Disclaimer: see chapter one.
A/N: There is not so much information about Glorfindel in the works of Prof. Tolkien. When he started to write LOTR , the Glorfindel of Gondolin and the Glorfindel of Imladris were different persons. Prof. Tolkien had only made a small note in one of his documents that both are perhaps the same person.
I like the thought of an elf being pardoned and re-embodied by the Valar. Somewhere , I cannot remember where, I read about the rebirth of Glorfindel and this report said that the Valar restored his soul and his innocence because he had sacrificed himself for the sake of the fleeing people of Godolin, and that this was worth enough to be pardoned from the accusation of kin-slaying. When he had been embodied he was sent from the "Halls of Waiting" to Valinor, where he had to choose whether he wanted to live there or return back to Middle-Earth. There is a little argument about the time he came back, some notes say that he reached the shores in the middle of the second age and some say that he accompanied Mithrandir, when the wizard mad his appearance in the third age. For my story he is the Lord of the House of the Golden Flower, and he came back to Middle-Earth in the middle of the second age.
So, there is nothing told about his "private life" in Gondolin, if he had a family or not.
But I believe he had.
Thanks again to Ashley, my faithful beta. huggles
I think I babbled enough for one story. ;-)
Enjoy the story!
Glorfindel's Fall
Chapter 2
Glorfindel was a little tired, for he had sparred the whole day with different young warriors and now the only thing he wanted to do was take a bath and relax a bit until he would meet his lady later in the evening.
A smile appeared on his face when he thought of the elleth he had met close to 260 years ago during her visit in Imladris.
She had accompanied a group from Lorien, who came over to bring new Lembas from the Lady of the Woods. He had not seen her before then so it had to be her first visit in Imladris.
When he had his first look at her he was enchanted by her beauty and grace. Her movements reminded him so much of his late wife but her appearance was, of course, different. While his wife had silver tresses, Yáviëwen's hair shone in a deep red colour. Alkarwen had deep blue eyes while Yáviëwen's showed the green of a forest in summer – he had never seen in both of his lives a colour like that.
He felt like drowning in those eyes when she looked at him on that faithful day. Glorfindel could recall everything from that day, but the time after her arrival was a blur. He knew that he had greeted the company properly, and nobody noticed his clumsiness in her presence. During dinner he could recall times when elves had to repeat their question, because had not paid attention to what had been said. On one time he had knocked over his goblet, because he had not watched his hands – so distracted he had been by her presence.
He knew that Elrond had watched him closely, and he had noticed the knowing smile that had appeared on the face of the lord of Imladris. He felt guilty for feeling the way he did. He felt as though he were betraying his wife and knew not what to do.
Nobody knew that the mighty Balrog slayer was at a loss of courage when it comes to elleths.
As fierce as he could be in battle so shy he always had been when it comes to talking about emotions.
Glorfindel had lost his family during the fall of Gondolin, where he had died also. He had mourned his wife and his children for millennia, not counted the time he searched for them in the Halls of Waiting. He could not find them there or later in Valinor, so he thought that they had to be alive and well in Middle-Earth.
When he was allowed to come back he had searched all the elven realms but had not found them. Nobody had seen them after the fall of Gondolin, and every elf he asked told him the same, that they surely had died in the city.
Glorfindel shook his head to free himself of the dark thoughts. This was not a day for mourning or brooding about what had might been possible.
That was the past and he should look forward to the future.
That was exactly what Elrond had told him one night decades ago, when they had sat together for a long time until Glorfindel was able to talk to his friend about the thoughts that tumbled around in his mind. He had not talked about Yáviëwen and his feelings about her, but about the loss of his family and his unsuccessful search for them.
After this talk Glorfindel had found the courage to talk to Yáviëwen. She had visited Imladris countless times over those past decades but he had never found the right words to invite her, but encouraged by Elrond he had asked her, shortly after she had arrived, if she would give him the pleasure to take a walk with him through the forest.
She had accepted his invitation immediately, as if she had waited for this to happen a long time ago. Since then every time she came to Imladris, they would meet and would have a walk. They talked a lot, about everything that came to their minds. They shared times of laughter and joy but until now he had not the heart to talk about his feelings. That would change tonight, that was what he had promised to himself, for he could not live on without knowing if she felt the same way he did or not.
The excitement of meeting her helped him push aside the tiredness of a long day's work, but he still needed a bath and he knew the perfect place for it.
It was one of the smaller waterfalls of Imladris, hidden in one of the valleys. It was only big enough to allow an adult elf stand in its waters, but the pond which was fed by the waters of the fall was deep, wide and... deep enough to swim.
Glorfindel loved this place. He always came to that spot after sparring to swim. Sometimes he only sat on the bank and enjoyed the peace of this place. He had never met another elf here. Maybe they knew that this was his favourite place to relax and they respected his wish for solitude or perhaps when they did come over he was not around, he did not know and at that time he did not care.
Tonight he would show Yáviëwen to this place and he wanted it to be a very special evening.
His heart sped up a few beats when he thought about what he was up to do that night.
This morning he had talked to the head cook and had asked to prepare a basket with some of her favourite foods. Later he would add one of the elder bottles of wine out of Elrond's cellars. Elrond was the only one who knew what he wanted to do tonight, and to say that his friend had been delighted would be the understatement of the century.
When he had talked to Elrond about the wine, the lord had only raised one of his eyebrows with a knowing smile on his lips. Elrond had not uttered one word but his eyebrow spoke more than words could tell. So Glorfindel had told him everything. He was caught totally off guard when his old friend embraced him in a bear hug.
"This is long overdue, my friend. Nobody should stay so long alone as you did. I wish you all the best and may the Valar bless both of you." Elrond had to promise him that he would not tell anybody about it and Glorfindel knew that his friend would stay true to his word.
Reaching his destination, he took some deep breaths to inhale the sweet scents of the blooming flowers which covered the surroundings of the pond. Then he disrobed and folded his clothes to a neatly pack and laid them down on one of the boulders. He jumped into the water and savoured the cool water that caressed his skin.
He swam over to the waterfall and stood up facing the rock wall behind the thin curtain of water. He leaned slightly forward until his forehead touched the mossy surface of the stone
With a deep sigh he braced both of his hands beside his head and let the water run down over his shoulders and bare back.
The streaming cold water massaged away the tension which lingered in his muscles. Slowly he relaxed, not noticing that he was watched by three pairs of watchful eyes.
The twins held Estel between them as they entered the forest, following the path deep into the woods. From time to time they would show the little human the evidence that someone had passed a particular spot, like a bent down twig, turned over leafs and soft, barely visible footprints.
They followed the tracks that left the path and led them through coppice.
"This is not the way home!" Estel whispered. His brothers had told him to be as quiet as possible, so as to not alert their 'prey'.
"Yes little one, but this is the way Uncle Glorfy took, and we are following his trail, remember?" Elrohir whispered back.
Not far ahead they heard the sound of water pouring down a rocky surface, slowly and as quietly as possible the brothers sneaked up to the place.
From all the things on Arda they expected, it had been definitely not the sight of a Glorfindel, naked as he had been the day of his birth, standing under a waterfall.
"Wha... hmpp..." Estel's outcry was silenced by Elladan who clamped his hand quickly and tightly over Estel's mouth.
He could not allow the young one to give away their presence right now. This situation was too good to be true and he would not allow such an opportunity to slip through his fingers.
With a wide grin Elladan turned over to face his twin and was greeted by a grin, mirroring his own, on the face of Elrohir. The twins' brains always worked in the same way, so both of them were struck by the same idea in this moment.
"hhmpff... hmmm." Estel struggled in vain to free himself out of his brother's grip. None of the twins paid attention to him until he sank his sharp little teeth into Elladan's finger.
With a yelp Elladan quickly withdraw his fingers from the biting little human and shook them to ease the pain a bit.
He glared down at Estel sucking on the little wound the human had caused.
"Hey, that hurts!" He hissed, but Estel had folded his arms in front of his chest and stared back at him, his eyes challenging him.
"What are you up to do?" He had heard rumours all around Rivendell about the famous pranks of his brothers, but he had never witnessed one of them. Maybe this was the moment, he would learn all about it.
Excitement of being involved in a prank was clearly written all over his features.
The twins simultaneously put a finger on their lips. "We have to be very careful." Elrohir explained. "See, Glorfindel is always alert and hard to catch unaware."
"Look!" Elladan pointed a finger out to the pond. "Do you see the boulder over there?
"Of course I can see the boulder. There are Uncle Glorfy's clothes on it."
"Hurry up, we do not have so much time." Elrohir interrupted. "Little one, we are going to take away Uncle Glorfy's clothes and watch him. We'll see how he tries to get home without being seen."
"Wait a moment, I have an idea." Elladan left them alone and returned back some minutes later carrying an armful of reed, he had collected a few paces away. "This will add more fun to the whole thing!"
Elrohir did not get it and arched an eyebrow questioningly.
"If we are fast enough, we can leave him a present." Elladan answered the unspoken question.
"Ro, you are the one with the fastest fingers. Would you plait the reed into a skirt, while I retrieve the clothes?"
Elrohir took the reed out of his brother's arms and started immediately, to plait and weave the reed to some kind of skirt.
Elladan watched Glorfindel for some more seconds, knowing that the elf could leave his place at any time, but Glorfindel made no move, so Elladan crept out of the trees and to the boulder, always having an eye on Glorfindel. He was sure that the elf could not hear a thing behind the thin wall of water, but better be careful than be caught.
He grasped the pack and made his way back to his brothers. Elladan let the pack drop down beside his twin and took some strands of reed to help his brother finish their work. He bade Estel, who had helped Elrohir as best as he could, to watch Glorfindel. Should Glorfindel make a single move, the young one should tell them.
From time to time Elladan cast a glance to where the elf lord stood, but nothing happened, for Glorfindel stood under the water like a statue. He wondered how long Glorfindel would stay under there. One thing was for sure, he could not stay there forever.
Suddenly he felt a tug on his shirt.
"He comes out!" Estel whispered.
The twins exchanged a quick glance and looked over to the waterfall, only to see that Glorfindel was swimming back to the bank.
"We must leave immediately."
"What about the skirt? It is not finished!" Elrohir asked, his hands still busy with plaiting the strands.
"We will leave it somewhere on the way, let's go now." Elladan commanded.
TBC