All Hues and Honeys by Dawn Felagund

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Fanwork Notes

Dews did they gather in the woods of Oromë, and flower-petals of all hues and honeys in Yavanna's gardens ...

Spring is emerging. I--like most of the world--am mostly confined indoors. I am hoping to use this opportunity to focus more strongly on my writing. I may not write fanfic every day, but when I do, small pieces will be collected here.

Please see chapter notes for individual summaries and warnings, where applicable.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

This is my latest collection of pieces too small to stand alone, often written for events on the SWG Discord.

The Latest:
"Memorial." Nerdanel ponders how to memorialize the kinslaying.
"Tears Unnumbered." The Haudh-en-Nirnaeth after the deluge.
"Unsafety." Fingolfin rides to Morgoth's gates.
"Quiet Love." Nerdanel cares for Fëanor on the anniversary of Míriel's death.
"The Secret Door." Celebrimbor learns lessons about magic.

Major Characters: Amras, Amrod, Caranthir, Curufin, Elrond, Elwing, Fëanor, Fingon, Finrod Felagund, Indis, Maedhros, Maglor, Nerdanel, Orodreth, Pengolodh, Salmar, Thorondor

Major Relationships: Fingon/Maedhros, Fëanor/Nerdanel, Curufin/Original Character, Maglor & Salmar, Eärendil/Elwing

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Fixed-Length Ficlet, Slash/Femslash

Challenges: Block Party, Holiday Party, Jubilee, Middle-earth Olympics, Restoration and Rebuilding

Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate

Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn

This fanwork belongs to the series

Instadrabbling
Chapters: 29 Word Count: 5, 103
Posted on 25 March 2020 Updated on 17 February 2024

This fanwork is a work in progress.

Table of Contents

Danger

Fëanor invites Nerdanel to journey north with him. A perfect drabble for the instradrabbling prompt: elegant, eyes, danger, response

Dust

Fëanor first reveals the Silmarils. A perfect drabble for Lockdown Instadrabbling, for the prompt: world, brighter, dust, untouchable

Abode

Finrod adapts to changing ideas of what it means to make a home. A perfect drabble written for Lockdown Instadrabbling for the prompt: rock, color, carry, abode

Airs

Thorondor remembers while he aided Fingolfin. A perfect drabble for Lockdown Instadrabbling, for the prompt: realm, airs, great, traverse.

Lighthouse

Why Elwing kept the Silmaril. A perfect drabble for Lockdown Instadrabbling, for the prompt: lighthouse, waters, light, glass.

"Marula" and "Windfall"

For the Block Party prompt "comfort food": a pair of Maedhros/Fingon ficlets about love, libation, and the rituals that bind them.

Spring Thaw

Fëanor and Nerdanel are stranded during spring thaw. A perfect drabble written for image instadrabbling, for the image of water rushing through a gorge. This drabble uses the Felakverse idea that Fëanor and Nerdanel married without permission in the wilderness.

Queen

Young Indis plays. A perfect drabble written for image instadrabbling, for this image of jars on a shelf.

The Ruin

For image instadrabbling, for the drawing of the castle against the mountains, this one isn't a fixed-length anything, much less a drabble. Caranthir returns to Formenos for the first time after reembodiment. A vignette.

Of Earth

For the ribbon-cutting party for the new site, Fëanor treks north to Middle-earth and remembers their purpose. A double drabble, using Vienna Teng's "Goodnight, New York" as the prompt.

Daffodil

Maedhros recovers after Thangorodrim. A double drabbled for the ribbon-cutting party, using Zhie's photo of a single daffodil in a winter landscape as a prompt.

Riddle

A young and overproud Fëanor is gentled by one thing. A perfect drabble, written for the ribbon-cutting instadrabble for the prompt sunlit, lawns, daisy, riddle. Uncharacteristically fluffy.

Dispossessed

Nerdanel learns of her connection to Elrond Peredhel. For Middle-earth Olympics instadrabbling, a pair of drabbles using the prompt sets miss mountain bay nineteen and symmetrical, bread, ribbon, fall.

A Letter from Findekáno

Fingon writes to Maedhros. Maedhros/Fingon, a drabble-and-a-half (150 words) for the prompt words brave, lift, insight, strategic.

Blueprints

Curufin and Terentaulë have their first date and it goes as planned. A drabble-and-a-half (150 words) for the prompt swan, green, bridge, arch.

Idle

Pengolodh has heard little about the youngest sons of Fëanor. At last, as Sirion is sacked, he gets a glimpse. A ficlet written for the Holiday Party prompt "Never Have I Ever." Grundy asked if Pengolodh had ever met or spoken with a son of Fëanor.

Quite Numb

Caranthir goes for a swim to ease his mind but forgets to tell his daughter Amarwen. 250 words, written for the Holiday Party prompt "Never Have I Ever"; Grundy asked if Caranthir had ever been punched by a girl.

Withering

Orodreth recalls a lesson from Yavanna when confronting Celegorm and Curufin. A perfect drabble written in four 25-word sections. (I'm not sure I like the outcome, but it was a challenge to be sure!) Written for the Holiday Party challenge, for the prompt "Never Have I Ever"; Grundy asked if Orodreth ever lost his cool with his cousins in Nargothrond.

Inconsideration

Fëanor and Nerdanel want to announce their engagement but there are just so many Considerations! 250 words, written for the Holiday Party prompt "Truth or Dare." I asked for a dare for Nerdanel; Grundy gave me "kiss Prince Fëanáro in front of everyone, including her father." For those familiar with my work, this piece does not follow the Felakverse.

Facets

Maedhros tries to explain his relationship with Fingon to Elrond and Elros. 150 words, written for the Holiday Party prompt "Truth or Dare." Shadow provided a Truth prompt for Maedhros to "explain his relationship with Fingon to Elrond and Elros."

Bitter Ink

Pengolodh after the fall of Gondolin. A perfect drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, for the challenge Restoration and Rebuilding: "Just like a tree that loses branches and dead leaves in the Autumn, I will rebuild anew. I will rebuild new branches and leaves. I will rebuild and maintain only what bears me fruits." ― Mitta Xinindlu

The Forgotten God

Maglor by the sea. A triple drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, for the challenge Holiday Party: Create a fanwork featuring the sea.

This Is It?

Elwing awaits Eärendil's rising each night. A double drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, for the challenge Restoration and Rebuilding: Fleetwood Mac's Landslide. The opening quote comes from that song.

Well Now

Nerdanel gathers her remaining colleagues after the Darkening. A drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, for the challenge Restoration and Rebuilding: "People rescue each other. They build shelters and community kitchens and ways to deal with lost children and eventually rebuild one way or another." ― Rebecca Solnit

Memorial

Nerdanel ponders how to memorialize the kinslaying. A perfect drabble for IFD/Meet & Greet instadrabbling. The prompts were "lost in memory" and "group, follow, conceptualize, button."

Unnumbered Tears

The Haudh-en-Nirnaeth after the inundation of Beleriand. A perfect drabble for IFD/Meet & Greet instadrabbling. The prompts were "lost in memory" and "tears, silent, dusk, shattered." (I cheated a bit on "tears" by using the Sindarin word!)

Unsafety

Fingolfin rides to Morgoth's gates. A perfect drabble for IFD/Meet & Greet instadrabbling. The prompts were "lost in memory" and "running, limits, breathless, distance."

Quiet Love

Nerdanel cares for Fëanor on the anniversary of Míriel's death. A perfect drabble for IFD/Meet & Greet instadrabbling. The prompts were "lost in memory" and "love, important, science, morning."

The Secret Door

Celebrimbor learns lessons about magic. A double drabble for the IFD/Meet & Greet instadrabbling. The prompts were "passwords/secret codes" and "necessary cruelty."

Comments

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Love this concept and especially the pace of the piece. It starts out almost academic and then sneakily moves towards that life-or-death moment before Pengolodh slips into the background again, a recorder of events and not a participant in them. I like how he doesn't really end up learning more about Amrod or Amras from the interaction, either - they're in the background, too, maybe? I don't know... I've been on a bit of Pengolodh kick recently and this ficlet is getting my wheels turning!

Ooph! The sensorial nature of this really speaks to me — tasting the ash,  and the ink... the sound of the pen on the ink vial, the delayed-onset shocked yearning of "Most of my life. Surely, that should leave some trace of smoke on the wind?"

As a 'hoarder of past events' and having once lost almost everything I owned, I feel for Pengolodth! (I was more fortunate that the loremaster though: the one box I would have chosen to survive was the one that did, containing almost three decades of photo albums, scrapbooks, and letters dating back to primary school. My diaries, sadly, were with my books which also vanished into the Void.)

 

Thank you! I was really going for the sensory details in this one; I wanted to express his yearning for his lost work through any attempt to perceive the remnants of that work/civilization.

I likewise lost a lot (but not everything) when my house burned down. There was a box of mementos tucked away securely enough that it was mostly undamaged, but a journal that I specifically rescued and then left outside to dry ended up disappearing, which was a bummer. So this was definitely written with some personal experience behind it. :)

Oh my! Thank you for this! It's marvellous! I really appreciate the way you look at it as in-world history.

There are such treasures strewn throughout BoLT and those early writings, although in my first reading of them it had been over ten years since my reading of the Silm and much of it just flowed as a collection of magical tales, which all have much deeper context for me now.

(And I'm looking forward to reading his bio!)

Tolkien gave us enough drafts that it's possible to read it similarly to ancient and medieval literature that exists in multiple varying copies ... I've heard the argument made, even, that this was not accidental, and that Tolkien was looking to create something of an Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with its multiple variations. I don't know if I'm quite willing to assign intention to decades of rewriting drafts multiple times (I think most writers are inveterate tinkerers if we're allowed!), but it's a fun idea to play with.

I especially love the Lost Tales because I think they show a transition between Tolkien's youthful crafting of fairy-stories in a largely imitative mode and finding his own voice/purpose as a more mature writer. I write so many bios on the Ainur not even because I like the Ainur that much as characters but because the chance to explore the LT is always valuable.

I just linked the completed draft for Salmar in the newsletter assignment if you're interested. (It's fine too if not! I'll be out ... eventually. Maybe this month, maybe three years from now!)

Thanks so much for your comments on my flash fanworks from last night! 💜

This Is It?

What a brutal glimpse at her life, even in immortality largely denied her husband, and forever one of her children. :'(

Well Now

I like how this played to Nerdanel's strength of will!

"Brutal" is a good word to describe how I view Elwing's life. When I wrote her for the first time, I used my experience with traumatized kids to inform my characterization of her. 😢

I like how this played to Nerdanel's strength of will!

Thank you! I've been fascinated with the role of the "Noldorin wives" who stayed behind post-Darkening since ... just about forever! :D

Very moving drabbles, and all all different, although there seems to be a common thread of memory and the past running through..

The one about Fingolfin might be my favourite, perhaps, but I love this one, too.

I tried to use the Meet & Greet prompt for this session, "lost in memory," for all of them with the four-word prompts layered on top. I'm not doing Meet & Greet (I barely have the brain bandwidth for a drabble right now! :D) but love the prompts (most of which Grundy came up with).

This one is probably my least favorite from this morning's session! I struggle with writing happy stories but was perturbing even myself with the gloom in the first three! I also like the Fingolfin, and the Haudh-en-Nirnaeth.

Thanks so much for reading and commenting! <3