"I Who Am Water", by Himring

[hhimring]

Title: I Who Am Water
Author's Name: Himring
B2MeM Challenge: Seasons of Middle-earth, Summer (non-compilation)
Prompt: "Each year at summer’s end I go to find them for her, In a wide pool, deep and clear…" (Fellowship of the Ring, "In the House of Tom Bombadil")
Summary: Goldberry is the River-daughter
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Format / Genre: ficlet (108 words); character study (first-person)
Characters/ Pairings: Goldberry (Goldberry / Tom Bombadil)



No matter how many water lilies he brings, this circle of bowls that I can lightly leap across cannot be my wide pool, deep and clear, my ancient home in the river.
‘Goldberry’, he calls me, ‘Goldberry, merry yellow berry-o!’
And I consent.  I consent to be Goldberry. I sleep in Tom’s arms at night. I welcome our visitors. I sing water, I who am water; I sing rain for hobbits at summer’s end.
If I withheld my consent, I could slip the noose and turn into a nameless brook hurrying down to the Withywindle. No house or door could hold me. Not even Tom could stop me.

A/N: Possibly influenced by a fic that I have read, but which I cannot clearly remember. If it reminds you of someone else's fic, please let me know whose it is...

Comments

[ysilme]

Oh, this is delightful! Such a compelling, insightful take on Goldberry, and of what lies behind Tolkien lets us see. You're leading us directly to the immense world of myths, tales and ideas lying beneath the surface we know as the books, and I'm brought back to a thought I had the other day: that what we read with Tolkien's work is really only a mirror to a different world, a world we can only partly see and more often need to understand through the reflecting images of those small parts visible (or rather readable) to us. You are a master in showing this different world.

[hhimring]

Thank you very much!
I'm happy to hear that this short piece helped you to see into that different world!