The Fall of Arnor, Book Two; "Into the Mushroom Fields" by Diane Finnis-Robb  

Introduction

   The opportunity to create and play in the lush world of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings has captivated artists for generations. I am no different in my love for that world and its stories than millions of other creators all over the world.

   The story that you will find here began as a choose-your-own-adventure role-playing game for a select group of friends who seldom get the time for that kind of interaction any longer; it was meant simply a chance for us to gather, create, interact and discuss in this exciting universe with full fan freedom and none of the restrictions of editors, arguers and copyright attorneys. Most of the plans for that adventure were made in 2019, well before the Covid pandemic came along and upset plans for all our shared universes; cultural, political, social, physical and fictional.

   In the year 2020, as the pandemic was at its worst, I found myself escaping to Middle-earth every day, building the small story that I had in mind for my friends and players into a novel. There were originally no plans in my mind for opening it to the public as I’m doing here; I simply wanted to share it with a handful of friends who had seen me develop the idea. But writing in such a rich and full world, my own or anyone else’s, has a way of taking an author into unexpected territories. There is so much more material here than I ever imagined creating and by the end of 2020 I began to revise much of the early story into a series of two or three novels. The plan was to mimick The Lord of the Rings in scope; to have six "books" of adventure story followed by an appedices of world-building material.

   Set in the year 1975 of the Third Age of Middle-earth, some thousand years before the events of the War of the Ring, this story concerns the fall of the last remnants of the North Kingdom and the war with the Witch-king of Angmar. It is written entirely within the context of Tolkien’s work and not as an “alternative history.” I have tried at every step of the writing to stay true to the original source material and welcome any feedback on any of my mistakes. As a writer and artist I am painfully aware of how poor my skills are as a researcher; for artists collect information only to support their own purposes and too readily lose information which does not.

   During the writing of this book I have made contact with many Tolkien fans who have contributed to its growth. Our conversations have played an enormous part in my work, my understanding of the material and my own mental and creative health over the past few years. I can’t thank you all enough for that. If, as I hope, this book brings you a small opportunity to delight in an extended world of Tolkien’s design as the writing of it has done for me, then you should know that it grew out of those very important conversations.

-D. F. R.

Synopsis

    Here begins the second book of The Fall of Arnor, a telling of events which occurred many years before the War of the Ring and relating many of the details of how the realms of the North faced the great challenge of the Witch-king of Angmar, won the day through great deeds at the Battle of Fornost Fields, yet eventually fell into dissolution.

   The first part, Out of the Bree-land, told of the meeting of three wizards (Olórin, Alatar and Pallando) in a tavern in the chief city of the Bree-land. Chance, as some might call it, had also brought three other travelers to the tavern that night who were also of great significance in the coming years: Tawarengil, a young Elf-lord from Thranduil’s halls in the Greatwood; Beothalion, a tall Man from the Vale of Anduin who carried an inner strength;  and finally, Benbow Floxleaf, a most peculiar hobbit who had roamed and hunted in the lands of the North for all his lifetime. 

   These six travelers caught the attention of Ohtar, a servant of the true heir of Elendil, who, through honesty and cleverness, drew the group together to serve plans of his own.

   This unlikely meeting happened on an April evening in the nineteen hundred and seventy-fifth year of the Third Age of Middle-earth, a time when the fate of Elendil’s North Kingdom, Arnor as it was called of old, was very much in peril. Elendil and Isildur, his heir, had perished in the Great War with Sauron in the South nearly two thousand years before and since that time the people of Arnor had diminished. In the eight hundred and sixty-first year of that age king Eärendur, in a fit of madness had divided the North Kingdom between his three sons leading to generations of strife. Then, in the thirteen hundred and twenty-fifth year of that age, a new power arose in the north and The Witch-king declared himself openly in Angmar. 

   After six hundred and fifty years of wars with Angmar, after plagues and the destruction of many great cities, the North kingdom of the heirs of Elendil has been all but lost in the time of our story. The king, Arvedui, has fled into the North and cannot be found. A great council has been called by Círdan, lord of the Elves at Mithlond, to determine the fate of the North. Tawarengil and his brother Beothalion were traveling that way and the three wizards, on errands of their own, were debating this option as well. 

   But Ohtar, in revealing his own troubles, presents them with another plan. He and his companion, a dwarf rune-master named Flomi, are seeking a long forgotten storehouse which is of great importance to the heir of Elendil. But Flomi and his research have been noticed by a Black Númenórean, a rider out of  Angmar, and so they must flee the Bree-land. Flomi, following a pre-arranged plan, departs in advance of Ohtar and the others and is waylaid by a small band of orcs at the Tauma, an old Arnorian hiding place which he and Ohtar have prepared. He is gravely injured in battle with the orcs and, in the last, is aided by a new friend, Oisín, a wild Númenórean from the great woods to the south. 

   When the others choose to follow Ohtar west out of the Bree-land to learn more about his mission and to offer their aid they encounter the wounded Flomi and his caretaker Oisín at the Tauma. There they learn that a band of three score orcs out of Angmar have been sent to attack the Bree-land. As the party is unable to travel without putting Flomi’s health at risk, Olórin chooses to go back to the Bree-land to stop the orcs. 

   But in the perceived safety of the Tauma all is not well for the party. On the morning of Olórin’s departure a small doorway is noticed in the antechamber. On that night an impossibly large horde of rats come through that door to attack the party. Beothalion, showing another side to his nature, and Alatar, revealing some hint of his own power, dispel them. It is decided that the place is no longer safe though Flomi must remain there for four more nights to heal from his wounds. 

   So the party is split once again. Ohtar, Flomi, Ben, Oisín and the wizard Pallando will go further into the Tauma behind a great door covered in many runes. But Alatar, Tawarengil, Beothalion will now travel west to answer Círdan’s call. 

   Three wizards met, by chance, in the most uncommon of places to discuss their wanderings and their secret mission. Chance revealed to them three different paths forward and, trusting to their understanding of the forces at play, they have followed each of these paths. 

   This second book, Into the Mushroom Fields, now tells mostly of the battle to save the Bree-land, a small skirmish amid the greater war in the North, but having larger repercussions in the plans of the Witch-king of Angmar.

Book II

11)“Milo Fastknots Musters the Bree-land” 

12)“Situations and Strategies”

13)“In the Deep Watches of Night” 

14)“Along the Path”

15)“The Sacrifice of the Bree-land First Militia” 

16)“The Battle at Matho Greenhands’ Farm” 

17)“The Battle’s End”
 

18)“The Standard Broken"

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