Disclaimer:  I don’t own them.  I make no money from them.  I just borrow them for a time.

Author’s Note – This is merely Glorfindel’s thoughts about Gandalf (Olorin) after he faces the Balrog in Moria and is being taken to Lorien by Gwaihir.  Glorfindel basically disappears after the Council of Elrond and doesn’t reappear until the wedding of Aragorn and Arwen.  So for this little contemplation I had him go in search of his old friend and mentor, coming at last to Lorien where he learned Gandalf’s fate from the Lady Galadriel.

Whisper of the Eagle’s Wings

            How many sunsets have I beheld over the years of my life; the skies painted in gold, violet, rose, and pearl by the finger of Iluvatar?  Many times I stood on one of Gondolin’s white towers watching the quiet approach of evening; the subtle darkening of the sky, the faint, first light of the stars.  Often in Imladris I would watch the sun sink slowly in the west, recalling the way it would blaze and vanish into the sea.

            Never before had a sunset failed to hold me with its beauty.  Yet this day I gain no pleasure from the glory of it’s dying.

            He lives.  So Lady Galadriel said, though she speaks oft in riddles for, as she says the future is never certain, ‘tis always changing.  She compares it to a small pebble thrown into a pond, changing all that it touches, ripples that flow over the smooth surface of the familiar and expected.  Yet she says he lives and that is the hope I must hold to, else my despair would overwhelm me.

            Now I stand, the sky bleeding with the colors that announce the approaching night, and I listen for the whisper of the Eagle’s wings.

            Olorin!  My teacher, my friend!  I knew in my heart when you fell in the dark of Moria, the place you feared to walk.  You understood what lay hidden in the lost depths of the Dwarves’ carven kingdom of stone, yet your duty drew you onward.

            Your love and interest in Iluvatar’s Children led you to entwine you life with ours.  Your noble soul is like a beacon to us, a light in the time of our trials with the Dark One.  Our joys and triumphs, our fears and defeats became your own.  Even if you had known the outcome of your devotion to us, you would have chosen the same path.

            Lady Galadriel searched the silver surface of her mirror for the tale of what had befallen you.  All was shrouded in flame and deep shadow that spoke of the horror that lived in Moria.

            I know what you faced as fear took form before you.  I know the horror that must have assaulted your brave heart.  I understand as few others could, for I have faced it – and fallen with it into the abyss.

            Darkness swallowed you for a time, the light of your life engulfed by flame and shadow as on top of the Peak – the pinnacle of Silvertine – you fought your enemy once again.  Thunder and lightning smote upon Celebdil, breaking into flames about you.  Smoke filled the air and ice fell as rain.  But you were the victor, defeating your foe; the mountain breaking, so great was his fall.  Then darkness claimed you and you were hidden from the sight of all.  Where you wandered out of time and life I know not, but ever my heart grieved for you.

            But she says that you live, you have returned to us in our hour of greatest need.  Ever the will of Iluvatar is mysterious. 

I look to the sky once more, the stark blue of a winter’s day turned to the dark velvet of early night, the horizon lit with the sun’s last rays.  As I look, my eyes ever toward Moria the place of your trial, I see the first of the stars beginning to shine forth.  And out of their light a shadow is born.  What new darkness is this, I wonder.  What can this mean?   But then a sound fills my ears and my heart rejoices.  For it is the sound of the Eagle’s wings bearing you here, to Lorien, to life once again.