ermingarden: One of JRRT's heraldic devices for Lúthien. (tolkien: luthien)
Some of you may remember that back in 2019, I posted the first half of a fic called "Screwtape on Maedhros", which is exactly what it sounds like: a Screwtape Letters fusion/pastiche. There it has languished, unfinished, for six years. I always knew where I wanted to go with this fic, but for one reason or another haven't made substantial progress - until recently! So I'm pleased to share a draft for the next letter from Screwtape, written following the Nirnaeth Arnoediad:
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ermingarden: JRRT's heraldic device for Finwë. (tolkien: finwe)
Following directly on from last week's snippet:

"This was the first of their great mercies to us, in Beleriand," he said.

I followed his gaze to the half-completed tapestry, where the Sun's exuberant light gilded the edges of a barren landscape.

"Even when the Trees still lived, their light fell on Valinor alone. In Middle-earth there were only ever the stars. But the Moon and the Sun shine on Middle-earth just as they shine on Aman. They did not have to send them over the Sea - but they did!"

He fell silent; and when he spoke again, his voice was very low.

"You could not see the stars, from Thangorodrim. The fumes, the smoke of Moringotto's forges, blocked them out entirely. There was only the Shadow, unchanging, on every side, until you forgot that there had ever been anything but the Shadow, that there was such a thing as light; until it seemed the stars were not hidden but swallowed up, entirely and forever. Even the light of the Moon did not dispel that black veil, though it seeped through, diffuse - and that was marvel enough, in that place. But O, the Sun! O, the hallowed hour of its rising! The touch of that brave light dispelled the darkness as a dream upon waking."
ermingarden: JRRT's heraldic device for Finwë. (tolkien: finwe)
For Six Sentence Sunday, albeit slightly belated, here are a bit more than six sentences of something I originally started for [community profile] tolkienekphrasisweek - my first attempt at a reembodied Maedhros. (I thought it would be a short little ficlet...it got away from me.)

"At last the lady Vairë came to me, and asked me, if I would not leave the Halls, still to accept the gift of embodiment, and to come and work under her direction. 'For,' she said, 'it is not in the thought of the One, nor is it the wish of His servants, that anything should be wasted.' And so I acquiesced, and was embodied, but dwelt still in the halls of the Weaver as the living among the dead. And I worked, and I saw that the work of my hands was fair - that my hands, whatever else I had done with them, might still be turned to fair work."

Indeed, his hands were moving on the loom even as he spoke, threading wisps of cloud across a pale blue sky.

But why, I almost asked - and though I bit my tongue, perhaps he perceived the question in my face, or else his thoughts ran this way already.

"I know not why she came to me," he answered my unspoken question. "It was not for what craft was in me, for though I learned to weave in my youth, and liked it well, I did not then come to mastery - and in Beleriand my hand never touched the loom. Perhaps it was for love of Fíriel, her cherished handmaid, though she herself had never known me. What is certain is that it was not because I deserved mercy. I did not. I have never deserved any of their mercies, but they have been merciful to me regardless. Merciful beyond telling."

I could think of nothing more to say to that. His hands, the fair and the marred, kept moving smoothly on the loom, passing the bobbins in and out, in and out.
ermingarden: a human Jedi in a hooded robe (sw: jedi)
Amid the chaos of starting the new semester, here are six(ish) sentences from the same SWTOR fic I've posted bits of before:
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ermingarden: a human Jedi in a hooded robe (sw: jedi)
For Six Sentence Sunday, six (very rough) sentences from the same SWTOR WIP I posted an excerpt from in September: Read more... )
ermingarden: a human Jedi in a hooded robe (sw: jedi)
For Six Sentence Sunday, here are six sentences from another Star Wars WIP, this time some in-universe meta on the Niman lightsaber form:
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ermingarden: a human Jedi in a hooded robe (sw: jedi)
For Six Sentence Sunday, here are (approximately) six sentences from one of my SWTOR WIPs:
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ermingarden: One of JRRT's heraldic devices for Lúthien. (tolkien: luthien)
(This is an in-universe footnote from my TRSB fic, in which Halwen plays only a tiny part.)

Halwen the Spearwoman was a Avarin elf who joined the service of Maedhros some time before the Dagor Aglareb. She fought in Maedhros' forces at both the Dagor Bragollach and the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, but it is unclear whether or not she participated in the Fëanorian attack on Doriath. At some point prior to the assault on Sirion she broke ties with the Fëanorians, and she was killed fighting to defend the Havens from her former lord.

A poetic account of the battle, written by a refugee from Sirion, recounts that Maedhros slew her himself:

…In Maedhros' path, upon the sward,
With oaken shaft in steady hand,
Stood Halwen, who had been his guard,
And sworn to fight at his command.

"You are forsworn!" he cried, full wroth,
And drove his sword into her side.
"Better by far to break my oath,"
"Than slay my kin," she said, and died…


But this is otherwise unattested and, as the poet elsewhere takes considerable liberties with historical fact, his account is not dispositive.
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