Author's Notes: This chapter has been almost completely rewritten as of 05/27/02, thanks to helpful suggestions from reviewers. I have also made a few minor corrections.
Please do not assume that any of the relationships I have described are canon; some are, some are based on gleanings from The History of Middle-Earth and Unfinished Tales, and some are entirely created for the purposes of this fic. The notes at the end of the chapter and the longer description of the genealogies involved (All in the Family, Appendix), should show what Tolkien actually told us, what I have deduced, and what is entirely of my own making. From Unfinished Tales we can infer that Oropher came from Doriath (that Thranduil was born in Doriath is a bit shakier); it is also apparent that there was little love lost between Oropher and Celeborn.
Disclaimer: Original characters mostly comprise the forgotten wives, mothers and daughters who must have existed but were never named. All other characters belong to Tolkien. Additional notes and translations of Elvish words are found at the end of the chapter (the language is Sindarin unless otherwise noted).
The Elder Days
Anórieth, named for the golden tresses inherited from her mother, was greatly revered for her beauty. Presently, however, her lovely face was contorted with pain as she mustered nearly her last strength and delivered her first child. The midwife smiled as she lifted the newborn. "A son you have, hirilen. And 'tis known that one so difficult to birth shall be great in life." As if to confirm her prediction, the baby roared at the various indignities thrust upon him in his first moments outside the womb. Thranduil had arrived.
Long before the birth of his son or even the creation of the Sun and Moon, Oropher was an elf-lord of small consequence, one of many claiming kinship to his King. His prospects were greatly altered by the first of the Wars of Beleriand. Unable to break through Morgoth's army to reach Círdan, Thingol called for the aid of the son of Lenwë, then ruler of the Laegrim of Ossiriand. Alas, Denethor perished with all his sons at Amon Ereb. Most of his people hid themselves in the forest and would have no king thereafter, but some, alarmed by the foul issue of Angband, sought safety in Eglador. Of these 'guest elves', many followed a chieftain of their own people, Ithilbor, and dwelt in Arthórien. Though Saeros, son of Ithilbor, and Daeron, his friend, would wield great influence at Menegroth, the elves of Arthórien had little affection for their Sindarin hosts and kept mostly to themselves.
The remainder of the Laegrim who came to Eglador lived in the forest of Region. These elves were not wholly sundered from the Sindar, taking Oropher as their lord, for he was sister-son to Lenwë** and Denethor's nearest surviving kin. Many of their rustic habits they retained, yet they adopted also certain ways of the Sindar, becoming more learned than the Laegrim in Arthórien and those elves who remained in Ossiriand.
Following that war, Eglador was surrounded by Melian's enchantment and thence known as Doriath. The Noldorin exiles returned to Beleriand soon after, and Thingol, accustomed to the deference accorded him by Sindar and Nandor alike, did not welcome them or their independence of his authority. Only his brother-daughter's offspring would he permit to enter his realm. Angrod was the first of these kinsmen to come to Doriath, and lately reconciled with the sons of Fëanor, he told nothing of the true nature of his people's exile.
Now, with Angrod was his daughter, and it was her fate to find love among the Iathrim. Angrod sorrowfully quit Doriath without Nyellissë, for she would not forsake her beloved. Having bound themselves by custom of the Eldar, Nyellissë and Echelebon soon welcomed a daughter of their own. Anórieth grew into a rare beauty, pursued by many. She was not much past her majority, and though inclined to bind herself, she wished also to be certain in her choice. "Do not be hasty, for I would see you bound in love. Take the measure of your intended carefully, and beware of passing fancies that will not endure," Nyellissë counseled her daughter.
Though she willed it not, Anórieth found herself drawn to the impulsive and romantic lord of the Laegrim. It was an odd pairing, for in temperament and circumstance he was nearly her opposite - brash where she was respectful, impatient where she was dignified, impulsive where she was prudent. His modest dwelling in the forest was comfortable, but quite unlike the luxurious beauty of her rooms at Menegroth.
The colony in Region reminded her of stories she had been told as a child about Cuivienyarna, of their forefathers who awoke to the world like children, crying, "Elen! Elen!" when they saw the stars. The Laegrim had little inclination toward industry, making only what they needed and passing a good part of their days at play among the trees. Such artless simplicity was alien to her. Her mother had adopted the ways of her Sindarin mate and his people, but Nyellissë never forgot that her father was brother-son to the High King among the exiled Noldor. That her origins counted for little in Doriath was no cause to maintain decorum unbefitting her noble lineage.
In his pedigree, at least, Oropher could not be found lacking, but protocol suited to a lord was hardly known by his people. He maintained no retinue or honor guard, and presided over feasts to which no Laegel was too humble to be invited.** The courtly manners and trappings of royalty such as those known to Thingol or Fingolfin were strange to these simple elves. By his lineage, Oropher had been made their lord; by his unassuming nature, he had earned his people's loyalty.
From her father, an envoy in Thingol's service, Anórieth had inherited a pragmatic nature, and if these dreamy, unrefined elves of the forest were a curiosity to her, their lack of pretension she respected. In Oropher, she found an elf of deep and complex passions, quick to anger and slow to forgive, and utterly besotted with her in a way that her more formal and diffident suitors were not.
In the end, his people persuaded her heart. On a clear afternoon Oropher called for her unexpectedly, as was his wont, and desired her company on his return to Region. They reached the colony as aduial fell, and the celebrated voices of the Laegrim rose together in song, a prayer of reverence to Elbereth. Indeed, they had not forgotten Cuiviénen. The beauty of the moment was not lost upon Anórieth, and she now saw why Oropher loved this people. Yes, she could live among them, forsaking the comforts of Menegroth, and she would have their silver-haired lord, for no other so stirred her.
They had hardly lived two years as husband and wife before rumors of the bloodshed of their kin in Alqualondë began to circulate among the Iathrim. Bound to Sindar and descendants of Finarfin, Anórieth and her mother were not among those initially expelled from Doriath. With their golden locks, however, they attracted a degree of censure from those who would ingratiate themselves to their King by imitating his wrath.
Oropher found himself in unenviable duplicity, wherein he must condemn a people with whom his wife shared half her blood. It was perhaps this contradiction that made him all the more fervent in hatred of his wife's Noldor relations, as if to assert his own kinship with the slain and preclude question of his motives by others - or by his own conscience. The brunt of his zeal was devoted to Galadriel, and in this, he was perhaps more influenced by dislike of her consort than by belief that the lady herself was responsible for the Kinslaying.
Oropher was not counted among Thingol's chief counselors, nor even among the lesser ones; as his people were content with their lord, Thingol did not interfere with his rule, but neither did the King seek his counsel in any matter great or small. Oropher was ambivalent about his status, for though he had no taste for the political sycophancy at Menegroth, nonetheless he would have respect. It was no small wound to his pride to learn of news from Menegroth from Saeros, for was he, Oropher, not the son of Thingol's brother-son? Ithilbor had accepted Oropher's leadership of their kindred in Region, as he was unwilling to bring division and conflict upon his people, but his son was less inclined to be conciliatory. The prideful elf had found in Oropher's half-Noldorin wife a weakness, and this he pressed in his counsels with the King.
That Celeborn was his most vigorous defender did nothing to placate Oropher. Long had the son of Elorn regarded his cousin with jealousy and resentment; Celeborn was a counselor to Thingol and in all ways more respected than his kinsman. The younger elf chafed under his cousin's frequent counsels; it irked him to be treated as a wayward subordinate rather than as an equal. Such irritation with his cousin began long before the Noldor returned to Arda, and awareness that he was in poor position now to condemn Celeborn in his marriage only intensified Oropher's righteousness. As if to minimize his divided loyalties, he fell to splitting the hairs of blame. That her mother was one of the Teleri made Galadriel's decision to follow Fëanor all the more damning, the elf-lord believed. Better that she and her brothers had followed their father than treat with his murderous brother. In Oropher's mind, this exonerated his own wife, whose grandfather had made the fateful decision to turn away from the Valar. Anórieth had been born in Arda; the choice to ask their forgiveness had never been given to her.
Bitter words passed between Oropher and Celeborn concerning Galadriel. Ever sensible, Anórieth advised her husband to swallow his anger. "You need his support, hervennen. Saeros, I deem, is more in the King's confidence than his character warrants. If you will not seek Thingol's ear, you cannot afford to alienate one who will speak in your favor."
Oropher sighed in frustration. "Therein lies the trouble, for Celeborn has always been quick to look out for my best interests, and proffer advice unasked for." Had Anórieth been raised among her kin in Dorthonion, she might have better understood the complicated relations between Thingol's many kin. In truth, Oropher knew that despite the cousins' animosity, their close kinship precluded betrayal of one by the other.
Alas, Thingol did not fully comprehend the Doom of Mandos, or its connection to the Silmarilli. In time, his wisdom yielded to want of the Noldorin jewels that had brought such misery to their maker and his kin, and he was already corrupted by desire when he sold his daughter's hand, though he would insist that this was not the case, for possession of one such jewel.
In the same year, Thranduil reached his majority and Anórieth, unaware of the sorrows about to interrupt their long peace, brought forth a daughter. Laigil was the name given by her mother, for she saw that the elf-child possessed a touch of Celeborn's far sight. Both children inherited her golden hair, but in temperament were more evenly divided between their parents. Like his father, Thranduil could be quick to anger, but he was more thoughtful in behavior, for he had also his mother's practical nature. If he had a weakness, it lay in appreciation for fine food, wine and comely elf-maids, but he was nonetheless a worthy Hîl to his father; indeed, he wore the obligations of his title gracefully. Laigil, his sister, was nearly the opposite of her brother in disposition, being inclined to fancy rather than sensible thought, and gentle of temper. Under a veneer of shyness, however, she hid her father's passion and strong feeling. Many hurts she kept in her heart, untold even to her brother. And she was yet a child when the shadow of the Silmarilli fell upon Doriath.
Dwarves brought about their first ruin, and neither Oropher nor his son ever forgot the many elves who fell under dwarven axes. After the foul murder of Thingol, Melian left Doriath and her protective Girdle was withdrawn. Oropher now feared for his family, and when Dior and Nimloth came to occupy Menegroth, he sent his daughter and wife to his kin, believing they would be safe should Morgoth come against them.
Yet, Laigil warned him against this. "My heart tells me that we shall be better looked after by the Laegrim, Adar. They will protect us as Dior cannot."
His daughter's foresight Oropher would recall with bitter remorse, for the doom that awaited Doriath would come not by the hands of orcs but by the oath of the sons of Fëanor. This was the second Kinslaying, and Menegroth was laid to waste. The elves of Region who came to the aid of Dior were utterly routed by the Fëanorians, and Oropher could get no word of his wife and daughter from those who fled Menegroth. Forced to retreat or commit his forces to slaughter, he returned to Region, gathered his people, and brought them south.
At the Sirion in Nivrim, they met Celeborn and a sad remnant of those trapped in Menegroth when the Kinslayers came against them. Elwing** they had saved, and Laigil, but Anórieth was not with them.
"We hid ourselves, Naneth and I, but she was found… ." The young elf-maid could tell no more.
Amid his father's rage and grief, Thranduil assumed leadership of his family and their people, for he saw that they would soon join his mother in death if they did not delay their grief. They fled toward Balar, hoping that Círdan yet held the mouth of the Sirion. Little is told of their journey, for in later years neither Thranduil nor Celeborn cared to recall the hardships endured, but in the company of the Laegrim, with their knowledge of all that lived in the wild places, their flight might have been less arduous than that of the Gondolindrim who took the same path two years hence.
In Arvernien they settled, in the northern part of that region so as to be independent of Celeborn and those who had followed him further south. Oropher's love for his wife had never lessened, and if he had loathing for the dwarves who had helped to bring this tragedy upon them, so much more did he bear for the Noldor who had slain their own kindred - in the end, his distrust of his wife's kin would be his ruin. But now his anger would bear him through the pain of his great loss. Thranduil worried more for his quiet sister. She had been close to their mother, and had seen horrors too great for her tender years.
"Do not worry for me overmuch, muindoren. Naneth loved us, and it would be faithless to her memory if through her death we should also fail," she reassured him. For her part, Laigil did not like the somber change in her brother, though some might interpret Thranduil's newfound sense of responsibility as a sign that he was at last maturing. The reserved elf-maid had always enjoyed her brother's stories of his exploits, if carefully edited for her tender ears, and it saddened her that he must now assume burdens that should not have come his way for many centuries yet.
Rumor whispered that the Silmaril had escaped the sons of Fëanor, and accompanied Elwing in the flight south. Having demanded the truth of his cousin, Oropher was enraged - the jewel that had brought such suffering upon so many had come to haunt them still.
"What madness propels you, Celeborn, to thus put all at risk? For it is certain that the sons of Fëanor shall follow that cursed jewel to the end of Arda."
"It was not my choice; it does not belong to me, but to the child of Dior."
"It belongs to none but the Belain!"
"Mayhap young Elwing shall be the means by which the Silmaril returns to the Blessed Realm," Celeborn replied patiently.
"Mayhap it shall be the end of all of us," Oropher retorted.
But the Silmaril was with them, and they had not removed to Arvernien but forty years before Maedhros and Maglor brought the fell madness of their oath upon the ill-fated survivors of Doriath and Gondolin. Some, including Celeborn and Galadriel, escaped to dwell with Gil-galad and Círdan at Balar. Oropher, though kin to Círdan, would not be subservient to the High King of the Noldor, and his people fled east to the Laegrim still dwelling in Ossiriand. Many of the Sindar who survived the third and most malicious of the Kinslayings were of like mind, and joined themselves to Oropher's people. Among them was Malgalad**, brother-son to Celeborn.
"My sister…I saw what was done to her, and to Dior. I cannot abide with these Dagwenin** or those who would make peace with them. Let me go with you," he implored his kinsman.
Oropher was beset with doubt; though past his majority, Malgalad was even younger than Thranduil. He should yet be with his family. 'What family?' Oropher thought grimly. The elf had lost both parents while still a child; his sister Nimloth had been as a mother to him. Truly, he belonged with his father's brother, but Celeborn had turned his face toward the High King. Understanding Malgalad's grief, for it so nearly mirrored his own, he relented.
Thus, they passed the final years of the Elder Days; hidden deep in the forest, they knew nothing of the host of Valinor, and indeed trembled in fear when the very mountains broke apart, believing this to be the work of Morgoth. They did not know of the great doings of Ingwë and Finarfin until refugees came among them. Now they heard of the summons of Eönwë, but did not heed his call, for few of the Sindar of Oropher's party had looked upon the Sea and knew no desire to go West with their kindred. As for the Laegrim, they loved Arda, and from ancient times had never wished to leave it. In later days, they would be among the last to cling to Arda, even as their race was lost to men. And Thranduil would remain with them.
Please do not assume that any of the relationships I have described are canon; some are, some are based on gleanings from The History of Middle-Earth and Unfinished Tales, and some are entirely created for the purposes of this fic. The notes at the end of the chapter and the longer description of the genealogies involved (All in the Family, Appendix), should show what Tolkien actually told us, what I have deduced, and what is entirely of my own making. From Unfinished Tales we can infer that Oropher came from Doriath (that Thranduil was born in Doriath is a bit shakier); it is also apparent that there was little love lost between Oropher and Celeborn.
Disclaimer: Original characters mostly comprise the forgotten wives, mothers and daughters who must have existed but were never named. All other characters belong to Tolkien. Additional notes and translations of Elvish words are found at the end of the chapter (the language is Sindarin unless otherwise noted).
Anórieth, named for the golden tresses inherited from her mother, was greatly revered for her beauty. Presently, however, her lovely face was contorted with pain as she mustered nearly her last strength and delivered her first child. The midwife smiled as she lifted the newborn. "A son you have, hirilen. And 'tis known that one so difficult to birth shall be great in life." As if to confirm her prediction, the baby roared at the various indignities thrust upon him in his first moments outside the womb. Thranduil had arrived.
Long before the birth of his son or even the creation of the Sun and Moon, Oropher was an elf-lord of small consequence, one of many claiming kinship to his King. His prospects were greatly altered by the first of the Wars of Beleriand. Unable to break through Morgoth's army to reach Círdan, Thingol called for the aid of the son of Lenwë, then ruler of the Laegrim of Ossiriand. Alas, Denethor perished with all his sons at Amon Ereb. Most of his people hid themselves in the forest and would have no king thereafter, but some, alarmed by the foul issue of Angband, sought safety in Eglador. Of these 'guest elves', many followed a chieftain of their own people, Ithilbor, and dwelt in Arthórien. Though Saeros, son of Ithilbor, and Daeron, his friend, would wield great influence at Menegroth, the elves of Arthórien had little affection for their Sindarin hosts and kept mostly to themselves.
The remainder of the Laegrim who came to Eglador lived in the forest of Region. These elves were not wholly sundered from the Sindar, taking Oropher as their lord, for he was sister-son to Lenwë** and Denethor's nearest surviving kin. Many of their rustic habits they retained, yet they adopted also certain ways of the Sindar, becoming more learned than the Laegrim in Arthórien and those elves who remained in Ossiriand.
Following that war, Eglador was surrounded by Melian's enchantment and thence known as Doriath. The Noldorin exiles returned to Beleriand soon after, and Thingol, accustomed to the deference accorded him by Sindar and Nandor alike, did not welcome them or their independence of his authority. Only his brother-daughter's offspring would he permit to enter his realm. Angrod was the first of these kinsmen to come to Doriath, and lately reconciled with the sons of Fëanor, he told nothing of the true nature of his people's exile.
Now, with Angrod was his daughter, and it was her fate to find love among the Iathrim. Angrod sorrowfully quit Doriath without Nyellissë, for she would not forsake her beloved. Having bound themselves by custom of the Eldar, Nyellissë and Echelebon soon welcomed a daughter of their own. Anórieth grew into a rare beauty, pursued by many. She was not much past her majority, and though inclined to bind herself, she wished also to be certain in her choice. "Do not be hasty, for I would see you bound in love. Take the measure of your intended carefully, and beware of passing fancies that will not endure," Nyellissë counseled her daughter.
Though she willed it not, Anórieth found herself drawn to the impulsive and romantic lord of the Laegrim. It was an odd pairing, for in temperament and circumstance he was nearly her opposite - brash where she was respectful, impatient where she was dignified, impulsive where she was prudent. His modest dwelling in the forest was comfortable, but quite unlike the luxurious beauty of her rooms at Menegroth.
The colony in Region reminded her of stories she had been told as a child about Cuivienyarna, of their forefathers who awoke to the world like children, crying, "Elen! Elen!" when they saw the stars. The Laegrim had little inclination toward industry, making only what they needed and passing a good part of their days at play among the trees. Such artless simplicity was alien to her. Her mother had adopted the ways of her Sindarin mate and his people, but Nyellissë never forgot that her father was brother-son to the High King among the exiled Noldor. That her origins counted for little in Doriath was no cause to maintain decorum unbefitting her noble lineage.
In his pedigree, at least, Oropher could not be found lacking, but protocol suited to a lord was hardly known by his people. He maintained no retinue or honor guard, and presided over feasts to which no Laegel was too humble to be invited.** The courtly manners and trappings of royalty such as those known to Thingol or Fingolfin were strange to these simple elves. By his lineage, Oropher had been made their lord; by his unassuming nature, he had earned his people's loyalty.
From her father, an envoy in Thingol's service, Anórieth had inherited a pragmatic nature, and if these dreamy, unrefined elves of the forest were a curiosity to her, their lack of pretension she respected. In Oropher, she found an elf of deep and complex passions, quick to anger and slow to forgive, and utterly besotted with her in a way that her more formal and diffident suitors were not.
In the end, his people persuaded her heart. On a clear afternoon Oropher called for her unexpectedly, as was his wont, and desired her company on his return to Region. They reached the colony as aduial fell, and the celebrated voices of the Laegrim rose together in song, a prayer of reverence to Elbereth. Indeed, they had not forgotten Cuiviénen. The beauty of the moment was not lost upon Anórieth, and she now saw why Oropher loved this people. Yes, she could live among them, forsaking the comforts of Menegroth, and she would have their silver-haired lord, for no other so stirred her.
They had hardly lived two years as husband and wife before rumors of the bloodshed of their kin in Alqualondë began to circulate among the Iathrim. Bound to Sindar and descendants of Finarfin, Anórieth and her mother were not among those initially expelled from Doriath. With their golden locks, however, they attracted a degree of censure from those who would ingratiate themselves to their King by imitating his wrath.
Oropher found himself in unenviable duplicity, wherein he must condemn a people with whom his wife shared half her blood. It was perhaps this contradiction that made him all the more fervent in hatred of his wife's Noldor relations, as if to assert his own kinship with the slain and preclude question of his motives by others - or by his own conscience. The brunt of his zeal was devoted to Galadriel, and in this, he was perhaps more influenced by dislike of her consort than by belief that the lady herself was responsible for the Kinslaying.
Oropher was not counted among Thingol's chief counselors, nor even among the lesser ones; as his people were content with their lord, Thingol did not interfere with his rule, but neither did the King seek his counsel in any matter great or small. Oropher was ambivalent about his status, for though he had no taste for the political sycophancy at Menegroth, nonetheless he would have respect. It was no small wound to his pride to learn of news from Menegroth from Saeros, for was he, Oropher, not the son of Thingol's brother-son? Ithilbor had accepted Oropher's leadership of their kindred in Region, as he was unwilling to bring division and conflict upon his people, but his son was less inclined to be conciliatory. The prideful elf had found in Oropher's half-Noldorin wife a weakness, and this he pressed in his counsels with the King.
That Celeborn was his most vigorous defender did nothing to placate Oropher. Long had the son of Elorn regarded his cousin with jealousy and resentment; Celeborn was a counselor to Thingol and in all ways more respected than his kinsman. The younger elf chafed under his cousin's frequent counsels; it irked him to be treated as a wayward subordinate rather than as an equal. Such irritation with his cousin began long before the Noldor returned to Arda, and awareness that he was in poor position now to condemn Celeborn in his marriage only intensified Oropher's righteousness. As if to minimize his divided loyalties, he fell to splitting the hairs of blame. That her mother was one of the Teleri made Galadriel's decision to follow Fëanor all the more damning, the elf-lord believed. Better that she and her brothers had followed their father than treat with his murderous brother. In Oropher's mind, this exonerated his own wife, whose grandfather had made the fateful decision to turn away from the Valar. Anórieth had been born in Arda; the choice to ask their forgiveness had never been given to her.
Bitter words passed between Oropher and Celeborn concerning Galadriel. Ever sensible, Anórieth advised her husband to swallow his anger. "You need his support, hervennen. Saeros, I deem, is more in the King's confidence than his character warrants. If you will not seek Thingol's ear, you cannot afford to alienate one who will speak in your favor."
Oropher sighed in frustration. "Therein lies the trouble, for Celeborn has always been quick to look out for my best interests, and proffer advice unasked for." Had Anórieth been raised among her kin in Dorthonion, she might have better understood the complicated relations between Thingol's many kin. In truth, Oropher knew that despite the cousins' animosity, their close kinship precluded betrayal of one by the other.
Alas, Thingol did not fully comprehend the Doom of Mandos, or its connection to the Silmarilli. In time, his wisdom yielded to want of the Noldorin jewels that had brought such misery to their maker and his kin, and he was already corrupted by desire when he sold his daughter's hand, though he would insist that this was not the case, for possession of one such jewel.
In the same year, Thranduil reached his majority and Anórieth, unaware of the sorrows about to interrupt their long peace, brought forth a daughter. Laigil was the name given by her mother, for she saw that the elf-child possessed a touch of Celeborn's far sight. Both children inherited her golden hair, but in temperament were more evenly divided between their parents. Like his father, Thranduil could be quick to anger, but he was more thoughtful in behavior, for he had also his mother's practical nature. If he had a weakness, it lay in appreciation for fine food, wine and comely elf-maids, but he was nonetheless a worthy Hîl to his father; indeed, he wore the obligations of his title gracefully. Laigil, his sister, was nearly the opposite of her brother in disposition, being inclined to fancy rather than sensible thought, and gentle of temper. Under a veneer of shyness, however, she hid her father's passion and strong feeling. Many hurts she kept in her heart, untold even to her brother. And she was yet a child when the shadow of the Silmarilli fell upon Doriath.
Dwarves brought about their first ruin, and neither Oropher nor his son ever forgot the many elves who fell under dwarven axes. After the foul murder of Thingol, Melian left Doriath and her protective Girdle was withdrawn. Oropher now feared for his family, and when Dior and Nimloth came to occupy Menegroth, he sent his daughter and wife to his kin, believing they would be safe should Morgoth come against them.
Yet, Laigil warned him against this. "My heart tells me that we shall be better looked after by the Laegrim, Adar. They will protect us as Dior cannot."
His daughter's foresight Oropher would recall with bitter remorse, for the doom that awaited Doriath would come not by the hands of orcs but by the oath of the sons of Fëanor. This was the second Kinslaying, and Menegroth was laid to waste. The elves of Region who came to the aid of Dior were utterly routed by the Fëanorians, and Oropher could get no word of his wife and daughter from those who fled Menegroth. Forced to retreat or commit his forces to slaughter, he returned to Region, gathered his people, and brought them south.
At the Sirion in Nivrim, they met Celeborn and a sad remnant of those trapped in Menegroth when the Kinslayers came against them. Elwing** they had saved, and Laigil, but Anórieth was not with them.
"We hid ourselves, Naneth and I, but she was found… ." The young elf-maid could tell no more.
Amid his father's rage and grief, Thranduil assumed leadership of his family and their people, for he saw that they would soon join his mother in death if they did not delay their grief. They fled toward Balar, hoping that Círdan yet held the mouth of the Sirion. Little is told of their journey, for in later years neither Thranduil nor Celeborn cared to recall the hardships endured, but in the company of the Laegrim, with their knowledge of all that lived in the wild places, their flight might have been less arduous than that of the Gondolindrim who took the same path two years hence.
In Arvernien they settled, in the northern part of that region so as to be independent of Celeborn and those who had followed him further south. Oropher's love for his wife had never lessened, and if he had loathing for the dwarves who had helped to bring this tragedy upon them, so much more did he bear for the Noldor who had slain their own kindred - in the end, his distrust of his wife's kin would be his ruin. But now his anger would bear him through the pain of his great loss. Thranduil worried more for his quiet sister. She had been close to their mother, and had seen horrors too great for her tender years.
"Do not worry for me overmuch, muindoren. Naneth loved us, and it would be faithless to her memory if through her death we should also fail," she reassured him. For her part, Laigil did not like the somber change in her brother, though some might interpret Thranduil's newfound sense of responsibility as a sign that he was at last maturing. The reserved elf-maid had always enjoyed her brother's stories of his exploits, if carefully edited for her tender ears, and it saddened her that he must now assume burdens that should not have come his way for many centuries yet.
Rumor whispered that the Silmaril had escaped the sons of Fëanor, and accompanied Elwing in the flight south. Having demanded the truth of his cousin, Oropher was enraged - the jewel that had brought such suffering upon so many had come to haunt them still.
"What madness propels you, Celeborn, to thus put all at risk? For it is certain that the sons of Fëanor shall follow that cursed jewel to the end of Arda."
"It was not my choice; it does not belong to me, but to the child of Dior."
"It belongs to none but the Belain!"
"Mayhap young Elwing shall be the means by which the Silmaril returns to the Blessed Realm," Celeborn replied patiently.
"Mayhap it shall be the end of all of us," Oropher retorted.
But the Silmaril was with them, and they had not removed to Arvernien but forty years before Maedhros and Maglor brought the fell madness of their oath upon the ill-fated survivors of Doriath and Gondolin. Some, including Celeborn and Galadriel, escaped to dwell with Gil-galad and Círdan at Balar. Oropher, though kin to Círdan, would not be subservient to the High King of the Noldor, and his people fled east to the Laegrim still dwelling in Ossiriand. Many of the Sindar who survived the third and most malicious of the Kinslayings were of like mind, and joined themselves to Oropher's people. Among them was Malgalad**, brother-son to Celeborn.
"My sister…I saw what was done to her, and to Dior. I cannot abide with these Dagwenin** or those who would make peace with them. Let me go with you," he implored his kinsman.
Oropher was beset with doubt; though past his majority, Malgalad was even younger than Thranduil. He should yet be with his family. 'What family?' Oropher thought grimly. The elf had lost both parents while still a child; his sister Nimloth had been as a mother to him. Truly, he belonged with his father's brother, but Celeborn had turned his face toward the High King. Understanding Malgalad's grief, for it so nearly mirrored his own, he relented.
Thus, they passed the final years of the Elder Days; hidden deep in the forest, they knew nothing of the host of Valinor, and indeed trembled in fear when the very mountains broke apart, believing this to be the work of Morgoth. They did not know of the great doings of Ingwë and Finarfin until refugees came among them. Now they heard of the summons of Eönwë, but did not heed his call, for few of the Sindar of Oropher's party had looked upon the Sea and knew no desire to go West with their kindred. As for the Laegrim, they loved Arda, and from ancient times had never wished to leave it. In later days, they would be among the last to cling to Arda, even as their race was lost to men. And Thranduil would remain with them.
- * hirilen
- my lady
- * Laegrim
- Green Elves, aka Laiquendi
- ** sister-son to Lenwë
- See the Appendix. Unfinished Tales tells of the Nandor who lived in Arthórien under Ithilbor, father of Saeros, but those under Oropher are my own creation and based on a reference linking Oropher to Denethor. It seems to me that Oropher could not have come to Greenwood and simply assumed leadership of the Wood Elves in the Second Age; he must have had some long association with that people or their Laiquendi cousins, and the kinship with Lenwë would allow him to assume the title of King by right of succession.
- * Iathrim
- People of Doriath
- * Elen! Elen!
- Look! Look! (Common Eldarin - primitive Elvish language. See The War of the Jewels, 'Quendi and Eldar')
- * Laegel
- Green elf
- ** Oropher and his people
- This image of Oropher is largely based upon a passage in Unfinished Tales and descriptions of Thranduil's people in The Hobbit. In UT it is stated that the Sindar who went to Mirkwood adopted the lifestyle of their people: "They wished indeed to become Silvan folk and to return, as they said, to the simple life natural to the Elves before the invitation of the Valar had disturbed it. " (p. 272, pub. Ballantine/Del Rey). In The Hobbit, we see Thranduil presiding over feasts that include many of his people; he seems more integrated with his subjects than Thingol or the High Kings of the Noldor. His son certainly does not display the haughtiness of other elves in LOTR.
- * aduial
- Twilight, the time of 'star-opening'
- * hervennen
- my husband
- * Hîl
- Heir - Tolkien seems to have used 'prince' in a different manner than that to which we are accustomed - Dior is never called 'prince'; he is called 'Thingol's heir'. Celeborn, however, is called 'Prince of Doriath' in The Silmarillion, and Oropher, Thranduil and Malgalad are called 'Sindarin Princes' in Unfinished Tales (since their people called them 'King', I understand this to indicate their status in Doriath, further supporting a close kinship to Thingol).
- * Adar
- Father
- ** Elwing
- That Elwing escaped with Celeborn and Galadriel is considered in a note written by Christopher Tolkien in Unfinished Tales. Nimloth was Celeborn's niece, and he would be the closest living relative to Elwing after her parents were killed. She must have been a child at the time, as Dior was only 39 when he died (one version of 'The Tale of Years' in The War of the Jewels gives her year of birth as 503 - thus she would have been about six years old when Doriath was destroyed).
- * Naneth
- Mother
- * muindoren
- my brother
- * Belain
- Valar - I've mostly used the Quenya Valar in my fanfics, even when Sindarin is spoken, because Quenya remained the language of formal address - it was a bit like Latin to the elves in later ages. However, given that Thingol forbid his people to speak Quenya in Doriath, Oropher would not use Valar.
- ** Malgalad
- See the genealogical information in the Appendix; we do not know if or how Malgalad of Lórien was related to Celeborn or Oropher, or even if he came from Doriath or joined himself to Oropher's group. All of this is mere speculation on my part.
- ** Dagwenin
- Kinslayers - lacking a word for Kinslayers in Sindarin and Quenya, I created this word for another fic (from dag, to slay + gwenyr, kin + -in, group plural [archaic - common in Doriath, where such a word might have been coined in Sindarin])
Gil-galad, of course, was not one of the Kinslayers; he was born in ME and, in Tolkien's revised genealogy, was a descendant of Finarfin, whose people had no guilt in the Kinslaying. Hate and grief, however, tend to be irrational.