Many Journeys by Elleth

Counsels of the Weak

Young Finduilas learns her first lesson in politics.

Finduilas had played on the floors of the council chambers of Nargothrond as a child, or sitting on her mother’s knee while Meril braided her hair into designs as intricate as the problems she puzzled over. She said it helped her think, and Finduilas found them pretty. By the time she had grown old enough for tutoring, she was soundly dismissed – not by her mother, who had, it seemed, always been there speaking with the lords as though she was no different to them and carrying herself with the air of the queen Nargothrond lacked – but by the advisors who declared that they could spare no seat for a girl who knew neither her letters nor her numbers yet and was more suited to song and dance than politics, a frail little flower needing sunlight and free air.

So her mother took her away. Finduilas was crying by the time they made it home, and her mother sat by her until her tears subsided into tired hiccups.

"Come now," Meril said softly, smoothed over Finduilas’ mussed hair and began to braid it in one of her old designs, reserved for intricate problems. "It is unfair, is it not? If not for your father’s insistence that he could spare no advisor in Minas Tirith, and that you and I needed to be brought to safety because we are ladies, they would not permit me either. But – there are ways, Finduilas, to make even a supposed weakness your strength."

Finduilas rolled her shoulders to loosen her tense muscles, and lifted her head from staring at her clenched hands.

Meril gathered together the three braids she had already woven and began to braid them into one another. “There are those who will keep their guard up around those they perceive as equal – or better. Those they do not consider a threat – harmless people, like little girls – they may learn matters that may surprise them very much. My advice is this – until you have other options, let them underestimate you, but keep your eyes, your ears and your mind open at all times.”

Meril fixed the braid into place. Finduilas beamed at her.

Chapter End Notes

According to the Later Quenta Silmarillion, Meril was Finrod's wife and Gil-galad's mother. I reused the name for Orodreth's wife and Finduilas' mother (but prefer the published Silmarillion's version of Gil-galad's descent from Fingon).