What Use an Engine of War in a Land of Peace? by Lferion

Chapter 1

The problem, thought Fingon, was that he really did not know what craft he would like to focus on. In Treelight, all those long years ago, he had tried his hand a many things: music, architecture (more Turgon's forte than his, he'd swiftly discovered, but it had proved useful nevertheless,) smithcraft, animal care, healing, cooking, poetry, heraldry, dance, sculpture, brewing, statecraft, gardening, astronomy, cartography, and sundry others. Many had been part of his education as a Prince of the Noldor, and preparation for his duties as Nolofinwe's son and Finwe's grandson. Others had been him trying things out to see what might fit. He was Noldor, crafting was what they did. He should have a craft.

Many things he knew something about had proved useful, in the Darkening, on the Ice, in Beleriand, as Prince, warrior, lover, King …. But except for kingship (under which 'organizing resources for a wide variety of persons, creatures and animate things' most definitely fell), music, riding and fighting, none of them had felt particularly compelling to him personally. And in a family with Maglor in it (present or otherwise) dedicated pursuit of music was not for him — he knew he was neither good enough, nor single-minded enough — so it stayed a thing he took seriously, but not a craft. Kingship and statecraft were … not precisely relevant at present, not to mention still something of a sore point, on several levels. Riding wasn't a craft, exactly. Fighting … practice, yes, actual, really no.

On the table before him lay a scatter of papers, each one a different idea. On top, face up, was a sketch of a trebuchet — but unless someone wanted to organize a competition for how far, or accurate, or quickly such a thing could throw its projectile, — which could be very entertaining, he had to admit, now that the thought had occurred to him, though it would also take a quantity of organizing to pull off — large gourds, perhaps, rather than stones as the load? Points for style? — there was absolutely no need for engines of war, here in Aman. It seemed unlikely that they would be of any use in Dagor Dagorath, if that was even a thing that would bear any resemblance to a war or battles they had fought in Beleriand, should it come to pass at all.

Still. A trebuchet competition might be amusing to make happen. Logistics, construction, putting teams together, working out scoring, encouraging experimentation. Did he want a team of his own? Of course he did. Silly question. He'd definitely need to think about safety, for the onlookers (there would definitely be onlookers — arrange for viewing platforms?) and for the participants.

It would do as a project until a better occurred to him or came along. And when (not if, when, he refused to think otherwise) Maedhros Returned, he would certainly enjoy hearing about it.

In the event, 'Throwing large vegetables with custom trebuchets for distance, accuracy, and style' proved surprisingly popular, and Maedhros was highly amused.

Chapter End Notes

Yes, Fingon has just invented Punkin Chunkin for Aman.