This was written in answer to HA Memorial Day Challenge:

One character’s remembrance of war. This could be a eulogy, a lament, a memory, a visit to someone’s grave—anything that serves as a meditation on what war means. The only restriction is that the work must be no more than 500 words in length.

I have lost too many friends, seen too much death.

The first to fall was Amdír, King of Lórien. I shall miss him, his Nandorin ways, his familiarity with the trees and the animals, and all the tales he could tell about them.

Then Oropher of Greenwood the Great was slain with most of his army. I shall miss him, his stories of my forebears, Elu Thingol and Melian, Beren and Lúthien – I am sure that he invented half of them, but they were still sweet to my ears. I shall also miss his quick temper and his stubbornness, his full laughter and his love of life.

The next was Anárion Elendil’s son, who had so successfully fought Sauron at Osgiliath, only to perish last year at the siege of Barad-dûr. Though I never really knew him, I shall miss him, for he was of my brother’s line and as such dear to me.

And yesterday I lost two of my closest friends. Elendil the well-named, the father of Anárion and Isildur. I shall miss him, his unwavering loyalty to the Eldar, his tales of the sea and of Númenor before the fall and of his father Amandil I wish I had known.

My king also was slain. The star of radiance shall shine no more. I shall miss him, his friendship, his mentorship. I shall miss even his inevitable victories at chess and his subsequent gloating, even his silly advice on the proper way to woo a maiden – as if I would ever trust a 3,600-year-old bachelor on matters of the heart.

Do I dare hope that their deaths were not in vain? Sauron was defeated, but the ring survives. They say the war is over, but I am afraid that this is only a temporary respite. I am afraid that we shall again have to fight evil.

But not now. Now I shall return home and embrace life in all its aspects. I shall welcome friends and family in Imladris, in the Last Homely House. I shall woo and marry my silver queen and we shall have children, giving life rather than taking it. But never again shall I personally set out to war.

I have lost too many friends, seen too much death.