it was created by Sauron, and Sauron is evil. It just so happened that the three elven rings were made only by Celebrimbor, who was, in fact, not evil. Cirdan’s wisdom was completely misapplied and Elrond was right all along.  2.) The sympathy for the orcs storyline Orcs are canonically twisted creatures who consistently destroy and slaughter. They are established to be irreversible stains of darknes...