Poetry Challenge - Ballad, Doggerel, Lay: "A Poet's Fate", by Himring
Title: A Poet's Fate
Author: Himring
Characters: Dirhavel (author of the Lay of the Children of Hurin)
Rating: PG
Warnings: hints at the canonical content of the Lay
Book/Source: Unfinished Tales, Lays of Beleriand
Disclaimer: Tolkien wrote the Lay and attributed it to Dirhavel.
When Dirhavel first heard the Ballad of the Dragon Slayer, he was struck speechless for a day. The second time he heard it, he wept bitter tears. It was only when he grew up and was taught the elvish tongues and the craft of verse-making that he realized the song that had moved him so was mere doggerel and he became determined to compose a lay truly worthy of his hero.
His listeners prized Dirhavel’s art highly-but to Dirhavel it seemed that, however he strove, he could never evoke that pity and terror he remembered feeling as a child.
A/N: The ballad is my own invention, but that Dirhavel (or Dirhaval, as he is called in HoME) collected a number of traditions about Turin and his family as sources for his Lay is canonical.
Author: Himring
Characters: Dirhavel (author of the Lay of the Children of Hurin)
Rating: PG
Warnings: hints at the canonical content of the Lay
Book/Source: Unfinished Tales, Lays of Beleriand
Disclaimer: Tolkien wrote the Lay and attributed it to Dirhavel.
When Dirhavel first heard the Ballad of the Dragon Slayer, he was struck speechless for a day. The second time he heard it, he wept bitter tears. It was only when he grew up and was taught the elvish tongues and the craft of verse-making that he realized the song that had moved him so was mere doggerel and he became determined to compose a lay truly worthy of his hero.
His listeners prized Dirhavel’s art highly-but to Dirhavel it seemed that, however he strove, he could never evoke that pity and terror he remembered feeling as a child.
A/N: The ballad is my own invention, but that Dirhavel (or Dirhaval, as he is called in HoME) collected a number of traditions about Turin and his family as sources for his Lay is canonical.