The Beautiful

by kim-onka

Written for Maiar Week, a series of seven ficlets that are mostly descriptive and imagery-based with several references to specific events, one for each of Eönwë, Ilmarë, Arien, Tilion, Melian, Ossë and Uinen PLUS two extras: a conversation between Eönwë and Ilmarë before the War of Wrath and a drabble concerning Melian and the problem of her fána (physical body). / TBC

3. Melian

the lady of nightingales

.

The queen of songbirds sits on the throne of Doriath, a crown of birds around her head.

She is Melian.

Melian, whose voice entranced the dwellers of Aman as she tended the trees in Lorien's gardens; she taught the nightingales their songs.

(They sang and danced with her in the shadows beneath the trees; and there he saw her, and was entranced.)

Melian, who was Queen among the Children of Ilúvatar and the light of the Trees in the starlit woods of Endor, a Gift Dear; her Girdle guarded the realm against evil.

(There were greater power then hers, of Doom unfathomable and jewels of ancient light; those she could not hold back, for all her might and wisdom.)

Melian, whose daughter was the fairest of all and in love unswerving; in her eyes she saw the Gift unknown, and turned away.

(Of them they sing, of a line never broken; little comfort it is, in the loneliness of Aman.)

Melian, the Queen of Doriath, whose hands bequeath way-bread.

---

form and raiment

.

Form and raiment her kind named it and as form and raiment she had taken it on, come to dance in the deep shadow of the tall trees of Endórë, nightingales flying in her wake.

Then Elwë took her hand, and it was form and raiment no more.

She bound herself to it and through it to him, and there was love, such as is known to the Children of Eru.

Now here he lay dead and she felt the bonds of the world release her; nightingales sang of grief as Melian departed, her form and raiment dissolving into air.