The Star-kindler's Daughters
Title: The Star-kindler's Daughters
Author: Dwimordene
Characters: OC Dúnedain of the North, Halbarad, Aragorn.
Sources: LOTR, Appendices for setting; Semper Fidelis, Triage, and Violations for the back-story of Thorondis and Eledhril (modified timeline, because it just works better this way…)
Warnings: shifting metaphors, it’s a society under siege…
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I just wanted to say: good to see Thorondis again.
They are made of stern stuff, she and her fellow hearth-keepers!
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Ahem.
Seriously though, what a lovely holiday surprise! I've actually been thinking about these folks again, recently. As always, your Angle worldbuilding is superb--and harrowing. What struck me most of all, throughout, is how the Dunedain, through their mission and their incredibly precarious position in the world, do not have the luxury of segregating the martial from the domestic. All aspects of these men's and (most notably) women's lives have been weaponized, in some cases, literally: everything from agriculture, to housework, to childbirth and childrearing: Every pail of milk, every stack of firewood, every chamberpot of night-soil - such is defiance of the Enemy, who would wipe the earth of them. And all this apart from the emotional labor and tolls of grief and infidelity, which Thorondis also turns into defiant weapons in her people's struggle against the darkness: ‘Tis hard, the work of mourning that, like alchemy, must turn lead into adamant, grief into hard purpose. ( ... )
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You're welcome. Happy Channukkah. No really, you can thank me later... if Eledhril doesn't kill me first, that is.
What struck me most of all, throughout, is how the Dunedain, through their mission and their incredibly precarious position in the world, do not have the luxury of segregating the martial from the domestic. All aspects of these men's and (most notably) women's lives have been weaponized, in some cases, literallyYep. It just makes a lot of sense in terms of their position: they can't go toe-to-toe with Sauron on a field of battle. So they have to be able to maintain themselves, and a place, without getting into major positional warfare. That being so, they wouldn't have survived without making everything about that goal of deliverance, without being to marshall every man, woman,and child behind it and link every aspect of life to it in some way. They've got a thin margin for error - there just aren't that many of them, and their only defense is unity against the efforts by ( ... )
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-- Also the coda, with Thorondis and Eledhril at peace in Tharbad. And finally, Thorondis leaving the world, happy and fulfilled in her duties.
You know, I didn't originally include those sections. Originally, this ended with the last of the "Way of Leithian" drabbles, but later, I thought it would be nice to say something about how she eventually handled Eledhril's infidelity. And I'd tried writing this really angsty, painfully drawn out confrontation for your original "Bad Sex" challenge, but it was going nowhere. Then this idea inserted itself, and since I'd always intended for that to be her response to him, it let me get that out of my system. And it gave me another opportunity to make her awesome, because she has no regrets, she's not clinging to life, and she trusts she's done what she needed to do for the next generation.
ALIANA: And now, I'm like, even more curious as to how you ever, ever managed to get away with not marrying. [whistles innocently]
HALBARAD: [grinds his teeth] We are so not going there.You're welcome to ( ... )
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He had his chance... :p
She's a fighter on a lot of levels, and he's attracted to that - which also kind of helps give her parity with his male lovers, because he loves them for similar reasons.
This makes sense. Way back (for Triage), I was re-reading Semper Fi to try to nail down some of the particulars of E&T's marriage. I came to the (correct, I think) conclusion that he loved her because she was intelligent, empathetic, spirited (read: potentially hot-tempered), physically attractive (read: strong), and capable. Though, really, given the nature of the society you've outlined, these are probably the characteristics of most of the women of the Angle, particularly those who've survived to adulthood. So it would have been extra illuminating to Eledhril to have had these additional, harrowing battlefield encounters in which he's able to make these even more clear (favorable) comparisons between her and his fellow male warriors.
Right. I mean, ( ... )
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