But Ar-Pharazôn the King and the mortal warriors that had set foot upon the land of Aman were buried under falling hills: there it is said that they lie imprisoned in the Caves of the Forgotten, until the Last Battle and the Day of Doom.
I who loved her knew her face
First when yet a maiden fair,
When we met in a garden overgrown
And plighted our troth there.
I who loved her knew her face
Across unrav'ling years
As time dulled her beauty perilous
Yet made her no less dear.
He who made her knew her face;
Carved her likeness of flesh and bone
And pondered with calculating eye
That my affections she would earn.
But I who loved her knew her face
And memorized o'er the years
The delicate contour of flesh and bone,
Sketched in the trajectory of tears.
For He who made her knew her face
Only as an emblem of our fate,
And no laughter, tears from she or I
Could divert what our land awaits.
I who loved her knew her face
As she was whelmed over by the sea.
I screamed with the horror in her eyes
As the mountain covered me.
But He who made us heard our screams
As just another note in His song.
She was most beautiful as she died:
The likeness He'd planned all along.
A tremendous thank-you to Noliel, who's wrenching piece Zimraphel inspired this poem!
The premise of this poem is based on The History of Middle-earth: The Peoples of Middle-earth, where Tolkien considered the idea that Miriel was not wholly unwilling in her marriage to Pharazon:
He [Ar-Pharazôn] was a man of great beauty and strength/stature after the image of the first kings, and indeed in his youth was not unlike the Edain of old in mind also, though he had strength of will rather than of wisdom as after appeared, when he was corrupted by the counsels of his father and the acclaim of the people. In his earlier days he had a close friendship with Amandil who was afterwards Lord of Andúnië, and he had loved the people of the House of Valandil with whom he had kinship (through Inzilbêth his father's mother). With them he was often a guest, and there came Zimrahil his cousin, daughter of Inziladun who was later King Tar-Palantir. Elentir the brother of Amandil loved her, but when first she saw Pharazôn her eyes and her heart were turned to him, for his beauty, and for his wealth also.
