They disembarked at the Falls of Rauros. Horses they had brought , and swiftly they rode through the foothills of Emyn Muil, and on to the great grass plains of Rohan. There were no more than eight hundred of them, for Lorien's population was small, and the forest lay ever under threat from Dol Guldur. Galadriel had requested her lord husband to defend Lorien in her absence, and with him, she had left most of the warriors. They travelled light, the waybread and cordials ofLorien sustaining them, and supplementing their diet with game, roots, and berries. The Lady had woven a charm of concealment about them, shielding them from all but the most powerful of the enemy. Orcs and men, in the service of Isengard, they encountered on occasion. Most were slain. Those they took prisoner were put to the question, prior to being executed. From them, they learned that great forces were converging on Helm's Deep.
Ever and anon, they encountered burned villages, wasted fields, and mounds of corpses. Men, women, children, even animals, were butchered indiscriminately. Two sights, in particular, Sam would never forget. In a field, outside one village, the enemy had bound over one hundred peasants. Then they had dowsed them with oil, and set them alight. They came upon this horror scarcely hours after it had happened. "They stayed around long enough for fun, then," muttered Gimli, fuming. "Show me a row of orc necks, and give me room to swing my axe, and I'll be happy to the end of my days." The stink of burned flesh stayed with Sam for days. The other was perhaps worse. They had halted for the night, among the ruins of a large village. Pippin had gone to explore, and suddenly ran back, crying. He knelt down, retching, unable to speak, but pointing in the direction of a barn. Sam entered the barn with Merry and Gimli, and there, nailed to the wall, was a young woman with her children nailed up on either side of her. A boy and a girl, Sam thought, although it was not easy to tell. Even in the dark, the dead bodies crawled with flies. The Queen joined them, and said nothing for a long time. Eventually, she spoke "I wish I could say that I'm horrified. I'm afraid, I've seen much worse than this. We have been too merciful, for far too long." On her orders, Sam and the others took them down and buried them. Sam found himself unable to sleep that night, reliving the scene over and again, in his own mind.
Eventually, he rose from his blanket. His companions were all asleep, but some of the elves were awake, talking softly among the campfires. Among them was the Lady of the Wood, with her handmaiden, Idril. "Master Samwell, will you join us?", she asked. He said down, and accepted a draft of mirovir, the liquor which the elves distilled. "You can't sleep?" she enquired.
"No your Grace. I've seen sights no hobbit should ever see."
"Yet, your Shire will witness worse, should the Enemy prevail." Sam remembered the vision in her Mirror, of hobbits dragged away as miserable slaves, as Bywater was set ablaze.
"You said, back there, that you'd seen worse."
"I have. My family was destroyed by the Nameless One, when he was but the servant of a worse master; the Black Enemy. I was there when Feanor and his sons slew their kin at Alqualonde. For the first time in history, elf slew elf. I fought in the War of Wrath, when Beleriand was sunk beneath the sea. I was at Dagorlad, where we thought evil was broken for good, yet it was not so. Yet, I have witnessed worse... taken part in worse", she finished softly. Sam wondered if he wished to hear this. The liquor had relaxed him, but eventually, curiosity got the better of him.
"What could be worse?"
"Eating one's kin, one's friends ," she replied quietly. His heart gave a little lurch. "I understand that among men, memories of the past recede and fade. Would that we were so lucky. I can remember the passage of the Helcaraxe as if it were yesterday." Sam nodded for her to continue.
" I said I fought Feanor and his sons at Alqualonde. Still, my brothers and I defied the Valar, and set out overland, to revenge ourselves on both Morgoth, and Feanor. We took a vast host with us. Mandos condemned us, but he had no power to prevent our going. And how we suffered! It took us twenty seven of your years, before we reached this Middle Earth. We marched North through waste and tundra. Most of the time, we journeyed by the sea. We caught fish, seals, birds, as well as game. We are hardy folk, and so, most of us lived. Yet, there were times when we were snowbound. Then, we would worry about the future. There were many children with us, and they began to sicken. Our children take much longer than yours to mature, and that leaves them vulnerable. Still, our sufferings were as naught to those we endured on the grinding ice, the Helcaraxe. That was the bridge that led us to Middle Earth."
"We knew the crossing would be hard. We had no idea how hard. My brother's wife perished in the frozen sea. Snow and hail fell endlessly, and the temperature dropped, and then dropped again. Some of our people started to falter, falling behind. Eventually, they lay down, seeking the snow sleep. The children fared worst, although we ensured they were fed before we were. And then, our food began to run short. The creatures of the sea, that had sustained us on our march, vanished. Many of our number began to hunger and sicken. And then, the predators came. Some were beasts we knew, bears, grey wolves. Others were nameless things, sent by the Enemy to torment us. Scouts and outriders began to disappear. Each morning we woke to find there were fewer of us than before. We ate the horses and the pack animals, yet still there were many miles to go before we reached land. We could not bury our dead in the ice, and so we did what we must...we started to eat our own dead. "
"You had no choice, surely?" said Sam.
"There is always a choice. To eat our own is one of the gravest sins we can commit. It would be better to suffer death ourselves, but the children were crying and dying, so we had to keep them alive, and that meant, we had to stay alive for them. We had little firewood left, so we ate the flesh raw off the bone. What firewood we had, we used to boil the bones for soup, to make the dead go further. Or sometimes, we would crack open the bones, and suck the marrow. My brothers ordered this, and our leaders supervised it. The host would have dissolved in panic, had they thought they might be killed and eaten by their fellows.. And yet, I fear that was the fate of some. Even elves abandon restraint, when they see their children dying by inches." Idril took her mistress' hand, stroking it gently. Had she heard this dreadful tale before, Sam wondered?
"Worse than that. The very worst thing. I remember how good they tasted. When you're starving, the dead taste very good indeed. I can savour them, even now. I have never been able to eat meat since we reached dry land."
His heart bled for the elven queen and all her race. It occurred to him that most of them had died violently who had come to Arda. That was how the curse of Mandos had worked, across the long centuries. But now, with Ring controlled by the wisest being in world, perhaps this could all be set right.
"You will need this, I think." Galadriel handed him another flask. "It will help you sleep." Sam drank greedily, then returned to his blanket. Almost at once, he fell asleep, but his dreams were bleak ones. Of children dying, while their parents watched, unable to aid them.
Notes:
1. Galadriel's brothers, Turgon, Finrod, and Fingolfin, were all slain by Morgoth or Sauron.
2. The Kinslaying at Alqualonde took place when Feanor and his sons attempted to seize the ships of the Telerin elves. Galadriel fought against them.
3. Dagorlad was the great battle fought outside Mordor which broke Sauron's army, at the end of the Second Age.
4. The crossing of the Helcaraxe was dreadful. Turgon's wife perished. I owe to Ias, who wrote Our Bones Only Ache While the Flesh is On Them, the idea that the elves had to resort to cannibalism.
5. Mandos is the judge of the Valar, and he is a bit of a bastard. He performs the same role as Hades.