It's a Puzzle, by Tehta

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Title: It’s Puzzle
Author Name: tehta
Summary: So, what was Galadriel doing near the end of the First Age, as her kinsmen died and their realms fell into ruin?
Prompt: “Write or create art about a place or group that is beginning its rise in importance.”
Warnings: It’s actually a word-based puzzle. Some people might find that annoying.
Rating: General.
Beta: One person did manage to solve it!


So, what was Galadriel doing near the end of the First Age, as her kinsmen died and their realms fell into ruin?


(The response below is a 250-word ficlet. It is also an acrostic: a particularly complex and awkwardly-clued one. I am not sure that anyone will decipher it, or want to. But, really, the ficlet itself should be answer enough.)


Faint birdsong punctuated the silence as Galadriel and Celeborn waited for the Ent’s answer, gradually losing hope that it would come before the end of Arda.

“I am... quite aware,” the Tree-Shepherd said at last, “of the intrinsic... hastiness... of your people, so I shall... do my best.. to keep my speech brief… and terse, as well as… concise, pithy, and… elliptical.” Fir-needles rained down around the Elves as he preened his green crown, obviously proud of this collection of synonyms. “Thus, I must... inform you... tree-friend... Teleporno…”

His words grew so infrequent that Celeborn made an impatient gesture; Galadriel laid a hand on his arm to prevent him from saying something undiplomatic.

“And you, shining... and noble... lady,” the Ent continued, oblivious to their shared and growing frustration, “that I consider it... most unwise...”

Now that was a great disappointment, thought Galadriel. Defenses were a vital aspect of any hidden realm, and enlisting the help of the trees themselves would have allowed them to surround all of Taur-in-Duinath with a perimeter almost as secure as Melian’s Girdle. Luckily, the Ent’s ponderous, laconic ways made her feel quite confident that he would not blab. Another important, if often ignored, aspect of a hidden realm was that it should remain a secret, rather than a topic of common gossip like the “hidden” cities of Findarato and Turukano.

Suddenly, the Ent’s sonorous voice arose again, scattering her thoughts with its power.

“To reject,” he said evenly, “such an astute... and prudent... plan.”



AUTHOR’S NOTE:
Galadriel’s insignificance throughout much of the First Age has always struck me as more than a little bizarre, considering her canonical ambition and later accomplishments. Being mentored by Melian seems in character, but apart from that… if all she was doing was being a houseguest in Doriath and Nargothrond, couldn’t she have done something productive when her siblings and her people fell, one by one? So, I have developed the headcanon that she and Celeborn had a realm of their own, one more secret even than Turgon’s, and I have set it in Taur-im-Duinath, the forest with the canonical description of NOTHING GOING ON HERE PLEASE IGNORE, which seems like exactly the right sort of description for a *successfully* concealed realm. As for the Entish element: In LotR, Treebeard clearly knows Galadriel and Celeborn of old.

Edited to add: When I said acrostic, I meant the usual definition of a poem, word puzzle, or other composition in which certain letters in each line form a word or words. Except, since this isn't a poem, it's sentences that matter here, not lines. Oh, and there are three phrases to be found here: a clue, and two snarky solutions.

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

This was enjoyable and made me smile.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[baranduin.livejournal.com]

Well, I have no clue what it is but I do know this fic made me grin! For some reason I find Galadriel thinking the word "blab" pretty delightful :-)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

I am glad you enjoyed the fic!
I could blab about the solution now -- but I won't.

[moetushie]

*Claps*

What a perfect solution.

My headcanon about Galadriel surviving the First Age is that she was simply much more smarter than her brothers and cousins, and decided never to hare off into danger and certain death.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

That does not conflict with this story, at all.

[tanis2014.livejournal.com]

Mmmm ... never done an acrostic before and I see that there's a note that tells us the clues are awkward - but color me completely clueless. Are the clues in the actual text of the story? What I looked at on line had a series of questions and fill-in-the-blanks crossword style, with the actual acrostic laid out in a series of boxes that then spelled something. It's way too late in my neck of the woods to even be attempting this, as I can hardly think straight at the hour of the night - but a challenge is a challenge and I can never resist one of those. I'm game to try, but I don't understand the rules of the game!

As for the story itself -- I adore the idea that Galadriel and Celeborn ALSO had a hidden realm, aided and abetted by the Ents. What a great extrapolation of Treebeard knowing the pair of them in LotR!

[tehta.livejournal.com]

I was going for something like Wikipedia's default definition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrostic). (Which they claim refers only to poems? Weird.) Or the thing that comes up when I type "define acrostic" into Google, "a poem, word puzzle, or other composition in which certain letters in each line form a word or words" -- for the purposes of this fic, "line" means "sentence". (And I have already written an easier one, posted here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/699801/chapters/1289057).)

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

I got the clue, but I must confess that I'm not sure what, or whom, it refers to.

As for the story, I giggled out loud at the Ent still speaking so slowly as to exasperate Celeborn! And I do like Galadriel's disdain for the "secret" Nargothrond and Gondolin; it makes sense that the lady who later ruled Lorien would be cautious about who came to know of her kingdom.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

The clue refers to words in sentences.

And that Ent was making an enormous effort to be hasty...

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

That's what she is, indeed, and no doubt the latter due to such prudent decisions. :D I'll have to be honest and admit that I missed the clues (or missed them as clues), but given one of her later pieces of dialogue, the acrostic nonetheless makes perfect sense.

That said, Galadriel's apparent inactivity during the First Age always puzzled me as well, considering she was dreaming of a realm of her own beforehand, and sitting around in Doriath doesn't seem to fit the bill at all. Perfect solution!

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Wait, so did you get the solutions? It sounds a bit like you did, but you say you missed the clues.
I was going to offer a ficlet to whoever gets it first (AND actually wants a ficlet.)

And thanks--I really love this headcanon of mine.

[petite-dilly.livejournal.com]

J'aime beaucoup cette solution au problème, en plus ça règle deux questions du canon en même temps, ce que faisait Galadriel durant le Premier Age, et la forêt très grande dont on ne parla jamais... J'aime aussi le fait qu'elle se débrouille mieux que son frère et son cousin au final. Treebeard est très réussi aussi, et puis avec sa façon de parler, il ne faut pas anticiper le sens global des phrases !

" like the “hidden” cities of Findekano and Turukano."
Tu voulais dire Findarato (?)

(pour le puzzle, il faut appliquer l'indice aux mots de chaque phrase ? je veux dire, une fois qu'on a relevé les acrostiches, il faut les appliquer aux phrases, ou ils ont un sens en eux-mêmes ?)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

I DO NOT SEE THE MISTAKE TO WHICH YOU REFER.

The way the Ent speaks reminds me a bit of posh High German. Where they hide all the verbs at the end so you have no idea whether someone got kissed or killed until you have been reading for five minutes. (They also make their sentences long. I guess it's a way of building suspense.)

And for the puzzle, you have to look at specific words in each sentence.

[zopyrus.livejournal.com]

I was feeling the effects of a berry margarita last night and missed that this was a puzzle at all...but with the new day comes GLORIOUS UNDERSTANDING. I got the second solution before anything else, possibly because I have a one-track mind and was certain Teleporno's name must have something to do with it--boy, was I right!

More seriously, the question of what Galadriel was up to when she wasn't having heart-to-hearts with Melian is one I have thought about a lot. (Actually, I tried to come up with a partial, au-ish solution in my compilation fic, so I'm psyched I am not the only person who wondered.) Your (fic-length) answer is excellent. Of course she would be smart enough to do secret properly.

And your ent is...delightful.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

He's always Teleporno to me.

And I thank you for your kind comments, both on behalf of the Ent and of myself. And of Galadriel, I suppose, although she knows very well that she is smart.

[suzll.livejournal.com]

Okay, that took me far too long to figure out, but HAH!!

I love this so much--I feel like I so rarely see fic starring Ents, and it was such a delight here! And the idea of Galadriel establishing her own kingdom has been on my mind as of late, so it was equally delightful to see that come into play as well.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously she must have established one, in this scary forest or over the mountains or SOMEWHERE. Anyone who disagrees is just being silly.

[hhimring]

Yes! There is the idea that she had already crossed to Eriador, of course, but this is more satisfactory in many ways. It explains why she seems to be starting all over again in Eriador in the Second Age, like anyone else. Also, of all the Finweans she does seem to be the one who would know how to do secrecy properly, not in that lamentably half-baked fashion. Also, I always had the feeling that there were people somewhere in South Beleriand whose existence Tolkien was somehow implying, but not really explaining, so that would solve that, too.
And I love that conversation with the ent and especially those last lines.

(But what were they doing for alcohol in there?)

(Also, my brain refuses to even try to engage with the acrostic puzzle, sorry.)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

If you want to know the answer to the puzzle, I can tell you. It's also all over the comments (although likely not all in one place.)

Speaking of puzzles... Galadriel's canonical movements remain one. On the one hand, in LotR we have: "I have dwelt with [Celeborn] years uncounted; for ere the fall of Nargothrond or Gondolin I passed over the mountains, and together through ages of the world we have fought the long defeat." Have to love that 'long defeat'! But the quote seems to imply that she MET Celeborn over some mountains, which obviously contradicts the other 109382 versions of how they met. Then in The Road Goes Ever On, which was published IIRC during Tolkien's lifetime, we get: "After the overthrow of Morgoth at the end of the First Age a ban was set upon her return, and she had replied proudly that she had no wish to do so. She passed over the Mountains of Ered Luin with her husband Celeborn (one of the Sindar) and went to Eregion." So when did she go, really? Meh.

In this headcanon, "passing over the mountains" was her cover-story.

[binkaslibrary.livejournal.com]

Clever and most enjoyable! Thank you for sharing :)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

You're most welcome.

[kittotter.livejournal.com]

I must give up on the puzzle for now! But I must say that I am delighted by the idea of Galadriel hidden Hidden Realm. I agree, she seems oddly not power hungry in the First Age (though I think in Silm that was due to Tolkien sticking her in as afterthought following her creation for LotR?). And Taur-im-Duinath's huge spot on the map that screams IGNORE ME always has bothered me - real deeply, in truth. What are they hiding there?? Anyway, I love the idea. And Treebeard here is so unhastily charming here. :) (I could just see Celeborm's veins popping; heh.)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I am glad you liked it! But yes, Galadriel is insignificant in the Silm for textual reasons. (Tolkien was in the process of writing her a HUGE new backstory where she and Celeborn both come over from Aman and oppose the Feanorians at Aqualonde, but he died before he could finish it, and then Christopher Tolkien decided to leave out the incomplete story, but had nothing coherent to replace it with.)

[elliska.livejournal.com]

Great idea to explore, wonderful solution for it, hilarious execution (Celeborn cracked me up) and a very clever format. You deserve triple bonuses for this!

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I loved this! I cheated and worked the comments for the solution to the puzzle instead of the fic. I am so lazy. Galadriel! happens to be the character biography which I am most afraid of working on, because of versions and also Tolkien's endless yammering about it. Some of the later changes he hinted at but never wrote really would have ruined her for me. I love the idea of ambition in the woman and a refusal to grovel for the Valar.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

I cannot imagine writing her biography! What a confusing mess.

As I said, the puzzle is not compulsory (nor even necessary, really, as both solutions are already implied.)

[blslarner.livejournal.com]

Dealing with this Ent required a good deal of patience. But their idea is being wonderfully realized, it seems. And love the puzzle.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That's Ents for you, though...

[astris-eldalie.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD.

First of all, what a perfect ficlet. Second of all, I spent way too long trying to figure this out but the solutions are absolutely perfect XD (The note that the first one was a clue certainly helped.)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

It is supposed to take a while to figure out. I got a bit carried away with all the phrases... But I tell myself that trying to solve this is much like waiting for an Ent to speak.

[greatandgrey]

I loved reading this exchange, and I did enjoy working out the puzzle. :)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

I am so glad! I live puzzles myself, and it's fun to share the love.

[ysilme]

I confess I didn't even attempt the puzzle - my English is good, but not that good. ;o) It was a fun read all the same, and I find your headcanon quite fascinating! This special friendship is quite something, pollination discussions or not. ;o)