va'esse deireádh aep eigean, va'esse eigh faidh'ar

Things read for the silwritersguild's Holiday Feast challenge, with reflections.

Starters: For our starter course, we would like to send you on a little scavenger hunt in the Legendarium. The following lines all stand at the beginning of a chapter… but what chapter in what book? Happy searching!

I did find all of these, but I'm not saying where, because I know a lot of people on my flist are probably doing this as well, and I don't want to spoil the fun. I read two chapters, the one beginning with "In that time were made those things that afterwards were most renowned of all the works of the Elves." (to celebrate finding the book it is in during my room-cleaning adventures) and "Ægidius de Hammo was a man who lived in the midmost parts of the Island of Britain." (because it was new to me)!

Fish: [W]e invite you to take a closer look at the maritime themes, locations and characters of the Legendarium.

I read "Aldarion and Erendis: The Mariner's Wife", from Unfinished Tales. I'm not sure if I'd read it before — I feel I must have, because Erendis had always hovered somewhat at the edge of my thoughts as someone I'd like to write about some day (me? weak for ladies who would like to FIGHT THE ENTIRE SEA? it's more likely than you think!). And as this challenge coincided somewhat with femslash_kink and someone left the irresistible prompt of 'Erendis/Uinen, breathplay', it was an easy choice of things to read. I haven't finished the fic yet, but the reading massively improved a bus ride or two home from work.

Main Course: I chose 'temptation' from the list of themes.

Return to old favourites with this one, re-reading "The Mirror of Galadriel" from Fellowship Frodo's offer of the ring to Galadriel and her rejection of the temptation. After a year of writing Galadriel mostly in the context of Galadriel/Melian fey cannibalism it surprised me a bit how quick the transition from temptation to rejection passes in the text. Something to, perhaps, think about in future fics: the scale of her desires, the shape of her limits.

Dessert: Read a chapter that includes sweet foods and fragrances

"Valaquenta" was on the list for reasons of ripe fruit (Yavanna) and fragrant flowers (Vána), but I may have read it anyway — it has a special place in my heart not only because it is, effectively, a very long and soothing list, but also because there are so many female characters in a single Tolkien chapter (I have, uh, never claimed to have particularly diverse interests?)

Cheese: The tale of Beren and Lúthien is lovely, but it’s also the easily the cheesiest story in the Legendarium, especially the verse version in The Lays of Beleriand. Choose any chapter or canto about this duo (or their later doppelgangers, Aragorn and Arwen), or any chapter from the Beren and Lúthien book for this challenge.

I feel a bit sorry for Beren, honestly. He's a perfectly serviceable dude but when you're a dude whose girlfriend is killing vampires and wearing their skin and yelling at gods you, uh, really don't have that much of a chance at getting and holding my attention! I read the version in the Silm, after a moment of silence for the copy of Lost Tales v2 that apparently I never actually owned. Main takeaways from this read-through include: [1] gods do I need more fic about Eilinel, in both mortal and wraith forms, [2] there is some Excellent gore in this version (Beren's dream? Vampire!Huan?), [3] Sauron-as-werewolf makes me giggle, [4] I really need to write more Lúthien/Thuringwethil.

I feel perhaps I have gotten the wrong things out of this last challenge. I tried, friends, Beren is still fine. He has no idea how rare his status as 'dude love interest I do not request be murdered if you write femslash with his girlfriend' is.

[Shows up to the silwritersguild 's B-Movie challenge surprisingly on-time with a fanmix] It's been ages since I've last done a fanmix, but the idea of seven prompts to structure a narrative/influence song choice for one was too good to pass up. Not sure anyone but me needed there to be Lúthien/Goldberry/Thuringwethil horror-themed mix about fey girls and murder in the world, but too bad, it's here now and I love it.