Earth

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

B2MeM Challenge: B10: Feanatics: unjust exile; Talents and Skills: gardening, Economy: scarity; Of the Sea; River Mouth.

Format: Oneshot
Genre: General
Rating: PG. 
Warnings: None
Characters: Maglor, Elond + Elros
Summary: It was an unjust exile, but so was theirs. The Nandor have no idea how important they are, hunger is a great tool, and Himring was not exactly build on top of a huge orchard.

He is walking through a garden. He is walking right over someone's carefully tended crops and carrots. There is some blood on his boots, and it makes a mess. Right now, he is still too proud to look down, too caught up in the fading heat of battle, the slight, stinging pit in his stomach, the sure knowledge of loss.

They took the children. Some think it was an act of mercy. Others will say it was foolish, because will the children not try to avenge their parents? Now they are small, easily kept and subdued. Later, they will be stronger, search for poisonous herbs, a knife for his back. It was not mercy, or at least that is what he consoles himself with. It was, Maglor thinks, scraping the thick cake of mud, blood and squashed cabbages off his polished leather boots, it was revenge. Or maybe not revenge. It was...it was collecting a debt. He considers dying their hair red, clothing them in the colours of his house. Would they learn to respond to those names? 
Probably not, he thinks. Probably, they were too late, they are too old already. Probably, they should have come earlier. Earlier? But there was no Silmaril here earlier, nor the small, dark haired boys currently huddled up in a tent, somewhere in his camp. The Ambarussa yet lived. Would they have died in an earlier attack on the same place too? Was that not how fate worked, how Vairë pulled and knotted the threads from all sides at once? He feels as if he should know, but his childhood is far, far away, in a different world, when he was a different person, and he can reach neither the land or that boy again, ever. There is a haze over his thoughts, but that could just be the aftermath of battle.

The Noldor are a proud people. They are not, have never been, a tribe of farmers. Before they came to Valinor, maybe, some of them have tended crops. But only the very oldest. Those who remembered the ache of hunger in their bellies, the constant vigilance of the hunted, of being prey. But few of those have come. Very few of those who have seen these lands before were eager to return. Maybe that should have warned them, but it didn't. They were young and fierce and righteous in their anger. They would conquer the world. They would avenge their kin. They would...come to know the ache of hunger.

The Nandor and Avari do not know they hold such power, and the Noldor are sure to keep it that way. Every time official exchanges are held there is an abundance on their tables the likes of which those simple peoples have never seen. Delicacies perfected in the languid abundance of Valinor, works of centuries, melting on the tongue. They see the carelessness with which they treat precious, valuable objects - shining, iridescent jewels large enough to secure a comfortable life for many Long Years, strewn out on the floor in a glittering disarray, the shine of golden goblets winking at them in the glow of the fire. For now, they do not know they are needed. Their impressive trading partners just don't seem to like getting their hands dirty, but that is only in part the truth.

It is not that there is no food. But meat alone is not enough to keep anyone completely healthy, not even the Eldar, and in their current circumstances they need to be healthy. They know, too, what wild herbs and roots they can eat, and they do eat them, though they are sure never to let that show in those vital trading exchanges. It is simply that they are with too many, too often attacked, too often driven to barren places, positions of defense. Only coarse grass grows in abundance around Himring, and only their horses become fat with it. The many hunting trips the Lords take are not, as the Sindar think, just because they find it entertaining. They are hunting because they are also the hunted, because the land is not kind to them. Nothing but an abundance of mushrooms grows in Nargothrond's caves. They are places chosen for their strategic positions, not for the soft rich dark earth beneath them. Often, there is nothing but sand and rock.

Maglor wipes the sweat of his brow, gazing at the dark, tangled edges of Taur-im-Duinath, listening to the soft breeze rustling the high reeds surrounding the Sirion. This is a place of abundance. There is water, and soft, dark ground, rich with the leaves of many years. If only they could stay here, but no, they need somewhere strategic, somewhere barren, as the very blood on his hands proves, as the blood on his on his boots does, as it does on the ground. This is no place of defense. This they knew. In the end, this victory will appear not be of much use to them. But the men, the hungry men, tired of dried meat, roasted meat, cooked meat, of all imaginable things done with meat after yet another diplomatic Nandor-Noldor fall out, the men will appreciate this sacking. They will dirty their slim, long crafters' fingers, artists' fingers, their well kept nails. They will dig out the carrots and wash away the mud and blood, they will drown the slight, shrinking guilt in vegetable soups and oven warm dishes. They will not question the timing of this fall out, the well-scheduled mention of a Noldorin claim on some previously uninteresting patch of forest, the sudden insistence that the Nandor remove their small, unobtrusive tree houses from the area. They will not. And when the order to attack Sirion comes, to take back the Silmaril, it seems right. They will think about the rustling reeds and sun drenched, fertile ground, the anger on their leaders' behalf burning as hot as the ache in their bellies. 

When they take them away, they look back. The children sitting almost backwards on a horse before Maedhros' large form, craning their small necks. There is still some smoke rising up in the distance, its colour a dirty dark grey against the blue of the sky. Around them, the smell of blood, of dirt. the guards behind them exchanging recipes. The smell of flowers and soft, sun warmed earth starts to fade. Then, hiccuping, one of them begins to cry. Then the other. 

It is an unjust exile. But so is theirs.


------

Notes; doesn't feel finished, probably swarming with grammar horror and typos, pretty much started to despise the idea halfway through, soldiered on. But it's my first B2MEM participation, at last! Not sure if AU. 

Comments

[samtyr.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting. I hope that you develop it further.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

I love the concepts in this. Very much the law of the jungle: eat or be eaten. The Noldor putting a good face on it to fool Nandor guests, the longing for a settled place with good earth and people to tend it, the sense of the hunter turned hunted -- also liked his thoughts on the taking of the children. I would love to see this again when you're satisfied with it.

And congrats on joining the madness :)

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

Hah! See, I knew the Nandor, and later Thranduil's Wood-Elves, had reason to distrust the Noldor. (I have a pet Third-Age theory about it.) So this really works for me. Armies, as you so rightly point out, need farmers and those who know how to live off the land. (Thinking now too of the first European settlers of the Americas and how badly they needed the Native American knowledge...)

Whether or not you feel it's finished, it's a fertile (ha ha) idea and you've really put it across. Good stuff!

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

I wish I could say I was planning to, but honestly, I'll likely leave it at fishing out spelling errors etc and never taking it any further. I'm really awful about writing longer stories! Thank you though. :)

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think they truly didn't attach too much value to ordinary jewels and gold (yet), having grown up with it covering beaches. But I'm fairly sure they know the Nandor don't know that! Scheming bastards. :)

Haha, I love beating M& M up about taking those kids hostage. I just don't buy the instant mercy thing. Seriously, don't tell me no children were harmed in any kinslaying ever. For the first would be logical, because the Teleri present were there to defend those ships and likely didn't take their families along. But the others...a sack is not called a sack for no reason. War is ugly, and children too are killed. So to me, there has to be a reason. The bond can still develop later, I don't think they are savage evil brutes at all, but sudden mercy in that sort of situation is, to me, about as likely as love on first sight. Oh, I'm such a romantic. xP

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I think they have more than enough reasons to do so even without the added scarcity situation! I suppose the Noldor could eventually have done fine on their own, being supposedly the smartest guys around and stuff. But they landed armies, they were constantly at war, building fortresses, not farms. Aside from Morgoth being really intend on destroying everything they created, likely including farms if they built them at all. Plus, I doubt there was all that much but recreational farming going on in Valinor, with Yavanna around. If there was, I could see the the Vanyar doing some, maybe, but the Noldor? Hmm.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

It would seem a harsh, uncompromising landscape after what they'd left behind, and probably not many of them were pioneering types - and yes, it couldn't have taken long before they realised the things valued for prettiness were rare and had a very different impact on the locals.

*hushed awe* There is another heretic out there! Yes!! Really, pitched battles with lots of blood and severed limbs and disembowelled stomachs doesn't lend itself to sober consideration and exceptional mercy. And of course children died in Doriath, and probably even more in Sirion - wasn''t Sirion the greatest slaughter of the three? I've always been convinced they took the children along for reasons that had little to do with mercy. If they just wanted them safe it would have been easy enough to find some terrified woman to care for them and leave them where Cirdan, Gil-galad, Celeborn, whoever could retrieve them. When you're on the move, small children are a problem -- unless you have a good reason to keep them around.

Um - total stranger blathering away on your post. Will shut up now. *embarrassed*

~Kei

Did I say how much I liked the last line? Very much!

[blslarner.livejournal.com]

Well thought out and reasoned. The type of tale I especially like!

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I’m so glad you’ve been able to get some writing in!

I like how the grim beginning is punctuated with the squashed cabbage (that made me smirk, but my sense of humor is a bit skewed).

Delicacies perfected in the languid abundance of Valinor…

That strikes me as a very apt description of the, well, the privilege I imagine existing in the Undying Lands. And the way you describe the machinations of the Noldor, how they contrive to appear as though they wallow in riches and have no need of those indigenous to the region, is quite clever.

Also, Maglor’s reflection on the dead and the living pairs of twins is both creepy and pitiable.

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

Thank you! ^^ No, that was intended. We seem to share a skewed sense of humor, hah. I just cannot write a dramatic scene without suddenly involving something utterly mundane in a terrible situation to take the dramatic shine off the it. Just one of those Bitter Lady moments - no people are melodramatically killed without some cabbages squashed and clothes lines damaged!

For some reason, the Noldor of Valinor make me think of this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iLqRAnXvRw There's a bit of an underlying anxiousness, an emptiness (to me) to the blissful life they led there. It seems like a very strange, powerless yet abundant and likely more than a little decadent situation. I don't know why, exactly, but..yeah. I imagine it would create a very odd culture, considering the apparent lack of any form of scarcity, that being the one of the main motivators for a lot of things happening, err, everywhere else. Must have been quite the transition.

Hehe, well I blame Tolkien for that. The man had a thing about Feanorians interacting with twins. First they kill two twins, then two of their twins are killed, then they take the twins of the people they have killed who killed their twins. Hmm. xD

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D

[shadowbrides.livejournal.com]

I imagine the first few encounters would have been very strange! I imagine something like I vaguely remember from some Columbus movie about natives who did not value gold much and gave some to the crew without really thinking of it as very valuable. Only in this case the situation is reversed - the colonizers are the clueless ones, which changes the situation somewhat, considering they are also the one with the invading army. I like to imagine they created all sorts of tensions with unthinking gifts to non-important natives who then among their people suddenly became envied and powerful.

Exactly! I don't believe in that kind of mercy. I can believe in mercy in other situations, but battle does things to the psyche. You're not exactly your most reasonable self while slashing your way through the bodies. So much exposure to violent situations also just changes people. For example, I cannot imagine some of the cruelties soldiers today have committed would have been things they would have done had they led a civilian life. Unless something really goes wrong in their heads, they will likely also not attempt that sort of thing in non-military situations. Anyhow, yes. Aside from this Crazy!Maglor idea I have always suspected politics. They didn't just take a random pair of twins, they took Luthien's heirs. Perhaps they hoped having them in their possession would gain them power over the Sindar?

Hey, I don't mind! I like blathering. :) And thanks!

[huinare.livejournal.com]

We seem to share a skewed sense of humor, hah.
Great minds skew alike?

I love the way you describe your idea of the Noldor in Aman...I'd tend to agree. The Valar seemed to want to coddle and shelter them (the song seems appropriate for that). Decadent indeed.

Yeah, and what's up with Tolkien and twins in general? There's also Elladan and Elrohir, later.

[allora.livejournal.com]

I love this piece. I've never thought so deeply into this aspect of the Noldor. Good work!