B2MeM 2012: "The Earth, Singing" by Himring

[hhimring]

B2MeM Challenge: O-72: In what furnace was thy brain? (W. Blake) [Snippets of Verse)
Format: Vignette
Genre: Character Study
Rating: General
Warnings: none
Characters: Aule, Durin, Feanor
Pairings: none
Summary: Aule designs Durin's brain.

In his longing for students to teach the unbounded wealth of the minerals of Arda, Aule takes great pains to calibrate the brains of his dwarves exactly to their task. The dwarven bodies he designs are sturdy and solid, thoroughly functional like a well-balanced hammer or a mattock; later ages will—mistakenly—call them crude. But Durin’s brain is an intricately damascened blade. It is a fine instrument attuned to the tectonic rhythms of Arda. It is a set of chimes that resonates with the song of granite and gneiss, quartz and malachite, jasper and basalt. Aule is proud of Durin’s brain. Even after suffering Eru’s reproof, he still considers it his best piece of work.

Until the day Feanor walks into his forge—and Aule discovers that the triumph of the teacher cannot be complete until he is taught a lesson by his student. Feanor does not resonate, not for long. Feanor rewrites the song.

Note: The author bows to Elleth and Lyra in gratitude for yesterday's B2MeM fics about Aule and Durin.

Comments

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

The author bows to Himring in admiration of what she did there.

Seriously, I love this. Stunning use of language, stunning look into the creation of the Dwarves (crude? Bah, they just don't understand the original purpose!), and most of all, stunning conclusion. I'm thrilled that you felt inspired to write this, in part, by my little ficlet!

[hhimring]

Thank you! I'm so glad you like it!
I realized afterwards that I was sort of wrong in calling it "my first dwarf fic" in my comment on SWG, though. Only, my "other dwarf fic" is from Maedhros's POV and he's puzzled and trying to figure out Azaghal--it doesn't feel like the same category at all, to my mind.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Makes perfect sense to me - that's Maedhros fic, not dwarf fic! :)