Fingon and Maedhros - Their ancient friendship

Long before, in the bliss of Valinor, before Melkor was unchained, or lies came between them, Fingon had been close in friendship with Maedhros; and though he knew not yet that Maedhros had not forgotten him at the burning of the ships, the thought of their ancient friendship stung his heart. Therefore he dared a deed which is justly renowned among the princes of the Noldor: alone, and without the counsel of any, he set forth in search of Maedhros; and aided by the very darkness that Morgoth had made he came unseen into the fastness of his foes.

None wrote friendship like Tolkien!

And have it ever been characters I've wanted to draw of Tolkien, it was these two. I truly love Tolkien's works, and to be able to draw his characters how I want have been my dream for years, and even if I know there are issues with this drawing, anatomy especially, I can't but love it! Considering I only spent a few hours on this I am very happy, and it's the first border I've done In a while, so that was fun.

Now to the characters..
As cousins they are as different as night and day, all irony aside, and as friends even more so. One gallant and pure of heart with only good intentions, and the other irrational and fuelled by his fathers rage and a vow of vengeance. In my head this has translated also to their appearance, most especially their hairstyles. Fingon represent the pure and good elf, everything in his life controlled and perfected (like his hair) while Maedhros' wildness and rebellion shows in his unkept hairstyle. I do not know if this theory is a universally known one, but it dawned on me yesterday, and I love it!

In all seriousness, I have a deep love and fascination with friendships, and while I know that many ship these two as a romantic couple, I do not. I find it a bit juvenile to make Tolkien's elaborately portrayed friendship into something as cheap and shallow and (honestly) common as romantic love. While I have nothing against homosexuality or any sort of romantic relationship in general, I think that the portrayal of Fingon and Maedhros friendship is so beautiful in an innocent way, I suppose, that to make it sexual is to corrupt it. We don't treasure friendships the way Tolkien did, and in our modern society I think we have forgotten how important it really is to love our friends. This is why I hate the romanticising of Sam and Frodo as well, because I feel like we do not respect the level of friendship that Tolkien tries to portray in his writing! Just the idea that two characters so driven by their fathers' differences still kept the love for the other through thick and thin, and came through for each other time and time again, it shows that level of trust and love that friendship is based on, and I think that lacks in both films and litterature today. Don't corrupt the little representation we actually have of it, I beg of you! I'm sure people will hate me for this, but these are my thoughts, and I am always open for civil discussions.

(However I completely respect anyone who ships them, just wanted to make that come across, we all have different opininons and I am sure I ship things you despise as well, so lets be understanding and respect each other!)

I truly hope you like this drawing, however quick and riddled with mistakes it may be! Truthfully I am very happy with it, and there are nothing I would really want to change about it!

Fingon and Maedhros © Tolkien

Art © me - IG: iggys_art - tumblr: ingvildschageart