CHAPTER 10
About 1200 years into the Third Age, my children started branching out a bit.
We found a pretty, remote cottage in what I knew would become Rohan and they left me to my own devices while they went out to explore the rest of the world on their own.
It was nice being on my own, though I still worried for my twins, who still acted very much like children on occasions.
They come back to at least once a decade, carrying news of the outside world. I have to admit that of the pieces of information that I found strangest was when they told me that beings called Hobbits had set up a settlement in a place called Bree.
They think I find it strange because of the creatures; it is actually because I know the timeline from the point of view of someone who read Lord of the Rings first. It is very strange to think of the Hobbits only just setting up.
There is worse news on that return visit though and that is that the Kingdom of Angmar has been set up by the Witch-King. That is just wonderful.
In roughly 1409, I think, I have a hairy moment. My children have somehow attached themselves to the Dunedain of the North and as that year rolls on, I realise that they are out there, probably with the Rangers when Angmar attacks. This is hairy both for the fear of my children going to war like my husband had, but also because the Elves of both Lindon and Rivendell ride out to help the Rangers.
I do really hope that they are neither killed nor discovered.
M worry proves unfounded, both of the two return from their little fight unscathed and gushing about the pretty Elves which they thankfully had the common sense to stay away from as much as possible.
A couple of hundred or so years later, they bring me the news that the Hobbits have been allowed to settle in the Shire and are led by two called Marcho and Blanco; I cannot help thinking that those names sound like the names of the Marx brothers or something.
I don't air that thought though, it would mean nothing to anyone but me.
In the later part of the first half of the 1600's the Great Plague spreads its way across Arda and my children return home until we are pretty sure it has died out.
That, strangely enough, affects my children more than war does. They were born used to war; their father died in one before they ever had the chance of meeting him, yet they have never seen anything kill without them seeing how it can attack people scares them. I suppose it is not as strange as all that.
It is not until the 1850's that another really interesting happens and unsurprisingly, what happens is a war. The survivors ride North to the realm I inhabit peacefully and very well hidden. These people become the Eotheod, those who will eventually become the Rohirrim.
It is very strange for me to see the predecessors of the kingdom of Rohan setting up; much like it was strange to see that start of the Shire as Hobbit-land.
In the 1940s, with what I consider great irony, a major sized war breaks out with Gondor and all her allies verses the Wainriders and their allies. It just reminds me of the war that happened around similar dates in my world.
My children, thank the Valar, decide to stay home for that one and I rest rather more peacefully during that war.
In the 1970s war breaks out again and I eventually convinced my children to stay home from this one as well, thankfully by now I have told them of my foreknowledge and so they realise that staying away when I really insist is a good idea. I don't tell them that a lot of incentive for my opposition lies in the fact that I know that there is a pretty high chance of them ending up in Lindon and their father's home. I really don't want that to happen yet. There is also a high chance of, not only them dying, but meeting the Witch-King as well as Glorfindel, a person who had more chance than most of recognising my children.
Finally in 1976, the son of the last king of the Northern Kingdom takes the title of Chieftain of the Dunedain.
At the same time, the shards of Narsil and the other heirlooms of the line of Isildur are newly housed in Rivendell, while the elf-stone which would eventually give Aragorn his name goes to live in Lindon.
In 1981 something happens that I know, but don't tell my children and am not told by them.
The Balrog awakes in Kazad-dum, many Silvan Elves flee Lothlorien resulting in the tragedy in which Amroth of Lorien dies, and an Elf-maiden, who travelled with Nimrodel, marries a human, resulting in the setting up of Dol Amroth, and the line that eventually descends from it.
It is also at this time that Galadriel and Celeborn begin to rule over Lothlorien.
I have to admit that it makes me smile to know this, the world is getting closer to the one I knew as the one in Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit.
In 2050 the line of kings ends when Earnur, the silly ass, rides off to Minas Morgul to fight the Witch-King. It makes both my children slightly mournful right until I let them in on the fact that Gondor will have a king again and that king will be great.
Much happens in the intervening years, most of which is interminably boring, bar the changes in the government of the Shire, and the end of the Watchful Peace when Sauron occupies Dol Guldur.
Three years after that, in 2463, the White Council is formed with Saruman at his head, despite Galadriel wanting Gandalf, and Sméagol finds the One Ring.
The events of the War of the Ring seem to begin rushing to happen almost at that time.
In around 2500 my children come home with terrible news, that only I knew to be inevitable and one of the few things I really wished I had been able to prevent. CelebrÃan, daughter of Galadriel and Celeborn and wife of Elrond, had been captured and tortured by Orcs in the Misty Mountains before being rescued by her sons. I don't know how they found out about it, but that news resulted in my children staying very near me for a long while, clearly disturbed and thinking of how they could protect me.
They obviously did not want to have to find me in such a situation, no matter how much less likely it was for me to end up in the same position.
While my children are sitting around being protective of me, Rohan becomes a proper country and I suppose we could technically be now called Rohirric citizens.
That was very strange.
In the next several centuries my children rejoin the Dunedain, which they have ignored a little bit while they were busy being protective of me.
There they actually meet Elladan and Elrohir, but manage to keep their identities secret.
In the late 2750's my children rather pointedly insist I temporarily move into a town as the Long Winter blows in and they start to worry about me living in a remote house during the stinking weather that comes that year.
It is a combination of the desire to temporarily return to civilisation and the agreement with them that sitting in a house in the middle of nowhere in a really bad winter is really no fun.
I still have to be careful though because I do not sink into the snow, though I find that I do slide on ice, and the humans that surround me would probably notice that unusual feature.
Once I decide that the fact I am not aging is becoming noticeable, I decide it is time for a move out of Rohan.
For a while I dip down into Gondor and reside in Gondor for a while, once again flickering across the landscape, this time aiming West, every time I think my lack of aging is becoming a problem.
Eventually, I begin to move North again and move into Eriador, settling near a Dunedain village that is quite small and not very like to have anyone I know turn up. This has the advantage I can stay for much longer as the Dunedain don't age much either and I can stay for many more decades. My children like this as it is easier for them to go running off with the Dunedain while still keeping a protective eye on me.
This time, as I carry on my rather slower migration North and in the general direction of the Shire (though my travel is far from in a straight line), I am more careful with my identity and hiding my ears. I even become a little recluse, not that I ever was exactly a socialite, keeping from being seen in the villages much because of the increased chance of seeing Elves and Elves that would recognise me.
By now it wasn't so much the need to be away from places that would remind me of my husband, but the fact that if Elrond found me alive now, he would most likely go absolutely nuts. I think he would be more than slightly displeased about my now nearly 3000 year long absence and the fact I took my children with me even though they could be ruling the Noldor instead of him. I strongly suspected that, if he knew the children existed, he'd frequently wish that they were doing his job and not him.
I was under no illusions, courtesy of watching Ereinion, that ruling the Elves was any fun.
The last time I get up and move before actually going and settling in Bree is when we get news that Arathorn, Chieftain of the Dunedain, has died.
The place I settle is a couple of miles from a village just far enough from Bree that no one would have heard of me when I did get up and move to the town.
It is in the 2980's that I migrate to Bree, shortly after Aragorn returns from his tour of Arda.
That gives me about 30 years until the War of the Ring and all that mess.
When I move to Bree, I vaguely remember the words Glorfindel told me about those who carry fate finding me in the strangest place and that is when I shall come into my own.
Well Bree definitely counts as strange and is definitely on the path of the Hobbits who will carry fate in a few decades. This also means that the time I have left until I have to face up to Elrond's wrath is drawing to a close and I am most definitely not looking forward to that.
At the turn of the Millennium or so, the little Hobbit named Bilbo comes through on his last journey and I get a last glimpse of him though do not speak with him, partly because I know that if he sees an Elf in Bree, he will tell Elrond the moment he gets to Rivendell.
At a similar time, my children become more protective, but are away more often, becoming more deeply involved in the Rangers who are having to increase their guard even though they suffer diminishing numbers due to the Orcs.
Another interesting character I make sure I do not meet, though I am sure he is aware of my presence watching him is Gandalf, who goes through to visit the Shire several times between 3004 and 3008 when he then leaves off to help Aragorn search for Gollum.
A decade later what are sometimes referred to as 'The Great Years' begins and events start happening really very fast.
Oh, how fun!