Not So Happy Returns

by Soledad

Disclaimer: see in the Foreword.

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December 10 – Exiled

He had once been the bond-mate of Morwêndî, the daughter of Lord Morwê, but got captured by the Enemy and toiled in the iron mines for yéni, ‘til his eyes lost sight in the eternal darkness. His son had long sought for him in vain, ‘til they both lost hope and he resigned to a fate in slavery.

When Róg and the others orchestrated an escape, they took him with them and he went with them willingly, for there was no way to return to Ramandur, not without betraying its location, and he would rather die than to do that.

In Gondolin, he found a place in the House of the Hammer of Wrath, found a friend in Laikwâlassê, and for a while he seemed content.

When Gondolin fell, he once again fled with the others, for they needed him to find a way of escape in Mbelekôro’s darkness, and he was more than willing to help. The mortal Tuor and the Lady Itarildë had always been kind to him, and he wanted to repay their kindness as well as he could.

After the War of Wrath, when Beleriand crumbled into the Sea, he took the offer of the Powers and Sailed. He did not go any further than Tol Eressëa, where he settled in the then-modest town of Tavrobel, with the other survivors from Gondolin. In time, he became the Guild Master of the miners and ironsmiths and a valued member of the Town Council and again, he seemed content.

But in the heart of his hearts he knew he would never see his family and his own people again, mayhap not even in Arda Remade. For the Faithful, called the Avari or the Dark Elves by the Amanians, did not go to the Halls of Mandos when they died and could therefore not be reborn into new bodies. And for Gimli, the blind Elf, who had once been called Gimilî by his own kind, there was no way back to Ramandur, the Stone Flower, where the Faithful lived door by door with their dead.

~Fin~