Graveyard Shift by Himring

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Fanwork Notes

This is written for the Sitcom challenge, for the prompt "Getting Volunteered".

Perhaps it looks as if I was intentionally trying to make my fill as non-Sitcom-like as possible, but it is more likely that I have not quite recovered from the effect of all the Alqualonde fic that was written for the Reverse Big Bang...

The character death warning is for canonical deaths that precede the actual narrative.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

After the First Kinslaying, Maglor's wife ends up with a grim duty.

Has she been volunteered by others?

Or maybe she did choose it herself, after all?

In the confusion of the times, that may not be an easy distinction to make.

Major Characters: Noldor, Teleri

Major Relationships:

Genre: General

Challenges: Sitcom

Rating: Teens

Warnings: Character Death
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 781
Posted on 5 October 2018 Updated on 5 October 2018

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

In Himring 'verse, Maglor's wife is a Telerin musician and remained behind in Aman.

Comments

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Thank you very much, Kei!

I think being alone, while she was doing it, would make those fears stronger.

On the other hand, her being away on her task would give the Teleri closest to her, who may have been sending rather mixed signals in the first shock after the event, time to work out that they really didn't want to lose her over this.  

Ouch! Painful to read and so well done. I often wonder what Maglor and Curufin's wives suffered after they left. The idea (which I also follow in my personal story canon) that Maglor's wife was of the Teleri adds an entire additional point of pain for her. I can also relate on a highly personal level.

Thank you very much, Oshun! I'm glad the story is relatable. Not glad that it gives you pain!

People write more about Nerdanel's sufferings, usually. We know a bit more about what was there for Nerdanel to fall back on than for her daughters-in-law: her father Mahtan, her friendship with Indis, her art.

The Telerin connection goes back to Dawn's Felak-verse, in my case as in yours, I guess, although this isn't (and never was) Vingarie.

This is how far I follow you, Makalaure. My heart! So glad that the Teleri appreciated her work, rather than casting her out for who her husband was. That was a huge relief after the sadness of the tale.

I completely agree that Elves would require some kind of funeral - aside from the graves you mentioned, there's also the Hill of the Slain after the Nirnaeth, and the fact that Feanor burns up and has "neither burial nor tomb" is explicitly mentioned as a strange thing, so it can hardly be Elven nature to not leave a body. :/ Thank you for this story! It was sad but satisfying, and answering a question that isn't often asked: Who takes care of the bodies?

Thank you very much, Lyra!

Because I'd already written about her after the War of Wrath, I knew she would come out okay at the end. Or rather okay-ish...

It is sometimes overlooked just how many of the Feanorians and other Noldor already die by this point, because of course people are thinking first of all of the dead Teleri. And I thought, somebody will have had to deal with all those dead people.

I was quite surprised when I first encountered that idea about elves not needing graves! I forget what bits of canon were cited, but I felt the underlying inspiration was probably movie-verse, because PJ's elves do look a bit as if they might not need them. I haven't seen it about recently, but mentioned it as the plot depends so much on that work being required.

I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Thinking she had to make a kind of recompense for her husband being a Feanorion, one of the 'ringleaders'.

I am fascinated with this 'wife of a Feanorion' concept
and am writing a series myself on Curufin's wife.

I would like to read more on her.

Thank you very much!

It's good to hear I managed to evoke sympathy for her!

I wrote an earlier story about how she learned of the Noldolante. I suspect she will visit me again, but at present I have no further plot bunnies.

Yes, there is much scope for imagining the wife of a Feanorion--so many different possibilities!

I've written some short glimpses of Curufin's wife, too, although it's more about her role as Celebrimbor's mother.

Does your version of his wife go with him to Beleriand?

Yes, she does. She is there through all the trials and tribulations, all the loss and grief as well as some good times. My hc from her prospective, shows the slow slide of her husband and their life together, from passionate, loving and protective husband and father to a possessive, cold and calculating stranger and how this impacts on her and Celebrimbor. Her story doesn't end in Beleriand either, but I better not give away too much just in case you feel like reading it in future.

I'd love to read the story of how Maglor's wife came to learn of the Noldolante and the little glimpses of your version of Curufin's wife too, if you wouldn't mind.

I see! I've always been interested in other people's story lines where one or the other of these wives goes along to Middle-earth, even though in my 'verse that doesn't happen. For Curufin's wife, it would be even more heart-wrenching than for Maglor's or Caranthir's. I will keep an eye out for this. I think you haven't posted it anywhere yet, have you, although maybe you have and I failed to spot it?

 

Here is Maglor's wife and her encounter with the Noldolante:

Tale of the Telerin Flute-Player: http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/archive/home/viewstory.php?sid=1651

She is also in this story, only in one scene, but you might like that scene: 

A Minor Act of Reparation: http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/archive/home/viewstory.php?sid=2659

 

Here are the glimpses of Curufin's wife:

With Finarfin, in: An Act of Faith: http://www.silmarillionwritersguild.org/archive/home/viewstory.php?sid=3098

With Celebrimbor, here: https://hhimring.dreamwidth.org/74721.html

(This last bit is part of my next chapter for my story "Ships in the Harbour", of which I've only posted the first chapter so far in the Archives).