Denethor ponders the future of the West after a bout with the palantir.
Semi-finalist at the 2004 Mithril Awards for Best Poetry - short form.
Some say the West will end with water,
Some say in flame.
And if dear Atalante's slaughter
Should foretell, I hold with water.
For as the wave from furthest West
Ascended Meneltarma's height,
Gift once possessed
Proved then our plight.
But fate denies an end so grand
To Western sons;
Orodruin's ash expands
And e'er we start, the East has won.
For I have seen it in my stone:
The burning plains, the Cruelest Eye.
We stand alone;
The West shall die.
uAuthor's Notes/u
1 This poem is written in the style of Robert Frost's poem a ""Fire and Ice"/a.
2 ATALANTE: Alternate name for Numenor.
3 MENELTARMA: mountain on Numenor
4 GIFT: A reference both to Numenor itself (a gift of the Valar to the Men who had fought against Sauron) and to death (which was originally a gift of Iluvatar to all Men.
5 ORODRUIN: Mount Doom