White Horn Tower by Himring

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Fanwork Notes

For the Manwe's Mailbag challenge, for the postcard below, with the accompanying text:

I walked on the beach yesterday, for leagues uncounted. The shoreline bends this way and that but the beach itself changes little: the colorless stones, the gnawing waves, the screaming birds, the reeds that obscure the sight of what we harbor beyond these shores. When I returned, my feet were chafed and my legs were sore.

I'm afraid I may be treating this prompt rather loosely. 

The title is a translation of the name of Barad Nimras in the Falas.

Also, this is a work in progress and I am just starting with a kind of prologue.

Postcard showing a strip of rocky coast in good weather, with the text: Greetings from the beautiful Falas.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

After the fall of Dorthonion, Edhellos (originally named in Quenya Eldalote), Angrod's wife, has chosen to move to Barad Nimras, the tower that Finrod built in the Falas on a headland west of Eglarest.

Major Characters: Eldalótë

Major Relationships:

Genre: General

Challenges: Manwë's Mailbag

Rating: Creator Chooses Not to Rate

Warnings: Creator Chooses Not to Warn
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 121
Posted on 27 December 2022 Updated on 27 December 2022

This fanwork is a work in progress.

Shipping Forecast for the West Coast of Beleriand

Read Shipping Forecast for the West Coast of Beleriand

Drengist

Westerly 5 to 7, occasionally gale 8 at first, becoming variable 3 or 4, then cyclonic 5 to 7 later.

High, becoming rough or very rough.

Wintry showers.

Good, occasionally poor.

Nevrast

Westerly 5 to 7, occasionally gale 8 at first, becoming variable 3 or 4, then cyclonic 5 to 7 later.

Rough or very rough.

Wintry showers, then rain later.

Good, occasionally poor.

Brithombar

Westerly 5 to 7 becoming variable 3 or 4, then cyclonic 5 to 7 later.

Moderate or rough.

Wintry showers, then rain later.

Good, occasionally poor.

Barad Nimras to Eglarest

West backing southwest 5 to 7, increasing gale 8 at times.

Moderate or rough, becoming rough or very rough later.

Showers, then rain later.

Good, occasionally poor.

Arvernien and Balar

West backing southwest 5 to 7, increasing gale 8 at times.

Moderate or rough.

Showers, then rain later.

Good, occasionally poor.

Chapter End Notes

This is taken from an actual shipping forecast, with the names changed. (Please assume that this is a translation of some quite technical Falathrim  mariner speak...)

The four rows for each location cover the categories: wind, sea state, weather, visibility.

In the UK, there is a bit of a tradition surrounding the shipping forecast on the radio at night, which extends beyond those who are interested in it for practical purposes. A couple of well-known poems have been written about it. 

Comments

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I hope she gets her walk along the beach in before it hits - and that the hatches are well and truly battened down, even if she is in a tower rather than a ship. (Although if it's out on a promontory like a lighthouse, it could quite possibly be battered by towering waves driven ashore by those winds!)

What a novel idea to bring the shipping forecast in here. Although I personally found the shipping forecast a little too mindless for my mind to perch on, the irony, that it's warning of hectic weather conditions and yet many people find listening to it relaxing enough to send them to sleep, appeals to me.

And I'm intrigued now to learn what this is a prologue to!

It is more or less the current winter weather around the North Sea (and I hope everyone out there stays safe!). It is not the most placid stretch of ocean even at the best of times. 

Osse is clearly doing his thing here, without much restraint by Uinen. Some of the canonical descriptions of the sea up in Nevrast are pretty formidable, too...

I guess the gale that's headed Edhellos' way is actually the fall of the Falas in the attack after the Nirnaeth! Except that this fic isn't being at all cooperative. That is why the summary and tags are so cagey: I didn't want to put in anything that I might not get around to even hinting at, even by the amnesty deadline. It is also why I posted the prologue, to encourage myself a bit.

There may be some more literal rough weather in the fic, too, though!

Something that tickles me a bit, listening to the radio in bed, is the part where so often the voice goes: "Good, occasionally poor", with such calm conviction. It makes perfect sense for shipping, of course, but gains some kind of larger applicability somehow.

 

Oh my, I like the idea of the weather forecast being a metaphor of what's to come, emotionally as well as materially.

I hope this fic starts playing nicely with you, and if it'll be helpful, I'm very happy to be a sounding board.

The "good, occasionally poor" is just so... yes, it carries a special je ne sais quoi. I know saying things like this can be either a motivator or add pressure, so I hope it's the former: I can just see you entwining that like magic into your fic!

Y'know, there is something almost magical about this!  The slight mundanity of the reporting but it just... you can feel the wind and smell the brine and see the waves crashing over the rocky shores...

It's like Shipping Forecasts: Osse's In A Mood

Are you familiar with the podcast 99% Invisible? He did an episode on this and I was honestly reading this in his voice!  (which is very soothing if you are not familiar)  Now I'm imagining Roman Mars as the voice of Cirdan and I doubt I can be convinced otherwise! 

Thank you!

This is is a bit of a disaster zone (or feels like it, at the moment), as my brain refused to address the prompt fill straightforwardly and started haring off in different directions, including this prologue! If you want to get an idea where this is meant to go, there are some bits of WIP on my Dreamwidth journal under f-lock that might give you an idea... I'm sure it will come together eventually!