In Between by Himring

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Chapter 1

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'We are kin from afar off', she tells young Faramir under flowering branches in Lossarnach. 'When the Numenoreans first returned to Middle-earth, the Edain of Eriador and Rhovanion sent messengers to meet with them, to welcome them back.'

 

***

 

'You could have been kinder to Gleowine today,' says Theoden.

'I know,' she says. 'He is merely an apprentice being taught his trade. But to learn to love war, to praise it as a good thing in itself, as a sport...'

She looks in her brother's uncomprehending face and falls silent.

 

***

 

She looks and, aloft upon a green terrace, she sees a great hall of Men thatched with gold and golden are the posts of its doors. It shines far over the land.

She looks again and she sees a thatched barn where brigands drink in the reek, and their brats roll on the floor among the dogs.

She looks again and, lo, it is Meduseld, that hall, whose raising is but a memory in song, and the land is rich and rolling in part and else hard and stern as the mountains.

But her mother's kin still call the green plain Calenardhon.

 

***

 

'Your father has regrets,' says Morwen of Lossarnach, whom the Rohirrim call Steelsheen, speaking to her daughter.

'Your sister Gildis chose Gondor without hesitation or batting an eyelid. Your sister Andreth fell in love and followed her heart. For your sister Theodwyn, there was never a choice. But you...'

Morwen falls silent, gazing over her daughter's shoulder. She has been the queen of Rohan for over two decades; she commands the respect of everyone around her.

'Perhaps it is harder,' Morwen says finally, 'for a woman...'

 

***

 

In Rohan, she is the one who speaks the language of the land with a foreign accent, the one who, they say, thinks she is too good for them.

In Gondor, she is the one with the barbaric name, the one who takes liberties for granted that she should not.

In Rohan, she dreams of wandering in the woods, of watching the husbandmen of Arnach at work.

In Gondor, she dreams of riding far over rolling folds and green grass.

 

***

 

'I met an aunt of yours, once,' says Faramir to Eowyn. 'We had gone to Imloth Melui, to see the roses. She seemed a little out of place to me. Little did I know! I thought her lost and offered her guidance, when I found to my embarrassment that she knew Imloth Melui better than I did. But she took it well and forgave me. Erkenhild was her name.'

'Erkenhild,' says Eowyn. 'I hardly knew her. She came seldom to Edoras while I lived there. And she died early. But my aunt Gildis still lives in Lossarnach and will come to our wedding.'

'She told me that we are kin from afar off,' says Faramir. 'Erkenhild, that is. Not only Lossarnach and Minas Tirith, she meant, or Lossarnach and Rohan. All of us, she meant, the Numenoreans and the Rohirrim, all the way back to the First Age.'

Eowyn places her hand on his wrist.

'We are kin,' she says.

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Chapter End Notes

There are a number of allusions to the text of LotR in here that you will probably have spotted, although all except the final part is set well before the start of the main action of the trilogy.

The reference to Gleowine connects this piece with another ficlet, which has not yet been publicly posted.

The messengers sent from the Edain to the Numenoreans appear in a late philological essay, but it is cited in a footnote to The Tale of Aldarion and Erendis. These messenger are said to be only from Eriador, but I have made them be from Rhovanion (Wilderland) as well.