Lúthad "Enchantment" by Anérea

| | |

Fanwork Notes

A pair of ficlets written for the Arda on Ice challenge as well as the Tolkien Short Fanworks formal challenge of a fixed-length piece of 222 words (for that lovely date, the 22.02.2022).

The first, Lúthad Dúlin "Nightgale's Enchantment", also filled the thematic prompt "a sudden change of the weather". I literally dreamed this ficlet, although my subconscious was quite likely influenced by the bonus quote prompt from John Greenleaf Whittier's poem, The Singer:

Again the blackbirds sing; the streams
Wake, laughing, from their winter dreams,
And tremble in the April showers
The tassels of the maple flowers.

The sequel, Lúthad e-Lach Albelui "Enchantment of the Flame Imperishable", was inspired by Rocky41_7's comment about the first ficlet having "a kind of dreamy quality that suits this moment (if you can call 200 years a "moment") between Melian and Thingol so well", which got me thinking about just what exactly the couple experienced while standing entranced for all that time.

I chose to write them as something of a pastiche in a Tolkienesque style, melding phrases from The Silmarillion into both pieces. I ran into another challenge when concepts I wished to convey, such as inhaling and exhaling, microcosm, infinity, dark matter, as well as the word "complex" all stuck out like, well, like Latin words in an Old English text, so I had a lot of fun figuring out ways to express these in a Tolkienesque way. I hope you enjoy them too.

:|:

My gratitude goes to Shihali for not just helping me accurately translate my titles into Sindarin but also taking the time to explain her process and reasoning so I could learn from it too.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

When Melian and Thingol met they stood enchanted, staring at each other for two hundred years. Why could no one find them in all those years? And what actually happened between them during that time? 

Major Characters: Elu Thingol, Melian

Major Relationships: Melian/Thingol

Genre: Fixed-Length Ficlet, Het, Romance

Challenges: Arda on Ice

Rating: General

Warnings:

Chapters: 2 Word Count: 447
Posted on 12 April 2022 Updated on 15 February 2025

This fanwork is complete.

Part 1: Lúthad Dúlin (Nightgale's Enchantment)

"Then an enchantment fell on him, and he stood still; and afar off beyond the voices of the lómelindi he heard the voice of Melian, and it filled all his heart with wonder and desire. He forgot then utterly all his people and all the purposes of his mind, and following the birds under the shadow of the trees he passed deep into Nan Elmoth and was lost. But he came at last to a glade open to the stars, and there Melian stood; and out of the darkness he looked at her, and the light of Aman was in her face." 
~ The Silmarillion, Of Melian and Thingol

Read Part 1: Lúthad Dúlin (Nightgale's Enchantment)

Stars wheeled above the great wood while the Telerin lord's eyes lingered in the enchanting gaze of Melian the fey, and long years were measured before they spoke any word one to another. Though Middle-earth lay for the most part in the Sleep of Yavanna, under the power of Melian there was life and the trees of Nan Elmoth grew tall and dark about them. So still were they as each beheld the other, she with the light of Aman in her face, he with it in his eyes, that warbling nightingales alighted upon their shoulders while small woodland beasts foraged about their feet.

Their glade was open to the stars and the fall of rain came not upon them in all that time. Yet everchanging mists wreathed about it in a slow rise and fall as if it were the very breath of the trees, inbreathing from the damp loam, outbreathing through their crowns, allowing the passage of neither sight nor sound. Thus it was that Elwë’s folk who sought him found him not, though they fared nearby.

Then on a time a great storm rode up out of the west; thunder echoed between tree and cloud while lightning glittered in the shadowy glade. The first drops of fine silver rain began to fall, and the lovers stirred from their enchantment.

Leave a Comment

Part II: Lúthad e-Lach Albelui (Enchantment of the Flame Imperishable)

During those two hundred years, what attracted each to the other and held them so utterly captivated?

Read Part II: Lúthad e-Lach Albelui (Enchantment of the Flame Imperishable)

Being filled with love Elwë came to her and took her hand, and straightway a spell was laid on him that it seemed he made a great journey with her, and he beheld through her beauty and song the immeasurable vastness of Eä in endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights, so that it filled the Void to overflowing. In the midst of the innumerable stars he saw countless worlds hung globed, and he perceived that the darkness between the stars was not void but was as kindling for the Secret Fire.

Elwë was other than anything Melian had hitherto known, the stuff of Arda and yet strange and free, and being filled thus with wonder the more did she love him. In him she beheld the mind of Ilúvatar reflected anew which otherwise had been hidden even from the Ainur, and she saw in him a world like unto Arda, as vast and manifold and thorough in its crafting, yet so small as to be wholly contained within. And at his heart was kindled the Flame Imperishable.

Though long years passed as they stood beneath the wheeling stars and the trees of Nan Elmoth grew tall and dark about them, it seemed to them but a short time ere they spoke.

Leave a Comment

I like this a lot, how the second part complements the first!

How they discover the Flame Imperishable in and through each other, both macrocosm and microcosm.

More than a purely romantic rapture, although of course that, too!

I am so glad you chose to write about this! Your writing style suits it so well. You really captured the faerie and magic of their meeting while also making it just the right amount of relatable to us poor mortals in the way that the Silmarillion does not. 

I loved this: "In him she beheld the mind of Ilúvatar reflected anew which otherwise had been hidden even from the Ainur, and she saw in him a world like unto Arda, as vast and manifold and thorough in its crafting, yet so small as to be wholly contained within."

What a beautiful way of thinking about and describing Melian's love for Thingol <3. 

Thank you! I'm glad you like the concept. I've often seen people say it's easy to understand what he saw in her, but can't fathom what she sees in him, and I think in a world that you yourself sang into existence, something not created by you would be fascinating. I guess it could have been anyone, but fate made it Elwe. (I believe Eru is a hopeless romantic at heart!)

I have liberally appropriated bits of phrases from the Silmarillion and then attempted to emulate the style to make a kind of word-collage, so the first half of the quoted sentence is basically Tolkien's. It which was a very interesting challenge! Some words I would naturally use felt wrong, such as trill, inhale, miniature, scale, and complexity, so I ended up burrowing down a fascinating etymological rabbit hole, in the process learning some Old English/Anglo Saxon words I wish would come into common parlance again!

I love how you mixed phrases from the Silmarillion with your own and how seamlessly both fit together.

The mists as the breath of the trees is a wonderful image. And it's beautiful how they are both something new and wondrous to each other and their own way to the Secret Fire.

I love that Melian's interest in Thingol makes sense here - I've sometimes wondered what drew her to him.

And I adore the imagery in the first chapter of the trees/forest as a living entity, breathing.

Oh, I'm so pleased her interest her makes sense for you.

I think my idea of the forest being a mist-breathing entity came from Peter Wohlleben's books The Hidden Life of Trees and The Heartbeat of Trees, both of which are fascinating and I can highly recommend. (I've found the audiobooks to be the perfect bedtime listening for someone who doesn't fall asleep easily: interesting so they don't bore and irritate me awake but not too thrilling that I can't fall asleep!)