Helcaraxe - Tumblr Posts
Wait this is so cute 🥹
Day 2 (Traveling to Middle Earth | The Helcaraxë | Bonds Broken, Bonds Made) for @glorfindelweek !!
This is so so headcanon heavy but tl;dr I like to headcanon a) Idril as the equivalent of 10-12ish at the start of the Helcaraxë and Glorfindel being only a little older than her, b) Glorfindel as Idril's first cousin, on her mother's side, and c) them being more or less friendly before the Helcaraxë but growing very very close during the march!
They're just two kids watching out for each other when the adults are busy with important adult things
Recollections of Turgon regarding the Helcarxe
Companion to this
He doesn’t like to remember the ice. The freezing claustrophobia, the cold that sank deep into his bones until it felt it would never leave him. It had already frozen his brother’s heart. He would talk, he would scream, but it never mattered because Fingon might be crying but only truly expressed nothing but absolute apathy.
They starved there, in the dark and the cold. Food became a matter of life and death, and suddenly any reservations had to be cast aside as seals and polar bears were suddenly large warm food sources, no matter what part you got.Â
They couldn’t bury the dead on the Helcaraxe. Nothing went to waste.
The eternal darkness was perhaps the worst of it though. Shadows danced around them and even when they set up camp they howled and cackled as they tapped on their tents.
His wife was known for her caution, and his daughter for her light footing. They did not fall. His wife was one of the most competent swimmers of the eldar, she did not drown.
He carried his daughter for most of the journey. Her feet were lost, but not to frostbite, and he couldn’t leave her behind.
And still Fingon tried to hide his apathy behind false expressions.
He gathers his own support. Glorfindel, who lost most fingers on his left hand to a blizzard, Ecthelion, who sung fish out of the water so they could be eaten raw, and others who, like him, just want to knock Feanor’s teeth out.
When they reach Beleriand, it’s like a fog had lifted from their minds. It’s too late to fix anything though. Fingon ran after their dammed cousin like he always had and doesn’t talk to them with anything other than clipped sentences. Curufin crafts his daughter feet of mithril as reparations, and others slowly adapt to their new life.
There is no section of Gondolin’s library regarding the Helcaraxe. If they act like it never happened, then maybe nothing they did was real anyway.
If you're still taking requests, might I suggest Glorfindel with Fingolfin's colors or symbol?
Hey anon! Sorry this took forever, some stuff irl came up.
I hope this is something like what you wanted! Glorfindel on the Helcaraxe, in a scarf he was given by Fingolfin
I'm very excited to show you this year's @tolkienrsb art I made! It's called Stains in the Snow and it's set during the journey through Helcaraxë, showing Glorfindel at the front and Galdor and Salgant behind him. I'm not gonna give out clues what the art is about, if you are interested you are gonna have to read the story written by lovely @jhelenivarsimae, that I will link when it is gonna be available on ao3 on September 6! I will update this post with the link for it, I'm so hyped to read it myself!! I added two versions of this art, originally I was planning to just put the gif here but the quality is not the best, so I also added a still frame.
MAJOR Cannibalism TW
The journey across the Helcaraxe took far longer than the elves expected it to. They had nowhere near enough food, and even the elves need to eat. So they did what they had to do.
Fingolfin did what he had to do because he was stubborn.
Fingon does what he must because he has to survive long enough to see Maedhros again.
Turgon does what he must because he will not let his daughter be orphaned.
Galadriel does what she must because she still needs to punch Feanor in the face.
Argon and Elenwe did not live long enough to need another food source.
Glorfindel, half frozen to death himself from repeatedly diving into the frigid waters to rescue others, didn't even have the capacity to choose whether or not to take the actions he took until they had already begun, and once you start, you don't stop until there's a better option.
When it is finished, they will never speak of it again.
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Feanor's army is left without food a great many times.
Before the sun's first rise and set, the Feanorians have created a way to determine who lives and dies in times of starvation, and they too refuse to speak of what happened to their dead.
They refuse because Maedhros, for all his protest of killing other elves, was the first to slit the throat of the elf chosen to die.
They refuse because not even Maglor can bring himself to sing of this, and Maglor could sing of his own family dying.
They refuse because Caranthir, for all his brutality and cruelty, believes that they are wrong.
But most importantly, they refuse because the first elf they ate was Amrod.
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The second most important time the Feanorian army is left starving is in F.A 548. This is the event with the most guilt around it.
Survivor's guilt from Elrond, because for all intents and purposes, the stolen twins should have been the first to die.
Inequality guilt from Elros and Erestor, because they knew that they weren't going to be harmed and they did not step in to suggest something better.
Existential guilt from Maglor, because he cannot bring himself to think that this is their fault.
And the overwhelming, self-loathing guilt of Maedhros, because at the end of the long, bloody day, he knows he should have done something to stop this. To make sure two sixteen year old half-elves didn't have to choose between starving and sinning. To make sure his brother didn't have to make that decision for them. He should have done anything.
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By the late Third Age, the few elves who know all of what happened are together in a city. Odd behaviors surround them like shrouds, concealing a much darker past. The people of Imladris have learned not to try to pull back these shrouds.
They don't ask questions when the mere sight of a red drink forces Erestor to hide in his chambers and cry.
They don't ask questions when the mere sight of meat has a good chance of making sure Glorfindel won't be able to keep anything down for days.
They don't ask questions when a particular word or phrase has Elrond refusing any food altogether for days.
They don't question, because they don't want the answer. They don't want to know what can break a man like Erestor, who acts like a glacier made of intelligence. They don't want to know what makes a Balrog slayer feel sick. They don't want to know what manages to drive a perfect person like their lord to the brink of complete collapse.