O, Cousin Mine by sallysavestheday

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Fanwork Notes

Written for the October 2023 Experimental challenge, using the prompts first person plural point of view and characters are unnamed.

Tolkien shows and tells us a great deal about what Elves think of Orcs. What might Orcs think of Elves, if given a quiet space to speak?

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Orcs reflect on Elves.

Major Characters:

Major Relationships:

Genre:

Challenges: Experimental

Rating: General

Warnings:

Chapters: 1 Word Count: 243
Posted on 22 October 2023 Updated on 22 October 2023

This fanwork is a work in progress.

O, Cousin Mine

Read O, Cousin Mine

We are not as different as you would like to think. The Kindler lights the world for us, as well. Those pale points guide us; their distant fire yet recalls our names. On the coldest nights, when the sky’s deep dome opens, what remains of you in us still sings. The fear cleans our ancient wounds; in our terror, we still revere the stars.

The deep places embrace us, containing and consoling us as your towers and spires and peaks hold you up, lift you to meet the world’s fire, the bite of the answering air. The musk of our tunnels is no less sweet, down in the dark, in the heat. One tangle of limbs is not unlike another: you in your soft beds, we in our coiled heaps, all breathing.

Can you not see the beauty in a sharp claw, the fine curve of a tusk? The roll of a shoulder, dense as iron, perfectly suited to the work of the world: the digging, carrying, hauling, clasping that must be done? As you love the sun’s bright face, should we not love a golden eye, a bronzed fang, the sheen of coppery sweat on curling backs and straining thighs?

Know this: every sound has its echo. You dance – in the clearings, in the great halls, on the shores of the moonlit lakes. The pulse that drives you is our drums in the deep; our hollow hearts, still beating.

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Really powerful! It's interesting seeing how your style adapts to the pov, too. It felt fresh and very immediate, but still gorgeous as ever. 

Two of my favourite lines:

"One tangle of limbs is not unlike another: you in your soft beds, we in our coiled heaps, all breathing."

"The pulse that drives you is our drums in the deep; our hollow hearts, still beating."

This whole piece has a very poetic structure. Thank you!

This is so powerful, and moving - and beautiful. 'What remains of you in us still sings' - indeed, but it seems to me that you've given the orcs their own song, too. I loved reading this - thank you.