For the Love of Beleriand by Varda delle Stelle

For the Love of Beleriand

Read For the Love of Beleriand

This version of the story may be different from what you all know…

In this version of the events it is Nuin, a curious Avari tribe elf, that found the Fathers of Mens sleeping in the Valley of Murmenalda and kept watching them until they woke up. 

 

They were feeling completely lost in a world that they have never seen before and scared because they were surrounded by creatures that seemed part of the forest itself. 

The elves took pity on them and decided to help by teaching them the notions they needed to know in order to survive in an environment that wasn’t always welcoming. 

Around the fire in the night they told them the history of the Eldar, of their awakening under the stars and their love for them, then told the stories of the days of the old Beleriand making them feel their love for this land, they told them also the stories of the Noldor and their return in Middle Earth teaching them that this land, their home, was fighting against a great evil and that they had to be careful because not everything encounter on the road in their life would go well. 

 

The men fell in love with the elves at first sight, fascinated by their stories, enchanted by the power of their voices and learned all of what they could from them, also that particular connection with the Earth that the Noldor, so invested in their craft, seemed to not possess. And about the Noldor they soon learned from their stories to be careful around them because while their help had been invaluable in the past centuries to keep Morgoth at bay, their pride would be their downfall and the atani honestly didn’t want to be dragged into it.

 

Life went on and the human population started to grow quickly and soon began to split into different tribes, not unlike the Avari tribes. The Avari and the Atani had an unspoken agreement, they were free to go as they pleased in the territories of the Avari but they had to be careful not to be seen or followed and couldn’t bring strangers into the camps. They would help each other in the moments of need and the avari secretly decided that they would watch over the short life of the mans

 

When the Noldor discovered the men they were taken aback and at the same time really curious about the second children of Iluvatar. They proposed to them to go in the West Beleriand at their kingdoms but the atani, strong of the stories that the avari told them, refused and proclaimed that, one day, they would be honored to go and see their kingdoms as friends and equal but that they would not be in their services.  

The Noldor that clearly weren’t expecting this, stiffly, told them that it would be their pleasure to host the friendly race of man in their kingdom. Soon after this encounter the men that were curious by nature started to trade with them and exchange knowledge, but without giving away the secrets that the avari entrusted them with. 

 

Years, centuries passed and when the calls to the arms of the Union of Maedhros arrived in every part of the Beleriand the men felt ready to respond to the call. They loved their land and they wanted to protect it and this was the perfect opportunity to do it. 

 

The avari teached them well, the men had their heart in the right place and the love for Beleriand, for their people, the Avari and Noldor won against the foul whispers of Morgoth.

The Union of Maedhros won, Morgoth was defeated, Beleriand was free. 

 

A lot of things changed from here, the atani soon felt more confident in the Noldor and a lot of the young men and women started to explore Middle Earth and founded different villages. 

Young Beren that fought in the Nirnaeth started to travel and in the woods of Doriath met a young princess they fell in love with and well, their line is known to all of Middle Earth isn’t it? 

Another young man started to travel and after some months found the White city of Gondolin and their line is really well known too 

 

The sons of Feanor fulfilled their Oath and lived in peace for the rest of their life in Beleriand before deciding one day, when the days of the Eldar were starting to fade and when they felt like they had explored all Middle Earth and that they had learned all they could from its inhabitants that it was time for them to go back home, to their mother that still they knew she was waiting for them.

 

The atani lived prosperously in Beleriand and in Middle Earth, all thanks to a curious elf that made all of this possible.

 

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Chapter End Notes

Soo, this ficlet has some of my personal headcanon and a lot of licence from canon events:

1) that the avari feel a special connection to the earth, and expecially to the Beleriand because they live more in contact with it compared to the Noldor. 

2) of course I have put a nice and happy ending for the sons of Feanor because they deserve good thing in their life :') 

3) I know that when the men wakes up the Noldor have not been for centuries in Beleriand but I needed it for the story 

5) here Beren has taked part in the Nirnaeth

6) I have tried to rapresent the Noldor from an avarin point of view so I think that they would be seen (expecially at the beginning) as suspicious elves that interrupted their peace, I feel like they might think that their arriving is linked with the one of Morgoth, so they would not trust them easily, expecially here, instead the men, at least at the end, are a bit more open to the poor Noldor that at the end tried their best.