Wayland by clotho123

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Fanwork Notes

Wayland's Smithy is a prehistoric long-barrow in the south of England where a supernatural smith used to be said to shoe horses for coin payment.  Nearby is the White Horse of Uffington, a chalk-cut hillside figure, also prehistoric.  I have visited both, and the Smithy is an atmospheric place.

This story is arguably a mild AU, it depends how you read it.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

A short, eerie story combining English legend, barrow-wrights and the fate of Elven spirits which refused the Call of Mandos. 

 

Major Characters:

Major Relationships:

Genre:

Challenges:

Rating: General

Warnings:

Chapters: 1 Word Count: 704
Posted on 8 January 2009 Updated on 8 January 2009

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Comments

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Wonderful blending of mythologies here, and very fitting given that Tolkien derived inspiration for his mythopoiea from the old legends surrounding the barrows, stones and mounds of England.

If the Smithy of Wayland is atmospheric, then that comes across in this story. The resentment and regret of the elvish wight are very well drawn.  This jibes so well with some of Tolkien's natterings about the Houseless in Parma Eldalamberon 17 and elsewhere.

The device of the Uffington Horse is an excellent way to draw the wight into the present with his desire to see it and root his existence to the deep past, too.

And the end?  Deliciously dark! 

Thank you for an excellent review.  Another reason I liked being able to include the Uffington Horse is that it's been suggested as Tolkien's inspiration for the White Horse banner of the Rohirrim (quite possible I think as he mentions having read Chesterton's Ballard of the White Horse in one of his letters).  But I couldn't get that into the story itself.