Battle Cry by Himring

“Flame Light! Flee Night!” went the battle-cry of the Edain of the North.

Fingon knelt on the stairs of Barad Eithel, mourning Hador, slain with arrows despite the helmet gifted to him, and his son Gundor dead beside him. But still around him the cry of the Edain went up: “Flame Light! Flee Night!”

Galdor fell, also, seven years later, and Fingon wondered whether the Edain would change their cry. But still they cried: “Flame Light! Flee Night!” And Hurin and Huor charged into the fray by his side, their faith unshaken, like their father's and grandfather's before them.

And so, at last, when the morrow of the Fifth Great Battle dawned, Fingon stood with Hurin and Huor and their people beside him and he cried out: The day has come!

And no matter that he cried in Quenya, all who heard him understood and answered: The night is passing…

Chapter End Notes

"Lacho calad! Drego morn! Flame Light! Flee Night!” appears as the customary battle-cry of the Edain of the North in the "Unfinished Tales" during the scene of Hurin's leave-taking from Dor-lomin. This scene is set earlier than Fingon's more famous cry at the start of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, which is what gave me the original idea.

This first section was written for Day Two (Fingon) of Nolofinwean Week on Tumblr.

After that battle was lost, there was a great silence in the North.

‘They have a request,’ said Vardilme.

Finarfin, who had come out to greet the host of rebel thralls from Dor-lomin, asked: ‘What is it?’

Glorwendil, who carried their makeshift banner, stepped forward and said: ‘If we go to fight the Black Foe again on Anfauglith, let it be with our old battle cry.’

‘A fair request,’ said Finarfin. ‘But what is it? I fear I do not know.’

‘Flame Light! Flee Night! It has not been heard since my lord Fingon died,’ said Berion.

Chapter End Notes

Names of recurring OCs in this section: Vardilme is Curufin's wife, who came with Finarfin and helped liberate Dor-lomin; Glorwendil is a distant relative of Aerin on the mother's side, one of the leaders of the rebellion against the Easterlings; Berion is a former captain of Fingon's who escaped both the Nirnaeth and, afterwards, the Fall of Gondolin.

Night fled.

Neither Hurin lived to see it nor Fingon, but Night fled.

And day came again.