Memento Mori by Lferion

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Fanwork Notes

Written for the SWG May 2021 challenge "Book by it's Cover". My prompt was this cover

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

On AO3 here

Fanwork Information

Summary:

What did they mean, these small, precise assemblages?

Major Characters: Celegorm

Major Relationships:

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Fixed-Length Ficlet, General, Suspense

Challenges: Book by Its Cover

Rating: General

Warnings:

Chapters: 1 Word Count: 202
Posted on 30 May 2021 Updated on 30 May 2021

This fanwork is complete.

Memento Mori

Read Memento Mori

What did they mean, these small, precise assemblages? These four things, arranged together, placed in careful spots of some not immediately understood significance. Always these things, though not always the same type -- the stars could have five points, or four, or six. Once Celegorm had seen eight, and once simply many. The snake, delineated clearly enough to tell if venomous or not, rock-slither or lesser were-worm or garden snake. And the skulls! He did not (yet) know what creatures all the bones belonged to. Some he rather thought he would prefer not to know, product of Angband as they seemed. The bats were different in number, not kind so far as he could tell.

Once he had noticed the first one, the other assemblages and markers were much easier to see. Some of what they meant was clear -- this stream is fouled, that one is still clean, other such warnings in various materials -- but most of them were yet a mystery. They were made by elves, that was apparent, and they had meaning, speaking purpose. When he thought about them as Speech, then they made a terrible sense. They were markers, memorials, to people lost, slain, taken by the Enemy.

Comments

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That is rather terrifying, the thought of these dotted around the landscape, but the reality encoded is even more terrifying, of course.

I suppose this is a discovery Celegorm makes early on after his arrival in Middle-earth?

I loved this little story. The starting sentence is very strong, it pulls you into the sense of curiosity and wonder. The markings left by others to identify things, with little bones, both ominous and somehow melancholic, full of grief. Little memorials of bones. It suggests a wider world, a sense of things that came before. Really enjoyable.

Thank you so much! It was kind of creepy to write, since it was one of those pieces that doesn't give you all the information up front, only as you write it, so I only knew a little more than Celegorm for most of it.