Scenes from the Glass Parlour by Elleth

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Fanwork Notes

Written for The Wavesinger for Femslash Exchange 2016, with love. ♥

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Nerdanel and Indis make it through the Dark.

Major Characters: Indis, Nerdanel

Major Relationships:

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Fixed-Length Ficlet, Slash/Femslash

Challenges:

Rating: Adult

Warnings: Mature Themes, Sexual Content (Moderate)
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 1, 101
Posted on 5 January 2018 Updated on 5 January 2018

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Comments

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Oh, Elleth--this is so beautiful and poetic (as your writing always is!) The entwining of their love and the gradual burning of their past in the books, with the background of darkness just outside the door, is lovely in a heartrending way. Of course, I love your idea of Indis as she was in Cuivienen (and of course, Cuivienen as a more permissive, less law-driven society, with which I agree).

I always think that the Darkening must have been a shock that feels almost downplayed in the Silm. You really capture it as a symbol of fear and loss--and failure--and all the grief those things bring, here.

Especially considering that it feels my writing has been slipping rather than improving for a while now, this is balm to hear - thank you so much, Dawn. I'm still very intrigued by Cuiviénen and the shape Elven society took before the coming of the Valar, but I agree that it was more liberal and free-spirited. The emergence of customs of Aman was for the most part not imposed on the Amanyar, I think (if directed and shaped by the Valar), but of course that doesn't have to mean contentedness for all of them, especially after a certain someone shook up the status quo with his rebellion. 

You raise a really interesting point about the Darkening as well - it does fall somewhat short, I agree, but that may be partially owed to the format and narrative/mythical distance the story takes from most of the more cataclysmic events (the War of Wrath and Númenor fall into the same category, I think) because it's hard to convey the full scale of it accurately. I've had, come to think of it, the same feeling re-reading the Völuspá recently as I've gotten for the Darkening, and one of the major aspects that made "Our Share of Night to Bear" tricky was to envision something that's outside the scope of human experience. This is also why I resorted to locking it out, for the most part, in this fic, to give it some significance as a backdrop and something symbolic that might be harder than dealing with all the ugly realities of it. It'd have been a very different story in that case. 

Either way, thank you so much! I'm glad I remembered to post this fic here - your review made my evening. :)