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."
Hathaldir the Young, one of the followers of Barahir:
Tolkien called him the Young and spoke of his death in the same breath.
Warnings: just a short angsty moment in a doomed life (Teens?)
Written for the Hidden Figures Challenge
Hathaldir knelt, scooped up water to quench his thirst, and then to wash the sweat and grime off his face. As he did so, he looked again into the holy water, and saw that—whatever the others might call him, still, and maybe truly think so—after three winters of life as an outlaw, he was no longer young.
A moment he gazed at those far too bitter lines worn out in months of hunting and being hunted by the Enemy, then shoved that thought aside with the rest. To the end they called him youngling. He never contradicted them.
Also for the prompt "reflections: still water" at Tolkien Weekly.
1 x 100 words in MS Word