The Mellon Chronicles

The Mellon Chronicles is a fanfiction series set in The Lord of the Rings fandom. All stories are co-authored by Cassia and Siobhan and originate from the idea that Aragorn and Legolas have known each other pre-quest. In the series, which spans most of Aragorn's life, they both have to live through various adventures. Most of the stories are Hurt/Comfort, though some also have fluff elements. While the series roughly follows canon events, the authors generally make up their own backstory for both characters.
The Mellon Chronicles are widely known throughout Lord of the Rings fandom and are a cornerstone of Aragorn & Legolas Friendship.
The original site went offline sometime in 2014, but all stories can be found on AO3.
"Taking its name from the Elvish word for "friend," the Mellon Chronicles follows the misadventures of a young Aragorn and Legolas. Like romance novels, Westerns, and Sherlock Holmes, the Mellon Chronicles follow a formula: most of the 36 stories begin with Aragorn and/or Legolas traveling somewhere; then one of them gets captured and usually tortured; and then the other one rescues him. While this description might not sound like it, the Mellon Chronicles were entirely nonsexual—"no slash, no smut," as the saying went." The Most Popular ‘Lord of the Rings’ Fanfiction You’ve Never Heard of, Erika W. Smith (August 1, 2016)
==Story Summaries and Introductions==
==How Did It Begin?==
==Distribution==
Stories were posted to Cassia's ff.net account and to the MC Mailing List. Once the story was complete, it would be added as a whole to the MC Website. Cassia's ff.net account has been emptied of all stories, but since both the website and the mailing list were founded in 2002,Yahoo Groups names the founding date of the mailing list as May 22nd, 2002. The first entry for the MC Website on the Waybackmachine is from June 28thm 2002. Both websites accessed January 9, 2009. it can be assumed that Cassia and Siobhan wrote the bulk of the MC stories between 2002 and 2005. In late 2005 they stepped down as moderators of the list and effectively left fandom,List message, only available to members. Accessed January 9, 2009. Remember How to Smile being the last story they wrote for the Mellon Chronicles. Around the same time they offered to send a CD containing all stories of the series in .doc format as a goodbye gift to every interested list member.
The series was unofficially (but with permission) posted on AO3 in November 2013-January 2015, as they were no longer available due to the MC website's closure.Permission from Sio granted to repost. Accessed April 17, 2015.
==Fan Reaction==
The Mellon Chronicles are widely known throughout LOTR fandom and for fans of Aragorn/Legolas Friendship stories they are basically considered classics. MC's impact on LOTR authors can be measured by the fact that many ideas Cassia and Siobhan proposed in their stories have become story tropes and were later repeated over in over in fanfiction. The child abuse portrayed in Tears Like Rain is one of those tropes, another is that the authors decided to kill off Gilraen (Aragorn's mother), a fact that actively contradicts canon. Some authors also borrowed original characters from the series (most notably, Trelan and Raniean) to include in their own stories - with permission from both Cassia and Siobhan, of course.
==The End of the Series==
== Mailing List==
The mailing list was founded May 22, 2002. With over 2000 members, it's the largest Tolkien fanfiction group listed on Yahoo Groups, see Aragorn & Legolas: The Mellon Chronicles, a fact that is also mirrored in its traffic at the height of its popularity.The Group Homepage lists 4840 messages being exchanged in January 2004, that's an average of 156 messages per day! Nowadays, the group is down to manageable 100-300 messages per month. Website accessed January 12, 2009.
The list's description: "This List is devoted to fan fiction and discussions concerning the friendship and adventures of Legolas and Aragorn from JRR Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". This is a Slash and Smut FREE list. When I say friendship, that is ALL I mean. :o) Up to an R rating is all right, but no NC-17 please. Also no Mary-Sues or Real-Person fics please." Aragorn & Legolas: The Mellon Chronicles, accessed July 10, 2017
"Cassia and Sio started the Yahoo Groups list completely by accident. Cassia set up the website to host the stories so they had an archive. They didn't realize that Yahoo had an automatic Group Mailing List set up with the website, so when they started getting emails about stories they were totally surprised." The Most Popular ‘Lord of the Rings’ Fanfiction You’ve Never Heard of, Erika W. Smith (August 1, 2016)
== Fansites==
The Mellon Chronicles have such a devoted fan following that they can even sport their very own fansite, Were You No One, maintained by The Write Sisters, Sarah, Hannah and Chloe. The site does not only provide information on Aragorn and Legolas (both in accordance with events in The Mellon Chronicles), it also gives biographical info on the authors. Additionally, there is an encyclopedia, a gallery and a download section.
There were several fanlistings for The Mellon Chronicles, but currently only Untold Adventures is open for business. Several original characters had their own fanlistings, but these were closed down. The Mellon Chronicles Fanlisting Database has an extensive list of all fanlistings that existed at one point or other.
== Audiofic==
Podfic is not very common amongst LOTR fans. There is Tolkien Podfic, but the community is sparsely populated. Still, there is MC Podfic, recorded by the aforementioned Write Sister, Hannah. Her recordings of MC Stories are available for download on her website MC Audio. She did not manage to cover all stories of the series (and the project seems to be abandoned since the last update was in 2007), but what's online still makes for more than 30 hours of MC Audio.
==Photomanips by Cassia==
See 
File:melloncassia-1.jpg|"Tears Like Rain"
File:melloncassia-2.jpg|"You Make Me Home"
File:melloncassia-3.jpg|"Remember How to Smile"
File:melloncassia-4.jpg|"Cell Number Eight"
== Fanart by Others==
There is not much fanart made by or for fans of The Mellon Chronicles, except for the very prolific Cactuskim who has her own fanart gallery within the MC website called Cactuskim's Manipulations. Cactuskim, much like Cassia and Siobhan concentrates on Aragorn, Legolas or both.
== Fanvids==
While there is not much fanart around, there certainly are quite some fanvids to enjoy. The MC website hosts trailers for quite a few of Cassia's and Siobhan's stories. Additionally, general Aragorn/Legolas Friendship vids can be found there.
The Mellon Chronicles also have their own Youtube Channel. Apart from that, other Youtube users also post MC-inspired vids, among them Nosterineth,Nosterineth on Youtube, accessed April 19th, 2009. EmruthpotterEmruthpotter on Youtube, accessed April 19th, 2009. and music7060.music7060 on Youtube, accessed May 3rd, 2009.
==Stories in Reading Order==
* Tears Like Rain
* Captive of Darkness
* Hope
* Father's Love
* Never Alone
* First Meetings
* Change of Heart, Change of Mind
* Exile
* Return
* You Make Me Home
* Mistaken Identity
* Family Trouble
* Vilya
* Black Breath
* Sickness
* The Seventh Stone
* Betrayal
* Legolas' No Good, Rotten Day
* Priceless Treasure
* The Stars of Harad
* Mind's Eye
* Dark Visions
* Traitor
* Escape From Mordor
* Curse of Angmar
* Siege of Dread
* Between Darkness and Dawn
* Never Cold in your Shadow
* Trouble Follows
* It Had to be Caves
* It had to be Stairs
* Coronation Jitters
* Only the Beginning
* Cell Number Eight
* Remember How to Smile
* And So the End
==References==
Category:2002 Mailing Lists
Category:2000s Mailing Lists
Category:Lord of the Rings Mailing Lists