Cradle to the Grave, by Elleth

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

B2MeM Challenge:
N43: Discoveries: Anatomy, Four Words: smith, consonance, cradle, mantle, Horror: Spiders, flies, and maggots, Landscape: Cove, Weather: Sleet, Women of the Silmarillion: Women of Numenor
I22: AU Card: And in that year, the Necromancer, Sauron, revealed himself, and he broke the Council that had come to assail him..., Here We Come A-Caroling: "heedless of the wind and weather", Colours: Lavender, Economy: Climatic Change, Femslash: Valier, Festivals: Funeral/Wake, Food and Drink: Hunting and Gathering, Four Words: order, cascade, small, dogwood, Occupation: apothecary, Relationship: remarriage, Second Age: The Gift of Men, Weather: Hurricane, Write What You Know: A character you dislike--what might you have in common?

Format: Fic
Genre: Double-drabble
Rating: Teens
Warnings: References to death, doom, destruction. Standard Silmarillion fare.
Characters: N/A
Pairings: Vána/Nessa if you squint really, really hard.
Summary: A short history of Númenor.
Note: About the insane number of prompts - I made it a challenge to myself to fit all of my current prompts into the shortest possible space I could. A drabble didn't quite work out (I tried!) but it still was fun.


Consonance surges as the Smith's hammer tears open Arda's mantle. From her cradle, Númenor arises. Waters cascade, and from small beginnings the melody unfolds. Men and women disembark, order prevails for a time. In Nísimaldar, dogwood flowers large and white, and all but the wisest begin to fear their winter. Thence their plight begins: Knowledge of certain death, driving apothecaries and anatomists alike to find eternal life, grants Noirinan no grace, but wakes of dissonant weeping. Estë and Nienna are no longer loved, Vána and Nessa take comfort from one another while human lips curse them as mockeries. Endings abound.

Crops fail, drown, burn, never grow. Hurricanes lash them, sleet stings them, but heedless, cruelty drives people hunting and gathering, to make graceless sacrifices left to flies and maggots: Not fruits, but others' Gifts, substitute returns by force. The old ways shatter; spans shorten, wives and husbands are callously replaced. Discord swells in coves and under skies no longer lavender at dusk. The Necromancer, falsely humbled, assails the council's minds, to war. Manwë grieves the necessary justice to be ordered. Consonance surges as the Smith's hammer tears open Arda's mantle. And Númenor, as all things must, goes to her grave.

Comments

[blslarner.livejournal.com]

You managed to make them fit brilliantly!

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! :)

[pandemonium-213.livejournal.com]

That's fabulous, Elleth! Spot-on word choices (prompts and otherwise ;^)) and a great rhythm, rising, swelling, then crashing. It reads like poetry. I love the imagery of the Smoth's hammer (tearing) open Arda's mantle that serves as bookends to "Cradle to Grave," which serves as an excellent illustration of how careful attention to wordcraft yields a powerful tale in an economy of words.

[pandemonium-213.livejournal.com]

Oh, and..."References to death, doom, destruction. Standard Silmarillion fare." LOL! How true, how true!

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, Tolkien did have a penchant for that, and playing such epic scales it's almost impossible to avoid.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Now this is high praise if there ever was any, Pande, thank you! :D It definitely was interesting to try and fit everything into a short space, and an exercise to repeat. The great number of prompts forces very dense writing, and that's good practice for longer-form fics as well. :)

[moetushie]

I am still astonished at your ability not only to incorporate so many prompts into one coherent piece -- but to make beautiful and heartbreaking as well! Ah!

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Your icon up there (plus teacup, even!) might just as well be me. Once you think about it a little, connections do open up to fit the theme, though. :) But thank you all the same.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Wow, what an intense piece, both in terms of the emotion evoked and the incorporation of so many prompts. I, too, really liked the dual usage of the Smith's hammer with the cradle/grave images that start and end the piece.

Also: "The Necromancer, falsely humbled, assails the council's minds..." <---that is a clever inversion of words and ideas, one which I tend to think the Necromancer himself would approve of. =]

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! It seems bookends like the one here are currently my favourite literary device, but I'm glad it fits. The same goes for the AU card - I actually have a horror fic in the works that does deal with Sauron breaking the White Council, but that couldn't very well go into a fic about Númenor so the prompt needed some twisting. ^^

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I actually have a horror fic in the works that does deal with Sauron breaking the White Council..

*Will be looking out for that one!*

[engarian.livejournal.com]

Whoa! I always knew I wouldn't want to live on Numenor.

- Erulisse (one L)

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the beginnings were quite lovely, and unless you got embroiled in the general hysteria about life and death, it would have been a very live-able life... not much worse than in a developed country anywhere these days. But from a more distant viewpoint, I suppose misery will always make the greater impression.

[nelyo-russandol.livejournal.com]

Wow, great feeling of words pounding one after the other, as though echoing with the blows of the hammer of the Smith. Really powerful images come to mind, too. Really unique, and a very cunning way to incorporate so many prompts!

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, Russa! :D The density of images actually is something I was fairly surprised and pleased about myself, but then it was quite inevitable with trying to crowd 19 prompts into 200 words. :)

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I like this so much. I had to recommend it on my LJ. Hope that is OK.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Of course it is! :D Thank you so much for the rec and the comment, Oshun! ^^

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed - cradle to grave, all of Numenor's history in between two hammer strokes. With this Vala's eye view of time passing, the reader gets a little dizzy, watching Numenor and its people surge up and then collapse so quickly like this. Great, visceral engagement of the reader through the words.

I like this phrase in particular: Not fruits, but others' Gifts, substitute returns by force. You really manage to capture the heart of this transformation. Well done!

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

With this Vala's eye view of time passing
That's a lovely idea for perspective! I was being intentionally distant, but this didn't actually occur to me.

I like this phrase in particular: Not fruits, but others' Gifts, substitute returns by force.
Thank you so much for the whole comment - this sentence actually made me think of your drabbling style while I wrote it, so getting your comment is making my day just a little! :D

[nienna324]

This is amazing! It paints such a vivid picture of such long spans of time! And the way you fit all the prompts in is incredible!
This piece has a sense of rhythm and inevitability to it- everything rises and fall, almost like waves on the ocean moving up and down.