Categories > Books > Lord of the Rings > A Song On The Air
When Heneryn and Laurerusca left the Rose Cottage in an attempt to disappear forever, it was not with any desire to hurt or punish Mitaurë and Maressa. Especially Maressa, who was away at the time in Lórinand and who, they knew, would be upset terribly when she returned and discovered that they had gone without saying goodbye. They decided to leave at that particular time because Heneryn said that she knew what Amroth's answer would be. Devastated by the lack of knowledge of who her mother was and afraid of who she might be she decided to leave at that particular time because she knew that her marriage to Laurerusca would not be approved. She ran away then. It was the only way she knew to escape the trauma that she felt.
Neither Mitaurë nor Maressa knew that Melian was Heneryn's mother, although they suspected that her mother was one of the Valar and they had told the young couple of their suspicion. But Heneryn knew instinctively that her mother was more powerful than an Elf. She had even stronger prescience than Galadriel and piece by piece, she put together a scenario in her mind. Celegorm was her father; this, she knew as she had been told of it. She knew his story, about his life and how he had died as Galadriel had told her about it. She knew she had been born after the killing of Thingol but before the fall of Doriath, and that as a baby she had been given to the Lady Galadriel by Estë of the Valar. Why would Este of the Valar have taken her to Galadriel? The possibility that she was of the Valar frightened Heneryn considerably. She did not know that Melian was her mother - a Maia, a goddess of unique power - an immortal, or that Luthien was her sister, a Half Elf and Half Maia and a person of great powers.
Heneryn fled through the Tasarion Forest, away from the questions that burned inside her mind, trying to escape them as she ran along the western bank of the Anduin River as it wound its way North. She did not want to know, or to be who she was. Laurerusca, in pursuit of her, was frantic. He could sense her panic and he knew that being as upset as she was and fleeing with no thought for her own safety were not good for her because of her pregnancy, and he worried for both Heneryn and their baby.
Eventually Heneryn stopped running and sat down to rest against the bole of a willow tree beside the riverbank, the course of which she had been following. When Laurerusca caught up, he tumbled down beside her and pushed her hair back from her pale and perspiring face. Looking into her eyes, he saw the confusion and pain, and he held her face between his hands. "Do not despair so, my love", he said, his tone firm and convincing. "I will take care of you, I promise. We shall be safe and happy in the home we make for ourselves, as Mitaurë and Maressa are in theirs. The difference is that we shall have our own child, where they, alas, will not. Do not worry for them, little one. Before they had you, they had each other and their love was strong. They will soon go back to what they were. I am sure that they will never forget you, but they will be happy again".
"Oh, Laure", Heneryn wept, "I do feel worst of all for the hurt that I have done to them. They took care of me as if I was their own child, and I know that they loved me. It is a terrible thing that I have done, but I cannot go back. I cannot, Laure. I am compelled to go on".
"Hush, hush, little one. Yes. We shall go on. Rest first, and then we shall go".
"Laure", said Heneryn, "I am like no other. Even I do not know who I am, though I may suspect it, or where I belong. I give you leave now to go back if you will to your home, and leave me alone, as I cannot promise that your life in exile with me will be a happy one".
"Heneryn, I would never leave you. If you revealed yourself to be a wolf monster and not a beautiful maiden I still would not leave, as I love you more than my own life".
The two lay down on the grassy mound beneath the willow. Laurerusca had found some long grass that he cut down with his long knife and used to fashion soft bedding for Heneryn. Looking up at the spread of the willow branches, he was pleased to see that they formed a canopy of protection against possible rain. The late afternoon sky was overcast, and he could hear the faint faraway rumble of thunder.
Gently, he pressed his lips against Heneryn's wet cheeks, first one and then the other. He enveloped her in his strong arms, holding her close to the warmth of his body. Together they lay until she was calm, and then he rose to his feet.
"I should go to hunt something for us to eat", he said, and looked out upon the grassy slopes of the riverbank. With his bow and arrow, he shot a rabbit and skinned it and prepared it for supper. He felt it was safe enough where they had stopped to explore the woods for herbs with which to season the rabbit meat and perhaps find some berries for dessert. After a bit of searching, he found edible bulrushes, and close to these were some daylilies, which was an even better discovery. Every part of these plants was edible; indeed, their roots were similar to the potato's, and unlike that dietary staple, the daylily flowers were not poisonous, but thick and sturdy, the better to wrap around bits of the meat and roots, to make quite a delicious meal. He found also some wild blackberries, and set about gathering all he could, putting the food into his pouch to carry back to Heneryn.
While washing the rabbit meat in the river water, he looked about for some large, dry rocks, which he piled up in one spot as a marker to make it easier to come back and find to gather up later. Then he took the food back to Heneryn and started to dig out a small trench in the ground, using a large flat rock to do so. After they had retrieved the rocks he had piled up, they spread them in the bottom of the trench, along with some kindling wood.
Laurerusca then started a fire with a flint he had in his pack, and they sat and waited for the rocks to heat up. Once these were nicely warm, they placed the rabbit meat and "potatoes" wrapped in lily flowers down among the hot stones, and covered the whole trench with bracken that they gathered from nearby. Cooking this way was slow, but they lacked a pot in which to make stew, and did not desire to eat the meat raw. While munching on a few berries and flowers they waited for the meat to cook, inhaling the warm inviting scent of the roasting rabbit. They both were extremely hungry. Laurerusca suggested a swim in the river so that they could wash themselves and pass the time until the food was ready.
As he helped Heneryn remove her clothing, Laurerusca noted her fine dress of lavender raw silk, with embroidery at the neck and wrists, and a belt of silver beads strung together in six rows around her hips. "Not very practical for forging an existence in the wilds", he thought. The next layer, a petticoat of raw silk as well, was long-sleeved and buttoned up at the front, with a low neckline. "She should be wearing this alone on our trek to the North", he thought, "and keep the fine dress for later, if she will ever need it again. I doubt that we will be able to fashion any new clothing for many years". He gently unbuttoned the petticoat for her and, neatly folding it, put it down beside the dress on the bank. Under the petticoat she wore a simple camisole of soft linen and long pantaloons of the same material that were gathered at the ankles with ribbons woven through eyelets. "These and the petticoat should serve her well enough for hiking", he mused. Underneath these, she wore underwear of silk. The last of her clothing to come off was another camisole and short bloomers tied with a ribbon at the waist. "These things can be let out as her belly grows bigger", he thought with some amusement despite their predicament. He was a little surprised that he could laugh despite their situation. The realization came to him that he relished the sort of life that was before him.
Heneryn shivered. "Must I take these off, Laure?" she asked. "I am cold".
"Well, if you wish to wear dry clothing afterward, then yes, you must take them off" was his practical answer.
She did not look happy about it but took them off anyway and laid them down on top of her pile of clothing. Then she grasped her upper arms as if to ward off the cold and stepped gingerly into the water. He noticed the small swell of her belly above her visibly increasing patch of pubic hair. He noticed too, that her breasts were swollen and becoming pendulous. An aching began to grow in his loins as he gazed upon her and he thought again how he loved and desired her more than anything in the world. He removed his own clothing, the brown tunic and lighter brown shirt and leggings, very quickly, as he too, could feel the air getting colder. It soon cooled the lust that had swelled in his loins. His underwear was comprised of a pair of short, tight woollen pants that ended above his knees. He peeled them off and followed Heneryn into the water. His olive skin radiated some heat as he entered the stream, causing little wisps of steam to rise from his chest and shoulders. He plunged in, ducking his head under the surface, while Heneryn entered gingerly, a bit at a time, until she was standing in water up to her waist.
Laurerusca popped up out of the water and pushed back his thick brown and grey hair from his forehead. Heneryn felt in that moment as she gazed at him how deeply she loved him. His large eyes of golden brown, fringed by dark, thick lashes, shone with kindness as he returned her gaze. They were what had attracted her to him in the beginning, and why she had chosen to call him Laurerusca, of all his names. She had fallen completely under the spell of those eyes. She looked into them now and saw his kindness and with her prescience she also saw in the different shades and colours within their depths his worried feelings. She felt as if she had let this brave, strong, protective, exceptional Elf down.
"This is all my fault", she thought as she gave him a weak smile, and then a brief glimpse of their future struggle appeared to her. She saw them in a strange, bleak place, struggling to live through a terrible winter, with a child to look after, all three of them huddled together in a dark cave. She shivered violently, and banished the vision from her mind. Laurerusca waded up to her and folded her into his strong, warm arms.
"The water is too cold after all, my darling", he whispered, his face in her hair, his breath warm on her temple. "Come, let us get out now and get dressed. We are clean enough, and we can watch over the food while we wait for it to be ready". Arm in arm, they climbed out of the water.
After they had eaten, they fell asleep under the willow, lying on the soft grass. Neither felt like making love that night, as they huddled together under their cloaks, listening to the gentle rain that fell around them but did not touch them. "At least the thunderstorm has passed away to the north of us", thought Heneryn, snuggling into the warmth of Laurerusca's protective arms.
OOOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOO
After several months of uneventful travelling, during which they surprisingly did not come close to another Elf or any other being, even of the race of Men who wandered through the lands of the Northeast, Heneryn and Laurerusca came finally into the vast region known as Forodwaith. Occasionally during their travels they would see groups of people from afar moving together through the lands. While Laurerusca and Heneryn had no news of war or armies that had been gathering to the South of either Elves or the Enemy, they would pass bands of Dwarves heading South, but always avoided stopping to converse with them. Heneryn had no mistrust of Dwarves since she had known many while living in Eregion, but Laurerusca felt it best that no one be aware of their progress to the unknown Northeastern lands.
Forodwaith was a great uncharted, unexplored wilderness area and it was unknown to most inhabitants of Middle-earth. They had followed the great Anduin River northwards, crossing the Old Ford and then the smaller Langwell River before passing through the Grey Mountains by way of a cleft carved out between two of the mountain peaks. It had been a long, arduous journey, and they decided to stop when they had entered the lands to the north of the mountains. Looking before them in wonder as they stood atop a cliff high above a great basin, the young couple could see that the land for miles ahead was covered with huge, smooth rocks and boulders, deposits left by a recent glacier that had melted and run off through the mountains. It was a cold land, and standing there, looking toward the north, they could feel the change in the climate. The sky was made up of beautiful shades of orange, rose and purple, as the sun was setting in the west to the left of them. They could see a stand of pine trees to their right, and decided to head for these to make camp for the night.
"It is cold in this land, Laure", Heneryn remarked. "I am not sure we have made the right choice to come this far".
"Here we will never be discovered", Laurerusca replied. "That was as you wished, my love, but we could go east if you no longer desire to go north. Let us rest tonight, and then we can talk about it tomorrow." He helped Heneryn climb the steep slope down to the copse of trees. There was very little grass growing on the rocky ground, so he removed his own cloak and laid it down upon the pine needles under one of the tall trees. They both cuddled together on top of his cloak, and used hers as a blanket. Putting his arms around her stomach, he could feel how big it was. She was becoming uncomfortable lately, and very irritable, as the constant walking became difficult for her. He knew that it was a sign that the baby would be coming soon, and he was worried. He worried that they had done the wrong thing in leaving home as they had. But he also understood Heneryn's plight. She could never feel accepted by any of the Elven communities, or by anyone in Valinor if she had desired to go to the Blessed Realm. Yet that may not have been a possibility for her either, as it was obvious that her own mother did not want her, and the Valar would not, perhaps, have given her permission to go to live there among them. The uncertainty of their future drove them to make their own lonely life together, forsaking any companionship with others, and drove them to seek out places where no others dwelt.
Laurerusca missed his own family. He had made the choice to leave home for Heneryn's sake, because of his unwaning love for her, yet he did not feel intrinsically that it had been the right thing to do. He wondered what she wanted for the two - no, three - of them. She had not told him what she desired, ultimately, in the way of a home and occupation for them. His worries kept him awake all the night. Out in the unknown wilderness, he could hear many sounds. Animals, he thought, strange creatures he had not before seen, as his imagination took hold and made him think of monsters and terrible death. Strange howling noises penetrated the still night air. Odd chirping and moaning noises assailed his ears, and it bothered him that he did not recognize them and could not identify the animals that made them. He tightened his arms around Heneryn, who slept the deep sleep of a heavily pregnant woman, much tired from constant walking and living out of doors.
When the sun rose the next morning, Laurerusca thought that it would be safe to get up and explore the area. He left Heneryn sleeping and planned to be gone only a few minutes. During the long journey they had made from home near the Gladden River, they had had no problem finding food and shelter. Laurerusca had heard the noises made by strange night creatures here in this place and now he wanted to see what sort of animals roamed the land by day. As he walked about, he saw some small squirrels and many types of birds. He used his bow and arrow to bring down a duck. It had fallen into the shallows of a lake at the bottom of the steep hill that they had climbed down. When he retrieved it, he noticed that other water birds standing on tall, stately legs were catching good sized fish in their long beaks. There were plenty of bulrushes growing along the shore, and he was much relieved to see them. He knew that the soft, white insides of their flowering parts could be ground into flour for bread. On his way back to Heneryn, he noticed low bushes of bright red berries, cranberries, growing near the lake edge. His spirits lifted. He breathed in the fresh, clean air and scent of pines, and the water of the fresh lake. "Food and water, plenty of both", he thought with glee. "It may be cold here, but it may also be the most ideal place for us to stop".
Laurerusca's decision turned out to be prescient, for a few days later, Heneryn gave birth to a baby girl. It was a quick, easy birth, as both mother and child wanted it over with as soon as was possible. When Laurerusca placed the baby in her mother's arms, the infant began to sing. It was a thing of wonder. Her tiny voice rang out into the still air, announcing her arrival to the world. Where other babies cried or cooed upon being born, this one sang, not words, but a simple, melodic tune.
"Lindaril shall be her name", Heneryn announced with a glowing smile. "Lindaril - a brilliant singer of song".
Laurerusca nodded in agreement, his eyes filling with tears as he gazed upon his beautiful daughter, who looked exactly like her mother. "Lindaril it shall be", he said.
OOOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOO
By the time Lindaril had grown to be 3,500 years old, she had lived in Forodwaith all her life with her parents, who had decided to stay there, first for the plentiful food and water, and finally because it was secluded, stunningly beautiful, and they felt a strong bond develop between themselves and the land. They had worked hard in the early years to build a shelter, and then a proper house out of the logs from the pine trees that Laurerusca felled. All of their tools he had fashioned with Heneryn's help: axes, scythes, knives and hammers. He had even built a small forge in which he made beautiful things out of gold, silver and copper, which were plentiful in the area. While exploring the lands to the north, Laurerusca and Heneryn had discovered a vast forest of pine trees and cedars, with many streams running through it. A large gold deposit was discovered in a cave system within the Grey Mountains, and in a small river that flowed out of this cave and through the rocky, open land that lay before it. It was easy to mine the gold there. One just had to walk to the river and pluck it out in the form of plentiful nuggets. Laurerusca had made a large sieve that they used to sift the sand of the river bottom, and that usually yielded plenty of nuggets. Since as a child she had done the same thing in the Tasarion Forest, Heneryn was quite skilful at finding gold and had taught this skill to her daughter.
"Look, Mother", cried Lindaril one day when the two had been out exploring for gold for Laurerusca. She held up a large, smooth nugget for Heneryn to see. It was shaped like a duck resting its head on its wing. Both women laughed to see this and Lindaril decided to keep it as a decoration for her bedroom.
Laurerusca made plenty of fine things from the gold they mined. He started making larger items such as chairs and small tables and chests, and as his fingers grew more skilled, he fashioned cutlery, plates, cups and bowls, and small toys for Lindaril to play with. He made her a whole menagerie of little animals that became her favourite toys. The animals in this northern region had always fascinated him. Birds were there in vast numbers, but the fur-bearing creatures interested him the most. Squirrels were the first animals he had seen, but soon others appeared: rabbits, of course, and tiny mice, but also stranger ones such as raccoons with their little black masks and hands, and porcupines with their sharp quills. Skunks, also, were prevalent, and the small family had quickly become wary and knew to keep well out of skunks' way.
Mostly, they avoided large animals. Soon after Lindaril was born, they had had their first encounter with wolves. Laurerusca and Heneryn had been preparing dinner together when a wolf pack came upon them, seeking out the source of the scent that had attracted them to the cooking meat. There were five wolves, all large, grey and with gleaming yellow eyes. Their coats were luxuriantly beautiful, Laure noted. They appeared to be well fed, as food was certainly plentiful in the area. Laurerusca wondered briefly why they had approached their campsite as he reached for his bow and arrows. He could not know that they approached out of curiosity, having never seen people before, or smelled the aroma of roasting meat. He stood up and nocked an arrow, aiming his bow at the wolf in front. It glared at him for a moment and then Lindaril began to wail. At the sudden sound of her voice, the wolf bared its yellow fangs and growled. Laure stepped forward and pulled back the bowstring. It made a very slight creaking noise and the wolf lunged. Laure then released the string and let his arrow fly. The beast leapt forward and the arrow pierced its head. Then he wasted no time. For fear of his baby and Heneryn, he nocked another arrow and shot the next wolf even though it had not attacked. As he readied yet another arrow for the third beast, the remaining wolves all started to growl, baring their sharp teeth in warning. Heneryn shrieked and turned to run with Lindaril in her arms. Laure felt no emotion as he shot the next wolf, then the next and the next, until all of the beasts lay dead on the ground. When he was finished he dropped his bow and put his hands up to his face. He wept for the fear that he felt now, after it was done. Not for himself, for he was a skilled and efficient archer, but for his family and for the situation they were in. With the baby now to look after as well as Heneryn, he felt suddenly alone and with no future. Heneryn walked slowly back to his side and put her hand on his shoulder. She was weeping too and trembling, as she held Lindaril close to her bosom. "Well", Laurë said as he wiped his eyes and embraced them, "At least their furs will make fine, warm wraps for us".
"Laure", said Heneryn, "It is not wise for all of us to wander together like this. We need to build permanent shelter and a safe dwelling for Lindaril".
From that night on, he and Heneryn always cooked their meat in a trench lined with hot stones, covering it well with cedar branches that masked the smell of the roasting flesh, while Laurerusca began building their home.
Laurerusca had skinned the wolves and Heneryn made robes and blankets out of their beautiful, soft, grey fur. Their meat was not very tasty, and so they buried it to avoid attracting bear, another large, threatening creature to be avoided. Several types of bear roamed these lands, brown and black, and the dreaded huge grizzly. The bears loved the cranberries that grew profusely by the lake and they loved to fish in its waters. Because of this danger, Heneryn and Laurerusca built their house atop a cliff overlooking the lake and river below, and surrounded it with a high fence made of tall pine logs, sharpened at the top, and strung together with copper wire that Laurerusca made in his forge. In a large circle within the perimeter of the fence, they placed torches stuck into the ground, and these were lit every afternoon before the sun went down, to keep the wolves at bay. Since the incident when a pack of wolves had threatened the baby, Laurerusca wanted to make sure that none would ever be able to get close to the house if he were away hunting. They felt safe within these confines at night. Three thousand, five hundred years thus passed safely for them, with very little incident, and without seeing any other people.
On one occasion; however, when Lindaril was only about twenty, still a young Elvish child, she had wandered into the woods searching for wildflowers, and had come across a wolf at close quarters. When she told her parents about the encounter, they were alarmed but much relieved that she had escaped unscathed. When she related the story of how she had made her escape, they looked at each other in wonder.
They were sitting in the cozy parlour of their home, sipping peppermint tea from silver goblets that Laurerusca had made. The fragrant scent of mint wafted through the spacious room. Spread out on the floors were the furs of many grey timber wolves that he had slain. The furniture was made of pine, and had been built by the three of them together. Laurerusca had taught Heneryn and Lindaril some carpentry skills. Lindaril wore a dress fashioned from the lavender silk gown that Heneryn had been wearing when they left Rhovanion. She looked beautiful, her great deep blue eyes shining with pride.
"I sang to him", she told them.
"You sang to the wolf? Child, why would you do such a thing?" queried Laurerusca, shocked but relieved that she had tried to domesticate a wild animal like that and had managed to escape.
"I sang to him and he fell down", she replied. "He is sleeping still. He will not awake for many hours".
Laurerusca was disbelieving. "Come, show me where this happened", he said, reaching for his weapons. He brought along a bow, arrows, his long hunting knife, and an axe for good measure. Lindaril followed him, but he did not want her to enter the forest.
"But Father", she implored, "I think I would be safer at your side than left alone on the forest edge, in the open and a prey for other wild beasts".
He had to agree with her reasoning, and so let her follow him. He gave her the axe for protection and bade her give him directions to where the wolf lay. When they reached the creature, he could see that it was, indeed, sleeping. He slit its throat with his knife, and bled it into a hole he dug into the ground. After carefully burying the blood, he tied up the carcass with rope after wrapping it in a blanket, and slung it across his shoulder. "Come, my child", he said to Lindaril, "let us make our way home".
When he told Heneryn later about Lindaril's encounter with the wolf, she smiled knowingly. "She has the voice of the Gods", she said. "I believe my mother could have been Melian the Maia then. I have been thinking upon it for years. I was born near Doriath after her husband was killed. Melian was a great friend of Lady Galadriel. It all makes sense. I feel that it is true, and Lindaril is the sign of that proof. My sister would have been Luthien Tinúviel, and only Lindaril and my sister have the gift of the Voice of Power that is my mother's also". She sighed. "In a way I am sorry that Lindaril shall remain hidden all her life, and that the world will never know that such a voice exists still".
Laurerusca smiled back at her. "But it must remain so", he said. "She would never be accepted among the ordinary peoples of Middle-earth. She would be considered a freak of nature and could never find happiness. Look at her, Melaya. She is otherworldly in appearance. She is happy here with us, and here she must stay".
They both glanced at their daughter who was spreading out her menagerie of gold animals upon the new wolf-skin rug. Her hair was as blue-black as the raven's wing, and her skin was pale as the snow that fell in the winter. Her eyes, huge in her small face, were like Laurerusca's in size, and she had his long, thick lashes, but Lindaril's eyes were of a deep blue colour and not brown as his were. When she chose to look at her parents in a certain way, she seemed to look right through them, and a spell was cast whereby they forgot who and where they were for a moment. Her stature was diminutive for an Elf, but her grandmother Melian was also of small size, having assumed it as her preferred appearance among the Elves of Doriath. Laurerusca, her father, was not tall although he was muscular and very strong, and Heneryn herself was of small stature.
During the next few thousand years, the family remained undiscovered and safe. Their original log house had deteriorated with age after a few hundred years, and so they built a new one out of stone, which they painstakingly put together with the use of dollies, pulleys and levers that Laurerusca fashioned. All three of them became skilled at many different occupations. Mining, metalworking, hunting, trapping, fishing, carpentry, and weaving all became easy for them over the years. Heneryn kept a garden of herbs, using them for medicine and cooking. This art had been learned from Maressa at the Rose Cottage where Heneryn had lived in Rhovanion. She thought often of her foster parents, always with love and regret. In their honour she named many plants whose names she did not know beforehand, and now were named after her foster parents in one way or another.
During the thousands of years that passed, she and Lindaril identified and documented every tree, bush and flowering plant growing in Forodwaith. They made canvases out of tree bark and wolf hides stretched over frames made of branches, and these canvases they filled with drawings and written identification of the flora of the region. Heneryn wished for these canvases to be left in their stone house as lore for future travellers, and as a memory of themselves and of Mitaurë and Maressa, in case anything were ever to happen to herself, Laurerusca and Lindaril.
The only people they ever saw were a few parties of Dwarves from time to time, who seemed to be marching from west to east, at quite a far distance to the north of them. Laurerusca's sharp eyes noticed them on a few occasions, but the Dwarves never came close enough to be aware that anyone lived in the area. Laurerusca thought that they had probably strayed off course, and should have been on the south side of the mountains. He had been worried that the Dwarves might find the gold deposits in the river and follow the rich lode to where the family would be discovered, but they never did. Gold and silver were plentiful everywhere, Laurerusca thought, and there were no precious jewels to be found in the area to entice the Dwarves.
"Three thousand years or more we have lived here", said Heneryn, her voice tinged with regret. "It is a long time. We know not how the outside world is faring. I would dearly love to see Lórinand again, if it still exists, and the Lady Galadriel and her family. Sometimes I wonder, my love, if we will ever see another Elf again, outside of this family".
"It must be thus, Love", he said, squeezing her hand in sympathy. "We made that choice ages ago, and we cannot rescind it now. Lindaril has never met another living soul besides us and the animals of this region. She would not be able to cope in the outside world by herself".
The following winter, however, was fell. It remained bitterly cold for months longer than normal, and the nearby lake's surface froze. It became increasingly difficult to find food, and the small family was forced to pack up and leave their home to venture southeast in hope of finding better weather. Their intention was to return when spring arrived.
Packing only the provisions that they could carry with them, the three set out upon their journey. It was slow going because snow had begun to fall, and became heavier as they pushed forward. Eventually it turned into a blizzard, and the family were forced to take refuge in a small cave at the foot of a hill. As she sat huddled with Lindaril while Laurerusca tried to build a fire, Heneryn was reminded of the vision that she had had when she and Laurerusca had first set out upon their travels north. That vision had been of Lindaril as a baby, and the three of them were huddled in a cave such as this. She was glad that when her vision came true, Lindaril was grown and better able to handle the hardship that they faced, than if she had been a babe in arms.
After many days of waiting out the storm, they found that they had eaten all of the food they had brought with them. Laurerusca became worried for their survival if they were forced to stay in the cave for weeks or months. "I am going out to try to find something for us to eat", he announced after considering for a while. "Wait here for me, my loves. I shall be back soon, no doubt, with at least a squirrel for our dinner". He tried to make light of the situation, but inside he did not feel much hope.
"Do not go, Laure", Heneryn pleaded. "I do not have a good feeling about your going out there alone. No animal would venture out in this snow either. You will not find anything except death. Please, Laure". She was distraught though she tried to hide her emotions for Lindaril's sake. Lindaril sat quietly and tried to busy herself with stoking the fire. The acrid fumes of the burning embers filled the cave.
"Worry not, Melaya", he replied. "Have I not become a great hunter? The greatest you have ever seen?" He laughed at this. "Worry not! I love you too much to let you starve here, in a cave. I shall be back soon!" With that, he was gone, and Heneryn and Lindaril cried for him long after, missing terribly his comforting presence.
Days passed, in which Heneryn thought about telling Lindaril about her ancestry, in case something happened to them. A sense of foreboding had come upon her. However, she thought that if one of them were to die, then they all would, somehow. She had a feeling that that was to be their fate. She felt then, that there was no point in explaining to Lindaril how she knew by prescience that Melian the Maia was her mother and Lindaril's grandmother, but she did tell her daughter about her grandfather, Celegorm the Fair. Ages ago, her foster-mother, Maressa of the Tasarion Forest, had told Heneryn his story, as it was told to her by the Lady Galadriel, who knew all of the history and lore of Aman and Arda. Lindaril was fascinated by the story of the Noldor, and especially of her great-grandfather, Fëanor, and his seven sons. Heneryn spared no detail in the telling of the Silmarils, the Kinslaying, and the feats of Celegorm, her father.
"What was your mother like?" Lindaril asked, but Heneryn replied, "I know not. She was a maiden that my father met at the Lake of Tarn Aeluin in Beleriand. She forsook me, and I was given to the Lady Galadriel to raise. Then when Galadriel decided to part with her husband and leave for an unknown region, I was given to foster parents, who took good care of me".
Many days passed while they waited, and Laurerusca did not return. Heneryn became frantic with worry, but did not say anything about her feeling to Lindaril, for fear of upsetting her more than she was. After several more days, and no sign of her husband, Heneryn had developed a dreadful feeling of being but a shell, empty inside, a hollowed-out vessel from which the life that had made her a whole being, had escaped. She grieved for Laurerusca, as she had a prescience that she would never see her husband again. Trying to hide this grief from Lindaril, she took her daughter into her arms and held her close for a very long time.
"Lindaril", she whispered finally, "we are going to have to leave this cave". She swallowed, and could only mouth the words, "Just the two of us".
"Are we going to look for Father?" asked Lindaril, looking closely at her mother for reassurance.
"Yes, my love", said Heneryn. "We cannot stay here any longer, just waiting, when we might have been of some other use to him. Let us go to find him". She turned her face away so that Lindaril would not see its expression. Heneryn meant for them both to leave the cave and go to their deaths, and be reunited with Laurerusca one day in the Halls of Mandos. But she did not want Lindaril to know of her intention.
The two women packed all of their remaining supplies, and covering themselves well in wolves' fur, they emerged from the cave and began to walk slowly south, through the blinding snow which had not ceased blowing relentlessly. They never found Laurerusca. It was impossible to see anything around them in the blizzard, and both women wore scarves tightly wrapped around their faces for protection, with only slits for their eyes to see through. Very slowly, they made a little progress. They did not stop at all to rest, but pushed on for many days. Finally, the snow began to fall ever more lightly, and the bitingly cold temperature began to lift a little. Lindaril trudged on doggedly as she had been doing for days, letting her mind wander to the stories her mother had told her about Fëanor and the Noldori. Eventually, exhaustion overcame her and she sunk down to her knees in the heavy snow. Turning around in order to tell her mother that she could not go on without a short rest, Lindaril could see that Heneryn was no longer following her.
"Mother?" she called out in alarm. Her voice rang out loud in the still winter air, as snowflakes now dropped sparsely from the dark grey sky. No reply was forthcoming. "Mother!" she screamed. Frantic, she rose to her feet, and tried to retrace her footprints back the way she had come, as well as she could in the thick snow. "Mother! Father!" she cried. She could see only one set of footprints, her own, for many miles, and was about to give up the search, when she came across the other pair. It was obvious that they were Heneryn's, as there had been no one else travelling with them, but Lindaril was devastated to see that these prints had become separated from her own, and there were signs that Heneryn had fallen, as in the snow there was a deep imprint of a body. But the terrible sight that haunted Lindaril forever after were the dragging marks, stained with fresh blood; a wide swath that wound in a serpentine pattern in the snow, and led toward a stand of pines far to the north. No other prints were visible. But if it had been a wolf, or a bear, dragging her mother toward those trees, their footprints would have been covered up by the path the body made, as it was being dragged across them.
Lindaril did not stop to think upon it further. She thought she knew in one terrifying vision exactly what had happened to her mother, and she ran, shrieking, into the unknown land to the east, alone.
OOOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOO
EPILOGUE
Melian woke with a violent start, jumping to her feet on her bed.
"In the cold - she runs, she runs - through bitter death.
And time, it goes
More swiftly now.
She comes to me, she comes
The dark is near,
As she draws hence,
Yet nothing can be done
To stop her now
From finding me
And she comes, she comes".
She sang in tongues. She sang gibberish, not knowing what she sang. But in her mind was a memory surrounded by a deep sadness and a hint of an inevitable meeting to come.
Estë and Irmo, who heard a disturbance in Melian's room from their own chambers on other side of her house, flew to their friend's side to comfort her.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Lindaril never discovered exactly what had happened to her parents. Her story is continued in The Lord of the Jewels.
TIMELINE FOR A SONG ON THE AIR
Source: "Tolkien: The Illustrated Encyclopedia", by David Day.
Further research assistance provided by Fanged Geranium.
"A Chronology of Middle-earth and the Undying Lands".
1) Melian meets Fëanor: He is young. She has been visiting Valinor from Doriath. The Silmarils are not yet made. It is around Year 21,000 of the Valarian Age, the time of the Trees and the Stars.
2) Melian meets Celegorm: After Thingol is slain but before Doriath is ruined. It is Year 30,503 of the Valarian Age, and just before the sun rises for the first time.
3) Heneryn is born one year later (in the Year 30,504.)
4) Heneryn stays in Rhovanion until pregnant, in the year 33,909 (the Valar are busy destroying Numenor.)
5) Lindaril is left on her own to wander in the Year 35,000, just before the Istari depart for Middle-earth.
Neither Mitaurë nor Maressa knew that Melian was Heneryn's mother, although they suspected that her mother was one of the Valar and they had told the young couple of their suspicion. But Heneryn knew instinctively that her mother was more powerful than an Elf. She had even stronger prescience than Galadriel and piece by piece, she put together a scenario in her mind. Celegorm was her father; this, she knew as she had been told of it. She knew his story, about his life and how he had died as Galadriel had told her about it. She knew she had been born after the killing of Thingol but before the fall of Doriath, and that as a baby she had been given to the Lady Galadriel by Estë of the Valar. Why would Este of the Valar have taken her to Galadriel? The possibility that she was of the Valar frightened Heneryn considerably. She did not know that Melian was her mother - a Maia, a goddess of unique power - an immortal, or that Luthien was her sister, a Half Elf and Half Maia and a person of great powers.
Heneryn fled through the Tasarion Forest, away from the questions that burned inside her mind, trying to escape them as she ran along the western bank of the Anduin River as it wound its way North. She did not want to know, or to be who she was. Laurerusca, in pursuit of her, was frantic. He could sense her panic and he knew that being as upset as she was and fleeing with no thought for her own safety were not good for her because of her pregnancy, and he worried for both Heneryn and their baby.
Eventually Heneryn stopped running and sat down to rest against the bole of a willow tree beside the riverbank, the course of which she had been following. When Laurerusca caught up, he tumbled down beside her and pushed her hair back from her pale and perspiring face. Looking into her eyes, he saw the confusion and pain, and he held her face between his hands. "Do not despair so, my love", he said, his tone firm and convincing. "I will take care of you, I promise. We shall be safe and happy in the home we make for ourselves, as Mitaurë and Maressa are in theirs. The difference is that we shall have our own child, where they, alas, will not. Do not worry for them, little one. Before they had you, they had each other and their love was strong. They will soon go back to what they were. I am sure that they will never forget you, but they will be happy again".
"Oh, Laure", Heneryn wept, "I do feel worst of all for the hurt that I have done to them. They took care of me as if I was their own child, and I know that they loved me. It is a terrible thing that I have done, but I cannot go back. I cannot, Laure. I am compelled to go on".
"Hush, hush, little one. Yes. We shall go on. Rest first, and then we shall go".
"Laure", said Heneryn, "I am like no other. Even I do not know who I am, though I may suspect it, or where I belong. I give you leave now to go back if you will to your home, and leave me alone, as I cannot promise that your life in exile with me will be a happy one".
"Heneryn, I would never leave you. If you revealed yourself to be a wolf monster and not a beautiful maiden I still would not leave, as I love you more than my own life".
The two lay down on the grassy mound beneath the willow. Laurerusca had found some long grass that he cut down with his long knife and used to fashion soft bedding for Heneryn. Looking up at the spread of the willow branches, he was pleased to see that they formed a canopy of protection against possible rain. The late afternoon sky was overcast, and he could hear the faint faraway rumble of thunder.
Gently, he pressed his lips against Heneryn's wet cheeks, first one and then the other. He enveloped her in his strong arms, holding her close to the warmth of his body. Together they lay until she was calm, and then he rose to his feet.
"I should go to hunt something for us to eat", he said, and looked out upon the grassy slopes of the riverbank. With his bow and arrow, he shot a rabbit and skinned it and prepared it for supper. He felt it was safe enough where they had stopped to explore the woods for herbs with which to season the rabbit meat and perhaps find some berries for dessert. After a bit of searching, he found edible bulrushes, and close to these were some daylilies, which was an even better discovery. Every part of these plants was edible; indeed, their roots were similar to the potato's, and unlike that dietary staple, the daylily flowers were not poisonous, but thick and sturdy, the better to wrap around bits of the meat and roots, to make quite a delicious meal. He found also some wild blackberries, and set about gathering all he could, putting the food into his pouch to carry back to Heneryn.
While washing the rabbit meat in the river water, he looked about for some large, dry rocks, which he piled up in one spot as a marker to make it easier to come back and find to gather up later. Then he took the food back to Heneryn and started to dig out a small trench in the ground, using a large flat rock to do so. After they had retrieved the rocks he had piled up, they spread them in the bottom of the trench, along with some kindling wood.
Laurerusca then started a fire with a flint he had in his pack, and they sat and waited for the rocks to heat up. Once these were nicely warm, they placed the rabbit meat and "potatoes" wrapped in lily flowers down among the hot stones, and covered the whole trench with bracken that they gathered from nearby. Cooking this way was slow, but they lacked a pot in which to make stew, and did not desire to eat the meat raw. While munching on a few berries and flowers they waited for the meat to cook, inhaling the warm inviting scent of the roasting rabbit. They both were extremely hungry. Laurerusca suggested a swim in the river so that they could wash themselves and pass the time until the food was ready.
As he helped Heneryn remove her clothing, Laurerusca noted her fine dress of lavender raw silk, with embroidery at the neck and wrists, and a belt of silver beads strung together in six rows around her hips. "Not very practical for forging an existence in the wilds", he thought. The next layer, a petticoat of raw silk as well, was long-sleeved and buttoned up at the front, with a low neckline. "She should be wearing this alone on our trek to the North", he thought, "and keep the fine dress for later, if she will ever need it again. I doubt that we will be able to fashion any new clothing for many years". He gently unbuttoned the petticoat for her and, neatly folding it, put it down beside the dress on the bank. Under the petticoat she wore a simple camisole of soft linen and long pantaloons of the same material that were gathered at the ankles with ribbons woven through eyelets. "These and the petticoat should serve her well enough for hiking", he mused. Underneath these, she wore underwear of silk. The last of her clothing to come off was another camisole and short bloomers tied with a ribbon at the waist. "These things can be let out as her belly grows bigger", he thought with some amusement despite their predicament. He was a little surprised that he could laugh despite their situation. The realization came to him that he relished the sort of life that was before him.
Heneryn shivered. "Must I take these off, Laure?" she asked. "I am cold".
"Well, if you wish to wear dry clothing afterward, then yes, you must take them off" was his practical answer.
She did not look happy about it but took them off anyway and laid them down on top of her pile of clothing. Then she grasped her upper arms as if to ward off the cold and stepped gingerly into the water. He noticed the small swell of her belly above her visibly increasing patch of pubic hair. He noticed too, that her breasts were swollen and becoming pendulous. An aching began to grow in his loins as he gazed upon her and he thought again how he loved and desired her more than anything in the world. He removed his own clothing, the brown tunic and lighter brown shirt and leggings, very quickly, as he too, could feel the air getting colder. It soon cooled the lust that had swelled in his loins. His underwear was comprised of a pair of short, tight woollen pants that ended above his knees. He peeled them off and followed Heneryn into the water. His olive skin radiated some heat as he entered the stream, causing little wisps of steam to rise from his chest and shoulders. He plunged in, ducking his head under the surface, while Heneryn entered gingerly, a bit at a time, until she was standing in water up to her waist.
Laurerusca popped up out of the water and pushed back his thick brown and grey hair from his forehead. Heneryn felt in that moment as she gazed at him how deeply she loved him. His large eyes of golden brown, fringed by dark, thick lashes, shone with kindness as he returned her gaze. They were what had attracted her to him in the beginning, and why she had chosen to call him Laurerusca, of all his names. She had fallen completely under the spell of those eyes. She looked into them now and saw his kindness and with her prescience she also saw in the different shades and colours within their depths his worried feelings. She felt as if she had let this brave, strong, protective, exceptional Elf down.
"This is all my fault", she thought as she gave him a weak smile, and then a brief glimpse of their future struggle appeared to her. She saw them in a strange, bleak place, struggling to live through a terrible winter, with a child to look after, all three of them huddled together in a dark cave. She shivered violently, and banished the vision from her mind. Laurerusca waded up to her and folded her into his strong, warm arms.
"The water is too cold after all, my darling", he whispered, his face in her hair, his breath warm on her temple. "Come, let us get out now and get dressed. We are clean enough, and we can watch over the food while we wait for it to be ready". Arm in arm, they climbed out of the water.
After they had eaten, they fell asleep under the willow, lying on the soft grass. Neither felt like making love that night, as they huddled together under their cloaks, listening to the gentle rain that fell around them but did not touch them. "At least the thunderstorm has passed away to the north of us", thought Heneryn, snuggling into the warmth of Laurerusca's protective arms.
OOOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOO
After several months of uneventful travelling, during which they surprisingly did not come close to another Elf or any other being, even of the race of Men who wandered through the lands of the Northeast, Heneryn and Laurerusca came finally into the vast region known as Forodwaith. Occasionally during their travels they would see groups of people from afar moving together through the lands. While Laurerusca and Heneryn had no news of war or armies that had been gathering to the South of either Elves or the Enemy, they would pass bands of Dwarves heading South, but always avoided stopping to converse with them. Heneryn had no mistrust of Dwarves since she had known many while living in Eregion, but Laurerusca felt it best that no one be aware of their progress to the unknown Northeastern lands.
Forodwaith was a great uncharted, unexplored wilderness area and it was unknown to most inhabitants of Middle-earth. They had followed the great Anduin River northwards, crossing the Old Ford and then the smaller Langwell River before passing through the Grey Mountains by way of a cleft carved out between two of the mountain peaks. It had been a long, arduous journey, and they decided to stop when they had entered the lands to the north of the mountains. Looking before them in wonder as they stood atop a cliff high above a great basin, the young couple could see that the land for miles ahead was covered with huge, smooth rocks and boulders, deposits left by a recent glacier that had melted and run off through the mountains. It was a cold land, and standing there, looking toward the north, they could feel the change in the climate. The sky was made up of beautiful shades of orange, rose and purple, as the sun was setting in the west to the left of them. They could see a stand of pine trees to their right, and decided to head for these to make camp for the night.
"It is cold in this land, Laure", Heneryn remarked. "I am not sure we have made the right choice to come this far".
"Here we will never be discovered", Laurerusca replied. "That was as you wished, my love, but we could go east if you no longer desire to go north. Let us rest tonight, and then we can talk about it tomorrow." He helped Heneryn climb the steep slope down to the copse of trees. There was very little grass growing on the rocky ground, so he removed his own cloak and laid it down upon the pine needles under one of the tall trees. They both cuddled together on top of his cloak, and used hers as a blanket. Putting his arms around her stomach, he could feel how big it was. She was becoming uncomfortable lately, and very irritable, as the constant walking became difficult for her. He knew that it was a sign that the baby would be coming soon, and he was worried. He worried that they had done the wrong thing in leaving home as they had. But he also understood Heneryn's plight. She could never feel accepted by any of the Elven communities, or by anyone in Valinor if she had desired to go to the Blessed Realm. Yet that may not have been a possibility for her either, as it was obvious that her own mother did not want her, and the Valar would not, perhaps, have given her permission to go to live there among them. The uncertainty of their future drove them to make their own lonely life together, forsaking any companionship with others, and drove them to seek out places where no others dwelt.
Laurerusca missed his own family. He had made the choice to leave home for Heneryn's sake, because of his unwaning love for her, yet he did not feel intrinsically that it had been the right thing to do. He wondered what she wanted for the two - no, three - of them. She had not told him what she desired, ultimately, in the way of a home and occupation for them. His worries kept him awake all the night. Out in the unknown wilderness, he could hear many sounds. Animals, he thought, strange creatures he had not before seen, as his imagination took hold and made him think of monsters and terrible death. Strange howling noises penetrated the still night air. Odd chirping and moaning noises assailed his ears, and it bothered him that he did not recognize them and could not identify the animals that made them. He tightened his arms around Heneryn, who slept the deep sleep of a heavily pregnant woman, much tired from constant walking and living out of doors.
When the sun rose the next morning, Laurerusca thought that it would be safe to get up and explore the area. He left Heneryn sleeping and planned to be gone only a few minutes. During the long journey they had made from home near the Gladden River, they had had no problem finding food and shelter. Laurerusca had heard the noises made by strange night creatures here in this place and now he wanted to see what sort of animals roamed the land by day. As he walked about, he saw some small squirrels and many types of birds. He used his bow and arrow to bring down a duck. It had fallen into the shallows of a lake at the bottom of the steep hill that they had climbed down. When he retrieved it, he noticed that other water birds standing on tall, stately legs were catching good sized fish in their long beaks. There were plenty of bulrushes growing along the shore, and he was much relieved to see them. He knew that the soft, white insides of their flowering parts could be ground into flour for bread. On his way back to Heneryn, he noticed low bushes of bright red berries, cranberries, growing near the lake edge. His spirits lifted. He breathed in the fresh, clean air and scent of pines, and the water of the fresh lake. "Food and water, plenty of both", he thought with glee. "It may be cold here, but it may also be the most ideal place for us to stop".
Laurerusca's decision turned out to be prescient, for a few days later, Heneryn gave birth to a baby girl. It was a quick, easy birth, as both mother and child wanted it over with as soon as was possible. When Laurerusca placed the baby in her mother's arms, the infant began to sing. It was a thing of wonder. Her tiny voice rang out into the still air, announcing her arrival to the world. Where other babies cried or cooed upon being born, this one sang, not words, but a simple, melodic tune.
"Lindaril shall be her name", Heneryn announced with a glowing smile. "Lindaril - a brilliant singer of song".
Laurerusca nodded in agreement, his eyes filling with tears as he gazed upon his beautiful daughter, who looked exactly like her mother. "Lindaril it shall be", he said.
OOOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOO
By the time Lindaril had grown to be 3,500 years old, she had lived in Forodwaith all her life with her parents, who had decided to stay there, first for the plentiful food and water, and finally because it was secluded, stunningly beautiful, and they felt a strong bond develop between themselves and the land. They had worked hard in the early years to build a shelter, and then a proper house out of the logs from the pine trees that Laurerusca felled. All of their tools he had fashioned with Heneryn's help: axes, scythes, knives and hammers. He had even built a small forge in which he made beautiful things out of gold, silver and copper, which were plentiful in the area. While exploring the lands to the north, Laurerusca and Heneryn had discovered a vast forest of pine trees and cedars, with many streams running through it. A large gold deposit was discovered in a cave system within the Grey Mountains, and in a small river that flowed out of this cave and through the rocky, open land that lay before it. It was easy to mine the gold there. One just had to walk to the river and pluck it out in the form of plentiful nuggets. Laurerusca had made a large sieve that they used to sift the sand of the river bottom, and that usually yielded plenty of nuggets. Since as a child she had done the same thing in the Tasarion Forest, Heneryn was quite skilful at finding gold and had taught this skill to her daughter.
"Look, Mother", cried Lindaril one day when the two had been out exploring for gold for Laurerusca. She held up a large, smooth nugget for Heneryn to see. It was shaped like a duck resting its head on its wing. Both women laughed to see this and Lindaril decided to keep it as a decoration for her bedroom.
Laurerusca made plenty of fine things from the gold they mined. He started making larger items such as chairs and small tables and chests, and as his fingers grew more skilled, he fashioned cutlery, plates, cups and bowls, and small toys for Lindaril to play with. He made her a whole menagerie of little animals that became her favourite toys. The animals in this northern region had always fascinated him. Birds were there in vast numbers, but the fur-bearing creatures interested him the most. Squirrels were the first animals he had seen, but soon others appeared: rabbits, of course, and tiny mice, but also stranger ones such as raccoons with their little black masks and hands, and porcupines with their sharp quills. Skunks, also, were prevalent, and the small family had quickly become wary and knew to keep well out of skunks' way.
Mostly, they avoided large animals. Soon after Lindaril was born, they had had their first encounter with wolves. Laurerusca and Heneryn had been preparing dinner together when a wolf pack came upon them, seeking out the source of the scent that had attracted them to the cooking meat. There were five wolves, all large, grey and with gleaming yellow eyes. Their coats were luxuriantly beautiful, Laure noted. They appeared to be well fed, as food was certainly plentiful in the area. Laurerusca wondered briefly why they had approached their campsite as he reached for his bow and arrows. He could not know that they approached out of curiosity, having never seen people before, or smelled the aroma of roasting meat. He stood up and nocked an arrow, aiming his bow at the wolf in front. It glared at him for a moment and then Lindaril began to wail. At the sudden sound of her voice, the wolf bared its yellow fangs and growled. Laure stepped forward and pulled back the bowstring. It made a very slight creaking noise and the wolf lunged. Laure then released the string and let his arrow fly. The beast leapt forward and the arrow pierced its head. Then he wasted no time. For fear of his baby and Heneryn, he nocked another arrow and shot the next wolf even though it had not attacked. As he readied yet another arrow for the third beast, the remaining wolves all started to growl, baring their sharp teeth in warning. Heneryn shrieked and turned to run with Lindaril in her arms. Laure felt no emotion as he shot the next wolf, then the next and the next, until all of the beasts lay dead on the ground. When he was finished he dropped his bow and put his hands up to his face. He wept for the fear that he felt now, after it was done. Not for himself, for he was a skilled and efficient archer, but for his family and for the situation they were in. With the baby now to look after as well as Heneryn, he felt suddenly alone and with no future. Heneryn walked slowly back to his side and put her hand on his shoulder. She was weeping too and trembling, as she held Lindaril close to her bosom. "Well", Laurë said as he wiped his eyes and embraced them, "At least their furs will make fine, warm wraps for us".
"Laure", said Heneryn, "It is not wise for all of us to wander together like this. We need to build permanent shelter and a safe dwelling for Lindaril".
From that night on, he and Heneryn always cooked their meat in a trench lined with hot stones, covering it well with cedar branches that masked the smell of the roasting flesh, while Laurerusca began building their home.
Laurerusca had skinned the wolves and Heneryn made robes and blankets out of their beautiful, soft, grey fur. Their meat was not very tasty, and so they buried it to avoid attracting bear, another large, threatening creature to be avoided. Several types of bear roamed these lands, brown and black, and the dreaded huge grizzly. The bears loved the cranberries that grew profusely by the lake and they loved to fish in its waters. Because of this danger, Heneryn and Laurerusca built their house atop a cliff overlooking the lake and river below, and surrounded it with a high fence made of tall pine logs, sharpened at the top, and strung together with copper wire that Laurerusca made in his forge. In a large circle within the perimeter of the fence, they placed torches stuck into the ground, and these were lit every afternoon before the sun went down, to keep the wolves at bay. Since the incident when a pack of wolves had threatened the baby, Laurerusca wanted to make sure that none would ever be able to get close to the house if he were away hunting. They felt safe within these confines at night. Three thousand, five hundred years thus passed safely for them, with very little incident, and without seeing any other people.
On one occasion; however, when Lindaril was only about twenty, still a young Elvish child, she had wandered into the woods searching for wildflowers, and had come across a wolf at close quarters. When she told her parents about the encounter, they were alarmed but much relieved that she had escaped unscathed. When she related the story of how she had made her escape, they looked at each other in wonder.
They were sitting in the cozy parlour of their home, sipping peppermint tea from silver goblets that Laurerusca had made. The fragrant scent of mint wafted through the spacious room. Spread out on the floors were the furs of many grey timber wolves that he had slain. The furniture was made of pine, and had been built by the three of them together. Laurerusca had taught Heneryn and Lindaril some carpentry skills. Lindaril wore a dress fashioned from the lavender silk gown that Heneryn had been wearing when they left Rhovanion. She looked beautiful, her great deep blue eyes shining with pride.
"I sang to him", she told them.
"You sang to the wolf? Child, why would you do such a thing?" queried Laurerusca, shocked but relieved that she had tried to domesticate a wild animal like that and had managed to escape.
"I sang to him and he fell down", she replied. "He is sleeping still. He will not awake for many hours".
Laurerusca was disbelieving. "Come, show me where this happened", he said, reaching for his weapons. He brought along a bow, arrows, his long hunting knife, and an axe for good measure. Lindaril followed him, but he did not want her to enter the forest.
"But Father", she implored, "I think I would be safer at your side than left alone on the forest edge, in the open and a prey for other wild beasts".
He had to agree with her reasoning, and so let her follow him. He gave her the axe for protection and bade her give him directions to where the wolf lay. When they reached the creature, he could see that it was, indeed, sleeping. He slit its throat with his knife, and bled it into a hole he dug into the ground. After carefully burying the blood, he tied up the carcass with rope after wrapping it in a blanket, and slung it across his shoulder. "Come, my child", he said to Lindaril, "let us make our way home".
When he told Heneryn later about Lindaril's encounter with the wolf, she smiled knowingly. "She has the voice of the Gods", she said. "I believe my mother could have been Melian the Maia then. I have been thinking upon it for years. I was born near Doriath after her husband was killed. Melian was a great friend of Lady Galadriel. It all makes sense. I feel that it is true, and Lindaril is the sign of that proof. My sister would have been Luthien Tinúviel, and only Lindaril and my sister have the gift of the Voice of Power that is my mother's also". She sighed. "In a way I am sorry that Lindaril shall remain hidden all her life, and that the world will never know that such a voice exists still".
Laurerusca smiled back at her. "But it must remain so", he said. "She would never be accepted among the ordinary peoples of Middle-earth. She would be considered a freak of nature and could never find happiness. Look at her, Melaya. She is otherworldly in appearance. She is happy here with us, and here she must stay".
They both glanced at their daughter who was spreading out her menagerie of gold animals upon the new wolf-skin rug. Her hair was as blue-black as the raven's wing, and her skin was pale as the snow that fell in the winter. Her eyes, huge in her small face, were like Laurerusca's in size, and she had his long, thick lashes, but Lindaril's eyes were of a deep blue colour and not brown as his were. When she chose to look at her parents in a certain way, she seemed to look right through them, and a spell was cast whereby they forgot who and where they were for a moment. Her stature was diminutive for an Elf, but her grandmother Melian was also of small size, having assumed it as her preferred appearance among the Elves of Doriath. Laurerusca, her father, was not tall although he was muscular and very strong, and Heneryn herself was of small stature.
During the next few thousand years, the family remained undiscovered and safe. Their original log house had deteriorated with age after a few hundred years, and so they built a new one out of stone, which they painstakingly put together with the use of dollies, pulleys and levers that Laurerusca fashioned. All three of them became skilled at many different occupations. Mining, metalworking, hunting, trapping, fishing, carpentry, and weaving all became easy for them over the years. Heneryn kept a garden of herbs, using them for medicine and cooking. This art had been learned from Maressa at the Rose Cottage where Heneryn had lived in Rhovanion. She thought often of her foster parents, always with love and regret. In their honour she named many plants whose names she did not know beforehand, and now were named after her foster parents in one way or another.
During the thousands of years that passed, she and Lindaril identified and documented every tree, bush and flowering plant growing in Forodwaith. They made canvases out of tree bark and wolf hides stretched over frames made of branches, and these canvases they filled with drawings and written identification of the flora of the region. Heneryn wished for these canvases to be left in their stone house as lore for future travellers, and as a memory of themselves and of Mitaurë and Maressa, in case anything were ever to happen to herself, Laurerusca and Lindaril.
The only people they ever saw were a few parties of Dwarves from time to time, who seemed to be marching from west to east, at quite a far distance to the north of them. Laurerusca's sharp eyes noticed them on a few occasions, but the Dwarves never came close enough to be aware that anyone lived in the area. Laurerusca thought that they had probably strayed off course, and should have been on the south side of the mountains. He had been worried that the Dwarves might find the gold deposits in the river and follow the rich lode to where the family would be discovered, but they never did. Gold and silver were plentiful everywhere, Laurerusca thought, and there were no precious jewels to be found in the area to entice the Dwarves.
"Three thousand years or more we have lived here", said Heneryn, her voice tinged with regret. "It is a long time. We know not how the outside world is faring. I would dearly love to see Lórinand again, if it still exists, and the Lady Galadriel and her family. Sometimes I wonder, my love, if we will ever see another Elf again, outside of this family".
"It must be thus, Love", he said, squeezing her hand in sympathy. "We made that choice ages ago, and we cannot rescind it now. Lindaril has never met another living soul besides us and the animals of this region. She would not be able to cope in the outside world by herself".
The following winter, however, was fell. It remained bitterly cold for months longer than normal, and the nearby lake's surface froze. It became increasingly difficult to find food, and the small family was forced to pack up and leave their home to venture southeast in hope of finding better weather. Their intention was to return when spring arrived.
Packing only the provisions that they could carry with them, the three set out upon their journey. It was slow going because snow had begun to fall, and became heavier as they pushed forward. Eventually it turned into a blizzard, and the family were forced to take refuge in a small cave at the foot of a hill. As she sat huddled with Lindaril while Laurerusca tried to build a fire, Heneryn was reminded of the vision that she had had when she and Laurerusca had first set out upon their travels north. That vision had been of Lindaril as a baby, and the three of them were huddled in a cave such as this. She was glad that when her vision came true, Lindaril was grown and better able to handle the hardship that they faced, than if she had been a babe in arms.
After many days of waiting out the storm, they found that they had eaten all of the food they had brought with them. Laurerusca became worried for their survival if they were forced to stay in the cave for weeks or months. "I am going out to try to find something for us to eat", he announced after considering for a while. "Wait here for me, my loves. I shall be back soon, no doubt, with at least a squirrel for our dinner". He tried to make light of the situation, but inside he did not feel much hope.
"Do not go, Laure", Heneryn pleaded. "I do not have a good feeling about your going out there alone. No animal would venture out in this snow either. You will not find anything except death. Please, Laure". She was distraught though she tried to hide her emotions for Lindaril's sake. Lindaril sat quietly and tried to busy herself with stoking the fire. The acrid fumes of the burning embers filled the cave.
"Worry not, Melaya", he replied. "Have I not become a great hunter? The greatest you have ever seen?" He laughed at this. "Worry not! I love you too much to let you starve here, in a cave. I shall be back soon!" With that, he was gone, and Heneryn and Lindaril cried for him long after, missing terribly his comforting presence.
Days passed, in which Heneryn thought about telling Lindaril about her ancestry, in case something happened to them. A sense of foreboding had come upon her. However, she thought that if one of them were to die, then they all would, somehow. She had a feeling that that was to be their fate. She felt then, that there was no point in explaining to Lindaril how she knew by prescience that Melian the Maia was her mother and Lindaril's grandmother, but she did tell her daughter about her grandfather, Celegorm the Fair. Ages ago, her foster-mother, Maressa of the Tasarion Forest, had told Heneryn his story, as it was told to her by the Lady Galadriel, who knew all of the history and lore of Aman and Arda. Lindaril was fascinated by the story of the Noldor, and especially of her great-grandfather, Fëanor, and his seven sons. Heneryn spared no detail in the telling of the Silmarils, the Kinslaying, and the feats of Celegorm, her father.
"What was your mother like?" Lindaril asked, but Heneryn replied, "I know not. She was a maiden that my father met at the Lake of Tarn Aeluin in Beleriand. She forsook me, and I was given to the Lady Galadriel to raise. Then when Galadriel decided to part with her husband and leave for an unknown region, I was given to foster parents, who took good care of me".
Many days passed while they waited, and Laurerusca did not return. Heneryn became frantic with worry, but did not say anything about her feeling to Lindaril, for fear of upsetting her more than she was. After several more days, and no sign of her husband, Heneryn had developed a dreadful feeling of being but a shell, empty inside, a hollowed-out vessel from which the life that had made her a whole being, had escaped. She grieved for Laurerusca, as she had a prescience that she would never see her husband again. Trying to hide this grief from Lindaril, she took her daughter into her arms and held her close for a very long time.
"Lindaril", she whispered finally, "we are going to have to leave this cave". She swallowed, and could only mouth the words, "Just the two of us".
"Are we going to look for Father?" asked Lindaril, looking closely at her mother for reassurance.
"Yes, my love", said Heneryn. "We cannot stay here any longer, just waiting, when we might have been of some other use to him. Let us go to find him". She turned her face away so that Lindaril would not see its expression. Heneryn meant for them both to leave the cave and go to their deaths, and be reunited with Laurerusca one day in the Halls of Mandos. But she did not want Lindaril to know of her intention.
The two women packed all of their remaining supplies, and covering themselves well in wolves' fur, they emerged from the cave and began to walk slowly south, through the blinding snow which had not ceased blowing relentlessly. They never found Laurerusca. It was impossible to see anything around them in the blizzard, and both women wore scarves tightly wrapped around their faces for protection, with only slits for their eyes to see through. Very slowly, they made a little progress. They did not stop at all to rest, but pushed on for many days. Finally, the snow began to fall ever more lightly, and the bitingly cold temperature began to lift a little. Lindaril trudged on doggedly as she had been doing for days, letting her mind wander to the stories her mother had told her about Fëanor and the Noldori. Eventually, exhaustion overcame her and she sunk down to her knees in the heavy snow. Turning around in order to tell her mother that she could not go on without a short rest, Lindaril could see that Heneryn was no longer following her.
"Mother?" she called out in alarm. Her voice rang out loud in the still winter air, as snowflakes now dropped sparsely from the dark grey sky. No reply was forthcoming. "Mother!" she screamed. Frantic, she rose to her feet, and tried to retrace her footprints back the way she had come, as well as she could in the thick snow. "Mother! Father!" she cried. She could see only one set of footprints, her own, for many miles, and was about to give up the search, when she came across the other pair. It was obvious that they were Heneryn's, as there had been no one else travelling with them, but Lindaril was devastated to see that these prints had become separated from her own, and there were signs that Heneryn had fallen, as in the snow there was a deep imprint of a body. But the terrible sight that haunted Lindaril forever after were the dragging marks, stained with fresh blood; a wide swath that wound in a serpentine pattern in the snow, and led toward a stand of pines far to the north. No other prints were visible. But if it had been a wolf, or a bear, dragging her mother toward those trees, their footprints would have been covered up by the path the body made, as it was being dragged across them.
Lindaril did not stop to think upon it further. She thought she knew in one terrifying vision exactly what had happened to her mother, and she ran, shrieking, into the unknown land to the east, alone.
OOOOOOOOoooOOOOOOOO
EPILOGUE
Melian woke with a violent start, jumping to her feet on her bed.
"In the cold - she runs, she runs - through bitter death.
And time, it goes
More swiftly now.
She comes to me, she comes
The dark is near,
As she draws hence,
Yet nothing can be done
To stop her now
From finding me
And she comes, she comes".
She sang in tongues. She sang gibberish, not knowing what she sang. But in her mind was a memory surrounded by a deep sadness and a hint of an inevitable meeting to come.
Estë and Irmo, who heard a disturbance in Melian's room from their own chambers on other side of her house, flew to their friend's side to comfort her.
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Lindaril never discovered exactly what had happened to her parents. Her story is continued in The Lord of the Jewels.
TIMELINE FOR A SONG ON THE AIR
Source: "Tolkien: The Illustrated Encyclopedia", by David Day.
Further research assistance provided by Fanged Geranium.
"A Chronology of Middle-earth and the Undying Lands".
1) Melian meets Fëanor: He is young. She has been visiting Valinor from Doriath. The Silmarils are not yet made. It is around Year 21,000 of the Valarian Age, the time of the Trees and the Stars.
2) Melian meets Celegorm: After Thingol is slain but before Doriath is ruined. It is Year 30,503 of the Valarian Age, and just before the sun rises for the first time.
3) Heneryn is born one year later (in the Year 30,504.)
4) Heneryn stays in Rhovanion until pregnant, in the year 33,909 (the Valar are busy destroying Numenor.)
5) Lindaril is left on her own to wander in the Year 35,000, just before the Istari depart for Middle-earth.
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