Atanatari: Of the Three Houses of the Edain by Himring

A Poet's Fate

Dirhavel's first encounter with the story of the Children of Hurin.
He remains haunted by the story and its telling.

Teens, just because of its being CoH, rather than any particular of this piece itself, really.

When Dirhavel first heard the Ballad of the Dragon Slayer, he was struck speechless for a day. The second time he heard it, he wept bitter tears. It was only when he grew up and was taught the elvish tongues and the craft of verse-making that he realized the song that had moved him so was mere doggerel and he became determined to compose a lay truly worthy of his hero.

His listeners prized Dirhavel’s art highly—but to Dirhavel it seemed that, however he strove, he could never evoke that pity and terror he remembered feeling as a child.

Chapter End Notes

The author of the Narn I Hin Hurin (or Narn I Chin Churin) is called Dirhavel in the Unfinished Tales, although Tolkien later used the name form Dirhaval instead.

Dirhavel is said to be one of the Edain, of the House of Hador, and have collected the lore of Turin and his family in the Havens of Sirion in the time of Earendil in order to compose the lay that underlies the Narn.

Written for the Tolkien Weekly Challenge on LiveJournal, for the prompts "ballad", "doggerel" and "lay".