Pages from the Archives of Cîr Imladris by Lferion

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.

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.

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.