The Last Queen of the North by Flora-lass  

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Fanwork Notes

I've always been fascinated by Arvedui - but I confess to having only recently discovered, and started to think about, his wife! Firiel of Gondor must have had such a tough life, and I decided to try writing a poem from her point of view (based on the few facts we find in the LotR Appendices and Unfinished Tales).

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Arvedui is gone, and Firiel reflects.

Major Characters: Fíriel (Gondor)

Major Relationships:

Genre: Poetry

Challenges: Kings & Queens

Rating: Teens

Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 107
Posted on Updated on

This fanwork is complete.

The Last Queen of the North

Read The Last Queen of the North

I wed the strange ‘Last-king’ of Arthedain
Leaving my kin; and there ended our line
In battle (and through folly), to my grief.
From such news there would have been scant relief
If not for our young sons - for I must tell
How Arvedui sought to love me well.
The Queen of Gondor he would have me be
Through ancient law and North-South 
unity
But we could not pursue our claIm so far 
While harried by the Witch-king of Angmar.
And now he sits entombed on icy throne
And watches o'er his heirs by Seeing-stone
For, though we live with hardship and regret,
Their right to kingship they will not forget.

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A lovely poem. It can't have been easy to move to the Northern Kingdom, where she likely married a stranger. And after the throne of Gondor was denied to her, the tragedies start to hit. 

What a difficult fate to have to watch tragedy  befall your family so thoroughly and feel yourself unable to help. I love how clear eyed she is about it all. She can acknowledge her family’s folly alongside their legitimate losses, and she can see that Arvedui tried to do well by her even if their life together turned out to be hard and full of sadness. (And despite the kind of opportunism in Arvedui trying to use her inherited claim to the throne of Gondor as a means to get himself onto that throne — I’ve always wondered what to make of his motives there, I can see it going several ways!) Of course, being clear eyed about her own situation and challenges doesn’t make any of them easier to live through, even if she has things that she clings to for comfort and optimism. The pain of her circumstances is very palpable here. 

You know I love a woman who is out of place in a royal family far from home and entangled in troubles, and Firiel has some interesting things in common with Vidumavi, especially a sense that her children have the right to their kingship and a sense of determination that they should have it someday. But unlike Vidumavi, Firiel can’t find comfort in current hard times by looking back to her birthplace as a place of safety where she can retreat if needed because everything went so wrong there after her departure. That has to be an extra special level of emotionally unmooring — nowhere is safe and easy. How truly sad. Still, I loved that you chose to end on an invocation of her heirs and the chieftains they would become, eventually ending so many years later with one on the throne of both Arnor and Gondor again. What a win for her, though obviously far too late for her to get to enjoy it. 

As always, I greatly enjoyed your imagery. Arvedui entombed on the icy throne with his lost palantir was especially good as a poetic representation of his fate — kind of creepy in a way, and also very sad, and also a little infuriating because why did it have to be so. The whole poem is super thought provoking and especially because she’s a character who is relatively little discussed. Engaging seriously with her story through the poem raised so many new questions for me that I hadn’t considered at length before (like, did she know he had been prophesied to be the last king when she married him? What did she think when she found out?). I’d always be interested to hear more of your thoughts about her, and it’s always very fun to be inspired to think more deeply so thank you!!!♥️