"Lady of the White Grotto"
by Leoma Warren
disclaimer: this is a piece of fan fiction based on the Unfinished Tales, Amroth and Nimrodel by J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Christopher Tolkien. All rights belong to them and no profit is being made off this online publication. This disclaimer stands for all future chapters within this piece.
Prologue
Where did this all begin? Her farsighted eyes looked north toward the forests of Lorien to the dark cloud that rose over the mountains to the west. Tears fell from her silver eyes as she looked out feeling a cold wind sweep around her. Nimrodel tightened her cloak and rubbed her arms feeling a weariness that was rooted from within. Her gaze then turned fearfully toward the forest of Fangorn and she chilled at the sight of the great dark and ancient forest and her elven ears picked up a rumble of deep voices muttering in an unknown tongue – the voice of the trees speaking with the heart of the earth.
She could not enter there. She refused too. Her heart turned back toward the falls by her home and she suddenly ached to be back by her home, at peace, where she had always been at peace until the elves of the west had arrived.
Amroth, the name came to her mind unbidden.
Nimrodel fell to her knees on the fields at the edge of Fangorn and suddenly wept not understanding why the thought of Amroth would cause her to weep, I have been such a fool! she thought in despair, so great a fool! The twilight soon fell away and night overtook the sky and although a shadow still lingered over Lorien Nimrodel ceased weeping and lay down on the grasses turning her gaze, instead to the stars, Gilthoniel, she whispered in a tongue she had never used though she understood perfectly, A! Elbereth! Never before had she spoken the tongue of the Sindar but in this moment a song, both familiar and strange, returned to her, A! Elbereth! Gilthoniel! silivren penna miriel o menel aglar elenath na-chaered palan diriel. A! Elbereth! Le linnathon nef aear, si nef Aearon!
"Si nef Aearon…" She whispered again in Sindarin, "Beyond the sea, now beyond the sea…" There was something beautiful about that tongue, the way it rolled smoothly from her lips like the breaking waves of the ocean and thinking of it she felt a longing grow within her.
The fear that she had previously felt lifted from her although the sadness still remained. Peace, she longed for it for so long and she was sick of war of death and most of all of the darkness that lingered in Middle Earth.
Somewhere, she thought, beyond the sea there is peace…
She breathed deeply and closed her eyes and attempted to sleep a while although she found no peace within herself and her thoughts continued to return to Amroth, Why, oh star lady! Why must I think of him, why now? I have denied him for so long, all I have felt id pain in my life why can I find no joy in this land as I once felt, why can I find no peace?
Two tears trickled from her closed eyes and fell upon her left hand where a band of braided black locks woven in silver was placed about her finger – a birthday gift, or so she had thought it was.
Nimrodel opened her glistening eyes her expression torn in both anger and grief and confusion. "Amroth…" She cried weakly. She pulled up her knees and pulled her cloak closer to herself and silently remembered when her gaze had first fallen on him…
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