Elendil! Elendil! by Himring

| | |

Fanwork Notes

Both these drabbles were originally written for the "Never Shall I Ever" round of the Holiday Party Insta-drabbling session on the SWG Discord.

The overarching title is, of course, based on Aragorn's war cry...

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Fixed length-ficlets featuring Elendil the Tall, one set during this childhood in Numenor, the other after the Fall of Numenor.

 

Major Characters: Elendil, Inzilbêth

Major Relationships:

Genre: Fixed-Length Ficlet

Challenges: Holiday Party, New Year's Resolution

Rating: General

Warnings: Check Notes for Warnings

This fanwork belongs to the series

Instadrabbling
Chapters: 2 Word Count: 304
Posted on 22 January 2022 Updated on 22 January 2022

This fanwork is a work in progress.

A Very Minor Shipwreck

In Elendil's childhood in Numenor, his father teaches him to sail.
Elendil's first attempt is not an unqualified success!

 

(Minor warning for embarrassment and teasing.)

Read A Very Minor Shipwreck

‘Elendil you may be, but Uinendil you are not or at least not yet,’ Inzilbeth commented.

Elendil blushed up to the roots of his sopping wet hair.

He had not minded so much with Amandil, even although he had tipped his father in, as well as himself. It was mortifying to discover how many relatives had been watching, though!

Inzilbeth tapped him on his shoulder to let him know she was only teasing and handed him a large towel.

‘May you never founder when it matters! I will tie a sprig of oiolaire to the dinghy for your second attempt!’

Chapter End Notes

"Elendil" means elf friend, "Uinendil" is someone who loves and serves Uinen, that is: a sailor.
A bough of oiolaire, tied to the prow of a ship by a woman (usually a relative of one of the seamen), was supposed to ensure safe return.
Inzilbeth is related to the House of Andunie (and so Elendil's father) through her mother. I am envisioning her as something like a great-aunt to Elendil here, although genealogically the relationship is a bit more distant than that.

Fernstrike's prompt for my chosen character Elendil was: capsize a dinghy in his first attempt to sail one.

1 x 100 words in MS Word.

Leave a Comment

Out of his Depth

Elendil's words as he arrived in Middle-earth, as later reported, sound enormously confident and very quotable.
And maybe that was indeed what he said, in his first relief at having survived. He had fellow refugees to encourage, after all!
But perhaps his initial dealings with the inhabitants of Lindon, after landing, did not come as easily to him as all that?

With a brief glimpse of the beginning of Elendil's friendship with Gil-galad.

 

Warnings for allusions to the trauma of the Fall of Numenor and cross-cultural issues.

Read Out of his Depth

All his life, he had been a leader of elf friends. Elendil’s very name meant elf friend. That did not change the fact that he had never seen an elf before the world changed—and while old Tar-Palantir had kept waiting for elves from the West, in his heart Elendil had never expected another elven ship to arrive.

He had learned from his father that in Middle-earth elves lived just like people among other people. To experience that in reality like this, though—washed up in a state of shock and loss among them with the sea wrack—was overwhelming.

None of the elves of Lindon had offered his people anything but help, despite reservations they might well have had about Numenor. Yet, in a world that seemed to have changed entirely beyond recognition, the fact that these strangers were all elves just piled strangeness on strangeness.

They spoke Sindarin openly in the market here, not behind closed doors. Quenya, on scrolls, was sold at stalls. Neither of these were quite the Elvish he had learned.

He tried to be both diplomatic and properly grateful, but felt wooden. Some Elf Friend!

Until Gil-galad arrived: Elendil felt his grip—so solid.

Chapter End Notes

My chosen character was Elendil and Grundy's prompt was: felt overwhelmed among Elves.

"Elendil" would originally mean "Star lover", but the Numenoreans used it to mean "elf friend" (the words for "elf" and "star" being related), so Elendili was also used of the Faithful in Numenor.

This is a double drabble (2 x 100 words in MS Word).

This version slightly revised from the original Insta-drabbling version.

Leave a Comment

I really enjoy the true-to-life feel in this piece, the washing up with the wreckage seeming more likely than landing with pomp and staking a claim on Middle-earth with his famous words. Perhaps, like Neil Armstrong, he practised them long before he spoke them, to keep up the aura of confidence and command of the situation that he was not at all feeling. For some reason I have such a clear picture of this scene, walking through the market, all the Elves going about their regular business about him, feeling overwhelmed—and then, there's Gil-galad's hand...

I'm glad it feels true to life! 

I think it is pretty amazing how quickly Elendil managed to establish Arnor. 

Isildur and Anarion are in a better position because they already had a substantial number of allies in place in Pelargir, near where they landed.

Even though, like Elendil and the rest, they must have been suffering hugely from shock.