Primordial Daydream by

Primordial Daydream

I am utterly enchanted by Tolkien's description in The Book of Lost Tales of light being a liquid thing in the very early years (and versions) of Arda when the Ainur first came into the world. Sallysavestheday's lovely collage, Dream of the Forest, brought this to mind and then, as so often happens with writing, unexpected things happened and the Queen of Faery wandered into the tale...

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The Queen of Faery loved their wood, with its widely spaced trees and green glades carpeted with flowers, grasses and mosses. Yet even when they'd first come to abide here, even before long Ages had passed, it had felt so tame compared to their original design.

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She stepped back in her mind to the time long, long before this land became an island, long before Eru curved the world, before her brother Tilion took to the skies with Arien, and even before Yavanna sang Light into the Trees or Aulë made the Lamps, back to the time of the Lomendánar, the Gloaming, when Light flowed and quivered in uneven streams about the airs, falling gently at times in glittering golden or silver rain over the primordial jungle of Almaren. While Aulë's folk gathered Light for the great Lamps, she rode in Oromë's hunting retinue beneath those vast ancient trees freshly formed from memory of Music. Beside the smallest of those they'd Sung into being at the centre of the world, the tallest in her wood would appear a mere sapling. She basked in the memory of those giant leaves briefly catching then releasing droplets of glittering Light that fell from the long shimmering ribbons drifting over the canopy, turning each drop into a transient gem before they pooled in hollows at the base of the trunks, illumining the mosses and lichens about the roots.

At times she and Tilion would linger, climbing high into a tree where they would revel in the sensations provided by their fanar: the physical movement of limbs, the texture of bark against skin, the susurrations of leaves in wind, the tingling taste of liquid Light on lips. Varda's stars, Yavanna's Trees, Tilion and Arien's celestial forms were all radiantly magnificent, yet for her nothing was ever again quite like the gentle wonder of those shimmering threads slipping among the giants of those first forests.

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Watching Starbrow wander down into the Vale, she recalled how she'd gathered a few drops of Light, melding them with silver leaves into a tiny star. Nothing at all like Varda's splendid creations, just something small of her own power, such as it was.

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Chapter End Notes

Glossary:

Starbrow: the Folk of Faery's name for Smith who, when he was a boy, swallowed a little silver fae star hidden in a cake which then fixed itself upon his forehead and became his passport to Faery.

Lomendánar: "Days of Gloaming" (twilight, dusky light)

Almaren: the large island in the centre of the world in the early years of Arda

fanar (pl. of fana): the physical forms taken on by the Valar and Maiar, "raiment, veil; (bright) shape or figure; bodily form of an angelic spirit"

Tilion: the Maia who became the Steersman of the Moon, "Tilion was a hunter of the company of Oromë, and he had a silver bow. He was a lover of silver, and when he would rest he forsook the woods of Oromë, and going into Lórien he lay in dream by the pools of Estë, in Telperion’s flickering beams; and he begged to be given the task of tending for ever the last Flower of Silver."

Oromë: one of the Valar, "hunter of monsters and fell beasts, and he delights in horses and in hounds; and all trees he loves, for which reason he is called Aldaron, and by the Sindar Tauron, the Lord of Forests."

Arien: the Maia who guides the vessel of the Sun

Yavanna: the Vala who made the Two Trees that lit Valinor

Varda: the Vala who hung the stars

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Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!  

You can express your appreciation of sallysavestheday's art here on Tumblr: Dream of the Forest