Taking Readings II by Himring

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Fanwork Notes

For the equivalent previous anthology (containing pieces written from 2012 to 2016) see Taking Readings I.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Anthology for short pieces that don't fit anywhere else. 

Now added: "Something for Nothing" (Ecthelion, Egalmoth)

Major Characters: Aerandir, Amras, Arwen, Beleg, Celebrían, Denethor (Nandor), Ecthelion of the Fountain, Egalmoth, Elemmírë, Erellont, Estë, Eärwen, Falathar, Finarfin, Galadriel, Gil-galad, Gwindor, Idril, Indis, Ingwion, Tuor, Turgon, Vána, Vanyar

Major Relationships:

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Fixed-Length Ficlet, General

Challenges: B-Movie, B2MeM 2017, B2MeM 2018, Holiday Feast, New Year's Resolution

Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate

Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn

This fanwork belongs to the series

Chapters: 18 Word Count: 4, 187
Posted on 8 January 2017 Updated on 16 June 2019

This fanwork is a work in progress.

Table of Contents

The Vanyar experience the darkness after Melkor's attack on the Trees.

(Ingwion; Elemmire)

Double drabble (2 x 100 words in MS Word).

Teens for some angst.

 

Celebrian's first encounter with Este in Lorien.

Written as a gift for FandomStocking 2016 for DeCarabas, who had requested a story about Este.

Rating: Teens, for references to what canonically happened to Celebrian.

Before Mirkwood, there was another great forest that fell under nightshade and Sauron himself, who was in those days but the servant of the Black Foe in the North, invaded it with fire and darkness and corrupted it. Treebeard knew it, before its fall, and sings with regret of the pine trees of Dorthonion. It was here that Beleg, who had once wandered freely in all the forests of the land, found Gwindor, who had only just escaped from thralldom in the Iron Hells of Angband, and, aiding him, persuaded him to turn around, in an attempt to rescue another man from the threat of the same thralldom.
Here is a conversation between them.

Written for the B2MeM 2017 prompt: “It was the possibility of darkness that made the day seem so bright.” Stephen King
I was originally aiming to follow the spirit of the prompt quite straightforwardly, but I ended up giving it a bit of a twist.

Rating: PG (Teens) for references to darker canon background

Vana the Ever-Young learns from a child.
A vignette set during the events surrounding the Creation of the Sun and Moon.

Gen (no warnings)

This ficlet was inspired by a lovely artwork created by Mithrial for B2MeM 2017, linked with her permission: "Again Yavanna Sang and Nienna Wept".

The Creation of the Sun and the Moon also featured among this year's B2MeM prompts:
"The gods were gathered on guarded heights, of doom and death deep they pondered. Sun they rekindled, and silver Moon they set to sail on seas of stars." JRR Tolkien, Völsungakvida en Nÿja

The three mariners that accompanied Earendil and Elwing on their voyage to Valinor were ordered by him to stay behind on Vingilot and are bewildered by subsequent events.

General Audiences.

An older plot bunny originally from the Waiting challenge at LOTR community), which was finally written taking up a Legendarium Ladies April prompt suggesting that Falathar and/or Erellont could have been women. Apparently, in these two names the second element is not etymologically analyzable (says Tolkien Gateway) so that, unlike with Aerandir, the gender is not evident from the name. I have made Erellont be female. (Falathar's gender isn't specified and, although that wasn't deliberate, I don't feel I want to specify it independently either, at present.)
Also for the Tolkien Weekly Taking to the Water challenge (prompts: boat, craft, ship, raft, log, adrift).

At Cuivienen, the first Eldar hear the echo of the Music of the Ainur in the waters.

Ficlet for the sub-compilation "Subcreation" for Silm40.

General - no warnings.

Tolkien describes the first rising of the Sun, Himring imagined his elves waiting for it to rise again.

Characters: Turgon, Idril

Rating: General

Finarfin has assembled an army from the remnant of his people left in Valinor and led it to Middle-earth to help defeat Morgoth, who has so killed many of his family and his people.
On his arrival in Middle-earth, he encounters Gil-galad, his great-nephew, for the first time.

Rating: Teens. Warning for references to canon-typical violence.

A short exchange of letters beween Tuor and Idril during their courtship.

A bit of flirting and banter alluding to Idril's nickname.
Could be read as mildly kinky, if you really want to.

Rating: Teens

Denethor makes the decision to lead his people west into Beleriand to join up with Thingol again.

 

Rating: Teens, for reference to character death.

B2MeM 2018 prompt: ...but the water before them was dark, with only a few curling wisps like steam among the reeds by the bank. (Fellowship of the Ring, “A Conspiracy Unmasked”).
Tolkien100 prompt: The Great River.
What made me connect these two prompts was Oshun's bio of Lenwe, which was recently posted to the Archive, for March's newsletter, and the questions she raises in it.

Amras at Losgar.
I don't follow the Shibboleth version of the story where one of the twins accidentally gets burned alive with the ships by his father, but...

Rating: Teens

The title is taken from a B2MeM prompt, a musical term:
Divisi: Divided (i.e. in a part in which several musicians normally play exactly the same notes they are instead to split the playing of the written simultaneous notes among themselves).

For further prompts, see end notes.

An elvish loremaster experiences the beginning of a new age, the Years of the Sun.
Galadriel has practical concerns.

Rating: G (Gen)

The sex (and gender) of reptiles can be difficult to determine. Perhaps not only for human beings.

(Glaurung, Ancalagon)

Teens (mild sexual content, crack)

Egalmoth, Lord of the House of the Heavenly Arch in the city of Gondolin, is asked how he came to adopt the rainbow as the device of his house.

Rating: Teens for brief references to canonical violence and alcohol consumption

A very early encounter of Finarfin's with the city of Alqualonde.
A happy moment in childhood, and glimpses of the less happy aftermath.

Rating: Teens (referenced canon violence)

This is essentially meta, I guess, although lightly fictionalized.

Tolkien meets Wilfred Owen on 11 November 2018 in the mind of a reader.

Written for the easy prompt set of the B-Movie Challenge.

Well, history has more horrors than any B-movie...

An evening sees the family of Rivendell peacefully assembled around the fire.

Arwen kid-fic (true drabble)

 

Written for starters and also for the cheese course for the Holiday Feast Challenge.

A late entry, which I'm hoping will be covered by the amnesty of the New Year's Resolution.

The quotation I used for starters is the beginning of Robert Louis Stevenson's poem "The Land of Story-books". I also used another line for the title.

Ecthelion builds a fountain for Egalmoth.

Rating G (no warnings)


Comments

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This was a very charming piece. Estë knows her job! I can imagine her arranging things so that they would look familiar and comforting (if not wholly so) to Celebrian. I also loved Celebrian's observations: That she does not want to have the painful memories removed magically, and that she welcomes the sensation of homesickness. I think that already shows that some healing has taken place: the pain is no longer between Celebrian and her feelings for the place she left behind.
And of course, everything is easier with tea!

Thank you very much, Lyra! I'm glad you liked it. Of course everything is easier with tea!

I downplayed this a little in the ficlet itself because of my recipient, who hadn't read the earlier story, as far as I know, but my own thoughts were that some healing indeed had taken place already--Celebrian experiencing Finrod's support and managing to trust him is the first step in Valinor before she is able to engage with Este, even with this unexpectedly familiar and comforting Este. Thus we find that some healing has taken place already and it opens the door to further healing, as it were!

WOW! The idea of the early Eldar not only consciously hearing, but actively analysing and discussion the echoes of the Ainulindale, is already fascinating... but writing it so effectively in so few words is actual genius. You even manage to characterise the Unbegotten through what little they say! And Tata's final question is a real killer. Absolutely love this!

Aww, Gil-galad is such a sweetheart! And Finarfin's initial naivety and later disillusionment are very believable and quite heartbreaking. I like that among his difficult tasks you listed keeping the people on their side talking to each other. That can't have been easy with all those easily ruffled tempers and (sometimes justified) animosities!

Yes, I think it was difficult to keep people talking to each other and it was also one of the things in which Finarfin did not quite succeed! Because of people's tempers and the sometimes justified animosities, because of the cultural divides (more than one), and because of the chaos of war that kept cutting communication and supply lines. (We don't hear of him in that final episode with Maedhros and Maglor and maybe that is because he is worn out and overwhelmed and distracted, by then, although alternatively maybe, of course, his reaction has just dropped out of the narrative.)

I'm glad you found his disillusionment believable! And I wanted someone to appreciate nevertheless how hard he had tried!

It is an odd thing, how Halloween and it's train of horror movies and the like follow so closely in the footsteps of the actual meaning of the holiday, which is and has always been remembrance of the dead.  It is fitting that Remembrance/Memorial Day falls around this time, and it is fitting that you write about it now.  You said that my work adhered to the prompts and their source, and that might to an extent be true, but this little vignette more closely resembles what I believe to be the true spirit of this time of year, and that took a great deal more skill.  Thank you for sharing this.