I’ll be honest, I have immediate distrust of anyone that writes Hobbit fic that still has Thorin, Fíli, and Kíli killed off.
Unless that fic immediately follows it by revealing that Middle Earth is actually full of dwarven ghosts that return for the Drama™ by staring at Mahal’s magical Gimli pool for hours on end, and you suddenly find yourself cheering every time another dwarf dies, because you just *know* that reunion in the Halls of Waiting is gonna be amazing. Sure, you’re still crying, but it’s like crying in a long line for an amusement park ride: the wait is a painful test of endurance and you’re scared about what’s to come, but then you ride the ride, get off after a shockingly fun time, and remember that you’re still at that damn amusement park for the rest of the day. Also, you’re now a depression-recovering bisexual dwarven ghost king that has the power to yell WHAT THE FUCK at living people and sometimes they actually listen.
Sansûkh. I’m talking about Sansûkh.
MATE…!!
’
you’re now a depression-recovering bisexual dwarven ghost king that has the power to yell WHAT THE FUCK at living people and sometimes they actually listen ’ <– excuse ME YOU MAGICAL PERSON YOU, BUT THIS IS THE MOST PERFECT DESCRIPTION OF SANSUKH!THORIN EVER WRITTEN AND HE NEEDS IT ON A T-SHIRT
( bilbo’s would say ‘i’m a secretive paranoid sassbucket w trust issues, but hey, i used to be MUCH worse’ )
YOU HAVE MADE MY NIGHT YOU DELICIOUS GENIUS THANK YOU ❤
Hey Nonnie! This got me thinking, and I did some riffing on your ask – I hope this is the sort of thing!
Oh they’re around, all those “Elves-Are-Doodyheads” Dwarves… I mean, the Nogrod thing has a minor effect on the characters even in the living world (Haban is a Firebeard, and I’m rolling with the old fanon idea of Nogrod = Firebeards, and Belegost = Broadbeams). It was a sticking point with Thranduil, remember. He was NOT a fan of Gimli in any way… but ESPECIALLY AND IN PARTICULAR NOT THE ¼ FIREBEARD PART. So, that bit of history is also informing the ‘Dwarves-Are-Doodyheads” Elves, as well…!
Anyway, back to the Halls. There’s some mention of how the watchers of the Quest gain some notoriety around the Halls of Mahal. At first, the watchers who violently oppose the Gimli-Legolas relationship have a lot of external support. They behave in a way that suggests that they feel secure, even self-righteous. That’s because the rumours that are flying around the place are framed pretty exclusively from the Elves-Suck perspective.
(This means that Narvi has been very isolated in her beliefs, as well as in her behaviour, for all those centuries.)
As the Elves and Dwarves of the living world make each small, agonisingly tiny step towards a better understanding of each other, those Dwarves who are a part of the watch all grudgingly accept the change, one by one. Slowly of course, but they do. They can’t really force it to NOT happen. I mean, it’s right there in front of their eyes, and all they can do is watch it happen. It’s sorta undeniable.
It’s tiny steps, sure – but there are a LOT of them. And they start small, and get so much bigger…
There’s Gimli and Legolas of course – but there’s also Merilin, who rescued Dori and saved the Queen Dowager’s life. There’s Laerophen who fought in the dark and on the secret stair, who cares for the young ones and welcomes Gimli as a brother. There’s Laindawar who travels East because it is right, not out of love for Dwarves but out of a love of freedom – freedom from darkness and fear. There’s the Lady Galadriel, who speaks to Gimli with the utmost respect and chides her own husband on Gimli’s behalf.
And eventually, even the pale old Spider himself, Thranduil… who fed their starving people.
So, the watchers of the Quest will be spreading a new story. It will not make a lot of people happy to hear it. There will be a lot of disagreements and debate… but what can any of the dissenters do about it? It’s happened, they can’t affect it, they’re dead. The only one with a hope of actually affecting these events is Thorin, and he’s firmly on team Gigolas these days (he’s probably Ship Captain, tbh). Heck, when the news about Kili’s silent, hopeless vigil gets around… a lot of folks are going to bite their pipes in half, heh.
It will take a LONG time for the rumour mill in the wider Halls to stop grinding out the old tune. Resentment is the last thing to fade in any heart.
(And yes, I think the Petty Dwarves are there, but they’d mostly be keeping to themselves and not really hobnobbing much. They were rumoured to be exiled Dwarves from the seven great clans, after all… ones that used their true-names openly. So yeah, I think they’d have their own areas and not really mix, by choice. Mim might set a trap or pick a fight or two for the sake of it though, bc he is TOTALLY That Guy.)
I seriously should not be allowed to name artwork.
omg uweyvi…
Laindawar’s eyes here are totally saying ‘are u fucking serious right now’ SNRK
(also I want his eyebrows, they are the Eyebrows Of My DreamsTM)
and Muil’s expression is HYSTERICAL… and her earrings are GOALS, I love them so much, and her dress looks amazing! Love the stitching detail, wow! Damnnnnnn! It’s awesome, thank you so much!
Sansûkh bydetermamfidd(WIP but close to finished and worth it, 533k, T) – So I’m assuming you HAVE read this because you like gigolas so of course you’ve read this but on the off chance that you haven’t, drop this list like a tonne of bricks and go read it now. I don’t care if you think it’s too long, I don’t care if you don’t read WIP’s, I don’t care what your problem is with this fic. If you enjoy LOTR and The Hobbit, if you like gigolas, go read this now. This is my favourite fic of all time and I would recommend anyone reading this list, regardless of your opinion on lotr to read this fic.
It starts off immediately after The Hobbit and spans through to the war of the ring and a little bit beyond and is completely canon compliant. Also Thorin Oakenshield is the main character. “How?” I hear you ask, “Thorin died in The Hobbit and if it’s completely canon compliant…?” Well the premise of the story is that when Thorin died, he went to the halls of waiting, the Dwarven afterlife. There he met his Maker and got so annoyed that he agreed to give Thorin the ability to somewhat reach the land of the living by talking to people’s subconscious. He does this by talking to living people that he observes in this star pool thing that allows dead dwarfs to hang out invisibly amongst the living.
Now the problem with his method of communication is that people hear him to different degrees. Some can’t hear him at all, some hear him and think it’s a subconscious thought. The person who hears him the BEST happens to be his little cousin, Gimli son of Gloin.
It’s honestly the best and I could gush forever, the world building is phenomenal, the writing is superb. Sometimes I am honestly sad that determamfidd isn’t paid for it because it is that good.
Nothing Gold Can Stay byTAFKAB (WIP, 149k, E) – So I’m not actually up to date on this one. However TAFKAB is HONESTLY a brilliant writer and the premise of the story is so interesting! Basically Thorin is alive but never got over his gold sickness so he’s a royal prick. The dwarves got into trouble their first winter and because Thranduil is a royal prick he demanded a slave for 60 years in exchange for help. He did this because giving yourself willingly into slavery in this fic is an ENORMOUS dwarf taboo that makes you basically dead to your society.
Cue Gimli, SUPER YOUNG, agreeing to be Thranduil’s slave and ostracise himself from his society FOR his society. Thraduil doesn’t really want a slave, so he foists him off to Legolas. The two clash culturally but Legolas isn’t really interested in any slave stuff either so he’s treated relatively fairly. Shit happens, the war of the ring starts early because of thorin’s aforementioned royal prickishness, and Legolas and Gimli fall in love on a fun adventure 🙂
Comes Around Again by scarletjedi(Complete, 205k, T) – OK so this story is one of the quite a few character-dies-and-goes-back-in-time fics in the LOTR/Hobbit fandom. Now there are two of these that are very similar in premise so I’m hoping I’m getting the right one. Basically Gimli dies an old dwarf with Legolas, his husband, by his side and both Gimli and Legolas are sent back to their bodies just before the events of The Hobbit. Gimli joins The Party of Thorin Oakenshield and shenanigans ensue. It’s a marvellous story, great to sink one’s teeth into.
“I never thought to find wisdom in a Dwarf,” Legolas said softly, wiping down Gimli’s cheek. His long, pale fingers hovered over Gimli’s thick wild hair. “No, nor beauty either.”
Aragorn looked up, startled. “Legolas?”
The Elf paused, and when he spoke again his voice was barely audible. “De melin, Aragorn.”
There was silence, and then Aragorn shook his head roughly. “Man ebennig?” he demanded.
“Westron!” Thorin growled.
“De melin,” Legolas said, and closed his eyes. “Melin Gimli.”
Ahhhhhh! So I started reading Sansukh earlier this semester and I really had to illustrate one of my favorite parts! It’s taken so long bc about mid semester I became so busy that I barely had time to do any fanart and I really wanted this to be good to maybe even partially reflect how good of a fic Sansukh is!
So yeah I guess this is sort of a thank you to @determamfidd for the great fic, I haven’t finished it yet but I love it so far!
hyperventilates bc this amazing artist whose gigolas work I aDMIRE LIKE WHOA has drawn a pic from SANSUKH excuse me while I FLIP TF OUT
jsahegfkaj holy heck this is AMAZING and thank you so so much! Ahhh the expression on Legolas’ face – arrrgh so tender, it’s so tender I need to punch a wall or something – and I am in awe of that background and all the detail on Gimli’s brigandine (also hot damn his hair and beard just. okay I have a yum) and the proportions?? are incredible?? like, you can see the incredible heaviness of Dwarf bone in Gimli’s head and arms here, compared to Elven and and and AND you are AMAZING, thank you thank you forever~!
(STILL FLIPPING TF OUT JSYK)
I pretty much fell in love with legolas’ family so of course I had to try sketching them! I’ve always head cannoned that elves don’t actually have pupils, they just have spots of color that zoom down to pin points when they’re sleeping. Your lovely writing made me headcanon that the votes ended up inheriting kind of wavy wild hair from their mother.
ME REACTING: HOLY HECK THIS IS AMAZING!! I love your style, how flowing and graceful and art-nouveau-y and elvish your lines are! I can see the personalities just shining out of each of them, and you’ve chosen their outfits SO perfectly (oh Laerophen, you reserved and high-collared beanpole you!!!) – I love enigmatic, stately Thranduil, and Laindawar’s armour and his challenging expression, and ofc Legolas isn’t paying attention, but is watching the squirrels chasing each other in the trees…!
i love it, thank you SO much ❤ it’s amazing and so are you!
I am not sure if I am the one that started it. Perhaps we came up with the concept at different times? After all, it’s a kickass idea, making Narvi a lady 🙂
It’s implied that there are more verses to the song… and some of them are not safe-for-kids. Gimris is trying to limit-set Gimizh’s natural interest in such stuff
(she is not succeeding, bc some things are universal when it comes to pre-teens – and a fascination with naughty words is pretty high on that list.)
(ALSO – consider that Gimli wrote it when he was basically a teenager himself. This means he was that kid who makes up dirty little songs to make his friends laugh)
Aw Yiss 