Constellation by Dawn Felagund

| | |

Fanwork Notes

This story uses two major ideas from the Felakverse: that Caranthir was exceptionally gifted in "mindspeak" and that Rúmil of Tirion was a captive of Melkor released when the Valar stormed Utumno. During his captivity, he was deafened and silenced because he sang, no matter the torments done to him.

This story was a gift for my friend Tárion, who asked for an angsty story about Caranthir. It was also inspired by Rhapsody's inquiry about how Caranthir would perceive a writer.

This story was initially published on March 23, 2006, on LiveJournal. It was posted here, backdated, with minor revisions on July 18, 2013.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

In Aman, an unexpected friendship forms between Caranthir, the misunderstood son of Fëanor, and Rúmil, the Noldorin loremaster who survived the dungeons of Utumno. The two see each other as others cannot, but their friendship is tested when the Darkening of Valinor leads to a string of atrocities that try both their spirits.

Major Characters: Caranthir, Rúmil (Valinor)

Major Relationships:

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Drama, General

Challenges: Gift of a Story

Rating: Teens

Warnings: Torture, Mature Themes, Violence (Moderate)
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 3, 249
Posted on 23 March 2006 Updated on 23 March 2006

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

Constellation

Comments

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.

It's a beautiful story. So heartbreaking though. But if I had to give the G.R.R. Martin award for truly horric things done to worthy people, it would have to go to the account of Rumil in Another Man's Cage. Did you really have to do that to us? Well, grudgingly I have to grant you that it is very effective.

Carnistir! I love this character so much the way you write him. In this he reminded me even more of Cassandra. In AMC you introduce his gift of foresight, but here we see him never being believed and always doomed to be misunderstood.

Maybe if we do the award tokens again sometime, we'll need a G.R.R. Martin Worst Gore Award! :D I admit it's pretty bad. I like to think that I'm not as unrelentingly gory as GRRM, though!

I had never thought of the connection with Cassandra; when I wrote this, I hadn't yet read the Oresteia yet. That's an interesting connection. He's definitely one of my favorite characters to write because it's fun to play in his head with his imagined "sixth sense."

Thank you for the comment! :D

There is  a loveliness in Carnistir that makes me sad that his brothers stop seeing in this. I wish Nelyo had not turned from him and rejected him, that someone understood as well as Rumil.

But the relationship between Rumil and Carnistir is perfection- the initial understnading, that extra scene of acceptance and then finally the rejection. As always, your writing is consumate. Your characters so much more than even Tolkien ever imagined.

Tolkien was writing characters to fit a mythic, epic, heroic style, but what I love about the Silm (and writing about it) is imagining those characters as the humans they must have been and trying to figure out why they did what they did. As I think I've mentioned, Carnistir has become one of my favorite characters to write; I love writing Rumil as well. So the questions, for me, become why Carnistir became so hateful, and why Rumil chose to remain behind with the minority of his people in Aman. I never planned for the characters to interact, but when they "met" for the first time in AMC, it just happened, and this story was born of that.

Thank you for so many kind comments! You really did make my morning!