Weight of a Mythic Past by silmalope  

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Fanwork Notes

My prompt for the "Building Middle-earth" challenge was "Byzantine architecture"! I made my best effort at a Byzantine-style mosaic, with some basket columns and arches, and I had fun imagining the tension between history set in stone and the living, changing people who created it.

Fanwork Information

Description:

Maglor reflects on the past after returning to Valinor. Created for the August 2026 "Building Middle-Earth" challenge.

Major Characters: Maglor

Major Relationships:

Genre: Family

Type: Drawing/Painting

Challenges: Building Middle-earth

Rating: General

Warnings:

Posted on Updated on

Weight of a Mythic Past

Digital artwork in color. Maglor leans against a column, gazing down at his scarred hand. Behind him (and looming over him) is a large mosaic of the Oath of Feanor and the return of the Silmaril by Elwing and Earendil.

Comments on Weight of a Mythic Past

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I love Maglor's expression, poor guy definitely looks like he needs some rest... And the mosaic is just awesome!!! I love that they are depicted with halos, although their oath is clearly blasphemous! I imagine that the in-universe artist might have been quite controversial?

I thought about that a lot! In practice, I added them to help visually call attention to the faces and add structure to the mosaic (since I knew it would be in fairly heavy shadow and could get muddled). For in-universe explanations, I pondered whether the artist was a renegade Fëanor apologist (lol), but eventually settled on the idea that the halos represent the light of the trees. That’s also why Elwing and Ëarendil at the top don’t have halos!

 

Oh wow! I love how you've worked with the prompt here! What a contrast between the pictured history and Maglor's current reality. Lovely!