Chapter 36 part 1

A/N: Part of this was taken from "The Children of Hurin".

After a few weeks of bed rest, Estel was more than ready to go outside. He had had less of the poison, but it had affected him the worse since he was the smallest. Even just a tiny bit more would have been enough to kill him. Gilrean was worried when Haldir returned with the other elves and had been informed that Lord Elrond had been called out to treat some injuries. No one would tell her exactly what had happened, so she became frantic when Estel was nowhere to be seen. Finally, Haldir gave in and told her what had happened and that Estel had been stung by one of the spiders. But he gave her reassurance that Elrond and his brothers were still out there and they were going to take the best care of him that they possibly could.

It didn't matter if he had been able to get up and move about sooner because his mother would not have allowed it. She knew that it was not his fault what had happened, but she was still angry enough to try and punish him. But like always, she couldn't stay mad at him long, she was just happy he was relatively okay. It had been decided that once he was well enough to travel, they would begin their journey home. Estel was very sad to have to say goodbye to everyone in Lórien, but they just told him that they would meet again someday.

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As they were making ready to leave, Gilrean and Estel received a message from the Lady Galadriel. She wished to speak with them one more time before they departed.

Gilrean and her son walked the long flight of stairs and reached the room where Galadriel said to meet.

"Please come and sit down."

Estel still looked at her in wonder. So far, she was the most beautiful elf that he had ever seen. He laughed inside as he remembered the stories that some of the Rangers had told him on the way of an elf-witch. That had been silly to believe. Even they agreed, most were refreshed beyond their years and some had learned new skills to take back to the other Rangers.

"I wish to tell you a story before you leave. As you know, Elves live for forever and humans must die. There have been several times when an elf has fallen in love with a human and the results have generally been the same, but the stories are always different."

"This happened to my cousin and a wise woman of his court. Usually the story goes that a human male falls in love with a female elf. But this time was different. My cousin refused to marry her because he knew she would die, yet he loved her with all of his heart."

"But, that is not the story I wish to tell. It is said that Andreth, the woman my cousin loved, had conversations with his brother, Finrod, who was also an advisor. I wished to tell you about one of these conversations because it concerns both of you, it concerns how men perceive hope or estel."

"That's my name!"

"Yes, it is nenth min. But, I know that no one has told you its entire meaning. Here is part of the story of Andreth and her love for an elf Prince."

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"Have ye then no hope?" said Finrod.

"What is hope?" she said. "An expectation of good, which though uncertain has some foundation in what is known? Then we have none."

"That is one thing that Men call 'hope'," said Finrod. "Amdir we call it, 'looking up'. But there is another which is founded deeper. Estel we call it that is 'trust'. It is not defeated by the ways of the world, for it does not come from experience, but from our nature and first being. If we are indeed the Eruhin, the Children of the One, then He will not suffer Himself to be deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even by ourselves. This is the last foundation of Estel, which we keep even when we contemplate the End: of all His designs the issue must be for His Children's joy. Amdir you have not, you say. Does no Estel at all abide?"

"Maybe," she said. "But no! Do you not perceive that it is part of our wound that Estel should falter and its foundations be shaken? Are we the Children of the One? Are we not cast off finally? Or were we ever so? Is not the Nameless the Lord of the World?"

"Say it not even in question!" said Finrod.

"It cannot be unsaid," answered Andreth, "if you would understand the despair in which we walk. Or in which most Men walk. Among the Atani, as you call us, or the Seekers as we say: those who left the lands of despair and the Men of Darkness and journeyed west in vain hope: it is believed that healing may yet be found, or that there is some way of escape. But is this indeed Estel? Is it not Amdir rather; but without reason: mere flight in a dream from what waking they know: that there is no escape from darkness and death?"

"Mere flight in a dream you say," answered Finrod. "In dream many desires are revealed; and desire may be the last flicker of Estel. But you do not mean dream, Andreth. You confound dream and waking with hope and belief, to make the one more doubtful and the other more sure. Are they asleep when they speak of escape and healing?"

"Asleep or awake, they say nothing clearly," answered Andreth. "How or when shall healing come? To what manner of being shall those who see that time be re-made? And what of us who before it go out into darkness unhealed? To such questions only those of the 'Old Hope' (as they call themselves) have any guess of an answer."

"Those of the Old Hope?" Said Finrod. "Who are they?"

"A few," she said; "but their number has grown since we came to this land, and they see that the Nameless can (as they think) be defied. Yet that is no good reason. To defy him does not undo his work of old. And if the valor of the Eldar fails here, then their despair will be deeper. For it was not on the might of Men, or of any of the peoples of Arda, that the old hope was grounded."

"What then was this hope, if you know?" Finrod asked.

"They say," answered Andreth: "they say that the One will himself enter into Arda, and heal men and all the Marring from the beginning to the end. This they say also, or they feign, is a rumor that has come down through years uncounted, even from the days of our undoing."

"They say, they feign?" said Finrod. "Are you then not one of them?"

"How can I be, lord? All wisdom is against them. Who is the One, whom ye call Eru? If we put aside the Men who serve the Nameless, as do many in Middle-earth, still many men perceive the world only as a war between Light and Dark equipotent. But you will say: nay, that is Manwë and Melkor; Eru is above them. Is then Eru only the greatest of the Valar, a great got among gods, as most Men will say, even among the Atani: a king who dwells far from his kingdom and leaves lesser princes to do here much as they will? Again you say: nay, Eru is One, alone without peer, and He made Eä, and is beyond it; and the Valar are greater than we, but yet no nearer to His majesty. Is this not so?"

"Yes," said Finrod. "We say this, and the Valar we know, and they say the same, all save one. But which, think you, is more likely to lie: those who make themselves humble, or he that exalts himself?"

"I do not doubt," said Andreth. "And for that reason the saying of Hope passes my understanding. How could Eru enter into the thing He has made, and than which He is beyond measure greater? Can the singer enter into his tale or the designer into his picture?"

"He is already in it, as well as outside," said Finrod. "But indeed the 'in-dwelling' and the 'out-living' are not in the same mode."

"Truly," said Andreth. "So may Ero in that mode be present in Eä that proceeded from Him. But they speak of Eru Himself entering into Arda, and that is a thing wholly different. How could He the greater do this? Would it not shatter Arda, or indeed all Eä?

"Ask me not," said Finrod. "These things are beyond the compass of the wisdom of the Eldar, or of the Valar maybe. But I doubt that our words may mislead us, and that when you say 'greater' you think of the dimensions of Arda, in which the greater vessel may not be contained in the less.

"But such words may not be used of the Measureless. If Eru wished to do this, I do not doubt that He would find a way, though I cannot foresee it. For, as it seems to me, even if He in Himself was to enter in, He must still remain also as He is: the Author without. And yet, Andreth, to speak with humility, I cannot conceive how else this healing could be achieved. Since Eru will surely not suffer Melkor to turn the world to his own will and to triumph in the end. Yet there is no power conceivable greater than Melkor save Eru only. Therefore Eru, if He will not relinquish His work to Melkor, who must else proceed to mastery, then Eru must come in to conquer him.

"More: even if Melkor (or the Morgoth that he has become) could in any way be thrown down or thrust from Arda, still his Shadow would remain, and the evil that he has wrought and sown as a seed would wax and multiply. And if any remedy for this is to be found, ere all is ended, any new light to oppose the shadow, or any medicine for the wounds: then it must, I deem, come from without."

"Then, lord," said Andreth, and she looked up in wonder, "you believe in this Hope?"

"Ask me not yet," he answered. "For it is still to me but strange news that comes from afar. No such hope was ever spoken to the Quendi. To you only it was sent. And yet throughout you were may hear it and lift up our hearts." He paused a while, and then looking gravely at Andreth he said: "Yes, Wise-woman, maybe it was ordained that we Quendi, and ye Atani, ere the world grows old, should meet and bring news one to another, and so we should learn of the Hope from you: ordained, indeed, that thou and I, Andreth, should sit here and speak together, across the gulf that divides our kindreds, so that while the Shadow still broods in the North we should not be wholly afraid."

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"I hope, dear Estel, son of Gilrean and Arathorn that you remember well these lessons. Keep your faith burning strong. Hope can be a strong ally. Cling to it. I feel a dark time is coming and those around you will need your hope. I do not say these things to scare you, but to remind you of your name and what it means. I also wish to extend to you and the other Dunedain an invitation that Lothlórien will always welcome our kin from Numenor."

"Thank you my lady. I do wish to see you again and maybe I will some day."

Galadriel smiled. There were only a few who knew the destiny this young boy had to fulfill…