"Lost" piece of writing.

[curiouswombat]

Back in August I wrote a little piece to go with a beautiful banner that always_jbj had made for WriterCon UK. It was called The Wisdom of Elrond and, if you are interested, it can be found here. It is the first piece I wrote purely in the Lord of the Rings fandom, rather than Buffyverse.

There was a companion piece to reflect the fact that the banner showed both Arwen and Aragorn. I have just realised that I have never posted it. To be honest I could do better now, but, under the cut you will find

Title:The Wisdom of Arwen.
Rating: G
Pairing: Arwen/Aragorn
Length:410 words.
Disclaimer: all is Tolkien's, I just juggle the words.






Arwen lay in her bed watching her newborn son as he suckled with a look of rapt concentration on his face. So like his father; so like her brothers.

She knew that she would love this child as much as she loved his father, Aragorn, the man for whom she had willingly given up immortality.

‘And yet that wasn’t such a great step’, she thought. She had lived for so very many years, years in which day followed day; month melded into month; years passed with little to remember but water rippling, leaves casting dappled shadows, breezes and gentle song.

She would live now as long as her husband and then choose to follow him so that their faer could be together always. Every day would be precious and she would be with this, her soul mate, for ever.

She knew this saddened her father who would soon sail West, and would then see her no more until the world ended. Her father who would have to explain to his wife that their daughter had chosen mortality; her father who would sail West not knowing, either, if his sons would ever follow.

The time of the elves was coming to an end, so it was said.

But Arwen, in her heart, knew that this was not so. She looked at the child at her breast – almost half his blood was elven. Soon, soon, Arwen would bear daughters too. She was destined to die but not, as far as she knew, to age quickly. She could bear many sons and daughters.

All her children would carry the blood line of Elrond, of Celebrian, of Elwing, Galadriel, Celeborn. The blood of the Noldor, the Sindar, and even the Maiar. And as her children married into the other ruling families of Middle Earth so this bloodline would run through all of them. Her daughters would marry princes of Rohan, their children would marry princes of Gondor – the blood would remain; passed, almost forgotten, for generation upon generation, back and forth, the hidden elven heritage.

The time of the elves may seem to have passed and yet Arwen knew that, by her choice to live her life to the full with her beloved husband, she was ensuring that it would never truly pass at all. Far into the future there would be eldolen – hidden elves - in positions of power.

She looked at the beautiful baby, so like his father; so like her brothers.




It is un-beta'd - my husband will probably find half a dozen punctuation errors and make me edit it in my lunch break...

Comments

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Very nice -- and I love that art!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is a beautiful banner - that's why I was naughty, and put it outside the cut!

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

What a lovely and hopeful look at a possible future for her and her family.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

This was just lovely!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - somehow I have a feeling that Aragorn will not have thought of it in quite the same way.

[sammywol.livejournal.com]

There is nothing like having children to make one feel connected to the river of life in both directions. The illusion of immortality that characterizes our teenage years and often later has to drop away. I cannot see from the mortal human perspective how having children would feel to the Eldar. So many of the primal feelings of parenthood simply do not apply. Even the human tragedy of a child dying before their parents, which does always seem extra wrong and unfair, would have to be a fairly normal risk for the Eldar but yet not because there was always the prospect of a meeting again in this world. A strange change for Arwen indeed.

Although possibly as well for her hormone levels that she does not see the children of her blood as harem slaves or desperately hungry field workers, or ... and indeed, given the ugly stick lumpen characters that we both have as our heads of government at the moment perhaps a heftier dose of Noldor blood might be of serious aesthetic value.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

So many of the primal feelings of parenthood simply do not apply. It is a real central point to the Arwen/Aragorn story, I think.

But I have a feeling that Arwen and Aragorn would look at it differently - and I don't think he would really think of just how much elven blood their children would carry.

His own would not be as heavily diluted as he probably thought of it being.

He is seen as 'purer blooded' than the other Dunedain - and this purity implies this type of intermarrying between different branches of the same family over and over again. I don't think Tolkien gives us any idea of the maternal lines just a 'begat' list - but I would guess that almost every chieftain of the Dunedain shared at keast two great grandparents with his wife.

So the chances are that modern-type genetic testing would come to the conclusion that Aragorn is, say, about 10 - 15% elven.

Arwen is, according to someone who took the time to do the calculations, actually 73.5% elven, 23.5% human, and 3% Maiar (Me - a collector of odd facts? No!). So I reckon Eldarion is about 45% elven - almost a half-elf! As would be his sisters, of course...

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Lovely ficlet... Arwen's wise indeed to come to the realization that through her choice, the age of Elves will continue on, albeit more quietly, more secretly. But the Elves will endure in that fashion. There's comfort in that.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - and don't you just know that Aragorn will not have looked at it in quite the same way?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I am so glad that you enjoyed it.

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

Lovely drabble! (Well, it's more of a drabble than a full-length fic to me.) Have you thought about writing in the Discworld universe?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - and not at the moment! I have a brain full of stories in the Return of The Key-verse in my head just at the minute, and an unfinished beffyverse one co-written with S2C - I daren't think about anything else!

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Lovely little reflection.

BTW we've had a baby at work named "Aragorn"-- figured you'd be amused to know that! A lot of name for her to live up to... We've been calling her "Strider" but I'm not sure everyone gets that joke!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

A girl? I wonder if it will be better or worse to be a girl called Aragorn? Did the parents just not know where the name came from?

I'd be calling her Strider too.

[zanthinegirl.livejournal.com]

Yup, a girl! I honestly don't know what her parents were thinking, though they are pretty young.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Oh that was lovely! I feel you've captured exactly here why Elrond permitted his daughter to marry a mortal man and remain in M-e. Arwen's descendents will certainly become a living memorial for the Eldar days.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I am so glad that you enjoyed it. In the companion piece I looked at Aragorn's thoughts on almost the same subject at the same time - they have different ideas on Elrond's decisions...

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, found it now. They were both right really. If you are interested, my take on Elrond/ Aragorn is the subject of my next chapter of 'Aspects of Aragorn' coming at the weekend!

And I love the banner btw.

[ellaygee-09.livejournal.com]

Beautiful story!

And the banner is lovely, but I've never been able to look at Aragorn in the same way since I saw this.
http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1159

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you - and yes - I can see how that might make you look at him in a different light...

[shirebound]

"...hidden elves..." what a marvelous concept, and a very comforting one to Arwen. It's lovely to read a fic where she's contemplative and content, and not grieving.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I am so glad that you enjoyed it.