The Apprentice by pandemonium_213

And thank you very much for reading it and for all the comments and compliments! 

Hope you enjoy the sequel.  Sámaril is older and wiser (well, he might take issue with "wiser") in that but I think you'll still recognize him.  

Thanks so much for the accolades, Raksha!  Great to see you here on the SWG!  I hope that you'll post your Silm-fic here -- they'd be most welcome additions to the archive.

The denizens of Ost-in-Edhil and Eregion intrigued me from the first time I read the passages in "The Council of Elrond" and "The Ring Goes South" in The Fellowship of the Ring. The Istyar, whose overblown ego doesn't need flattery but sucks it up like a sponge anyway ;^), agrees that he's interesting and notes that if he had slunk around all dark and "bwahaha-ing," and had set himself too much apart from his human targets, he'd never have ensnared this group of highly intelligent and sophisticated people.

Please allow me to "squee" at your mentioning the Kuvaszok, Komondorok and the Akbash dogs that guard the herds!  They, along with the Maremma and Great Pyrenees, all inspired the ancient fánahuor.  I figured the Eldarin herdsmen out in the hills of Eregion would want intimidating but beautiful guard dogs to keep the wolves at bay.

Yep, the Elvish rings, even when benign, have their perils.  Gandalf remarked to Frodo (paraphrasing) that the Elves forged many rings, some that were essays in the craft and considered trifles (as the rings for Sámaril's family were), but which he (Gandalf) considered perilous to mortals.  That text from the FotR stuck with me from the first time I read it.  What happened to all those other rings, those "trifles?"  What did they do?  Buried as a rough draft in iBook Angband is a story set in the 4th Age (~ the years 50-55) about a young hobbit (a Brandybuck, naturally) who unearths a gold ring -- one of Sámaril's "practice" rings -- from his uncle's garden in western Hollin where several colonies/villages of hobbits have sprung up (part of the pandemoniverse's alternate imaginary history of Middle-earth ;^)).  The young fellow puts on the ring, but doesn't turn invisible nor feel particularly powerful.  But bearing Sámaril's ring has consequences!

Thank you so much for reading The Apprentice, Raksha, and for all the thoughtful comments.

"That's rather disturbing, but it makes an odd kind of sense, though I could not exonerate Sauron because part of him had better qualities, in a way that makes him worse."

I am gratified to read this comment in particular, because that is exactly what I was striving for in my characterization of Sauron.  Tolkien wrote in letter 153 (Letters of JRRT, ed. H. Carpenter) that "(Sauron's) temporary turn to good and 'benevolence' ended in a greater relapse." Bringing forth his better qualities and "humanizing" him in The Apprentice (and elsewhere) make his manipulations and in particular his ultimate betrayal of those who admired, loved and trusted him that much worse, much more so to my mind, than that a more unidimensional villain.  Thus, a "greater relapse."  

Aulendil would be the first to agree that he should not be exonerated for his choices and actions.  As he tells Sámaril (and Oppenheimer!), it is his guilt and responsibility to bear.  But his pride and ambition, his desire for control, are far too strong for the better part of his conscience to divert him from his inevitable path.  His better part abdicates and thus bears culpability.

I am so glad that you like Sámaril!  His story continues in The Elendilmir, my WIP here on the SWG.  

Finally, many thanks for the review at MEFA.  I'll respond to that under separate cover. 

Thanks a million, Indy!   I'm really tickled that you noted the reference to The Shibboleth. :^D  It pops up again in another chapter.  With regard to compartmentalization of his personality (still one "self" though), I was inspired by Tolkien's comment in footnote 7 of "The History of Galadriel and Celeborn," Unfinished Tales: "Sauron endeavoured to keep distinct his two sides: enemy and tempter."  The third component (my addition) is somewhat akin to the concept of "wise mind" of Eastern philosophiy but here, cool and detached.

Re: Sauron's exacting incarnation as a human.   My hardline biologist (specifically biochemist) takes over, I'm afraid, in my view of the incarnates, whether mortals, elves, or incarnated Maiar.  I have multiple reasons for humanizing the Dark Lord, and here in particular it is to offer an explanation of why he was able to work so well with the elves of Ost-in-Edhil:  rather than waltzing in as a thinly veiled Maia, he presents himself as akin to them and becomes one of them.  That, to me, explains how he fooled a highly sophisticated people and also serves to heighten his betrayal.

Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!

In my incarnation as a biochemist (well, I still think of myself as such even though I am no longer in the lab),  I found that one of my "talents" is the ability to visualize (in my head) molecules in 3D space.  I think that's termed "spatial intelligence."  So between that and my work with computational chemists and protein crystallographers, I can "picture" biochemical processes.  The trick is to convey these into words and attempt to paint a picture for the reader so I am tickled to pieces when it works!  I'm glad you found it easy to "see," too.

On Aulendil's reflection.  Although he has not fully "fallen" yet (in my 'verse, Númenor is the tipping point, so to speak), he's still the dark lord, but a complex one. :^) 

Thanks, Indy, and that is what I hoped to convey -- Sám's terror but his denial that this is his mentor. 

Sorry I am so abominably late in replying!  Be assured I am grateful that you read this and commented.

I winged the Latinization with the idea that it sounded good rather than having true taxonomic authenticity. "-Ensis" means "pertaining to" or "originating from."  So close enough. ;^)

Humans can be pretty horrible, whether genuinely human or a dark Maia incarnated in human form.

Indy, thanks so much for taking a chance on this story.  I know it challenges traditional conceptions of Sauron, as well as assumptions about the Gwaith-i-Mirdain, and those challenges are quite intentional on my part.  As a reader, quite a number of the stories written about Annatar in Eregion and his interactions with the Noldorin smiths left me scratching my head.  Often, it seemed like the authors of these pieces portrayed Sauron as more obviously evil and the Gwaith-i-Mirdain as dupes who should have known better -- and to some degree, Tolkien himself does this.  Personally, I found that unsatisfying.  The Elves of Eregion struck me as being a highly intelligent and sophisticated people.  So, Sauron would need to employ similarly sophisticated measures (intelligence, charisma) to win them over.   As Sám narrates, the reader does see the welling up of darkness within his teacher, and being familiar with the canonical story, we know the outcome is bad.  But like many who admire, respect and even love highly flawed people, there is a strong element of denial on Sám's part in this story and among others elsewhere in my developing 'verse.

My life scientist's bias clearly shows in my 'verse, hence the humanity of Elves and even incarnated Maiar.  With the latter, I figure that putting on a body -- whether human or not -- greatly influences the mind and behavior of those beings. 

I was tickled that you liked the construction of Sám's lamps, and that you like Sámaril himself.  His story continues in The Elendilmir.

Thanks again, Indy! 

*Finally arrives to reply*

Thanks so much, Binka!  This chapter is probably the most uncompromisingly scientific of all in The Apprentice, so I'm glad what I was trying to convey came across to you: that Sauron (how I see him) took pains to become a wolf in sheep's clothing.  Literal shape-shifting in my 'verse is not an easy task. 

I tapped deeply into my experiences as a grad student to write Sámaril so I'm glad that exam resonated with you!  Thanks for the compliments on the dark lord, too.  I have to confess whenever I start warming up to his character, I remember what he's capable of, and that sends a shiver down my spine. 

That passage in The Fellowship of the Ring in which Legolas says that the elves who had lived in Eregion were a race strange to him and that although the trees and grass did not "remember" them, the stones lamented them, high they builded up, deep they delved us, fair they wrought us (paraphrasing here).  That haunted me from the first time I read it over 40 (!) years ago. 

Oh, you're absolutely making sense!  That Aulendil still has the capacity to create is exactly what I am going for here, and informed strongly by "Myths Transformed."  Somewhere or other, JRRT and/or C.S. Lewis wrote something about evil being "nulliparous." Yet canon Sauron does seem capable of creation for quite some time, at least up until the debacle in Númenor.  So I have taken that concept -- that he still is capable of creation (in my 'verse, Morgoth might very well exploit this) -- and applied it.

Very cool observation regarding Zimraphel's "sixth sense" regarding Annatar!  Certainly, she's less heavily invested in him than Sámaril so she probably sees Annatar more objectively.  The flaws of others -- some quite severe -- are often rationalized by those who hang on to their coat tails for power or knowledge combined with respect and even affection.

I know some like their elves very ethereal.  I think that they can be quite earthy (certainly I imagine Beleg as such :^)).  I often perform a thought exercise of meeting someone -- another human -- who is in most ways like me but who is >2000 years old.  That alone would amount to a huge chasm of difference.  Ethereal isn't really needed then to be distinctly Other and therefore kind of frightening. 

Ha!  Annatar has a contract right here for you to sign.  Guarantees that you will be midge-free for eternity.

I had so much fun writing about the process Sámaril goes through to make his lamps, and even tapped into my combined experiences going to conferences with my thesis advisor and also on field trips for my undergrad class in plant ecology. 

The Tatra is gorgeous!  Very much what I envision as the white guards of the Eregion flocks!  [Wait.  This isn't going to turn into a debate about sheep milk cheese and wool, is it? ;^) ;^D]

I tend to think that Aulendil and Curumo have a history. :^) 

Gandalf's line in The Fellowship of the Ring -- that to his mind, even the rings considered trifles by the elven-smiths were perilous to mortals -- ring (ha, ha) true to me.  So in my 'verse, none of them are truly benign.  I intend to explore this as my story arc moves along in time.  Yep, that opening scene with the molten metal being poured into a cast was gratifying.  Didn't make up for Sauron-as-a-lighthouse though. ;^)

Re: creationism vs. evolutionism.  Heh.  I couldn't resist.   I figure that Aulendil has contemporary -- or even more so in the Arthur C. Clarke sense of the word -- knowledge of Middle-earth's natural history. Who knows? Maybe Fëanor had similar theories, too, so they are odd Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace equivalents. :^D

Oh, yes, Jekyll and Hyde -- an accurate comparison there!  Sámaril knows something is not right, but it's not clear what exactly is going on.  Again, it's that trust that mitigates the fright.  The element of the trust that Aulendil engenders and then crushes so horribly is a major theme not only here but in successive WIPs.

Thanks so much, Binka!  This is the darkest of the story, I think, and I hoped to explore Sámaril's experience of psychological terror.  JRRT seemed to emphasize that fear was one of Sauron's greatest weapons, so I tend to think that is what he exploited most.  Others' fears.

Forgive my tardiness in responding!  I was off in Khazad-dûm with a certain smith. ;^)

"So far, this is the chapter which portrays Aulendil in the entirety of his duplicitous splendor IMHO"

That is exactly what I hoped to achieve here.  By highlighting the better parts of the Dark Lord and the trust he builds up among so many, including his students, I hoped to make his betrayal that much more horrific.  Your comments tell me that I did that.   

Oh, excellent!  Again, that was what I was striving for here -- to heighten the impact of his villainy and descent into darkness because he is humanized.   This chapter was actually rather fun to write.  I tapped into those personality characteristics that would occasionally cause problems on my performance reviews. ;^)

Thanks so much, Robinka! 

You humble me with your compliments, Binka.  I'm so glad you enjoyed this tale.  It is near and dear to my cynical little heart. 

Sámaril's devastation, I think, highlights the burden of immortality.  Those memories -- the death of his family, the betrayal by a trusted mentor -- will always be with him.  The awful scene before the House of the Mirdain will be replayed in the novel/novellas that will follow The Elendilmir.  Hopefully, I can convey the devastation there, too.

 "Fangirly *squeee* at the appearance of Glorfindel!"

I know.  I'm shameless for succumbing to bringing this icon into my story arc. :^D  But he is an excellent -- and logical -- fit for what I have in mind for him. 

Finally, thank you so very much for reading this, Robinka, and for your most welcome and insightful comments.