Warping Arda: Adrift in the Ages

[clodia_metelli]

Title: Warping Arda: Adrift in the Ages
Author: clodia_metelli
Characters: Glorfindel, Celebrían, Aredhel, Erestor.
Rating: G
Book/Source: Silmarillion.
Disclaimer: I am not J.R.R. Tolkien and I make no money from this.
Summary: Five drabbles written for tolkien_weekly's A Season of Gifts challenge. Glorfindel's still having trouble fitting his First Age past into his

Comments

[quantumlobster]

These are lovely!

I especially like the last one, "Afterwards". The golden candlelight, the golden brandy - such lovely images. The whole scene is so easily pictured and felt.

[clodia_metelli]

Thank you! I think 'brandy' is one of those words that just sounds delightful; it rather lends itself to this sort of thing.

[perelleth]

These are lovely punches, are good drabbles are: full of layers, so when you unfold them they spread wide and deep. Actually these remind me why I love the Silm so much: the large, never ending cycle of fighting and losing and still fighting on... And Glorfindel is a lovely image of that, and a bridge to the third Age. Loved the first one, with the weight of ages in a small, familiar object, and Melian's gift: all the grief packded in names: melian herself, and her love, Daeron, and his tragecy, and Beren and Lutien's, Menegroth Gondolin, lost realms... and a harp-

And even if I haven't ever tasted miruvor, I'm with Glorfindel in the last one: you have to love brandy. Wonderful, thanks!

[clodia_metelli]

Thank you! I'm so glad, as ever, that you enjoyed them! I always have fun writing drabbles, since there's so few words that I might as well play around with what I've got. (Which isn't always a good idea; but there is no progression without experiment, after all.)

I know what you mean about the Silm -- the way it offers the possibility of invoking whole tragic cycles by throwing out a single name. I love being able to make links and undercut what's being said by doing it! (I don't deal a lot with ancient literature as literature, but I think it's the sort of game you find being played a lot in Hellenistic poetry especially, which I understand tends to be very convoluted and to reference obscure myths in very concise ways.) And you know Doriath is my true love out of all the Silmarillion kingdoms. :D

[engarian]

The beauty of a drabble is the underlying structure of canon allowing the flight of fictitious wings. You have flown far and high, my friend. In minimal words you have tugged at our hearts and once again reminded us about why the Silm remains at the top of my Tolkien books list.

I am not keen on brandy (except for the color), but fine port....well that's my personal miruvor.

- Erulisse (one L)

[clodia_metelli]

Thanks so much! I had fun writing these drabbles, so I'm very glad you enjoyed them, and even more so that they reinforced your fondness for the Silm. I must admit, for all that I seem to have been using brandy a lot lately, I don't drink it myself. My personal miruvor is earl grey tea. :'D

[binkaslibrary]

These are excellent! Not only you've said so much about Glorfindel, but about others too. And in so few words in each of the drabbles, you've packed a lot of Arda's history that I'm in awe.

You paint with words very beautiful pictures. Awesome!

[clodia_metelli]

Thanks so much, I'm very glad you enjoyed them! I always have fun writing drabbles -- since it's only a mouthful, everything has to be compressed, but for the same reason I think you can get away with dislocated syntax and overbearing imagery much more than in a more extended piece. So I tend to use drabbles to experiment a bit. And playing with elves makes it possible to draw links through all the Silmarillion, which is always great fun. :D

[clodia_metelli]

Awwww, thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed these mouthfuls, despite your hatred of drabbles! Personally, I think drabbles get a bad rap in some parts; I like writing them because when you've only got a hundred words to play with, you can be more experimental than in more extended pieces. And it doesn't always work, but after all, there's no progression without experimentation (and a little bit of failure). I've read a great many beautiful drabbles too, I promise! The writers are tolkien_weekly are all excellent.