Pages from the Archives of Cîr Imladris by Lferion

Cîr.Im-7837-a3 | Oh, the word of the king may be law

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild Law and Custom challenge, to the prompt: "'It is decreed by the king; but that does not make it so,' answered Elendil." ~ The Lost Road

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Oh, the word of the king may be law, if decreed as the Word of the King, witnessed, recorded, proclaimed, accepted. Among the Elves. For the Elves choose their kings, choose who they will look to as Lords, as leaders, as Kings. One knows a King by their healing hands, thoughtful judgement, generous heart, and Word that creates.

Among Men, it is not always so, neither the choosing by the people, nor the attributes of Elven kingship. Long did Elros' descendents rule after the manner and grace of the Elves, in greater and lesser degree, but not always. Nor are the ways of the Elves always the best fit for the governance of Men, who live to a different scale, a faster tempo. Our Songs may harmonize, but they are not the same.

And in neither case are Word and Law, Decree and Right Rule the same, or always (even sometimes) correct, true, the best decision or guidance. Nor - and this some of you will deem heresy, but hear me out - nor are the laws of the Valar always right, just, or reasonable: for they are not as us, nor as Men. We are not their subjects, but Eru's Children.

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Archivist's Note:

Text found on a loose piece of paper, tucked into the back of one of the (many) Miscellany Books in Elrond's library. The hand does not match that of the book, but bears similarity of form, as if learned from the same school or teacher. On analysis, the paper proves Beleriandic, likely Dwarf-made, or made by one who learned the art from that people. The ink is an ordinary carbon-oak mixture, the pen unremarkable. It is not possible to determine location or time more precisely.

Some would, indeed, consider the third part heresy of the first water. Others ... would not.

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Cîr.Im-AE:192-b | Prologue to 'On Guest-Right'

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
The bonus prompt for January 2 for the New Year's Resolution challenge comes from our Laws & Customs challenge from this past June:

"‘Who’s that? Be off! You can’t come in. Can’t you read the notice: No admittance between sundown and sunrise?
‘Of course we can’t read the notice in the dark,’ Sam shouted back. ‘And if hobbits in the Shire are to be kept out in the wet on a night like this, I’ll tear down your notice when I find it.’"
~ The Return of the King, “The Scouring of the Shire”

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Text of Cîr.Im-AE:192-b

Another difference in the customs of the Noldor, the Sindar, the Iathrim, the Dwarves, and the various Houses of Edain: the manner and force of what might be called guest-right. Against whom may the gates be closed? Under what circumstances is the door to be opened no matter other exigencies? Are the daylight hours more welcoming than those of the Moon and Stars? (The Elven kindreds mark no difference between day and night regarding this, though those settlements and strongholds closer to peril will be more watchful during the hours fell things are more likely to move, it is also then that a traveller's need may be greater. Whereas Med hold night and day to be very different, and entrance after twilight or dawn requires pressing need indeed.) How long is a known person welcome? An unknown or one asking asylum? What may a guest expect beyond a roof, water, warmth, and at least one meal? Is return of some kind expected, the offer welcomed, or the opposite?

All these questions and more must be considered when working on behalf of the High King, or any other lord. Insult, negligence, ignorance or other lack will not serve messenger nor ambassador.

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Archivist's Note:

This text is a single page from what was apparently a longer document, not the one it was found in: interesting though that volume is, guest-right is not its subject. Nor is there a match between the paper, ink, style, or the writer's hand. The page is finely finished vellum, thin and supple, the ink pure carbon-black. The writing style is a synthesis of Quenya syntax and formal Northern Sindarin vocabulary, indicating a composition date not long after contact was made with Doriath, the writer clearly Noldor. The hand is clear, precise and elegant — a copybook example of Pre-Darkening Tengwar.

I suspect Caranthir may have written this. One hopes the document it prefaces has also survived, either the original or a copy. Very little of Caranthir’s work has come down to us, unfortunately, but his contacts and interactions with Dwarves and Men form an important part of our relationships with those peoples even now (year 537 of the Third Age): as much or more than those of the lord Finrod, especially as regards the more northerly folk. I shall keep looking.

(V-142, summer) I found it! The original even — bound between two chapters of IL3824-c22 [Penmithel’s ‘Divers Arts’ copy 22].

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Cîr.Im-759 | 482 First Age, Note in High King Fingon's Hand

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
The bonus prompt for January 3 comes from our True Leaders challenge from July 2020:

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear."
~ Rosa Parks

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Text of Cîr.Im-759 [482 First Age, Note in High King Fingon's Hand]

I am afraid. Of course I am afraid. Tomorrow we stand forth against the the Black Foe, the Destroyer, the Vala once second only to Manwë in might. Against his Maian lieutenants and servants, Gorthaur and his wolves, Gothmog and his legions led by others of his ilk. People, my people, people who have gathered here at Maedhros' and my word, Elves and Dwarves and Men will die on the morrow. People I love and care for, people I am responsible for will be fighting terrible foes, and battle is never certain. Maedhros or I could be lost, though I and he have taken what precautions and made what preparations we can against that possibility. I do not *believe* either of us will perish, nor do I fear it particularly. Neither do I think any outcome fated.

This battle must be fought. We have chosen our ground, the day, mustered our forces, hammered out a strategy sound and flexible, as any battle-plan must be. Victory is within our grasp, but we can hold nothing back, nothing must hinder me or any of us. I put away doubt, fear, caution; holding only purpose, skill, enduring love, steadfast hope: day is coming.

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Archivist’s Note

A note in High King Fingon's own hand, dated by context to the day before the Fifth Battle, Midsummer's Eve 482fa. This is a small square piece of fine vellum, much handled at one time after being written. There are small salt-water stains, but the ink -- good quality carbon-oak -- has not run. The pen used for the calligraphy in the first paragraph was in need of trimming, and was trimmed before writing the second.

Of particular note are the small embellishments: stars of various numbers of points, including 8-rayed-and-pointed Feanorian, and a small line-portrait I believe to be of Maedhros.

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Cîr.Im-7438-c2 | Thoughts on Execution, Idril Celebrindal

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
Our bonus prompt today comes from June's "Laws & Customs" challenge:
"Then they cast Eöl over the Caragdûr, and so he ended, and to all in Gondolin it seemed just; but Idril was troubled, and from that day she mistrusted her kinsman."
~ The Silmarillion, "Of Maeglin"

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Text of Cîr.Im-7438-c2 [Thoughts on Execution, Idril Celebrindal]

How can putting someone to death ever be right? Whatever they have done? I do not mean the death given as mercy to those who would otherwise be defiled, taken, tormented by the Enemy or his minions before they could die, or worse, their fear kept from Mandos by the cruel one; nor the bitter mercy given those of the yrch who were once our kind, our kin, and are now not them at all, but the thing that killed them, whatever form or voice or even spirit say (and if they are not dead, but trapped within, how more necessary to release them to find healing and new life across the sea? And killing that which is trying to kill you is defense, not murder. And if Eol's actions were criminal, were murder, why had he not a trial, allowed to speak in his own defense? His son speak, a Sinda that lived not within walls before choosing here to dwell navigate the perils of that life? But there was no trial, only the long fall. Mayhap he and my aunt may find each other in the Halls.

How do I regard my father now, who ruled it so?

---

Archivist's Note:

By context, the writer of this piece is Idril Celebrindal, though the hand is not much like that seen in the only other document attested to be hers in the Imladris archives, a formal letter sent from Sirion to Cirdan on Balar. This may be a scribal copy, though if so, the copy was made not long after the composition, as the paper and ink are identifiably of Gondolindrin make. It certainly makes one think about what one does not and cannot know of Eol and Irisse, his actions and his death. Why was there no trial? What really happened?

Cîr.Im.IL-Misc:2769-a | Men, Elves, Pereldar and Paradox

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:

The bonus prompt for January 11 comes from "Utopia/Dystopia" this past August. While we generally offered two opposing prompts, this one neatly manages to roll utopia and dystopia all into one:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

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Men are fond of paradox, I find, and are quite capable of holding two (or more!) different views on the same event, person, thing at the same time. Elves, generally, in my experience, may hold several views as possible, until with more information, more consideration, one view will come to the fore and stay there. Men, for example, are quite comfortable with the world being both flat and round, a plane and a sphere, though they are not at all likely to experience both states. Most Elves are quite uncomfortable with it. Pereldar live thus, in both, even after Choosing.

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Archivist's Note

This is a copy or transcription of an original now lost. The ink and paper are typical late Second to mid-Third Age materials made for general Imladrin use. The hand is scribal and uninformative. By context, the original was composed after the Drowning of Numenor and the reshaping of the world. The writer is apparently one of the pereldar, but it is uncertain whom of that small number it might be. It is unusually uncertain of tone for Lord Elrond, but not impossible. More likely one of his sons composed this, or possibly Arwen in her youth. It is a puzzle.

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Cîr.Im-699 | Thoughts on Fëanor’s Actions, Fingon Fingolfinion

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
-- Day 6: Today's bonus prompt is an addendum to our Crackuary bingo card from February: a bonus 3x3 mini-card! - C3: Feanor did nothing wrong,
--Day 13: The 13th's prompt comes from June's "Laws & Customs" challenge:
“Then there was great unrest in Tirion, and Finwë was troubled; and he summoned all his lords to council. But Fingolfin hastened to his halls and stood before him, saying: ‘King and father, wilt thou not restrain the pride of our brother, Curufinwë, who is called the Spirit of Fire, all too truly? By what right does he speak for all our people, as if he were King?’”
~ The Silmarillion, “Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor”

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Text of Cîr.Im-699 | Thoughts on Fëanor’s Actions, Fingon Fingolfinion

What if. What if Fëanor’s actions were the best possible under the circumstances? What if he had not crafted swords of use as well as beauty, teaching the art of their making to all his sons, their use to them also, and the idea of them to all who witnessed that confrontation? What if he had listened more to Morgoth? What if the Noldor had never returned to Ennor, returned unswiftly, and the Moon had risen over a land peopled with yrch, Cirdan fallen, Doriath besieged? What if Beren had never met Luthien? How dark would the world be then?

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Archivist's Note:

This is hastily written on a piece of paper torn from a larger sheet, possibly part of a letter. The paper and ink are the usual composition used in Barad Eithel from approximately 300FA through to the Fifth Battle, the pen badly in need of trimming. The hand is recognizably Fingon's, one of several attested quickly written notes. This is unusual in pertaining more to philosophy and unanswerable questions than the supply requests and day-to-day reminders that comprise most of the rest of these small, quick documents. Other examples of his thought are carefully written in his Miscellany. [See Cîr.Im-H32a]

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Cîr.Im-4173-a-g | A: ~FA488 Report Notes, Push from Talath Dirnen to the Falas

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
-- Day 10: Bonus prompts are images for instadrabbling from the Naturalist's Guide to Middle-earth challenge, Sept 2020. Image 9, Man-o-War Jellyfish and Image 14, Pitcher Plants
--Day 23: Today's bonus prompt comes from "Laws and Customs":
“Then the servants of Angband were driven out of all the land between Narog and Sirion eastward, and westward to the Nenning and the desolate Falas; and though Gwindor spoke ever against Túrin in the council of the King, holding it an ill policy, he fell into dishonour and none heeded him, for his strength was small and he was no longer forward in arms.”
~ The Silmarillion, “Of Túrin Turambar”

Double drabble text, double drabble commentary, not counting the headers

Read Cîr.Im-4173-a-g | A: ~FA488 Report Notes, Push from Talath Dirnen to the Falas

Text of Cîr.Im-4173-a-g | A: Sailing-Stingers and Pitcher-Plants

We drove them back, the yrch, the troll-kind, the evil-hearted trees. Fangorn was with us, Ent-lord, tree-herder: they dealt with the trees. We knew this action for respite, not victory, but did not fail to take advantage where we could. My riders and I were harrying a group of roa-yrch before us as we reached the Falas, desolate of people, but not of defense -- Osse had sent a fleet of bright sailing-stingers, and they did much of the final assault for us. Maentâl, barefoot as usual, was stung; he is healing, slowly. The yrch died quickly, stung, struck, or drowned.

Our return from that sortie was not quick, for we looked for stragglers and other troublesome leavings. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference between a plant or creature that has grown defenses from the Enemy's assault, and one that has been warped to malice by the Enemy. The sailing-stingers are the first sort, as I think are the pitcher-plants, with their lidded wells of sticky syrup, eagerly luring venom-flies and worse of the second kind to well-deserved doom. We vanquished several laggard roa-yrch, a draug-yrch, and put a badly mangled and mistreated lesser were-worm out of its misery.

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Archivist's Note:

This is one of several small sheets, loosely folded together, all with notes that appear to be part of a report regarding one group's efforts in the campaign instigated by Turin to drive the agents of the Enemy from the Talath Dirnen and into the sea. The writer was much interested in the plants and animals, and their observations, scattered through the various documents, have added considerably to our understanding of the ecology of that part of Beleriand, especially as it was affected by the influence of Angband. I believe the 'sailing-stingers' to be the sea-creatures the Teleri call Eithavainare.

This entire document-set was added to the Archive at Imladris late in the 2nd Age, when Maentâl Sílorion was intending to Sail. The mark of the injury from the sting was still visible on his foot and ankle [and he goes barefoot even now -- he has visited the new Archive] a testament to the effectiveness of the armament of the creatures. The pitcher-plants can be found in Aman, though nothing that might be described as 'venom-flies,' supporting the writer's assessment of them as the Enemy's malice. The writer is not named, though internal evidence indicates one of the Amanyar Noldor.

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Cîr.Im-774-a-12v | In Love there is no Death

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
In honor of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday tomorrow (Jan 15), we offer a pair of quotes as a bonus for August's "Utopia/Dystopia" challenge:
“In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.”
~Martin Luther King, Sermon Delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, November 17, 1957
“[T]he absence of freedom is the presence of death. Any nation or government that deprives an individual of freedom is in that moment committing an act of moral and spiritual murder. Any individual who is not concerned about his freedom commits an act of moral and spiritual suicide."
~ Martin Luther King, Address at the Fiftieth Annual NAACP Convention, July 17, 1959

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Text of Cîr.Im-774-a-12v

In love there is no death -- loss, yes: of form, of physical interaction with this world, of bonds with Men, but not of memory, not for the Eldar. Love has freedom at its core: freedom to join, freedom to stand apart from joining, freedom to observe and freedom to act.

Love takes responsibility for the freedom it upholds, just as freedom takes responsibility for action and inaction in its service. Consequences are part of freedom to act, to be, to do, and cannot be put aside, ignored, but must be taken, acknowledged, accepted, part and parcel of love, of life.

Unfreedom is death. Not the death of Men, Iluvatar's Gift, the going onward to whatever end, that the Eldar do not, cannot know. Nor the death of the body that sends the fea to Mandos' Halls, to be rehoused in time. Tis Death of the spirit, dissolution, unmaking, the Void. To be unfree, imprisoned, held in chains (forged of metal, will, manipulation of feeling, whatever might hold fast that which should be free) is to be dying, slain, constrained into oblivion.

Or mayhap I know nothing of what I speak. I have not died. I hope I have not killed.

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Archivist's Note

This note, a careful copy in a scribal hand, was found with several other similar notes, tucked behind the bound pages and the back cover of Cîr.Im-774-a | Blue Miscellany, which internal evidence places as belonging to and largely scribed if not written by Findekáno Ñolofinweion. [See also Cîr.Im-H32a] These notes, in various hands and styles, appear to be intended to be copied into the book itself. This particular note cannot have been composed by King Fingon, for the mention of Men places the composition firmly after the Exile, though the style is similar to his. Another mystery among many such.

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Cîr.Im-4382a | Hate will not Answer

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
-- Day 15: For January 15, in honor of MLK's birthday today, comes a bonus prompt from July's "A True Leader" challenge, featuring quotes from women in leadership roles:
“Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.” ~Coretta Scott King

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Text of Cîr.Im-4382a | Hate will not Answer

I would like to hate you. I want to. I am angry, furiously, unspeakably angry at you, what you did, were party to. You swore no Oath, invoked no Names never to be spoken in binding wrath. Hate would be so easy, warmth in this cold (fevered, hectic fire), simplicity in complexity (nothing here is simple).

But hate will not answer, however darkly attractive, seductive, satisfying. It is too heavy a thing to carry on this fragile, fickle Ice. We need you, and you bear too much already, hate yourself more than I ever could enough for all of us.

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Archivist's Note:

This appears to be not a transcription or copy, but the original. The paper, a scrap carefully torn from a larger sheet, is excellent quality, similar to paper from documents attested to be from Aman, though the ink is not quite of that quality (obviously it was good enough to have lasted until now, only a little faded). The hand is in keeping with the paper, a precise and elegant Tengwar, with few if any idiosyncrasies. It would seem to have been written during the Crossing of the Ice. The writer remains unknown. Some believe the subject is Findekáno Nolofinwion.

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Cîr.Im-774-a-12r | Uneclipsed

Written for the Silmarillion Writer's Guild January 2021 Resolutions challenge:
-- Day 16: January 16 comes from the "Postcards from Middle-earth" challenge:
Image: Eclipse seen from the Moon
-- Day 18: Today's bonus comes from the True Leader challenge: "The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them." ~ Ida B. Wells

Single drabble text, single drabble note

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Text of Cîr.Im-774-a-12r | Uneclipsed

Light cleans wounds of many kinds; true light. It matters little the source, as long as it is true light: Sun, Moon, Star, gem crafted for joy, lamp lit for beauty, fire for warmth, illumination, love. Even hidden light will serve: mistlight, reflected, refracted, eclipsed, creeping through the cracks to shine on wrongs to make them right. And sometimes shadowed light is the most revealing, the most healing. Colors hide in shades of grey. Astonishment at the edge of an eclipse. Brilliance, effulgence, extravagance of light may scour clean, reveal a truth in unrelenting beams, but kindness may shine softer.

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Archivist's Note:

This text is on the back (hair side) of the same slip of parchment as Cîr.Im-774-a-12v, written in the same scribal hand, in the same carbon-oak ink and slightly frayed pen, likely at the same time. However the composer of this piece is not the same. The words chosen are more elaborate and archaic, the style much more formal. Unusually, the text is accompanied by a small sketch of an eclipse over steep and rocky mountains. The ink in the drawing is a reddish brown, likely burnt sienna.The artist may have been King Fingon himself, though this is not certain.

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Cîr.Im-2637-p-145r | A Note on Noroth Gondren (Stone Giants)

Written for the Fan Flashworks prompt 'Teaching', and posted there here, and on AO3 here.

Also written with the SWG April 2022 challenge 'On a Different Page' in mind, though Tolkien himself never did a bestiary.

Many thanks to Zhie and Runa for encouragement and sanity-checking.

A double-drabble text with single-drabble note, not counting the headers.

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Text of Cîr.Im-2637-p-145r | A Note on Noroth Gondren (Stone Giants)

The Stone Giants were not Melkor or Sauron's work. Nor Aule's, except by accident or remove, for having Made mountains by Song, and imbued them with a kind of life. No, if anyone's, the Stone Giants are ours. (The were-worms most emphatically are not: they were there long before any Elf had ventured to those deserts. That we awakened them to understanding and speech is true, but that they exist at all cannot be laid at our feet.) The Stone-giants on the other hand.... Perhaps if that group of travelers had not been a building-crew, led by Singer-of-Walls, perhaps if that party of yrch had not tried to ambush them in that precise spot, but they were, and they did, and lightning came to the call, the living rock arose with heads and hands and arms well fit for tossing lumps of mountainside for the pleasure of it, and the travelers made it safely over the pass. The fate of that party of yrch remains unknown.

A new elaboration of the Song they are, to be seen in mountain thunderstorms, and not in the Ered Luin only, but in every mountain range we know, and likely those we do not.

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Archivist's Note

A faithful copy of a note taking up all the margins of the page illustrating the Noroth Gondren in Elendirion Falariëmor's Book of Creatures. This volume is a restoration or replica of the original book as annotated in various hands, apparently used as a teaching-text. The copy-scribe took pains to replicate the scripts, though not the inks, and it is possible to follow the notes of the individual annotators. This hand appears primarily in the section on 'Song-Creatures', mobile and rooted creatures that appear unique or unnatural, made not born, or changed from what they might have been before.

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Cîr.Im-7838a-e1 | Frost-Flowers

Haiku and drabble written for the Fan Flashworks challenge 'Fragile', and posted here, and on AO3 here.

Single drabble text, not counting the haiku or heading, single drabble commentary, not counting the heading.

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Text of Cîr.Im-7838a-e1 | Frost-Flowers

Frost-flowers blossom
Brief and intricate wonder
Manwë's winter breath

Frost-flowers are fragile. Spider-silk lace, spun-sugar flourishes on a sweet-course sotelty. A moment may be fragile, a feeling, an accord, a peace, a process, an illusion, an understanding, a thread of thought, a whisper of song. Delicate things may be fragile, and fragile things may be delicate, but they are not the same property, any more than brittle is equivalent to either. A thing, idea, quality, person may be breakable, but that does not mean they are broken, have been broken, will be broken. It means one should be advertent, careful, aware. Appreciate the paradox of fragility that nevertheless endures.

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Archivist's Note

A loose fragment from the Indigo Miscellany, Cîr.Im-7838, found between r26 and v27, two pages of seasonal poems, though none of them are the poem on the fragment. Possibly in the same hand as Cîr.Im-7837-a3, though if so, not written at the same time. The pen is superior, the paper inferior to that piece, the ink unremarkable carbon-oak.

Interestingly, the paper is reed-paper, intended for short-term, immediate use, not archival, but someone (not Lord Elrond, I asked) has Sung it preserved. It is possible it is First Age, though the Miscellany is Mid-Second. There are interesting idiosyncrasies to the hand.

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Cîr.Im.IL-Misc:59443-cf | Negative Equation

Written for the Fan Flashworks challenge JE NE REGRETTE RIEN "I Regret Nothing" first posted here.
Also written for the SWG March 2023 Challenge Middle-Earth is Multitudes, the prompts Easterlings and Neurodiverse Characters, posted here on AO3.

Three drabble sequence text, triple drabble commentary/notes, not counting headers.

Thanks go to Zhie & Runa for encouragement & sanity-checking.

I see Caranthir as definitely not neurotypical. In fact, I am pretty sure all of Feanor's family (himself, Nerdanel, his sons, his grandson, and most likely any law-children, Fingon definitely included) are neurodiverse in various ways.

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Text of Cîr.Im.IL-Misc:59443-cf | Negative Equation

Is it bravado, to be without regret? Thoughtlessness? Ignorance? Or is it that hearing the statement only is the smallest part of the equation. I understand equations, better than nearly everyone. The so-called answer is — as I have tried to explain on many occasions — the least interesting part. So what is the context, the framework, the parameters. What indeed are the questions being asked? The problem being addressed? Who is it disclaiming regret? Is that disclaimer a hope, a threat, a statement of fact, a veneer of falsehood or fantasy over a worm-eaten core of self-loathing? Is there a point?

To look at it another way, what is regret, singular or systematic? A feeling? An assessment (logical or emotional) of deeds or thoughts or something more nebulous? Something to flog oneself with? I have seen Nelyo revisiting his plans for the Fifth Battle, trying to find a way it could have gone other than it did. Was that an assessment? A punishment? Both at once? It is not an exercise he has done (that I know of) since Fingon returned. Is it regret to be unhappy, even terribly unhappy, at a plan's catastrophic failure? I think it reason, not regret.

I have been told I should regret many things, and certainly there are deeds I would do differently now, things I am not proud of, things based on incomplete or erroneous information, things I should have thought through more carefully, but I do not feel regret for them. What would be the point? I have apologized where called for, taken responsibility likewise, made note of better ways. I do not regret engaging Bor and his people, however angry and disappointed I may be — still am! &mdashe; at Uldor and his. But I see no reason for pointless and useless performative regret.

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Archivist's Note

This is one of the newer pieces in the Archive, not only catalogued since the greater Household arrived in Aman and settled in Cîr Imladris, but written no earlier than TA240[AR^], that being the date Findékano-called-Fingon [HM-E, HE, etc^^] Returned, after Caranthir and Maedhros both.

^AR: Amanyar Reckoning. Before the seas were bent in SA3319, the count of years was the same in all parts of Arda. Since the changing of the world, time does not quite run congruently in Aman and Ennor. See Standards of Weights, Measures, and Intervals, Volume 4, Timekeeping, 3rd edition, Valmar Royal Press.

^^Titles and abbreviations of those who reigned variously in Ennor are an on-going point of discussion (contention) in Tirion. Generally, the children and grandchildren of Finwë are accounted royal, and entitled to the formal style of Prince or Princess, addressed as Excellency. Those who reigned as Kings are often styled Highness, occasionally as Highness-Emeritus; those who reigned as High King of the Noldor in Exile are often styled Majesty or Majesty-Emeritus. Lord/Lady are always appropriate. For a full discussion, see the Compendium of Noldorin Heraldry: History, Philosophy, and Practice, 12th edition, volume 7. Note Iron-Stave Herald's article in particular.

^^^House of Learning, Independent Scholarship program. More commonly known as Ennor University, Starlight School, Hollin-style education, and (in certain circles) "Damned Feanorian Avari-Exilic Nonsense". Nominally overseen by the Amanyar Federation of Houses of Learning, in practice a thriving cooperative with roots and branches reaching back to Cuivienen.

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Cîr.Im-247r-v | On the Lay of Leithian, V7-Rhúnedain/Kinn-Lai.A

Originally written for the SWG Rejects Challenge, April 2023, Prompt: How about Barahir and Beren are elves (“Sketch of the Mythology”)

Posted on AO3 Here

Not counting headers -- Recto: Drabble poem and single drabble text, Verso: Double drabble text, Archivist's Note: Double drabble, Additional Notes: Single drabble.

Read Cîr.Im-247r-v | On the Lay of Leithian, V7-Rhúnedain/Kinn-Lai.A

Text of Cîr.Im-247r-v | On the Lay of Leithian, V7-Rhúnedain/Kinn-Lai.A

Recto:

No red-eared hound is this unleashed, or watching, ember-eyed,
Nor would such quarry choose: as Beren brash and loving doth --
Would he take a different path, as an Elf & so denied?
Or is this doom? A fate foretold as flame to willing moth?
An arrow loosed from bowstring twined of hair & shadows plied
& Mark found in the heart that mortal proved: for Elf-king, wroth
Set price impossible: a silmaril that woe betide
& Any outcome dooming all or some in Menegroth
Oh wolves await, & wailing, death in darkness, nameless hide
Yet, without this striving would see no hope, no starry troth.

This is the single legible and complete stanza from a long poem from one of the nomadic Mannish peoples of the far eastern plains. The poem as a whole retells the Leithian material with interpolations of elements from Hadorian tales. The writer/composer appears to have confused or conflated Beren with Beleg, or at any rate, that Barahir and Beren are Eldar, not Edain. One would wish that more of the poem survived to be read. The parts that can be read are fascinating. One thing that is certain about this is that Maglor had no direct hand in it.

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Verso:

Closer analysis of the extant material of the original lay (Anglithiel has managed wonders with filtered sunlight and innovative use of the single blue-light Feanorian lamp remaining to us, allowing for much more of the poem to be read, though still not all of it, alas) reveals that this particular stanza is commentary, not narrative, and may not belong properly to the original Mannish piece at all, even though the form is indeed the same. In the song, Beren (and Barahir his father) are Northern Sindar, and Beren is twin to Beleg (explaining some, but by no means all, of the confusion between them -- their epessi are Cu-Chamion and Cu-Thalion, and whoever scribed the song was not careful in differentiating them), and red-eared Huan (Rîncaralhaw) his companion from youth. (Celegorm and Curufin are not apparently mentioned, though the Nargothrond stanzas are very fragmented and hard to make out, even with Anglithiel's efforts, but Huan is at Beren's side well before that point in the narrative.) In the subject of this stanza, The Tol Sirion (Tol Amon in the text) event, the verses have Beren and Beleg (and, remarkably, Finrod, who then vanishes from the tale) rescued by Luthien and Huan.

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Archivist's Note

Single leaf of good Dwarf-made paper, the poem & notes recto in carbon-black ink, additional notes verso, oak-gall ink. The pen-nib used is metal, slightly larger than typical for Lindon before the founding of Eregion, and may be Dwarf-work like the paper. The hand and the pen are the same throughout. The poem is a careful copy, the commentary on recto and verso appears to have been composed as written, judging by the slight irregularities of spacing and ink-flow.

This intriguing page is especially noteworthy for having both the ten lines of poetry, interesting on their own, but also contemporaneous -- or near contemporaneous -- commentary. The Eastern "Mannish" piece referred to may be "Beren Strongbow and the Princess of Night" a version of which has recently (TA 74) come to the Archive by way of a group of very far-traveled Kinn-Lai, though there is no way to be certain of that. The copy referenced in the text has not yet come to light, though hopefully it will. The referenced illumination technique is certainly Luinaur-celia, developed in Eregion, now verified to have been developed by Anglithiel Mel-Narin notably before the Mirdain re-discovered how to make Feanorian Lamps shine in colors other than white.

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Additional Notes:

See: Cîr.Im-2831v2-c-g | Lay of Leithian, V29-Rhúnedain/Kinn-Lai.B for the text of "Beren Strongbow and the Princess of Night"

Rîncaralhaw: Red-eared chaser/chase-hound. Rŷn (chaser, chase-hound) cara (red) lhaw (ears, specific pair of ears).
Properly, this should be spelled y-circumflex (rŷn), not i-circumflex (rîn). Most likely the original the writer is working from used that spelling, especially as the word is spelled properly in the commentary, the "rîn" variant only in the poem. Additionally, neither "remembrance" nor "crowned" make sense in this context.

Cu-Chamion: Bow-Hand/Handy; Cu-Thalion: Bow-Strong or Strongbow. "Erchamion" is Beren's usual epesse.

Luinaur-celia: Blue-sunlight illumination. Also called Archive-light.

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Cîr.Im-A37 | End of Autumn (Painting and Poem)

The first two stanzas of the poem were originally written for Fan Flashworks and posted here. Commenter deadfinch remarked that sideways, the lines would feel like trees, and I took that idea and ran with it for the SWG Experimental challenge.

Posted on AO3 here.

Read Cîr.Im-A37 | End of Autumn (Painting and Poem)

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Art Catalogue Description:

This item is a wet-on-wet watercolor apparently depicting a wide teal blue sky over a maroon hill with an orange-brown forest (or perhaps a streak of sunrise) which is reflected in a darker blue lake. Over the painting, a poem has been inscribed in dark blue ink, running the width of the piece, and the words are also reflected in the water, accurately mirror-image. The lines are written vertically, the lower edges following the curve of the hill, giving the impression of late autumnal tree-stems. The calligraphy is very finely done: the letters above perfectly discernible, the mirroring accurately blurred.

Text of Poem:

Listen to the wind
Whispering
Between the barren trees
Listen to the grasses
Hissing
Presently to freeze

Feel the silver mist
Gathering
In the valley's folds
Feel the evening shadows
Creeping
Where the raven scolds

See the moonlight pale
Glimmering
On the Barrow-down
See the eldritch sheen
Seeping
Neath the carven crown

Smell the athelas
Flowering
Even in these dales
Smell the water lilies
Blooming
As the sunlight pales

So grows the nightshade
Thickening
In dim mead and dell
Aconite and hellebore
Growing
Poisonous and fell

Ware the twilit woods
Murmuring
Where ashen gloom doth spread
Ware the too-still water
Darkling
And the Watcher dread

Archivist's Notes:

The origins of this poem are unknown. Nothing else quite like it is in the Archive, despite the extent of the late Second Age poetry collection. (The reference to the Barrow-Down, singular, implies a composition date of no later than the establishment of Rivendell, for while the oldest barrows were erected in a line on one ridge/fold of the area some time prior to the end of the First Age, the second line was constructed SA ~1600 - 2100, and the subsequent barrows are Post-Cataclysm. Unless the piece is a translation, and that line is a substitution for something else.)

The artwork is also difficult to place with precision. The Song(s) of Preservation on it are so layered and strongly Sung (the most recent being the preparation for Sailing) that determining the age of the paper is not possible by ordinary means. If the painting in Index 6b* is this one (opinions are strongly divided), then the painting itself dates no later than the flowering of Lindon, before the founding of Imladris. The low accession number sets the initial cataloging date definitively pre-SA2086. The poem was certainly inscribed by that time, as the initial catalogue entry includes the text.

* In Cîr.Im-IN:6b-p1- 64 | List of Contents, Cart 2, Crate 7, Lindon to Imladris 3, includes an item-listing (#3) for what is most likely the base-painting, before the poem was inscribed upon it. Also in the list is #8: partial bead-painting of that spooky poem. Currently (53 4th Age, Aman) nothing that might be described as a 'bead painting' is indexed among the artifact collection. If it is in the Uncatalogued material, presumably it will show up eventually. If the 'spooky poem' is the same as this one, our knowledge of all three of these items will be considerably increased.

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