Author: Tian

Summary: "It is said that to an elf the fairest and saddest of all songs is the song of the Sea …."

And so Legolas yearns to answer to the call of the West. Yet is there nothing fair enough on Middle Earth that will keep him?

Note: Some knowledge of the Tale Aldarion and Erendis, 'The Mariner's Wife' (which is part of Tolkien's Unfinished Works) may aid understanding of this fiction, however it's not necessary. Please read the Author's Notes at the end of the fiction, if some of the references are strange. (A/N: A small grammatical update... my email no longer works . To contact me just review and I will email you back.)

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The Song More Fair

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It is said that to an elf the fairest and saddest of all songs is the song of the Sea. Once heard, in their hearts it can never be quenched and the song can only grow louder, never dimmer or less beautiful.

Legolas Greenleaf heard the song. He who was Son of Thranduil, ruler of Mirkwood once called Greenwood. He was one of the Nine Walkers in the War of the Rings, and after that became ruler of the last settlement of elves in Middle Earth: Ithilien, the fairest of all countries.

Before he first heard the call of the sea, the Lady Galadriel who was then the Lady of the Golden Wood sent him a warning. She said to him;

"Legolas Greenleaf long under tree

In joy thou has lived. Beware of the Sea!

If thou hearest the cry of the gull on the shore,

Thy heart shall then rest in the forest no more."

And he was silent thereafter, for he perceived the gravity of her words. Yet the words of the Lady with the water-ring are often obscure and he was deceived for he believed she spoke of his death. It was only after he came with Aragorn, the King Elesser through the Paths of the Dead and to the Great River and heard the cry of the sea-birds on the shore, that he realized that he had fulfilled his omen, heard the sea and could never now forget it.

"Silver flows the streams from Celos to Erui

In the green fields of Lebennin!

Tall grows the grass there. In the wind from the Sea

The white lilies sway,

And the golden bells are shaken of mallos and alfrin

In the green fields of Lebennin,

In the wind from the Sea!"

And so the call of the West came over Legolas who had once loved the forest before all other and the wailing song of the gulls and water held forever hold over his heart. Yet it would be a long time before he would leave Middle Earth, after the last ship of Cirdan the Shipwright went over the ocean with Frodo and Bilbo Ringbearers, for in Middle Earth there was things yet, to hold on to.

When Aragorn son of Arathorn wed Arwen Undomiel, Evenstar of her people, there was great rejoicing and great bitterness. For it was then that Arwen bid goodbye to her father Elrond Half-elven, mighty among men and elves, whom she had loved and would now see no more. And through her six-score years as the Queen of Elves and Men, she watched with great sadness the passing of the Elves of Middle-earth to the Undying Lands. And so it was that she chose from the last bloodlines of the Numenoreans, the girls who most resembled their elven ancestor Elros and kept them close by her side.

Nimrien was one. Arwen first saw her when she was still almost a child in the forests near her home. On a white palfrey she rode, a hood drawn and from within her dark hair falling across her slender shoulders. And to the amazement of some, they watched her raise her fair voice and called forth the birds from their trees. And then Arwen sang with her and the birds flew about them, trilling joyfully for such fair song had become so rare. And those in the Queen's train thought that she was an elf for some still wandered the forest in those days, but Arwen saw true and called; "Erendis! Erendis!"

And Nimrien said; "As once Lord Aragorn called you Tinuviel, you now call me by my fate. Yet I still have hope of fleeing mine, so do not call me Erendis, Lady Evening star."

And Arwen answered; "Wise you are, and yet you seem young still. I have heard of Nimrien of the fair voice, who has such a face that has not been seen in what is left of the Numenoreans since the line of Erendis."

Then Nimrien bowed her face and Arwen spoke no more of fate. Instead she said; "I have long heard fame of your voice. Come, will you not accompany back to Minas Tirith and sing for us?"

And so it was that Nimrien came to Minas Tirith when she was yet a girl. And she sang for the great lords and ladies and from that day on remained gladly by the side of Arwen. And for many years she lived happily for Arwen and Aragorn lived in bliss and the world was calm. And Nimrien was glad for she loved Arwen and Middle Earth. Indeed in her heart, love for Middle Earth never faded.

On Nimrien's eighteenth year Arwen grew ill and when Aragorn perceived that it was sickness of heart and not of body, he called for the elves of Ithilien to come to Minas Tirith for he knew that only they could heal her heartsickness.

And so there came a dozen, the last of the fair folk, to Minas Tirith. And with them came Legolas who had remained in Middle Earth for the sake of his companions who tied him still to this land: Aragorn King of Men, and Gimli who was the Lord of the Glittering Caves, for after Meriadoc and Peregrin of the Shire passed away, they were all that was left of the Fellowship which had once walked such perils together.

And so it was that by Arwen's bedside that Nimrien and Legolas came to meet and as she looked upon his fair, elvish face; Nimrien lowered her eyes because she knew, as her heart beat fast in her chest, that her fate had come to her at last. But still she lingered in the shadows as though she had hope yet that fate might pass her by. But when the sun was falling in the West, and its light came creeping through the windows and Arwen had sat up in her bed much hailer, Legolas lifted his head and saw Nimrien standing by the window with all the colors of the dying sun on her white robes and named her Andunie, 'Sunset' and thought her fair and sorrowful.

They spent many a long day together afterwards, for Nimrien's song was loved by the elves and underneath the treetops, she sang together with them of many battles and the long-bygone glory of the elves in the First and Second Age.

When she sang the elves were reminded of the great deeds of their forefathers in Middle Earth and sighed and murmured amongst themselves and Legolas said; "Fair are the tales of the past, of what has come and gone and will not come again."

And looking into his face, she said impulsively; "Do not be so irrevocable! For there is hope yet!"

And he looked at her sharply and sadly also, and she perceived that he was of a greater wisdom than her and belonged already to a different world and from then on stilled the longings in her heart.

Then she took up her singing again, of the tale of Gil-galad the last High King of Elves in Middle Earth, of Luthien Tinuvel, and when she sang the Fellowship of the Ring, Legolas and his companions smiled and laughed. And when the others had gone he said to her;

"You have a fair voice Lady Andunie, and when the sun has set in the West and I cannot see the Sea, a shadow fades in my heart."

And he did not speak further but she knew his meaning and said; "If it will bring you peace, then I will sing for you, until the shadow passes forever."

Legolas looked at her in thoughtfulness, even a little in pity, but he did not speak. And so she took to her songs again and sang as she never had before.

Yet the time came when the fair company was to return to Ithilien for Legolas had gone as long as he could without returning to govern his country. And as a parting gift he gave to Nimrien a silver curved seashell, passed into his hand from the shores of the Sea.

Arwen was well again but she saw that a shadow had come over her favorite companion. When once Nimrien sat on the hanging balconies overlooking the forests and mountains, the sea shell held by her ear stilling her fair voice in her throat, Arwen said to her; "Do not grieve so, for he has imparted to you his most valued possession."

Yet Nimrien clasped the fragile seashell in her hands and softly she said; "Yet he has given me another Lady's gift, and the trinkets of the Lady of the Sea bring me no joy."

And Arwen understood her pain and said "Erendis I called you when I first saw you, and I should not have."

Nimrien replied, "Nay Lady. Do not feel guilt on my part for I am not like the fair Lady Erendis who tried so in vain to keep her husband from the Sea. For indeed he longs for fairer things and lands I will never see. For I know already that he has already began to build a ship, an Elven ship of likes that has not been seen since Cirdan the Shipwright sailed over the Sea."

And so she put away the shell and took up her old duties again, Legolas never slipping from her lips again. Yet Arwen saw that she sang increasingly sadder songs, and her quick-witted joy of youth seemed to have been spent.

In the year 1541 of the Fourth Age of the Sun, the King Elessar came at last to pass. From all across Middle Earth; elves, men and dwarves came to mourn the passing of the greatest of men. And the Arwen, Queen of Elves and Men, stood silent as a reed planted by a river which did not flow and became cold and gray as a winter that would not pass. She said goodbye to her son and daughters, and all she had loved and went away to Lorien her old home which now stood silent and empty, the cobwebs of its long gone splendor, and remained there alone until she faded away.

And Nimrien knelt for many days by Arwen's bough and there Legolas found her again. And it is said by Eldarion, son of Aragorn, who watched them from afar that they spoke long and softly until the night had passed and the dawn had bloomed, and that they did not touch.

And so it came at last that Legolas Greenleaf answered to the call of the Sea and came to the Ocean with his ship and felt the sea-breeze on his face. But as he turned back to the gathering of those who had come to bid him farewell, he perceived not Nimrien's fair face. Then Eldarion came forward with a wreath of flowers and among other things he said; "The Lady Nimrien bade me to give this to you in her place for they are the flowers of Middle Earth, not the elanors and niphredils which you will see much of where you are going to."

And Legolas who heard the bitterness underneath her words bowed his head and took her flowers and held them to his heart. "Tell her: Aa' lasser en lle coia orn n' omenta gurtha! (May the leaves of your life tree never turn brown). And Fare Well!"

Then along with Gimli Gloin's son, he took to the ship and as it slipped away forever from the shifting sands of Middle Earth, he gazed back into the sunset and called out; "Andunie! Andunie!" For it seemed as though the sunset had faded forever.

And so Eldarion returned to Nimrien whom he loved like a sister and tried to comfort her. But she stood pale and tearless and said; "Two I loved have now left me eternally. I have come too late, for the Sea held him first. And I am not so fair like Melian the Maia for whom Elf-lord Elwe Singollo forsook the sea. Nay, Legolas has chosen the voice fairest to him, and it is not mine."

And from then on she never sang again. No more is documented of Nimrien of the fair voice, but it seems that she remained in Gondor for the rest of her life and did no more eventful things.

It is said however that before her death, her lips came at last unstuck and in her still-fair voice, she spoke once more of her bitter fate. She said to Eldarion and Arwen's daughters who had cared for her and loved her; "Tell him goodbye for I fade and I shall go to where my Queen is. For my fate is a punishment for my vanity and no more shall the song of Andunie vie with the song of the Sea!"

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Author's Notes:

The Tale of Aldarion and Erendis; The Mariner's Wife, is part of the Unfinished Works by Tolkien. Aldarion was a Numernorean King and Erendis was his wife, however Aldarion's great love for the Sea eventually drove them apart.

Also, Melian was one of the Maiar who like the Valar was the name Elves called the great spirits which first brought forth the world of Arda. Melian was the Queen of Sindar for it is said that Elwe Singollo the High King of Teleri fell in love with her and forgot the sea in the fairness of her face. They were the only ever union between Maiar and Elves. However, Elwe Singollo (Thingol Greycloak), fell in the War of the Jewels (The Simarillion) to Morgoth and so after his death, Melian left Arda in grief and returned to the Timeless Halls.

The Lady of the Sea whom I spoke of in this fiction is the Lady Uinen (sometimes also Une), one of the Maiar (lesser of the great spirits) and also called the Lady of the Calms and consort to Osse who first brought shipbuilding to the elves. It is said that Uinen loved the Numenoreans and before the Change of the World often guided their ships to safety.

When I mentioned Galadriel, I spoke of her as the 'lady with the water-ring'. This is Nenya, the Ring of Adamant, also the Ring of Water which Galadriel uses to see visions in her water mirror.

There is only one liberty I took with Tolkien's original timeline, which is that Legolas began building his ship before Aragorn's death, instead of after. I think you know why that was necessary for the story to make sense. I do not mean this as a disrespect in any concievable way to Aragorn!

Also, of course, the verses mentioned in the beginning of the story are taken from the 2nd and 3rd Book (respectively) of the Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Thanks to the Encyclopedia of Arda and The Grey Company for much background information.

Finally, it is said in the Appendix F under 'Of the Elves' it is written; "In the hearts of the Exiles, the yearning for the Sea was an unquiet never to be stilled; in the hearts of the Grey-elves it slumbered, but once awakened it could not be appeased."

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