3.

NOTES: So it is implied that the Elf-friends sailed off to Numenor before Beleriand was destroyed, but some of the notes in the UT have their distant kin who are also descendants of Hador and Bëor living in parts of what would later be Arnor, so I decided to go with having them camped out there, after the destruction.

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The Sons of Eärendil

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Celebrimbor had departed again, and then after some years of growing up in peaceful living by the bay the king's distant nephews Elrond and Elros, twin sons of the mariner Eärendil who now sailed the North Star through the heavens of the evening sky, began to feel in their hearts the call to make their own journeys beyond the havens.

Elrond had a passion for lore, and had been living by the shipyards with Círdan the Master Shipwright, who had been instructing him in the long histories of the elves and the elf-friends, and their kingdoms and journeys and wars and battles, and the wisdom that might be gleaned from those stories. But he had recently returned to the king's palace to visit his brother, who was less patient in lore studies and more keen on athletics and combat and hunting and craftwork and all manner of active arts.

One evening Elros found his brother in the courtyard gazing up at their father's bright ship Vingilot as it sailed over the northern skies. "How are you liking your stay with the shipwright, brother?" he asked.

Elrond was pulled from his wandering thoughts, which had been on the melancholy fate of their parents, and the tragic end of their grandparents' kingdoms. "Very much," he replied with a smile. "It seems that no matter how many stories I record for my reference there is always more to hear and learn. I think there might never be an end to them, which would suit me well enough."

Elros snickered a little laugh. "You always were content to idle with your nose in the scrolls," he said.

Elrond furrowed his brow. "Why do you ask?" he replied. "Are you not content?"

"This realm and its peoples are lovely and peaceful, but I begin to grow weary of idling within the confines of these hills. Little have I seen of the lands east of the Blue Mountains," said Elros. "If we are to heed the wisdom of Galadriel and keep up with news of the wide world, should we not go and explore it? What do you say to a journey inland?"

Young Elrond was himself still quite at ease in the fair elf realm by the Gulf of Luhn, but his brother's eagerness stirred his own curiosity. He remembered Círdan's guidance not long before that along with learning in lore he also needed the teachings of experience before he could lead, and decided it best to indulge his brother's wanderlust. He nodded. "Yes, we should start exploring," he answered, "to learn what experience would teach us, and what news we might be able to find. Perhaps we might also find these other fair lands about which master Círdan told us."

As it turned out some of the woodland elves who had been living in the hills nearby were planning a journey to visit their kin who had fled eastward before the great battle. They heard about the brothers' desire to venture inland and invited them to walk with their folk as far as they were willing. And so on a fine day in late spring the brothers set out with a large company of their elf friends past the reaches of the inlet.

They passed out of sight and hearing of the waters of the great bay, and came into view of grassy hills rolling out a long way before them like the tall waves of the sea. After they passed through the downs the company of elves went toward the south side of the fields and along the edge of the forest nearby. After a few days they veered northward again toward an island of woodland amid the open fields, and soon they came to an old hilltop clearing hidden within a thicket of underbrush and dense trees, where the elves had stopped many times in their travels over the ages. While their traveling company settled in for the night and sang and danced and refreshed themselves, Elrond caught sight of his brother wandering back out the secret path through the thicket, and stood up to follow him.

"It is late, brother, and very dark under this new moon. Where are you off to at such an hour?" Elrond asked when he caught up.

"I thought I saw something earlier, in the woods on the way here. Come! Let us inspect it. There may be some other folk about."

Elrond hesitated, looking back up the path toward their company. "Should we tell the others?" he asked.

"Do not worry," he said. "They are elves, it is certain that at least one marked us leaving." A fair point, thought Elrond, and off they went into the night together.

In the shade of the trees with no light but small and faint gleam of the stars, Elros led the way, westward for a while the way they had come. After a while he veered north off the path. The night was growing old, and Elrond began to wonder where his brother was leading him, and if they weren't simply chasing ghosts in the woods.

It was the last hour before dawn when suddenly they heard the baying of an animal break the still air. It was answered by more such calls in the distance. The brothers turned toward the noises and headed in their direction. As they grew closer to the source of the noise the sky was just beginning to lighten. But it was still dark when they came to a clearing and suddenly before them stood a large boar lumbering along the field, foraging its breakfast as the early morning mists were forming along the ground. The brothers stood and watched it for a while, as if they were waiting on it for something.

Just then the cracks of snapping branches and leaves were heard faintly from somewhere amid the trees and bushes away to their right. In a flash to the brothers' surprise the beast was shot through with a long sturdy arrow. But it was not quite a clean kill shot, and the creature squealed and ran a short distance before it began hobbling and panting over the field. Elros took pity on it, and stepped out into the open, pulling a large knife from his belt.

"No!" Elrond whispered nervously. They had no idea who made the shot, it could be a wandering band of trolls for all they knew. But no, dawn was breaking, and trolls would not be out by day. Unlikely to be Orcs, either, he thought, this far from the mountains. At last he stepped out and followed, and walked up to the site of the fallen beast, where his brother had already ended its suffering. Elrond crouched down next to him, inspecting the nock and fletching of the arrow.

Suddenly trotting up to them came a pack of large dogs. They surrounded the carcass, growling low at the two strangers squatting over it. Elros tightened his grip on the hilt of his knife. Elrond looked at them nervously, noticing to his relief that at least they were not wolves.

But then Elros nudged his arm, and he looked up. Before them he saw that a shadowy figure draped in a dark cloak had stepped out into the clearing, holding up a large bow with an arrow trained on them. Elros set down his knife, and the brothers raised their palms and stood up, as a few more cloaked figures emerged from the cover of the trees. Elrond was wondering if any of their elf friends had followed them, thinking they might have sore need of their help at any moment. It would do no good to reach for his sword.

For several long moments they all stood there in silence, each party wondering what to make of the other. The hunting party looked quite unnerving in their dark cloaks in the dim gray light of early dawn, and Elros lost his patience.

"Declare yourselves, strangers!" he called. "If you seek to detain us, then have done with it!"

At last the hunter's bow lowered. "We should ask the same of you, stranger," came a curious voice from under the cloak's hood. "What business do you have in interfering with our hunt?"

"Please, sir," pleaded Elrond. "We meant no offense. My brother and I came across your hunt only by curiosity at the sound of the baying dogs. We stand over your kill now only because we sought to end its suffering, for the shot was not fatal. We need not come to blows. We will leave you to it and be on our way."

"Give us your names first," answered the hunter.

"We are the sons of Eärendil!" Elros jumped in proudly. "Keeper of the Silmaril, which you may know as the North Star. And Eärendil is the son of Tuor, of the house of Hador, and our mother Elwing is the granddaughter of Beren, of the house of Bëor."

The hunter was silent for a moment, and the mysterious cloaked figures turned toward each other. At last they pulled back their hoods. The brothers now discovered to their surprise that the leader was a woman, very tall and athletically built, her deep alto voice matching well the dark gold hair tied back from a sharp-angled face and commanding gaze.

The leader gave a whistle, and the dogs retreated and sat calm by her side. Then she pulled something from a pocket, and handed the beasts their rewards. All the while she kept her gaze on the strangers.

"Well, sons of Eärendil," she said, "then perhaps you remember the fates of his forefathers, the children of Galdor?"

A test, Elrond guessed, but he knew the answer well. "Tuor's father Huor fell in the Battle of Many Tears," he replied. "Huor's brother Húrin was captured from that battle, and held captive on the peaks of Thangorodrim, tormented and cursed by Morgoth personally. Húrin and his family died in despair from the long and sad workings of their curse, unwittingly ensnaring many elves and mortals into their tragic fates also."

The lady's face softened, and she looked at them thoughtfully for a few moments. "Spoken as one who might have known them and heard their stories first hand."

"Not first hand," Elrond replied. "But we are called half-elven by our folk, because of the grandsires we have who were mortal and their spouses who were elf. We have dwelt a long time with our elf kin by the shores of the gulf east of here, where those long-lived folk have taught us much in the lore of our people."

"Then you are in luck, as we mortals like to say," she replied. "For you have now found the last remnant of the folk of those houses. I am Baleth, and I lead what remains in the western lands of the folk of Hador. My father and his brothers fell in the Great Battle years ago. I was his only heir."

Elros smiled in wide-eyed wonder. "You are well named, Strong-Lady," he said. "Might others of your people be found nearby?"

The lady looked sidelong at him with a smirk, and she snickered. "That they might," she said casually. "Come along then, half-elves! And have a care for the mortals among your kin."

And so they followed the hunting party back through the northern end of the woods until they reached the site of a small encampment of tents that others were in the process of tearing down and packing away. Nearby stood a pair of donkeys waiting to make their next trip. Tied to them was a large cart, already laden with a few other slain boars, and here the hunters set down their kill. The tents were packed into bags hung from the backs of the beasts. Then off they went, marching alongside the cart as it lumbered along, until they turned onto an ancient road. This they followed east over the gentle hills of lowland fields toward the crossing of a large lazy brown river.

Their new friends told them much as they walked, of how their warriors had sent them to wait beyond mountains and across the river, where there were settlements of long lost kin, when they went off to the great battle. The women held down the fort, trained and ready to defend their homes and families as they waited for their husbands and sons to return. Some of the younger ones did indeed return, but many of their leaders and other elders did not. Since then those young warriors had grown up, but they were few, and it was the mothers who were obliged to teach their sons such activities traditional to the men such as hunting and building. Thus did they teach their daughters as well, and nowadays the hunting parties included many of each. They didn't often come this far west, but they had a tradition of coming out to these woods to catch the provisions for their midsummer feast. Elros asked them about any news of trouble in their lands.

"Not since before the war," Baleth told them. "Since the battle ended it has been quite peaceful. But we remain vigilant - it has been several years but we still fear to let down our guard."

"That is wise," said Elrond. "For while Morgoth was vanquished, certainly many of his servants and creatures still remain. They may grow to trouble the world again, sooner or later."

They reached the river by late afternoon, where there were several large rafts, with the biggest one for the beasts to ride with their burdens. At last they all had crossed, and shortly enough they came to another stretch of tall downs. These were empty of people, though held in reverence by the mortals who lived across the road nearby. There the brothers saw to their wonder a scattering of many huts set around a longhouse, and many mortal folk busying about their day. Baleth's folk lived closest to the road, and the remnants of the people of Bëor lived in a settlement beyond them. Those folk kept a lord, but generally deferred to the leadership of the Hadorim who were more numerous. A short way east, they informed the brothers, was an ancient village whose folk believed themselves to be descended from the very first men who woke at the far edge of the world ages ago. Good and evil came and went, the inhabitants would say, wars would start and end, but their village remained, weathering the storms of time like the great hill at whose foot they lived. "They call themselves the Breelanders," Baleth told them. "They keep mostly to themselves, but we trade with them. They would be good people to know if you wish to keep up with news of the world. For though they are small and rustic they receive many travelers who pass through from other lands."

They were hosted that night for dinner and rest in the longhouse where Baleth lived with some of her relatives. Meanwhile the rest of the hunting party had got to work preparing the beasts for cooking, and all the next day they were at work tending to the roast, while the hearth wives took care of the starches and greens and sweets, and by midday others were returning from a trip to the river with a large catch of fish to contribute to the feast. For it was midsummer's day, and the festivities were getting underway. The brothers came across a field in which there were many games of sport in progress. They watched Baleth herself swing a hammer onto a large rock which flew to pieces.

Elrond laughed. "Impressive!" he said to his brother, "I have never seen such strength of arms in a maiden."

Elros was smiling, and sighed. "Impressive indeed."

Then some men playing a strange game together on a wide field called them to join. Elrond's smile left his face as fear rose in him. He had never seen such a game; most games of sport that elves enjoyed were contests in running and jumping and rowing and swimming; the only activities with high contact between opponents were games of practice in combat such as wrestling and fencing. This game involved teams of young men ferociously crashing into and grappling with each other in their struggle over a ball. He looked over at his brother shaking his head with a pleading look in his eyes, but Elros smiled grandly with excitement. "Come, brother! We mustn't offend our hosts!" he said. Clasping Elrond by the arm he took off running toward them. An hour later both brothers limped off the field covered in many mild injuries, to the great amusement of the onlookers and other players, with Elros far more entertained by the outcome than his brother.

And so that night they enjoyed the great feast, and remained with the folk of Baleth for a good while. Elros found that he felt quite at home among them, making many friends quickly. For they saw that he excelled in many things, from skills in athletics and combat, to building and crafting of tools and weapons, to wisdom in the field and ordering of defenses. Elrond shared what knowledge and skill he could in lore and wisdom and healing, but after several weeks he had begun to grow homesick for the sights of the gulf and his friends and kin in the twin cities. His brother on the other hand was reluctant to return.

Elrond thought about the split in their feelings. "Well then, brother," he said to Elros, "perhaps it is best that you stay. It will be good for one of us at least to be among the folk of our mortal kin." He glanced over at the Lady Baleth, and back at his brother. "All seem to love you. Perhaps you will come to lead them. Or co-lead them," he said.

Elros looked at his brother, and he smiled, catching his meaning. "Yes, I think such a course would have the approval of Lady Galadriel in her wisdom," he said. But amid the highness of heart that he had found among his new friends, he also now felt the sadness of mortals rise in him also. For with some foresight he perceived this moment as the start of an ending, a longer parting that would eventually come to pass.

Elrond continued. "But my heart is still by the waters with our other people," he said, "and there I must return." And so the brothers embraced, and then at last they parted, and Elrond headed back to the havens alone.