Alicornutopia

At this point I'm pretty sure I'd read a whole book of Timothy just going about his daily life with no real plot. He's such a darling.

Does osanwë ‘fade out’ at the edge of the possible range in any way, and if so how does that manifest?

Is there a canon source for Rumil having been imprisoned in Utumno? Asking because I just hit this line in Ch. 3 of the Quenta Silmarillion:

But of those unhappy ones who were ensnared by Melkor little is known of a certainty. For who of the living has descended into the pits of Utumno, or has explored the darkness of the counsels of Melkor?

Rumil did make some edits to the Quenta Silmarillion, after the author brought it to Valinor. So that line could be a passive-aggressive phrasing of "don't ask."

Book of Lost Tales is the source on that:

Thus it was that the Ainulindalë was first to be heard by mortal ears, as Eriol sat in a sunlit garden in Tol Eressëa. Even after Eriol (or Ælfwine) had fallen away, Rúmil remained, the great Noldorin sage of Tirion ‘who first achieved fitting signs for the recording of speech and song' (The Silmarillion p. 63), and The Music of the Ainur continued to be ascribed to him, though invested with the gravity of a remote time he moved far away from the garrulous and whimsical philologist of Kortirion. It is to be noted that in this account Rúmil had been a slave under Melko.

As you might notice from the spelling changes it was an early draft; it's possible Tolkien forgot when he was writing that line, or, yes, it's possible Rúmil wrote 'BUT REALLY, WHO KNOWS? REALLY COULDN'T SAY'.

Wait, does that not say that Rúmil invented writing?

iirc Rumil invented a barebones writing system for recording basic factual information and Feanaro invented a full-fledged writing system that could be used for anything.

Yep, like how human writing was at first an accounting thing and then expanded, except not with /accounting/ per se because Valinor.

I think osanwë fades out at the edge of the range and this manifests as having to do the mental equivalent of shouting and not being able to send nuanced/layered stuff or sensory information.

Thanks! On the assumption it wasn't retconned that makes the passage read very differently once you know about it. I'm slowly starting to pick up on a number of these type of things on this reread of the Silmarillion; it's definitely been rewarding so far.

From Room of Requirement: “[Tiny Maitimo] very solemnly promises to [go right to Lorien if applicable].”

There were at least three loopholes (not counting the chance that free will distribution is discovered), but I still hope that solemn promise doesn’t count as an oath.