This is absolutely wild! I love the visual elements. I love Nerdanel so much. It uses humor and pathos gorgeously in the narrative elements.

(thought they managed to sound as if it were Fëanor’s achievement, discovering her hidden worth, more than it were her own merit for having it).

Well put! Despite protestations to the contrary, it seems to me there was a fair amount of gender bias among Tolkien's tale of the Noldor (but that is an essay in itself). Nerdanel and Miriel are written as exceptions; Galadriel is written strong, but only forgiven after long years of suffering and final redemption; Aredhel is punished for trying to break away from the cage her brother kept her in, etc., etc.

But this is truly a wonderful piece, which gives Nerdanel her own mind and her own creative power. Really important. I was gripped by the plastic elements of the story, the crafts, the texture, the colors, and pulled through much too quickly. I will go back and read it more slowly another time. But I did not want to wait to tell you how much I love it.

I am not familiar with the Medieval polychrome wooden relief carvings at the Smith College Museum but was thinking of others I have seen in other places (the NYC Metropolitan Museum and its Medieval branch at the Cloisters) while I was reading. So, that aspect of the description was wildly successful for me. I felt so clever when I read your note. (Readers love to feel like they got something the writer intended.)

I wish the better description of Nerdanel's art had made it into the published Silmarillion. I think I have referenced it myself in more than one story. Her power as an artist and a craftsman is what makes the Nerdanel/Feanor love story work for me. If she was lauded as the best mom in Aman and beautiful as Luthien, their story would not have worked for me.

Thanks for sharing a beautiful piece!

Oshun recommended this story very highly and I agree with all she said.

I love, in different ways, the scene with the colours, both as interaction and in description, and the short pen portraits of the bereft whose stories Nerdanel integrates into her sculpture.