Shadowmere by Himring

Chapter 1

It had taken some time for Fingon to venture this way, despite the fact that the distance was not far, just as returning home after a holiday, it might take some time before anyone opened the back door—except Fingon’s had been a considerably longer absence. Since his return he had entered and left Tirion by the front gate. Now, wandering almost aimlessly, at first, down another side of the hill of Tuna, he felt a growing unease, suspecting that here something had happened to exert a profound influence on the landscape that he had nevertheless missed, unlike the raising of the Pelori to startling heights, which had been impossible to overlook.

There seemed to be nobody about, which in itself made things worse. It was with relief that Fingon caught sight of a lone figure by the shore and recognized his cousin Finrod. He hastened his step, approaching him across the muddy sand.

‘Findarato,’ he said, when he was close enough. ‘Has the land changed? It seems to me that the waters of the mere have shifted? And there is something about the water itself…’

In the Time of the Trees, Shadowmere had been so named because it had lain in the shadow of the hill, on the opposite side from Telperion and Laurelin, and so their light had been dimmed. In those days, the site had been famous for the reflections of the many lamps of Tirion on the surface of the mere. Fingon remembered boat trips, a flotilla of boats with multi-coloured lamps on the mast and the bow and the prow. There were no boats now and he could not, somehow, imagine anyone wanting to go boating on this murky lake for pleasure.

‘The water is no longer in shadow, Finrod,’ he said. ‘The sun is over our heads. Its light should be reflected in the water. Why is it still so dark?’

Findarato, who seemed to have been singing under his breath and had fallen silent, as Fingon approached, was nevertheless slow to lift his gaze from the depths of the mere.

‘Nobody mentioned it to you?’ he asked. ‘Yes, the land has changed. This is where the earth opened its mouth and its jaws swallowed the army of Numenor. The waters of Luvailin rushed in to fill the gap. Underneath the bottom of the lake lie the Caves of the Forgotten where Pharazon and his men await the Day of Doom. That is why the water seems darker than ever it did, although the sun now shines upon its surface.’

Fingon had been told of the fall of Numenor and of its army, at some point, but the tale had been brief and he had not truly envisaged disaster overtaking them quite so close to Tirion. 

‘The Caves of the Forgotten they may be,’ said Fingon, ‘but you clearly have not forgotten them, Finrod.’

‘No,’ said Finrod. ‘They did vile things, to others and to their own people, but it troubles me that they are down there. Others just avoid the mere and prefer not to remember them. But I cannot help thinking—Fingon, I fear they might wake and the wait is long… I don’t like the thought of them being imprisoned in the dark.’

‘No,’ said Fingon, remembering the terrors of Tol-in-Gaurhoth. He had seen the place, although he himself had never been locked within its dungeons. ‘Is that why you were singing?’ he asked.

‘I sometimes come here and sing calmness and sleep into the waves,’ said Finrod. ‘It is foolish perhaps. I doubt whether my songs reach so far into the deep.’

‘Foolish or not, I will sing with you today,’ said Fingon, ‘and although you are the greater singer, maybe two voices will carry farther than one…’

Chapter End Notes

B2MeM Prompt, Card and Number: B9: anto: “mouth”, N44: anca: “jaws” (both from Card 186. Tengwar); also N45: citizen of this fallen city (Card 127. Mary Oliver (1935-2009))
For the purposes of this ficlet, in the prompt "citizen of this fallen city", the fallen city is taken to be Armenelos.
The story is to some extent inspired by a map drawn by bunn of Tirion and its surroundings and by bunn's comments on the map.

Shadowmere is canonical to the extent that it appears in a song by Bilbo and in HoME, where it bears the name Luvailin.