The King's Gift by françawën  

The King's Gift to Pelargir

How did the Oliphaunt end up in Minas Anor ? The people in Pelargir know that better than those in the Citadel. 

The people of Pelargir, the harbour of Gondor where the Great Battle of the Crossings was fought in the War of the Ring, revere King Elessar for the relief he brought in the victory that the Grey Company and the Army of the Damned won there. And they sure remember the terror of the Oliphaunts when the armies of Umbar and the Harad stormed the havens and besieged the harbour citadel. The Haradrim Cavalry needed no trebuchets, catapults, giant crossbows or other siege engines, veterans tell in awe, recalling how the Oliphaunts threw rocks the size of a man with their trunks, some even trained to fling great javelins like rams of a battleship as if they were light spears. Deadly damage was wrought, and in the center of the onslaught, old men whisper to you with a tremble in their voices, stood the greatest beast of them all. The Great Oliphaunt, with the tower of command on its back, shining golden blades on its tusks, dwarfed all others of the giant beasts. Its fierce trumpeting, seemingly directing the devastation effortlessly, struck terror in the hearts of stout warriors. The tale of the battle of Poros they tell, how the walls had been breached and the vanguard of the Corsairs battled their way into the Citadel of Pelargir under the missile bombardment and the screams of the Mûhmakil, from what they say no less terrifying than had all of the Nine been there. And deep despair befell their hearts as they saw the fleet of Corsair ships ran ashore on the landings. They speak of disbelief and amazement that fell so suddenly when the Grey Company disembarked and Elessar unfolded the banner of the White Tree, when it seemed the humid, hot air of the battle froze and all fell silent as the King of the Dead and his host swept off the boats. All eyes, friend and foe alike, beast and man, from within and without that moment bent towards the green light of the Elessar, as the King held it high and gave the order for battle.

We hear that the first of the army of Harad to move and face the new enemies was the Great Mûhmakil of Command. It is said to have locked eyes with the King, even before the standard unfurled. A great trumpet sound it blew when the light of the Elessar shone forth under the brown and red dark dusty fumes of Orodruin, and then kept standing frozen like a giant sculpture. The men on the walls of Pelargir say no command of the soldiers on its back would make it move then, yet even the host of the Dead would not approach it. All over the field they worsted the host of Harad, and the Dead, the Grey Company, the Elf Legolas, Gimli the Dwarf and the sons of Elrond beat down Corsairs, Haradrim, horses and Oliphaunts  the day and the night. And in the middle of it stood the Great Oliphaunt, silent, frozen, a rock in the storm unfolding around it, watchful yet unassailed by friend or foe - who were they anyway - other than becoming a true pincushion of stray arrows. The son of a former guardsman of the Citadel's drawbridge, himself old and bent with age and barely understandable for lack of teeth, tells the tale that only at the end of the battle did the Oliphaunt move again. King Elessar himself lead the charge against the Immortal Iron Guard of Harad and the Black Knights of Umbar, elite bodyguards to the King of Harad and the Harbourmaster of Umbar as they took the last stand and arrayed themselves around the Great Oliphaunt. In his tale, King Elessar waved to the beast, and that's when it fell to its side, crushing the tower on its back, trashing like a boar rolling in mud to break free from its harnessing; it broke the circle of the guards from within, spearing the Harbourmaster of Umbar with its tusk just as Elessar thrust Anduril through his neck. It then grabbed the King of Harad with its trunk, right from the fighting, swept both Gimli and Legolas off their feet and stampeded off with his "booty". It was not seen till daybreak.

Yet as Elessar assessed the field of slaughter that morning, and went back and forth treating wounds and helping those mortally injured onto their final journey, the moment the Sun rose in the bright sliver of clear skies under the ash clouds from Mount Doom, a new shadow fell over the battlefield. All witnessed the Oliphaunt stepping into the path of the rising Sun. It slowly trotted from the East towards the standard of Elendil, and the host of the Dead, eerily camped on the Field, parted before it. The remnants of its harnessing hang shredded of its huge arched body, and on its back it carried the wounded King of Harad, bleeding of swordstrokes and an Elvish arrow in his leg. The Oliphaunt gently held him with his trunk as to keep him safely there, and the Great Animal walked straight for King Elessar. From a large spear lodged in its side it bled profusely itself, yet it gave no sign of weakness the full mile it walked. It laid itself down before King Elessar, as would a well trained dog, and looked straight at him as it used his trunk to gesture at the figure slung over its back. Then it collapsed unconscious.

Many members of the guards of Pelargir and the Grey Company testify how King Elessar treated the wounded alike that day, whether Gondorrim, Corsairs, Haradrim or Khandi, and all, even the vanquished foes, vouch that he saved the life of the King of Harad then. And they whisper that the evening that day, and the full night, Elessar treated the great beast, washing and dressing its wounds with all the Athelas that could yet be found, and specifically requesting a basket of apples for the beast from the town.

None could say why the King took such fancy to the wildest and strongest fighter amongst the enemies, why he would not celebrate victory by dispatching the beast of war that had been so deadly to them in the fight.

The animal gained consciousness the next morning, as did the King of Harad. As the latter awoke, he is claimed to first asked about his steed, and even be carried on a stretcher to where the animal was kept. When he saw Elessar treating the beast, and the animal softly caressing him with its trunk, seeing him feeding apples to the beast, his minders claim he spoke a few short words in broken Westron, barely understood and variously reported like "you know I know", or "so be what he is", "a gift he has and you have always been", before he fell unconscious again from the strain. The words seemed strange to those who heard, yet Elessar went to the King of Harad, and when he woke, spoke to him thus: "what made us foes is no more, mighty King, and all the Dead who fought the Field bravely shall have their rests now. But you, if Eru so wills, shall ride with me. His gift for yours, my Lord".

Before Elessar left for Minas Tirith, it is told, the Great Oliphaunt rose; it lifted Elessar first, then the King of Harad, no matter the angry shouts of doctors, on its back and carried them to the landings where the Corsair's ships lay. There they parted.

The people of Pelargir say that three weeks later, only barely able due to the wounds of battle every one of them bore, the Haradrim left. Before the crowning of Tar-Telcontar, the King of Harad and the Great Oliphaunt returned to their homes in the South, with as little an entourage as was left of the Host of Harad; even the King, weak as he still was, and his single surviving bodyguard of the Ironclad Immortals, walking only with the help of a crutch, carried food and water on their backs, for the journey of men and beast. So they left, leaving weapons and armour behind, defeated but proud, beaten yet almost healed.

Now many say that, remembering King Elessar's call for Apples the night after the battle, a few children from the harbour carried a big basket of the fruit to present it to the animal as it crouched to pass under the huge Southern Gatehouse. Afraid and in awe these children were, but as the animal saw them and their Gift, it stopped, looked at each of the kids bringing the basket, softly stroked each child's head with its trunk before taking up and carrying the basket away itself at the rear of the little procession.

Humbled they were, say the Pelargians, by the graceful yet steadfast withdrawal of their defeated foes, and long watched the crowd as the Haradrim slowly disappeared towards the Sun. Last to fade into the hazy dust was the Great Oliphaunt. Some swear it turned in the distance, trumpeted and waved its tusk as it got out of sight. Others call that particular story a children's mirage, and the sound just a gust of the hot desert wind that often blows from the Harad. Mirages, and the desert winds, we hear, are common in the heat of the South.

Twice again was the Oliphaunt seen after in Pelargir.

The first time was during King Elessar's Great Embassy to the Harad a year after the War of the Ring; the King rode the Oliphaunt at the head of the caravan, and on to Minas Tirith. A gift for the Gift, and the gift of the Gift it has been, from the King of Harad to Elessar, and the Oliphaunt itself, for sparing and saving his life, that's what they say about the King's Gift in Pelargir.

The second and last time the Great Oliphaunt was afterwards seen in Pelargir was near the morning, during dawn, of the day after the Death of King Elessar. The animal was heard from afar trumpeting loudly, and some of the veterans of the battle who yet lived and had seen it as young esquires and errand boys to the fighters, woke up and asked dazedly about the battle, shaking in memories; the animal half waded, half swam the crossings of Poros, a feat in itself, and paced to and fro over the old battlefield in the twilight of dawn touching the ground here and there, blowing sad notes, as if in remorse or longing memory, as if in search for all those which no longer could abide in this world, whose light had gone out. Some claim it marked the spots where the other Great Oliphaunts were felled in the battle, some say it visited the places where Elessar or the King of Harad had killed a foe that day, and yet others say it showed all the spots where wounded survivors were found after the battle.

They only agree that it finally laid itself down at the very spot where once before it had offered itself, and the King of Harad, to Elessar the day after the battle, 120 years past. It sounded one last loud sad note at the Sun, rising undimmed in the East that moment, and gave itself back to Yavanna.

In Pelargir, they pray to Eru that wherever his Gift takes Men and Beasts, that there this King amongst Animals and these Kings of Men may yet ride again together.

Chapter End Notes

A little more gory.

All good things come in three. I just need to finish the last chapter now. Might take a little before I get it completed; I've sat on the first ones for years without entirely finishing the last ...