Melian’s Lament by LadySternchen  

| | |

Fanwork Notes

I’ve written this lament for the Hungarian Tolkien Society’s 2024/25 Annual Mailing Competition. Requirements were as folllows:
- a lament (or song, but I chose the lament) not more than 20 lines long
- it had to deal with an event mentioned in canon, but with nothing written about it

Fanwork Information

Summary:

I’ve written this lament for the Hungarian Tolkien Society’s 2024/25 Annual Mailing Competition. Requirements were as folllows:
- a lament (or song, but I chose the lament) not more than 20 lines long
- it had to deal with an event mentioned in canon, but with nothing written about it

So I’ve written Melian’s lament I imagine she sings after her return to Lórien

Major Characters: Melian

Major Relationships:

Genre: Poetry

Challenges:

Rating: General

Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn

Chapters: 1 Word Count: 282
Posted on Updated on

This fanwork is complete.

Melian’s Lament

Read Melian’s Lament

I stand by thee, o Beechen tree, and tell to you of my sorrow deep,

That I have lived through since the day that last I sat here by thy feet,

Rested my head against thy bark, wearied from blissful dance and song

In days of old when light still shone, ere shadows started growing long.

 

O Beechen tree that once thou hast harkened to secret hopes and dreams

That I had when to thee I sang of promises held in stars’ beams.

I tell thee now of  loss and grief, the price I pay for love and bliss,

Of those I love and still have lost, whom ever dearly I now miss.

 

O Beechen tree, how I have missed and longed to walk here in thy shade,

How to return here I had hoped, from Ennor where all things must fade,

With my beloved, my star, my light, who under tree took me as bride,

In starlit darkness filled with peace, and there stayed loving by my side.

 

O Beechen tree that thou dost drink my bitter tears on this bright day,

My tears I cry for her I bore, our child whom love did steal away.

I would thou hadst seen her amidst her flowers that her dance made spring,

From cold earth like stars of heaven, when Lúthien us spring did bring.

 

O Beechen tree I must now leave, and bid thee keep my deepest hope

That one fair day my love returns, that we together learn to cope,

With our grief, and until then, by Mandos’ walls I’ll singing stand,

And hope to sit by thee with him, and mourn and weep here hand in hand.


 


Leave a Comment


Melian's lament to the beech tree she knew before leaving Valinor is poignant and bittersweet. She only has the hope of being reunited with Elu Thingol there in Aman. I wonder whether they will even be able to see Lúthien again at the Dagor Dagorath, before Arda is remade. 🌿

Thank you so much 🥰 
I wonder that a lot, too. Would Lúthien and Beren fight in the Dagorath? I’m not sure. (I have this very bittersweet headcanon about Túrin meeting his foster-parents again, though, and apologising). But I think it’s safe to say that at least Melian will be reunited with Lúthien in Arda healed. The Elves, though… we just don’t know what happens to them. Maybe we’ll see. 🩵