Míriel Þerindë: The Art of the Needle by Elwin Fortuna

Chapter 1

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They say that the Queen Míriel, the famed Broideress, never worked so hard as she did during the year of her pregnancy. As Fëanáro's body was knit together in her womb, so she spent all her time in weaving intricate and delicate fabrics, and then fashioning them into clothes, enough to last until her son was fully grown. Her handmaidens, Nione, Ravenne, and Vórime, worked beside her, each of them as dedicated to her craft as she was herself, and they learned all the knowledge that she had to teach, and so it was not lost.

Fëanáro, so they say, wore clothes made by her hand until his first son was born, and then he began to pass them down to his children. Vórime taught Fëanáro his mother's arts, and also passed them down to Maitimo and Carnistir his sons in full, though all of them knew their way around a needle.

In later years, Ravenne and Vórime fought beside Fëanáro during his last battle under the stars and were killed defending him with sword, shield, and body. Nione, who had been wounded at Alqualondë, took it as her charge to pass on the art of the Broideress to all who wished to learn. She taught all the children of Mithrim how to ply a needle, including both Idril and Celebrimbor.

Nione settled at Lake Helevorn, continuing to teach throughout the days of the Long Peace. Her woven garments, it is said, due to the virtue imbued in them, saved Maglor's life during the Battle of Sudden Flame. She fled with the rest of Carnistir's people south to Amon Ereb then.

She took up arms during the Second Kinslaying and was killed in battle, defending her lord Carnistir.

But the art of Míriel did not die with her, for many people knew it now. Elrond and Elros learned it, both from Maedhros in part and from some of the followers of Maglor. Her arts passed to Númenor upon its rising, and there they made great and glorious creations of cloth, both for ceremony and for sails. In Lindon, her arts flourished too, in a far more practical sense, and all the youth of the Eldar learned them. Celebrimbor in Hollin encouraged his grandmother's art, and the Gwaith-i-Mírdain had contests of weaving and artistry with the needle. Tapestries decorated the walls of every room, it seemed, and bright flags waved from every tower.

Once Imladris was established, those survivors of the Gwaith-i-Mírdain who had found their way there began furnishing it anew with tapestries, hangings, and rugs, as well as the more delicate art of fine clothing and fashion. East of the Sea, there was no finer, warmer place. Celebrían was enamoured of Míriel's arts, and both she and Elrond ensured that their memory was kept alive in the Last Homely House.

Arwen and her handmaidens brought them to Gondor at the end of the War of the Ring, and there they flourished in beauty, as long as the city lasted, and beyond its fall. Through all ages, handed down from parent to child, the art of Byrde Míriel, the Þerindë, has survived.