Tehtar by Tehta

Lamp

A double-drabble. Egalmoth makes some lamps.

The rainbow on Egalmoth’s crest had only seven colours, an early-days economy he now deeply regretted. After all, many claimed to see not seven, but fourteen–one for each of the Valar–and Egalmoth himself was confident he could see even more.

For this year’s festival, he had decided on a pleasantly symmetric forty-nine distinct hues.

This visionary artistic concept had required much sacrifice: hour after sweaty hour spent in the hotshop, mixing just the right shades, then blowing two dozen fragile globes of each. The whole process had wasted weeks he might have spent among friends, enjoying the increasingly frantic atmosphere of the city: the concerts, the contests, the parties. By the end of his ordeal, he had found himself hating and cursing his hotshop, his eye for colour, and even his ambition.

But now, as he saw the concept come together–the endless glowing orbs dispersing the darkness of his local park with their many hues, bringing much-needed interest and mystery to the white city–he knew that it had been worth it.

When the dawn of Tarin Austa came, greeted by the usual choirs, he was sure to finally receive that “best lanterns” prize he had coveted for so many years.

Chapter End Notes

-- The Fall of Gondolin describes the festival of the Gates of Summer (which just happened to take place on the night before the city was attacked). It ends with the sentence, “At that time the city was filled with silver lamps, and lights of jewelled colours hung on the branches of the new-leaved trees.” I have decided that the lights could be of blown glass.
-- Yes, this fic refers to THAT Tarin Austa, just to be mean to Egalmoth.
-- While doing research for this drabble I found out that the meme that a rainbow has seven colors comes from Isaac Newton, who actually saw only five but thought seven would sound cooler. I thought that was interesting.