Súlimëo Quentar: March Stories by Elleth

Explaining Significance

After the rescue from the Fen of Serech, Finrod swears his oath to Barahir, and explains the significance of his ring.

"If not for your timely aid, I would be more than humbled; I would be slain."

The man watched Finrod with bright eyes, betraying no grief, though many of his company had paid for passage of the spear-wall with their own brief lives.

"But glory is fleeting. My father said so to me when I was very young, and gave me this." Finrod worked a ring off his swollen finger, scraping it over joint and skin. "Perhaps it was his own small piece of foresight; if so he acted upon it far differently than his half-brother did." He held up the ring for all to see: Two snakes crowned by golden flowers, that one upheld and one devoured. "And thus the badge of my House. Pride and humility, and both intertwined, for the most mighty may fall the most swiftly."

At Finrod's solemn gesture, Barahir knelt.

"I have nothing greater to give than this, and with it my solemn oath, to render the service you already gave, to come to your aid and your family's if your own glory is fleeting, and be ever a friend in need."

The elf-lord also knelt, and, sealing the troth, laid the ring in Barahir's palm.

Chapter End Notes

Written for the following prompts:

I21: Artifacts and Weapons: Ring of Barahir