Song of the Stone by Dawn Felagund

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Fanwork Notes

This story was written for Zdenka for the LotRGenfic/MPTT Yule Exchange in answer to the following prompt: "I would love to read something set in the First or Second Age with friendship between Elves and Dwarves, with members of the different groups learning something from each other (it could be languages, smithcraft, their traditions and stories, or something else)."

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Newly arrived at Khazad-dûm in the Second Age, the Elven loremaster Pengolodh presents a portion of his new book to Narvi only to discover that his understanding of the “great profit” that existed between the Dwarves of Belegost and the people of Caranthir in the First Age is not quite what he assumed. Written for Zdenka for the 2015 LotRGenfic/MPTT Yule Exchange.

Major Characters: Dwarves, Narvi, Original Female Character(s), Pengolodh

Major Relationships:

Genre: General

Challenges: Gift of a Story

Rating: General

Warnings:

Chapters: 1 Word Count: 2, 306
Posted on 3 January 2016 Updated on 3 January 2016

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Table of Contents

Song of the Stone

Comments on Song of the Stone

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Fantastic story, Dawn, that resonates with me on many, many levels.   I mean, Second Age, Dwarvish and Elvish interactions, an OFC with keen perception and intelligence. What's not to like? :^)

Very nice work in developing Amarwen's character in a short piece.  Your carefully chosen turns of phrase give the reader a lot of depth on Caranthir's younger daughter.  "The philosopher princess" in a nutshell.  Her perception of the stone's song gave me a squeeful moment or several (more on that in a bit), I loved Narvi's accounts of the 2 creation tales (very much in keeping with your recent scholarly analysis of Tolkien's creation myth).  Also enjoyed seeing Pengolodh again, and your characterization of him is consistent:  brilliant, intensely inquisitive, insecure, but just a bit inclined toward dogma.

Another big reason this story rang my chimes are the neat parallels between our 'verses.  I think it's highly unlikely that you've read my Songs of Stone and Mountain, given your RL Demands™, but that WIP (one of my gazillion) collects snippets of the deep and loving friendship between another elf-woman (and in this case, the granddaughter of Caranthir) and a dwarf-woman (nobility of the House of Narvi).  Songs of stone are involved there, too, and again, in a neat parallel.  So I outright squee'ed at “The Dialogue of the Wise-Woman and the Elf-Lady” in The Sayings of Vestri.  

Finally, I am also tickled at the happy coincidence of two, count 'em TWO fics that feature Caranthir's daughter in the current "Recent Entries." :^D

Very well done!

Thank you! I thought you might like this one! :D

I did not expect to have to write this story. The night of the reveal for the MPTT Yule Exchange, and the assigned writer hadn't handed it in. I knew I'd have the next afternoon free (I was snowshoeing in the morning and then chilling in the lodge during the afternoon while the Green Knight slid down hills on a piece of wood), so I popped over to check out the prompt. If it was *anything* I thought I could do, I was going to give it a try. As it is, I was pleasantly surprised that it was a prompt that I really, really liked!

But, having only a few hours to produce a finished story, I fell back to things I knew well: Creation mythology! Caranthir! Pengolodh! :D

"but just a bit inclined toward dogma"

This made me smile. That's our Pengolodh. ;)

I have not yet read SoSaM. I saw you posted it and it went, of course, on my to-read list (as everything you write does), but now I'm REALLY wanting to read it! If I end up with a spare moment (having started the actual class for my thesis, I am ridiculously ahead of schedule), it will be top of my list. Maybe I'll treat myself once I get my first assignment turned in ...

Thank you again for reading and commenting! :)

I love this intriguing exploration of perspective and the differences in myths and religions. Of course the dwarves would have a myth that reflects htier view and it would be a suitable contrast to the elven-centric Song of the Ainur! And I love Pengolodh's brilliant reaction, his excited crassness and blurting out his interjection. I have never felt any interest in him as a character but I really do like this one. Narvi's absolute silence as a result of his interupting him is wonderfully intimidating. 

But most of all I like Amarwen and the truly wonderful Caranthir- because I imagine he is YOUR Caranthir who I have fallen truly madly deeply in love with from AMC as you might know. I love the fact that the histories are all wrong and Penglodh just adds a few trite lines to correct it.

Pengolodh looked down at the book in his lap and the passage of which he’d been so confident of the veracity and felt a moment of hopelessness, not for the first time at the task he’d undertaken in compiling the known lore of the First Age. Even the family trees would have to be redrawn and a book he’d been certain was finished bound again to accommodate this daughter of Caranthir who had seemed of too little importance to include. Amarwen. Lofar … or would she? The myths she’d written about with such vivacity in the Sarn Glír were, ultimately, untrue. Did they deserve inclusion in the history of the Eldar?
At the least, he thought, he could mention their friendship. 
Nevertheless since both peoples feared and hated Morgoth they made alliance, and had of it great profit.

I very much hope you will write more of her- or if you have already written her , I am off to find it.

Thank you, Ziggy, for such a kind comment! This is my first time writing Amarwen, although Caranthir's two daughters have existed in my mind for probably close on a decade now. I just haven't had the chance to include them in a story, since most of my stories are set in Aman (and they were born in Beleriand) or, if in Beleriand, don't focus on Caranthir. I have stories involving them unwritten in my mind, so she will definitely appear again; they (Caranthir's wife and daughters) are pretty major characters in my verse in the First Age. Caranthir's wife has made appearances in a couple of my stories, though, including AMC. ;)

Caranthir in this story absoutely is the same as AMC! I didn't go too much into that since this was a gift fic and I wanted it to be able to stand on its own without prior knowledge of the ridiculously vast Felakverse, but I *was* hoping readers of said verse (particularly AMC) might notice that Amarwen came by her "strangeness" honestly!

ooh- I'm going back there then! Where does his wife appar in AMC? I've got a slashy valentine to finish and then going to sink into the Fela-verse!

Author's Response:

You might remember when they are in Formenos, there is a little girl in purple who won't leave him alone? That's her! She's also in the ficlet "Falling/Forever" in the "Tales of Thanksgiving" collection and the story "The Coveted" is about their betrothal. "When the Stars Smile" is a very early romantic comedy about them.

This is just lovely- from teh cold and timely discovery of the dwarves of Amarwen, and her friendship with Vestri, Amarwen's exclusion from any useful histories to Pengolodh's untimely interuption and Narvi's closing down in the face of such outrageous discourtesy! Wonderful writing as always.