Out from the shadows by Dwimordene

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

B2MeM Challenge: N38: Women of the Silmarillion: Women of Doriath
I27: Four words: apart, buzz, half, thimble; Women of the Silmarillion: Women with unknown fates
Format: drabble
Genre: Drama
Rating: K
Warnings: Do not tell me she’s “man-hearted”…
Characters: Emeldir
Summary: One star falls, another rises.


Out from the shadows

They are a tribe apart, half as many as should be, and though they keep thimble, hearth, and house (such as may be had), they have exchanged buzzing looms for quarterstaff and dagger.

Well-blooded and wit-keen, Emeldir herself bears a sword, runs tactics, crafts strategy. She will not lie down to die, nor see her women perish, and so rules: Who can fight, must.

“Shall Da and Brother come soon?” her daughter asks, frowning over new battle-bruises.

In her heart, she’s laid them lovingly to rest, and hopes death was swift. But captain courageous, Emeldir answers: “Not soon. But someday…”

Comments

[hhimring]

Oh, good, I think not enough has been written about Emeldir! (She is so often forgotten, even when people list strong women in Tolkien in the Professor's defence.)
But I do not think that that epithet "man-hearted" contradicts anything in here, does it? It's just a slightly tiresome way of hinting at exactly what you describe.
(For the purposes of the N38 prompt, you are arguing that after all Brethil is part of Doriath, at least according to Thingol?)

[allora.livejournal.com]

Very nicely done! So much is told in so little words. I love the powerful beginning and end.

The four-words prompts are tricky, and even more so in mere 100 words. You put the four words in context perfectly.

[engarian.livejournal.com]

This one works quite well. I had completely forgotten about Emeldir.

- Erulisse (one L)

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

The epithet contradicts nothing, it's just stupid in its restriction of these qualities to males.

Emeldir is such a footnote I almost didn't find her as I went through the Silmarillion - I thought I was going to write about Rían until I saw that actually, she did die, but at least she was a link to Emeldir.

(For the purposes of the N38 prompt, you are arguing that after all Brethil is part of Doriath, at least according to Thingol?)

Argh, no, for the purposes of N38, my thought process at whatever o'clock last night on too little sleep, was something like this: Hm, Beren has a mother - of course he does. She has two mentions, and no fate. Check. Um... where does she go? Over the mountains, into a safe forest called Brethil, which is in Doriath because... Beren is in Doriath and Emeldir and Beren go together because they're related.

It was associative logic gone wrong. But I can write Thingol an imperialistic moment in which he claims Brethil... *cough* (Edit: although last night, when I posted this, I found that N38 had been closed anyway, so perhaps since I'm not getting credit for it, I'll just be lazy and pretend I wrote Thingol that imperialistic moment... ... )

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Allora! I had to fuss with the ending a bit to make it work, so I'm glad it reads well. While I can't do it all the time, I do sometimes respond well to the challenge of taking four unrelated words and finding a way to make them work together in a coherent story.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

I had completely forgotten about Emeldir.

You're not the only one! :-D

[hhimring]

But Thingol does have that imperialistic moment! That is what I was hinting at. You can find it by tracking the story about Thingol and Haleth and how he gave her permission to settle in Brethil.

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

I like this a lot! In somehow completely overlooked Emeldir, shame on me. Interesting character. I like how you portrayed her here.

[blslarner.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can so see this! As happened later in Rohan, when only women are left to protect their own, they will do what they must to see to the survival of what remains of their people!

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Ah, I see! Cool! I clearly need to do a less snatch-and-grab rereading of the Silm. One day. Maybe after March... and April... and May...

Meh...

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

I think we're all in the same boat. Emel-who? Go figure, she sounds awesome in her own right, but we never see her again after her token two mentions, despite their great potential. Glad you enjoyed this furthering of Emeldir's character.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Yep - although to be fair to Emeldir, she seems to have been into sword-fighting and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her men well before she had to take the surviving women and children out of Dorthonion. But canonically, Tolkien writes that she gave weapons to the women who would fight, who may well have been doing so only at a last resort.