As Time Unrolls by Lyra

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Fanwork Notes

Great processes march on, as Time unrolls
from dark beginnings to uncertain goals...
J.R.R. Tolkien, Mythopoeia

Belatedly written for the "Through the Ages" birthday theme.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Chronicling history is never an easy job. It is even harder when you don't always agree with the management - and cannot quit...

Major Characters: Vairë

Major Relationships:

Genre: Experimental

Challenges: B2MeM 2012, Fifth Birthday Celebration

Rating: General

Warnings:

Chapters: 11 Word Count: 4, 423
Posted on 14 September 2010 Updated on 3 March 2014

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

Spring

A note on naming (because this wouldn't be Tolkien fandom if things weren't complicated somehow): In the first segments, the Valar have not yet learned Quenya, so they are using their native Valarin. Naturally this only comes to bear in personal and place names, but I nonetheless apologise for any confusion caused by the weirder-than-usual words...
If any of the 'odd' letters (yogh, chi, and s with caron) cannot be depicted properly, I apologize; they look fine on my screen, so it seems the archive can handle them, but it probably depends on your browser whether you get the correct symbols or some gibberish...

Trees
Darkness
Sun I
Sun II
Sun III
Sun IV

Written for the B2MeM 2012 "Maglor in History 1" prompt, Maglor in the Fourth Age. Not actually featuring Maglor.

Sun V

Written for the B2MeM 2012 "Crossover 1" prompt, Crossover with a mythological story.

The Christian nativity story, to be precise, so tread with care if that's a touchy subject for you.

Sun VI

Reaching the 20th century, yay. Or not yay, because there's a lot of 20th century history that the Valar rather wouldn't have witnessed...

Sun VII

And then, in the distant (?) future...

Epilogue

Comments

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I adore this segment!

Some great lines. My favorite probably is:

"The same as ever. The song will run its course. People will live and die. There will be deeds of amazing valour and of baffling idiocy. I will always have something to weave into history, and you will always have something to cry over."

This is amazing! I really like Vaire's attitude, here. Especially how snarky she is at times. This exchange with Earendil had me laughing:

""I am not certain that I understand," says Vairë. "Námo does, supposedly, but he appears to think that I should just do my job and stop asking questions. Did I say that out loud?"
"You did, lady."
"Pretend that I didn't."
"I shall, lady.""

The Valar are such interesting characters to think about, because of how different they are from humans. This story does a wonderful job of keeping that "alien" feeling while also making the characters sympathetic. 

I don't usually go in for religious themes, but I thought the part with the nativity story was really clever...I mean, Eru trying to subvert his own rules? I thought it was an interesting notion!

Great story!! 

Thank you! So glad you like Vaire's attitude (I figured she'd become rather deadpan, with her job), and also that you find the Valar convincing in their humanoid alienness.
I can't claim credit for the notion of "subverting his own rules", which is a relatively common reading in (liberal?) theology, but I'm glad you think I pulled it off well!
In conclusion, thank you for your lovely comment!

Daeron. :) I keep vaccillating on whether or not the two would a) meet (they both end up walking the shores and making sad music, but there's a lot of shore in the world...), b) talk to each other and c) get along. But it's a fun idea to play with, so I've actually written quite a few pieces in which they live through events in history together. I'm assuming that their love of music, and the burden of immortality they both share, would eventually overcome any hard feelings left by the sack of Doriath...

Phew, so glad you like this chapter! It was a lot of fun to work out how to bring the Valar and Christianity together, so to say, but I know that it's a touchy subject for a lot of people so I was frightened of doing it wrong. So it's nice to hear that one other people finds it wonderful. :)

My favorite line for this chapter is when Namo opines that he's not sure if they can blame all the discord on Melkor.  For the first time in this story, I kind of felt sorry for Namo.

From this line "even if we were still in office",  I take it that the Valar are no longer in office at this point?

Knowledge is a burden, so Námo's job can't be easy, either. Glad I managed to conjure up some sympathy for him - I don't particularly like what I see of him in Tolkien's works, but then, he can't help that (on several levels)...
They officially laid down their office just before the Downfall of Númenor, and while they may technically have taken it back up afterwards, with Valinor physically removed from the world, their influence is a lot less immediate. So I'm assuming that they're no longer "the Powers of the World", even though they continue to do their jobs as usual.

Not necessarily - I assumed that she became aware of Feanor's release, and then automatically jumped to the conclusion that it was time for the world's end, and it would be an end in fire. (Of course, with Melkor as the counterpart, ice is still just as likely. In the Ainulindale, Eru specifically points out "the cunning work of frost" as Melkor's part...)