A Different Kind Of Peace by Tyelca

Acceptance in Eregion

In Eregion in the Second Age, Celebrimbor finds peace.

The Valar had rescinded their Doom and reopened the way to the West. The Noldor were welcome to return to Valinor, and Telpërinquar did not understand why so many accepted the offer. Did they think everything would go back to the way it had been before? Most had participated in the First Kinslaying, although at the time they hadn’t known the reason. Did that excuse them?

And what about the small group of survivors that still proudly wore the Star of Fëanor, whose countenances still glittered with fanatical pride, for what had they left but their pride? Three times they had launched an attack upon the innocent, and three times they shed Eldarin blood. What sort of reception would meet them in Valinor? How could they believe they would find a way back from so much death and destruction? Certainly their bravery in the fight against Morgoth would fade against crimes.

Then again, Telpërinquar thought, perhaps Beleriand had attuned their mind to the darkness, while far away in Valinor the wounds had long since begun to heal; and perhaps that was the true reason he did not wish to return. Telpërinquar was in no hurry to find out. For healing required making peace, and in his case face his family, and he was not so certain he could do that. He had seen two of his uncles during the War, together with him the only survivors of grandfather Fëanáro’s line, but they had not exchanged a single word. He had caught them glancing at him, as if debating an approach, but they had not come. Telpërinquar was glad for that; especially after they’d stolen away in the night, taking the two Silmarils with them, he did not wish to be associated with his family anymore.

He had decided to go East; Beleriand was destroyed and the large continent was nigh unrecognizable. He did not go alone, for not all of the Noldor chose to leave these shores, and many of the Sindar and Silvan did not care for vaunted Valinor. Large processions moved through what was left of familiar terrain, until the ground evened out and began to rise, as the western side of the Ered Luin mountain range came into view.

Telpërinquar did not look back when the lands behind him were swallowed by the sea and spared but the smallest of thoughts to uncle Nelyo and uncle Káno; their time was over, washed away by the cleansing water. He was done with the past and ready for the future. He felt at ease for the first time since they’d crossed the Sea.

He was ready to start anew and be named anew, and everyone called him Celebrimbor now and no longer did they connect him with the House of Fëanor. He wanted to finally live his own life and therefore he marched on and found a place that felt right to him. There he settled, and with him many others, and together they built Eregion; and though he did not wish to lead, he was appointed as their spokesperson in matters of state and trade after Galadriel and Celeborn left. He grew into his role until the notion was no longer detestable to him, though he refused to be titled King; he much preferred to spend his time in the forges he had built, and when Eldar from all over Middle-Earth flocked to Eregion to learn the skills of the hammer, he established the Gwaith-i-Mírdain, and they thrived.

And while he never forgot the events of the First Age, he found a happiness and peace of mind in the Second Age that he had not known before. For not just Morgoth was gone, but it seemed the Doom had been lifted from him too, a descendant of Fëanáro, who had received special mention in Mandos’ pronouncement. No more tears; Telpërinquar smiled more readily and his laugh was as brilliant as the silver trumpets that announced his arrival. His name was known far and wide, due only to his own merit, and apart from the last scattered remnants of Morgoth’s army, peace reigned in Middle-Earth.