All Hues and Honeys by Dawn Felagund

| | |

Fanwork Notes

Dews did they gather in the woods of Oromë, and flower-petals of all hues and honeys in Yavanna's gardens ...

Spring is emerging. I--like most of the world--am mostly confined indoors. I am hoping to use this opportunity to focus more strongly on my writing. I may not write fanfic every day, but when I do, small pieces will be collected here.

Please see chapter notes for individual summaries and warnings, where applicable.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

This is my latest collection of pieces too small to stand alone, often written for events on the SWG Discord.

The Latest:
"Fly." Fingon's faith in his friendship with Maedhros leads him to the decision to rescue him.
"Salt." Uinen discovers the kinslaying.
"Sunship." Nerdanel places the final cog in the sunship as an act of resistance.
"No One Heard That." The histories withheld some details of Fëanor's muster of the Noldor.
"Cracked." Námo explains death to a young Fëanor.
"Sunship, Reprise." The sunship's launching, from the perspective of the other side of the sea.
"Shadows beyond a Campfire." The sons of Fëanor build a campfire after the Nirnaeth.
"The Neologist." Pengolodh on language and history at three points in Gondolin's history.

Major Characters: Amras, Amrod, Caranthir, Curufin, Elrond, Elwing, Fëanor, Fingon, Finrod Felagund, Indis, Maedhros, Maglor, Nerdanel, Orodreth, Pengolodh, Salmar, Thorondor, Uinen, Arien, Mandos, Avari, Sons of Fëanor

Major Relationships: Fingon/Maedhros, Fëanor/Nerdanel, Curufin/Original Character, Maglor & Salmar, Eärendil/Elwing, Arien & Nerdanel

Genre: Fixed-Length Ficlet, Slash/Femslash

Challenges: Block Party, Holiday Party, It Comes in Threes, Jubilee, Middle-earth Olympics, Restoration and Rebuilding, Revolution, Teen Spirit

Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate

Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn

This fanwork belongs to the series

Instadrabbling
Chapters: 38 Word Count: 6, 595
Posted on 25 March 2020 Updated on 20 January 2025

This fanwork is a work in progress.

Show all chapters on a single page

Table of Contents

Danger

Fëanor invites Nerdanel to journey north with him. A perfect drabble for the instradrabbling prompt: elegant, eyes, danger, response

Dust

Fëanor first reveals the Silmarils. A perfect drabble for Lockdown Instadrabbling, for the prompt: world, brighter, dust, untouchable

Abode

Finrod adapts to changing ideas of what it means to make a home. A perfect drabble written for Lockdown Instadrabbling for the prompt: rock, color, carry, abode

Airs

Thorondor remembers while he aided Fingolfin. A perfect drabble for Lockdown Instadrabbling, for the prompt: realm, airs, great, traverse.

Lighthouse

Why Elwing kept the Silmaril. A perfect drabble for Lockdown Instadrabbling, for the prompt: lighthouse, waters, light, glass.

"Marula" and "Windfall"

For the Block Party prompt "comfort food": a pair of Maedhros/Fingon ficlets about love, libation, and the rituals that bind them.

Spring Thaw

Fëanor and Nerdanel are stranded during spring thaw. A perfect drabble written for image instadrabbling, for the image of water rushing through a gorge. This drabble uses the Felakverse idea that Fëanor and Nerdanel married without permission in the wilderness.

Queen

Young Indis plays. A perfect drabble written for image instadrabbling, for this image of jars on a shelf.

The Ruin

For image instadrabbling, for the drawing of the castle against the mountains, this one isn't a fixed-length anything, much less a drabble. Caranthir returns to Formenos for the first time after reembodiment. A vignette.

Of Earth

For the ribbon-cutting party for the new site, Fëanor treks north to Middle-earth and remembers their purpose. A double drabble, using Vienna Teng's "Goodnight, New York" as the prompt.

Daffodil

Maedhros recovers after Thangorodrim. A double drabbled for the ribbon-cutting party, using Zhie's photo of a single daffodil in a winter landscape as a prompt.

Riddle

A young and overproud Fëanor is gentled by one thing. A perfect drabble, written for the ribbon-cutting instadrabble for the prompt sunlit, lawns, daisy, riddle. Uncharacteristically fluffy.

Dispossessed

Nerdanel learns of her connection to Elrond Peredhel. For Middle-earth Olympics instadrabbling, a pair of drabbles using the prompt sets miss mountain bay nineteen and symmetrical, bread, ribbon, fall.

A Letter from Findekáno

Fingon writes to Maedhros. Maedhros/Fingon, a drabble-and-a-half (150 words) for the prompt words brave, lift, insight, strategic.

Blueprints

Curufin and Terentaulë have their first date and it goes as planned. A drabble-and-a-half (150 words) for the prompt swan, green, bridge, arch.

Idle

Pengolodh has heard little about the youngest sons of Fëanor. At last, as Sirion is sacked, he gets a glimpse. A ficlet written for the Holiday Party prompt "Never Have I Ever." Grundy asked if Pengolodh had ever met or spoken with a son of Fëanor.

Quite Numb

Caranthir goes for a swim to ease his mind but forgets to tell his daughter Amarwen. 250 words, written for the Holiday Party prompt "Never Have I Ever"; Grundy asked if Caranthir had ever been punched by a girl.

Withering

Orodreth recalls a lesson from Yavanna when confronting Celegorm and Curufin. A perfect drabble written in four 25-word sections. (I'm not sure I like the outcome, but it was a challenge to be sure!) Written for the Holiday Party challenge, for the prompt "Never Have I Ever"; Grundy asked if Orodreth ever lost his cool with his cousins in Nargothrond.

Inconsideration

Fëanor and Nerdanel want to announce their engagement but there are just so many Considerations! 250 words, written for the Holiday Party prompt "Truth or Dare." I asked for a dare for Nerdanel; Grundy gave me "kiss Prince Fëanáro in front of everyone, including her father." For those familiar with my work, this piece does not follow the Felakverse.

Facets

Maedhros tries to explain his relationship with Fingon to Elrond and Elros. 150 words, written for the Holiday Party prompt "Truth or Dare." Shadow provided a Truth prompt for Maedhros to "explain his relationship with Fingon to Elrond and Elros."

Bitter Ink

Pengolodh after the fall of Gondolin. A perfect drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, for the challenge Restoration and Rebuilding: "Just like a tree that loses branches and dead leaves in the Autumn, I will rebuild anew. I will rebuild new branches and leaves. I will rebuild and maintain only what bears me fruits." ― Mitta Xinindlu

The Forgotten God

Maglor by the sea. A triple drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, for the challenge Holiday Party: Create a fanwork featuring the sea.

This Is It?

Elwing awaits Eärendil's rising each night. A double drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, for the challenge Restoration and Rebuilding: Fleetwood Mac's Landslide. The opening quote comes from that song.

Well Now

Nerdanel gathers her remaining colleagues after the Darkening. A drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, for the challenge Restoration and Rebuilding: "People rescue each other. They build shelters and community kitchens and ways to deal with lost children and eventually rebuild one way or another." ― Rebecca Solnit

Memorial

Nerdanel ponders how to memorialize the kinslaying. A perfect drabble for IFD/Meet & Greet instadrabbling. The prompts were "lost in memory" and "group, follow, conceptualize, button."

Unnumbered Tears

The Haudh-en-Nirnaeth after the inundation of Beleriand. A perfect drabble for IFD/Meet & Greet instadrabbling. The prompts were "lost in memory" and "tears, silent, dusk, shattered." (I cheated a bit on "tears" by using the Sindarin word!)

Unsafety

Fingolfin rides to Morgoth's gates. A perfect drabble for IFD/Meet & Greet instadrabbling. The prompts were "lost in memory" and "running, limits, breathless, distance."

Quiet Love

Nerdanel cares for Fëanor on the anniversary of Míriel's death. A perfect drabble for IFD/Meet & Greet instadrabbling. The prompts were "lost in memory" and "love, important, science, morning."

The Secret Door

Celebrimbor learns lessons about magic. A double drabble for the IFD/Meet & Greet instadrabbling. The prompts were "passwords/secret codes" and "necessary cruelty."

The First Orc

An Elven scout dreams of captivity. A drabble for Orctober instadrabbling for the prompts "decay, tunnel, dark, foresight."

Fly

Fingon's faith in his friendship with Maedhros leads him to the decision to rescue him. For Jubilee instadrabbling, a double drabble using four words the song "Defying Gravity" from Wicked (Revolution challenge): hurt, delusions, tandem, fly.

Salt

Uinen discovers the kinslaying. For Jubilee instadrabbling, a perfect drabble for the prompt, "The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea."

Sunship

Nerdanel places the final cog in the sunship as an act of resistance. A 150-word ficlet for Jubilee instadrabbling, for the prompt "Hunger" by Robinson and Rohe:

Though the ink is running dry, we still insist to write upon the sky
Oh, this spacious sky Is not poetry enough for our swelling lungs
We must write a thousand songs to carry on our tongues
Our thoughts will burn so bright we can white the stars out from the sky at night
And we wonder if our love will endure the certain pain
And if this land can withstand the endless strain of our hunger

No One Heard That

The histories withheld some details of Fëanor's muster of the Noldor. A perfect drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, for three prompts rolled on the Teen Spirit Prompt Generator: voice cracks, escape, clueless parents. The first paragraph comes from The Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor," and did not count toward the 100 words of the drabble.

Cracked

Námo explains death to a young Fëanor. A double drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, for the prompt from Leonard Cohen's "Anthem": "There is a crack, a crack in everything / That's how the light gets in."

Sunship, Reprise

The sunship's launching, from the perspective of the other side of the sea. A perfect drabble for Jubilee instadrabbling, written for the four words (from "On Fairy-stories"): beauties, terrors, sun, power.

Shadows beyond a Campfire

The sons of Fëanor build a campfire after the Nirnaeth. For Jubilee instadrabbling, a perfect drabble for a prompt from Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass: "Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy."

The Neologist

Pengolodh on language and history at three points in Gondolin's history. Three perfect drabbles for Jubilee instradrabbling, for the prompt (from the It Comes in Threes challenge): rock, paper, scissors.

Comments on All Hues and Honeys

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.

(Sorry that it has taken me so long to reply to your comment, which I read and appreciated very much when you left it!)

I do LOVE lighthouses. I was talking about lighthouses with (to??) Bobby this morning, how they make me feel something very like the Elven sea-longing even just to think of them. I think what comes through, rereading with a more critical eye now that the drabble is a few weeks old, is exactly what I love about lighthouses: their liminal place at the cusp of human habitation, beckoning back those who have gone to that most forbidding of places, the sea.

Elwing as a lighthouse keeper has also been niggling at my imagination for a while now too! :D

Thank you so much for reading and commenting--as always! <3

Yes, exactly! I love creation myths--so weird, teeming with symbolism, and eerily parallel with scientific theories of cosmogony--and so was *very* much drawing from mythic archetypes here. The Fall archetype isn't one I deliberately put in there, but you're totally right that it's there (and one that I find very Tolkienish too!)

I think it was! I am the rare Feanatic who thinks she should have given the damned thing back but also has sympathy for Elwing (perhaps triggered by my recognition that Earendil doesn't bear *nearly* the scorn from fandom as Elwing does and blossoming there into something like empathy for the situation she was in). I tend to see her as pushed into a pretty tough situation for someone so very young (and already traumatized too). She's really a fascinating character to me!

Anyway! I did not mean this to turn into a thesis on how I see Elwing. ^_^ Thank you for taking a chance on a drabble about a character not-your-favorite and leaving a comment!

Thank you! The idea of Elwing as a lighthouse keeper (in Valinor, after Earendil goes on Silmaril duty in Vingilote) has been picking at the edge of my imagination for *months* now, and this was a first overture into looking at how that might have come to pass.

Thanks for reading and commenting! <3

I just learned about it myself! As the endnotes say, I heard about it on "The Great British Baking Show" and looked it up to learn more.

The windfalls were much more comfortable territory: gathering wild windfall apples to make cider or jelly is an autumn ritual here. I really liked the parallels and contrasts between them, in part because the marula felt distant enough to belong more in Valinor versus the comfortable and imperfect world of windfalls.

(Never mind Maedhros himself as a sort of windfall! XD)

Thanks for reading and commenting! ^_^

Thank you! I had to go back and reread it because I'm the world's worst author who cannot even remember what happens in her own frickin stories ... I think I probably did imagine Formenos! In the Felakverse, he spends A LOT of time there (cementing the loyalty of the Northern Noldor compared to Fingolfin and accounting for his followers after the Darkening). So yeah. Let's go with Formenos! :D

I researched it too before writing this! It's interesting because I liked the "Marula" ficlet so much more that I almost didn't include "Windfall," but the comments so far seem to prefer "Windfall" ... definitely a reminder about why not to listen to that little negative voice that gets louder when it comes time to post! :D

The first is delicious and playful, while the second feels warming and homely (exactly what Maedhros needs). Also bringing back memories of tasting different ciders in Bristol last year (a new one every evening, not all of them at once!)  - feels like a different world now.

When those Amarula commercials first started appearing here, I thought they were making things up! Elephant tree liqueur, yeah right. I have by now come to understand that the marula tree actually exists, but have yet to find out what the fruit tastes like. As such, I relate very much to Maedhros' initial "it's a myth" statement! :D

As far as I know the "marula" liquor does not exist here, but I heard about it on "The Great British Baking Show," and I loved the "urban legend" feel to it and it seemed a perfect fit for what I was trying to do here. :D

Thanks for reading and commenting, Lyra! (And yeah, ordinary things--going to the movies, eating breakfast at a diner counter--seem part of another world already.)

I am so sorry to hear of your loss, Dawn. I lost my older brother earlier this year to cancer (before this virus thank god) and the grief is very present. Your  celebration of him seems fond and fitting. We have to remember the good times.

And this is just gorgeous- as always. But the wind did not rise. "Myth or no," Findekáno said, offering the fruit to Nelyo's lips as he might a kiss, "it's supposed to be delicious."

sigh.

And the containment of Fingon in the second- 'so many things' -indeed yes.

Aww, Ziggy, I'm sorry for the loss of your brother too. This has just been an awful year for deaths already (covid aside!) Many fandom people have lost close family due to non-virus-related causes, on top of the stress of living during a pandemic.

Thank you for reading and, always, for you kind comments. <3

First and ONLY time I have EVER felt a trace of sympathy for Elwing- and it packs a bit of a punch to be honest, I almost forgive her....her blindness to how wrong this is and how she endangers her people and family. How she betrays those little boys of hers. (Your fault I feel this- AMC- my greatest love.)

This piece! I love the way Pengolodh is more curious than cautious, observing events more than being swept up in them. He even seems somewhat excited for the opportunity to glimpse the two youngest Fëanoreans. And then his realisation that his characterisations of them had nonetheless been just as inaccurate, only in the opposite way.   And, in the midst of fighting, Ambarussa's concern that the tale be told...  A lovely view of events at Sirion.

Thank you! I've been writing Pengolodh for a long time (he is also a major subject of my academic work). At first, when I got the prompt ("meeting or speaking with a son of Feanor"), I didn't know that I could do it, not because the prompt was hard but because I'd actually written several meetings with Feanorions and Pengolodh already and didn't want to repeat (or contradict!) myself. Sirion seemed a nice solution to that (all other meetings had been before Turgon's people went to Gondolin).

Same with the twins; I researched them fairly recently for a biography, and Tolkien gives us very little about them and never seems to have settled on a characterization. I like to imagine that's because the historians (i.e., mostly Pengolodh) just didn't know!