if people reach perfection they vanish, you know?

x x x  x x x  x x x

in honor of the last day of mermay:

gil galad was a swordfish king, of him the harpers sadly sing: the last whose realm was fair and free between the mountains and the sea.

his legs were long, his bill was keen, his shining fin afar was seen; the countless stars of heaven's sails were mirrored in his silver scales.

Morwen of Dor—lómin

“Since you are my son and the days are grim I will not speak softly to you…”

But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me, What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?

The Lord of the Rings, Galadriel’s Song

It happened so fast. 

After Alqualondë, Artanis looks only onward.  There can be no return, not after what they’ve done.  And what would await them?  Only darkness, only sorrow. 

Not even the curse and prophecy spoken by the dark figure standing high upon a rock could compel her to reverse course.  Nor the abandonment by the faithless Fëanáro and his sons, the stolen ships that vanished into the unmeasured night.

She will not turn back, defeated, begging at the feet of the Valar for pardon.

Angst and Tragedy, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Flight of the Noldor (Tolkien), First Kinslaying | Kinslaying at Alqualondë (Tolkien), Helcaraxë (Tolkien), Canon-Typical Violence, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Non-Linear Narrative, Make It Worse, mining the footnotes of the History of Middle-earth for the richest veins of angsty gold