Meanwhile by Lferion

Courting, An Introduction

Thoughts on Noldorin personal adornment, segueing into courtship. Elrond could easily write a book. A triple drabble.

---

Prompts - Lit:G3 Comedy of Manners, Art:G5 Monochrome, Poetry:I2 Ghazal, Fanwork:O5 Smarm

Read Courting, An Introduction

*** *** ***

Most Elves who were not actively nursing felt no need of breast-bands for support or modesty. Equally, upper-body clothing was entirely personal choice. How else might one make use of the display possibilities of the torso? Nipple jewelry, midriff chains, belly-button gems, filigree pieces, long neck-drapes, long-lasting ink, more ephemeral paint and dye -- so much opportunity for adornment and decoration. In Tirion there was little need to dress for the weather. One dressed for comfort, activity or work-safety and usefulness, display, pleasure, provocation. Courting. (The Royal Court of course had its own rules of dress and decorum.)

Courting among the Noldor could be quite the comedy of manners and display. (Courting was not the same as recognizing and deciding to act upon -- or not act upon -- physical attraction and desire for intimacy amongst ones friends. That was an ordinary part of friendship, discussed and negotiated plainly and frankly as the subject arose.) Courting was a much more elaborate dance: mannered, circumscribed, supervised (in these days, by ones friends and colleagues more often than parents or persons whose craft it was to manage such things as well as others regarding marriages, weddings, family relationships), with a well-defined set of steps, behaviors, and expectations.

Courting persons were expected to be emotional and affectionate, expressing their feelings, often at length, but always stopping short of actual sex. Poems, especially ghazals and/or sonnets, were regularly employed. Crafted and impulsive gifts were exchanged. One way someone courting could be identified was by the generally monochrome coloration of the gifted adornments and accessories -- all in shades of blue, say, or iridescent yellow. Grey-scale was a favorite in certain circles, being both technically demanding, and immediately visible amongst the multicolored crowd. Courting in this manner was not required for formal marriage, but it was often used.

*** *** ***

Courting, an Example

Legolas and Gimli arrive in Valinor. Their friends have Plans. A triple drabble.

---

Prompts - L:B2 Marriage Plot, A:I5 Mosaic, P:I1 Acrostic, F:G3 Legomance

Read Courting, an Example

*** *** ***

Gimli Gloinul and Legolas Thranduilion had not married in Middle Earth, being busy with many other things, and not particularly wanting to wade into the diplomatic and cross-cultural tangle that would have ensued even mentioning the idea, much less seriously pursuing it. And they were, in the main, happy with what they had.

Which was not to say that there was not an intricate and lovingly made mosaic in Gimli's private rooms in Aglarond, combining motifs significant to them both in many variations, or that Legolas did not have sheaves of poems, and notes for poems, and glimmers of ideas for poems, some of which he had even let Gimli see over the years. The one that had made Gimli laugh and blush and proceed to prove again the truth and insight of Legolas' words was an acrostic, straightforward on the surface, as layered and intricate as Gimli's mosaic.

Even the ship that Legolas built was a dialog: Dwarven engineering combined with Elven principles and aesthetics of ship-building, accommodation for Dwarven, Silvan, Sindarin, even Mannish and Hobbitish ideas and elements. It was as if the ship itself was a mosaic and a poem both. Friendship, intimacy, commitment, but not quite a marriage as Elves understood it. At legolas's insistance, Gimli took the plans for the mosaic, and at Gimli's, many of the poems -- most especially the acrostic -- were stowed in the same waterproof chest.

Upon arrival in Aman, however, the pair of them discovered that the bestowal on Gimli of the same kind of exception that Tuor and Bilbo and one or two others enjoyed was only the beginning of the long-planned scheme, indeed the veritable plot! developed by friends who had Sailed before them, to have them well and truly married under tree and over stone, joyous in Aman.

*** *** ***

The New International School - a Limerick Tale

Long-term diplomatic postings often involve embassy children. Which in turn requires arranging for their educational needs. A fanciful tale of one such school, in limerick form.

---

Prompts - L:G1 Boarding School, A:B5 Macaroni Art, P:G2 Limerick, F:O2 Anklebiters

This piece was inspired by Anna Wing's Idylls of the Queen, particularly the chapters involving the embassies from the South.

Read The New International School - a Limerick Tale

*** *** ***

In Gondor there once was a school
Where children did board, as a rule
The diplomats' kids
Were quick to place bids
On who would emerge as class fool

The classrooms were furnished with care
Each student did have their own chair
Set at the right height
No ankles would bite
Or worry a Charge d'Affaires

Now art class was never a bore
There were paste-pots and pasta galore
With elbows and bows
Laid out in neat rows
And drawing with chalk on the floor

School trips would cause merry din
At foundries and ships they would grin
The Hobbits and Dwarves
Stayed far from the wharves
But everyone else would jump in.

The place was a joy to behold
Where scholars the students did mold
With feasting at night
The odd pillow fight
And learning made cause to be bold

*** *** ***

The Cask Affair, En two End

A Gaffer tale told in Shire verse

---

Prompts - L:N2 Whodunnit, A:N2 70s 80s Color palette, P:N2 Narrative Verse, F:N2 Hobbitpile -- The same square on all four cards.

This song owes somewhat to the 'John Barleycorn' tradition.

Read The Cask Affair, En two End

*** *** ***

In Hobbiton the sun was high
The grass was green and harvest nigh
The Gaffer, he was feeling spry
A-strolling he would go

O up the lane and down the hill
In merry voices sang the rill
But what is this? There's been a spill
Good barleywine laid low

The cask had fallen on his head
The sturdy staves were running red
It categorically was dead
Who would him murder so?

To take a cask would need but two
The one on either end would do
This scheme the Gaffer well he knew
As sure as wind did blow

The scamps, he thought, were justly served
For here the path abruptly swerved
A slipping step in mud observed
They'd fallen down below

The nut is brown, the harvest gold
The avocado green we're told
Burnt orange and warm teak take hold
As Barleycorn doth grow

Asleep beneath the Party Tree
More than two or even three
The Gaffer he could clearly see
A hobbitpile-o

About them scattered mugs and bowls
More vessels filling many roles
No point in raking over coals
What valiance bestow

The prankster's loss, the party's gain
A sacrifice not made in vain
Salvaged brew, though cask was slain
Beneath the barley-mow

And now this song comes to an end
Tis thirsty work, a cask to mend
A garden plant, or coin to spend
Drink up before I go

*** *** ***

Courting, Some Observations on a Wedding

Elrond, enjoying the party at Legolas and Gimli's wedding. A triple drabble.

---

Prompts - L: B1 Tale within a Tale, A:N3 FS Sculpture, P:O2 Ode, F:O4 Filk

Read Courting, Some Observations on a Wedding

*** *** ***

Someone (Lindir) was singing a wildly and hilariously ribald version of 'Arien's Flight' on the lawn to an appreciative and distinctly un-sober collection of persons. The crowd was joining in on the chorus, some with the usual lyrics, others with the new, impromptu words, joyfully cacophonous. Someone else -- possibly Rôg, or another of Gimli's forge-friends -- was declaiming an ode to domesticity, accompanied by enthusiastic lutenists. The distinct cadence of limericks floated past his ear. People were dancing Hobbit-dances on the front porch, and ring-dances around the ice-sculptures dispensing drinkables. There had been fireworks earlier. Gandalf had outdone himself as usual.

Legolas and Gimli had vanished upstairs after the fireworks for the private part of the wedding, and might or might not appear again before the end-of-party late breakfast. (There was a Hobbit-custom very happily adopted into Elven practice.) The Witnessing of Vows had been particularly moving -- the story of their friendship woven within and through the story of the end of the Third Age and the beginning of the Fourth, and now here in timeless Aman. Other blessings, toasts and reminiscences were rather less solemn. The vows themselves simple and sincere. Why was he sitting here watching, not joining in?

Well, for one thing, Elrond appreciated the opportunity to simply watch and enjoy as part of the crowd, not one of the principals. It still occasionally felt strange to not be in authority over a realm at war. He didn't have to dance for the appearance of it; he could dance because he wanted to dance with his wife, and she with him. Strains of a Hobbit drinking song were coming from the porch, and Celebrian was smiling at him. He stood to join her. A fine wedding, an excellent party. Tomorrow he would plan a visit to Tol Eressëa.

*** *** ***

In Glass they Shine, a Tanka

Poem written by Elrond at Gimli and Legolas' wedding. A drabble.

---

Prompts - L:O3 Happily ever after, A:G4 Stained Glass, P:G4 Tanka, F:B2 Everybody lives

Read In Glass they Shine, a Tanka

*** *** ***

As in glass they shine
Many-colored, holding fast
One to another
Nearly but not lost, they live
Happily ever after

Valinor perhaps
Wandering Tol Eressëa
Distant Middle Earth
Where windows shine with wonder
Of persistent love, and hope.

*** *** ***

A poem written by Elrond, in hope, at the wedding of Legolas and Gimli, where the couple did indeed shine as lit by sun through glass. The second part appears to reference others who shine in his thought and memory, not present on the occasion of the celebration, but somewhere embodied in the present. Maedhros and Fingon are possible such absent figures.

*** *** ***