On Tides of Light, or Aneärcaladalë, begins with Elwing's arrival upon the shores of Eldamar after her flight from the ruins of Sirion. After Eärendil goes alone into Valinor, Elwing is brought to Alqualondë. Rather than hurrying toward the celestial ascent of Vingilot, the core of the narrative is the salt-crusted halls of Alqualondë, where the Falmari must finally confront the devastating history of Beleriand's three kinslayings. She must ask them to bear the Host of the West across the Sea. She's a mother, survivor and also bearer of a Silmaril but saw the First Age converge on her: the weight of its sins, its accumulated grief, and the grace through which salvation may yet enter history.

Author's Note: I’ve dealt with some loss recently, so I returned to Tolkien (as most do) to understand how the Legendarium navigated the amdir and estel in grief. I did find some answers but left mostly unsatisfied. One thing I did find was sometimes only narrative could convey the right critique on the legendarium & society's treatment of societal grief. Tolkien frequently argued that narrative and myth were valid vehicles for high-level spiritual and philosophical critique and I think this makes a case for that.

I wrote On Tides of Light for emotional catharsis using Tolkien’s eucatastrophe closure, tracing the collapse of amdir (hope resting upon visible outcomes) into estel: faithful action without guarantee. This gap fiction tries to provide an spiritual closure to the First Age by validating the grief of an Age. Grief can never be undone; it can become witness, mercy and light enough for another hand to continue.