I am told that the day the elven scouts brought me to Rivendell was the
last of a series of scorching hot days, and then for days after it rained
none stop. I was too ill to know of this, if it was true. I was brought
to Rivendell in my second year, though Elrond says I was silent, and did
not weep, despite the way they found me - disheveled and lost. There were
no other people in the vicinity that could have brought me to the Last
Homely House, and it seemed I had negotiated the steep and dangerous sides
of the valley on my own, young as I was.
I was brought up as the sister to Aragorn, who was nine years old at the time of my arrival. I remember that he tolerated me in my younger years, though he started to include me more in his games as I grew older, and able to ride a horse and play at swords with him. I remember that he was happy at Rivendell, despite only having a girl that was seven years younger to keep him company.
When he became fifteen, he began to ride out with hunting parties, and occasionally Elrond took Aragorn with him when he travelled to other parts of Middle Earth, though he always left me behind. I was nine when Aragorn rode out with a diplomatic party to Mirkwood, to meet with King Thranduil. They returned from that expedition with a stronger relationship, and Aragorn had found a new best friend, who had returned with the party from Mirkwood. His name was Legolas, and when at first I met him, I disliked him, because he had taken my friend from me. Aragorn no longer spent time with me, playing stupid games that it seemed he was too mature to play any longer. I bitterly resented Prince Legolas' intrusion in our quiet life, though soon I grew used to him, though I did not like him any more.
One morning Legolas approached me in the library, where I had taken to reading, since I had been discarded by my only friend.
"Lady Jané?" he had surprised me, since I had not heard him enter, though that in itself was not surprising.
"Lord Legolas." I said stiffly, turning to face him. He smiled tentatively, and I realised he was nervous! Of all the things, that a thousand year old elven prince would be nervous of a ten year old girl!
"I do not believe we got off on the right foot. You seem to resent my presence here. May I know why?" he asked politely. That was one thing that had always annoyed me about him, his constantly impeccable manners. Now I realise he has had millennia to work on them, but really.
"Frankly, milord, I resent you being here because Aragorn has no time for me any longer." I said bluntly. Subtlety has never been my strong point, even now. Legolas seemed taken aback by my honesty, and then he suddenly smiled, and I was lost.
He seemed such a different person when he smiled - he went from being cold and painfully formal to being kind and thoughtful and full of laughter. It seems ridiculous, that a ten year old girl should fall in love, but that was what it was. And I have never been the same since.
After that particular conversation, both Legolas and Aragorn endeavoured to include me in their activities, and found I did not slow them down as often as they thought I would. Indeed, often I was faster than they were at many things. Often I sighted the quarry before them, and they would be left to stare after me as I went after a deer, to follow when Legolas' elven eyes spotted what I had spotted long before.
When I was eleven, Aragorn left Rivendell, and Legolas went with him. Legolas travelled home to Mirkwood, and Aragorn began to learn of the wild, to become the ranger that he would be for a large part of his life. Again I was left alone in Rivendell, and I spent long hours outside, walking or just sitting. That was how Elrond explained the sudden illness I came down with.
They found me in the woods after I had failed to return one day. I was snow-pale, and icy cold. Elrond found he could not heal me. I lay abed for near three weeks without waking once, then one morning I woke just as the sun's rays spilled through my windows. I felt refreshed, as though I had woken from a restful night's sleep, though I had a burden on my mind that would not be banished, try as I might. Eventually I got up and went to the library, barely pausing to pull a robe over my nightdress.
I searched the library until I found the one volume I was looking for - it was thick, and ancient, bound in dry black leather. I lay it on the table and began reading. It told of the Queens of Mordor, who had ruled there almost before the first men had awoken, many ages ago. It told of how one woman had rallied the people around her to fight the forces of Morgoth, who had not expected to find them there. Morgoth, the first evil and the one and only of the Valar to go against the will of the Ilúvatar, had tried to crush her and failed. Many of her people died, but instead of surrendering she went underground into the deep caves in the mountains, and began to make an army there. The people there called her their Queen, because she of all the people refused to run from the black evil of Morgoth. She gave them faith and hope, even in the darkest caves of the mountains in the east. Her name was Morgaine.
"There you are." Elrond said from the doorway. I spun, startled. The ancient history of Mordor had drawn me in and captivated me totally. "How are you feeling?" he asked me, sitting beside me in a chair.
"Rested." I answered. "And yet there is a weight on my mind. It is something to do with Mordor of old, and yet I know not what." At my words Elrond seemed saddened somehow.
"Then the time has come for you to meet Andel." Elrond said with a sigh.
"What do you mean?" I asked, suddenly extremely frightened. There was great change happening, I could feel it in the air. "Ada?"
Elrond turned to me and smiled reassuringly. "That can come later. You need rest. You were out for a long time." I pondered his words as he guided me back to my rooms.
"Ada? How long was I asleep?" I asked. "I dreamed such strange things, but it seemed not long at all."
"Three weeks you lay asleep, Jané, and never once did you stir."
"Three weeks!" I exclaimed. But I could see it was true. The trees of Rivendell, which were only beginning to bud when I fell ill, were now near enough in full leaf. I went back to bed, fell asleep, and did not stir until the following morning, when I woke, very hungry.
I dressed myself and went down to the kitchens, where I filched an apple and a pasty from the great tables that stood in the centre of the kitchen. I pocketed the apple, and juggled the hot pasty as I tried to eat it.
"Jané." I turned as I heard Elrond call my name. He beckoned to me, and I went to where he stood, and saw the hooded figure that he had been speaking to. I curtsied politely, as I had been taught to do, and wondered what to do with the pasty, which I could hardly put in my pocket, since it oozed melted cheese.
"Continue to eat, my child." The hooded person said. The voice alone told me that it was female, and getting on in years, meaning that it was human, not elf.
"Thank you." I said with a smile. I bit into the pasty, burning my tongue. The woman sat on the stone bench under the tree, and put back her hood. She glanced at Elrond.
"I shall take my leave." He said, and with a bow, was gone.
"Sit, please, my dear. I have much to tell you." I sat next to her on the stone bench, and brushed crumbs from my pale green skirt.
"Eldira Jané. I haven't heard that name in a long time." The woman said. "Do you know you were named for your mother?" I shook my head.
"I know nothing of my mother, or my father." I said.
"Your father is not important - you and your people are of the Lady tradition, which follows the line of the mother, not the father." I had the feeling I was being rebuked, and I inclined my head in acknowledgement.
"I do not know your name" I said abruptly. The woman laughed. The lines in her face crinkled as she did so, and I had the feeling that the lines were made by laughter, and not by sorrow.
"I am Andel, and I am your second cousin." Andel said with a smile. "Despite the fact that I was the daughter of your mother's uncle, I was brought up among the exiles of Mordor, and so know the traditions, that I might teach you."
"Oh." There didn't seem to be anything else to say.
"Eldira, you have a decision. You may stay here and let your fate find you, or you may travel with me to the hidden city of Denarssa. There you may learn tradition and history of Mordor, that information that you search for and yet will not find in the great library. The one volume you have found is the only volume you shall find here in Rivendell. If you travel with me to Denarssa you shall learn from women who know first hand, and also read many more volumes."
The thought excited me. An insatiable thirst for knowledge of Mordor had filled me, and the knowledge that the book I had found was the only book dismayed me. "When would we go?" I asked.
"As soon as possible." Andel answered me. "I would have taken you earlier, but I had to wait for the awakening before you would come." I nodded slowly.
"Would I be able to return here?" I asked. Andel laughed.
"You would be a guest there, not a prisoner, little one. You would be free to leave when you wish, though you would not be able to return again." I thought this over.
"Does Elrond know you want to take me to Denarssa?" I asked.
"He does. He believes you should go, if only to discover your ancestry." I brushed the crumbs from my skirt decisively.
"I will go then. I need to know why I feel as I do."
Two days later I was riding to Angmar with Andel, where Denarssa was hidden in the Ettenmoors. When we arrived, after three days easy riding which I spent gazing in wonder at the wild plains, it was with a royal welcome. This confused me some, though I let it slide. I spent the first day wandering the citadel, where the people there had given me a room, and wondering at the way everyone addressed me as 'Your Highness'. Finally, I could bear it no longer and went to Andel.
"Why do people address me as your highness?" I asked her as she sat in a chair by a window.
"Sit, dearest niece, and listen carefully." I sat, and she proceeded to tell me of a long line of women descended from Morgaine, the first queen of Mordor. After four generations of queens had passed after Morgaine, Mordor was attacked by men who thought the people of Mordor to be fell witches, not unlike the creatures of Morgoth. The Queen at the time, Janira, had not expected attack from men with whom they had previously lived in peace, and the men overran Mordor, and took the crown for themselves. Janira's three daughters were held captive, and used to ensure Janira's good behaviour. Then Dembra, the eldest daughter, told Janira that she was pregnant, and to flee. Janira had told Dembra to care for the two younger girls, and then fled. The usurper king was furious, and sent his men to bring the three girls before him, that they might suffer his wrath, as he had said they would, should their mother prove difficult.
"The story says that the king had planned to be cruel to the daughters as he had been to the mother, but he never got the chance." Andel said, shaking her head sadly.
"What happened?" I asked.
"When Dembra heard their mother had escaped safely, she had rejoiced. But then she heard that the king had sent for them, and the two smaller girls were frightened. So she kissed them softly each, and slit their throats there in their bed chambers. That was when the soldiers came in, and found the two dead girls. They brought Dembra before the king, who was furious that not only had Janira escaped, but the two younger daughters had escaped his wrath. He told Dembra she would suffer greatly for what she had done, but she said simply that she had done best for her family, and that the line would continue, despite the rule of men and darkness. Then Dembra slit her throat before the king, and spilled her blood over him and his thrown. The three girls were burnt - the king had meant it as an insult, and instead had done them the highest honour, according to the traditions of Mordor at the time. The three girl's souls fled free from their earthly bodies."
"And Queen Janira?" I asked.
"She fled, and disappeared, we know not where. But we do know that a girl, the splitting image of her, was found in Lothlorien, the land of the Galadhrim, and that she knew of the traditions of Mordor. The Lady Galadriel herself said that the girl, Emria, was the last daughter of Janira, last Queen of old Mordor, and so the line had continued, and that it would continue on. And it did, Jané, it did. It went Emria, Darian, Brial, Dernin, Jané, Janira, Morgaine, Isolde, Eldiran, and so on to your great grandmother, my grandmother, Embra, then Morgan, your grandmother and my aunt, then of course Eldira Jané, your mother, and then you."
"So you mean..." I trailed off.
"Yes, dear. You are the latest in Morgaine's line, you are the Princess Eldira Jané of Mordor, and we believe the time has come for the crown to pass back to the people. In time, Jané, you may well become queen."
I stayed at the hidden city for a total of twenty three years, in which I learnt all there was to know about Mordor. The history, the culture, the language, dance, song. But I also learnt of other things. How to use magic to manipulate the weather and the minds of others, to cloak ourselves in black cloaks enchanted to hide the wearer from all that would wish him harm, to start fires without tinder, though I'm sure Aragorn could do that in many ways that did not involve magic. I spent days in meditation and trance, learning of my ancestry by talking to spirits of the long dead Queens of Mordor.
This was all made possible by two amazing women. Zeldra was woman in her fourties with a young daughter. She had descended from the line of Stewards of Mordor, even as I had from the line of Queens. She knew all I needed to know of Mordor from her mother, and she would teach it to her daughter. What she didn't know I learnt of Emriel, who was an elf as old as Galadriel. Emriel had been the childhood friend of Morgaine, and had remained in Mordor to watch over the queens and to aid their judgement. When Janira had fled, Emriel helped Venri, the Steward at the time, and Zeldra's great grandmother, to escape also, taking with her her young twin daughters Vena and Kella. Vena had three sons as an adult, whereas Kella had one daughter, who continued the line of Stewards, and so were both lines of Mordor preserved.
Pls review and tell me if you like it. I might actually finish this one, as I've thought up and ending, and possibly a sequel (me getting ahead of myself again) so tell me if you like it. Love Istalindar
I was brought up as the sister to Aragorn, who was nine years old at the time of my arrival. I remember that he tolerated me in my younger years, though he started to include me more in his games as I grew older, and able to ride a horse and play at swords with him. I remember that he was happy at Rivendell, despite only having a girl that was seven years younger to keep him company.
When he became fifteen, he began to ride out with hunting parties, and occasionally Elrond took Aragorn with him when he travelled to other parts of Middle Earth, though he always left me behind. I was nine when Aragorn rode out with a diplomatic party to Mirkwood, to meet with King Thranduil. They returned from that expedition with a stronger relationship, and Aragorn had found a new best friend, who had returned with the party from Mirkwood. His name was Legolas, and when at first I met him, I disliked him, because he had taken my friend from me. Aragorn no longer spent time with me, playing stupid games that it seemed he was too mature to play any longer. I bitterly resented Prince Legolas' intrusion in our quiet life, though soon I grew used to him, though I did not like him any more.
One morning Legolas approached me in the library, where I had taken to reading, since I had been discarded by my only friend.
"Lady Jané?" he had surprised me, since I had not heard him enter, though that in itself was not surprising.
"Lord Legolas." I said stiffly, turning to face him. He smiled tentatively, and I realised he was nervous! Of all the things, that a thousand year old elven prince would be nervous of a ten year old girl!
"I do not believe we got off on the right foot. You seem to resent my presence here. May I know why?" he asked politely. That was one thing that had always annoyed me about him, his constantly impeccable manners. Now I realise he has had millennia to work on them, but really.
"Frankly, milord, I resent you being here because Aragorn has no time for me any longer." I said bluntly. Subtlety has never been my strong point, even now. Legolas seemed taken aback by my honesty, and then he suddenly smiled, and I was lost.
He seemed such a different person when he smiled - he went from being cold and painfully formal to being kind and thoughtful and full of laughter. It seems ridiculous, that a ten year old girl should fall in love, but that was what it was. And I have never been the same since.
After that particular conversation, both Legolas and Aragorn endeavoured to include me in their activities, and found I did not slow them down as often as they thought I would. Indeed, often I was faster than they were at many things. Often I sighted the quarry before them, and they would be left to stare after me as I went after a deer, to follow when Legolas' elven eyes spotted what I had spotted long before.
When I was eleven, Aragorn left Rivendell, and Legolas went with him. Legolas travelled home to Mirkwood, and Aragorn began to learn of the wild, to become the ranger that he would be for a large part of his life. Again I was left alone in Rivendell, and I spent long hours outside, walking or just sitting. That was how Elrond explained the sudden illness I came down with.
They found me in the woods after I had failed to return one day. I was snow-pale, and icy cold. Elrond found he could not heal me. I lay abed for near three weeks without waking once, then one morning I woke just as the sun's rays spilled through my windows. I felt refreshed, as though I had woken from a restful night's sleep, though I had a burden on my mind that would not be banished, try as I might. Eventually I got up and went to the library, barely pausing to pull a robe over my nightdress.
I searched the library until I found the one volume I was looking for - it was thick, and ancient, bound in dry black leather. I lay it on the table and began reading. It told of the Queens of Mordor, who had ruled there almost before the first men had awoken, many ages ago. It told of how one woman had rallied the people around her to fight the forces of Morgoth, who had not expected to find them there. Morgoth, the first evil and the one and only of the Valar to go against the will of the Ilúvatar, had tried to crush her and failed. Many of her people died, but instead of surrendering she went underground into the deep caves in the mountains, and began to make an army there. The people there called her their Queen, because she of all the people refused to run from the black evil of Morgoth. She gave them faith and hope, even in the darkest caves of the mountains in the east. Her name was Morgaine.
"There you are." Elrond said from the doorway. I spun, startled. The ancient history of Mordor had drawn me in and captivated me totally. "How are you feeling?" he asked me, sitting beside me in a chair.
"Rested." I answered. "And yet there is a weight on my mind. It is something to do with Mordor of old, and yet I know not what." At my words Elrond seemed saddened somehow.
"Then the time has come for you to meet Andel." Elrond said with a sigh.
"What do you mean?" I asked, suddenly extremely frightened. There was great change happening, I could feel it in the air. "Ada?"
Elrond turned to me and smiled reassuringly. "That can come later. You need rest. You were out for a long time." I pondered his words as he guided me back to my rooms.
"Ada? How long was I asleep?" I asked. "I dreamed such strange things, but it seemed not long at all."
"Three weeks you lay asleep, Jané, and never once did you stir."
"Three weeks!" I exclaimed. But I could see it was true. The trees of Rivendell, which were only beginning to bud when I fell ill, were now near enough in full leaf. I went back to bed, fell asleep, and did not stir until the following morning, when I woke, very hungry.
I dressed myself and went down to the kitchens, where I filched an apple and a pasty from the great tables that stood in the centre of the kitchen. I pocketed the apple, and juggled the hot pasty as I tried to eat it.
"Jané." I turned as I heard Elrond call my name. He beckoned to me, and I went to where he stood, and saw the hooded figure that he had been speaking to. I curtsied politely, as I had been taught to do, and wondered what to do with the pasty, which I could hardly put in my pocket, since it oozed melted cheese.
"Continue to eat, my child." The hooded person said. The voice alone told me that it was female, and getting on in years, meaning that it was human, not elf.
"Thank you." I said with a smile. I bit into the pasty, burning my tongue. The woman sat on the stone bench under the tree, and put back her hood. She glanced at Elrond.
"I shall take my leave." He said, and with a bow, was gone.
"Sit, please, my dear. I have much to tell you." I sat next to her on the stone bench, and brushed crumbs from my pale green skirt.
"Eldira Jané. I haven't heard that name in a long time." The woman said. "Do you know you were named for your mother?" I shook my head.
"I know nothing of my mother, or my father." I said.
"Your father is not important - you and your people are of the Lady tradition, which follows the line of the mother, not the father." I had the feeling I was being rebuked, and I inclined my head in acknowledgement.
"I do not know your name" I said abruptly. The woman laughed. The lines in her face crinkled as she did so, and I had the feeling that the lines were made by laughter, and not by sorrow.
"I am Andel, and I am your second cousin." Andel said with a smile. "Despite the fact that I was the daughter of your mother's uncle, I was brought up among the exiles of Mordor, and so know the traditions, that I might teach you."
"Oh." There didn't seem to be anything else to say.
"Eldira, you have a decision. You may stay here and let your fate find you, or you may travel with me to the hidden city of Denarssa. There you may learn tradition and history of Mordor, that information that you search for and yet will not find in the great library. The one volume you have found is the only volume you shall find here in Rivendell. If you travel with me to Denarssa you shall learn from women who know first hand, and also read many more volumes."
The thought excited me. An insatiable thirst for knowledge of Mordor had filled me, and the knowledge that the book I had found was the only book dismayed me. "When would we go?" I asked.
"As soon as possible." Andel answered me. "I would have taken you earlier, but I had to wait for the awakening before you would come." I nodded slowly.
"Would I be able to return here?" I asked. Andel laughed.
"You would be a guest there, not a prisoner, little one. You would be free to leave when you wish, though you would not be able to return again." I thought this over.
"Does Elrond know you want to take me to Denarssa?" I asked.
"He does. He believes you should go, if only to discover your ancestry." I brushed the crumbs from my skirt decisively.
"I will go then. I need to know why I feel as I do."
Two days later I was riding to Angmar with Andel, where Denarssa was hidden in the Ettenmoors. When we arrived, after three days easy riding which I spent gazing in wonder at the wild plains, it was with a royal welcome. This confused me some, though I let it slide. I spent the first day wandering the citadel, where the people there had given me a room, and wondering at the way everyone addressed me as 'Your Highness'. Finally, I could bear it no longer and went to Andel.
"Why do people address me as your highness?" I asked her as she sat in a chair by a window.
"Sit, dearest niece, and listen carefully." I sat, and she proceeded to tell me of a long line of women descended from Morgaine, the first queen of Mordor. After four generations of queens had passed after Morgaine, Mordor was attacked by men who thought the people of Mordor to be fell witches, not unlike the creatures of Morgoth. The Queen at the time, Janira, had not expected attack from men with whom they had previously lived in peace, and the men overran Mordor, and took the crown for themselves. Janira's three daughters were held captive, and used to ensure Janira's good behaviour. Then Dembra, the eldest daughter, told Janira that she was pregnant, and to flee. Janira had told Dembra to care for the two younger girls, and then fled. The usurper king was furious, and sent his men to bring the three girls before him, that they might suffer his wrath, as he had said they would, should their mother prove difficult.
"The story says that the king had planned to be cruel to the daughters as he had been to the mother, but he never got the chance." Andel said, shaking her head sadly.
"What happened?" I asked.
"When Dembra heard their mother had escaped safely, she had rejoiced. But then she heard that the king had sent for them, and the two smaller girls were frightened. So she kissed them softly each, and slit their throats there in their bed chambers. That was when the soldiers came in, and found the two dead girls. They brought Dembra before the king, who was furious that not only had Janira escaped, but the two younger daughters had escaped his wrath. He told Dembra she would suffer greatly for what she had done, but she said simply that she had done best for her family, and that the line would continue, despite the rule of men and darkness. Then Dembra slit her throat before the king, and spilled her blood over him and his thrown. The three girls were burnt - the king had meant it as an insult, and instead had done them the highest honour, according to the traditions of Mordor at the time. The three girl's souls fled free from their earthly bodies."
"And Queen Janira?" I asked.
"She fled, and disappeared, we know not where. But we do know that a girl, the splitting image of her, was found in Lothlorien, the land of the Galadhrim, and that she knew of the traditions of Mordor. The Lady Galadriel herself said that the girl, Emria, was the last daughter of Janira, last Queen of old Mordor, and so the line had continued, and that it would continue on. And it did, Jané, it did. It went Emria, Darian, Brial, Dernin, Jané, Janira, Morgaine, Isolde, Eldiran, and so on to your great grandmother, my grandmother, Embra, then Morgan, your grandmother and my aunt, then of course Eldira Jané, your mother, and then you."
"So you mean..." I trailed off.
"Yes, dear. You are the latest in Morgaine's line, you are the Princess Eldira Jané of Mordor, and we believe the time has come for the crown to pass back to the people. In time, Jané, you may well become queen."
I stayed at the hidden city for a total of twenty three years, in which I learnt all there was to know about Mordor. The history, the culture, the language, dance, song. But I also learnt of other things. How to use magic to manipulate the weather and the minds of others, to cloak ourselves in black cloaks enchanted to hide the wearer from all that would wish him harm, to start fires without tinder, though I'm sure Aragorn could do that in many ways that did not involve magic. I spent days in meditation and trance, learning of my ancestry by talking to spirits of the long dead Queens of Mordor.
This was all made possible by two amazing women. Zeldra was woman in her fourties with a young daughter. She had descended from the line of Stewards of Mordor, even as I had from the line of Queens. She knew all I needed to know of Mordor from her mother, and she would teach it to her daughter. What she didn't know I learnt of Emriel, who was an elf as old as Galadriel. Emriel had been the childhood friend of Morgaine, and had remained in Mordor to watch over the queens and to aid their judgement. When Janira had fled, Emriel helped Venri, the Steward at the time, and Zeldra's great grandmother, to escape also, taking with her her young twin daughters Vena and Kella. Vena had three sons as an adult, whereas Kella had one daughter, who continued the line of Stewards, and so were both lines of Mordor preserved.
Pls review and tell me if you like it. I might actually finish this one, as I've thought up and ending, and possibly a sequel (me getting ahead of myself again) so tell me if you like it. Love Istalindar