The Crossing of Celon by Himring

You've read this comment before, but that was in a different place, so I am copying it here also, to share with a wider audience.

One of the fascination I share with arguably everyone here, is the major tale that runs through The Silmarillion, that of Feanor and his sons, the war of the Noldor to recover the stones and avenge their beloved leaders (Feanor or Finwe, you chose), and everything that goes along with that. I am constantly asking myself questions along the way about everything from free will, self-determination, intellectual property rights, to loyalty, to the spirit that enables humans to keep struggling despite insurmountable odds, to have principles and stick to them, and asking myself what draws me to their stories. I think it is probably for me at bottom, the tragedy and my own desire to find that redemption is possible beneath all of the loss and perhaps less than sterling choices. Why do I feel so strongly and so sympathetically about these characters who nearly half of the Tolkien fandom are repelled by? I found a story that spells a lot of it out compellingly in short story form.

So this recommendation is both for those who share my passion and for Tolkien fans who don't get exactly what it is that nutters like me see to love in those annoying Feanorians. Please go here and read it and see how you feel afterwards.

OMG, Himring! I wish I had written this. It is so sharply beautiful and filled with pain. I love it so much. I think it might be the best thing you have ever written. Simply gorgeous. Line after line. I'd like to pick my favorite passage or what I like it best, but as I read I kept finding another further on that was as good or better.

This one is beautiful, as so many parts of this short story are; consider it random because you broke my heart several more times before you reached the end.

Not so long ago, Sartandur had been ready enough to place the blame for his actions on the shoulders of Maedhros and his brothers—when he was not blaming Dior for his foolish obstinacy, Feanor for making the Silmarils in the first place and, of course, Morgoth for almost everything else… But he seemed to have lost the taste for it, now that he heard Maedhros accept the blame. It was his own choices that had placed him where he was as much as those of others.

I liked the above so much initially because it resonates emotionally and is how I would have believed someone I could respect might have responded.

I love the descriptions of Celegorm and how he was regarded by those who followed him. I particularly like the remarks about each of the brothers and those who followed them.

In times past, Sartandur had been sure—so confident in his belief that he had never really thought about it—that it did not, finally, matter which of the Sons of Feanor one chose to serve: that despite the apparent differences between them, they were essentially one, variations on the same theme: one Oath, one fate. You just picked the style that suited you best—and so he had chosen Celegorm.

So much here--the being ostracized, his conviction of purpose as a follower of Feanor, the love of his own lord Celegorm and what that loss meant to him, and horror of what it meant on a personal level to do such a thing to children, and, finally, the description of the mark on the face of one of the little princes where he had been slapped. One cannot even condemn out of hand those terrible "servants of Celegorm"--they grew out of the whole war and the situation they found themselves in. Even they were not Bad People--Born Evil!

You broke my heart. But you couldn't put it back together again, because redemption is still a long road to walk for this man, and yet you leave me hopeful in the end for all of them. That when the time finally comes when they can turn their back on these deeds and fully renounce them, and the cost will be horribly high, they will never forget what happened, what they did, and why, and, like Maedhros, never judge others without looking at themselves and accepting responsibility.

It is a so much more humanistic and a more valid judgment of the Feanorians than the ones that carelessly write them off as evil and, therefore, unworthy of much interest or attention. (How can one not love Tolkien's greatest story?) I am human and flawed myself, and I am not a monster either, so I find them fascinating.

Maedhros! It's almost as though Tolkien said more than he meant to say or was even conscious of saying about the human condition when he wrote Feanor and sons. What he explains about what he intended to write about them diminishes always what he actually put down on paper in the telling of these tales. Maedhros stands out among all of them. I have always loved Fingon so much because he loved Maedhros and that spoke so highly of him to me. (And he was terribly brave and I personally put a lot of store in that as a virtue! Too much probably.)

Never mind my blathering. I'm only allowing it to stay on the page, because I hope it expresses how much this piece moved me.

Standing applause. All right, actually slumped on my sofa with a laptop. The point is I love it!

Most of all I loved Maedhros. For whatever else good and bad one might think of him, you paint him here as a true leader and someone who faces his deeds.

Wow!

I have yet to read a story by you that I didn't immedately love. I also have yet to read a story by you, even some of your fluffier pieces, that didn't contain some sort of profound truth. The best part, though, is that you always reveal that truth through the actions of the characters and the consequences of those actions. Too many authors cheat by telling their audience what they mean to say through dialogue or by just expositing their thoughts as the thoughts of the characters, but you only use dialogue and thought to set up the actions that will eventually reveal your meaning. It astounds me how you are so consistant in that, because even many authors that I love will slip up from time to time.

As for this story in particular, it's very rare that this singular event is given any great attention from authors and when it is, it is either not expounded upon very much or merely used as a reference to other events in Maedhros' life (usually Sirion). Moreover, I don't think anyone has told this story from this persepective, either, which allowed you to tap into even greater tragic elements then I think most authors give themselves access to: specifically, doing things you know are wrong for someone you love and regretting it later and knowing that redemption, if at all possible, may be a bitter undertaking that makes little difference in the end except as a last, desperate solace.

Actually, now that I've re-read my last statement, I see those elements are in just about every tragic story of the Noldor from the First Age, but it's nice to see it from a different than usual character--really brings the points home.

Thank you for this. Seriously.

This is a fabulous story, dealing with the tenuous line between right and wrong. You have written a very believable portrait of this man, Sartandur, of his isolation and that of his partners in crime, of the crumbling of his hopes, of the remorse at having stepped over a line that no one had defined and he crossed out of anger and grief, not realising what it meant. He's not an evil man, but that doesn't make his deeds less evil; he knows it and regrets. Equally insightful is your Maedhros, appalled but still a great leader who refuses to aportion blame on men that have followed him and his brothers out of loyalty and devotionhe refuses to pretend a righteousness he knows is not his. You have drawn a brilliant interaction between them.

I'm so glad you retook the abandoned fic and completed it!

he has relied on. noble enough to accept both responsibility and blame. someone who got carried away and only later realised It is a sort of relief to see that someone able to abandone two children in rage can then realise can do so  (why is it acceptable to kill but not to go that step further?).

What they said! Great story!

I loved it because it takes an episode that's generally told focusing on the 'what if E&E survived' and this is a really interesting take on the other side of the tale. I also love it because of the accurate psychology. I've seen this in action - well, not the abandonment of young children in the wild, thank God, lol, but the shunning the people who are the more obvious culprits when in reality everyone involved had glass ceilings - it feels very plausible and real.

Of course Maedhros handles it differently and I'm glad for it. My favourite bit is " Then he lowered his eyelids, still saying nothing. And Sartandur understood in shock that this conversation was already over..." There's just so much in those sentences... 

I also love that Sartandur gets to live and do things differently, even if it ends badly for him. Second chances and all.

Lovely tale.