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alexs_storybook) wrote2015-05-08 07:30 am
alexs_storybook) wrote2015-05-08 07:30 am
Entry tags:
FIC: OEAM Big Bang: Under the Oak and the Beech, Chapters 1-5
Title: Under the Oak and the Beech
Author:alexcat
Fandom: Tolkien
Characters: Thranduil, Oropher, Celeborns, Legolas, OCs
Beta:luin77
Artist:talullahred
Rating: PG-13
Notes and warnings: See Notes at Ao3
Summary: This is the story of Thranduil of the Greenwood from his childhood until the fourth age.
~~~
*
“Now of old the name of that forest was Greenwood the Great, and its wide halls and aisles were the haunt of many beasts and of birds of bright song; and there was the realm of King Thranduil under the oak and the beech.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
*
Prologue – Sailing
Thranduil rode a fine white horse into the old city once called the Havens. He was dressed in his finest clothes, kingly robes of midnight blue with golden threads shot through them and encrusted with tiny diamonds that caught the light and sparkled like hundreds of tiny stars.
He wore the emerald necklace of Girion around his neck over his robes and below them the necklace of diamonds* given him many years ago by the little hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.
He was not alone. Bringing up the rear were Lord Celeborn and his grandsons, Elladan and Elrohir. Celeborn was dressed in the simple white robes favored by him and the lady Galadriel when they ruled in Lothlórien many years past. The sons of Elrond wore the cloaks of silver-grey that they had worn since they’d become adults.
It was a solemn and oddly formal procession.
In the old abandoned harbor sat a tall ship with white sails. It bobbed gently against its moorings. A lone elf stood on the deck, the only elf who had ever sailed this ship back from Aman, Círdan himself.
The elves dismounted. Thranduil watched as Celeborn and his grandsons led their horses across the wide plank and onto the ship. Celeborn turned back to look over his shoulder.
Thranduil nodded and spoke. “Tell Legolas I shall stay to stand guard until Arda passes from memory. As long as I abide here, the light of the elves shall shine a little longer in this world.”
Thranduil smiled, a gentle smile seen by few in his many years, as Celeborn answered. “I will tell him. My time is done here and I happily sail to see my wife. It has been a long, long while.”
Círdan untied the rope from the dock and the ship began to move slowly away. Thranduil watched the ship until it was out of sight. His mind wandered back so many years that he could not now count them all…
*Bilbo originally gave him a necklace of pearls but I have changed that for this story to diamonds.
~~~~
Chapter One - A Child of the Wood
Thranduil waded in the stream with his father. He felt like he was as big as his father today. Mother said he was almost grown at six years old. He looked up at Oropher.
“Will we fish today, Father?”
“No, son. Your mother says that if bring we one more fish home, we will grow fins and swim away ourselves.”
“Then what shall we eat?”
“Perhaps we shall eat rabbit. I have set traps and we’ll check them now.”
They left the stream and found the traps that Oropher had set. They were fine ones and should have been filled with a fat rabbit in each one but that was not the case. Something had managed to nibble the bait of green lettuces without springing the trap in each and every case. Three empty traps and no rabbit for dinner.
Thranduil was quite worried. Mother might make them eat lettuces themselves if they didn’t bring home something a little more substantial. He wasn’t very fond of lettuces. He thought they tasted a lot like the grass that his new pony ate.
“Father, I have some of Aunt Lenna’s cakes hidden in my room. Perhaps we could bring those to Mother instead of lettuces.”
Oropher laughed. He’d wondered how Lenna’s cakes had disappeared so fast. Now he knew. He was raising a pastry thief!
“I am not sure that wouldn’t just get us into more trouble. She might feed us turnips!”
Thranduil could think of no worse torture than turnips for dinner. Lettuces were better than turnips! “Perhaps we could trade some lettuces for something better tasting in the village.”
Oropher patted his son on the head. “We shall have roasted chicken tonight. Mama is baking a fine one right now. I had hoped to bring her some rabbit for a nice stew as well but the chicken will do nicely and I promise to eat your portion of turnips if Mother makes them.”
Thranduil was relieved. He knew they had plenty to eat but they lived out in the forest away from the village and he often wondered why this was so. His friends lived near the market and their fathers seldom hunted the food they ate. Sometimes they laughed at him for living so far into the woods.
“Father, why do we live in the wood?” He asked as they turned toward home.
“Your mother and I came here many years ago to live in solitude, away from the crowds in the city and away from people who would say they are your brother and your friend and turn on you the first chance they get. When the Noldor went back to Aman, our people stayed here and made this world our own. I do not mean to give that world back to the Noldor now that they begin to migrate to our shores again.”
“So that is why we live alone?”
Oropher lifted his son up and held him high above his head. “That and the beauty of the forest. Look about you, my son. Is this to be matched in any building made by elves? I think not. I prefer the forest and its natural wonder to living among others.”
Thranduil wasn’t sure he agreed. He had lots of fun when he visited Aunt Lenna and played with her sons and the other elf children of the village. They had sword fights with wooden swords and shot arrows with blunt tips at imaginary enemies. He would love to live near them all so they could play every day.
He also loved the jewels that Aunt Lenna wore on her fingers and in her hair. He wanted to find a pretty green one for his mother to wear in her hair. He had asked his aunt where the jewels came from.
“Your uncle digs them from the ground inside of the mountains. He polishes them and chisels them until they shine almost as the two trees.”
She took the ring off and let the small elfling hold it. He held it out so the light caught the facets. He smiled happily at the brilliant light they gave off.
“Someday I shall have one of these for every finger I have!”
Oropher interrupted his thoughts of gemstones. “I am going into the city tomorrow. Would you like to ride with me?”
He cried out, “yes” and threw his arms around his father’s neck.
The city of Calenost was a quite a bit larger than the village. There were many more buildings, people, and roads and much, much more noise. Thranduil loved to go there with his father. Father usually came for news and for some herbs and such that could not be grown at home. First they went to Oropher’s favorite tavern. His father would order an ale for himself and some of the tavern keeper’s homemade root beer for Thranduil. He would sit with his father and several other adult elves as they drank their ale and talked of news in the world around them.
Thranduil sipped his ale and drew pictures of diamonds and emeralds while his father talked. He wasn’t paying much attention but he heard one of them say something about a Dark Lord and armies. He didn’t think that sounded fun so he asked his father if he might go to the water closet.
His father’s friends had gone when he returned a few minutes later so they finished their drinks and went in search of the herbs Mother had asked them to fetch for her.
His father bought him some fruit at the market from far away, so far away that Father had never even been there. It was orange colored and the inside of the fruit was sweet and delicious and divided into sections. Thranduil would dream of days of what fanciful land such a wonderful treat might have come from.
The journey home took all afternoon and it was dusk as they neared their own little yard in the middle of forest.
Something was amiss. Thranduil smelled smoke and he saw an orange glow at the back of the house.
Oropher jumped from his horse. “Stay right here and do not move,” he shouted to Thranduil as he ran toward the house. Thranduil saw fire and he jumped down from his father’s horse, but he stayed where he was, not daring to go any closer to the house.
In a moment, Oropher came running from the house carrying Mother in his arms. She was not moving as he lay her on the ground. He shook her and called her named as Thranduil began to cry.
She opened her eyes and looked at them both. “Oh, I am so glad to see you! I was afraid they’d kill me but they just set the house on fire. I hid from them!”
“Who, my darling? Who set the house on fire?”
“I believe they were goblins. They were hideous and I could smell them before they even got here. That’s why I was able to hide.”
She reached for her weeping child and he fell into her arms.
*
The next day, they packed up what they could salvage and left the rest. The small family headed for Doriath, where the land was protected from evil by the Girdle of Melían. Oropher would not have his family endangered again, no matter what. The King was a distant kinsman of Oropher and he thought well of both him and his beautiful Maia wife. Surely they would be safe there.
~~~~
Chapter Two - The Caves of Menegroth
Thranduil loved Doriath but he missed living in the woods more than he ever thought possible. He and his father sometimes camped and hunted in the woods around Menegroth, but it wasn’t the same. Mother seemed to enjoy it here though. She liked the company of other women and was learning healing from Melían herself. His father seemed happy but he suspected that was because Mother was so content.
He had grown up a lot in the dozen years since they’d come here. He was almost grown now and felt as if he already were an adult.
“Hey, Thranduil!”
He turned. It was Celeborn, a new friend. He was one of the king’s nephews and only a few years older than Thranduil. They spent quite a lot of time together.
“Are you ready to go hunting?” Thranduil asked him.
“I’d rather watch Lúthien and the other maids in the baths!” Celeborn was quite interested in the girls, an interest Thranduil had not yet acquired.
“Not again! The king will catch you someday and banish you to the outside and Goblins will take you away to the Dark Lord!”
“Not today though. Come on!” Celeborn was very hard to dissuade from anything once he’d made up his mind. It was part of his charm.
With a sigh, Thranduil followed him. “Can we hunt when we’re done peeping?”
Celeborn nodded as he motioned for Thranduil to be quiet.
They hid in a bushy outcropping near the pool where the young elf women loved to bathe on a hot summer day. To Celeborn’s unending delight, they always bathed and swam naked. Thranduil certainly didn’t mind staring at those willowy young bodies but he was still young enough to prefer hunting and camping.
After the girls left the pool, they finally made their way deeper into the wood to hunt. Thranduil brought a pack filled with sweets that his Mother had made as well as a small skin of his father’s wine, which he had stolen the evening before after everyone in his house was asleep.
“My father will kill me if he finds I’ve been in his wine.”
Celeborn laughed. “I guess I am lucky. My parents are not here and my uncle is too busy to care what I do.” He pulled a pipe and a small bag from his pocket. “Pipe weed. They say it will make you see things that aren’t there.”
Thranduil was scandalized. He’d never even seen another elf smoking a pipe, much less smoking something as scandalous as pipe weed.
They hunted for a while and Thranduil shot a rabbit. Celeborn helped him dress it out and they put it on a makeshift spit and began to roast it. In the meantime, Thranduil opened the wineskin and they passed it back and forth for a bit. This wasn’t the first time and Thranduil knew that if he drank too much, he’d be silly or sick or both so he took small sips when it was his turn.
“Do you think you’ll live here always?” He asked Celeborn after they’d eaten their rabbit and were laying on their backs, looking up at the night sky.
“I love being here but I want to get out and travel and see the world. I want to see beautiful women, want to meet human women maybe. I hear they love elves.” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.
Thranduil couldn’t help but laugh. “Is that all you think about?”
“You’ll be thinking about it soon enough. Don’t you like the girls? Don’t you want to kiss them?”
“No, not really. I want to be in the woods and do things here, like hunting and fishing. I guess I’m just not ready for those things yet.”
They got out the pipe weed and tried it. Celeborn claimed that he could hear colors, but Thranduil knew the only thing it did for him was make him cough. He’d stick with Father’s wine.
Both youngsters drifted off to sleep after they ate all their rabbit and drank all their wine. The sun was up the next time Thranduil opened his eyes. Had he told Mother that he might not come home? He was sure he did. He thought so anyway.
Things were normal when they returned home. No one was looking for them though Thranduil did notice that Lúthien looked rather angry at them both. Celeborn deserved it, he thought, and her anger didn’t bother him one way or the other.
All of that changed one day a few months later when a new family came to live at Menegroth. They were cousins of the king as well and had been offered a safe home here under the protection of Melían. This family had two children and one of them was a she elf with hair the color of the sun. Her name was Lúthwen. From the moment Thranduil saw her shy smile, he never loved anyone else.
That did not mean that he actually spoke to her though. He watched her from afar most of the time. She didn’t seem to know he was alive as of yet. She spent her time with other girls her age and only noticed Thranduil now and again.
Celeborn thought he was being silly. He never had any problems talking to anyone, especially girls.
“Just walk up and say, ‘My name is Thranduil. How are you?’ How easy is that?”
“I am not yet ready. Leave me alone.”
Celeborn shrugged. He was not one to nag or aggravate anyone. He changed the subject. “Would you like to practice archery?”
Thranduil agreed and no more was said about Lúthwen.
Thranduil stopped mentioning her but he didn’t stop thinking of her. He secretly watched her and thought about her all the time. He knew when he was older, he would find the courage to talk to her but she was young like he was, too young for courting and much too young to do some of the things Celeborn thought about all the time.
Someday he would marry her and have sons and daughters who looked just like her and they would have their own kingdom deep in the forest, much like the forest he lived in before he moved here.
~~~~
Chapter Three – Young Love
Years passed and Thranduil grew up and so did Celeborn. Both were strikingly handsome and their good looks were not lost on the female population of Menegroth. Celeborn never spent an evening alone and seldom spent two in a row in the company of the same girl. Thranduil still only had eyes for one girl, Lúthwen.
Lúthwen had grown up quite a bit as well. She was still blond and still beautiful, but she was beginning to develop the calm demeanor and serenity that would a perfect counter to the quick temper and impulsive nature of Thranduil.
As of yet, they had not spoken more than three words directly to one another.
Celeborn decided to remedy that. He was going to talk to Lúthwen in Thranduil’s place, to tell her how much Thranduil liked her and wanted to know her better. He went to her home and knocked on her door. When her father, one of the royal guards, came to the door, Celeborn stood very straight and asked if he could speak to Lúthwen.
“Why would you think I’d let you court my daughter?”
Celeborn stammered and finally managed to say, “I am not here for me. I come for Thranduil, son of Oropher.”
“Why isn’t he here himself?” Lúthwen’s father asked, obviously annoyed that anyone was here to bother him and his daughter.
“He is shy and he doesn’t know I am here at all.”
“Go away then. When he has enough nerve to come here himself, then he might be allowed to speak to my daughter.” He slammed the door in Celeborn’s face.
Thranduil did not know this when he finally figured that if he ever planned to get to know Lúthwen, he’d better do so now. The king would hold a festival in the early spring to celebrate the rebirth and renewal that came every year. There would be feasting and games and most importantly, a dance for the young elves to end the evening.
Thranduil decided he would ask Lúthwen. Oddly enough, once he’d made up his mind, he was no longer shy nor nervous at all. He saw Lúthwen the next evening sitting with several other girls her age and marched up to her boldly.
“Might I speak with you?”
She smiled kindly and nodded. He reached for her hand and she took his, rising gracefully and following him just out of earshot of her friends.
“I would like for you to accompany me to the festival.”
“I’d be delighted but you must ask my father. He will not allow me to go with anyone he doesn’t know.”
He went to her father and her father said no. At a loss, Thranduil asked Celeborn about it and found that his friend was likely the reason for his rejection. He was upset but not enough to be angry with Celeborn. He decided to simply see her at the festival.
The day of the festival was beautiful with warm sunshine and fresh flowers everywhere. Long tables with snow white tablecloths held food of every description. There were meats and vegetables, bread still warm from the ovens, cakes of every sort and more. There were games for the children and archery contests for the young men and women. Older elves sat around tables rolling dice and playing cards games.
Thranduil saw none of those things. He waited for Lúthwen to arrive. Lunch was served and eaten and there was no sign of her. Celeborn stopped trying to interest Thranduil in anything and wandered off to entertain himself.
He decided that he might go home soon if she didn’t come.
She arrived with a group of girls, their own princess Lúthien among them. Thranduil was so smitten that he didn’t even notice the elf said to be the fairest who ever lived. All he saw was the quiet blond by her side.
He followed them at a distance as they traversed the park. Lúthwen was radiant, he thought, in her white gown with fresh flowers woven into her golden hair. He was sure that every elf in Doriath would fall in love with her today.
When she saw him, she waved and beckoned him over. He almost tripped on his own feet in his haste to get to her.
“Good morning, fair lady,” he said as he bowed low before her.
“Get up before my father sees you,” she whispered. “Let’s go to the waterfall.”
Thranduil was a bit shocked and extremely excited. She wanted to go somewhere to be alone with him! He nodded and they made a rather hasty exit. She walked at a quick pace to the small waterfall where he’d often gone bathing with his friends and very near to the small pond where the girls often bathed.
When they got close enough to hear the water roar, she stopped, turned to him and smiled. “I am glad to see you today, Thranduil. I’m sorry my father is such a grouch but he feels very protective of me since we are still new here.”
“Will you get in trouble for coming out here with me?”
“Probably, so I want you to kiss me and make it worth all the trouble I’m going to get into.”
Thranduil was a bit shocked but he stepped closer anyway and awkwardly put his arms around her. He looked at her beautiful mouth and doubted that he had the nerve to kiss those lips, but she solved that problem for him by kissing him first. Her soft warm lips touched his for only a second and then they were gone.
He felt as if he might float away.
Instead he kissed her again, a longer kiss. She pulled him closer and sighed sweetly. He knew at that moment that she was the elf he would marry.
“I love you already, Lúthwen. Will you be my wife someday?”
She laughed, not in derision but with pure joy. “I thought you’d never ask me. I knew the first time I saw you and your friend watching me that I wanted to marry you.”
“How shall we tell your father?”
“Carefully and just after we marry.”
Thranduil pulled her close again and kissed her for the third time.
~~~~
Chapter Four – The Coming of the Noldor
Thranduil and Lúthwen had their own home near to his parents and they were happy as was all of Doriath for a very long time.
Thranduil was as content as he would ever be here in his new home with his lovely wife. She made him a better person, he thought, and he told her so often. His mother agreed with him, loving her new daughter as much as she loved Thranduil.
One day, everything changed.
Celeborn was knocking on Thranduil’s door at dawn. “Have you heard?”
Thranduil was eating his breakfast of fresh made bread and honey when he heard his friend. He let him in. “What are you so excited about?”
“The Noldor have come.”
Thranduil knew his father disliked, maybe even hated, the Noldor.
“I have no love for the Noldor,” he told Celeborn. “Why are they here? Why has the Girdle of Melían not kept them out?”
“These are the children of Finarfin.”
“I have heard my father mention Finarfin. But why are you so excited?”
“I watched them ride in and I saw her, the woman I want to spend forever with! She is beautiful!”
Thranduil was actually impressed. Celeborn loved all females and had never spoken of anyone in such terms in all the years they’d been friends.
“You’ll meet her tonight. King Thingol is having a banquet in their honor and you and Lúthwen must come!”
Lúthwen was curious as well. She wanted to meet the elf who turned Celeborn’s head. Thranduil was cautious about the newcomers, but he found both Finrod and Galadriel to be quite friendly. His father refused to come to the banquet, saying that he wanted nothing to do with any of Fëanor’s relatives, even nephews and nieces.
Celeborn was completely smitten.
Thranduil thought the siblings were holding something back, something they didn’t want their host to know. He decided to mention it to no one. It was none of his business anyway.
He did, however, mention it to Lúthwen later.
“What do you think they are hiding? Wouldn’t Melían know?” She sat at her dressing table, brushing her golden hair and looking at Thranduil in the mirror.
“I suppose she would. I think I shall not say anything. I certainly don’t want to cause trouble for Celeborn.”
He rose from the bed and approached her, lifting her hair and sliding her thin gown down over her shoulders. He kissed the spot where her neck and shoulder met and smiled when she shivered.
“Let’s forget about all that,” Lúthwen murmured as she turned around and let her garment fall to the floor.
By morning, Thranduil had put it all out of his mind.
*
Lúthwen was spending a lot of time with his mother, Melían and Artanis. She was learning about herbs and healing, something that all four women were interested in. She was getting to know Artanis as well.
“She is quite taken with Celeborn. They are talking of leaving together soon,” she told Thranduil as they sat down to dinner one evening. “She says they will travel and find a kingdom to rule together.”
Thranduil made a rude sound at that. “Maybe Father was right. Maybe they do think they are better than the rest of us simple folk.”
Lúthwen playfully smacked his arm. “You know Celeborn wouldn’t want a wife who thought she was better than he is.”
Thranduil thought that Celeborn was so blinded by love that he would do nearly anything to be near Artanis – or Galadriel, as he had named her. He also knew his father considered the Noldor to be interlopers and perhaps even criminals for the things they had done.
As much as his father distrusted them, Thranduil had to admit the Noldor were wonderful companions. He enjoyed the time he spent with Finrod and Celeborn, hunting and exploring the area under the protection of Malian’s magic. Conversation at dinner was entertaining and they all loved to dance and sing. It was almost idyllic.
Almost.
Even Celeborn noticed the shadow that always seemed to hang over the Noldor, the notion that they kept secrets from Thingol, from them all.
“Do you think Galadriel hides something from me?” Celeborn asked one day when they were out hunting without the Noldor kin among them.
“Why would you say such a thing?”
“When her cousins are mentioned, she gets quiet and she won’t look me in the eye.”
“By her cousins, do you mean the sons of Fëanor?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you know she bears none of them much affection.”
Celeborn smiled. “Maybe that is it. Maybe I am chasing shadows.”
But the seeds of doubt were sewn and Thranduil found himself watching them, the children of Finarfin. They did act off, he thought, as if they kept a secret. As much as he wished Celeborn well, he dreaded finding out what they hid from Thingol and Melían.
*
Many miles away, Lord Círdan prepared a missive to be taken by courier to King Thingol. He rolled the missive up and sealed it with his personal seal, a sail and a dove. He gave the young elf a token that would grant him safe passage into Doriath.
“Give this to no one but the King himself, Gildor. See if he has a reply and come back as soon as you can. I fear we will not be traveling freely for much longer.”
He gave the courier a salute and sent him on his way.
The message was not one that he wished to send but one he felt compelled to send. The Fëanorians had slaughtered the Teleri at Alqualondë, joined by Fingon and his army. The Noldor had slaughtered elves, slain their own kin, a sin no one could, or would, ever truly forgive.
Círdan knew that Finarfin’s children had not been responsible, but they were Noldor and should have told the king, their own kinsman, what had transpired.
He sighed and walked out to the shipyard, taking up a brush and beginning to hand varnish the newest ship in his growing fleet. Thingol would have to do as he thought fit in response to the news.
He hoped it did not inspire another kinslaying in Doriath.
~~~~
Chapter Five – The Hidden Comes to Light
Thranduil was at Thingol’s court with his father when the messenger came from Círdan. He watched as disbelief then fury crossed the king’s face. He, himself, had feared something like this was what Galadriel and her brothers were hiding when they came here.
Had they been so arrogant that they thought no one would ever find out?
King Thingol forbade anyone to say anything to the Noldor before he talked to them. He then sent for his wife and retired to his chambers, declaring that he would see all at dinner in the banquet hall.
Thranduil hurried home to Lúthwen, telling her what had transpired at court. Her hand flew to her mouth.
“Oh no! I knew she hid something but this! Did she and her brothers take part in this… this horror?” Tears streamed from her eyes. It was only then that he realized what great friends she and Galadriel had become.
“I do not know. The missive was vague… or at least Thingol was vague, but he is angry. I have never even seen Father that angry. I fear for them all.”
Lúthwen was distraught over the news. She was frightened for her friend and angry as well. Thranduil had no idea how to make her feel better, so he did what his father did when he was upset and had no idea what to do. He stormed out, leaving his wife alone with her broken heart and adding to her worry.
Oropher was watching for his son long before Thranduil stomped into his father’s house.
“You have heard?” Oropher asked.
Thranduil nodded, wondering how his father knew everything that happened in Doriath almost as soon as it happened. Did he have a spy in the court? He would ask him someday, just not today.
“I was there when the messenger came from Círdan.”
“He is angry?” Oropher asked, though surely he knew the answer to that one.
“What do you think?”
“I cannot blame him. Noldor are Noldor though so why he would be surprised is beyond me.”
Thranduil did not entirely agree with his father, but he was becoming more mistrustful of the Noldor with each passing hour. Fëanor had the arrogance to fly in the face of the Valar, even in the face of Eru for revenge and greed. Had the rest of the Noldor come for the same reason? He hoped not.
Thranduil managed to stay away from home most of the day. He simply did not know what to say to his wife to comfort her. He rode out into the woods for a few hours alone. He needed to think. Perhaps it was time he and his father left this place.
But wasn’t Doriath the safest place in Arda to live? Dark forces had been stirring for some time now and Melían’s Girdle made them all safe here in Menegroth, didn’t it?
He was still weighing things when he finally did go back home to ready himself for dinner in the King’s hall. He did not know what Thingol would do… nor did anyone else.
*
Thingol’s fury was almost tangible as the elves filed into the banquet hall for dinner. This dinner was anything but routine. Even Melían was subdued and the beautiful Maia was always the most joyous and happy of the denizens of Menegroth. She had warned him about the Noldor and the search for the Silmarils but even she had not known the truth of Fëanor and of the Oath.
Galadriel’s brothers had come to visit and dine with their sister, whom they missed while she stayed in Menegroth with Melían. It was to Finrod that Thingol finally spoke.
”I marvel at you, son of Eärwen, that you would come to the board of your kinsman thus red-handed from the slaying of your mother’s kin, and yet say naught in defence, nor yet seek any pardon!”*
Finrod was angry and even a bit ashamed but he did not want to blame the others, his cousins, in front of Thingol.
Angrod had no loyal feelings left and retorted angrily, telling their host of the sins of his cousins, telling the King of the kinslayings wrought by the sons of Fëanor. ”Wherefore should we that endured the Grinding Ice bear the name of kinslayers and traitors?”* he finished.
Thingol was so angry that he bade them go.
“You can return one day but I do not want to look at any of you right now. And I never want to hear the language of those abominations in my land again. From this day forward, Quenya will never be spoken in my presence or in my kingdom. Now leave me!”
No one spoke, not the Noldor nor the inhabitants of Menegroth. Thranduil watched as Galadriel’s brothers took their leave from the banquet followed by Galadriel and Celeborn.
He held Lúthwen’s hand under the table, concerned for his friend but concerned even more for the future. If Fëanor’s sons had taken such a vile oath that they were willing to kill their own kinsmen to keep it, were any of them safe from the wrath of such elves?
He was glad for the Girdle of Melían but these Noldor who were his friends had been allowed in as kinsmen and allies. Would the enemy come into the gates of Menegroth as easily and be welcomed?
For the first time since they left their forest village many, many years before, Thranduil was afraid of what the future held for his family.
In a few weeks, Galadriel left the city to visit her brother, Finrod. Celeborn stayed behind, hoping that she would return to him soon.
Oropher was almost as angry as Thingol. “No good ever comes from the Noldor. Have I not told you this over and over, my son?”
Thranduil was not sure that he had the energy or the conviction to argue. If his father decided to go, he and his wife would follow them and help establish a new kingdom.
“You have, Father, and though I am fond of Galadriel and her brothers, I fear the news of the Fëanorians and the stones they seek. If they would kill their own kinsmen not once but twice, are any of us safe from them?”
Oropher shook his head. “We shall wait a while and see what happens.”
~~~
* Words in italics are quotes from The Silmarillion, Chapter 15 - Of the Noldor in Beleriand.
~~~~
Author:
alexcatFandom: Tolkien
Characters: Thranduil, Oropher, Celeborns, Legolas, OCs
Beta:
luin77Artist:
talullahredRating: PG-13
Notes and warnings: See Notes at Ao3
Summary: This is the story of Thranduil of the Greenwood from his childhood until the fourth age.
~~~
*
“Now of old the name of that forest was Greenwood the Great, and its wide halls and aisles were the haunt of many beasts and of birds of bright song; and there was the realm of King Thranduil under the oak and the beech.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion
*
Prologue – Sailing
Thranduil rode a fine white horse into the old city once called the Havens. He was dressed in his finest clothes, kingly robes of midnight blue with golden threads shot through them and encrusted with tiny diamonds that caught the light and sparkled like hundreds of tiny stars.
He wore the emerald necklace of Girion around his neck over his robes and below them the necklace of diamonds* given him many years ago by the little hobbit, Bilbo Baggins.
He was not alone. Bringing up the rear were Lord Celeborn and his grandsons, Elladan and Elrohir. Celeborn was dressed in the simple white robes favored by him and the lady Galadriel when they ruled in Lothlórien many years past. The sons of Elrond wore the cloaks of silver-grey that they had worn since they’d become adults.
It was a solemn and oddly formal procession.
In the old abandoned harbor sat a tall ship with white sails. It bobbed gently against its moorings. A lone elf stood on the deck, the only elf who had ever sailed this ship back from Aman, Círdan himself.
The elves dismounted. Thranduil watched as Celeborn and his grandsons led their horses across the wide plank and onto the ship. Celeborn turned back to look over his shoulder.
Thranduil nodded and spoke. “Tell Legolas I shall stay to stand guard until Arda passes from memory. As long as I abide here, the light of the elves shall shine a little longer in this world.”
Thranduil smiled, a gentle smile seen by few in his many years, as Celeborn answered. “I will tell him. My time is done here and I happily sail to see my wife. It has been a long, long while.”
Círdan untied the rope from the dock and the ship began to move slowly away. Thranduil watched the ship until it was out of sight. His mind wandered back so many years that he could not now count them all…
*Bilbo originally gave him a necklace of pearls but I have changed that for this story to diamonds.
~~~~
Chapter One - A Child of the Wood
Thranduil waded in the stream with his father. He felt like he was as big as his father today. Mother said he was almost grown at six years old. He looked up at Oropher.
“Will we fish today, Father?”
“No, son. Your mother says that if bring we one more fish home, we will grow fins and swim away ourselves.”
“Then what shall we eat?”
“Perhaps we shall eat rabbit. I have set traps and we’ll check them now.”
They left the stream and found the traps that Oropher had set. They were fine ones and should have been filled with a fat rabbit in each one but that was not the case. Something had managed to nibble the bait of green lettuces without springing the trap in each and every case. Three empty traps and no rabbit for dinner.
Thranduil was quite worried. Mother might make them eat lettuces themselves if they didn’t bring home something a little more substantial. He wasn’t very fond of lettuces. He thought they tasted a lot like the grass that his new pony ate.
“Father, I have some of Aunt Lenna’s cakes hidden in my room. Perhaps we could bring those to Mother instead of lettuces.”
Oropher laughed. He’d wondered how Lenna’s cakes had disappeared so fast. Now he knew. He was raising a pastry thief!
“I am not sure that wouldn’t just get us into more trouble. She might feed us turnips!”
Thranduil could think of no worse torture than turnips for dinner. Lettuces were better than turnips! “Perhaps we could trade some lettuces for something better tasting in the village.”
Oropher patted his son on the head. “We shall have roasted chicken tonight. Mama is baking a fine one right now. I had hoped to bring her some rabbit for a nice stew as well but the chicken will do nicely and I promise to eat your portion of turnips if Mother makes them.”
Thranduil was relieved. He knew they had plenty to eat but they lived out in the forest away from the village and he often wondered why this was so. His friends lived near the market and their fathers seldom hunted the food they ate. Sometimes they laughed at him for living so far into the woods.
“Father, why do we live in the wood?” He asked as they turned toward home.
“Your mother and I came here many years ago to live in solitude, away from the crowds in the city and away from people who would say they are your brother and your friend and turn on you the first chance they get. When the Noldor went back to Aman, our people stayed here and made this world our own. I do not mean to give that world back to the Noldor now that they begin to migrate to our shores again.”
“So that is why we live alone?”
Oropher lifted his son up and held him high above his head. “That and the beauty of the forest. Look about you, my son. Is this to be matched in any building made by elves? I think not. I prefer the forest and its natural wonder to living among others.”
Thranduil wasn’t sure he agreed. He had lots of fun when he visited Aunt Lenna and played with her sons and the other elf children of the village. They had sword fights with wooden swords and shot arrows with blunt tips at imaginary enemies. He would love to live near them all so they could play every day.
He also loved the jewels that Aunt Lenna wore on her fingers and in her hair. He wanted to find a pretty green one for his mother to wear in her hair. He had asked his aunt where the jewels came from.
“Your uncle digs them from the ground inside of the mountains. He polishes them and chisels them until they shine almost as the two trees.”
She took the ring off and let the small elfling hold it. He held it out so the light caught the facets. He smiled happily at the brilliant light they gave off.
“Someday I shall have one of these for every finger I have!”
Oropher interrupted his thoughts of gemstones. “I am going into the city tomorrow. Would you like to ride with me?”
He cried out, “yes” and threw his arms around his father’s neck.
The city of Calenost was a quite a bit larger than the village. There were many more buildings, people, and roads and much, much more noise. Thranduil loved to go there with his father. Father usually came for news and for some herbs and such that could not be grown at home. First they went to Oropher’s favorite tavern. His father would order an ale for himself and some of the tavern keeper’s homemade root beer for Thranduil. He would sit with his father and several other adult elves as they drank their ale and talked of news in the world around them.
Thranduil sipped his ale and drew pictures of diamonds and emeralds while his father talked. He wasn’t paying much attention but he heard one of them say something about a Dark Lord and armies. He didn’t think that sounded fun so he asked his father if he might go to the water closet.
His father’s friends had gone when he returned a few minutes later so they finished their drinks and went in search of the herbs Mother had asked them to fetch for her.
His father bought him some fruit at the market from far away, so far away that Father had never even been there. It was orange colored and the inside of the fruit was sweet and delicious and divided into sections. Thranduil would dream of days of what fanciful land such a wonderful treat might have come from.
The journey home took all afternoon and it was dusk as they neared their own little yard in the middle of forest.
Something was amiss. Thranduil smelled smoke and he saw an orange glow at the back of the house.
Oropher jumped from his horse. “Stay right here and do not move,” he shouted to Thranduil as he ran toward the house. Thranduil saw fire and he jumped down from his father’s horse, but he stayed where he was, not daring to go any closer to the house.
In a moment, Oropher came running from the house carrying Mother in his arms. She was not moving as he lay her on the ground. He shook her and called her named as Thranduil began to cry.
She opened her eyes and looked at them both. “Oh, I am so glad to see you! I was afraid they’d kill me but they just set the house on fire. I hid from them!”
“Who, my darling? Who set the house on fire?”
“I believe they were goblins. They were hideous and I could smell them before they even got here. That’s why I was able to hide.”
She reached for her weeping child and he fell into her arms.
*
The next day, they packed up what they could salvage and left the rest. The small family headed for Doriath, where the land was protected from evil by the Girdle of Melían. Oropher would not have his family endangered again, no matter what. The King was a distant kinsman of Oropher and he thought well of both him and his beautiful Maia wife. Surely they would be safe there.
~~~~
Chapter Two - The Caves of Menegroth
Thranduil loved Doriath but he missed living in the woods more than he ever thought possible. He and his father sometimes camped and hunted in the woods around Menegroth, but it wasn’t the same. Mother seemed to enjoy it here though. She liked the company of other women and was learning healing from Melían herself. His father seemed happy but he suspected that was because Mother was so content.
He had grown up a lot in the dozen years since they’d come here. He was almost grown now and felt as if he already were an adult.
“Hey, Thranduil!”
He turned. It was Celeborn, a new friend. He was one of the king’s nephews and only a few years older than Thranduil. They spent quite a lot of time together.
“Are you ready to go hunting?” Thranduil asked him.
“I’d rather watch Lúthien and the other maids in the baths!” Celeborn was quite interested in the girls, an interest Thranduil had not yet acquired.
“Not again! The king will catch you someday and banish you to the outside and Goblins will take you away to the Dark Lord!”
“Not today though. Come on!” Celeborn was very hard to dissuade from anything once he’d made up his mind. It was part of his charm.
With a sigh, Thranduil followed him. “Can we hunt when we’re done peeping?”
Celeborn nodded as he motioned for Thranduil to be quiet.
They hid in a bushy outcropping near the pool where the young elf women loved to bathe on a hot summer day. To Celeborn’s unending delight, they always bathed and swam naked. Thranduil certainly didn’t mind staring at those willowy young bodies but he was still young enough to prefer hunting and camping.
After the girls left the pool, they finally made their way deeper into the wood to hunt. Thranduil brought a pack filled with sweets that his Mother had made as well as a small skin of his father’s wine, which he had stolen the evening before after everyone in his house was asleep.
“My father will kill me if he finds I’ve been in his wine.”
Celeborn laughed. “I guess I am lucky. My parents are not here and my uncle is too busy to care what I do.” He pulled a pipe and a small bag from his pocket. “Pipe weed. They say it will make you see things that aren’t there.”
Thranduil was scandalized. He’d never even seen another elf smoking a pipe, much less smoking something as scandalous as pipe weed.
They hunted for a while and Thranduil shot a rabbit. Celeborn helped him dress it out and they put it on a makeshift spit and began to roast it. In the meantime, Thranduil opened the wineskin and they passed it back and forth for a bit. This wasn’t the first time and Thranduil knew that if he drank too much, he’d be silly or sick or both so he took small sips when it was his turn.
“Do you think you’ll live here always?” He asked Celeborn after they’d eaten their rabbit and were laying on their backs, looking up at the night sky.
“I love being here but I want to get out and travel and see the world. I want to see beautiful women, want to meet human women maybe. I hear they love elves.” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.
Thranduil couldn’t help but laugh. “Is that all you think about?”
“You’ll be thinking about it soon enough. Don’t you like the girls? Don’t you want to kiss them?”
“No, not really. I want to be in the woods and do things here, like hunting and fishing. I guess I’m just not ready for those things yet.”
They got out the pipe weed and tried it. Celeborn claimed that he could hear colors, but Thranduil knew the only thing it did for him was make him cough. He’d stick with Father’s wine.
Both youngsters drifted off to sleep after they ate all their rabbit and drank all their wine. The sun was up the next time Thranduil opened his eyes. Had he told Mother that he might not come home? He was sure he did. He thought so anyway.
Things were normal when they returned home. No one was looking for them though Thranduil did notice that Lúthien looked rather angry at them both. Celeborn deserved it, he thought, and her anger didn’t bother him one way or the other.
All of that changed one day a few months later when a new family came to live at Menegroth. They were cousins of the king as well and had been offered a safe home here under the protection of Melían. This family had two children and one of them was a she elf with hair the color of the sun. Her name was Lúthwen. From the moment Thranduil saw her shy smile, he never loved anyone else.
That did not mean that he actually spoke to her though. He watched her from afar most of the time. She didn’t seem to know he was alive as of yet. She spent her time with other girls her age and only noticed Thranduil now and again.
Celeborn thought he was being silly. He never had any problems talking to anyone, especially girls.
“Just walk up and say, ‘My name is Thranduil. How are you?’ How easy is that?”
“I am not yet ready. Leave me alone.”
Celeborn shrugged. He was not one to nag or aggravate anyone. He changed the subject. “Would you like to practice archery?”
Thranduil agreed and no more was said about Lúthwen.
Thranduil stopped mentioning her but he didn’t stop thinking of her. He secretly watched her and thought about her all the time. He knew when he was older, he would find the courage to talk to her but she was young like he was, too young for courting and much too young to do some of the things Celeborn thought about all the time.
Someday he would marry her and have sons and daughters who looked just like her and they would have their own kingdom deep in the forest, much like the forest he lived in before he moved here.
~~~~
Chapter Three – Young Love
Years passed and Thranduil grew up and so did Celeborn. Both were strikingly handsome and their good looks were not lost on the female population of Menegroth. Celeborn never spent an evening alone and seldom spent two in a row in the company of the same girl. Thranduil still only had eyes for one girl, Lúthwen.
Lúthwen had grown up quite a bit as well. She was still blond and still beautiful, but she was beginning to develop the calm demeanor and serenity that would a perfect counter to the quick temper and impulsive nature of Thranduil.
As of yet, they had not spoken more than three words directly to one another.
Celeborn decided to remedy that. He was going to talk to Lúthwen in Thranduil’s place, to tell her how much Thranduil liked her and wanted to know her better. He went to her home and knocked on her door. When her father, one of the royal guards, came to the door, Celeborn stood very straight and asked if he could speak to Lúthwen.
“Why would you think I’d let you court my daughter?”
Celeborn stammered and finally managed to say, “I am not here for me. I come for Thranduil, son of Oropher.”
“Why isn’t he here himself?” Lúthwen’s father asked, obviously annoyed that anyone was here to bother him and his daughter.
“He is shy and he doesn’t know I am here at all.”
“Go away then. When he has enough nerve to come here himself, then he might be allowed to speak to my daughter.” He slammed the door in Celeborn’s face.
Thranduil did not know this when he finally figured that if he ever planned to get to know Lúthwen, he’d better do so now. The king would hold a festival in the early spring to celebrate the rebirth and renewal that came every year. There would be feasting and games and most importantly, a dance for the young elves to end the evening.
Thranduil decided he would ask Lúthwen. Oddly enough, once he’d made up his mind, he was no longer shy nor nervous at all. He saw Lúthwen the next evening sitting with several other girls her age and marched up to her boldly.
“Might I speak with you?”
She smiled kindly and nodded. He reached for her hand and she took his, rising gracefully and following him just out of earshot of her friends.
“I would like for you to accompany me to the festival.”
“I’d be delighted but you must ask my father. He will not allow me to go with anyone he doesn’t know.”
He went to her father and her father said no. At a loss, Thranduil asked Celeborn about it and found that his friend was likely the reason for his rejection. He was upset but not enough to be angry with Celeborn. He decided to simply see her at the festival.
The day of the festival was beautiful with warm sunshine and fresh flowers everywhere. Long tables with snow white tablecloths held food of every description. There were meats and vegetables, bread still warm from the ovens, cakes of every sort and more. There were games for the children and archery contests for the young men and women. Older elves sat around tables rolling dice and playing cards games.
Thranduil saw none of those things. He waited for Lúthwen to arrive. Lunch was served and eaten and there was no sign of her. Celeborn stopped trying to interest Thranduil in anything and wandered off to entertain himself.
He decided that he might go home soon if she didn’t come.
She arrived with a group of girls, their own princess Lúthien among them. Thranduil was so smitten that he didn’t even notice the elf said to be the fairest who ever lived. All he saw was the quiet blond by her side.
He followed them at a distance as they traversed the park. Lúthwen was radiant, he thought, in her white gown with fresh flowers woven into her golden hair. He was sure that every elf in Doriath would fall in love with her today.
When she saw him, she waved and beckoned him over. He almost tripped on his own feet in his haste to get to her.
“Good morning, fair lady,” he said as he bowed low before her.
“Get up before my father sees you,” she whispered. “Let’s go to the waterfall.”
Thranduil was a bit shocked and extremely excited. She wanted to go somewhere to be alone with him! He nodded and they made a rather hasty exit. She walked at a quick pace to the small waterfall where he’d often gone bathing with his friends and very near to the small pond where the girls often bathed.
When they got close enough to hear the water roar, she stopped, turned to him and smiled. “I am glad to see you today, Thranduil. I’m sorry my father is such a grouch but he feels very protective of me since we are still new here.”
“Will you get in trouble for coming out here with me?”
“Probably, so I want you to kiss me and make it worth all the trouble I’m going to get into.”
Thranduil was a bit shocked but he stepped closer anyway and awkwardly put his arms around her. He looked at her beautiful mouth and doubted that he had the nerve to kiss those lips, but she solved that problem for him by kissing him first. Her soft warm lips touched his for only a second and then they were gone.
He felt as if he might float away.
Instead he kissed her again, a longer kiss. She pulled him closer and sighed sweetly. He knew at that moment that she was the elf he would marry.
“I love you already, Lúthwen. Will you be my wife someday?”
She laughed, not in derision but with pure joy. “I thought you’d never ask me. I knew the first time I saw you and your friend watching me that I wanted to marry you.”
“How shall we tell your father?”
“Carefully and just after we marry.”
Thranduil pulled her close again and kissed her for the third time.
~~~~
Chapter Four – The Coming of the Noldor
Thranduil and Lúthwen had their own home near to his parents and they were happy as was all of Doriath for a very long time.
Thranduil was as content as he would ever be here in his new home with his lovely wife. She made him a better person, he thought, and he told her so often. His mother agreed with him, loving her new daughter as much as she loved Thranduil.
One day, everything changed.
Celeborn was knocking on Thranduil’s door at dawn. “Have you heard?”
Thranduil was eating his breakfast of fresh made bread and honey when he heard his friend. He let him in. “What are you so excited about?”
“The Noldor have come.”
Thranduil knew his father disliked, maybe even hated, the Noldor.
“I have no love for the Noldor,” he told Celeborn. “Why are they here? Why has the Girdle of Melían not kept them out?”
“These are the children of Finarfin.”
“I have heard my father mention Finarfin. But why are you so excited?”
“I watched them ride in and I saw her, the woman I want to spend forever with! She is beautiful!”
Thranduil was actually impressed. Celeborn loved all females and had never spoken of anyone in such terms in all the years they’d been friends.
“You’ll meet her tonight. King Thingol is having a banquet in their honor and you and Lúthwen must come!”
Lúthwen was curious as well. She wanted to meet the elf who turned Celeborn’s head. Thranduil was cautious about the newcomers, but he found both Finrod and Galadriel to be quite friendly. His father refused to come to the banquet, saying that he wanted nothing to do with any of Fëanor’s relatives, even nephews and nieces.
Celeborn was completely smitten.
Thranduil thought the siblings were holding something back, something they didn’t want their host to know. He decided to mention it to no one. It was none of his business anyway.
He did, however, mention it to Lúthwen later.
“What do you think they are hiding? Wouldn’t Melían know?” She sat at her dressing table, brushing her golden hair and looking at Thranduil in the mirror.
“I suppose she would. I think I shall not say anything. I certainly don’t want to cause trouble for Celeborn.”
He rose from the bed and approached her, lifting her hair and sliding her thin gown down over her shoulders. He kissed the spot where her neck and shoulder met and smiled when she shivered.
“Let’s forget about all that,” Lúthwen murmured as she turned around and let her garment fall to the floor.
By morning, Thranduil had put it all out of his mind.
*
Lúthwen was spending a lot of time with his mother, Melían and Artanis. She was learning about herbs and healing, something that all four women were interested in. She was getting to know Artanis as well.
“She is quite taken with Celeborn. They are talking of leaving together soon,” she told Thranduil as they sat down to dinner one evening. “She says they will travel and find a kingdom to rule together.”
Thranduil made a rude sound at that. “Maybe Father was right. Maybe they do think they are better than the rest of us simple folk.”
Lúthwen playfully smacked his arm. “You know Celeborn wouldn’t want a wife who thought she was better than he is.”
Thranduil thought that Celeborn was so blinded by love that he would do nearly anything to be near Artanis – or Galadriel, as he had named her. He also knew his father considered the Noldor to be interlopers and perhaps even criminals for the things they had done.
As much as his father distrusted them, Thranduil had to admit the Noldor were wonderful companions. He enjoyed the time he spent with Finrod and Celeborn, hunting and exploring the area under the protection of Malian’s magic. Conversation at dinner was entertaining and they all loved to dance and sing. It was almost idyllic.
Almost.
Even Celeborn noticed the shadow that always seemed to hang over the Noldor, the notion that they kept secrets from Thingol, from them all.
“Do you think Galadriel hides something from me?” Celeborn asked one day when they were out hunting without the Noldor kin among them.
“Why would you say such a thing?”
“When her cousins are mentioned, she gets quiet and she won’t look me in the eye.”
“By her cousins, do you mean the sons of Fëanor?”
“Yes.”
“Well, you know she bears none of them much affection.”
Celeborn smiled. “Maybe that is it. Maybe I am chasing shadows.”
But the seeds of doubt were sewn and Thranduil found himself watching them, the children of Finarfin. They did act off, he thought, as if they kept a secret. As much as he wished Celeborn well, he dreaded finding out what they hid from Thingol and Melían.
*
Many miles away, Lord Círdan prepared a missive to be taken by courier to King Thingol. He rolled the missive up and sealed it with his personal seal, a sail and a dove. He gave the young elf a token that would grant him safe passage into Doriath.
“Give this to no one but the King himself, Gildor. See if he has a reply and come back as soon as you can. I fear we will not be traveling freely for much longer.”
He gave the courier a salute and sent him on his way.
The message was not one that he wished to send but one he felt compelled to send. The Fëanorians had slaughtered the Teleri at Alqualondë, joined by Fingon and his army. The Noldor had slaughtered elves, slain their own kin, a sin no one could, or would, ever truly forgive.
Círdan knew that Finarfin’s children had not been responsible, but they were Noldor and should have told the king, their own kinsman, what had transpired.
He sighed and walked out to the shipyard, taking up a brush and beginning to hand varnish the newest ship in his growing fleet. Thingol would have to do as he thought fit in response to the news.
He hoped it did not inspire another kinslaying in Doriath.
~~~~
Chapter Five – The Hidden Comes to Light
Thranduil was at Thingol’s court with his father when the messenger came from Círdan. He watched as disbelief then fury crossed the king’s face. He, himself, had feared something like this was what Galadriel and her brothers were hiding when they came here.
Had they been so arrogant that they thought no one would ever find out?
King Thingol forbade anyone to say anything to the Noldor before he talked to them. He then sent for his wife and retired to his chambers, declaring that he would see all at dinner in the banquet hall.
Thranduil hurried home to Lúthwen, telling her what had transpired at court. Her hand flew to her mouth.
“Oh no! I knew she hid something but this! Did she and her brothers take part in this… this horror?” Tears streamed from her eyes. It was only then that he realized what great friends she and Galadriel had become.
“I do not know. The missive was vague… or at least Thingol was vague, but he is angry. I have never even seen Father that angry. I fear for them all.”
Lúthwen was distraught over the news. She was frightened for her friend and angry as well. Thranduil had no idea how to make her feel better, so he did what his father did when he was upset and had no idea what to do. He stormed out, leaving his wife alone with her broken heart and adding to her worry.
Oropher was watching for his son long before Thranduil stomped into his father’s house.
“You have heard?” Oropher asked.
Thranduil nodded, wondering how his father knew everything that happened in Doriath almost as soon as it happened. Did he have a spy in the court? He would ask him someday, just not today.
“I was there when the messenger came from Círdan.”
“He is angry?” Oropher asked, though surely he knew the answer to that one.
“What do you think?”
“I cannot blame him. Noldor are Noldor though so why he would be surprised is beyond me.”
Thranduil did not entirely agree with his father, but he was becoming more mistrustful of the Noldor with each passing hour. Fëanor had the arrogance to fly in the face of the Valar, even in the face of Eru for revenge and greed. Had the rest of the Noldor come for the same reason? He hoped not.
Thranduil managed to stay away from home most of the day. He simply did not know what to say to his wife to comfort her. He rode out into the woods for a few hours alone. He needed to think. Perhaps it was time he and his father left this place.
But wasn’t Doriath the safest place in Arda to live? Dark forces had been stirring for some time now and Melían’s Girdle made them all safe here in Menegroth, didn’t it?
He was still weighing things when he finally did go back home to ready himself for dinner in the King’s hall. He did not know what Thingol would do… nor did anyone else.
*
Thingol’s fury was almost tangible as the elves filed into the banquet hall for dinner. This dinner was anything but routine. Even Melían was subdued and the beautiful Maia was always the most joyous and happy of the denizens of Menegroth. She had warned him about the Noldor and the search for the Silmarils but even she had not known the truth of Fëanor and of the Oath.
Galadriel’s brothers had come to visit and dine with their sister, whom they missed while she stayed in Menegroth with Melían. It was to Finrod that Thingol finally spoke.
”I marvel at you, son of Eärwen, that you would come to the board of your kinsman thus red-handed from the slaying of your mother’s kin, and yet say naught in defence, nor yet seek any pardon!”*
Finrod was angry and even a bit ashamed but he did not want to blame the others, his cousins, in front of Thingol.
Angrod had no loyal feelings left and retorted angrily, telling their host of the sins of his cousins, telling the King of the kinslayings wrought by the sons of Fëanor. ”Wherefore should we that endured the Grinding Ice bear the name of kinslayers and traitors?”* he finished.
Thingol was so angry that he bade them go.
“You can return one day but I do not want to look at any of you right now. And I never want to hear the language of those abominations in my land again. From this day forward, Quenya will never be spoken in my presence or in my kingdom. Now leave me!”
No one spoke, not the Noldor nor the inhabitants of Menegroth. Thranduil watched as Galadriel’s brothers took their leave from the banquet followed by Galadriel and Celeborn.
He held Lúthwen’s hand under the table, concerned for his friend but concerned even more for the future. If Fëanor’s sons had taken such a vile oath that they were willing to kill their own kinsmen to keep it, were any of them safe from the wrath of such elves?
He was glad for the Girdle of Melían but these Noldor who were his friends had been allowed in as kinsmen and allies. Would the enemy come into the gates of Menegroth as easily and be welcomed?
For the first time since they left their forest village many, many years before, Thranduil was afraid of what the future held for his family.
In a few weeks, Galadriel left the city to visit her brother, Finrod. Celeborn stayed behind, hoping that she would return to him soon.
Oropher was almost as angry as Thingol. “No good ever comes from the Noldor. Have I not told you this over and over, my son?”
Thranduil was not sure that he had the energy or the conviction to argue. If his father decided to go, he and his wife would follow them and help establish a new kingdom.
“You have, Father, and though I am fond of Galadriel and her brothers, I fear the news of the Fëanorians and the stones they seek. If they would kill their own kinsmen not once but twice, are any of us safe from them?”
Oropher shook his head. “We shall wait a while and see what happens.”
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* Words in italics are quotes from The Silmarillion, Chapter 15 - Of the Noldor in Beleriand.
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