Stories of Arda Home Page
About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search
swiss replica watches replica watches uk Replica Rolex DateJust Watches

Teitho!  by My blue rose

Teitho Challenge Prompt: Memories

Summary: Elrond shares a family heirloom with Estel.


The Circlet

“What are you doing, Adar?”

Elrond almost dropped the box in surprise. In the doorway stood a half-grown Mortal child. The boy was tall for his age with silver limned blue-grey eyes. His dark, shoulder-length hair was bound away from his face and he wore a white apron over his brown tunic. Elrond’s keen eyes noticed several burn marks at the cuff of one of the boy’s sleeves but refrained from commenting, knowing Estel’s mother would chastise him sufficiently once she saw the damage.

“You have completed your tasks?” he asked, beckoning the boy into his study.

Estel nodded enthusiastically as he approached the large walnut desk. “I made the calendula petal infusion and the mallow root decoction. I also turned all the jars of bloodwort oil in the cupboard. I think they will be ready for straining next week.” 

The boy shifted his feet and bit his lip, looking up at his foster father. “Are you well?” Estel asked hesitantly.

Elrond sighed, placing the wooden case gently on the desk.

“I was lost in a memory,” he answered with a smile that contained more sorrow than joy.

Estel nodded seriously.

The boy cocked his head, gazing intensely at the case, looking rather like a falcon. Clearly he desired to ask about its contents but was restraining himself. At twelve years old, he was already more perceptive that even his grandfather had been at that age. Estel’s new found maturity and self-control were welcome in a child on the verge of adolescence. Yet Elrond found he missed the child who asked an endless series of often impertinent questions and whom was rarely satisfied by short answers.

Elrond had never raised any of the Dúnedain from such a young age before; all of his brother’s previous heirs had come to him to be fostered after they had at least reached their tenth year. But Estel was different. Unlike his father Arathorn, who had resented any activity that keep him indoors, Estel was a studious and usually serious child with an unending curiosity. He could spend hours in the forge, observing the smiths or in the dispensary, helping the apothecaries.

On rainy days Estel would take to the library, spending all day reading. Lately he had taken to loitering around the kitchens and dairy where he was learning to make bread and cheese with the same enthusiasm that he had for his studies in swordplay and archery. Last year he had tracked a hind into the mountains causing the Last Homely House a sleepless night as they searched the Valley for him. When found, the boy explained that he had lost track of time and had wanted to test the skills his brothers had been teaching him.

“He is a true Golodh,” Glorfindel had wryly told Elrond, after retuning Estel to his distraught mother.

While Arathorn had painfully reminded him of his brother Elros, Estel was more like Elrond himself.

“Would you like to see inside?” he asked, gesturing to the box. “I have not looked upon it for many years.” Estel offered him a smile that was both pleased and sheepish as Elrond undid the clasps on the wooden case and opened it.

Estel gasped; laying on a cushion of leather was a circlet.

It was crafted out of strands of gold wire braided together in a complex pattern. In its center was a yellow gem, square cut, the size of a small chicken egg. Its dozens of facets sparkled in the light of the afternoon sun streaming through the large windows behind the desk. On either side of the great gem was a line of four orange and then four blue stones. These were round in shape, about the size of a thumb, yet their brilliance was as great as the large jewel.

“The center stone is a diamond the others are sapphires,” Elrond explained as he reached into the box to remove the coronet. The leather inside was so old it was cracked and crumbling; he would have to replace it before returning the case to the strongbox in his chambers.

“It is beautiful,” Estel breathed, eye wide with wonder. “I have never seen a jewel so large.”

The boy frowned suddenly looking up from the circlet. “Why do you not wear it?”

“Because this is the crown of the High-King of the Noldor. It was crafted in Valinor ere the rising of the Sun and Moon. This is Finwë’s circlet. You notice that the colors are from his heraldry device?”

Estel looked down at the circlet in Elrond’s hand once more. “If Finwë died in Valinor how did you come to have his crown?”

Elrond smiled. Estel loved history and lore as much as he himself did.

“Fëanor took it with him when he departed. Upon Fëanor’s death it was inherited by Maedhros who offered it to Fingolfin to affirm his claim as the High-King of the Noldor. Turgon recovered it from his father’s body after he was slain by Morgoth. This circlet was one of the few things Idril took with her during the Fall of Gondolin. When Idril and Tuor settled at the Havens of Sirion, she offered the crown to Gil-galad when he received the Kingship of the Noldor.”

Elrond traced the yellow diamond with his finger; the gem was cool to the touch.

“The night before final battle of Last Alliance Gil-galad entrusted this to me,” he turned the circlet over in his hand. “I wonder if perhaps Ereinion had some foresight for the next day he was slain by Sauron on the slopes of Orodruin.”

“Perhaps he desired you to become High King if he fell?” Estel asked tentatively.

“It is possible,” Elrond admitted. “Yet the High Kingship has always been reckoned though a male descendant of Finwë and as the grandson of Idril I do not qualify.”

“Then why did he give it to you, if he did not think you would be King?”

“I believe he gave it to me because he knew that I would return it to him someday. When I sail for the Blessed Land I shall bear this crown with me to present to him,” he placed the circlet back into the case carefully.

“You miss him, don’t you?” Estel asked.

“Indeed. Ereinion was as a father to me, or perhaps, as an uncle. It is likely he gave me his crown because he wished to give me hope that we would one day see each other again.”

“Do you think that we will ever see each other again?” Estel asked hopefully. “After you have gone West?”

 Elrond placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“No one knows the fate of the Secondborn after they leave the circles of this World just as none know the fate of the Eldar after Arda comes to its end,” he explained gently.

“I know,” Estel said sounding defeated.

“However,” Elrond continued. “It is known that the One is just. I do not believe that those among the Children of Eru will be doomed to be separated forever. I believe we will see each other again, though it may not be until after the breaking of the World.”

Estel smiled with a radiance greater than diamond in the circlet.

“I wish I could have known him,” Estel said as Elrond closed the case and fastened the claps.

Elrond raised an eyebrow.

“Gil-Galad, I mean,” the boy clarified. “He sounds like a very interesting person.”

“He would have like you,” Elrond said.

“Truly?” Estel asked, delighted.

“Indeed,” Elrond answered, laughing quietly. “But you ought to go change before supper.”

As the boy scurried out of his study the Elf Lord thought, Ereinion would have indeed liked you, not in the least because you are my son.


Glossary

Golodh (Sindarin): ‘Noldo’. A word based on the root gûl meaning ‘long study/magic’ referring to the love the Noldor have for knowledge.

“a yellow gem, square cut, the size of a small chicken egg”: the diamond in Finwë’s circlet is based off of the Tiffany Yellow Diamond a 128.54 carat (25.108 g) yellow diamond. It was worn by Audrey Hepburn in 1961 publicity photographs for Breakfast at Tiffany's.

 





<< Back

Next >>

Leave Review
Home     Search     Chapter List