IMPORTANT: READ THIS FIRST
Foreword
This is an adventure/romance fanfiction featuring Legolas Greenleaf and an original character of mine, Sylvia Tiraldamel, the Shepherdess of the Trees. Sylvia is an anomalous Elf who lives with the Ents and is the oldest Child of Iluvatar, the first of the Elves to ever awaken. Her love for the forest exceeds all other emotions of her heart, even the sea-longing of her kind, earning her the title "The Shepherdess of the Trees" from her Entish friends. She has never been in fellowship with her kindred, but her solitude is broken when Legolas discovers her at the borders of Fangorn Forest just after the close of LOTR. He immediately falls in love with her and determines to win a deeper affection from her than that given to her beloved trees. Therefore, he volunteers to accompany and aid Sylvia on a mission she embarks on. So, together, the two of them set out on a quest to find, after centuries, the missing Ent-wives, thus attempting to answer one of Arda's most enigmatic riddles and restore new life to a dying existence, that of the Elves, the Ents, and the trees.
All you really need to know to follow this story is that all of Tolkien's Elves had either black or blonde hair, grey, grey-blue, or black eyes, and a love for the sea that was supposed to exceed their love for the forest. Once they saw the sea or heard the cry of gulls, the sea-longing awoke in their hearts, and once awoken, it could never be laid back to rest. Understanding this information will ensure that you comprehend the significance of all of the anomalies surrounding Sylvia in this story. I make, by the way, a big distinction between whether or not fanfictions occur in the book universe or the movie universe, and this one occurs in the book universe; thus, I may make a few references in my writing to things which are either absent from or non-coherent with the movie version of LOTR. If you ever have any questions about such parts of the story, feel free to e-mail me, and I will answer them for you.
By the way, Sylvia was thus named at her awakening (I won't say by whom yet), and because she went on to have such a love for the forest, Iluvatar caused her name to enter into the minds of people as a term for the woodland realms. That is, when the people of Arda were composing the Common Tongue, Iluvatar made them think of the syllabic word "Sylvia" as a good word to be associated with the forest; hence, have we inherited the word sylvan in the English language. They were, or course, not aware of where this inspiration had come from, thinking that the word sylvan had been their own creation. My point with this is that "Sylvia" is not Sylvia's, the Shepherdess of the Trees', name because sylvan means "the forest"; rather, sylvan means "the forest" because "Sylvia" is the name of the Shepherdess of the Trees. Confused? Don't worry, I'll explain it several more times before this fic is through. By the way, "Tiraldamel" is the Elvish name Legolas gives to Sylvia, which means "one who loves and watches over the trees."
This fanfiction is currently rated PG for thematic elements, but I may have to up it to PG-13 later on if sufficient violence becomes involved in the story's adventure plot-side. Anyway, I hope you will read and review!!!!
P.S. In the future, there will be a web page for this fanfiction which will post images and song lyrics that go with it. It will be updated along with the story. When I have created this site, and each successive time I update it, I will let you know in an Author's Note at the beginning of a story chapter.
P.S.S. I sometimes communicate with my readers via my author bio. If a story has not been updated after a considerable length of time, the reason why will more than likely be given on that page.
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Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings. I am making no profit off this composition.
Author's Notes:
O.K., here's the deal. I am not a lazy writer who never updates, but in a few days, I am going off to college on a substantial scholarship and enrolled in a rigorous honors program for both of which I have to maintain a GPA of 3.6. I am also battling a chronic health ailment which, until recently, stood a good chance of preventing me from even going to college. Therefore, this piece is on hiatus until next summer. Sorry about that, but my parents have made it clear that I am not to eat up my time with writing fanfiction. If I have some free time, then I'll come back and update; but, if not, then, see you next June. I just thought it would be fair to tell you now, rather than have you frustrated by a prolonged lack of updates. If you lose interest due to such a long wait, it's perfectly understandable-but, if you really like what's here so far, then stick out the next nine months, because I will write this story as soon as the bright sun of next summer dawns, promise.
Anyway, short on time, I wrote this prologue in about an hour, and it really isn't my best work. When I start the story in earnest next summer, I'll also replace this first chapter with an improved version.
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Long ago, the Elves awoke to see the world. None of them knew, however, that one of their kindred had opened their eyes to Arda years before the rest of them and departed their company to dwell under the eaves of the forest in secret and solitude. This strange Elf, eldest of the Firstborn, was a fair maid whom of old, the Master named "Sylvia", and her appearance was not like to that of any other of the Eldar. Instead of ebony or golden tresses that Elves possessed, her hair was as dark brown as an ancient oak and wildly untamed, frizzing, rather than flowing, in a waifish manner down to her ivory ankles; and instead of the grey of the twilight, her eyes held the deep green of the forest and shone with starlight like a bright pair of emeralds.
Upon her awakening, this lonely Elf maid beheld the Age of the Trees and was enamored of its pristine beauty, of the forests of Arda, more so than for the light of the heavens, the music of the sea, or the fellowship of the race she saw surrounding her. Therefore, Sylvia forsook her sleeping kindred and dwelt alone in the vast woods of the world, dancing in joy under the green canopy of life that for ages, ere the awakening of other beings, hung over the realm of Arda.
Her solitude was broken, however, with the appearance on the world of the Ents. With them, Sylvia formed a loving friendship, becoming the only non-Ent of the world to learn and master the toungue of Entish. In time, from the Ents, she also learned the speech of her own kindred, whom the Ents had met, and as time passed, the languages of other strange, new beings as well. However, Sylvia loved best the secret tongues of nature, of tree and meadow and brook, and of old, the Ents counted her among their number, giving to her an Entish name, which translated, means "shepherdess of the trees".
Indeed, of all the Children of Iluvatar, Sylvia has been closest in spirit to Arda and understood it best, loving it more than any other, and caring most of all for its forests and the green things that grow upon it, its natural life. So great was her love for the trees of Middle Earth, that not even the sea-longing of her kind could call her away from them, and through a secret purpose of the One, her name, unknown among the peoples of the world, entered into their thoughts as a word for the forests and the woodland realms.
So the Elf maid Sylvia abided in bliss in the forests of Arda for ages untold, speaking never to a soul except an Ent or a tree. Wandering the woods freely, she could enter any forest realm without danger of notice, for the trees of the land would not forbid the entrance of their shepherdess. In this way, she once passed, unscathed, through the Girdle of Melian into Doriath and beheld there dancing Luthien Tinuviel; and so Sylvia laid eyes on the fairest of her race and yet was unmoved in her heart-for it seemed to her still that the land of Doriath in itself was fairer than the Elf maid who walked beneath its shadow and graced it with her presence, and the tree-shepherdess's eyes would rather look upon the beauty of the Ent maid Fimbrethil than that of Luthien. So Sylvia's heart was not taken by Tinuviel as was the rest of her kindred's, any more than it was by the sea, which beholding long ago, she had also scorned for the loveliness of the forest. Sylvia walked also in Lothlorien and from afar, saw the lady Galadriel at her mirror; but when the Queen of the Golden Wood received Nenya, the mallorn trees warned her away, saying they could no longer conceal her presence, for the Lady now possessed a Ring of Power. Thus, Sylvia visited Laurelindorean no longer. She did walk in Mirkwood and NanElmoth for a time ere great evil befell Middle Earth.
Always she stood apart from all the other Children of the One, gliding above their joys and lamentations in her own life's fulfillment, caring for the woods with the Ents; however, as time wore on, the forests of the world began to diminish, and with the Ents, Sylvia vanished behind the fading treeline. She cursed those such as Thingol, who wrought the ruin of Doriath, and Sauron, who cast shadow upon Mirkwood and the Old Forest; but she blessed the name of Galadriel, who preserved Lothlorien with the power of Nenya-Sylvia would have lamented the destruction of Nenya's light, therefore, even more so than the Lady of Lothlorien herself, or any other of her people. For centuries, Sylvia watched the forests of Arda become smaller and frailer, the Ents, her friends, begin to slowly fall asleep, and the trees gradually wither under the Changing of the World-until at last, in her grief, she could bear it no longer.
Of old, Sylvia had witnessed the departure of the Ent-wives; and now, she emerged from the forest of Fangorn, her present home, on a desperate quest to find them. She thought with hope that their return might spark new life in the fading forests and strengthen again Arda's woodland realms against change or withering; thus, she began her long wandering journey throughout Middle Earth. Her search spanned many years before and during the War of the Ring but met with no success. Yet unwilling to give up, but longing for her home, Sylvia finally made a brief visit to Fangorn and the Ents-and found them at Isengard.
The Elf maid was astonished at the unprecedented role her ancient friends had played in the conflict of the outside world and curious to learn more of it. Her opportunity soon arose when the wizard Olorin and the Elf prince of Mirkwood Legolas Greenleaf returned to Orthanc with news of Sauron's defeat-and so, for the first time in all her long life, Sylvia spoke with one not an Ent nor a tree, with one of her own kindred. Legolas was astonished to meet one of his people such as Sylvia and begged to know her tale. So, in exchange for his relation of the War of the Ring, she offered him the secret story of her ancient life and her present quest.
By the close of the forest-maid's speech, the prince of Mirkwood was left struck with both awe and love. He desired Sylvia, to take to wife and to have walk with her uniquely special woodland charms in Mirkwood; and he gave her an Elvish name, Tiraldamel, which meant "the one who loves and watches over the trees". But he withheld his heart's intentions from Sylvia, for he could see that the love in her eyes as yet shone for the forests of Arda and nothing else, unless it were her Entish friends whom she almost held kin with. The sylvan Elf also held in keen respect the lady's claim as the eldest of all their race-in her emerald eyes were depths of age and wisdom greater than even Galadriel's, than any other Eruhini's, for she was before them all, eldest of all the Children of Iluvatar. So, Legolas praised her beauty, declaring that no other Quendi had ever possessed the unique coloring of her hair and her eyes, and reverenced her age-and he vowed to accompany the tree-shepherdess on her quest and with her, discover the fate of the Ent-wives.
Sylvia was astonished and doubtful of such a partnership, for her way had ever been solitude, and she had never before held company with one of her kind, or with any other Child of Eru. But eventually, with Treebeard's aid, her shy reluctance was overcome, and she welcomed the male Elf on her journey. So they set out together, the Shepherdess of the Trees and the Prince of Mirkwood, on a quest across all of Middle Earth to answer one of Arda's most ancient mysteries: what did become of the Ent-wives? Through their journey, Legolas would endeavor to win the heart of the wood maiden, and Sylvia would grow more and more possessed by confusion as a strange emotion, finally one greater and deeper than even her eternal, all-consuming love for the trees, began to slowly awaken within her ancient heart.