A Sense of History: Straight Road
The next in a series of articles about ships passing to and from the West, Simon uses "The Fall of Númenor" to attempt to arrive at Tolkien's reading of the exordium to "Beowulf."
Nelyo discovers something unexpected in Tyelkormo's room. Prompt: towels, humming, travels, harmless
The trail of mud betrayed Tyelkormo, returned unannounced from his travels to Oromë’s halls. Nelyo drew the broom from the closet with a sigh and followed the mud. He could hear the voices of Tyelkormo and Curvo, kept deliberately low but humming with excitement, beyond Tyelkormo’s door. When he opened it, there was a scurrying that produced a sudden mound of towels in one corner.
That began to writhe a little.
Broom and mud forgotten, Nelyo stammered, “What—?” as Tyelkormo squeaked, “He’s harmless!”
And Curvo, hands folded coolly. “Just towels,” Curvo reassured him, right as the towels began yipping.