@[email protected] asked
oh what does being an airimo/priest in tolkien eldarin tradition mean? I am a huge fan of LOTR and The Hobbit, and Tolkien's artworks, but otherwise, I'm afraid I don't know a lot of the lore outside of that
🌹background on the writings of the legendarium and a mythopoetic/mythological/spiritual reading of the texts
🌼my own being as specifically tolkien elven otherkin, what kind of thingy i am
🌸eldarin spiritual traditions/invented religion/what are those gay genderqueer elves doing over there?
-resources and links
🌹So, LOTR and the Hobbit are the nicely finished parts of Tolkien's Legendarium (gateway article) published before his death, which he began working on as early as 1916 while recovering from trench fever from wwi. The currently published books of the legendarium were compiled and edited by JRRT's son, Christopher, and published posthumously. Because of this, there is no 'one true version' of most of the stories presented in the legendarium, because JRRT himself was not able to finish and attest to their being in final state. There were many versions, some overlapping or contradictory, to many of the tales or ideas in the legendarium, and if you go through what is available chronologically you can watch his ideas on linguistics and the world of Arda (which includes middle-earth) change and grow. JRRT was very influenced by his studies as a medievalist, and the legendarium can be read as a mythology or in a mythological lense, so to speak. There are some other things supporting a mythological or spiritual lense for reading, like Tolkien's occasional comments that he didn't 'write' the story, rather it was revealed to him or channeled to him and he was following the current as it grew and changed. He was also endeared to the longstanding concept of an Otherworld, of Faerie, and his early visions and writings of Arda (the lost tales especially) present Arda as A Faerie/An Otherworld and not as ancient earth necessarily.
There's a really excellent article on the 'spiritual/religious affordances' of the legendarium as a text and that serves as a little historical collection of the various tolkien inspired/based spiritual groups that have existed over time, which is Dr. Markus Altena Davidsen's 'The Spiritual Milieu Based on JRRT's Literary Mythology' published in 2012. This paper really breaks down the anatomy of fiction inspired or based religion in an interesting way, and discusses the different lenses people read these texts in. The PDF is free to download directly from the link above at academia.edu.
🌼I've been an elf for a long time. I didn't really want to be a Tolkien elf because the common pop culture assumptions about eldar were that they are snooty and high falutin and think it is crass and ugly to wear black clothing. or something. apparently thats a real fight lotr larpers playing elves have gotten into with some regularity over the decades.
But, regardless, the anatomy matches and the shoe fits. Eldar are the elves of the tolkien legendarium, whose primariy body is that of the spirit. Our physical bodies are houses for our spirits to reside in. We love speech and creation, and each of us has proclivities to some certain topics or thoughts or arts that especially enriches us. Our memories are very long, and our view of the future favors the long view--the right here and now can be easily overlooked if it isnt crucial to the outcome of the long view. (as in, what type of thing we eat or do not eat, wear or do not weat, sing or do not sing, etc, will not change the longterm-outcome of virtuous behavior very much, so we are not overly concerned with it outside of the exercise of arts.)
The first story in the Silmarillion (Christopher's Great Compilation of legendarium stories edited into a chronological mythology) is that of the creation of the world, the ainulindale or song of the powers. Here's an excellent illustrated comic form by Evan Palmer! I share this because this can tell you a lot about the eldar without having met them or reading further--the elves were only the firstborn of the children. Humans, Dwarves, Hobbits, all the other thinking and speaking peoples, or the 'free peoples' as they were called intext in LOTR in that age, are my siblings. My perspective of my siblings, these other kindreds, is that we are beautifully different and also so beautifully alike. We were made for the love of making, and that is something that warms my heart in this world where many are not born or raised out of love by their material parents, including myself. The marring of the world by selfishness and cruelty has hurt myself and all of my siblings, and that seed of hurt has echoed into our own actions and thoughts.
This forms the basis for how i view the world, how i navigate it, how i feel about living here.
I don't really view my time in Arda as a past life, but rather as one continuous long life. I have died at least twice, and been re-embodied, as some of us do. It just so happens that this last time I was given this beautiful human body to live in, with human family and a human life. I don't think this world is materially Arda in the 12th age or something like that, as some claim. I think the power of Otherworld, of Faerie, of Arda as a kind of Otherworld, means I can be here as I am even if there's no wreck of Numenore for us to dig up in the atlantic ocean bc its not there and didn't happen Here. but i also don't view myself as totally alien or outsider to this world--The One can make many things and has many thoughts I can't understand.
🌸Yay for me, there's other Eldar around! And sometimes dwarves, or hobbits, or mermaids, or even men (in the tolk sense, the kindred not the gender) to make friends with! Socially, I run a small closed-garden community for these people who are of like mind (radically queer and inclusive, not mega racist, view the legendarium with a spiritual lense but dont think it factually overwrites history here as seen in archaeology, etc. not on the ai koolaid.) It is my duty to keep the calendar of our spiritual observations, to perform ritual and spellwork, and generally to maintain the 'facility' where we can relax and be ourselves. Since it is a constructed religion, a lot of that we noodle out ourselves, at the pace that is natural for eldar; which is to say very slowly.
so, like, for example our new year is coming up. It is a two day holiday-the last day of the old year and the first day of the new year. It falls in the month of wind, where we observe reverence for Manwe, lord of the airs and birds, whom Eru appointed to rule over Arda. I can generally list off some ideas for how to celebrate the month and the holiday or how to tailor meditation or spiritual activity at any time of year. The rest is for my dear ones to fiddle with and enjoy on their own and to share if they feel like it. Some of us commune directly with the Valar and some of us do not. Some reserve worship for Eru, I am more panentheistic and worship Eru and all the Valar and animistically observe the divinity of the created world. My role is support and encouragement and sometimes materials or planning.
-Resources and links:
Legendarium article on Tolkien Gateway.
Dr. Markus Altena Davidsen's 'The Spiritual Milieu Based on JRRT's Literary Mythology' published in 2012.
Evan Palmer's
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