Drabbles: The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales by Zdenka

Let the Star Rise

Celebrimbor makes a symbolic decision.

Celebrimbor has spent centuries carefully not being his father’s son. Roaming with his small band of craftsmen, he did not want to needlessly offend the survivors of Nargothrond, or Doriath, or Sirion, or –- His kinsmen cut a wide swath through Middle-earth.

But now, he thinks, it is time. The Silmarils are gone; the folly of the House of Fëanor has worked itself out. His grandfather can be remembered as he should: the greatest of the Noldor in craft and learning. When he builds the House of the Jewel-smiths in Eregion, he carves the star of Fëanor prominently on its doors.

Chapter End Notes

Inspired by thinking that if Celebrimbor was using the Star of the House of Fëanor as a sigil in the Second Age and put it in such a conspicuous place as the Doors of Moria, his feelings toward his father’s family cannot have been unambiguous rejection.

Prompts from B2MeM 2013:

Doors of Durin (Day Six):

“At the top, as high as Gandalf could reach, was an arch of interlacing letters in an Elvish character. Below, though the threads were in places blurred or broken, the outline could be seen of an anvil and a hammer surmounted by a crown with seven stars. Beneath these again were two trees, each bearing crescent moons. More clearly than all else there shone forth in the middle of the door a single star with many rays.”

(From The Fellowship of the Ring, “A Journey in the Dark”)

Zeal (Day One):

"Be he friend or foe or foul offspring
of Morgoth Bauglir, be he mortal dark
that in after days on earth shall dwell,
shall no law nor love nor league of Gods,
no might nor mercy, not moveless fate,
defend him for ever from the fierce vengeance
of the sons of Fëanor, whoso seize or steal
or finding keep the fair enchanted
globes of crystal whose glory dies not,
the Silmarils. We have sworn for ever!"

(from The Lays of Beleriand, "The Flight of the Noldoli")