A Sense of History: Straight Road
The next in a series of articles about ships passing to and from the West, Simon uses "The Fall of Númenor" to attempt to arrive at Tolkien's reading of the exordium to "Beowulf."
For prompt #12: Gift shopping. Anairë and Nerdanel explore Tirion after the Darkening.
The Trees had kept the land abloom, and budding, ripening, harvest and rest came and went at the discretion of the Valar. The Sun’s seasons were a novelty, and so was waking to the delicate lace of frost over the windows the day Nerdanel had intended to stroll through the city, see stores reopen and to celebrate Tirion’s return to life.
Still, dusk found Nerdanel and Anairë laughing in a corner off the main market, gifts and trinkets forgotten at their feet, and their freezing hands wrapped around one another and a napkin of roasted chestnuts, their warm breaths mingling.