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keilissTitle: Broken
Featured character: Maglor
Beta: Red Lasbelin
Written for B2MeM. Prompt: the fall of Númenor
Summary: Maglor has his sources
AN: not the Maglor through time AU yet, this is set a few thousand years before that begins. I’m not sure why I felt this note was necessary, seeing as I’m nowhere near ready to post that (I whimper at the mere thought of sorting out the introductory part)
--=====--
It seemed the stories that had reached him on the road were true, the sea had done alarming things the night of the great storm that had sent man and beast scrambling for cover from the howling wind and a sky riven by lightning. Seaweed, rocks and broken timber littered the land far above the shoreline, the sand itself was hard and wet where before it had run soft. The little shale beach he sought was no more, instead a churned-up mess of stones littered a new shoreline, barely containing the waves that still spat venom at the land.
Maglor paced this new shore with a wary eye on the sea that tossed white capped and angry under black clouds that threatened yet more rain. There was talk of giant waves racing so far inland that communities beyond reach or sound of the sea had felt their lash, something he was no longer inclined to dismiss as exaggeration. After a while he found a suitable rock and sat on it, contemplating the western horizon beyond which lay his former home. His harp was on his back as always and he left it there. He’d heard the stories of Fëanor’s second born bewailing his loss in song as he walked the shores of Middle-earth, so on principle he never sang a note on a beach. Still, the devastation, the threatening sky, the sea’s continued fury, all wrote their own music.
Something had happened out beyond the breakers, something vast, unknowable. His dreams on the night of the storm had been filled with a sense of spreading doom and a fury so intense he had been driven to take the chance of returning to Lindon to see what he could learn. So far, all that came to him were rumours and guesses. Whatever was afoot, this was nothing natural, this had the feel about it of the hands of the Lords of the West themselves.
“Never go home, never go home, never go home.” The voice was whispery and high, mocking laughter running behind the rush of words on tiny feet. Maglor put his head to the side and watched the water closely. Sometimes, not always, he could see her, and it had become natural for him to pitch his hearing to Uinen’s voice whenever he found himself near her domain. All those years ago when he had hefted the Curse into the waves and consigned it to her keeping rather than give Ulmo the satisfaction, the last thing he had expected was to gain her almost-liking, but there it was.
“Never go back there again, no, I suppose not. Greetings, Daughter of Waters. What makes the sea so unhappy?” he asked politely.
“The sea is Bro-o-o-oken,” she told him, the words rushing in at him on the advancing tide.
Maglor frowned, leaning forward from his rock. “How do you break the Sea, Lady? How do you fracture water?”
“The sea no longer flows unhindered from this shore to the other. Now it --- fa-a-a-lls. The world goes round and the sea goes round with it, son of the Flame. Only one path remains to the shore you knew, only one path to take the Quendi home. Elenna-nórë is gone, the Gift reclaimed. Our lord says only the tallest peak remains, alone in the middle of the Great Sea. And what lies beyond no longer touches here.”
He tried to understand what she was telling him, but as always she spoke in circles and this time she was being even more obscure than usual. “Númenor, gone? How could that happen?” he finally asked, settling on something concrete he could grasp. “And why? Who could do such a thing?”
Wavelets danced up the new shore almost reaching his feet, and then she was there, her pale hair streaming in the shallow water, her nakedness unmoving in its eeriness. And then, her voice drifting in and out with the ebb and flow of the waves, almost drowned by the shrilling of the gulls, she told him who.
And why.
--========--
Featured character: Maglor
Beta: Red Lasbelin
Written for B2MeM. Prompt: the fall of Númenor
Summary: Maglor has his sources
AN: not the Maglor through time AU yet, this is set a few thousand years before that begins. I’m not sure why I felt this note was necessary, seeing as I’m nowhere near ready to post that (I whimper at the mere thought of sorting out the introductory part)
It seemed the stories that had reached him on the road were true, the sea had done alarming things the night of the great storm that had sent man and beast scrambling for cover from the howling wind and a sky riven by lightning. Seaweed, rocks and broken timber littered the land far above the shoreline, the sand itself was hard and wet where before it had run soft. The little shale beach he sought was no more, instead a churned-up mess of stones littered a new shoreline, barely containing the waves that still spat venom at the land.
Maglor paced this new shore with a wary eye on the sea that tossed white capped and angry under black clouds that threatened yet more rain. There was talk of giant waves racing so far inland that communities beyond reach or sound of the sea had felt their lash, something he was no longer inclined to dismiss as exaggeration. After a while he found a suitable rock and sat on it, contemplating the western horizon beyond which lay his former home. His harp was on his back as always and he left it there. He’d heard the stories of Fëanor’s second born bewailing his loss in song as he walked the shores of Middle-earth, so on principle he never sang a note on a beach. Still, the devastation, the threatening sky, the sea’s continued fury, all wrote their own music.
Something had happened out beyond the breakers, something vast, unknowable. His dreams on the night of the storm had been filled with a sense of spreading doom and a fury so intense he had been driven to take the chance of returning to Lindon to see what he could learn. So far, all that came to him were rumours and guesses. Whatever was afoot, this was nothing natural, this had the feel about it of the hands of the Lords of the West themselves.
“Never go home, never go home, never go home.” The voice was whispery and high, mocking laughter running behind the rush of words on tiny feet. Maglor put his head to the side and watched the water closely. Sometimes, not always, he could see her, and it had become natural for him to pitch his hearing to Uinen’s voice whenever he found himself near her domain. All those years ago when he had hefted the Curse into the waves and consigned it to her keeping rather than give Ulmo the satisfaction, the last thing he had expected was to gain her almost-liking, but there it was.
“Never go back there again, no, I suppose not. Greetings, Daughter of Waters. What makes the sea so unhappy?” he asked politely.
“The sea is Bro-o-o-oken,” she told him, the words rushing in at him on the advancing tide.
Maglor frowned, leaning forward from his rock. “How do you break the Sea, Lady? How do you fracture water?”
“The sea no longer flows unhindered from this shore to the other. Now it --- fa-a-a-lls. The world goes round and the sea goes round with it, son of the Flame. Only one path remains to the shore you knew, only one path to take the Quendi home. Elenna-nórë is gone, the Gift reclaimed. Our lord says only the tallest peak remains, alone in the middle of the Great Sea. And what lies beyond no longer touches here.”
He tried to understand what she was telling him, but as always she spoke in circles and this time she was being even more obscure than usual. “Númenor, gone? How could that happen?” he finally asked, settling on something concrete he could grasp. “And why? Who could do such a thing?”
Wavelets danced up the new shore almost reaching his feet, and then she was there, her pale hair streaming in the shallow water, her nakedness unmoving in its eeriness. And then, her voice drifting in and out with the ebb and flow of the waves, almost drowned by the shrilling of the gulls, she told him who.
And why.
no subject
Date: 2012-05-18 01:37 (UTC)Nonetheless, even with my anger at the Powers, you carried the storyline off beautifully.
- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2012-05-18 01:53 (UTC)*breathes* And thanks muchly for the kind words :)
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Date: 2012-05-18 12:53 (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2012-05-20 02:53 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-20 13:42 (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2012-05-20 15:08 (UTC)In a way I wish he had written more about Numenor, because then there might have been storylines and characters who drew me in and got me properly interested. As it is, with one exception, it kind of goes past me. Found the beginning of Numenor the most tiresome part of the research when I wrote Doubt. The fact that the second part of Burning Bright needs a Numenor thread worries me, lol.
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Date: 2012-05-20 18:08 (UTC)Back to watching the final state of the Tour de California...
- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2012-05-20 22:48 (UTC)Would it be really shallow of me to admit that what piques my interest is the human sacrifices? *g*
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Date: 2012-05-20 23:37 (UTC)Yes, bike racing. I love bike racing, and the Tour de California is the only race on the International Circuit that takes place in the US. I'm also following the Giro de' Italia, but California's final stage was on the TV this morning.
- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2012-05-19 05:53 (UTC)In my view, the Valar were charged with the making of the habitation for the children. They were excited, and waited impatiently for the children to arrive. I think that taking the role of protectors made them also take the role of "parenting" to someone they should not have, and did not have "jurisdiction".
Having no part in the music that was about the children, and their own different "self/ personality" (the fact that they were different in the perception of the world in general, I find it hard to put my meaning into better words), proved to result in damaging the first born, and even worse for the second born.
But that's just my view of the roles of the races in general.
That is in addition to what you both said about the water/submerging/genocide etc, not in contradiction.
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Date: 2012-05-19 09:06 (UTC)- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2012-05-19 10:04 (UTC)I should have said that I would "muse" about that sentence.
They indeed tried to act AS "protectors. "Tried" because I think they failed.
More then that, I think they should NOT have taken that role in the first place.
And that would have resulted in a different world then the way it turned.
Would such different world been a better one, or not? that is another question :-)
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Date: 2012-05-19 10:09 (UTC)And that would have resulted in a different world then the way it turned.
Would such different world been a better one, or not? that is another question :-)
That's a good question! If the Valar had been pulled away from Aman after having made the world for the children, and forced to watch from afar, not intervening/interfering/influencing the lives of the first or second born, what would Middle Earth have been like? Of course, if the Valar were pulled away by Illuvatar's edict, that would include Morgoth, so... serious changes! What fun speculation...
- Erulisse (one L)
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Date: 2012-05-20 03:03 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-18 03:52 (UTC)And:
He’d heard the stories of Fëanor’s second born bewailing his loss in song as he walked the shores of Middle-earth, so on principle he never sang a note on a beach.
LOL! Good on him. XD
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Date: 2012-05-20 03:08 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-18 11:04 (UTC)This made me smile :D
I love the description of Uinen. It makes sense that her voice would ebb and flow with the waves, but I would never have thought of it.
*hugs*
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Date: 2012-05-20 03:10 (UTC)*hugs*
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Date: 2012-05-18 16:16 (UTC)Rather a cruel way to start a conversation on Uinen's part but Maglor seems to be able to deal with it. I liked very much her voice and her POV for the fall of Numenor and the changing of the world.
on principle he never sang a note on a beach
Of course, he's a Son of Feanor!
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Date: 2012-05-20 03:16 (UTC)A Son of Feanor - yes, indeed :D Glad you liked this, thank you so much for commenting.
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Date: 2012-05-19 05:45 (UTC)And why.
Such a simple and short sentence, and so loaded with the background story and emotions.
It brought tars to my eyes.
I have never been interested in Númenor or anything linked to it. And still, reading this, brought a sense of end, tragedy, and mystery about what happened.
I also felt the "grey" feeling of that deserted beach. Saw the devastation through the description of the hard sand and the litter around.
And most of all, I loved the Maglor I "saw" in this scene.
Beautiful.
Thank you.
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Date: 2012-05-20 03:23 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-20 05:19 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-21 00:06 (UTC)Soon.
And thank you for the comments on this piece, makes me happy that you think well of it :)
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Date: 2012-05-23 01:02 (UTC)Ha. I like that.
Still, the devastation, the threatening sky, the sea’s continued fury, all wrote their own music.
Such pretty words, and so true. I've lived by dark northern waters all my life and have stood on the shore in hurricanes, and yes. Truth, this.
I love your description of Uinen, too - otherworldly and rather haunting.
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Date: 2012-05-23 15:24 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-25 00:58 (UTC)Oh, THIS. It's amazing. ♥
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Date: 2012-05-23 21:10 (UTC)Absolutely gorgeous, dear, one of my favorites - even after multiple rereadings.
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Date: 2012-05-24 14:09 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-30 02:57 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-04 01:40 (UTC)*hugs*