hello so i don’t really vibe with talk of fictional couples being shippable/not shippable but honestly if you think you can’t find a wlw couple to ship, you should just read actual published books. here are just a few adult books about wlw couples to fulfil all your shipping desires:
- the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid: golden age of hollywood secret romance
- written in the stars by alexandria bellefleur: fake dating with references to pride and prejudice
- love bites by ry herman: vampire/human romance with an evil ex
- honey girl by morgan rogers: strangers married in vegas
- the locked tomb trilogy by tamsyn muir: lesbian necromancers in space, enemies to lovers
- one last stop by casey mcquiston: time travelling romance on the subway in new york city
- the villanelle novels by luke jennings: yes, that villanelle! cat and mouse sexual tension between an mi5 agent and the assassin she is trying to catch
- fingersmith by sarah waters: victorian era romance between a con artist and a sheltered rich woman. the basis for one of my favourite films, the handmaiden
- plain bad heroines by emily m danforth: decades-spanning horror mystery about deaths at a boarding school, with three-way romantic tension
- this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone: time travellers alter historic events while falling in love
- something to talk about by meryl wilsner: fake relationship under the watchful eye of hollywood media
- the feminine pursuits series by olivia waite: regency romances about women which aren’t focused on high society and the london season! each book is a new romance, but characters appear across multiple novels
- once ghosted, twice shy by alyssa cole: a novella about a second chance romance about an assistant to a prince who can’t get over a woman she met in new york months ago
these are just a few adult titles that i have read or that are on my tbr. there is not as much of a dearth of wlw couples in fiction as people seem to think! if you’re looking for more and are very into fanfic, try ylva publishing — a lot of the authors are fic authors, and the romance in generally is very tropey and fun! for even more recs, keep an eye on the lesbrary.
we should all absolutely be reading more f/f, and if fandom won’t bring it to you… find it yourself
I always thought that in Númenor there must be an expression like “túrin’s bridge” to refer to an idea that seems great at the moment but will prova catastrophic in the future
you know like we say pyrrhic victory or achille’s heel, I think they’d say túrin’s bridge, and maybe barahir’s ring for a trumph? Like “yes but he has that advantage, that’s his ring of barahir”
I NEED SO MANY MORE MIDDLE EARTH COLLOQUIALISMS AND IDIOMS *__*
Some ideas:
“like Luthien and Beren”/ “her Beren”/ “his Luthien” - equivalent to references to Romeo and Juliet (pretty much canon tbh)
“it’s not like you’re going after a silmaril” = “it’s not exactly difficult,” equivalent of “it’s not rocket science”
“more treacherous than a dwarf/elf” - said by elves/dwarves respectively
“until the breaking of the world” - forever. Usually poetic, associated with declarations of unending love or hatred
“smooth as Sauron/the Deceiver/ Annatar” - sweet-talker who is NOT TO BE TRUSTED, and someone to run away from very fast. Similar to “two-faced” or “speaks with a forked tongue”
“the child of an orc is an orc” - equivalent to “like father, like son,” but more implies that if the parent is a criminal/jerk, so will the child be
“to make a fire-drake out of a lizard” = “to make a mountain out of a molehill”
“go climb Taniquetil”/“go steal a Silmaril” = “fuck off”
“older than the moon” = really damn old. usually used to insult stubborn old people
“dumber than a troll” = really stupid
“(treated like you’re) lower than a goblin” - equivalent of “(treated like you’re) lower than a dog”
“Black as the heart/mind of Morgoth” (probs already exists in-universe, don’t remember)
“Bright as the Lights of Varda”
“As hair of Luthien/Carcharoth’s tail/body of Glaurung/bole of Hirilorn” (partly exists in-universe in the tale of Tinuviel) = very long
“A sea-bird escape” kinda like Deus Ex Machina, magically escaping a dead end (no puns intended) or smth like that
“Spawn of Ulfang” = treacherous men
“Maeglin’s reward” = when a traitor/not a good guy is promised PROFIT and gets punished/killed in the end. Sorts of a “serves him right” kind of thing.
(Okay, shutting up now, my variants seem to be pretty dull.)
There were tons of these in LOTR, if I recall right.
It’s interesting because we have bridge-related metaphors in English: “burning your bridges” is destructively ruining your own options, “bridging the gap” and “building bridges” as acts of connection and communication.
and in Middle-earth I suspect they’d all have the exact opposite meaning, with ‘burning your bridges’ being a sensible act of self-preservation. (”burning your ships”, on the other hand…)
And we do have the canon phrase “Like Glorfindel and the Balrog”, as an elvish expression used when good fights against evil “at uneven odds”. (“Ah! ‘Tis Glorfindel and the Balrog!”)
The fam suggests “resting with the eagles” as a Gondolin euphemism for death – “the king’s wife is resting with eagles” being equivalent to “mama’s with the angels now.”
Less seriously, @siadea and I decided the other day that instead of calling pigeons “sky rats,” the Gondolindim call rats “ground pigeons.”
Maybe “might as well pray for Eagles” when you’re in a tight/hopeless situation?
Malaphors like ‘we’ll burn those ships when we get to them’ are probably somewhat common, twisted over time as the originators of certain phrases are lost. This particular example would, of course, not be that popular among the Teleri.
There are probably some common similes like ‘keen as the eyes of Manwe’ or sthng floating around, particularly among Elves.
I’m rather fond of Dwarves calling on Mahal when swearing, and Elves calling on various Valar that they have particular reverence for (usually Manwe, Varda, or Ulmo), or just being like “Valar damn it!” to express more general frustration.
I could see the Edain picking up some of their swears from Elves in the early days, but I’m not sure which direction they might start branching off in afterwards. Do they swear more like Hobbits? or would it be more akin to our own set of swears? Thoughts?
“Like following Balrogs with dragons” (or vice versa) –> means “serious overkill”
“Jewels contested”/ “gems of strife” –> similar to “apples of discord”/“bone of contention”
“Quarrelling over stones as though they were Silmarils” –> probably most often in reference to petty political squabbling.
“Missed the boat” could take on a couple of different implications in addition to the one we’re used to, considering the various well-known figures who have missed their boats, and not entirely by choice.
not me romanticizing my classes and pretending I’m a novelist in the 18th century about to publish my first draft when in fact I am just sitting in my dorm with a blank Google Doc
not 2 exaggerate but the good place’s thesis of “if the modern pressures of life were removed, we would inherently seek out opportunities to learn and become better and kinder people” is a more interesting and valuable thing to say about society than anything that’s ever been said about cell phones
“you know, ‘chicago is a hot shirtless dude’? that super homoerotic poem about chicago?”
“no seriously, you have heard of this, okay. the one, it’s like, ‘chicago is a butcher and a dock worker, broad-shouldered and muscled and no doubt all oiled up, and if chicago was wearing a shirt at the start of this poem, by now the fabric definitely shredded under the strain of those biceps’”
“i swear to god, look it up, if you’re from the midwest you read this in high school. ‘chicago will ruin your karaoke night, but will buy tequila shots for everyone in the bar and is absolutely dtf. chicago has a lot of wheat and maybe mob connections but is also pretty busy with all the sexually charged wrestling. (chicago does a lot of sexually charged wrestling. more than maybe anybody.) chicago has a loud laugh and very white teeth and scraped up knuckles and is probably good at oral.’ no i am not making this up why would i do that.”
(everyone in the room begins to make noises of understanding) “yeah ok in retrospect the shirtlessness is not explicitly addressed but can we agree it is for sure implied”
#i SOBBED laughing at this post yes I am familiar with “chicago is a hot shirtless dude”#chicago has a loud laugh and very white teeth and scraped up knuckles and is probably good at oral #this is just a factual statement #I’ve lived there I know
thanks for letting me talk about a piece of media i love with you and responding in earnest interest with the intent of checking it out for yourself because of my recommendation. also how do you feel about being kissed directly on the mouth
