Warping Arda: Eilinel

[clodia_metelli]

Title: Warping Arda: Eilinel
Author: clodia_metelli
Characters: Sauron, Eilinel, Lúthien.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Character death, general nastiness.
Book/Source: Silmarillion.
Disclaimer: I am not J.R.R. Tolkien and I make no money from this.
Summary: Sauron's "black thoughts" in Tol-in-Gaurhoth. This was written for the current tolkien_weekly prompt, 'Loving

Comments

[engarian]

I had to read it a couple of times to get all of the nuances, but I really loved this. The POV perspective is wonderful, the characterization is spot-on and minimized and oh so accurate. I'd say "lovely" but the subject matter really isn't lovely.

- Erulisse

[clodia_metelli]

Thanks, I'm very glad you enjoyed it! I was reading 'Of Beren and Luthien' the other day for some beta-work, and it struck me as a neat symmetry: that Eilinel's capture and death, used by Sauron to capture Barahir and his men, eventually brings his tower down around his ears when Luthien comes seeking the captive Beren. Hence, this. A little unseasonal, though, possibly. :'D

[perelleth]

There's this one thing about drabbles, if well written, like in this case, that they seem to just explode and expand from an impressive economy of words. Catching momentous events and boning them to the core, that's when they are most meaningful.

And Sauron waxes poetic here. "I sang a phantom for him" You really have to love that sentence, its cadence, the weight of delighted cunning in the trickery and the inevitable defeat that will result from that short sentence. Wonderful.

[clodia_metelli]

Thank you, as always! I'm very glad you enjoyed it! As I said above to Erulisse, I was reading 'Of Beren and Luthien' the other day for some beta-work and this whole drabble just jumped out at me -- and happily, it more or less fits the current prompt as well...

(Sauron's phantom Eilinel actually keeps making me think of the cloud-phantom of Helen of Troy that turns up in some versions of the whole Trojan epic cycle. But that's just a matter of phrasing really, I think.)

[perelleth]

Yes, you are right, the ghost there ( in the the Lay) is a well-worn trick. It always reminds me of Hamlet's father's ghost! :-) What I loved in your sentence was the use of "sing", because music has mostly positive connotations in TOlkien's world, and your choice there comes as a warning, that there can't be light without darkness.

My brain is in holiday defrag, so i'm more prone to picking up silly little details! :-)

[clodia_metelli]

//What I loved in your sentence was the use of "sing", because music has mostly positive connotations in TOlkien's world, and your choice there comes as a warning, that there can't be light without darkness. //

I love that reading! I was leaning on the contest between Finrod and Sauron, where Sauron out-sings Finrod to capture him and his Elves and Beren -- so as you say, the magic of music here is a two-sided thing, and the magic of Sauron the Maia may be closer to Elvish magic than either side would want to admit. I don't know. Elvish magic (how it works, what it can do) seems to me to be one of those things that is never really explained in Tolkien (unless it turns up somewhere in one of the books of scraps that I have neither the time nor really the inclination to sift through).

I know what you mean about holiday defrag. Hope you're wholly refreshed by the end of it!

[curiouswombat]

Beautifully wrought and shiver-making!

[clodia_metelli]

Thank you! It's not very seasonal, is it? :/

[azalaisdep]

Ohhh. Brrrrr. There's an... interested detachment about his description of poor Eilinel's body, which is just chillingly non-human. And then that wonderful hint of the table-turning to come when Luthien turns up. I can't believe how much you packed into these hundred words, without them feeling packed at all...

[clodia_metelli]

Thanks, I'm so glad you like it! The table-turning was a real hook for me when I wrote it -- Sauron luring his victims, until he catches one too big to be held...

[anna_wing]

Pretty and poetic!

Did Sauron know what Luthien wanted, though? If he'd known that he had a hostage, surely he wouldn't have bothered to fight. Just, "Surrender, or the mortal gets it", would have been enough.

[clodia_metelli]

Thank you! I think after Luthien had done her Blondel the Minstrel act with Beren, Sauron could have guessed what she was there for -- he had known Finrod was a particularly shiny Noldo, if not which one, so he might have guessed she was on a rescue mission. And after all, it's just a girl down there, albeit a very pretty one with a very good singing voice, so why bother negotiating? Just send a wolf down to fetch her... or two... ooops.

(If we're picking out 'why on earth didn't...?' moments in the Silm, 'Why on earth didn't Luthien and Beren just steal the whole damn crown?' will always be my favourite.)

[anna_wing]

That occurred to me too! I decided that it was just too big and heavy, given that Morgoth appears to have been giant-sized (cf the large pits outside Angband made by his mace during his duel with Fingolfin).

[clodia_metelli]

Yes, I think I decided that size was the only viable option too. It would have been nice to have it spelled out, though. Ah well, can't have everything!