A Sense of History: Straight Road
The next in a series of articles about ships passing to and from the West, Simon uses "The Fall of Númenor" to attempt to arrive at Tolkien's reading of the exordium to "Beowulf."
Truth or Dare prompt, Galadriel: "Dare to explain to Finarfin why she is not returning to Aman"
Ataryo, Teleporno and I have spent nearly a yén building Canyalqua and planning our exploratory voyage to the mortal lands. We are stocked, we are provisioned, and we were planning to seek our final, formal leave to voyage shortly. But now, with the Valar so set against the Fëanorian rebellion, we fear we would never receive the permission we seek. We will seek forgiveness later rather than petitioning in vain for permission now.
And further, if we do not cast off soon we run the additional risk of being boarded, losing both ship and all our work to Uncle's madness.
Canyalqua is the swan ship from my story "Out of the Darkling West."