The Ship That Sails Itself to Valinor

Question for writers in this pairing: do you find yourself gravitating to one POV over the other, in general or for particular things? And is there any correlation between that and the character you identify with the most? (Do you prefer to write from the perspective of the character you identify with, or from the perspective of the one OBSERVING that character? Are there certain things you prefer to be in Gimli’s head for, or Legolas’s? Etc., etc.) I’ve been observing my own tendencies and now am curious!

Velle by Roselightfairy and DeHeerKonijn

Summary:

Velle (Latin): to want.

“It was the act of bodily union that achieved marriage, and after which the indissoluble bond was complete.” -J.R.R. Tolkien, “Laws and Customs Among the Eldar”

For the whole year they have been living and working in Minas Tirith, Legolas and Gimli have postponed their marriage – planning to wait on even their elven wedding until the conditions are right for the dwarven ceremony as well. But on the eve of their parting to Ithilien and Aglarond, faced with the prospect of an indefinite separation, they decide they can wait no longer. They want to be wed now, so they can part as true husbands – and so they can finally satisfy long-deferred desires.

To both of their distress – and the great amusement of Legolas’s companions – they are soon to learn that some desires are not so easily deferred . . . and that the formation of the marital bond is only the beginning.

A collab I've been working on for a long time, with art and images! The first chapter is up and I'm so excited about it. Be careful, though - there are images and they are very NSFW.

To follow up on previous elf-hair discussions we've had . . . since their hair is so important to elves, think how much more a bad hair day must affect them. I'm not even thinking in terms of vanity (though that's also an amusing thought) but more that... I'm out of sorts when my hair is lank and greasy, and how much worse must it be when you're an elf and your hair is an integral part of your being? I'm imagining an elf waking up with greasy hair and dandruff and just - being unable to function, doing the Middle-earth equivalent of calling in sick because it's so uncomfortable they can't handle it.

Or, if we go the other way around, another dear elf thought I love is the idea that their bodies react to their mental or spiritual state. So say an elf is sad, their hair might be a little less shiny, their scalp a little itchy.

Where I'm going with this is, of course, the thought of Legolas having a bad day with sea-longing or whatever and it manifesting through greasy hair and dandruff; he wakes up feeling miserable and itchy and just wants to scrub his scalp until it's raw and tie his hair back so tightly he can't feel it anymore - and then maybe just go back to bed. But Gimli sits behind him and combs it out very tenderly, lays Legolas's head in his lap and gives him a scalp massage, washes his hair with warm water and gentle shampoo. Basically: bad hair days as representations of an elf's spiritual state, and loving dwarf partners who take it very seriously. <3

I’ve been thinking about the different “waves” of Legolas/Gimli fandom culture lately, because it’s much more pleasant than any of the other things I could be thinking about, and deheerkonijn and I got on the subject of marriage braids (or, more broadly, braids as an indication of elf/dwarf culture) and started wondering– does anyone know where that originated? Is there something in book canon that suggests it, or did it originate with the movies? Did it get a resurgence in the recent fandom culture, or did it start there? What made it so widespread? I would love to hear thoughts, theories, references– anything! (I cross-posted this to Tumblr as well, but it's so much easier to talk on this platform, so if anyone wants to discuss-- please do!)

I'm having all kinds of Gimli feelings all of a sudden, and I've decided that you all have to suffer through me jabbering about them. (And if you're at all moved to chat about them, I would love that.)

The feelings started because of an ongoing sense I've had in the personal little Tolkien 'verse/series of characterizations I write: this knowledge, fueled by nothing in particular, that Gimli and his best friends before LOTR start drifting apart shortly after he returns home from his quest. I know it's because he's become a different person than he used to be: more focused, more open-minded, a little wiser, and with broader priorities than he used to have. Oh, and an elf-lover, of course.

I'm not the first person to feel this way, obviously-- this wonderful fic does an excellent job of exploring the concept (and it has architect Gimli, a personal favorite of mine)-- but it made me start thinking: if the reason for the distance is that Gimli has changed, what was he like before?

I didn't have the following in mind when I wrote my personal Gimli (though I suppose it still applies), so I'm not necessarily talking about him specifically, but I did want to throw it out there anyway. Fandom Gimli has come to be almost defiantly perfect, as a response to the horrible way he was butchered in the movies: intelligent, talented, wise, serious, diplomatic, etc. And while I certainly agree about his general magnificence, I started to wonder: in contrast to the idea, referenced in this Tumblr post, that he was always that way-- what if pre-quest Gimli was a bit of a disaster?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he isn't still talented and intelligent and amazing-- but what if he was purposeless? We know he's well past a hundred, probably older than most dwarves are when they find their partner and/or their passion-- but what if Gimli has spent all these years just kind of floating? And his family despairs of him, because he has all this talent and so much potential that's just going to waste, but he hasn't found anything to direct it at?

Maybe he's a bit of a party boy-- oh, he's reliable and you know you can count on him in a pinch, but he spends his evenings out with friends instead of working on projects or getting his life together. He's got a brilliant mind that could do great things, but he hasn't made any effort to pursue them, and instead just volunteers for every mission or journey that will take him away from home. His parents ask him when he's going to give them grandchildren, but he prefers to sleep around and has shown no interest in settling down with anyone in particular.

He takes things seriously, of course-- the state of the world, the threat of Sauron-- but he won't do the same thing with his own life, and it drives his parents to distraction.

He insists on coming along to Rivendell even as his parents ask hopefully if he's quite sure he doesn't have anything going on here that he'd rather stay for? And when he's chosen for the Fellowship, Gloin is proud, of course-- but he can't help fearing that this is just another of Gimli's tactics to procrastinate on starting his own life. And he can't help hoping that maybe this journey will awaken something in Gimli, that the exposure to new things will give him a sense of purpose, some kind of path. Maybe it's destiny, he thinks. Or something.

He's more right than he knows.

Do you ever just remember the line “while Gimli lives I shall not come to Fangorn alone” and have to go sit down for a minute?

Asking for more fic/art recs...

I think we all know that the trope of wingman/third wheel/shipper/exasperated Aragorn is both prevalent and wonderful in fan creations about these two. I know I've seen a lot of these but can't go link-hunting off the top of my head, so I'll list some favorites later. But I'm interested in hearing from the rest of you: what stories/artworks do you think have used Aragorn to the best effect? (be that heartwarming, amusing, or however else you imagine it)

EDIT: okay, so I find that a lot of fics do this in a background way, with Aragorn as a side character looking on and rolling his eyes, but the one that I think I was subconsciously thinking of, the one that has defined the shipper-Aragorn trope for me, is New Braids by khazadqueen. Bite-sized, hilarious, and a classic.

and as far as art, here's the one that popped into my head while I was posting this earlier, which always makes me giggle.

Permit me to scream about the fact that if Tolkien elves are extra-tall, Legolas is canonically a short elf (given that both Aragorn and Boromir are taller than he is). No wonder he ends up marrying a dwarf! ;)

(That "tall as a young tree" line says nothing. HOW YOUNG A TREE, TOLKIEN?)

Okay, so I've already shared my thoughts about Ithilien and how the elvish society can't last for too long in proximity to mortals, especially not with the world already as changed as it is, with the elves already so close to fading. The world isn't bright and new for them anymore; they're too old and they've been here too long to be able to adapt to change as they used to. So you have all these elves who are staying the same as these mortals are growing and changing and dying around them, and gradually it wears on the elves' spirits-- especially since they were so close to Legolas's and Gimli's concerted efforts to build friendship between their peoples. (This happens with Gondor as well, but I'm less interested in it than in Aglarond.) Legolas and Gimli's closeness ensured that their people grew close as well, and now these elves are watching the friends that they made die and simply be replaced by other dwarves-- something they knew theoretically would happen, but weren't prepared to see and mourn. They watch Gimli's successor take her place as leader after he and Legolas sail, and most of them are "young" enough that they've never seen a transfer of power-- Thranduil has been their king all their lives. They watch their friends' children grow, watch their friends die, and it wears on their spirits until they have to sail in the hopes of reclaiming their sense of eternity.

I've talked about that before, but what about the flip side of it? What about the dwarves who were born in Aglarond, who have grown up with elves as friends? Who maybe have family in other places who grumble (mostly good-naturedly, at this point, but sometimes with more bite to it) about their friendship with the elves, but who haven't been alive long enough to understand why? What about these elves who made friends with dwarves and then became friends to the entire family?

What about the dwarf child who has had a weird "uncle" from Ithilien who has visited her family since she was a child? What about the moment that she realizes that her uncle hasn't grown a single gray hair, even as her parents' sight begins to fail and their limbs weaken? She knows theoretically that elves are immortal, but she hasn't been able to see it until she notices that her uncle doesn't look any different now than when he used to tell her stories and coax animals into playing with her. Now she's too old for those antics, old enough to talk knowledgeably with him about current events and crafts and philosophy-- but every now and then he'll ask if she wants him to sing her to sleep, like he used to when she was a child, and there's always a flicker of confusion in his eyes when she laughs him off.

She notes that flicker a few more times, but she doesn't really see the weight of it until he comes for her father's funeral. Nothing about his appearance has aged, but his eyes are different: there's a tiredness in them that she's never seen before-- not from him, who always had such irrepressible energy-- and she notices that they linger on her whenever she speaks, as though he's trying to memorize the way she looks. The way he moves has changed as well-- he's slower, sadder, and he lets his hands brush over everything he passes as though trying to preserve it for something, as though he'll never feel it the same way again. And she thinks that she might not understand immortality, not really, but she can feel the weight of it in the way his gaze rests on her, in that strange mixture of bewilderment and grief.

The next time he visits, it is to say goodbye.