Pages from the Archives of Cîr Imladris by Lferion

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

Single drabble text, single drabble note, not counting the headers

Text of IL-Misc:2769-a

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.

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.