For Shirebound - she requested a Yule fic where Sam finds Frodo sleeping outside, but I figure, why should he miss out on the fun? Also, since we weren’t able to witness last night’s lunar eclipse due to the rain, I figured someone should enjoy it. :)

In the Shadow of Arda

Bag End

Sam is 11, Frodo 23

Yule, 1391 SR

I had woken that morning to an astonishing surprise: Gandalf had come to visit, and just in time for Yule! He had a glint in his eye, as he often did, but this one seemed to me to be quite secretive. He’d meet my gaze over Bilbo’s head as my uncle went back and forth setting the table, and whenever our eyes met, he’d wink. Whatever he had up those sleeves, which were quite considerable in size, he clearly wasn’t about to tell us anytime soon. Indeed, he waited until the following afternoon, when Sam was taking a break from his lessons, before he told us his exciting news. There was to be a lunar eclipse the eve of Yule!

“What’s an eclipse?” Sam asked, and instantly blushed scarlet for daring to speak in front of the wizard. Even seeing Gandalf squished at the kitchen table, bowing his shoulders to avoid brushing the top of his head against the curved ceiling, did little to make Gandalf seem more approachable to Sam. He ducked his own head and did his best to hide behind me.

Gandalf smiled. “An eclipse, Samwise, is what happens when the moon, or the sun, is covered by the other, or by the earth. In this case, the earth will come between the sun and the moon, and when the moon is fully in our shadow, you will be witness to a magnificent sight indeed!”

“And what might that be?” I asked, beyond interested. 

Sam looked confused. I knew what questions were bubbling up in that inquisitive mind. I knew also that Sam wasn’t likely to brave speaking again. We all waited for Gandalf’s answer.

“Oh, but that would be telling,” Gandalf said and winked again.

“I saw an eclipse once,” Bilbo said, surprising Sam and myself. “It was on the way back from my adventures. A great shadow passed over half the moon’s surface. It was quite astonishing. Will this be the same then?”

“Similar but different,” Gandalf answered cryptically.

“I’m not sure I understand,” I said. “How can the earth cover the moon?”

Sam peeked out from behind my back, risking a quick glance at the wizard. 

“Oh, that’s really quite simple,” Gandalf said. He picked up an egg, two halves of a walnut shell and an apple. “Bilbo, if you’ll oblige?”

Bilbo took the apple and held it up. I stepped forward at Gandalf’s arched eyebrow and took the egg, and Gandalf held up the the walnut shells, holding them together as though they were still a whole. “The sun,” he began, pointing at the apple, “sits in space. Arda,” he wriggled the shells in his hand, “goes around the sun, and the moon,” he crooked a finger at me and I came to stand next to him and held the egg next to the shells, “goes around Arda. They dance around each other in an unending waltz, and every so often,” now he held the shells directly between the apple and the egg, “they’ll line up. When that happens, the sun will cast a shadow of Arda over the moon. Now, Samwise, tell me: what do you think will happen to the moon then?”

“It’ll go dark,” Sam said, practical as ever.

Gandalf humphed. “We shall see, my lad, we shall see.”

“See what?” Sam asked.

“The eclipse,” I said. “Oh, do you think Master Hamfast will let Sam stay with us that night, if we promise to have him home first thing Yule morning?” I gave Bilbo my most beseeching stare. Sam helped with a little pout.

“I suppose it never hurts to ask,” Bilbo said and bit into the apple. No food survives a meal at Bag End, after all.

As it turned out, Master Hamfast did agree to let Sam stay the night. It took some coaxing on Bilbo’s part and much pouting and hopeful sighing on Sam’s part, but he finally gave in to reason. I suppose it didn’t hurt that I baked him a plate of biscuits to thank him for allowing Sam to sleep over before he even gave Bilbo his answer. 

The eve of Yule, Sam stood at the gate and watched his father walk down the lane to Bagshot Row below. He had his coat, as the weather was chilly, and a change of clothes for the morning. His father turned just before walking out of view, and Sam waved cheerily.

“Good night, Dad!” he called and a few moments later, he heard Hamfast reply, “Good night, Sammy! Be good!”

“I will!” Sam called back and bounced up the steps to the porch. He grinned up at me. “So do you really think there’s going to be aught to be seeing, Master Frodo?”

“I do,” I said. “Gandalf promised.”

We had beef stew with potatoes for dinner that night, and bread pudding for dessert. Gandalf said the eclipse wouldn’t start until after midnight, so Sam and I went to our beds to get some sleep before the big event. I don’t know how long it took for Sam to drift off, but I seemed to just barely get a wink before Bilbo was shaking me awake again. I jumped out of bed and went to get Sam, who woke with some prodding. He stumbling behind me out the back door. The cold chill of the midwinter air woke us fully. 

Bilbo had started a fire in the clearing near the compost heaps. We sat near its warmth and wrapped ourselves in blankets of thick wool. Sam’s nose turned red within ten minutes, but he didn’t complain and held his mug of hot cider in his mittened hands. 

Gandalf looked up at the sky. The night was clear and the stars shined brightly alongside the full moon. He smiled. “Ah! It has begun!”

We looked up as well and saw the slightest sliver of a dark curve over the moon’s face.

“Do you think the Man on the Moon is afraid of the dark?” Sam asked.

“I wouldn’t think so,” I said. “It’s always dark when he’s awake after all.”

“Oh, aye, it is ain’t it? Do you think he knows what’s going to be happening?”

“I should imagine so,” Bilbo said. “How did you know about this, Gandalf?”

“When you’ve been around as long as the Elves,” Gandalf said, “you start to see the patterns in things.”

“How long will it last?” Sam asked. 

“The moon travels slowly,” Gandalf said. “The usual time is nearly four hours from start to finish.”

“That long?” I asked. It was already nearly one, and I wasn’t sure that Sam could stay awake for another four hours, despite his earlier nap. He was wide awake with excitement now, but that could quickly fade.

Gandalf knew the remedy to that. To pass the time, he told us stories of the Elves, and Sam became so enthralled he forgot to be nervous. He leaned against my side and watched Gandalf in awe as he spun one tale after another. Bilbo chipped in with a story every now and again, about his time spent in Rivendell and some of his lesser known adventures returning from the Lonely Mountain. 

Finally, at just past two, as the fire was dying to glowing embers, Bilbo glanced up at the moon again and gasped. We all looked up, and Sam and I gasped as well.

The shadow was now nearly completely covering the moon and in a few more minutes, the eclipse was complete. Rather than growing dark in the shadow of Arda, the moon was glowing a rusty red with a yellow ring around its edges! 

“It’s like a sunrise!” Sam said. “There’s a sunrise on the moon! But there’s no sun. How does that happen, Gandalf?”

Gandalf laughed. “If I knew the answer to that, I would consider myself wise.”

“Well, isn’t that amazing!” Bilbo said, in awe. “A sunrise on the moon! The Man in the Moon must be ecstatic!” 

“I’ve never seen anything like it!” I said, quite unnecessarily. “How often do they happen, Gandalf?”

“More often than you would think,” Gandalf said. “Twice a year to be exact, though you’re only privy to the winter one. It’s not always a total eclipse.”

“How come I’ve never seen one before?” I asked.

“I imagine most Hobbits are sound asleep in their beds by this time, are they not?” Gandalf asked with a laugh. “I’m just glad the weather decided to cooperate.”

We sat, bundled up and watching the moon. It looked quite eery to me, but amazing at the same time. I shivered, though whether from the cold or something else, I couldn’t say. Sam sighed and snuggled in closer to my side. He was shivering slightly as well. The cold air was remembered now that the excitement was over. Gandalf poured us all some more cider to warm our bellies.

It took another hour or more before the shadow began to recede. The moon turned from fiery red to silver-white and black more quickly than I would have thought. Sam yawned and I found I could hardly keep my eyes open.

“When does it happen again?” Sam asked. “I want to see the moon sunrise again!”

“In another year’s time, you might be able to see it again,” Gandalf said and patted Sam’s head. He didn’t say it, but I could tell that he was impressed with Sam’s reaction. Most Hobbits who witnessed such an eclipse would take it as a bad sign - even I had been somewhat afraid at first - but not Sam, who could only ever see the beauty in things. “There’s no point in waiting up for that. Off to bed with you, young hobbit, and you as well, Frodo.” 

He pulled out a pipe and Bilbo did likewise. I knew they would be out here talking for a long while yet, so I took Sam’s hand and led him inside to the guest room next door to my bedchamber. I tucked Sam in and fully expected him to rattle on about what he had just seen, but he yawned widely instead. 

“Night, Frodo,” he said, sounding drowsy already.

“Good night, lad,” I said and sought out my own bed.

Hopefully Bilbo would remember our promise to have Sam home before first breakfast, and thankfully we hadn’t promise that Sam would be awake when we took him back.

GF 12/21/20