Many Journeys by Elleth

Strength of Mountains

Nerdanel and Curufin's wife, through the ages. Triple-drabble as per GDocs, written for AmyFortuna for Multifandom Drabble 2017.

Work Text:

Curufin brings home a woman from the mountains; she's named for strength much as Nerdanel herself has been - Pelórë, heart and mountains both. She is bright and eager, and Nerdanel sees much of herself in her, the ore-miner's daughter and the smith's. Their families have been acquainted - like minds to like, and it is celebrated as a match that the Valar themselves have blessed. It needs a woman like her, Nerdanel thinks, to withstand Curufinwë - either one of them.

She only hopes that the mountains will not crumble, shake, or fray, for outside them lie lonely sea and the darkness.

-

It's easy to shake the apprehension away, although Nerdanel wonders that her wisdom allows it. When her son spins his new wife in wedding dances and their barefoot limbs beat the mountain earth, Pelórë, dark as she is, shines like a jewel, the light of Laurelin falling through the smoky quartz that she loves.

Then hands seize her, and she herself is spun, laughing as her husband pulls her into a kiss and they tumble to the earth in joy, the mountains' strength reaching so deep that it goes beyond Nerdanel's own touch. This, then, she thinks, is why.

-

It's a comforting memory in all their grief. Pelórë weeps and curses her husband when he takes their son and they set off into certain dark across the sea, just as Nerdanel weeps for her as they shelter together. But down the long-years of the exile and then the inexorable, the mountains persist. Pelórë rises from her bed, renews her life. Nerdanel follows. The roots of the mountains stand, guarding against the outside now.

But, Pelórë says, even the mountains shall be levelled and the Trees return - and the Gates of Mandos at last open. To that, they both hold.