Blind Guardian – Nightfall in Middle-earth [full album]

oftheinsane:

The album retells the events in The Silmarillion, beginning with an episode at the end:

  1. In “War of Wrath”, Sauron advises his master Morgoth to flee the triumphant Valar in the War of Wrath. Morgoth sends him away and reflects on the events leading up to his defeat.
  2. In “Into the Storm”, Morgoth and Ungoliant, fleeing from Valinor after having destroyed the Two Trees, struggle for the possession of the Silmarils.
  3. “Lammoth” is the scream of Morgoth with which he fights off Ungoliant.
  4. In “Nightfall”, Fëanor and his seven sons mourn the destruction wrought by Morgoth, including the slaying of Finwë, Fëanor’s father, and swear to get revenge on him, in spite of the Valar’s disapproval.
  5. “The Minstrel” is most likely about Maglor, son of Fëanor, who composed the song “The Fall of the Noldor” based on the Kinslaying.
  6. In “The Curse of Fëanor”, Fëanor expresses his wrath and anger and
    relates the misdeeds he commits, especially the Kinslaying, in pursuit
    of Morgoth.
  7. In “Captured”, Morgoth addresses the captive Maedhros, Fëanor’s son, and chains him to the Thangorodrim mountains.
  8. In “Blood Tears”, Maedhros relates the horrors of his captivity and his deliverance by Fingon.
  9. “Mirror Mirror” recounts how Turgon, in view of inevitable defeat, builds the city of Gondolin, aided by Ulmo (“The Lord of Water”).
  10. In “Face the Truth”, Fingolfin reflects about the destiny of the Noldor.
  11. In “Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns)”, Fingolfin recounts his Noldor army’s passage from the icy waste of Helcaraxë and the prophecy by Mandos about the Noldor’s fate; he reflects on his own and his people’s guilt and foreshadows their ultimate defeat.
  12. “The Battle of Sudden Flame” refers to the battle in which Morgoth breaks the Siege of Angband using his Balrogs and dragons. The lyrics tell of how Barahir of the House of Bëor, with great loss to his own company, saved the life of the Elven king Finrod Felagund, and in return Finrod swore an oath of friendship to Barahir and all of his kin.
  13. “Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)” is about Fingolfin riding to the gates of Angband to challenge Morgoth to a duel. Fingolfin wounds Morgoth seven times but is eventually killed.
  14. “The Dark Elf” refers to Eöl who seduced Turgon’s sister and fathered Maeglin, who would eventually betray Gondolin.
  15. In “Thorn”, Maeglin reflects on his situation and decides to betray Gondolin to Morgoth.
  16. “The Eldar” is Elven king Finrod Felagund’s farewell to his people, dying from wounds sustained by saving his human friend Beren from a werewolf, thereby fulfilling his oath to the House of Bëor.
  17. In “Nom the Wise”, Beren mourns his friend Finrod. Nóm means “wise” and was the name given to Finrod by Beren’s forefather Bëor.
  18. In “When Sorrow Sang”, Beren sings about his love to the Elven princess Lúthien and his death at the teeth of Morgoth’s wolf Carcharoth. Last part is about Mandos listening to Luthien song about their grief experienced by being different in kin.
  19. “Out on the Water” refers to the last dwelling-place of Beren and Lúthien.
  20. In “The Steadfast”, Morgoth curses his captive Húrin who steadfastly refused to reveal the secret of Gondolin.
  21. In “A Dark Passage”, Morgoth ponders his triumph in the fifth battle. The song also relates the origins of the kindred of men and Morgoth’s curse on Húrin to be witness to his children’s tragic fate.
  22. “Final Chapter (Thus ends …)” concludes the album, speaking of
    Morgoth’s victory by the “treachery of man” but also of the hope for a
    new day.
  23. “Harvest of Sorrow” is the bonustrack on the remastered version of the album. Túrin mourns the loss of his sister Niënor.

The cover art for the album features Lúthien dancing before Morgoth, from “The Tale of Beren and Lúthien”.

Blind Guardian – Nightfall in Middle-earth [full album]

santaferomantic:

One of the most admired photographs that Edmund Teske took was a black-and-white portrait of his boyfriend, Richard Soakup. In the photograph, Soakup, bare-chested and grease-covered, emerges from a dark interior , an automobile in the background, which he has clearly just been repairing. The natural light is focused on Soakup’s tousled, curly blond hair and smooth chest. As Julian Cox notes, “although Soakup is engaged in labor usually associated with men, the intimate image has a soft, almost feminine, quality to it.”

whetstonefires:

i just saw someone argue that the ‘reality’ of aragorn and arwen would be more in the nature of a political alliance than a fairy-tale romance and i’m like.

arright now my friend explain to me what anybody besides aragorn stood to gain from that marriage that would lead to its arrangement. what on middle earth anyone in elrond’s family stood to gain from marrying back into Elros’ line at the expense of Arwen’s otherwise perpetual life.

what would that negotiation look like. why would that be a thing.

because i am coming up with zero theories.

elrond’s whole cohort is in the process of leaving the entire relevant continent! elrond himself made the conscious decision not to at any stage press any of his multiple potential hereditary claims to kingship.

even galadriel is offski, and celeborn does not give a single flying fuck about Gondor except inasmuch as his granddaughter is going to rule it. aragorn has nothing to bring to this marriage but himself.

and a kingdom, admittedly, but considering the codicil of ‘will get to rule it for less than 200 years and then die’ i think that was categorized more under ‘least you can do’ than actual inducement. conceivably arwen could really really want to be a queen, enough to die for the privilege, but that’s. far-fetched, and not exactly an arranged political marriage anymore.

you would really have to seriously rewrite massive swathes of the worldbuilding for that idea to make the slightest sense. what definition of ‘realism’ is being applied here because i…don’t think it’s a useful one in the lotr setting.

botanyshitposts:

when u go to the Very Small Shelf in the library that has info on ur Very Specific Niche Research Topic Of The Day and u go to pick out a book and they stick together bc they’ve been pressed into other books without moving for so long and some of the books are typed in weird typewriter font with huge spacing instead of regular shit and they have old analog library cards that were only punched one (1) time in 1983 like thats when u kno ur In Deep and u gotta like prepare urself….. u could find anything in that shit once u pass like the first bookshelf like its completely free game anything could happen bc u KNO that shit hasn’t been even glanced at in 200 years….open up the 1904 volume of Modern Dick Aerodynamics to the 4832954th page u gonna find a letter in morse code like “i leavith with mine cow for the countryside at dawn”