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B2MEM Day 6: On Weathertop (O67)
Format: Ficlet
Genre: General
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Characters: Aragorn & the Hobbits
Pairings: None
Summary: Musings of Strider
Authors Notes: Stuff in italics directly quoted from J.R.R.Tolkien, Book One: Chapter XI: A Knife in the Dark in The Fellowship of the Ring.
As they sat in the dell below the ruins of Amon Sûl Aragorn smoked his pipe as evening fell and reflected on journeys past – many of which had lead him to strange places and to meet strange folk in the long years he had spent serving in Rohan and Gondor and then the journeys he had made to lands south and east. There he had met folk considered enemies by Gondor but who may in the future prove friends. But not while Sauron lived – and while the Nazgûl roamed. It was those riders in black that he feared now as they sheltered in this dell below Weathertop where he had sat before awaiting the arrival of Ranger patrols. Now he awaited a more dangerous foe – and probably one known to his land many years before as the final destroyer of the Northern-kingdom – the Witch-King of Angmar.
He could see his companions huddled round the fire and realised that they were frightened. So drawing on his knowledge he told them stories from the old lore – of Elves and Men and those Elder Days before the War of the Wrath reshaped the land and the Edain sailed for the island kingdom Númenor. He told of the Elf-kingdoms ruled over by the Noldor who had travelled back from Valinor believing the whispers of Melkor.
“Tell us of Gil-galad” came a request from Merry as Strider finished a tale. “Do you know any more of that old lay you spoke of?”
“I do indeed. So also does Frodo, for it concerns us closely.”
Slowly Frodo said, “I know only the little that Gandalf has told me. Gil-galad was the last of the great Elf-kings of Middle Earth. Gil-galad is Starlight in their tongue. With Elendil, the Elf-friend, he went to the land of….”
As Frodo was speaking a fear grew in Aragorn’s heart – one he knew from his travels of before. “No!” he said interrupting, “I do not think that tale should be told now with the servants of the Enemy close at hand. If we win through to the house of Elrond, you may hear it there, told in full.”
In response to Sam’s plea for another tale of the old days and Elves, he decided to give them part of the tale of Beren and Lúthien, partially as he thoughts fell on his own beloved, the great-great-granddaughter of that pair. When he had finished and the pale light of the Moon rose he once again felt the dread rising in his heart – the Riders were near. Sam and Merry who had wandered away came back to the dell saying they feared to go further.
Aragorn acted swiftly, telling the hobbits to keep close to the fire and get some of the longer sticks in their hands. Then as they peered intently into the half-gloom he saw the Shadows rise in shapes of drak figures and he knew some of the Nine were upon them. Never before in his travels had he faced any of these, the most feared servants of Sauron, and now he must face them as a group – led, he feared, by the Morgul Lord.
He could see his companions being filled with the terror the Nazgûl brought , as Merry and Pippin feel to the ground. He clutched his sword and flaming brand and used his will to overcome the terror. Then almost as if in a dream he saw Frodo put on the Ring and disappear. Within a few moments he saw a dark shadow approach where the hobbit had been with a sword & a knife. Then he heard the cry of O Elbereth Gilthoniel! and then nothing. They found Frodo lying face down in the ground – he told the rest to put him by the fire as he went to discover where the five who had attacked had gone.
He found nothing but the feeling of dread their presence had also gone so all he could assume was that the Witch-King believed their task was accomplished which meant Frodo was in serious danger. All he could think was that he had been stabbed by a Morgul blade – a fate he would wish on no-one, let alone the innocent hobbit. He must return and do what he could and hope that the natural resilience of a hobbit was greater than that of any man he had met in his travels. That Frodo would survive to Rivendell and to the one of the few people left who might be able to deal with the effects of the blade, particularly when it had been wielded by the Witch-King himself.
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- Erulisse (one L)
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