Into the Darkness They Go by Elwin Fortuna

Chapter 1

Aranwë, hurrying toward the court one morning, came upon a tableau as perfect as any to be seen on the stage: Fingolfin, frozen with his back against the wall, hands outspread, a look of studied calm hiding unreasoning terror on his face; Fëanor, standing before him, legs akimbo, his long arm with the bright sword in it, pressing the tip of it just over Fingolfin's heart, two inches in the right place from bloody death; Finwë, standing in the doorway behind and between them both, hand over his breast in shocked denial, mouth a little open as if to speak but no words emerging, looking from one to the other of them in love and distress.

Years later in Vinyamar, Aranwë painted the scene for the edification of the children born in Beleriand, his own son Voronwe among them. In it, the walls behind Fingolfin are painted blue, soaring upward into light, and he stands before the sword with an expression far more noble and fearless than the one he actually wore. On the other side of the painting, flame flickers in yellow, orange, and red around Fëanor, and he sneers viciously at Fingolfin, bitter envy written over his fair features, shadows spreading out dark behind him. It is as though all the light in the painting centres on Fingolfin, and Fëanor is illumined only by his own fires.

In the middle Finwë stands, framed in the doorway, and Aranwë dutifully paints one hand over his breast, but although he is looking at Fingolfin - or rather at the point of the sword, pressing almost into Fingolfin's flesh - his other hand is outstretched toward Fëanor. His whole body, in fact, is turned toward Fëanor, except his head, and the viewer is left in no doubt as to which way his sympathies lie. Although he too is bathed in light, a yellow crown flickers, not quite present on his head, like a flame.

'The Wise & Lovely King,' as the painting became known, was eventually presented to Turgon in Nevrast, once finished, and hung for years in one of the halls in his palace in Gondolin. When the city fell, Aranwë saved it, and it was taken to Sirion, and from there to Balar, and after the War of Wrath, to Tirion in Valinor.

It was presented then to Finarfin, who retitled it and had it hung in on a wall near the court - some said, the very wall against which Fingolfin had been standing that fateful day.

The new title chosen for the painting was 'Into The Darkness'.