Samwise Gamgee is the ultimate icon for friends of people with disability imo. I can"t take your arthritis for the day, but I can walk behind you up the stairs and make your coffee. I can"t take your adhd while you"re working on this assignment, but I can help you stay on task. I can"t take your depression upon myself for a bit, but I can come over to your house and help clean your room and listen to you. No, I can"t absorb some of your memory loss issues, but I can remind you of things and save you a seat when you"re running late. Yes, I know it"s a lot, and yes, I know it"s a heavy burden to bear, and no, I can"t carry it for you. But I can carry you.

Once again thinking about the “Tolkien elves are physically superior to humans in every way” thing as a disability parallel

an inexhaustive list of diagnoses given only to the quendi

• mind-deafness: that is, inability to use osanwë
• pre-traumatic stress disorder: characterized by excessive and disturbing foresight of events yet to come; dwelling on an ill future; depressive states following a resignation to fate or compulsive attempts to thwart it. if the event is survived, this sometimes, but not always, may develop into a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis.
• partial retrograde amnesia: colloquially referred to as "forgetting," this is a state common and accepted among the edain, but highly unusual and concerning for elven-folk.
• major cognitive exhaustion: described as declining motivation and will to live, coupled with anhedonia and a feeling of extreme fatigue. some in the community believe this condition is equivalent to major depressive disorder, and ought to be characterized under the same diagnosis. most elves, however, prefer a separate label.
• amusia: tone-deafness; difficulty processing music or beat; inability to perceive musical tone and pitch. this is rarely considered a serious medical diagnosis for edain and khazad individuals, but the significance placed on music in quendi culture means quality of life for tone-deaf individuals is severely affected. elves with severe amusia, or those who find music unpleasant, report very poor social outcomes in quendi society.

when you’re rúmil of tirion and the tiny prince of the noldor keeps barging into your house to Yell About Orthography so finally you give up and make him some tea

Once again thinking about the “Tolkien elves are physically superior to humans in every way” thing as a disability parallel

""But I shall leave you only with Sador, and blind Ragnir, and the old women," said Túrin. "Did not my father say that I am the heir of Hador? The heir should stay in Hador"s house to defend it. Now I wish that I still had my knife!""

- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Children of Húrin, "The Departure of Túrin"

@tolkienofcolourweek day 6: intersectionality || SADOR & RAGNIR

[ID: an edit comprised of four posters in shades of brown, white, and grey.

1: Two brown circular frames connected by a rectangle in the center. The upper left shows Rudy Harding, an older barbadian model with dark brown skin, a shaved head, and a white beard. He wears a black, high-collared shirt and looks down seriously at the viewer. The bottom right circle contains an image of woodworking tools. The background is a black and white photograph of a plain and snowy mountains. The part of the background in the rectangular frame is in color. Vertical brown and cream-colored text on the right side of the rectangle reads "sador" / 2: A black and white image of a small building made of stone and thatch, amid mountains. A brown frame surrounds the picture, and brown and cream text on a semi-transparent white rectangle reads "Sador had been a woodman, and by ill-luck or the mishandling of his axe he had hewn his right foot, and the footless leg had shrunken. He worked in the outbuildings, to make or mend things of little worth that were needed in the house, for he had some skill in the working of wood." The text is framed by large quotation marks / 3: Same format as Image 2, but the background shows a clearing in a coniferous forest, and the text reads "His blind eye making him an indifferent woodman, Ragnir turned instead to the arts of healing and the cultivation of herbs and remedies. He took joy in this work, wherein he had great skill, and his nursing is thought to have delivered many from the foul breath of Angband." / 4: Same format as Image 1, but the upper left circle shows hanging bunches of herbs, and the lower right frames Fikayo Ifarajimi, a nigerian model with dark brown skin and dark hair in short twists. He has some stubble on his face, and one of his eyes is cloudy white. He looks seriously at the viewer, turned slightly to the right. The background shows the wooded shores of a lake, with one tree higher than the rest //End ID]