Laurië Lassi – Golden Leaves by Esteliel

Atonement

"Darkness is only driven out with light, not more darkness."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

Write a story or poem or create artwork where your character battles and overcomes their darkest hour.

Atonement

The thought was seductive. To climb to the top of Mount Taniquetil, to search out the High King of Arda, to fall to his knees and admit his terrible sin...

He knew that he had not suffered enough for what he had done. He never would. If Fëanor was denied rebirth until the end for what his terrible pride had wrought, then how could he, Glorfindel, walk these shores as a free man, admired by all for his feats of strength and courage?

Should not he, too, be judged? Should not he, too, be made to suffer in atonement?

In the darkest hours of the night, he remembered it all: Legolas' tears. His despair. The way the light had seemed to slowly fade from his eyes.

Glorfindel stared up at the heights of the Pelóri. A cold wind tore at him until his eyes teared up, and still he could not look away.

The guilt he bore was terrible. There was nothing he would not do to be free from it. He would gladly bear any punishment, if only he could live again without the guilt that would never cease to eat at him. And yet, he also remembered Legolas' words, the anguish in his eyes at the suggestion. You have not wronged him. You have wronged me!

Of course Legolas had been right. His words were true then, and they were still true now. He had no right to demand forgiveness from Manwë when it was Legolas he had wronged. Legolas' soul still bore the scars of what he had done. Was it not justice then that he, too, suffer this guilt until Arda was unmade?

He looked up at the hidden heights of the Pelóri, then at last he turned away. If he truly wanted to atone, perhaps a first step would be tell his parents the truth of what he had done.