"Because my Land is Fair" and other drabbles by Himring

Because my Land is Fair

Annael refuses to leave Hithlum.

Set during the journey to Hithlum described in the first chapter of "Such Great Deeds", but all you really need to know is that Beleg was carrying a message from Thingol and that this is set after the arrival of the Noldor in Hithlum.

Read Because my Land is Fair

Beleg decided to return to Doriath. Annael offered to accompany him a little way.

It was morning and a little cool still, in the shadow of the hills of Androth. Dew lingered on the grass and mist in the hollows and groves.

'Here we must part,' said Annael.

'Will you not consider,' asked Beleg again, 'and take your people south, to the safety of the Girdle?'

'Look about you,' answered Annael. 'I love this Land of Mist. Here is my home. I would not leave it when orcs roamed unhindered. How much less now that they have been beaten back!'

---

Chapter End Notes

“Hithlum” translates as “Land of Mist” (in Sindarin).
The title is taken from the song of the Entwives in LOTR.
The prompt was: Mists.

Inspiration

A first meeting between Rian and Annael, just after she has arrived in Hithlum as refugee.

Written for Amy Fortuna, for her prompt: I would like a story about Rían discovering her talent as a singer and songwriter as a young girl. Did she sing any songs about events we're aware of?

Extra warning: possibly triggering for arachnophobia.

Read Inspiration

The girl was looking fixedly at the cobwebs, her frown almost fierce with concentration. It was just an ordinary spider web, though, neatly framed between two stalks of grass, gleaming with moisture in the drizzle. Annael—who had crossed the meadow to check whether she was all right, crouching there so quietly in the grass, all by herself—was puzzled.

Rian looked up. ‘It’s pretty,’ she informed him, forcefully.

Annael nodded. They had not met before, but this girl seemed to have no fear, talking to strange elves. He still had the feeling that he was missing something—but what?

He crouched down beside Rian, waiting, gazing at the spider web.

Rian said: ‘When we left home, crossing the mountains—there was a cobweb, a big one, made by a spider much bigger than this… I was caught. Morwen cut me free, just in time, with the elven knife she got for her birthday.’ She gulped. ‘I still want to find it pretty,’ she added defiantly.

‘Sing it, then?’ Annael suggested.

‘Sing it?’

Did Men not do that, maybe? Annael sang, improvising, praising the symmetry of the web, the gleam of the suspended drops.

‘Oh! I’ll try that,’ said Rian.

---

Chapter End Notes

Annael and Rian do meet in canon, but not until later. It is not stated anywhere that it was their first meeting, as far as I know. The great spiders are canonically supposed to breed in Nan Dungortheb, but some could have moved further north into Dorthonion when it fell into darkness--and Emeldir, Morwen and Rian could have encountered them during their dangerous escape.

Also written for the prompt "Cobwebs" in the Signs of Autumn Challenge.

Elvish Reminiscences

Annael tells his fosterling Tuor about times past.
Elves have long memories--and Rian was not the only one of Tuor's family that Annael once knew.

Read Elvish Reminiscences

‘The harvest was good that year,’ said Annael. ‘King Fingolfin invited us to a feast at Eithel Sirion to share all the bounty. I remember your great-grandparents, Hador and Gildis, bringing apples by the sackful and barley—and how proud they were! They had not held Dor-lomin long and folk, as they do, fearing change, had openly doubted that Edain were fit to rule the country. Now they could prove crops were flourishing…’

‘Oh, I wish I could see such a feast!’ said Tuor.

‘There’s little feasting in Hithlum now,’ replied Annael, sadly. ‘Maybe in Doriath, still--or in Gondolin…’

---

Chapter End Notes

The first of two drabbles for the prompt "Harvest".

The Escape Route

Fingon shows Annael the entrance to the Gate of the Noldor, the secret escape route to the coast. 
It is the time after the Dagor Bragollach. Many Sindar have already fled south.

Read The Escape Route

‘Behold,’ said Fingon, pointing at the entrance to the hidden path, ‘the Gate of the Noldor, through which the Sindar, too, may pass at need!’ 

He lowered his voice. 

‘I have not yet thanked you, Annael—you are here, supporting me. Others of your kin have fled south or retreated into the hills…’ 

‘Lord,’ said Annael, uncomfortably, ‘it is merely the just harvest of your labours; you have ever had an open ear to the needs of me and mine!’ 

‘My friend.’ Fingon touched Annael’s arm. ‘So rarely do we reap only what we have sown—for good or ill.’

---

Chapter End Notes

Another drabble for the prompt "harvest".

Under the Stars, in Sunlight

Another conversation between Annael and his foster son Tuor:
Of the sun and of elves and men.

Read Under the Stars, in Sunlight

‘There was no moon yet, no sun,’ said Annael, ‘no seasons, not as they are now. I saw the first blossom of Spring, felt the first frost of Autumn.'

‘I cannot imagine it!’ said Tuor.

‘It seems quite the way of things now! I did not welcome the sun when she rose; so much had changed for the worse—quickly, without warning—that anything unexpected came as a threat. But soon we learned that she threatened Morgoth's creatures more than us, thought of Arien as an ally and recognized her beauty. Yet some still mourn the gloaming under the stars.’

‘But you, my Tuor,’ said Annael, ‘could not live without the sun. When you were a babe, I carried you in my arms out of the caves up to the hilltop to catch the morning sunlight...’

They walked on, through new-fallen leaves crisped by an early frost. Annael’s steps were silent, Tuor’s, despite his best efforts, occasionally crackled.

‘I honour my parents,’ said Tuor, ‘but sometimes I cannot help wishing I were not so different from you all.’

‘I have, sometimes, wished that you were truly mine,’ admitted Annael, ‘but yet I would not have you other than you are.’

---

Chapter End Notes

I once read a fic somewhere that had Annael discovering that Tuor was sickening in the caves of Androth without sufficient exposure to sunlight. Unfortunately, I've forgotten who the author was and on which site I found it.
The suggestion that many or most Sindar would have found the first rising of the sun frightening at first and that Eol was just the most stubborn of them in rejecting the sunlight outright has been made by several fic authors, I think, for example, Elleth.
Arien is the name of the Maia who guides the Sun.

The prompt was: First Frost.

Defeat

Annael took part in the Battle of Unnumbered Tears.

Warnings for this drabble: references to PTSD and canonical suicide

Read Defeat

‘I remember the colours,’ said Annael, ‘Fingon’s blue and silver shining above our heads, at sunrise, and the other banners flying beside them, of elves and men. And by nightfall all were fallen, all trodden in the mire.

Do not think I made no attempt to stay your mother’s flight, Tuor. I spoke, but spoke in vain; my words could gain no traction, for Rian could see too clearly that, although alone of my company I had escaped and returned to Mithrim—outwardly unscathed, almost—my mind was wounded. I had left part of myself on the battlefield that day.’

---

Chapter End Notes

The prompt was: colours.

Leaf Loss

Annael, after all, ends up leaving Hithlum.

Read Leaf Loss

The day Annael leaves Hithlum—is finally driven out—is a day of high wind. He enters the Gate last of his kin, half turns, as if he could still go back, retrieve what—or who—is left behind. The wind gusts in his face; half mindlessly he reaches out and plucks a leaf from the air, torn from its tree and swept along on the breeze.

When he emerges on the other side of the Gate, in Nevrast, taking his first breath of salt sea air, he is still holding on to that leaf, its stem between his fingers.

When Annael finally arrives in Tol Eressea, he carries a small book containing a description of Gondolin. Having learned to read Tengwar only later in life, he does not spend much time reading in it, but treasures the volume for Tuor’s sake—and because Gondolin is another place much loved and wholly lost.

Even more, however, does Annael treasure what rests between the pages of his book: here—a strand cut a long time ago from young Tuor’s tangled fair locks, there—brittle, dry, a  mere shadow almost, the oak leaf he culled from his last gaze back toward Mithrim.

---

Chapter End Notes

The prompt was: leaf fall.

This was the last of the prompt series--and there are some major leaps in the storyline here. In between, Annael has lost Tuor, found him again and heard about Gondolin and then lost him again...