Absinthe

Earthbound Promise

Mi primer intento (inconcluso) de escribir una historia en Ingles, con fecha del 2002 o 2003. Sobra decir que es Tolkienesca.


He was born in Cuivienen, before the Sun and Moon existed, and where the light of the trees could not reach elven eyes.
In his birth, Neptune shone upon the tent of his parents, and since his mother Elendis came from a long line of stargazers since the Awakening, his father named him Luinilion, or heir of Neptune. At the time of his birth, the Quendi were preparing for the Long March that was going to take them to the Blessed Realm, away from the perils that Melkor had sown in the long years of his exile. Since his family was of the Vanyarin Race, they were amongst the first to depart.
During his life in Aman he kept but vague memories of the March, but his mother told him about the strange beasts and plants and natives of Middle Earth, when it was young and not yet troubled by sorrow and war.
While waiting in the western shores of Beleriand, his mother made for him a stuffed animal, a little furry Oliphaunt, so he would always remember the place of his birth.
In Aman, he spent his youth first in Tirion, and later in Eldamar, as the rest of his race. He grw like any other child of the Vanyar, but what made him different from the other youngsters was his desire to see new, uncharted lands, and his eagerness to depart from Eldamar to Valimar, Tirion, Tol Eressea and Alqualonde, when the Vanyarin merchants took leave of the city of Ingwe.
As a Vanyar, he loved the Valar and their wisdom and counsel, and he cherished the Trees and all kinds of olvar, thanks to the lessons of Yavanna. But, though his heart never belonged to the sea, he often sat alone in the shores near Alqualonde, in the hour of the mingling of the lights, and fixed his gaze in the East, yearning to some day, in which he would see Middle Earth again. As time passed by, his obligation to his household forced him to follow his father’s steps as a local merchant in Eldamar, for his father traded rugs and carpet’s made by his wife’s kin, with travelling merchants whom in turn traded them in the cities of the eldar, and in the far palaces of Irmo, Mandos, Ulmo, Yavanna and Manwe. Those rugs were made by the mastery of Vanyarin crafts, and were inspired in the patterns of the stars and the wandering of the planets in the silverlit sky.
In those years, though he lived at home, he learned the way of the tradesman, to convince anyone into a deal, but also of the ways and cycles of the stars.
One day he asked one og the travelling merchants if the stars could help them to find the right path in strange lands. The merchant looked at him strangely and told him that some Telerin merchants had a secret method of orientation that worked even in open sea, and that it had some relation with the position of the stars. The merchant also told him that he and his fellows were too busy to spend their time wathing at the stars, and that in Aman you can never be lost, so why bother.
Since he was a stargazer himself, he talked his way into a deal with Telerin lords of Alqualonde who were stayng in Eldamar, to teach him the secrets of the stars. How his heart pounded in his chest remembering the hours he spent in the shores of Alqualonde! And how he desired to learn the lore of the stars, for when the day of his return to Middle Earth came!

And so he took a load of his father’s rugs, and went to Alqualonde. Despite his efforts and talent with words, the local Telerin merchant kept the wisdom to themselves, and agreed on refusing to teach any Elda their lore, if he didn’t belong to the Foamriders.
Somewhat dissapointed, Luinilion lifted his spirit when the hour of the mingling approached, and he hasted to the shores. There he stood for a long time looking eastward, imagining the strane animals that dwelt there, across the Belegaer. And there he realized that the flame that was in his heart that compelled him to see Midlle Earth was inflamed even more everytime he came to this place at that hour.
For some reason, Luinilion looked North, and he saw the light of Laurelin captured in the long hair of a thin elf-maid sitting in the distance.Something snapped inside of him, and suddenly he found himself running towards the hill in which the elf-maid was. And he stopped near her, and saw that she was staring into the East, with an eerie fire in her beautiful sea-grey eyes. And he saw that she wasn’t entirely Telerin or Vanyarin or Noldorin, but a Daughter of the three races. In that moment he felt the urge to hear her voice, to know her, to reach out for her majestous beauty, and to take but a small piece of her heart.
“I am Luinilion of the Vanyar, Stargazer and Tradesman.”
The soft voice of the Vanyar woke the elven maid, who looked directly into his blue eyes for a moment, and then gave him a smile that was seldom seen in Endor in later Ages.
“Mi birth name is Alatariel, and I am daughter of Finarfin, prince of the Noldor. But my people call me Galadriel, nowadays. I’m not really sure why.”
Galadriel. That name was carved in his soul in that hour. This Lady of Light whom he was beholding enchanted him forever. But he put himself together, and said,
“That name fits you perfectly, for the very light of Laurelin seems trapped in your hair. But I see that you have Telerin and Vanyarin blood, and that makes you a true daughter of the Calaquendi.”
“Oh, my mother is daughter of the King Olwe of Alqualonde, and my father’s mother was Indis, daughter of The High King Ingwe.”
Surprised, Luinilion said, hoping to please the Lady with his words,
“Though I do not share your noble lineage, it seems that we share the love for the eastern lands.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Galadriel, intrigued.
“For many a year, a long time ago I used to sit over there, at this very hour, and gazed into the East, yearning to see Endor one more time. And now, after all this time, I find you doing the same thing, with a fire in your beautiful eyes.”
“Indeed I want to see the lands beyond the Sea. But unlike you, I haven’t seen it, for I was born in Aman.”
“That is right, for I was born in Cuivienen, and saw Middle Earth during the Long March.”
Without taking heed of his words, Galadriel continued,
“But another fire burns inside of me. The desire to have a realm, and to rule a people that I can call my own, in the lands beyond.” And looking at the sand of pearls, she sighed. But Luinilion lifted her face with his hand and his gaze delved into her eyes, and found out that this woman was like no other of the elven race, and that her desire was pure and without any evil purposes.
And she saw in his eyes the understanding that no one in Alqualonde or Tirion gave her. And she reached out and kissed him, and under the light of Luinil in the hour of the Mingling, a pact of neverending love was woven in the fabric of the fates of Arda.

Afterwards, they got to know each other, and talked until the other hour of the mingling surprised them in the shores. Luinilion had to go back to his father in Eldamar, but he left with a promise and a kiss that shook his very soul. And in the days after this encounter, Galadriel felt as if her heart was relieved of a great weight.
Back in Eldamar, he told his mother about that encounter, and Elendis, seeing the light of love in his eyer, wa glad and marvelled at the same time, for she knew that this Alatariel was a high princess of the Noldor. And yet she saw as an omen, a dark shred of cloud against the horizon, but she remained silent, for she didn’t want to sadden his son’s heart. In time, Luinilion convinced his father to allow him to run a small rug shop in Alqualonde, to be near his beloved.

The life of the Blessed Realm was no londer quiet or peaceful, since Feanor begun to meet Melkor in the workshop that he had in Formenos. Around the time Melkor vanished from sight of the Valar, Feanor lifted his sword to his brother Fingolfin, thus obtaining exile of Valimar and Tirion, as the Silmarillion tells. For that reason Fingolfin was troubled in Tirion, and called upon his close family: his household and the family of his brother Finarfin, and to lift their spirits he organized the feast of summer in Valinor, and to silence the first whisperings of the war-cries that came nigh the Noldor.

Before that call happened, Luinilion and Galadriel were planning their journey to Endor, looking to convince their families into permission, and they still met at the hour of the Mingling to talk about their future journeys, perils and realms that the lands beyond had to show them.
One night that they were strangely silent, as if a cloud laid in their souls, Galadriel turned her gaze from the east and looked into Luinilion’s eyes, like the first time they met, and took a small golden ring from her right hand, and said,
“This ring was forged by mi grandsire Olwe himself, and was given to me as a token of love and family bonds.” Galadriel put the ring in Luinilion’s hand. Seeing it, Luinilion said,
“There is a lion carved in the ring! And a star above it. What does it mean?”
“The lion represents my wild spirit, or so my grandsire told me.” And smiled to herself, and it was like a garden blossoming altogether, and like the first stars in the twilight sky, and like the sprout of a leaf of a Mallorn tree, and like the first note of the Ainulindale. And it was rare indeed: in all her life he would do it but a few times, and almost all of them in the company of Luinilion, and in front of no other man. Then Galadriel took the ring again, and said,
“I engraved the star for you. And so this ring represents the both of us, and I give it to you now, as a symbol of my love for you.” and placed it in Luinilion’s finger. He was stunned for a few moments, and in that moment he heard a faraway sound of bells and harps, a an elven choir inside his head, as some kind of foresight. Luinilion kissed her, and was speechless for a while. After the fading of Laurelin’s light, he came to himself and took a small bracelet of his wrist, and placed it in hers. It was a thin mithril chain that had in its center a small sapphire.
“This is my essence.” he said. “I give myself to you, under the sight of the Valar and over the blessed sands of this eternal shores.”
“... of this eternal shores.” she repeated. And they stayed all night holding hands and staring into the night sky, that shone with a brighter light than usual.

The next morning was all planned out. They would ask for the leave of their houses to set on the return journey to Middle Earth. Luinilion would go to his father in Eldamar, and Galadriel would ask Olwe for one of the Telerin swanships. But moments after Luinilion parted to Eldamar, a messenger from Tirion arrived to the Tower of Galadriel. He had a letter from her father, biding her to come to Tirion to prepare for the feast. She knew that she could not refuse the summon of his sire, and so before leaving, she left word with the maids at her service for Luinilion, to come to Tirion as soon as possible.

publicadas por Germán @ 2/10/2007 05:51:00 p.m.