#huor

I think a lot about Rían and Huor and how briefly and brightly their lives burnt after the Sudden Flame caught—Rían who fled her home at 5 and Huor who was a soldier by 13. They both intimately knew both miracles and tragedies from a very early age. And they’re both foresighted at points of their story; did some part of them expect their lives would be short? Rían who loved ephemeral flowers, Huor the sprinter—with a name meaning impetuous, fiery spirit to boot—standing beside Morwen and Húrin, the firm and enduring. But they were also Rían maker of songs that endured, and Huor who held the rearguard—steadfast and stubbornly kind.

They were married for only 2 months before the Nirnaeth, and in some versions their time together was briefer still. They were around 22 and 28 years old, respectively, when they died; and the Bragollach and its aftermath had informed so many of those years. Perhaps they always felt some pull towards the earth, or a wick burning low; they certainly knew fear and pain quite well. But it never made them cruel or craven, and it didn’t stop them from making sacrifices that rippled all the way through to the fourth age.