Fragment: In the long days of Darkness by losselen

Fragment 1

Read Fragment 1

Found in the personal notes of Barahir with the following note on the margin:

Ancalimë, in her long reign as the Ruling Queen of Númenor, called for women of learning and art to live at her court, where they held weekly symposia and Ancalimë sought much of their council. There, she was loved by the poetess Haleth, named for the chieftain of the Haladin, and some fragments of her poems to Ancalimë survive to this day.

 
Translated into Westron from the original Adûnaic.

 

…in the long days of Darkness
ere raised were
the ridged turfs of Tarmasundar
or strewn were flower-pennants on the marbles in Armenelos
and the young Sun ambled in the
wide sky of Beleriand

Long ago,
when the Noldorin host scattered
before the Dragon-fire that flew on Ard-galen
and fire fell like dew on the Sirion
and all burned like tinder

who knew better the price of love
than Lúthien herself,
alone in the dark silent hall,
fairer than the fairest jewel?

O they say,
the hands of the Valar are in the wind and meadows
the rain and the years;

they are not wrong, but who lives
in my unlit mind
and lets fall my tears

and who lives in the love that shakes like a fire—

Ancalimë, thou who live in this hall;
Ancalimë, you who are queen—

What jewel would I give,
when the armies of the heart have been routed utterly
and its ships burn in their retreat

to stay the glance of your regard
or hold for a moment
some wild joy on your face

 

---

Chapter End Notes

[Its real inspiration, of course, are the Sapphic fragments, especially Fragment 16.]