Postcards from Arda by Elleth

The Wedding Gift

Thanks go, as per usual by now, to GG and the Lizards.

Some people have difficulty embracing changes and moving on. Write a story or poem or create artwork that shows the consequences of refusing to change.

For B2MeM 2011, Day Three: The Wedding Gift: Maedhros refuses to change an important aspect of his life. (Four drabbles according to Open Office.)

Maedhros removed the eagle from its bath and, resting it on the table before him, reached for a soft polishing cloth. The solution had removed the black patina from every miniscule etching of beak, feathers and eye, and rendered the brooch a shining silver. All the same, he could not help feeling that the bird had been lacking a certain lustre since the message of Fingon's impending wedding with Alphangil of Mithrim had reached him. And yet, and yet. As he dried it and fumbled the green stone back into its socket, he could think of no other fitting gift.

There was the eagle recalling Fingon's heroism and the rescue Maedhros barely remembered, and the occasion of Manwë's momentary, momentous pity upon the Noldor, in the silver of Fingolfin's house. And there was the green stone. Flared to life once more at the first rising of the sun, it constituted a token of preservation, of healing, of growth and life unconquered by the shadow. A remnant of Valinor in the Outer Lands. It no longer seemed right for him to have it, he thought, lifted his eyes to Himring's northern windows, and, shuddering, turned from the view. He had words to prepare.

At Barad Eithel, Maedhros was hard-pressed to smile. Fingon avoided his eyes in what appeared to be guilt if they met by chance across the crowd, and rather rested them on his lady or chatted with the banquetting guests until the gift-giving. Every member of the Houses of the Noldor showered the couple in gifts: gold, silver, books of lore, carpets and fabrics, paintings, armour, jewelry, knives, while the Sindar of Alphangil's kin brought pearls and precious stones, healing herbs, flowers, saplings, a hunting falcon, a dog and her litter, even a pair of birds that would not be parted.

The Fëanorians, dispossessed, came last. Maedhros stepped up to the couple, bearing an embroidered cloth concealing the eagle brooch. Fingon averted his eyes again, but Alphangil smiled and tipped her husband's chin up.

"I bring you the Elessar," Maedhros said, his perfect composure belying his feelings. "My best wishes for your union, lady. May it never fall to darkness and ever stay blessed, as few joys of Arda are." He watched the colour drain from Fingon's face, and bit his tongue. "And may it preserve the joys that were. Bear this, and you shall always have my love, my lord."

Chapter End Notes

Alphangil is is meant to be the "Sindarin lady of the north" who is mentioned as Gil-galad's mother.

The Elessar that Maedhros is gifting the couple with belongs to an alternate version of the legendarium in which Fëanor is its creator and passes it to Maedhros, who later gives to Fingon.The same verse was already used in my story "Do Not Go Gentle".