Immigrants, chapter 3
1 Feb 2012 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatThe next chapter of The Elves and The Key in The West...
Tindómë is still avoiding her mother-in-law, as is someone else, and there are still questions about the proper recognition of rank....
Immigrants, Chapter Three.
Rated; G
The usual cast of Returnverse stories - plus a couple of hobbits...
Word count for this chapter; 2,170.
Disclaimer; The characters in this story do not belong to me, but are being used for amusement only, and all rights remain with the estate of JRR Tolkien. And Joss Whedon if he ever recognises his Key...
Chapter One is here and Chapter Two is here.
Chapter Three
Legolas and Tindómë stayed on the beach until well after sunset before deciding to stay away from Rumil’s mother, like a pair of naughty elflings, and finding a small tavern. There they bought wine and freshly cooked fish with warm bread and butter.
“I wonder if Sam realises now that Elves really do know how to cook and eat ‘properly’?” Tindómë remarked.
“Ask him,” Legolas answered. “But I think he still considers us inadequate. It is our habit of eating only two or three meals each day…”
The door opened and Galanthir headed towards them. “My Lord Legolas,” he said, sweeping a bow.
Tindómë thought he was surely joking. Legolas frowned slightly.
Galanthir spoke to Tindómë rather than her ‘brother’. “As well to remind the Teleri that Legolas is a Prince, not just any passing ellon…”
Galanthir went to order food for himself leaving Tindómë with just Legolas for a little.
“That reminds, me,” she said, “you mentioned something about expecting some sort of formal welcome, something to mark this new stage in your life, maybe?”
Legolas dropped his gaze, his dinner seemed to suddenly require close observation. “It was a silly expectation…” he muttered.
“M’hmm… maybe,” she said, “but, you know, actually you got one of the Maiar and a daughter of the Noldor Royal family… and isn’t Her Ladyship also related to the Telerin Royal family? Like, y’know, she’s King Olwë’s granddaughter? And probably there’d have been whole problems of etiquette and things if anyone higher up the Noldorin court than Her Ladyship had arrived.”
It had only occurred to Tindómë since their arrival in the West that one reason why Her Ladyship had never declared herself Queen of the Lothlorien Elves, and Master Elrond had stuck carefully to the ‘commoner’ title, was that they both owed allegiance to the King who sat in Tirion. But Legolas’ father owed no such allegiance. The Silvan Elves had never been ruled over by the Noldor – and he was the king of a Silvan people.
‘We might,’ she thought, ‘be heading into that whole I-am-not-a-vassal thing again – best all round if no-one turned up from Tirion apart from Lady Galadriel. I wonder if Gandalf has any ideas about the etiquette?’
“Actually,” Legolas said, sounding rather sheepish, “both Gimli and I have been invited to dine with King Olwë. The invitation actually said ‘now that you have had time to find your land-legs and get settled in…’
“There you are then!” said Tindómë. “Uh, atheg – are you allowed to take someone with you?”
……………………………
As Legolas teased Tindómë that she probably had a better grasp of the relationships of the nobility of the West than he did, following her ‘more classical education’, not all that far away someone else was also eating with friends to avoid Rumil’s mother. This time it was her grandson.
Haldirin was eating with Tharhîwon at the hobbit hole. Both had helped prepare the meal, under Sam’s watchful eye; he seemed to want to be sure ‘Master Frodo’s lad’ could cook hobbit-style meals as well as elven ones, and happily extended the lesson to include Haldirin.
“Adar says that it is a form of immortality for him and Uncle Sam,” Tharhîwon said in a quiet aside, “that in many yéni I will still think of him when I fry mushrooms with thyme, or make a fool with elderflowers and gooseberries.”
An interesting thought. Haldirin decided he must discuss it with his own Adar, and with Naneth; particularly the idea of the elderflower and gooseberry fool. Adar cooked many of the meals but such sweet things were Naneth’s domain.
Once Sam was satisfied, the meal began. Bowls of soup made from smoked fish, fresh fish, and potatoes were followed by chicken that had been roasted in portions, each wrapped in crispy bacon, and served with roasted parsnips (“drizzle with the honey, and then plenty of pepper – roast them in good, hot, goose fat…”) and carrots (“just a little of the fortified wine to glaze them…”).
Frodo encouraged conversation, Sam encouraged ‘the two growing lads’ to eat more, and Gimli sat quietly, eyes twinkling, and emptied his plate efficiently. As Haldirin decided he really could not eat another mouthful, Sam produced a tray of apples stuffed with dried fruit that he had, it seemed, put into the hot oven to bake when he took the meat out. And a jug of custard.
Tharhîwon caught Haldirin’s eye and grinned. “We have eaten very, very, well since Uncle Sam arrived to join Adar…” he said.
Later the two young ellyn walked together towards the town. Haldirin wondered out loud how it was that his friend was not… well, the same shape as Sam.
“Adar did not make me eat quite as many meals as a hobbit child would – he recognised that elves’ bodies do not use food so quickly. And I was still growing to start with, of course. But when Uncle Sam arrived, both Gandalf, um, Mithrandir, and Master Elrond pointed out to me that, although elves do not usually grow fat, it would be best for me to take plenty of exercise – and avoid second breakfasts, between meals snacks, and more than one dinner…”
“Come on then,” Haldirin said, “I will race you to the sea-wall so that we can both shake that dinner down…”
They sat on the sea-wall in companionable silence, watching other elves strolling past, in the clear evening air, admiring one or two of the ellyth.
“Tell me about Rhîwen,” Tharhîwon said, “I would like to meet her some day – the elleth with a name so like mine…”
“Naneth says they might have simply called you Rhîwon, if Rhîwen had not been born a little while before.”
“You are trying to change the subject… Your Rhîwen – tell me about her!”
“Uh – she is… good company. She looks a little like Legolas – but feminine. And she has dark hair. I think she must look like Legolas’ mother. Her fëa is bright and she wants to see, to do, to know… She swims and skates well… she is good with a bow – and we enjoy sharing our bodies with each other – we fit well, somehow.”
“Will you bind?”
“Perhaps… in time. First we all need to find a proper home here, and then she will have to sail, and then – well, then we will start to know each other better. But I have not met any other elleth that I would rather spend my time with.”
“Here the place to meet with ellyth is often on the shore… Perhaps you could persuade Ithilienne to come and walk on the shore with us some evening?”
Haldirin grinned. “She might well – and she might be happy to share kisses, even a little more – but she has had her sight set in only one direction since she learnt to crawl…”
Tharhîwon opened his mouth, doubtless to ask who Haldirin meant, just as three figures came into view and Haldirin burst out laughing when he recognised the object of his sister’s affections arm in arm with Naneth and Galanthir.
……………………………
Tindómë was getting ready to accompany Legolas to the dinner with the Telerin King. It was not going to be an enormous state banquet, but it sounded as if there would be forty or fifty people, and it would require formal attire.
Signals needed to be sent of just who Legolas was. He would be in his formal robes and would be wearing the new circlet his father had given him during his last visit to Eryn Lasgalen. This one was more complex than the one he had worn since his coming of age – his father had said it denoted both his princedom and his lordship of Ithilien. Mithril, of course, with silver leaves frosted with tiny diamonds; and in the centre a moonstone, cradled in a setting shaped like the new moon, for Eryn Ithil.
Tindómë needed to match in style and splendour but she was well up to the task –she wore a dress of green silk a shade lighter than Legolas’ robes, shot through with fine gold threads, embroidered with leaves as befitted the gwethil of a Wood Elf prince, topped off with a circlet of small gold leaves made for her by Gimli.
Now she asked Ithilienne to help her with her hair. Rumil enjoyed this task but understood why she had asked their daughter instead. Ithilienne’s nimble fingers worked gold threads, green peridots, and tourmalines into a series of tiny braids so that the colours caught the light as her mother moved.
“Thank you, little one,” Tindómë said, and then added, “You don’t mind me going with Legolas, do you?”
Before Ithilienne could answer Tindómë continued. “Your Adar and I know you would really like to be the elleth at Legolas’ side – we are your parents; we know you and love you – and we know that you desire him. But, right now, I am the nearest thing to family he has here. When I first arrived in Middle Earth he was the nearest thing to family I had – and, now that we’ve arrived in Valinor, I’m repaying.
“In time I think that you will be the one who accompanies him to this sort of thing – but not yet. And, if and when he does ask you, mirdithen-nín, I promise we won’t try to stop you – we’ll be happy for you – honestly.
“Your Adar and me – we’ve talked about it and I guess I can cope with you and Legolas being together that way if the time comes – even if it took me a while to get my head around the idea! It’s not as if I ever wanted him that way – or him me, for that matter. He once told his adar that I ‘stirred his loins little more than did Gimli’ – flattering much, eh?
“Anyhow, there’ll be plenty of time for you to be on his arm if that’s how things work out but, for now, it’s still my role – and I don’t want you to feel mad at me, or feel as if I’m stopping you, or whatever. You do understand, don’t you, Ithi?”
Tindómë meant the ‘baby name’ as a term or endearment – she hoped her daughter understood that, and wouldn’t think she was using it to stress that she thought her still an elfling.
Fortunately it seemed Ithilienne did understand. She looked seriously at her mother for a minute or more and then slowly smiled. In the mirror they looked very, very, alike. When she spoke it was also very clear that she was her mother’s daughter.
“I guess. Too young, plenty of time, he worries because I’m your daughter, yada, yada, yada…”
Tindómë grinned widely. “He is a bit young,” she said, purposefully misunderstanding what her daughter meant, “but give him a yén or two… and in the meantime enjoy yourself!”
If Legolas wondered why Ithilienne and her mother began to giggle as soon as they saw him, he showed no sign of it, but complimented Tindómë on how she looked, held his arm out to her, and accompanied her out of the house to where Gimli awaited them – resplendent and bejewelled as befitted a dwarven lord.
……………………………
As Tindómë, Legolas, and Gimli were welcomed to their dinner with King Olwë in his beautiful home that overlooked the town, the harbour, and the sea, the other members of her family were eating together in the small courtyard behind the house they shared.
“They looked perfect,” Rumil said to Galanthir, who had joined them. “No doubting that he is royalty and Tindómë is both his gwethil and a gift of the Valar. Nor, for that matter, that Gimli is not only elf-friend, and one of the Nine Walkers, but that he, too, is someone of importance amongst his own people.”
“I expected no less,” Galanthir replied, “to be honest. Our lord’s royalty comes naturally to him even if he sometimes casts it off for a while.”
“And we,” Lithôniel nodded at her husband and her niece, “have made sure that our own people know that he is being properly treated, that he is being treated as a proper prince by King Olwë – that we are in no way a lesser people, in no way what Tindómë calls ‘second-class’.”
“Not that we have encountered that attitude all that often,” Orophin said slowly, “And it would be very difficult to make some of us feel anything other than superior to those without our Galadhrim training…”
Galanthir grinned, as Lithôniel pretended to box her husband’s ears as he continued speaking.
“But it does no harm to be sure that everyone knows the Telerin king acknowledges Legolas as a Prince of the Silvan people – and an equal to those of his own house.”
“We will leave worrying about the Noldor until the time comes,” Galanthir said, still smiling, “and in the meantime we have to think about the Solstice.”
“Ah,” Haldirin joined the conversation, “I have been talking to Tharhîwon about the Solstice…”
.....................................
Odd bits & pieces;
Telerin Elves are the main group of sea Elves mostly living here in Valinor.
Silvan Elves are the wood Elves who almost all lived in Middle Earth.
Noldorin Elves are the High Elves.
gwethil - sworn sister
mirdithen-nín - my little jewel
......................................
Tindómë is still avoiding her mother-in-law, as is someone else, and there are still questions about the proper recognition of rank....
Immigrants, Chapter Three.
Rated; G
The usual cast of Returnverse stories - plus a couple of hobbits...
Word count for this chapter; 2,170.
Disclaimer; The characters in this story do not belong to me, but are being used for amusement only, and all rights remain with the estate of JRR Tolkien. And Joss Whedon if he ever recognises his Key...
Chapter One is here and Chapter Two is here.
Chapter Three
Legolas and Tindómë stayed on the beach until well after sunset before deciding to stay away from Rumil’s mother, like a pair of naughty elflings, and finding a small tavern. There they bought wine and freshly cooked fish with warm bread and butter.
“I wonder if Sam realises now that Elves really do know how to cook and eat ‘properly’?” Tindómë remarked.
“Ask him,” Legolas answered. “But I think he still considers us inadequate. It is our habit of eating only two or three meals each day…”
The door opened and Galanthir headed towards them. “My Lord Legolas,” he said, sweeping a bow.
Tindómë thought he was surely joking. Legolas frowned slightly.
Galanthir spoke to Tindómë rather than her ‘brother’. “As well to remind the Teleri that Legolas is a Prince, not just any passing ellon…”
Galanthir went to order food for himself leaving Tindómë with just Legolas for a little.
“That reminds, me,” she said, “you mentioned something about expecting some sort of formal welcome, something to mark this new stage in your life, maybe?”
Legolas dropped his gaze, his dinner seemed to suddenly require close observation. “It was a silly expectation…” he muttered.
“M’hmm… maybe,” she said, “but, you know, actually you got one of the Maiar and a daughter of the Noldor Royal family… and isn’t Her Ladyship also related to the Telerin Royal family? Like, y’know, she’s King Olwë’s granddaughter? And probably there’d have been whole problems of etiquette and things if anyone higher up the Noldorin court than Her Ladyship had arrived.”
It had only occurred to Tindómë since their arrival in the West that one reason why Her Ladyship had never declared herself Queen of the Lothlorien Elves, and Master Elrond had stuck carefully to the ‘commoner’ title, was that they both owed allegiance to the King who sat in Tirion. But Legolas’ father owed no such allegiance. The Silvan Elves had never been ruled over by the Noldor – and he was the king of a Silvan people.
‘We might,’ she thought, ‘be heading into that whole I-am-not-a-vassal thing again – best all round if no-one turned up from Tirion apart from Lady Galadriel. I wonder if Gandalf has any ideas about the etiquette?’
“Actually,” Legolas said, sounding rather sheepish, “both Gimli and I have been invited to dine with King Olwë. The invitation actually said ‘now that you have had time to find your land-legs and get settled in…’
“There you are then!” said Tindómë. “Uh, atheg – are you allowed to take someone with you?”
……………………………
As Legolas teased Tindómë that she probably had a better grasp of the relationships of the nobility of the West than he did, following her ‘more classical education’, not all that far away someone else was also eating with friends to avoid Rumil’s mother. This time it was her grandson.
Haldirin was eating with Tharhîwon at the hobbit hole. Both had helped prepare the meal, under Sam’s watchful eye; he seemed to want to be sure ‘Master Frodo’s lad’ could cook hobbit-style meals as well as elven ones, and happily extended the lesson to include Haldirin.
“Adar says that it is a form of immortality for him and Uncle Sam,” Tharhîwon said in a quiet aside, “that in many yéni I will still think of him when I fry mushrooms with thyme, or make a fool with elderflowers and gooseberries.”
An interesting thought. Haldirin decided he must discuss it with his own Adar, and with Naneth; particularly the idea of the elderflower and gooseberry fool. Adar cooked many of the meals but such sweet things were Naneth’s domain.
Once Sam was satisfied, the meal began. Bowls of soup made from smoked fish, fresh fish, and potatoes were followed by chicken that had been roasted in portions, each wrapped in crispy bacon, and served with roasted parsnips (“drizzle with the honey, and then plenty of pepper – roast them in good, hot, goose fat…”) and carrots (“just a little of the fortified wine to glaze them…”).
Frodo encouraged conversation, Sam encouraged ‘the two growing lads’ to eat more, and Gimli sat quietly, eyes twinkling, and emptied his plate efficiently. As Haldirin decided he really could not eat another mouthful, Sam produced a tray of apples stuffed with dried fruit that he had, it seemed, put into the hot oven to bake when he took the meat out. And a jug of custard.
Tharhîwon caught Haldirin’s eye and grinned. “We have eaten very, very, well since Uncle Sam arrived to join Adar…” he said.
Later the two young ellyn walked together towards the town. Haldirin wondered out loud how it was that his friend was not… well, the same shape as Sam.
“Adar did not make me eat quite as many meals as a hobbit child would – he recognised that elves’ bodies do not use food so quickly. And I was still growing to start with, of course. But when Uncle Sam arrived, both Gandalf, um, Mithrandir, and Master Elrond pointed out to me that, although elves do not usually grow fat, it would be best for me to take plenty of exercise – and avoid second breakfasts, between meals snacks, and more than one dinner…”
“Come on then,” Haldirin said, “I will race you to the sea-wall so that we can both shake that dinner down…”
They sat on the sea-wall in companionable silence, watching other elves strolling past, in the clear evening air, admiring one or two of the ellyth.
“Tell me about Rhîwen,” Tharhîwon said, “I would like to meet her some day – the elleth with a name so like mine…”
“Naneth says they might have simply called you Rhîwon, if Rhîwen had not been born a little while before.”
“You are trying to change the subject… Your Rhîwen – tell me about her!”
“Uh – she is… good company. She looks a little like Legolas – but feminine. And she has dark hair. I think she must look like Legolas’ mother. Her fëa is bright and she wants to see, to do, to know… She swims and skates well… she is good with a bow – and we enjoy sharing our bodies with each other – we fit well, somehow.”
“Will you bind?”
“Perhaps… in time. First we all need to find a proper home here, and then she will have to sail, and then – well, then we will start to know each other better. But I have not met any other elleth that I would rather spend my time with.”
“Here the place to meet with ellyth is often on the shore… Perhaps you could persuade Ithilienne to come and walk on the shore with us some evening?”
Haldirin grinned. “She might well – and she might be happy to share kisses, even a little more – but she has had her sight set in only one direction since she learnt to crawl…”
Tharhîwon opened his mouth, doubtless to ask who Haldirin meant, just as three figures came into view and Haldirin burst out laughing when he recognised the object of his sister’s affections arm in arm with Naneth and Galanthir.
……………………………
Tindómë was getting ready to accompany Legolas to the dinner with the Telerin King. It was not going to be an enormous state banquet, but it sounded as if there would be forty or fifty people, and it would require formal attire.
Signals needed to be sent of just who Legolas was. He would be in his formal robes and would be wearing the new circlet his father had given him during his last visit to Eryn Lasgalen. This one was more complex than the one he had worn since his coming of age – his father had said it denoted both his princedom and his lordship of Ithilien. Mithril, of course, with silver leaves frosted with tiny diamonds; and in the centre a moonstone, cradled in a setting shaped like the new moon, for Eryn Ithil.
Tindómë needed to match in style and splendour but she was well up to the task –she wore a dress of green silk a shade lighter than Legolas’ robes, shot through with fine gold threads, embroidered with leaves as befitted the gwethil of a Wood Elf prince, topped off with a circlet of small gold leaves made for her by Gimli.
Now she asked Ithilienne to help her with her hair. Rumil enjoyed this task but understood why she had asked their daughter instead. Ithilienne’s nimble fingers worked gold threads, green peridots, and tourmalines into a series of tiny braids so that the colours caught the light as her mother moved.
“Thank you, little one,” Tindómë said, and then added, “You don’t mind me going with Legolas, do you?”
Before Ithilienne could answer Tindómë continued. “Your Adar and I know you would really like to be the elleth at Legolas’ side – we are your parents; we know you and love you – and we know that you desire him. But, right now, I am the nearest thing to family he has here. When I first arrived in Middle Earth he was the nearest thing to family I had – and, now that we’ve arrived in Valinor, I’m repaying.
“In time I think that you will be the one who accompanies him to this sort of thing – but not yet. And, if and when he does ask you, mirdithen-nín, I promise we won’t try to stop you – we’ll be happy for you – honestly.
“Your Adar and me – we’ve talked about it and I guess I can cope with you and Legolas being together that way if the time comes – even if it took me a while to get my head around the idea! It’s not as if I ever wanted him that way – or him me, for that matter. He once told his adar that I ‘stirred his loins little more than did Gimli’ – flattering much, eh?
“Anyhow, there’ll be plenty of time for you to be on his arm if that’s how things work out but, for now, it’s still my role – and I don’t want you to feel mad at me, or feel as if I’m stopping you, or whatever. You do understand, don’t you, Ithi?”
Tindómë meant the ‘baby name’ as a term or endearment – she hoped her daughter understood that, and wouldn’t think she was using it to stress that she thought her still an elfling.
Fortunately it seemed Ithilienne did understand. She looked seriously at her mother for a minute or more and then slowly smiled. In the mirror they looked very, very, alike. When she spoke it was also very clear that she was her mother’s daughter.
“I guess. Too young, plenty of time, he worries because I’m your daughter, yada, yada, yada…”
Tindómë grinned widely. “He is a bit young,” she said, purposefully misunderstanding what her daughter meant, “but give him a yén or two… and in the meantime enjoy yourself!”
If Legolas wondered why Ithilienne and her mother began to giggle as soon as they saw him, he showed no sign of it, but complimented Tindómë on how she looked, held his arm out to her, and accompanied her out of the house to where Gimli awaited them – resplendent and bejewelled as befitted a dwarven lord.
……………………………
As Tindómë, Legolas, and Gimli were welcomed to their dinner with King Olwë in his beautiful home that overlooked the town, the harbour, and the sea, the other members of her family were eating together in the small courtyard behind the house they shared.
“They looked perfect,” Rumil said to Galanthir, who had joined them. “No doubting that he is royalty and Tindómë is both his gwethil and a gift of the Valar. Nor, for that matter, that Gimli is not only elf-friend, and one of the Nine Walkers, but that he, too, is someone of importance amongst his own people.”
“I expected no less,” Galanthir replied, “to be honest. Our lord’s royalty comes naturally to him even if he sometimes casts it off for a while.”
“And we,” Lithôniel nodded at her husband and her niece, “have made sure that our own people know that he is being properly treated, that he is being treated as a proper prince by King Olwë – that we are in no way a lesser people, in no way what Tindómë calls ‘second-class’.”
“Not that we have encountered that attitude all that often,” Orophin said slowly, “And it would be very difficult to make some of us feel anything other than superior to those without our Galadhrim training…”
Galanthir grinned, as Lithôniel pretended to box her husband’s ears as he continued speaking.
“But it does no harm to be sure that everyone knows the Telerin king acknowledges Legolas as a Prince of the Silvan people – and an equal to those of his own house.”
“We will leave worrying about the Noldor until the time comes,” Galanthir said, still smiling, “and in the meantime we have to think about the Solstice.”
“Ah,” Haldirin joined the conversation, “I have been talking to Tharhîwon about the Solstice…”
.....................................
Odd bits & pieces;
Telerin Elves are the main group of sea Elves mostly living here in Valinor.
Silvan Elves are the wood Elves who almost all lived in Middle Earth.
Noldorin Elves are the High Elves.
gwethil - sworn sister
mirdithen-nín - my little jewel
......................................
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 02/02/2012 08:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 02/02/2012 08:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 15/02/2012 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 15/02/2012 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 15/02/2012 10:22 pm (UTC)Certainly, if in your version of events Oropher's still in Mandos, then Legolas is the prince of as many Sindar as either follow him over Sea, or had already taken ship, or been re-embodied post-Mandos' Halls (how about all those troops of Oropher's from the Last Alliance, for starters?)
no subject
Date: 15/02/2012 11:37 pm (UTC)Me neither - I think I can only manage by keeping it all a bit vague.
I haven't quite decided about Oropher yet - but there must surely be some of his people around - unless they were being 'kept in' until one of their own leaders arrived, of course...
no subject
Date: 16/02/2012 07:21 am (UTC)The same wouldn't apply to his people, of course - but can you see them wanting to live on the coastlands or the big cities? This is where I think your theory about a Wood-elven settlement in the forests west of the Pelori comes in very handy!
no subject
Date: 16/02/2012 09:00 am (UTC)I wish I could remember which of the ancient world/north American maps I saw a year or so ago that made the North American land mas look very like the map of Aman - and so, clearly, much narrower than we know it to actually be.
Because the discovery of the lands meant for the Wood-elves is part of the next big epic - just got to find time to finish this first!