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All That Glisters  by Lindelea

Chapter 24. When in Rohan...

Bergil stood stock-still at attention in the front rank, his face expressionless, his eyes straight ahead, though inside he was laughing. Pippin! Quite clearly he heard the gasp of a courtier, standing under one of the bright banners.

 ‘It’s only to be expected,’ one of the nobles muttered. ‘King Elessar said himself this morning that the Periain are too simple to appreciate pomp and ceremony.’

 ‘I beg to differ,’ another said smoothly, and Bergil recognised the voice: a no-nonsense soldier of Gondor, elevated by his brave deeds during the Siege. ‘The King said the Halflings are too sensible to endure pomp and ceremony.’

The conclusion of Elessar’s speech, given shortly before this morning’s departure for the Bridge, rang in Bergil’s memory. The ways of hobbits are not our ways, the King had said. But we seek to honour them to the best of our poor ability. Were it not for the deeds of hobbits, there would be no Gondor... there would be no Arnor... there would be no Middle-earth! They saved us all!

Someone made a shushing noise and silence fell once more as the less disciplined amongst the nobility craned for a view and the guardsmen stared straight ahead. Without moving his eyes, Bergil could clearly see the happenings on the Bridge, and in the silence he could hear the jingle of Elessar’s mail as the King dismounted.

Pippin looked like a small boy, moving to greet the tall Man, but Elessar fell to one knee to embrace the hobbit, laughing aloud and calling greetings to those who followed. Constraint fell away as the King was mobbed by a welcoming group of Travellers and their families.

 ‘Much better,’ Pippin said in satisfaction after the completion of hugs all round.

 ‘It wasn’t exactly my idea,’ Elessar said, sounding more like the grimy Ranger that had led them from Bree. ‘But a King must give at least an appearance of listening to his counsellors...’

 ‘Wrong Counsellors,’ Merry said expressively, and Sam guffawed, discomfort of the tight collar quite forgotten in his joy at meeting this old friend once more.

 ‘Bear with me,’ Elessar said, rising. ‘Just a few more motions to go through, and then the feasting will start.’

 ‘Ah, the feasting,’ Pippin said, rolling his eyes. ‘The only reason we put up with all your nonsense in the first place.’

 ‘As I know very well,’ Elessar replied, and then he turned to offer a hand to his Queen. Arwen descended lightly from her horse with a smile, to greet those she knew and to be introduced to those who were new to her.

Elanor, to her chagrin, was seized by an attack of shyness, but the Queen knelt, heedless of dust, to greet her, saying gently, ‘I find myself in great need of a maid of honour... do you know of anyone hereabouts that would suit?’

 ‘Ellie here has talked of nothing else but your visit for the past week,’ Rose said, greatly daring in the face of these Great Folk. Their appearance filled her with awe, but Sam had told so many stories about Strider and his lovely Queen over the years that Rose knew they were just plain folk underneath the fancy trappings.

Arwen laughed merrily, her countenance filled with delight, and she answered, ‘Then you must all join us at the Lake for the summer, or a part of the summer at the very least!’

 ‘My Lady,’ Elessar said, extending his hand to Arwen. She put her hand in his and rose. ‘Just one more matter of business,’ the King said.

 ‘I’ll hold you to that,’ Pippin said, shaking a stern finger. ‘King or no.’

 ‘A King is only as good as his word,’ Elessar agreed. He turned towards the massed ranks of guardsmen and crowd of nobles on the eastern end of the Bridge and raised his hand. The trumpets rang out in a grand fanfare as the King turned back, exchanged glances with Arwen, and King and Queen went to their knees, bowing their heads, giving honour to the Travellers.

 ‘But... but...’ some one of the Travellers stuttered, even as the families of the Travellers looked on with shining eyes, and the crowd of hobbits hesitating on the western edge of the Bridge gasped in wonder.

Behind the King and his Queen, rank and file of guardsmen, noblemen, and family members, all the travellers from the Southlands coming north with the King to re-establish the City by the Lake—all of these bowed the knee, and silence reigned for a long moment, until the King straightened and shouted, ‘Praise them with great praise!’

A deafening roar rose with the Men and their families; the guardsmen drew their swords and waved them, glittering in the sun, and the bright banners dipped and swirled.

The ovation continued for a good many more minutes than the Travellers might have wished, but at last the noise quieted as the King knelt once more before the hobbits.

 ‘Strider, you hadn’t ought to have...’ Sam began. Though he’d made plenty of speeches as Mayor in the past few years, his tongue felt as if it might cleave to the roof of his mouth... just might.

 ‘O yes,’ Elessar said softly, smiling as he turned Sam’s own words. ‘I had ought.’

He reached up to remove the circlet of silver from his head, opened a cleverly concealed catch, and clasped the silver Star about the Ring-bearer’s neck.

Sam’s hand rose to touch the Star, even as he protested, ‘No... no... I couldn’t...’

 ‘It's for Frodo,’ Elessar whispered, and tears came to his own eyes as Samwise covered his face with his hands and began to sob. Merry and Pippin stepped close, winding their arms around Sam as he wept.

 ‘Not all tears are evil,’ Arwen murmured, and she bent to kiss the Ring-bearer’s forehead, then placed her lips against his ear and whispered, ‘One day, when you greet him, you may give to him the Star of the North, and our love.’

Sam nodded, slowly took his hands from his face, wiping away the tears as he did so, and looked into the Queen’s ageless eyes. ‘Thank you, my Lady,’ he said, and turning to the King, he hesitated.

 ‘Just call me Strider,’ the King said, a smile quirking the corners of his mouth. ‘It sounds more hobbity, somehow.’

 ‘Thank you, Strider,’ Sam whispered, still blinking. He took out his pocket-handkerchief and put it to good use as his family gathered round him. Soon all signs of the cloudburst had been scoured away and the sunshine had returned.

Pippin patted Sam’s back and turned to the King, after gaining control over his own unsteady breathing. ‘Well, then,’ he said. ‘I know all this pomp and pretension is common amongst Men, but you've got a saying in Gondor: When in Rohan, do as the Rohirrim! As it is, you’re in my country now, and we’ve had our fill of it! Do you think we could cut out the rest of the ceremonies and go straight to the important part?’

Merry laughed and Sam stared at the Thain in amazement.

Elessar chuckled, rose to his feet and half-turned, addressing together the crowd of hobbits on one bank and the Men on the other. ‘And now, the feast!’ he shouted.

Under cover of the resulting cheer, Pippin said, ‘Well, Strider, it appears you finally got it right!’

***

A/N From information found in the text of LOTR, Appendix A, and the "Complete Tolkien Companion":  

The original Star of Elendil or "Elendilmir" was in Isildur's possession at the time of the disaster of the Gladden Fields and was lost with his body. A new Elendilmir was made for Valandil, Isildur's last remaining son--this was the jewel Aragorn wore at Pelennor Fields.

After the War of the Ring, the original Elendilmir was found in Orthanc, after Saruman's expulsion.

Therefore, Aragorn could give Samwise his Northern crown (Valandil's) and still retain the heirloom of his House.  

OTOH, there is a possibility that there were two items with the name "Star of the Dunedain", one of which was a silver star that Aragorn wore on his cloak when he served Gondor as Thorongil.

Since I really cannot discern what, exactly, Aragorn presented to Samwise, I have kept the original language from ROTK (a star bound upon his brow with a slender fillet of silver), and this is what he presented to Samwise. Not necessarily one of the two Northern crowns; could be the silver cloak-star, given the ambiguity I've run into. Not being an arbiter (is that a word?) of canon, I will leave just what Star was presented to Sam up to the imagination of my esteemed Reader. (Though I might have unconsciously made a choice: I see that I wrote that Elessar presented the "silver Star" to Samwise.)

Forgive my vacillations. I was up most of the night with sick children and can hardly think straight.

BTW, does anyone know what happened to the Star? Was it passed down to Sam's descendants, in which case I might have to re-do Arwen's whisper? Is there any record of what happened to it, or is it plausible that he might bear it, a token of Aragorn and Arwen's regard, over the Sea?

(Thanks to Lois and FantasyFan and Elena Tiriel for contributing their knowledge of this artifact.)





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