Who was the High King? by AndyC

Chapter 5

“By the way,” said Herucalmo, almost absently.  “What was that light?”

Maglor whirled.  “What light?”

“I saw – something.  Last night, at dusk.  A glimpse of light.  Different from any I’d ever seen.  It entranced me,” confessed Herucalmo.  “I couldn’t stop thinking of it.  A beauty, a richness, silver and gold alike.  A living light.”

“In a flash of light you saw for maybe a moment?”  Maglor scoffed.  “I think perhaps your memories are changed to justify your own actions.  You came here on an impulse; you are trying to justify it.”

“I saw something,” said Herucalmo, stubbornly.

Maglor thought for a moment.  “Where were you?”

Herucalmo walked to the cave mouth and pointed.  Almost due east, across the Bay of Umbar, close to the Haven itself.

“That explains it,” said Maglor, dismissively.  “You saw the last flash of Anar as she sank into the West.”

“That wasn’t sunlight.”  Herucalmo shook his head.

Maglor looked at him with a condescending expression.  “I think I’ve witnessed more sunsets than you.  Herucalmo, when the Sun sets, sometimes the air and sea cause – well – some spectacular effects.  I’ve seen a green flash at times.  Gold is more common, of course.  It is likely that the light of the West that you saw was simply a momentary flash of light as the Sun set.”

His expression softened.  “Although it would be stunning and surprising to an Adan who had never witnessed such before, of course.  No, young Herucalmo, you were simply privileged to see a light of the West that few ever see.”

“Light of the West,” murmured Herucalmo.  “Very well.”

He wasn’t happy about it, but what more could he do?  With reluctance, he turned and walked away.

***

Maglor watched the boy leave.  Adult though he might be by the measure of the Edain, he was still very much a boy.  So different from his ancestor, but he could still see the faintest lines of Elros in the lad.  Sadly faded, though, beneath an encrustation of self-regard and entitlement.  Still, he might have prospects – if properly nurtured.  Yet all he had heard tell of Numenor made him dubious that such could happen there any longer.

He turned and walked back to the recesses of his cave.  He had to be more careful in the few, rare moments he allowed himself to regard the jewel.  He had thought it well concealed here; he had been wrong.  The boy had obviously caught a glimpse of the Silmaril for the briefest of moments.  No, Maglor would move on once more.  Should Herucalmo return, he would find only an empty cave.

Where to go?  The Numenoreans ruled the coasts to the north, all the way to Gil-galad’s realm.  He had to stay near the coast – he had to; the Jewel compelled him.  Therefore he had to go south.  There was another Numenorean haven to the south, but beyond that, he should be out of their area of influence.  It would be unpleasantly warm, of course – Anar could be blazing hot even here, but his measure of “scorching” had a different scale to many Elves.  In those few, far-between moments that he reached for Father’s Jewel, he was painfully reminded of that. 

No, he could cope with the heat.  Time to go.

***

Herucalmo never did return to the cave, or find Maglor again, but he remembered the conversation all his life.

Chapter End Notes

Reading Lyra's Embalmer's Apprentice, I thought of Herucalmo and his usurpation of the throne from his son.  His journey to Umbar in that story made me think of who he could encounter in his time there.

Everyone, of course, rationalises their own actions, so what was his rationale when he seized the throne?  Other than "I want it and I'm good at it, of course"?

In addition, in days gone by - oh, it must be more than twenty years ago, now - the High Kingship of the Noldor and its succession was a perennial topic of discussion on the old rec.arts.books.tolkien newsgroup.  Way back then, it struck me that some of our animated arguments (about agnatic primogeniture  versus cognatic primogeniture, a Salic bar, or a semi-Salic bar, or absolute primogeniture or...) felt absurd.  Why would immortal Elves have evolved detailed and specific rules along those lines when, prior to their Exile, they never expected their Kings to die?

The rule for Kingship of the Teleri: "Is your name Olwe?  If so, you're the king."

And yes, I know that we're just labelling various options for succession, but looking at the earliest successions of the kingship in the kingdoms in the British Isles... they were very much situational and driven by circumstances.  The "rules" tended to be applied in retrospect to whomever had turned out to be the King after all.

Couple that with the well-discussed biases of the written Silmarillion by their supposed author(s), and there's a huge space for discussion.  This just grew out of that discussion - what happens when Herucalmo, in his "holiday" in Umbar, runs into a voice from the First Age with an alternative view and the credibility to support it?  And that alternative point of view just happens to coincide with what he'd like to rationalise for the "true" rule of succession by which he would be rightly the King after Vanimelde.

(Of course, Herucalmo's rationalisation is biased - he overlooks that his rule only works from Tar-Atanamir onwards - and would be sheer chaos if ever applied, with the Kingship skipping around the wider House of Elros from elderly figure to elderly figure (although realistically only the House of Andunie would really benefit; other lines would have shorter lifespans)).

And of course - why did Herucalmo choose the regnal name "Light of the West"?