Daeron the Bard by Elwin Fortuna

Chapter 1

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Daeron was born in the warm darkness under the trees of the forest of Neldoreth, and the first sound he heard was the rhythmic sighing of the wind in the branches far overhead, and forever he was enchanted by it. He grew up with parents who themselves had been able musicians in the early days of Cuiviénen, his mother a drummer, his father a lute player. They taught him from youth how to play every instrument they knew of, though he loved best the pipe to play, and the making of songs.

It is told he composed his first song as a youth in praise of the King Elu Thingol and his Queen, fair Melian, when they appeared from the forest of Nan Elmoth, hand in hand. Though it was true he had much to learn then, the Queen smiled upon him, and the King straightway made him the foremost bard of the court of Doriath.

The stories say that if you hear a lamenting song or the distant sound of a pipe by night in a deep and dark forest, it is vanished Daeron who sings and plays. You have naught to fear, for he only remembers lost beauty.