In An Age Before

by Phantom Bard

Part 298 posted, in which Helluin and the Riders of Norðr-vestandóttir Bý aid the Third Marshal Haleth in Rohan's defeat of the Easterling invaders. Brutal weather, disease, and failing morale play a part. Aldburg is no sooner freed of the eastern threat when tidings come of the Dunlending's invasion from the west. OCs galore as usual.

12. In An Age Before Chapter 12

In An Age Before - Part 12

Chapter Ten

Númenor, Westernesse - The Second Age of the Sun

After a voyage of twelve days, Entulessë came home to port and dropped anchor beside the quay of Rómenna, the haven closest to the King's City of Armenelos. For a full three days prior to their landfall, the sailing master had set aside his charts and the helmsman had needed no instructions for their course. Indeed all eyes aboard ship were drawn to the mighty mount that lofted its head from the sea and into the clouds. The first unmistakable sight of it brought joy to all the mariners, for like nothing else, it signified home. Hour by hour it grew upon the horizon, and this first sight of so great a peak, standing alone in the midst of Belegaer, was astonishing to Helluin.

Verily, she thought, it raises its majestic brow to the heavens to be crowned by the stars. Indeed at night the stars were blocked from an increasing cone of the sky, but upon Tilion's rising the mount glowed silver, floating like a cloud upon the dark waves where danced the reflections of Varda's eternal stars. Thus 'twas that Helluin first saw the Pillar of Heaven, the Meneltarma, whose Tarmasundar formed the roots of the five peninsulas of Númenor. 'Twas a sight she would ne'er forget, even when, after decades of such returns, it came to signify the comfort of family and home, for the great volcano rose o'er 14,000 feet above the sea. Though many peaks amidst the Hithaeglir rose steeper and higher, none stood so alone, nor so impressive, nor were any so welcome to eyes long upon the sea.

When at last that peak seemed to fill all the sky, then came the cries of sea birds so numerous as to drown out the waves. They called out in greeting to the returning mariners as was their habit, and the Men rejoiced in them and tossed aloft tidbits that they snatched whilst on the wing. Then far, far above, as specks before the sun, Helluin saw in the highest airs a trio of Eagles soaring, circling the summit of the Meneltarma, the eyes of Manwë from whom no deeds were hid. And by their presence more than anything else did she know that this land was blessed.

At last Entulessë rode up the Bay of Rómenna to her home port, and passing Tol Uinen, came at last to her berth. Great was the peoples' rejoicing to have their mariners safely returned. Greater still was their joy when Vëantur's tidings of success were publicized throughout the land. Yet ere those tidings were published, the Captain-Admiral and his officers came to the city of Armenelos and to the Court of Tar-Elendil the king.

Indeed when word came of Entulessë's return, the Lord of Númenor sent a carriage to the docks to hasten Vëantur and his officers thither. In Rómenna the team of six was exchanged at the king's stables, and then with fresh horses, Entulessë's officers, with Helluin amongst them, made the seventy-mile trip to Armenelos in haste. Into the evening of their landfall and through the night they rode, stopping only for food. In this way they came to the gates of the city with the dawn behind them.

In those days, though Armenelos was the capitol, wherein the citadel and Elros' Tower stood, the population was more evenly distributed than in later years. Thus, Rómenna nearly rivaled Armenelos in size, whilst 'cross the island, Andúnië and Eldalondë stood upon the western shores with 'nigh equal populations. Ne'ertheless Armenelos was the place of the King's Court, the site of Elros' Tower, and the home of Nimloth, the White Tree that had come to the Númenóreans out of Tol Eressëa.

Debarking from their carriage in the wide Court of the Gate within the Citadel of the King, Helluin first saw the White Tree, and in the dawn's light it bore a blush of rose upon its pale bark. But Nimloth's leaves were dark above and silver below, and save that no light shimmered from his boughs, the White Tree of Númenor grew in the likeness of Telperion of Aman. So struck was Helluin with this vision that she moved as one entranced, and straightaway came hence to Nimloth with tears in her eyes. So moved was she at this vision of the lost and revered past that she leaned her head against the trunk and closed her eyes. Then those who stood 'nigh witnessed a thing of great wonder, and perhaps 'twas a consequence of all the time Helluin had stood amidst the rains and dews of the Two Trees upon Ezellohar, but whether or how their Light had changed her, none then knew for sure.

Now as her concentration grew and her spirit went deep within, Helluin's hands upon the trunk began to glow with the radiance of the Mingling of the Lights in an Age lost long before. In moments that Light quickened and came to envelope the whole of both Elf and tree. Then for a few moments, Nimloth, gift from the Eldar of Tol Eressëa to Elros in the founding years of Númenor, glowed with the brilliance and majesty of Telperion, for by Yavanna's blessed hand both trees and the Light had come to be. There in the Court of the King, for a brief time, a vision of the Elder Days and the Glory of Valinor lived again. And then it faded just as quickly, as if it were a dream or a mirage, or a phantasm dispersing.

Helluin withdrew her hands and stood back from the trunk, silent, unmoving, and long she seemed oblivious to the waking world. Yet after a while she shook herself and looked about her. For a few blessed moments she had stood again 'neath the rain of the Mingled Lights, and for that time she had been outside herself. Yet unlike those past times when she had felt herself borne up on wings, and as if with an Eagle's sight looked down upon Arda complete, this time she had remembered many things from days past, and she had foreseen many things of days to come. Ne'er aforetime had such visions come to her, for they had always been of space, not of time, and she was disoriented upon waking.

When the strangeness passed she resumed her place with the officers and the Men of the Court. All those 'round regarded her with awe and some confusion, but coming to her in concern, Vëantur wrapped her in his arms and asked after her well being.

"In eldrich moments, many things did I see, my Captain," Helluin told him, "and amongst these a warning to thee and all thy people. The welfare of Númenor and the Men of the West is bound to the fate of Nimloth somehow. In days long ahead both shalt fail in their majesty, yet both shalt survive, and both live after, though diminished by the days…a quick twilight and a long nightfall."

Vëantur gulped at Helluin's prophecy, for it could be nothing less. The tree stood now in vigor and had grown in the Court of the King for o'er 550 years. 'Twas now a great tree, fragrant of blossom in the evening, and shedding not its old leaves for new through winter's chill 'til spring. All revered it as a symbol of the honor in which Men held the Eldar and the Powers Undying. That any would endanger it was inconceivable to him. As if reading his thought, Helluin spoke to him again in a whisper.

"Not the cause but the effect shalt the tree reflect. As a gauge of the health of Númenor's spirit shalt the health of Nimloth be," she told him.

As the group began to move toward the doors of the King's Halls, Vëantur filed Helluin's words away for later contemplation. Not only was he astonished at her display of power, for she had ne'er claimed any such aforetime, but her words bespoke some doom for his people. This was of paramount seriousness to him, and as a loyal liege of his king, sooner or later the prophecy would have to be told. Whilst he thought on these things, the company passed through the King's Doors and were announced to the court.

Now the Hall of the King in Armenelos, ere the Whelming of Númenor, was such that the later halls of the Men of the West were patterned upon it in reverent memorial. Indeed its plan was reborn in Minas Anor, Minas Ithil, and Osgiliath, and in Annúminas ere its ruin. A lofty ceiling, arched and vaulted, stood far above, supported by the external walls and buttressed by rows of shapely columns along either side within. These columns formed side galleries, leaving the half-width of the hall open down its center. Invariably the hall was three times its width in length and one half its length in height. The rear wall opposite the great doors was formed into a semi-circular apse whose floor rose in a dais of three ascending steps to the throne. Piercing the outer walls 'twixt the columns were placed tall, arched windows, glazed with opal glass, and most oft in the spaces framed by the columns and backlit by the windows were placed memorial portrait figures.

The form of the hall as a whole was a load bearing device, an arch that spread and supported the weight of the tower that rose above it. In form, the tower was a tapered cylinder, strengthened by internal ribs, and pierced by many windows for observation. Such towers typically rose one hundred fathoms above the roof of the hall, which itself might be twenty to thirty fathoms in height, placing an observer atop the tower up to 780 feet above the Court of the King. 'Twas also very common for these buildings to be placed atop natural heights; the citadel of Armenelos, for example, rose from an outlying mound at the base of the Meneltarma that stood o'er 500 feet high.

Helluin was impressed with the workmanship and the design. 'Twas less delicate and decorative than the Elven towers she had seen…Mindon Eldaliéva, the Tower of Ingwë, in Tirion upon the hill of Tuna, and Turgon's Tower in Gondolin upon Amon Gwareth which had been built in Tirion's memory came foremost to her mind. The Tower of Armenelos was nothing if not robust. Helluin judged the Númenórean architecture fitting to the spirit of Men. With the others she paced the hall, seeing that the high throne at its end had been abandoned by the tall man descending the steps of the dais to greet them on equal footing as they approached.

So the blood of that line breeds true, she thought in amazement, for had she not known of his passing, Helluin would have guessed herself in the presence of Elros, so like to him in appearance was his great grandson, Tar-Elendil. She had last seen Elros in Beleriand at the age of 58, though he had been of Elven kind then and considered but a youth, whereas the king was 240 years of age and in his prime middle years. Indeed he could expect to live to the age of 400 or more, for such was the span granted to the Men of Númenor's royal house in the morning time of their realm. Here before her stood a mortal Man, a hand's width above 'Man high', (that being two rangar by Númenórean measure, or 6ft 4in, so Tar-Elendil was perhaps 6'9" in height), with the wiry build of a warrior or mariner used to hard toil, dark of hair and grey of eye, and like his forebears, very handsome of face. That face was lit with intelligence, goodwill, and humor.

The king greeted his captain and the officers by name, clasping forearms with them in the manner she remembered amongst the warriors of the Edain of Beleriand. He met them with respect and showed no haughtiness of manner. She could see the love the mariners bore for their sovereign in return. His conduct reminded her much of Tuor, noble and confident, yet without a shred of condescension. The recollection brought a smile to her lips.

"My Lord, may I present Helluin of the Noldor, also called Maeg-mórmenel," Vëantur announced in introduction, directing her forward with a hand placed gently at the small of her back. 'Twas a subtle gesture of intimacy that did not go unnoticed by the king, who favored his Captain-Admiral with a smile.

Helluin bowed her head and then extended her arm expecting to share the same grasp of welcome that the king had given his Men. Instead, Tar-Elendil lifted her hand and placed a soft kiss upon her knuckles in a gallant gesture that Helluin found both light-hearted and charming. She favored the king with a smile that was returned with honest goodwill and respect.

"Hail and well met, Helluin of the Noldor," the king said in greeting, "in the lore of my family much honor is given to the Noldo of the Blue Fire Eyes. But for thy aid during the Sack of Avernien, perhaps none of us would stand here this day. I feel that I walk within a tale of the Elder Days, yet in no tale is thy beauty truly remarked. I offer thee the welcome of the Men of Westernesse and the thanks of our realm. Ne'er did I think that in going east, my Captain would discover such a treasure out of the West. He is in fortune blessed." He concluded his welcome with a smile and winked at Vëantur.

Had she been a couple thousand years younger, the king's words would have brought a blush to her cheeks. Instead she replied, giving as good as she got.

"My Lord, thou art most gracious. Indeed it gladdens my heart to see the flowering of the labors young Elros undertook what seems but a short time ago. At Avernien I was repaying a debt to thy house for the valor of the brethren Huor and Húrin on behalf of my lord, Turgon of Gondolin. Tuor and Idril made such a lovely couple, and I could do no less." With a smile she added, "had I foreseen the wealth of comely offspring from their union I would have done yet more."

The king laughed openly at her words whilst Vëantur chuckled, "Elves are ne'er to old to flirt and we shalt ne'er be old enough to match them. I am indeed blessed."

That blessing was shared by Vëantur and Helluin for many years. For the next twenty decades they sailed together in the King's Ships, sharing in adventures and the opening years of the Númenóreans' voyages of aid to the Men of Middle Earth. Landings they made in Belfalas and Mithlond on behalf of the king. But dearest to their hearts were the great voyages of discovery undertaken by the mariners of Westernesse. In the morning time of their realm, curiosity of spirit guided them and they became the greatest mariners upon Middle Earth. Ships of Númenor sailed the coasts of Belegaer, landing at many places, save that they were banned from landfalls upon the shores of the Undying Lands. Instead, they sailed east.

In S.A. 641 Helluin and Vëantur sailed southeast, and crossing the Girdle of Arda, made the first landfall upon the Southern Continent. There they found birds and beasts wondrous and strange. They saw great cats stalking upon endless savannas east of the Grey Mountains, and further south, in deep forests dark 'neath their trees, dwelt creatures that were not yet Men but aspired to be.

On subsequent voyages they hopped the coast of that land, e'er seeking new sights, and so came beyond the southernmost cape of the Hither Lands. They made their way, e'er intrepid, sailing into the Inner Sea upon whose waves no boat had ridden. Through oppressive heats they made their courses far from home, 'neath strange skies where the familiar stars stood in positions aforetime unseen. Years they were gone and many feared them lost, yet they were blessed it seemed, and always they returned home.

Upon the eastern coast of the Inner Sea they discovered I-Móreanór, the Dark Land, cloaked in forests of unfamiliar trees, and previously unknown and unsuspected by any. Up the west coast of that landmass they sailed, finally reaching its northern tip, and then through the straight that separates that land from the furthest east of the Hither Lands they knew. Thence even to landfalls in Hildorien did they come, where the Younger Children of Ilúvatar had first arisen.

In that land they met Men so backward and primitive that the Númenóreans stood in awe at how far their kindred had come through their association with the West. Tools of flaked stone only did those natives use. The reliable making of fire they had not, and the writing of letters was unknown to them. Neither did they cultivate crops nor husband beasts, but slew what they could with sharpened poles and gathered for sustenance 'aught else they found. They feared the night, storms, and death, and from the ships of the Men of Númenor they fled in terror. And Helluin, looking into their hearts, perceived that the Shadow of old lay deep upon them and it had ne'er been understood or relieved.

At their furthest, the ships of Vëantur and Helluin crossed the East Sea and came even to the Easternmost Lands, and there they looked upon the Walls of the Sun. They made but one landfall and quickly retreated to their ships, driven thither by the heat. Yet along that coast they sailed, indeed all the way to the Nether Dark that lies abreast Ekkaia, the Encircling Sea that is the boundary of Arda itself. Then, finding no further shores to discover, and having proven the measure of Creation that no ban restricted them from, they turned their ships about and headed for home.

Upon their way thither, back northwards up the coast past the Walls of the Sun, there came the Equinox of Spring when Arien lofts the Vessel of Anar skywards upon the very Girdle of Arda that passes too in the west through Taniquétal in Aman. Then from the dark of night directly above the flotilla of Númenor, blinding rose the morning o'erhead, so close that though the Men had to turn away lest their eyes be burnt sightless, Helluin saw even the fair countenance of the Maia of the Sun. She shone in the brilliance of gold, like unto, yet more concentrated than Laurelin at the noontime of Valinor, and Helluin, who had aforetime stood in the rain of that light, now stood again bathed in that radiance, her own eyes blazing with blue fire in greeting.

Upon the ships, Men saw steam boiling up from the waters all about, but Arien was rising e'er higher and further away. Moment by moment the stifling heats and light that had sought to cook their organs within them quickly abated to the tropical levels of bearable discomfort to which they'd become accustomed. Yet afterwards the mariners marked the scorching of their sailcloth and the darkening of the lines in their rigging, and even the tanning of their skin. In amazement they dared look skyward at last. There rose Anar in glory to the first hour of the morning, and they knew that they had experienced a great wonder of the world that by the grace and power of the Valar had come to be.

The flotilla returned to Rómenna in S.A. 698 with great revelations and much lore, for they had been twelve years away upon the sea. Many were the charts and scrolls that enriched the libraries of the people, and the tales of their discoveries in the furthest of lands were told far and wide. In those days many of the Men of Númenor went aboard ships seeking adventure, and many of these came to the Men of Middle Earth as teachers and helpers, and so the lot of those in the Hither Lands stood improved.

But Helluin and Vëantur came home also to visit with the young woman they had again left behind at court in Armenelos, and this was their daughter, Almarian. She had been born in S.A. 661, during a stretch of nine years ashore. She was tall and dark of hair as were her mother and father, but with bright blue eyes rather than the gray of most of the Númenóreans. From her first days she had displayed a keen intelligence and the curiosity of her parents, and she seemed to mature but slowly, for she was touched by the Life of the Eldar though she was a mortal woman. In later years she became well known amongst the people of Westernesse, a great beauty marked for her wisdom and strength of spirit.

In giving birth to Almarian, Helluin had felt a part of herself bequeathed to her mortal offspring, a fraction of the power or substance of her fëa that could not be replaced. Most of Elven kind would have been diminished, perhaps even so far as to fall from their natal doom and everlasting life. Yet for Helluin this was not so. Perhaps 'twas the Light of the Trees in which she had so often stood that preserved her. Perhaps somewhat of the virtue of Laurelin and Telperion had been transferred to her as she stood 'neath their falling dews. But like all blessings, this blessing too was mixed, and of both good and ill it partook, though t'would be Ages ere the downside made its effects known.

Now when Vëantur and Helluin returned to Armenelos, they found that Almarian was preparing to marry, and they rejoiced that they had returned home in time to partake of the ceremony, for a great occasion 'twas to be in their land. Almarian was in her 37th year when she wed Irimon, third child of the king. All the people of Númenor celebrated on that day, for Irimon was Tar-Elendil's only son, and by the laws of the land then in effect, he was the King's Heir. O'er the next 31 years, Almarian bore three children to Irimon, a son and two younger daughters, grandchildren whom Vëantur and Helluin loved dearly. 'Twas in S.A.740, when Tar-Elendil laid down the scepter of his rule, that Irimon ascended the throne of Númenor as Tar-Meneldur, with Almarian as his queen.

"For my people thou hast shed blood in war and gifted blood in peace," Tar-Elendil had said to Helluin in S.A. 700 when Almarian gave birth to his first grandchild, a son and heir to the throne who was named Anardil, "and with both deeds, have my people been blessed. Indeed I know not which I value the higher."

And Helluin recalled their first words together in her reply to her dear friend the king.

"In hope to increase the comely offspring of the Edain have I finally done more."

Now of Almarian's three children, Anardil took the scepter of Númenor in S.A. 883 as Tar-Aldarion, and he ruled 'til S.A. 1075. He was a man enamored of the sea, more comfortable aboard ship than land, and well 'nigh obsessed with sailing. If anything, he was even more compulsive than Vëantur, but his focus was given to his alliance with the Elven King in Lindon rather than purely to discovery, as had his grandfather the Captain-Admiral. He built a haven at Vinyalondë, on the southern coast of Eriador at the mouth of the river Gwathir, as the Númenóreans then called the Glanduin¹, and there logged timber amidst the forests at an e'er increasing rate, and from it built many ships. At home, Tar-Aldarion had no son, but rather a single daughter from his stormy and ill-fated marriage to Erendis, and so for the first time, Númenor would have a ruling queen, Tar-Ancalimë. ¹(Glanduin, Border River, was the old name for the River Gwathló, the River Greyflood, [Agathurush in Adûnaic], first called Gwathir, the River of Shadow, by the Númenóreans.)

Of Almarian and Tar-Meneldur's two daughters little is known, but Ailinel, the elder daughter, was born in S.A. 712 and married Orchaldor, son of Hatholdir, a counselor of the king. Almiel, born in S.A. 729, married Númandil, grandson of Valandil, the first Lord of Andúnië. Of that line came a strain, primarily seen in women of the houses of the Faithful, who bore the black hair and blue eyes of their foremother, Helluin of the Noldor, for like the line of Elros, that line too bred true. O'er 2,500 years later, in the ships of the House of Elendil did some of that line escape the Whelming of Númenor, to come as refugees to the shores of Middle Earth. And thence through the Ages of Arda, even unto the Fourth Age of the world and beyond, still persist some in whose veins runs the bloodline that came of Cuiviénen in the Age of the Stars.

Many were the voyages of Vëantur and Helluin upon the seas of Middle Earth, and many adventures of discovery did they share. But in 827, Vëantur gave up his post, and his son-in-law, King Tar-Meneldur appointed a new Captain-Admiral. Then for a time, Helluin and Vëantur sailed still on their own behalf, and when even those days were done, still they met with mariners at the Inn of the West Wind in Rómenna. Oft too they traveled to Eldalondë and Andúnië in the west, and there they met with visitors of the Elder Kindred coming from Tol Eressëa in the West. These were Noldor of Beleriand mostly and some Sindar; indeed some were friends Helluin had known ere the War of Wrath. Bittersweet were those meetings to Helluin, for they brought back memories of the suffering of her people through many wars and her helplessness as she stood watching the House of Fëanor burning the stolen Teleri ships and stranding her friends upon the Helcaraxë. Yet some news came to her through them of Valinor and of Tirion. Her parents still lived, as did her sister Elvearille. She sent word to them through Tol Eressëa, but ere any reply came she had quit the land of Númenor.

In S.A. 992, after an unprecedented lifespan of 465 years, Vëantur's spirit finally left the mortal world and ventured beyond the fences of Arda, into realms none know and whither no Elda can follow. To Helluin their time together seemed short in hindsight, yet whilst it had lasted it had been sweet and she had no regrets. In all her days, no other had joined her so closely in spirit, nor reveled in the joy of exploration and discovery in a way so akin to her heart.

"As on that day aboard Entulessë, my spirit has cloven to thine all the days of my life, and still thy spirit I cherish," Vëantur said as he felt his strength ebb. "And beyond the Circles of Arda, into whatsoe'er place go the spirits of Men, the memory of thee shalt I hold dearest in my heart. With thee, in sweetness I have passed all the days of my life."

And Helluin, looking into the eyes of the Man whom she had loved more than any other upon Arda said, "with thee have I explored the world of Arda without and the world of the heart within. With many could I have journeyed the former, but with thee only have I journeyed the latter. 'Til world's ending shalt I carry the memory of thee in my heart, my Captain, for in sweetness have I passed all our days together."

Upon Vëantur's face a smile broke, as a ship's standard in a fair wind upon the sea, and with a final sighing breath he released his spirit and at last lay still. Then those who also waited, Almarian and Tar-Meneldur, Ailinel their elder daughter, and Almiel and her husband Númandil, and many captains and lords of Númenor wept for the passing of their Captain-Admiral. And the tears of Helluin the Noldo fell upon the coverlet 'neath which Vëantur lay, and like the dews of Telperion, they glowed with a silver light. Yet more of her fëa she had sacrificed, in her tears, and in the lengthening of Vëantur's days.

Now when Vëantur had been laid in the tomb of his family in Rómenna, Helluin took herself west 'cross the land, and coming to Eldalondë, she met there a ship of the Eldar. Then she took passage with the mariners of the Lonely Isle and set sail for Middle Earth, for her time in Númenor had ended. The white ship with its silver sails slipped like a ghost 'cross the waves, and coming to the Hither Shores, sailed up the long Firth of Lune. To the havens of Mithlond Helluin came, and there she bade the sailors thanks for their favor. Then, since they would set no foot again upon Mortal Lands, she went ashore alone. 'Twas 16 Narbeleth, (October 16th), S.A. 992, and much had changed in her absence.

To Be Continued