A Short History of the Easterlings by Himring

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Fanwork Notes

Ratings vary between General and Teens.
Not sure whether or no to warn for (canonical) major character death, which is referenced but not described.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Stories about Maedhros and the tribe of Bor:

I Maedhros remembers his encounter with Bor's tribe and the early days of their alliance.

II Now added: After the loss of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, Bor's granddaughter leads the survivors of her people back into the East.

Major Characters: Bor, Borlach, Borthand, Maedhros, Men, Original Character(s)

Major Relationships:

Genre: Fixed-Length Ficlet

Challenges: B2MeM 2015, Exchange Student, Gift of a Story

Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate

Warnings: Mature Themes
Chapters: 2 Word Count: 1, 112
Posted on 4 October 2014 Updated on 11 April 2015

This fanwork is a work in progress.

Table of Contents

A Short History of the Easterlings (drabbles)

Drabbles written for the Fellowship Challenge at Tolkien Weekly on LiveJournal.

This sequence may be going to be expanded later--either continued as a second drabble sequence or embedded in a frame story (or both).
However, currently any such plans are on hiatus.

[ETA: actually I ended up writing "In the Shadow of the Forest"--but it's still possible the other continuations I was considering might happen as well, at some stage]

In the Shadow of the Forest

After the loss of the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, Bor's granddaughter leads the survivors of her people back into the East.

Teens for references to canonical character deaths

Written for B2MeM 2015 (see end notes)

Comments

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This collection of short pieces has an extremely uplifting quality to it and that is what fascinates me the most. Usually the fanwriters, not to mention the Professor himself, focus on tragic endings, but this ficlets, despite the foreshadowings, focus on life and the building of a new alliance, themes too often left unexplored. Well done! Besides the ensamble is, my opinion, extremely realistic in depicting how an alliance might have formed between Maedhros and the Easterlings. The style is simple but effective and the characters are well done. I particularly liked how you showed the different customs of this new men. Congratulations.

Thank you very much! I'm glad you liked this. I confess I have written my own share of tragic endings, but I do think one must not forget what went before and allow the tragic ending to overshadow everything else entirely.

I'm glad that you think this is a realistic depiction of the early days of the alliance. Of course, we are told very little about the Easterlings, but it seemed reasonable to expect that their customs might have been very different from those of the Noldor!

I was excited to see that you'd made the Exchange Student challenge work! (And no apologies! :D Your double-drabble definitely fit the spirit of the challenge, even if the PoV wasn't Borthand's.)

I really enjoyed this series, especially the interactions between the cultures, the dance of gestures and actions in trying to establish an alliance. The last line is a gut-punch, after the muted optimism of the series in general.