The Insult by Himring

The Insult

Use of Quenya name (Arafinwe) for Finarfin.

Tatiel, author of an influential handbook on principles of government, had never for a moment considered joining in the Flight of the Noldor.

‘Rank amateurs, all of them,’ she had been heard to mutter, repeatedly.

Amateurs was held to be one of the strongest condemnations in Tatiel’s arsenal by those she had taught, who were many.

That did not mean that Tatiel approved of how the Valar had handled the affair. She did not, and she particularly objected to the use of prophecy as a political instrument. She was not heard by anyone in Tirion muttering anything about that, though. Young Arafinwe, she felt, had enough on his plate, dealing with the mess he had been left to handle.

What she did was plant hedges. It did not seem quite the most appropriate time to be designing a maze in her garden, even if plants were beginning to grow again, now light was at least partly restored, but Tatiel already had a well-established reputation for eccentricity. That she used Sarati was not in aid of further plausible deniability; she was a relative of Rumil’s, after all.

Enclosed at the back of her house, legible only from the air, but with a good view from the direction of Taniquetil, the word spelled out by her topiary in curling rows of sharp-tipped dark green foliage was a great deal ruder than ‘amateurs’…

Chapter End Notes

The idea for this piece is from a photo from above of an existing maze, seen on Tumblr.
The maze was said to be in Ireland, but reminded me of images I had seen of Mayan glyphs.

Sarati are the script invented by Rumil before Feanor came up with the tengwar.
Some samples can be found here on the Tolkiendil site.

Please cut Tatiel some slack for her rudeness; a great many of her former students are going to die horrible deaths according to the Prophecy of the North (aka Doom of Mandos).

This is Tatiel's first appearance as a character, but her handbook features in Just and Equitable Government.