Do you cut down down blossoming trees in the spring for firewood? by Himring

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Fanwork Notes

For the tengwa alda (tree) for the Tengwar challenge.

Warning for political dangers and risks and also for devastation as canon-typical for late Numenor.

Fanwork Information

Summary:

In western Numenor, there is an area famous for its trees and plants. But the Faithful have been banished to the east. And in the last days of Numenor, on the coast an army assembles... 

Major Characters: Amandil, Lindórië, Númenóreans

Major Relationships:

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Fixed-Length Ficlet

Challenges: Tengwar

Rating: Teens

Warnings: Check Notes for Warnings
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 204
Posted on 25 April 2024 Updated on 19 July 2024

This fanwork is complete.

Do you cut down down blossoming trees in the spring for firewood?

Read Do you cut down down blossoming trees in the spring for firewood?

‘Do you remember those trips to Nisinen in spring,’ murmurs Lindorie, leaning heavily on Amandil’s arm. ‘All that fragrant blossom—flowers and shrubs on the shore in bloom and the scent of the trees wafting on the breeze… How untroubled we were!’
Lindorie is very old. Amandil thinks she may be blending such memories with memories of visits even further back—with his father perhaps, in more peaceful times?
‘We cannot go there now, can we?’ she says and sighs.
‘No,’ he says. ‘I am sorry. We cannot.’
Leaving Romenna, even to go admire spring blossoms, would cause immediate suspicion.

They love Numenor, so they want to keep it forever, the King’s Men say.
But the Nisimaldar, those trees famed for their scent in song, are destroyed even before the whole island sinks under the Wave. In the bay of Eldalonde many ships of the King’s Fleet anchor, as all along the coast. Any wood not felled as timber for upkeep and repairs on the ships is gathered and burned as fuel—blossoming branches and fragrant breezes are now become smoke on the wind.
The King’s Men shrug off the damage. Their sights are set on the conquest of Valinor.

Chapter End Notes

Written also as a prompt fill for the prompt "Blossoms in the Breeze" at tolkien100 on Dreamwidth.

A pair of fixed-length drabbles of 100 words according to MS Word.

The title is adapted from a rhetorical question by Gimli (from the chapter "The Road to Isengard" in The Two Towers).

The first drabble is meant to be set quite some time earlier than the second; nevertheless Lindorie (sister of Amandil's great-grandfather) would be very old indeed by then. But I decided that was still just about feasible (*handwave*).

Comments

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I love how you've captured the essence of Númenor in two short drabbles -- their love of their land, their longing for a longer life, their destruction of what they loved in the pursuit of more. Tolkien sure did see our human failures and encapsulate them into myth... the sorrow and regret are so hard to read sometimes. You've done this lightly, though. Excellent work.

Aren't blossoming trees always a bit sad, since they are a metaphor for the impermanence of things? Anyway, that sort of association seems to dovetail very well with the story of this double-drabble. Blossoms/the experience of blossoms disrupted by war/politics.

Yes, very true! Even in Tolkien's work, elsewhere, they are often a bit sad. And of course all that exuberant description of the Nisimaldar was written after he had already decided that Numenor was drowned eventually.

Good to hear you feel that it dovetails well with the politics, here. Thank you!

(The idea of regular visits hinted at in the first drabble was inspired by Japanese blossom-viewing, which is very much about both beauty and impermanence. I think they are not the only ones, though, just the ones who have made it a more ritualized practice than most.)