A short story about Lothlórien and the Elves from Haldir's point of view. He's quite alive, isn't he? Quite melancholic… I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever manage to write something happy for a change… *lol* Might be too difficult…
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Dreamflower
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"They always wished to talk to everything, the old Elves did. But then the Great Darkness came, and they passed away over the sea, or fled into far valleys, and hid themselves, and made songs about days that would never come again. Never again…"
Treebeard, "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"
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Dreamflower
Thus they now call it. Dreamflower.
Lothlórien
Land of the valley of Singing Gold. That was it, once upon a time.*
And what is it now?
What has become of this beautiful place?
As I roam around in Caras Galadhon I am shocked how dilapidated it is. Soon nobody will live here anymore. So much has changed in the last few years. After the One Ring had been destroyed, the power of the other Rings vanished. The Ringbearers left the shores of Middle-Earth, and everything that had brought life to the lands of the Elves went away with them…
Leaves are laying at the ground. Once they were golden, silver and green, now they have turned brown. Autumn has come long ago, and winter draws near.
A winter that we should never have even thought of.
Winter means death. Plants die, animals die, Men die because they starve or they freeze to death.
Elves are immortal. As most things can't kill us, we have never been afraid of winter. It was just the way of nature, the way of all life, it did not concern us very much, only that we were sad that the wonderful flowers had faded. Yet we did not really dread it, because we knew that spring would come and all the plants that had died would bloom again.
Now our winter has come.
And there will be no spring to follow.
Finally the time of the Elves is over. It has begun with the first of us passing away into the West after the First Age. The battles against Morgoth and the destruction of the mighty realms of the Noldor and Sindar had made us weak and frightened. We didn't want to live in present anymore, past was so much safer.
We have become like old humans, who often don't seem to cope with reality. They have given up the will to live and dwell in memories. Just like most Elves do. We are immortal, so we won't die because of our age.
But we can grow old.
No Elf would admit it, of course. We are too proud to do so since our immortality is what most separates us from all other races. What would we be without immortality?
Perhaps a couple of old, useless Men.
Useless?
Oh, we have been quite useless recently.
Sauron was about to come back into power, and what did we do? Uttering wise words and singing of Lúthien Tinúviel, Finrod Felagund and the beauty of Aman, while Men in Rohan and Gondor fought for their lives. In the end we had to fight, too. But if we had supported Men from the beginning, the earth of Lórien would not be stained with so much blood.
And many of the Men, too, would still be alive.
Many innocents.
At least we have destroyed Dol Guldur. I am very thankful of that. Thus we could make a small distribution to the war.
A war that has saved our lives as well.
In the past we fought against Sauron and his servants with all power we possessed. Sometimes I wonder if we have just done it because of our pride. We didn't want to admit defeat, we didn't want Men, the Secondborn, to believe they were the mightiest race in Middle-Earth. Perhaps we didn't want to be laughed at.
Fallen kings.
At least some of us have thought like that.
After the Last Alliance we retreated to our small sanctuaries and watched absently what was going on in the outside world. As the dark forces did not attack us, so we didn't see any use in fighting. If Evil had defeated Men and Dwarfs, we would have simply fled into the West.
And now we are forced to do so.
There is no place in nature for someone who doesn't really exist. Doesn't exist? Elves don't exist in Middle-Earth. Can living things that constantly hide away and almost only think of the past and dream to be somewhere else be called "existing"?
I don't think so.
And thus, all those who don't exist have to vanish.
It is difficult to fight it. Some of us, however, have succeeded: those, who live on Ithilien and in the Wood of Greenleaves. Their realms are still beautiful, their minds are not troubled with thoughts about leaving Middle-Earth.
I don't know if I should be jealous. One part of my heart longs to follow my kin into the West and live in peace and joy. The other part, though, begs me to remain in Middle-Earth. I have been born here, I have been living here for all my life, I have seen more of Middle-Earth than most other Elves of Lórien did. Can all this be left behind so easily?
Will I think of past when I live in the West?
Of course I will. And I will probably regret not to have stayed here. Somehow I can't imagine how life is like in the West. There are no Orcs, no dangers, no fear that you could die. But can you live thousands of years spending your time with singing or telling tales? Well, the ones who have always lived in Valinor may be able to do this, but what about the ones who have lived in Middle-Earth, where they had to fight and to kill to stay alive? Will we find any rest there?
I almost fear sailing into the West. But sometime I'll have to do so, one way or another.
Perhaps I should go right now, as almost all the other Lórien Elves do.
Once I have been a guard of this small realm, but now there's nothing to guard anymore.
I'm useless…
Behind a tree, I see the faces of my brothers, they are waiting for me to come. Smiling sadly I walk over to them, softly singing a song. As we turn to go, the melody grows fainter.
And only the whispering of the wind remains.
Fare you well, Dreamflower.
May thy colours never be forgotten.
There once was a valley
Where the leaves were green and golden
And the trees were silver
A place where beauty was born
In a land full of hatred.
A place of peace and harmony,
Of songs and tales
Which will last forever…
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The End
*again a quote from "LotR: The Two Towers", and again by Treebeard. I think it's even on the same page.
I'm sorry for all the grammar and language mistakes. ^.^ Sometimes English is a difficult language.