If Ever She Sang by sallysavestheday

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Fanwork Notes

For the Rejects Challenge, using the prompt: Melian was a sprite who escaped from the gardens of Lórien (from The Book of Lost Tales).

Title and premise are from the beginning of the Tale of Tinuviel in BoLT, referring to Melian: If ever she sang...dreams and slumbers passed over your head and made it heavy. It's my own macabre take that Irmo's dreams pave the road to Mandos, at least in the early days of the world.

 

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Elwë was not the first Elf Melian drew into Nan Elmoth. He was the first of them to survive. A love story, of sorts.

Major Characters: Elu Thingol, Melian

Major Relationships: Melian/Thingol

Genre:

Challenges: Rejects

Rating: General

Warnings:

Chapters: 1 Word Count: 417
Posted on 26 April 2023 Updated on 27 April 2023

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

If Ever She Sang

Comments

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I almost certainly won't be able to express my thoughts any better here but I just... the image of Melian brings to mind the kind of unintentional destruction that follows not understanding the delicate nature of what you're dealing with.  Like someone who tries to study a bug only to accidentally squish it or break off one of its legs or wings... that kind of almost childlike "What is this!?" without understanding your strength or another's weakness and just... not understanding why they die.

Yes, exactly. She's not malicious; she just really doesn't understand how they work. And she's terribly lonely and not grasping why she keeps failing to connect with these pretty little things that drift into her realm. She's like a cat playing with a moth, to use more bug imagery. As are all the Ainur, really, at one point or another. I'm glad this provoked you!

You've brought the fey mood of BoLT in here so beautifully, as well as the sense of the Ainur being more human and childlike than they came to be portraits in the later Silm, experimenting with this strange new world experience, and very far from wise! 

And I just love the image of Elwë tripping along, oblivious to what's happening outside his thoughts, more like us modern humans and the opposite of how Elves are so often portrayed as being hyperaware, and that being the very thing that saves him!

Very far from wise, indeed! Especially in the beginning, I imagine. Yes, Thingol's focus on himself is his saving grace in this case. Later it will prove otherwise, of course. I'm glad you enjoyed this! I wasn't sure how it would hit, but people seem to be at least intrigued by my poor Monster Melian.

the description of Melian and her being feels like being immersed in a primordial dream in which you can't know if you will awake ever again or remain lost into the depth of it. Elwe really didn't know what he was meddling with, he was lucky and strong enough not to succumb to it! Really well done, very very evocative!

This is really cool! I love how inhuman Melian is, not knowing how to interact with the Elves without killing them. Like: Oh. :( Another one broke. :(

And Elwe finding the safe (?) way to encounter her merely by accident. The last lines are beautiful and give me the shivers!