Cabbages and the Embarrassment of Being Maedhros by Himring

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Cabbages, because they are almost entirely unlike Silmarils...
Maedhros has been rescued from Angband by Fingon and has handed over the crown to Fingolfin. He recovers from his ordeals (more or less), sorts out things with his relatives (not quite), and departs with his brothers for points east. Later, after the Dagor Bragollach, he reviews the situation, considers giving up the struggle (not really), and is badly shaken by a presentiment of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.
Romance (Maedhros/Fingon) and in part a prequel to "Looking at the Stars", but also about Maedhros's relationship with Maglor, the "shadow of pain", etc.
Minor warnings: Non-graphic references to torture and swearing. Non-graphic descriptions of insanity and vomiting. Brief references to prayer.

Major Characters: Fingolfin, Fingon, Maedhros, Maglor

Major Relationships:

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Romance, Slash/Femslash

Challenges:

Rating: Adult

Warnings: Mature Themes, Sexual Content (Moderate), Violence (Mild)

This fanwork belongs to the series

Doom, Gloom and Maedhros
One Week in Himring
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 6, 688
Posted on 24 January 2010 Updated on 24 January 2010

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Using mostly Quenya names.
Here's the list of Maedhros' names again: Maitimo (mother name, referring to his good looks), Nelyafinwe (father name, referring to him as eldest grandson of Finwe), Russandol (epesse given by his grandfather, referring to his red hair), Maedhros, surnamed  the Tall (Sindarin, the name he acquired in Beleriand), Nelyo (nickname current in Feanor's household), Feanorion (patronymic, simply referring to him as son of Feanor).
Fingon=Findekano, Maglor=Macalaure,  Fingolfin=Nolofinwe, Turgon=Turukano, Tyelkormo=Celegorm, Carnistir=Caranthir.

 

Comments

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I enjoyed this story tremendously. You manage to write your characters very sympathetically without turning the story into long introspective emo-fests. I really like your concise writing style and your skill for formulating things so that I find myself going "Yes! Exactly! You nailed it!" Thank you very much for a great (if that can be said, considering the subject matter ;)) read!

 

Excellent!

From poignant to chilling to funny and beautiful writing all way through. Numerous perfect lines stick in my memory: Maeglor's thoughts on orcs; Maedhros' on the lack of appropriate swearwords, on poor perceptive Carnistir's needs, on his own 'general derangement and insanity'...

There are so many gems in this short story that all I can think to do is go look for more from the same hand.

 

Still working my way through your stories. Love this one as well. I see you credit Dawn with influencing your characterization. No wonder I find it so convincing and sympathetic. She also greatly influenced my own Maitimo and Findekano stories--in fact I often joke that I write fanfic of her canon. I do depart as well.

I love that you use humor. I can't explain why the First Age is my choice of subject matter--anguish and high heroism really doesn't suit either my personal taste in either reading or writing. But when I fell in love with these characters (pretty much the whole House of Finwe, although I have my favorites!) I fell hard. You hold my attention and keep me with you by your use of human psychology and like I mentioned before humor. I am enjoying this series so much.

Thank you very much for taking the trouble to engage with the series!

I think Dawn is just the most glaringly obvious of my influences. However, since I spent the months before I wrote the first of these stories voraciously reading Maedhros stories on the internet, I would find it pretty hard to compile a comprehensive list of everyone who influenced me...

I'm sure there is a quotation from the Sage himself about why humour is important - although he is more likely to have written it with the Lord of the Rings in mind than the Silmarillion, I guess: something about the necessity of hobbits. But Third Age elves have a sense of humour, so surely elves of the First Age did, too!