If the question, "Who is Gil-galad?" was posed at a Tolkien pub trivia night, it would be a softball question. One needn't even read The Silmarillion to know who he is. After all, I'm sure I'm not the only person who hears "Gil-galad" and automatically completes the thought as, "was an elven-king. Of him harpers sadly sing."
But that's the whole issue, according to Maglor's upcoming presentation for Mereth Aderthad 2025, "Gil-galad was an Elven King: Kingship and Personhood in the last High King of the Noldor." Shadow sat down with Maglor about his presentation this week, as part of our series of interviews of Mereth Aderthad presenters about the work they plan to present. Maglor points out that we know very little about Gil-galad as a person, not just a king. They discussed Maglor's presentation, the many origin theories of Gil-galad, the appeal of Tolkien, and the importance of fanworks for characters like Gil-galad, who are key to the story as we know it but remain undeveloped by Tolkien.
Maglor's presentation highlights a key intention of Mereth Aderthad 2025: to showcase the ways that fanworks not only lead to scholarship but that research often must open back onto fanworks to truly get the answers that, as Tolkien fans, we so often crave. "If someone leaves my presentation thinking, he has a point, I should think more about this and maybe write something," Maglor told Shadow, "be that transformative or scholarly fanwork, that would be awesome! If someone thinks, what was that guy talking about, I should write a thesis explaining why he is totally wrong, that would also be great, because it still means people are thinking and writing about this character who has come to mean so much to me."
Speaking of Mereth Aderthad, registration opened last weekend for both in-person and virtual attendees. Find out more about the event and register to attend here.
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Featured Article
Interview with Maglor by Shadow
Maglor spoke with Shadow about his upcoming presentation for Mereth Aderthad, "Gil-galad was an Elven King: Kingship and Personhood in the Last High King of the Noldor," and what makes Gil-galad such an intriguing—and mysterious—character.
Art Credit: Gil-galad by Thelien (Tumblr)
New Fanworks
Explain This by Elrond's Library [Writing]
Melkor demands an account of Mairon’s failures.
Read more ...Message in a Bottle by StarSpray [Writing]
Over the course of his very long life he had found a handful of messages in bottles, but it had been a very long time. So when he found the glass bottle on his little stretch of pebbly beach, he picked it up with the intention of tossing it into his recycling. But it wasn’t, he found, just another beer bottle.
Read more ...Nerdanel/Nienna moodboard by Independence1776 [Artwork]
A Nerdanel/Nienna moodboard.
Read more ...Updated Fanworks
The Stars of Home by Idrils Scribe [Writing]
Elrohir has been found after his long abduction by the Black Númenóreans of Umbar. He comes home to Rivendell, but all is not well: the Elf-child that was taken is now a Man grown. War and darkness have left Elrohir deeply scarred, and even at home there is danger...
An alternate universe for the Under Strange Stars series, in which Elrohir goes with Glorfindel instead of running away from him after the events of Under Strange Stars. This story can be enjoyed without having read the original.
Many thanks to Grundy and Marchwriter for their excellent beta-reading and brainstorming.
Read more ...A Thousand Winds that Blow by StarSpray [Writing]
When uneasy dreams bring him back into Beleriand, Daeron finds a pair of twins who have lost their home, and an enemy who has lost himself. The Shadow's reach is growing ever longer, and if they are to survive, they must do it together.
Read more ...From That Rubble by StarSpray [Writing]
Fëanor shrugged, studying the contents of his wine glass. “Something must be done about that house. It will fall down eventually.”
“It does not follow that it must be you that tears it down single-handedly. Are you sure you do not want help?”
“It’s not as though I have much else to do. I need to build something new there,” he said after a few moments. “To do that, I must first clear away the old and broken things.”
Decades out of Mandos, too many things in Fëanor's life remain broken. He can't do anything except wait for his sons to come to him, but he can do something about the old and crumbling house where they once lived.
Read more ...Eä's Redemption by AaronAzrael [Writing]
This is my new poetical attempt to add my own interpretation to Tolkien's Cosmology as to Eru's Creation and the Valar's minds and behind-the-scene providence reasons and mechanisms.. I often review Eä as part of our own world, just in another dimension, this is why I have always seriously thought on the matter who the Ainur are, who Eru is, how he matches our own religious pantheon, and this has been conducted after serious research of many esoteric teachings of our own planet's heritage.
Read more ...Around the World and Web
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