The Glittering Cave by Himring

Chapter 1

‘What is this I hear, young Telchar?’ asked Naugladur. ‘You named one of those caves you discovered “Tinuviel’s bower”?’

Telchar had been busy scouring a large deep dish with pewterwort. The king’s sudden entry had taken him by surprise.

‘Ah, but you have not seen the cave yet, your Majesty,’ he said warmly. ‘It is truly deserving of the name. Fluted columns rise up like slender tree trunks for the princess to dance among and crystals gleam like the stars in her eyes.’

‘That is not quite…,’ began Naugladur, frowning.

And Telchar, abashed, remembered the king had never seen Luthien.

Chapter End Notes

The cave system map includes a feature labelled "Tinuviel's Bower".

Pewterwort was apparently so named for its use in scouring pewterware.

Gimli doesn't name any of the Caves of Aglarond for Galadriel (as far as I know!), but he does make a comparison with her hands in his glowing description in The Two Towers.

I used the name of the king of Nogrod from HoME, without wanting to imply anything about this king's later fate. There could have been more than one king of Nogrod called by that name by the elves.

100 words in MS Word.