B2ME Day 17 - An Exchange of Gifts by Erulisse

Chapter 1

A Gift of the Stars

When Itarillë was young, Laurefindel gave her the stars.  Seeing her fascination with the heavens when the extended families gathered at the summer lodge for vacation and they were more distanced from the Trees, he hatched a plot to place the stars into her hand.  After all, Turukáno was the friend who was closest to his heart, and his young child had captured the Vanya as her personal and devoted servant since their eyes had first met. 

Taking time out one afternoon, Laurefindel penned a letter to a favorite cousin.  Helyanwë was usually occupied in her studio and rarely went with the family on their various outings.  She had completed her apprenticeship with Lord Aulë and had achieved mastery in all manner of working with glass.  He had a special request for her. 

An affirmative answer was soon brought back to him along with a suggested timeframe, and he agreed.  Helyanwë began the work. 

Calling upon her brother, she requested him to make the basic metalwork for two tubes that would fit, one snugly inside the other.  He also fashioned caps to fit onto each tube’s end.  She, in her turn, carved each tube into a delicate crosshatched pattern and then melted deep blue colored glass over it in.  The carved lines were visible through the glass enamel. 

She then set gemstones into the enameled tubes in specific stellar patterns.  She chose two star patterns for each tube:  Valacirca with Wilwarin for the exterior tube, and Telumendil and Soronúmë for the inner tube.  Then she melted clear glass and carefully ground it into two shaped lenses, one for the eyepiece and one for the end piece.  She set each glass lens into its space and assembled the tubes together so that they collapsed into a single small tube when not in use. 

Laurefindel came to her workshop on a rainy day in early spring.  She handed him a finely-worked wooden inlaid box holding the star-viewer nestled inside. 

When the family gathered at the summer lodge a few months later for their vacation, Turukáno and Laurefindel escorted Itarillë to the highest point; the cliff top used by the young boys as a platform from which to dive into the lake below.  While her father spread a blanket on the ground for the three of them to sit on, Laurefindel presented Itarillë with the inlaid box.  She opened the box and looked, questioningly, at the enameled and bejeweled tube nested within it. 

“Let me show you Varda’s gift to us,” Laurefindel said softly as he pulled the tube from the box and extended it to its full length.  Lying on their backs, they spent the first of many nights looking through the tube at the wonders placed into the heavens by the Queen of the Stars. 

Several years later, when they left Valinor for the unknown lands to the east, Itarillë slipped the tube into her pocket as one of her most cherished possessions. 

When she had a child of her own while in Gondolin, she, Tuor, Turgon and Glorfindel gave the gift of the stars to her young son, Eärendil.  Many summer evenings were spent in a dark courtyard or in the land surrounding the city, gazing at the stars above with the star-viewer. 

Later, after the fall of Gondolin, Idril gave the star-viewing tube to Eärendil before leaving for the West with Tuor.  He, in turn, gave both the stars and hope back to the elves of his world when he sailed to Valinor and then boarded Vingelot wearing the Silmaril upon his brow to sail among his beloved stars nightly.  The star-watcher of his mother sailed with him on each voyage. 

Chapter End Notes

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