Lingering in the Hither Lands by bunn

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A King of Men

Elrond and Elros on the shores of Lindon

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In the new town that Círdan had named Harlond, on the south coast of the Gulf of Lune, there was a great bustle of noise and activity all around when Elrond rode up around noon, in company with a number of old friends. Some of the company that had been Elrond’s to command at the end of the war had scattered to rejoin their families or had gone to stay here along the shore, with the Edain who would follow Elros to the Land of Gift, one day, once the ships were all built, and the island prepared for them. But some had chosen to stay with Elrond among the Elves, though several of those who rode down to Harlond with Elrond that day were already grey of hair.

A new wharf was being erected along the foreshore, and Elves were building new workshops of wood and stone. The air was full of the smell of tar and around the inner harbour, steam was puffing into the air from the long boxes where wood was being steamed and bent. The air was full of the sound of saws and axes, wreathing through the sound of Elves of the Falas singing life into a new hull.

But Elros was not there: not with Círdan, not among the cheerful party of Drúedain playing on their drums a little outside the town, or in the stables, or in the hall his Men had built as a temporary home for their king before their great voyage should begin. This person and that had seen him, but it took some time for Elrond to track his brother down. He found Elros in the end though, some way west of Harlond, with a party of Men who were hauling great baulks of timber slowly towards the new town.

Elros leaped up, leaving the ox-cart he was driving to the man sitting next to him, and came to exchange greetings with Elrond and his companions.

“I thought you were practicing at being a king?” Elrond asked his brother, looking at the ox-cart and laughing.

Elros grinned at him. “I got bored with delegating and decided to do some proper work for once. Anyway, the war’s over, we all have a dry place to sleep and plentiful supplies so... I still keep waking up and thinking, with a great sense of surprise; no attack again this morning!”

“Me too,” Elrond agreed.

“It will make good practice for building on the Land of Gift... probably. Depending on what that’s like when we get there of course, but it can’t hurt. Makes a change from learning to play the flute: I’ve been doing that since you and Gil-galad went off to Mithlond. I’m getting quite good.”

“Come away and walk for a while,” Elrond said. He left his horse with his own companions, and the brothers walked together a little away from the main track that ran through the wide shallow valley, up the green slope where sheep had nibbled the turf short among the slender white-stemmed birch trees.

“You haven’t thought better of it, then?” Elrond said, once they were out of earshot.

“I take it that’s a question about the Land of Gift, and not about my prowess with the flute... I have not. I take it you haven’t, either?”

“No. The Hither Shore for me, the new hope and the wide lands of the East, and you can keep your safe island paradise in the West.”

“It’s what they need,” Elros said, looking back at the people around the ox-carts. “Their lives are short and hard enough. I can’t turn down the chance to give them peace, prosperity and a home under the protection of the Valar. They’ve more than earned it.”

“And you can’t give up the chance to go with them, at the end, either,” Elrond said.

“How many Elves get that chance?” Elros said,his voice warming with enthusiasm. “To go beyond the world, to find out what happens out there beyond it all at last. I’m surprised you don’t want to come too. They’d probably let you change your mind, you know. I’m looking forward to finding out more about the Valar, too. They seem so distant, from here...”

Elrond shook his head. “I’d love to know, of course. But I want to know what happens in Middle-earth too, to stay and watch it grow through the ages, and help shape it too... and it doesn’t need both of us to go to the Land of Gift. I’ll miss you, though.”

Elros put his head back, to look up at the blue spring sky, and then looked across at him sideways. “I’ll miss you too, obstinate elf-brother who disregards the counsel of the Valar!”

“I’m not disobeying them. Not as such. I’m just... lingering,” Elrond said innocently.

“Lingering. Of course,” Elros said. “And of course Celebrimbor, Galadriel and Gil-galad will ensure you have new cities to linger in.”

“Be fair. Galadriel and Celebrimbor don’t have a choice; they have to stay,” Elrond told him. The Ban of the Valar prohibited the leaders of the rebellion of the Noldor from return. Galadriel and Celebrimbor had been the youngest of those who had led the Noldor. Neither of them, in audience with Eönwë the Herald of the Valar, had been conciliatory about it. Neither had been forgiven.

“True.” Elros squinted up through the branches of the birch trees. “I think that’s a woodpecker,” he said, and pointed.

Elrond looked up to catch sight of a flash of green wings, and a yellow rump as the bird flew up, taking a wide curving path away into the thin trees where unfurling leaves shone a soft green in the spring sunlight. Green leaves, sunlight, birds; all this was the way the world was supposed to be, a memory out of childhood, before the war had grown so all-encompassing and so dark. “I think you’re right,” he said. “It looks like the woodpecker in the book. Good to see the birds are coming back West of the mountains. The last remnant of the Darkness is fading.”

“Mmm,” Elros said, still following the line of the bird’s swooping flight with his eyes. “If I look far ahead of you, I see a shadow,” he said.

“Yes,” Elrond said. “And if I look far ahead of you, I see it too, faint and far. Perhaps it isn’t your own shadow but your children’s, or their children’s, and yet, there it is.”

“There is no path unshadowed,” Elros said. “No matter where I look, no matter how far...”

Elrond shrugged. “That’s Arda Marred.”

“Yes,” Elros said reflectively. “But you still will not come with me, or go to Valinor?”

“No. I see a darker shadow behind me than I do ahead, and if I turn aside, a light that fades. And in the shadow ahead, there is still a hope of stars. In your shadow as well as mine. And ahead of Celebrimbor...”

Elros sighed. “A darker shadow and a faint hope of a brighter star. Yes, I can see that too. But you can’t keep looking far ahead.” He looked at Elrond and grinned deliberately. “You’ll only end up tripping over your own feet.”

“You started it,” Elrond said automatically and grinned back. He took a deep breath. “I came to tell you that I’m going to look for Maedhros and Maglor.”

“Well, I’m relieved to hear that,” Elros told him. “I was starting to think you weren’t going to and I’d have to go myself. That would be so hard to explain to Círdan, and even harder to explain to any Maiar that visit the Land of Gift. A lot easier for you to have unsuitable connections than me.”

“You were waiting for me to decide to go?” Elrond exclaimed, with some indignation. “You could have mentioned it! I’ve been tying myself in knots about them.”

Elros’s face went serious. “I’m sorry,” he said. “It’s not an easy thing. I thought I’d better let you make your own mind up, not push you into it.”

“But you do think it’s the right thing?”

“If you don’t, and I don’t, who will?” Elros said. “All right, we could say they have let us down, too, but at least we can balance that against all the times they didn’t.”

Elrond shook his head. “We should have known.I feel a fool that I ever thought they would surrender. ”

“Mmmm. We hoped that evil was ended, and that peace was only a matter of everyone being sensible and willing to compromise. Well, now we know.”

“Arda is marred,” Elrond said with a grimace.

“No point being bitter about it though. Perhaps next time? If Eönwë had only been prepared to give them some guarantee...”

“Perhaps. They could become a great danger if they fell further into darkness.” Elrond said. It was entirely true, though there was an uneasy part of Elrond that wished he could be more confident that was why he had made the decision.

“Well yes, but also, we love them and there’s no point pretending otherwise,” Elros said. “Stop tying yourself in knots and go and find them, you fool. And when you find them, once you’ve shouted at them, give them my love.”