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masterghandalf) wrote2025-06-02 07:19 am
masterghandalf) wrote2025-06-02 07:19 am
Fellowship of the King Book II Chapter Three: Before the Fall, Part Two
This is a repost from Das_sporking2. Previous installments of this sporking may be found here.
Warning: This chapter contains a suicide, as well as further extensive discussion of the effects of Galadriel's affairs.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Demetrious Polychron’s Fellowship of the King! Last time, we continued with our flashbacks as Galadriel renewed her affair with Celebrimbor while starting another, completely separate affair with Tar-Aldarion, of all people (thereby inserting herself into the already messy drama of Aldarion and Erendis’s story), while Celebrimbor began to draw up plans for his ridiculous “Master Ring.” Today, we have yet more flashbacks, as we get to the point (to the extent there is such a thing…) of the “Galadriel’s affairs” subplot, including the shocking (or maybe not…) secret true origin of Celebrian. Joining us today will be Kasanari and Tharkos!
When Galadriel became pregnant, neither of them knew which one was the father.
Kasanari: …well. That certainly was dropped on us without preamble, wasn’t it? And I suppose Galadriel herself couldn’t tell either (or at least kept it to herself)? And I can’t help but feel that Polychron is judging her for sleeping around (and also note that it’s never treated as a genuine possibility that the child might be Celeborn’s).
MG: Spoilers – it’s Aldarion.
The Unfair Sex: 73
At Gil-galad’s request, she traveled with Aldarion to Númenor, before she began to show.
Aldarion’s daughter, the Crown Princess Ancalimë, was now one-hundred-and-twelve years old, ruling as Regent during Aldarion’s absences. Because she wore Anqaúrë, the Ring of Feeling, she hadn’t aged, mistakenly believing it was only because she was of the Line of Elros.
Tharkos: Despite the fact that, if my understanding is correct, one-hundred-and-twelve would not be a great age for a descendant of Elros to begin with, and therefore the ring probably has not affected her ageing at all? But of course, Polychron feels the need to take something that already has a perfectly reasonable explanation and use one of his “original” rings to justify it. There are those who might call that a sign of insecurity…
Loremaster’s Headache: 293
Rings-a-Palooza: 143
Ancalimë felt certain something was happening to her father.
Kasanari: *mildly* Something he is involved in doing, rather, as he seems to have been an enthusiastic participant in the affair, from what we’ve seen so far.
With her Ring, she had unconsciously instilled in her mother, the not-banished yet broken Queen Erendis, an unbearable longing to see once more her long estranged husband.
Tharkos: …because clearly, that is the only reason a woman might desire to reconnect with her estranged husband; she cannot have lingering feelings for him, she must be literally magicked into it. *disgusted noise*
Rings-a-Palooza: 144
The Unfair Sex: 74 (blaming Ancalime for problems she did not, in fact, originally cause)
News swept through Rómenna: a ship was spotted on the horizon. It was the return of King Aldarion. Erendis now felt she’d erred, scorning and abandoning him. She’d heard the rumor of the priceless red beryl Ring of Power worn by one of Aldarion’s captain’s wives. She was certain it was meant for her and she’d foolishly cast it, and her husband the King, aside.
Kasanari: So, is Polychron implying that Erendis only loved Aldarion for his ability to bring her magical treasures, or that Ancalime somehow accidentally used her ring to inspire the desire for an entirely different ring in her mother? By the Four, this is convoluted! Was “Aldarion and Erendis had a doomed, tragic and dysfunctional love because of their conflicting wants and personalities” really not enough for Demetrious Polychron?
Rings-a-Palooza: 145
The Unfair Sex: 75
Unannounced and unknown to anyone, she traveled to Rómenna and was waiting on the pier alone, with a branch of the Oiolairë tree, the Bough of Return. She had brought one to Aldarion many times when they were young.
The NKS Hirilondë, the Haven-finder, arrived and anchored. Aldarion descended the gangway bearing the hand of a regal and ravishingly beautiful Elven Queen.
Kasanari: *winces* I am not looking forward to where this is going…
Beneath her golden crown, she not only had magical other-worldly glowing golden hair;
Tharkos: Curious; perhaps Polychron really does think that elvish hair glows brightly enough to be weaponized? A curious idea; one must wonder how he came by it.
her skin, face; everything about her seemed to glow with light and delight. Galadriel’s radiant smiles put even the Sun to shame and Erendis knew Aldarion had found another Haven.
It was her own fault. She had abandoned him more than a hundred years ago. She had long since grown old – and looked it.
Kasanari: …and here we have yet another woman who has anxiety about her age. Polychron seems to be either thoroughly predictable or absolutely unhinged, with nothing whatsoever in between… a curious thought, is it not?
The Unfair Sex: 76
Yet she wouldn’t have, she finally understood, if she had accepted the Ring of Power Aldarion brought back for her, instead of scorning him.
Tharkos: By the Four and by the ever-burning Torch of Emperor Coaltongue, enough with the rings! They do not need to be responsible for every emotion in this travesty of a story! Nor does desire for them need to motivate every character! Was not Aldarion and Erendis’s love being doomed because he was torn between his love for her and his love for the sea dramatic enough? Why did it require Aldarion to have a literal affair, or for these cursed rings to be involved at all!
Rings-a-Palooza: 146
The Unfair Sex: 77 (for Erendis seeming to be fixated on getting one of the rings and maintaining her youth as her primary motive for wishing she was still together with Aldarion)
This Queen of Elves looked so young. If human, a woman who looked this young would be younger than their daughter.
MG: Eh, the elves are (usually) outwardly young-looking no matter how old they are, but from the way the eldest and most powerful of the Eldar tend to be described (Galadriel included) I don’t think anyone who was in their presence long would seriously take them for youths. They carry too much weight. I know, this is Erendis’s insecurity talking, but even so.
Aldarion was just as radiant, as happy as Erendis had ever seen him. And if truth be told, he was happier, displaying this powerful, wise and otherworldly beauty, which Erendis had feared she would never be. She realized too late what a fool she’d been. To strive to be the wife of one so high above her head, the worst thing would have been to get him, which is exactly what had happened. Worse than worst, she had given her heart to this man who was, she’d always known, a King of Men, and he had been in love with her, but she had allowed her insecurities, foolish pride and her small, petty, winner-take-all attitude to drive him away.
Kasanari: The fact that he was constantly running off on voyages and abandoning you for years at a time had nothing whatsoever to do with it, of course. Who ever heard of a failed marriage being the man’s fault? And I hope I don’t need to clarify I’m being very sarcastic!
The Unfair Sex: 78
Now she had nothing.
Warning: Potentially Triggering Content To Follow
He had everything. It was now clear to Erendis, Aldarion had been the one who made a mistake marrying her, as she had always feared, not the other way around.
Consumed with a grief so dire it broke her heart and shattered her last hope of any joy, as the happy couple boarded a carriage and left for the palace, Erendis ran to the end of the pier.
Leaping into the harbor waters far below she shouted, “He is yours, Uinen!”
MG: So… yeah. Now, in canon, Tolkien’s manuscript of “The Mariner’s Wife” breaks off before Erendis’s death and we only have rough notes regarding how she died – we know she was found dead in the harbor at Romenna, but it’s not clear if she deliberately drowned herself or not. But of course, Polychron has her deliberately commit suicide, in response to her self-flagellation about how unworthy of Aldarion she really is, brought on both by Aldarion’s affair with another woman and by her own daughter accidentally mind-raping her. Just… wow. Polychron has taken what was already a tragedy in canon and made it so much worse, and now we have Galadriel and Ancalime between them explicitly, if unintentionally, driving a woman to suicide by their involvement. Just… wow, Polychron. Did at no point while writing this did it occur to you that this is kind of messed up, and should probably be handled with a lot more grace and tact than you’re apparently capable of bringing to the table?
Feel My Edge: 83
The Unfair Sex: 81 (adding three points for how Erendis, Ancalime and Galadriel are all implicated in this, while the narrative goes out of its way to exonerate Aldarion)
News of King Tar-Aldarion and the Elvish Queen’s debarkation, and her mother’s suicide, reached Ancalimë before Aldarion and Galadriel.
They arrived at the palace not knowing, laughing, crowded by throngs of admirers, amazed to see one of the Eldar from Valinor by way of Middle-earth once again visiting Númenor. Just as it had been clear to her mother, it was obvious to Ancalimë: Galadriel was Aldarion’s mistress. This was why her mother committed suicide. Her father didn’t even know it had happened. Seeing him so happy, Ancalimë feared when she told him, he wouldn’t care.
Kasanari: *waspishly* Well, I’m sure if he didn’t, Polychron would find a way to blame it on Galadriel, Erendis, or Ancalime herself because of course the noble Aldarion can do no wrong!
The happy couple laughed in happy ignorance, giving each other surreptitious glances an eight-year-old could figure out.
Tharkos: And literally no one thought to report to the king that the queen was dead? Has Numenor no messengers, no courtiers seeking the king’s favor, no soldiers or servants who might be sent by their superiors to deliver news with or without the crown princess’s orders?
Ancalimë was horrified. “How dare you bring your mistress to our home! Did you really think you could get away with this deception?”
Kasanari: To be honest, it didn’t sound like he was trying to hide it at all…
The sudden silence filling the palace was deafening.
Breathless, Ancalimë went on. “Why even try? I care not that she is Elvish or a Queen! She is nothing but a common – ”
“Tread carefully, Ancalimë,” her father the King Aldarion said, with an upraised hand, and all were silent. “You will not slander our royal guest. I’ve had the inheritance laws changed to accommodate your future rule. I can have them changed again, or simply disown you: cast you from the royal family – forever. If this is what you want, say the first hateful, spiteful thought you have in that overly precious head. Such thoughts are unbecoming to a Queen. The moment I hear one, just one, pass your lips, a future Queen you will not be.”
MG: …yes. Aldarion, who went out of his way to change Numenor’s succession laws so that the reigning monarch’s eldest child inherited regardless of gender specifically so Ancalime would have the crown (albeit at least partially motivated because he was fighting with Erendis at the time and she didn’t want her daughter to be queen, admittedly) would be willing to both disinherit and outright disown her for being rude about a woman who is, in fact, as alleged, his mistress (now, had Ancalime finished her sentence, I suspect whatever word she would have said would have probably been out of line, but considering she’s both grieving her mother and clearly enraged at her father’s behavior, I find it hard to fault her overmuch). But clearly, Ancalime is the bad guy here. And I’ll note that, once again, Aldarion himself mostly seems to avoid the blame – Ancalime is attacking Galadriel, and we’re clearly supposed to side against her for it, but either way, it’s placing the blame on a woman while letting the man off the hook. And it really rubs me the wrong way. And I mean, canonically Ancalime understood both her parents’ positions, but always sympathized with her mother over her father and disliked and distrusted men in general. So… let him have it, if you’ve got to attack someone over this.
The Unfair Sex: 83
Enraged, her future threatened so carelessly, so easily, Ancalimë ran wordless from the chamber. She rode her horse alone past the peak of Meneltarma, where she herself had spoken to Manwë and Varda, as the first-ever acting Queen of Númenor. Fording the Siril river and passing the Noirinan valley, which held the tombs of Númenórean kings and queens, she reached her private palace at Hyarastorni, in the province of Emerië.
MG: …and, now Ancalime is so distraught about being told off by her father that she literally flees the city and runs halfway across the country to get away from him. On the one hand, that’s certainly… melodramatic of her (did Polychron think the logistics of this through, at all?) but also, all things considered, this is clearly a woman in tremendous emotional distress, having been hit with the triple-whammy of her mother’s suicide, discovering her father’s affair, and nearly being disinherited for confronting him over it, just for a reminder. Like… are we really supposed to think she’s the bad guy here? I don’t particularly like any of these people right now (and I’ve not forgotten that Polychron gave Ancalime the ring of mind-rape either, or the consequences of that!) but out of them all, she has most of my sympathy.
It was in the region of Mittalmar, full of high mountain meadows, gently rolling pastures and grasslands in the south-west of Númenor. This was the region of shepherds where Ancalimë had been raised alone by Erendis, while Aldarion had tarried in Middle-earth.
Kasanari: …I would rather read about the shepherds than any of these people, thank you kindly.
Potentially Triggering Content Ends Here
Galadriel remained a guest of Aldarion at the Royal Palace of Armenelos, where she blossomed.
Kasanari: *drily* To everyone’s tremendous shock, it turned out Galadriel had secretly been an Entwife the entire time.
Six months later, she gave birth to a daughter they named Celebrían.
MG: You know, I’d always presumed that Celebrian was, at least partially, named after her father, Celeborn. Except her father here is Tar-Aldarion, so that’s, uh, kind of an interesting choice in that context, isn’t it? And yes, you all read that right, in this version of the story Tar-Aldarion is the true father of Celebrian, who was secretly half-elven all along, and just… what? Why? Why did this plot point occur to Polychron, and why did we have to have the better part of two chapter’s worth of flashbacks setting up the revelation? Spoilers, it doesn’t even matter meaningfully in the present day of the story (though maybe this is another thing that would have come into play had the “saga” continued, especially since one of its main villains is Celebrian’s son and all). Or maybe I’m giving Polychron too much credit. But in any case, in the context of this fic specifically and Middle-earth more generally, just… what?
In Númenor, their daughter grew and not even Ancalimë ever knew where the Princess lived.
Tharkos: An impressive feat, considering Celebrian would have been, by my reckoning, the only elf-child on the entire island. Just how isolated was the poor girl?
Before Galadriel came, Ancalimë had been genuinely curious to see what had drawn her father east. She had wanted to follow in his footsteps and experience the wonders he described on the shores, valleys and towering snow-covered mountaintops of Middle-earth.
Now she had no need to go. Aldarion had shown her what had drawn him. He’d gone to see his mistress. She was certain they had been together for years. They may have even started before her parents married. Galadriel was immortal, much older than she looked, and Elvish women were rumored to esteem strong age in men. It was rarer than a rarity, unheard of among Elves, who barely aged. Maybe her father had been something of a novelty for the harlot Queen of Edhilon. It didn’t matter. Galadriel being an Elven Queen only made it worse.
The Unfair Sex: 85 (maybe it’s just me, but the portrayal of Ancalime and Galadriel here feels rather judgmental towards both of them)
Ancalimë heard people say, ‘Of course he took an Elvish Queen to wife, and one so beautiful – who wouldn’t? No man could refuse the charms of such a woman.’
Kasanari: …which is why, of course, there have only been a literal handful of marriages between elf women and human men recorded in the entirety of Arda’s history (and, beg pardon, but Aldarion married Galadriel? I know Aldarion is a widower now, but Galadriel is still very much married to Celeborn, and I didn’t think the laws and customs of the Eldar permitted such things!).
Never again did she speak of the lands in the East, traveling there or supporting Middle- earth against their enemies. Many believed the breach between Númenóreans, and the Eldar and Valar, began with Ancalimë’s antipathy for Galadriel.
MG: So… yeah. Apparently, not only was Ancalime’s personal bitterness towards Middle-earth and subsequent neglect of Numenor’s alliances there, but the actual breach between the Numenoreans and the Eldar and Valar were all because of Aldarion and Galadriel’s affair! Not because the Numenoreans envied the elves and Ainur their immortality, and grew to desire dominion over all the lands of Arda and to view that as their birthright – nope, it all got started because the king had an affair, and his daughter was (understandably!) upset about it. Just… just think about the implications of what you’re writing, Polychron! Please.
Loremaster’s Headache: 294
The Unfair Sex: 86
Ancalimë went in secret to the Council of the Scepter and told them she feared for her life. A great evil had been born in Númenor. She dared not speak of it, lest the King learn of her words and disown or destroy her for trying to save the Kingdom. He was bewitched, enchanted by Dark Magic woven on the shores of Middle-earth.
The Council demanded she tell them all she knew. She refused.
Tharkos: *snorts* Which was not suspicious in the slightest.
She was too terrified, she said, of what the King would do. So they wrote a letter of Amnesty and swore themselves to secrecy. At her insistence, they put in writing: they would never reveal to anyone by any means, explicit or implicit, that they had spoken with Ancalimë.
As proof of their fealty, they also wrote and affirmed: no matter what the King might do in the future, upon his death, Ancalimë would receive the Scepter and White Crown, regardless of whatever transpired between now and the death of the good King Tar-Aldarion.
Kasanari: …I was not under the impression that the council had the right to explicitly overrule the wishes of the king in such a matter? Perhaps I was mistaken?
This was what Ancalimë had been waiting for. Once the documents were written and signed in secret, and sworn upon by Manwë, Varda and Ilúvatar himself, she revealed her father had been seduced by the Queen of Elves.
Tharkos: And the Council then threw her out for wasting everyone’s time on something that was obvious to all of them, I trust?
MG: And I’ll remind you that there was another oath in Arda’s history that was quite famously “sworn upon by Manwë, Varda and Ilúvatar himself” (though I think Polychron means “by” rather than “upon” unless Arda’s supreme deity and the two greatest of the Valar were kind enough to manifest physically in the council chamber so everyone could touch them, because that’s what it means to swear “on” something – to swear your oath while touching or holding it; remember in Two Towers, Frodo lets Gollum swear by the Ring, but wisely refuses to let him swear on the Ring) – the Oath of Feanor. Which everyone in this room should know ended very, very badly for everyone involved, because an oath of such power, once sworn, cannot be forsworn, however much you might want to. And, frankly, “the king is having an affair” is a serious matter, but it doesn’t seem to merit, you know, that.
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 118 (hope everyone in this room is happy they may have just inadvertently damned themselves to keep this oath for all time)
The Unfair Sex 87 (placing the blame solely on Galadriel)
Her father, the good and kind King Tar-Aldarion, felt pity for this strange and wanton creature, who was outcast from her people. He had brought her in desperation to Númenor for sanctuary. She was married (gossips around the court said) with a family of her own.
Kasanari: Ah, yes, the famously outcast queen of Eregion. Ancalime, dear, I’m (largely) on your side here, but do try to make your lies a bit more convincing?
So great was this harlot’s shame, none in Middle-earth would bear her or her bastard child Celebrían to live, just as none in Númenor should.
Kasanari: …I take it back. Celebrian is arguably the only completely innocent party here; kindly do not take your wrath out on her in such a way. I presume that, as a bastard, she is not an eligible heir to the throne, so simply leave it at that.
The Unfair Sex: 88
Galadriel had arrived pregnant with the King’s child. But now, it was too late. On Númenórean soil, this witch had borne a half-Elvish Heir, an Elven half-breed abomination: a claimant to the Crown by which this scheming enchantress meant to usurp the throne in a bloodless coup for Elves. Using her wiles and false devotion to conquer Númenor, she would rob Men of their Eru given Right to this island Kingdom, and the prosperity and tranquility of Men.
Tharkos: Ah, yes, an “Elven half-breed abomination” – just like your nation’s founder and your, Ancalime, own ancestor Elros Tar-Minyatur. Kindly refrain from slinging such words so casually; you never know who you might end up tarring with them by mistake. And while I am not familiar with your succession law, as Kasanari has already noted, Celebrian is a bastard; I do not believe she would be considered a legitimate heir to the throne in any case.
Loremaster’s Headache: 296 (still blaming Numenor’s enmity for the elves on Celebrian’s existence, and again for Celebrian being explicitly Aldarion’s bastard)
The Unfair Sex: 89
Elves were clearly incapable of this, forever embroiled in endless wars. Had not the Valar been forced to decree the Ban of Elves, giving Númenor to the Men of the Edain alone? This vile enchantress would surely displace, enslave or destroy the Men of Númenor. Had not the races ever done these things between their divisions, from one kind to another?
MG: Uh, no. The Edain were given Numenor for their role in the wars against Morgoth; it had nothing to do with keeping the elves out. Hells, at this point the elves of Eldamar and Eressea are still friendly with Numenor and should visit fairly regularly. This isn’t just xenophobic lying, it’s really bad, easily disproven xenophobic lying, to people who should absolutely know better. Come on, Ancalime. You can do better than this!
Loremaster’s Headache: 298
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 119
These were the dark designs of the evil Queen of Elves. She had forsaken her lawful husband and forced Aldarion to forsake his lawful wife.
There was worse.
Upon arrival, Galadriel had bewitched Erendis. She had forced the Queen to take her own life! After her mother leaped to her death in the water below the pier in the harbor of Rómenna, Ancalimë had been forced to flee the palace. If she hadn’t, she would have been next. The people of Númenor would have been left without an Heir – exactly as Galadriel schemed.
Kasanari: Impressive that Galadriel apparently connived all of this before even setting foot on Numenor, and somehow ensorcelled Erendis into suicide without ever having met her! If she’s that powerful (and, logically, none of this holds up to begin with), what even is the point in opposing her?
The Unfair Sex: 90
The Elves were terrified of their enemies in the East: nameless powers rumored to be the sons and daughters of Morgoth.
MG: …considering Polychron’s villains and their, uh, proclivities, I’d say Morgoth having children in this warped version of Arda is entirely plausible (Tolkien seemed to have viewed Morgoth, who had deteriorated into a purely destructive force, as being incapable of siring offspring, but I don’t think Polychron would let something like that stop him)! And Polychron did make sure to include Morgoth’s non-canon wife…
Their own Númenórean ancestors had sacrificed so many of their own lives to defeat these foes during the War of Wrath.
Winning and receiving, deservedly from the Valar, this idyllic and tranquil Land of Gift, they were intended to be free of that strife and those wars against these same opponents. Now, Galadriel was trying to drag King Tar-Aldarion and the Númenóreans back into their wars.
Tharkos: An impressive feat, considering the elves aren’t actually at war with Sauron yet and won’t be, by my reckoning, for centuries still.
Did not the Council possess in their archives, the letter written by the Elvish High King Gil-galad, which would attest to the truth of her words?
The Council was shaken.
They called for the letter to be found. It had been written to King Tar-Meneldur, Aldarion’s father, by Gil-galad, more than a hundred years before:
A new shadow arises in the East. It is no tyranny of evil Men, as your son believes; a servant of Morgoth is stirring, and evil things wake again. Each year it gains in strength, for most Men are ripe to its purpose.
Not far off is the day, I judge, when it will become too great for the Eldar unaided to withstand.
Behold! The darkness that is to come is filled with hatred for us, but it hates you no less. The Great Sea will not be too wide for its wings, if it is suffered to come to full growth.
MG: So, yes, canonically Gil-Galad did send this letter to Tar-Meneldur, but is Ancalime implying that Gil-Galad sent Galadriel to seduce Aldarion into allying with him? After waiting more than a century? Does this not strike anyone here as a bit of a stretch?
“See!” Ancalimë screamed. “The Great Sea has not been wide enough! The Darkness comes! Its road to full growth began when Galadriel arrived and gave birth to Celebrían. Only a fool would deny my father intends to make this Elvish whore a Queen, for by coupling with Galadriel, has he not already made an Elvish Queen a whore?”
Kasanari: So now Galadriel is the victim of Aldarion’s seduction… and possibly also the harbinger of the same evil that she wants to recruit Numenor to fight against… can Ancalime try to actually make sense, please? Oh, but that might get in the way of portraying her as an irrational shrieking woman, and we can’t have that!
The Unfair Sex: 91
For days in secret, never leaving their halls, the Council held long, rancorous, sometimes violent meetings to determine how to prevent the loss of their ancestral home.
MG: So, uh, were the Council members literally fighting each other here, or…? And did nobody else in the Numenorean upper crust notice that the Council had seemingly barricaded themselves in their chambers and refused to leave? Did nobody think this was suspicious? Did nobody think to tell the king?
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 121
After exhaustive debates, never in unity, a majority was finally and painfully achieved.
They carefully wrote out their Declarations and then summoned the King. When he arrived, they feigned his palace servants had come anonymously, in fear for their lives, to save Númenor from the deceptive wiles of this treacherous Elven Queen.
They presented King Tar-Aldarion with a Decree, affirming Númenor was for Men alone, and only Númenóreans of all the races of Men. It was definitely not for Elves or Dwarves.
MG: Now I’m just imagining that this “Decree” was just a crude “No Elves and Dwarves Allowed” sign hung by the harbor at Romenna. Classy.
Therefore, this Elvish Queen and her child Celebrían, regardless from whence they had come, who the father was, or where they intended to go – they could not remain in Númenor.
Aldarion had broken the Laws of the Valar by bringing her and the entire Kingdom was in deadly peril.
Tharkos: …somehow I don’t think claiming divine provenance for the laws you literally just wrote yesterday is particularly wise. Then again, these Councilors, whoever they may be, have not overly impressed me thus far, so perhaps they deserve whatever foolish fate they bring upon themselves.
If she stayed, the Council would have no choice but to interpret the acts of this Elvish Queen as Acts of War. If Tar-Aldarion defended her, he would be a traitor to Númenor. They would be left with no choice but to Depose him as an unlawful and traitorous King.
Aldarion was stupefied.
Kasanari: As am I. This entire plotline beggars belief, and not in a good way.
He thought he had been so careful. Only his most trusted lieutenants and their families knew Galadriel had given birth. It must have been one of the wives.
Tharkos: Which does not explain how Ancalime knew… or, if Aldarion did tell Ancalime, why he doesn’t suspect her when she has made her antipathy for Galadriel and Celebrian quite plain already.
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 122
Yet he accepted and understood. He and Galadriel had gone too far. These things could easily be misinterpreted as the threats he himself had labored to make Númenóreans believe were terrible, relentless and deadly.
Kasanari: Are we going to get any explanation for what those threats might be, or not?
Now they believed him. He couldn’t fault them their belief, he had created it.
Kasnari: When. How. Explain, Polychron!
After leaving the Council, Ancalimë had returned to her palace and sent Aldarion a letter as if she hadn’t left. He never knew it was from her lips these lies had spread.
Tharkos: …despite her being, in every way, the obvious suspect. Perhaps this is yet another charming properly of that especially loathsome Ring she now wears?
He saw how grievously and sore afraid his subjects were, how terrified of Galadriel and the dark wars of evil threatening to consume Middle-earth.
Kasanari: Those hypothetical wars that haven’t even started yet, and which Numenor will not get involved in until the time of, I believe, Aldarion’s grandson’s great-grandson. Truly, an urgent crisis.
Those wings had now reached across the ocean with fear and spread upon the shores of Númenor. He suddenly saw that these wars could actually consume his beautiful and peaceful island kingdom. Filled with shame for the part he’d played, he saw his subject’s fearful looks and heard their desperate rumors growing: of invading armies and coming wars, which neither he nor the Council could stop.
So he withheld rebuke.
Tharkos: I will not be so restrained. This entire subplot is nonsensical, leaves me consumed with loathing for everyone in it except the child, and seems to exist primarily to lay all the blame for Numenor’s eventual crisis and downfall at the feet of two women rather than its actual later causes while avoiding engaging with the king’s own blame in these matters and utterly ignoring their actual cause. Am I correct?
* * * * *
Alone in Rómenna, Galadriel had troubles of her own. She had Aldarion’s child without becoming mortal. It had never been done. She had broken too many Laws of the Valar to count.
MG: That’s… not how that works. Luthien gave up her immortality as her price for resurrecting Beren, not for being with him in the first place. Idril Celebrindal married Tuor and had a son, Earendil, with him without ever needing to give up her immortality at all (and indeed, though they vanish from history after they left Middle-earth to seek Valinor and their fate is unknown, the Sil notes that there is an in-universe legend that they reached Valinor and there Tuor was made immortal rather than Idril losing her immortality, though it's left ambiguous if there’s any truth in it). In the Third Age, Mithrellas, the ancestor of the Princes of Dol Amroth, never lost her immortality, though history does not record her fate; Arwen gave up her immortality to stay with Aragorn, but she was able to do that because she was the daughter of Elrond and, like her father, was given the choice of which kindred of the Children to belong to. Elves having to give up their immortality to have children with mortals has never been a requirement (though the vast difference in lifespans in one reason why lasting romantic relationships between elves and mortals are so rare); OTOH, elves having children out of wedlock is, AFAIK, unprecedented… but for some reason Polychron doesn’t have Galadriel worrying about that. Though now I’m reminded of the slew of early-2000s fic written by people who took the “Arwen gives Aragorn her Evenstar pendant at the same time as she promises to give up her immortality” to mean all elves have a literal “immortality necklace” they have to wear at all times to stay immortal.
Loremaster’s Headache: 300
She would never be allowed to return to Valinor. She had traveled so far beyond the line, she had made it impossible for the Valar to forgive her.
MG: *flatly* Really. Taking part in Feanor’s rebellion wasn’t unforgiveable. Going to Middle-earth specifically because she desired to carve out a kingdom for herself wasn’t unforgiveable. But having an affair? She’s damned forever! No unfortunate implications there?
The Unfair Sex: 92
It was almost as if she wanted to be banished to the Void beyond the Doors of Night. There she would find herself alone with the only other immortal to have ever been banished – Melkor.
MG: Okay, now we’ve gone from “barred from Valinor for having an affair” to “imprisoned forever with the literal devil for having an affair.” Escalation much? On the plus side, Galadriel and Melkor could star in a wacky sitcom about their eternity as roommates and all the hijinks they get up to together! *beat* Nah, I think we’re back in “fate worse than death” territory with that one…
Love had drawn Galadriel to become one of the two most reviled immortals to ever exist. It was unthinkable, yet it had happened.
Kasanari: Meanwhile, somewhere in Middle-earth, Sauron was certain he’d just been quite terribly snubbed.
MG: Yeah. Morgoth, Sauron, Gothmog, Feanor, Maeglin… there’s a bunch of immortals who’d be far more reviled than Galadriel would be for this even under the worst-case scenario (unless Polychron really thinks “had an affair” puts Galadriel above the likes of Morgoth’s two closest lieutenants and the Eldar’s most infamous traitor, because if so… eesh).
These were the Laws of the Valar. She couldn’t plead ignorance. She knew the Laws better than anyone. She had been tutored by the Valar in their own Halls and Gardens.
MG: …though she was starting to think that maybe she should have actually paid attention in class those days instead of sitting around doodling in her notebook – alas, hindsight!
The worst part for her was, she had fallen in love with Aldarion as she never had before,
Tharkos: I suppose we can now add Celeborn along with Sauron for having been snubbed…
and now she was afraid he hadn’t fallen in love with her. The call of his duty to his people and Kingdom was pulling him away. It never had with Celeborn or Celebrimbor.
Kasanari: The last we heard of Celebrimbor, he was literally planning on making an all-powerful ring for the sole purpose of winning you back, so… perhaps do not be so quick to say so?
She planned to tell him she had decided to become mortal and stay in Númenor with Celebrían, not as Queen and Princess, but as private guests of the King. They would live out the ends of their days as mortals, grow old together, and see who would be taken by Death first.
MG: Except Galadriel isn’t one of the Peredhil (and as for Celebrian, having a choice between being mortal or immortal was a blessing explicitly given to Earendil and Elwing, their children and, seemingly, their grandchildren; Tolkien’s notes indicate that the half-elven should probably be presumed to be long-lived but mortal by default) so this shouldn’t even be an option for her.
Loremaster’s Headache: 302
Aldarion returned from the Council and told her the three of them must sail back to Eregion immediately.
The situation in Númenor had become dangerous.
Rival factions were forming. He feared for their lives. He feared for his own life. He feared for the first time in its history, Númenor would experience war – a bloody Civil War. It wouldn’t matter who won: Númenóreans would lose.
As their King, this he could not allow.
MG: Funny how Tolkien’s writings mention none of this and indeed indicate that we’re still centuries off from corruption truly beginning to flower in Numenor (hells, the most overt act of alliance between Numenor and the Eldar, Tar-Minastir sailing to Gil-Galad’s aid in the War of the Elves and Sauron, is still centuries away from happening!), and longer for things to reach the crisis point and boil over…
Loremaster’s Headache: 304
If he left now, when he returned, he may have already been Deposed. He could find himself arrested and executed.
Tharkos: Considering that such a thing has never happened any Numenorean monarch before, by my reckoning, I would think the Council might be wary before taking such a dramatic step and setting a precedent that can’t be taken back?
MG: Yeah, looking ahead and noting that even when Numenor had very unpopular or controversial monarchs, and even when the internecine violence between the Kings’ Men and Faithful boiled over, no king (or queen) was ever executed by their own people makes me think this is not a step the Council would take lightly, if they even have the authority to do it at all.
But even with this uncertainty hanging over his head, he sailed from Armenelos to the far side of the island to ready his ships for another long ocean crossing.
Kasanari: *arches her eyebrow* An impressive feat, considering Armenelos is landlocked (I believe Numenor’s greatest ports were Andunie and Romenna). Perhaps the Numenoreans invented airships while no one was looking?
MG: Maybe we’ve taken a detour into Rings of Power-verse, which seemingly combined Armenelos and Romenna into a single city? *shrugs*
Loremaster’s Headache: 305
Preparing his ships to sail with Galadriel and Celebrían, he refused to entrust their safety to anyone else, even at the cost of his throne, and on his return, his own life.
Tharkos: *snorts* And so once again Aldarion vowed to crew the ship entirely by himself. Truly, he was the greatest of all mariners!
He was in love with her.
Before they left, he gave her seeds from many flowers and trees: golden elanor, star-like niphredil, and most especially, the silver seeds of malinornë trees. They were the things which had impressed her more than all the other wonders of Númenor. They were the things she had talked about most incessantly. The sliver trunks and golden leaves of the malinornë were the things she had said she’d miss the most.
MG: …yeah. In canon, the seeds of the mellyrn trees of Lorien did originally come from Numenor… but they were given by Aldarion to Gil-Galad, who in turn gave them to Galadriel, who would plant them in Lorinand (what would become Lorien). But I guess literally everything important in the Second Age has to come down to Galadriel’s affairs. *rolls their eyes* Riiight.
Pervy Hobbit Fanciers: 50 (you know what, I’m going to go ahead and add some points here for the affair, its effects, and the earlier implication that elven women are just that damn irresistible to human men)
* * * * *
Bringing Celebrían and Galadriel safely back to Lindon, Aldarion sailed away from Middle-earth for the last time in 988 of the Second Age. Neither of them spoke of what would happen when he restored order in Númenor, and returned to see her and Celebrían. She assumed it would be well before the arrival of the Millennium, which she planned to celebrate together.
Kasanari: Considering that Polychron just explicitly said Aldarion left Lindon for the last time, I can only conclude Galadriel’s legendary foresight has failed her!
Aldarion had traveled back-and-forth too many times to count. She was sure he would make the crossing many times again. After his ships pulled away, holding little Celebrían’s hand, she allowed herself to feel the fear which had been whispering in the back of her mind.
Before he left, he had given her a letter and a small gift. She opened the letter first.
Dearest,
Since there are no words,
MG: *Aldarion* I’m going to write a bunch of words. Funny how that works out.
remember how it felt when our eyes met; the stirrings in our hearts when we touched; the sounds of soft repose, lying together in the silence of the world, hearing only each other. Remember the rustling of our bodies, stirring. The rhythms of our heartbeats and breathing. Remember the sweet fragrances in our hair, on our skin, in our clothes. I will carry forever the taste of your kiss and you will always be this close.
MG: *Aldarion* I’m planning to haunt you after I die. Thought you ought to know.
My love is named Celebrían and Galadriel,
Anardil
The Beauty Of Fire
Princess Azula: *pokes her head in* Oh? Did someone send for me? That title sounds interesting…
MG: *shoves Azula out* Hey! You’re not in this sporking! *muttering* Though I might end up calling on your services for something else before too long…
Azula: *from out of sight* I heard that! Ask nicely, peasant!
MG: *sighs*
At the prow of my ship I watch sea birds appear
Who sing with their souls to influence the choice
Of a mate, with the promise of love and good cheer
All that I hear in the sound of your voice
Standing above the dark blue of the sea
Gazing at the light blue filling the skies
The line of the horizon appears to be
Were Eru has hidden the blue of your eyes
Over the fields on the first day of spring
A blithe bee flies among flowers he sips
And the nectar for whose sweetness to the skies he takes wing
Is, I know, not as sweet as the taste of your lips
When I feel the caress of the wind on my skin
Then I long for the warmth of your form by my side
When my soul feels the depths of the Night closing in
Then I’m drawn to your light like the Moon draws the tide
Yet the oceans between us continue to grow
And the days pass so slowly while we are apart
But the love that we’ve kindled continues to glow
And each memory, like a coal, is the fire in my heart
Divided by distance which stands like a wall
My hands cannot touch you, but my heart still remembers
So though you’re not with me I still can recall
The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers
Kasanari: *tries to work out the rhythm and meter of this poem. Fails* At least he’s not just ripping off a superior poem from the source material this time?
Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her face. Never, in all the millennia she’d lived, had anyone made her cry.
MG: Considering all the centuries of grief Galadriel has lived through, I find that very difficult to credit!
She unwrapped the present, opened the small box and was dazzled by a magnificent golden Ring set with a glittering red beryl gem.
Tharkos: *outraged* By the Four! Polychron, enough is damned well enough!
Rings-a-Palooza: 147
She would never have believed he wouldn’t come back to see her and Celebrían again, until that moment. She had assumed he would remove his opposition in the Council, consolidate his rule and return for them. It’s what she would have done in his place.
She was sure when seeing them again, he wouldn’t be able to refuse to take them back to Númenor. The problem had been, she was right. So Aldarion never came back, or saw their daughter, the sweet, so very beautiful Celebrían, ever again.
Kasanari: …and if I actually liked any of these people, I might be moved by this. As it is, I mostly just feel sorry for the girl, who is blameless in this and probably has no idea why it is happening.
Her return to Lindon, which she had imagined would be a last look and a final goodbye to Celebrimbor and Celeborn, became a permanent homecoming.
MG: …except Galadriel wouldn’t end up living in Lindon long-term, and anyone who’s familiar with LotR knows that, so… not so permanent after all?
Turning her back on the West, she felt the cutting, cracking feeling she had never known, yet instantly recognized: her heart was breaking.
MG: *flatly* Polychron, all that description makes me think of is a cartoony “glass shattering” sound-effect. If you were trying to be serious and dramatic… that wasn’t it.
She never spoke of this to anyone. Yet when alone, she feared the unthinkable: the father of their daughter would never return or see her grow into a woman. She recognized belatedly, something similar had happened to Ancalimë, because of their affair.
Tharkos: *tilts his head, then shakes it* No, I can’t make sense of it, and I don’t want to. Can this not be over?
Now she regretted what she had done. Not that she had loved Aldarion, nor bore their beautiful daughter, she regretted hoarding his time without thinking of Ancalimë’s needs, and what their time together had cost his other daughter.
MG: I mean, if I understand the timeline right, Ancalime would have already had a lonely, isolated childhood (as she did in canon) long before Galadriel entered the picture and she and Aldarion began their affair, so this part at least isn’t her fault?
For Erendis, Galadriel felt contempt. Erendis had made her harbor, let her sink to the bottom of it. It was better than she deserved. She had rejected her own magnificent husband and King. Galadriel was certain Erendis deserved worse.
Kasanari: *outraged* This woman was driven to suicide as a direct result of your affair with her husband! The least you can do is show her some sympathy! The very least!
The Unfair Sex: 93
Galadriel returned to her palace in Edhilon with Celebrían, clutching the seeds of the malinornë. They reminded her so poignantly of her undying love for Aldarion, and her foolish mistake: the only Elvish woman to break the Laws of the Valar.
MG: …as opposed to all the other elvish women who went to Middle-earth with the Exiles in defiance of the will of the Valar, including some of Galadriel’s own relatives…
She could never return to the Undying Lands. Her life would be very, very long in Middle-earth. Over tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years, she would age. Her face would wrinkle, her beautiful golden hair and its iridescent golden light would dim and turn grey, until the coming of the Dagor Dagorath, which she would face as an ugly crone.
Tharkos: And of course we must come back to Polychron’s favorite topic – a woman fearing old age! Because that idea has not been beaten into the ground already!
MG: And I’ll note that we really don’t have a good sense of what extreme old age looks like in elves (mostly because, even by the time of LotR, the elvish race hasn’t actually existed long enough for any of them to get that old) though an early idea that Tolkien discarded was that they literally shrink (ie, becoming the tiny fairies of later legend); later he seems to have considered a process of “fading” into pure spirit. On those occasions we see elves who look or act like very old mortals, it’s usually because they’ve suffered some sort of trauma that caused it (such as Thingol’s grief and guilt over Luthien’s first death, or Gwindor being enslaved and tortured in Angband).
Loremaster’s Headache: 307
The Unfair Sex: 95
Celeborn agreed to raise Celebrían as his own daughter and they never mentioned her true father. For most of her life, Celebrían didn’t know she was half-Elven. When she grew up and fell in love with Elrond, everyone was surprised, except Galadriel.
Kasanari: And those two ideas are related… how, exactly?
She knew Celebrían was just like him, half-Elvish, and because Aldarion was her father, a much closer cousin than if she had been Celeborn’s daughter.
MG: *stunned* Is Polychron implying that Celebrian was more attracted to Elrond because she was related to him? Gah, did Marion Zimmer Bradley come back from the dead to (literally) ghostwrite this part? Also, the only half-elf/half-elf pairing I can think of in Arda’s history was Earendil/Elwing, who met because they literally ended up living in the same town (the refugees of Doriath – Elwing’s people – and the refugees of Gondolin – Earendil’s – both ended up settling at the Havens of Sirion). The Peredhil don’t seem to, like, somehow find each other or anything (and Celebrian should probably have been long dead by this point anyway; she’s not a descendant of Earendil and Elwing, and shouldn’t have had the chance to choose immortality – she might have lived as long as Elros, circa 500 years or so, but probably no longer, if Aldarion really was her father).
Loremaster’s Headache: 310
They married and had three children: the Elvish twins Elladan and Elrohir, very rare among Elves, as Aldarion’s forefathers Elrond and Elros had been; and the dark haired Arwen, who took after her grandfather Aldarion.
Tharkos: And who did not at all take after her dark-haired father, who she is supposed to strongly resemble. And the way this is worded implies that Elladan and Elrohir were elves, but Arwen was not. How… odd.
None of Celebrían’s children learned they were Númenórean, until they each wore Elentári in the Third Age of Middle-earth.
MG: Except that Elrond was the twin brother of the first king of Numenor. Aragorn describes him as “the eldest of all our race” in RotK, “our race” in this context being the Dunedain; he may have chosen to be counted among the elves, but he always maintained a connection to the Edain side of his heritage, and his children were at least kin to the Numenoreans on his side. Hells, Elladan’s name is usually glossed as “Elf-man” but could also be read as “Elf-Numenorean.” Clearly, their parents were trying to keep their heritage a secret!
Loremaster’s Headache: 312
Celendrian learned of their loves and losses when she put on Anqaúrë and slept, and sleeping, she dreamt, dreams of Númenor.
Kasanari: And of course, we must be reminded that our actual point of view character is experiencing all of this in the form of visions granted to her by that abomination of a ring. But this is her only appearance in this Four-forskaen chapter, as it finally, finally comes to a close.
MG: So, this section… I kind of hate it. First off, the Tar-Aldarion/Galadriel ship continues to be absolutely inexplicable (just… why these two characters, exactly?) and when you add in Celebrian’s “real” parentage (which will never really be relevant again) it just makes it even worse. But then you add in things like Erendis’s death, Ancalime’s bitterness and cynicism and Numenor’s growing hostility towards the elves and make them direct consequences of the affair (when obviously they had nothing to do with it in canon because it didn’t happen in canon) and it really feels like the fic is going out of its way to blame everything bad on that homewrecker, Galadriel (especially when Aldarion feels like he largely escapes getting tarred with that brush, despite obviously being just as involved in things). It just really makes it feel like another case of the fic’s weird and uncomfortable gender politics rearing their head, especially when you considering Ancalime doesn’t come off very well either. In fact, looked at objectively, all of these people are behaving pretty terribly (except Celebrian), which makes it really hard to care about any of this. Gah. Well, the good news is, we’re finally done with the Galadriel/Tar-Aldarion subplot. The bad news is we’re still not done with the flashbacks; next chapter has some actual present-day scenes, but continues with the Second Age stuff as well as we finally get to Sauron’s arrival at Eregion and the forging of the actual Rings of Power. And Polychron’s take on these events is… kind of wild. We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:
Bigger, Louder, More!: 71
Expansion-Pack World: 23
Feel My Edge: 83
Happy Ending Override: 24
Linguistic Confusions: 36
Loremaster’s Headache: 312
Pervy Hobbit Fanciers: 52 (adding a couple of more points for how apparently all of Numenor’s subsequent history turned on Galadriel and Aldarion’s sex drives)
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 122
Rings-a-Palooza: 148
Take That, Tolkien!: 31
Traveling at the Speed of Plot: 35
The Unfair Sex: 93
Warning: This chapter contains a suicide, as well as further extensive discussion of the effects of Galadriel's affairs.
MG: Well, everyone, it’s time to continue our journey through Demetrious Polychron’s Fellowship of the King! Last time, we continued with our flashbacks as Galadriel renewed her affair with Celebrimbor while starting another, completely separate affair with Tar-Aldarion, of all people (thereby inserting herself into the already messy drama of Aldarion and Erendis’s story), while Celebrimbor began to draw up plans for his ridiculous “Master Ring.” Today, we have yet more flashbacks, as we get to the point (to the extent there is such a thing…) of the “Galadriel’s affairs” subplot, including the shocking (or maybe not…) secret true origin of Celebrian. Joining us today will be Kasanari and Tharkos!
When Galadriel became pregnant, neither of them knew which one was the father.
Kasanari: …well. That certainly was dropped on us without preamble, wasn’t it? And I suppose Galadriel herself couldn’t tell either (or at least kept it to herself)? And I can’t help but feel that Polychron is judging her for sleeping around (and also note that it’s never treated as a genuine possibility that the child might be Celeborn’s).
MG: Spoilers – it’s Aldarion.
The Unfair Sex: 73
At Gil-galad’s request, she traveled with Aldarion to Númenor, before she began to show.
Aldarion’s daughter, the Crown Princess Ancalimë, was now one-hundred-and-twelve years old, ruling as Regent during Aldarion’s absences. Because she wore Anqaúrë, the Ring of Feeling, she hadn’t aged, mistakenly believing it was only because she was of the Line of Elros.
Tharkos: Despite the fact that, if my understanding is correct, one-hundred-and-twelve would not be a great age for a descendant of Elros to begin with, and therefore the ring probably has not affected her ageing at all? But of course, Polychron feels the need to take something that already has a perfectly reasonable explanation and use one of his “original” rings to justify it. There are those who might call that a sign of insecurity…
Loremaster’s Headache: 293
Rings-a-Palooza: 143
Ancalimë felt certain something was happening to her father.
Kasanari: *mildly* Something he is involved in doing, rather, as he seems to have been an enthusiastic participant in the affair, from what we’ve seen so far.
With her Ring, she had unconsciously instilled in her mother, the not-banished yet broken Queen Erendis, an unbearable longing to see once more her long estranged husband.
Tharkos: …because clearly, that is the only reason a woman might desire to reconnect with her estranged husband; she cannot have lingering feelings for him, she must be literally magicked into it. *disgusted noise*
Rings-a-Palooza: 144
The Unfair Sex: 74 (blaming Ancalime for problems she did not, in fact, originally cause)
News swept through Rómenna: a ship was spotted on the horizon. It was the return of King Aldarion. Erendis now felt she’d erred, scorning and abandoning him. She’d heard the rumor of the priceless red beryl Ring of Power worn by one of Aldarion’s captain’s wives. She was certain it was meant for her and she’d foolishly cast it, and her husband the King, aside.
Kasanari: So, is Polychron implying that Erendis only loved Aldarion for his ability to bring her magical treasures, or that Ancalime somehow accidentally used her ring to inspire the desire for an entirely different ring in her mother? By the Four, this is convoluted! Was “Aldarion and Erendis had a doomed, tragic and dysfunctional love because of their conflicting wants and personalities” really not enough for Demetrious Polychron?
Rings-a-Palooza: 145
The Unfair Sex: 75
Unannounced and unknown to anyone, she traveled to Rómenna and was waiting on the pier alone, with a branch of the Oiolairë tree, the Bough of Return. She had brought one to Aldarion many times when they were young.
The NKS Hirilondë, the Haven-finder, arrived and anchored. Aldarion descended the gangway bearing the hand of a regal and ravishingly beautiful Elven Queen.
Kasanari: *winces* I am not looking forward to where this is going…
Beneath her golden crown, she not only had magical other-worldly glowing golden hair;
Tharkos: Curious; perhaps Polychron really does think that elvish hair glows brightly enough to be weaponized? A curious idea; one must wonder how he came by it.
her skin, face; everything about her seemed to glow with light and delight. Galadriel’s radiant smiles put even the Sun to shame and Erendis knew Aldarion had found another Haven.
It was her own fault. She had abandoned him more than a hundred years ago. She had long since grown old – and looked it.
Kasanari: …and here we have yet another woman who has anxiety about her age. Polychron seems to be either thoroughly predictable or absolutely unhinged, with nothing whatsoever in between… a curious thought, is it not?
The Unfair Sex: 76
Yet she wouldn’t have, she finally understood, if she had accepted the Ring of Power Aldarion brought back for her, instead of scorning him.
Tharkos: By the Four and by the ever-burning Torch of Emperor Coaltongue, enough with the rings! They do not need to be responsible for every emotion in this travesty of a story! Nor does desire for them need to motivate every character! Was not Aldarion and Erendis’s love being doomed because he was torn between his love for her and his love for the sea dramatic enough? Why did it require Aldarion to have a literal affair, or for these cursed rings to be involved at all!
Rings-a-Palooza: 146
The Unfair Sex: 77 (for Erendis seeming to be fixated on getting one of the rings and maintaining her youth as her primary motive for wishing she was still together with Aldarion)
This Queen of Elves looked so young. If human, a woman who looked this young would be younger than their daughter.
MG: Eh, the elves are (usually) outwardly young-looking no matter how old they are, but from the way the eldest and most powerful of the Eldar tend to be described (Galadriel included) I don’t think anyone who was in their presence long would seriously take them for youths. They carry too much weight. I know, this is Erendis’s insecurity talking, but even so.
Aldarion was just as radiant, as happy as Erendis had ever seen him. And if truth be told, he was happier, displaying this powerful, wise and otherworldly beauty, which Erendis had feared she would never be. She realized too late what a fool she’d been. To strive to be the wife of one so high above her head, the worst thing would have been to get him, which is exactly what had happened. Worse than worst, she had given her heart to this man who was, she’d always known, a King of Men, and he had been in love with her, but she had allowed her insecurities, foolish pride and her small, petty, winner-take-all attitude to drive him away.
Kasanari: The fact that he was constantly running off on voyages and abandoning you for years at a time had nothing whatsoever to do with it, of course. Who ever heard of a failed marriage being the man’s fault? And I hope I don’t need to clarify I’m being very sarcastic!
The Unfair Sex: 78
Now she had nothing.
Warning: Potentially Triggering Content To Follow
He had everything. It was now clear to Erendis, Aldarion had been the one who made a mistake marrying her, as she had always feared, not the other way around.
Consumed with a grief so dire it broke her heart and shattered her last hope of any joy, as the happy couple boarded a carriage and left for the palace, Erendis ran to the end of the pier.
Leaping into the harbor waters far below she shouted, “He is yours, Uinen!”
MG: So… yeah. Now, in canon, Tolkien’s manuscript of “The Mariner’s Wife” breaks off before Erendis’s death and we only have rough notes regarding how she died – we know she was found dead in the harbor at Romenna, but it’s not clear if she deliberately drowned herself or not. But of course, Polychron has her deliberately commit suicide, in response to her self-flagellation about how unworthy of Aldarion she really is, brought on both by Aldarion’s affair with another woman and by her own daughter accidentally mind-raping her. Just… wow. Polychron has taken what was already a tragedy in canon and made it so much worse, and now we have Galadriel and Ancalime between them explicitly, if unintentionally, driving a woman to suicide by their involvement. Just… wow, Polychron. Did at no point while writing this did it occur to you that this is kind of messed up, and should probably be handled with a lot more grace and tact than you’re apparently capable of bringing to the table?
Feel My Edge: 83
The Unfair Sex: 81 (adding three points for how Erendis, Ancalime and Galadriel are all implicated in this, while the narrative goes out of its way to exonerate Aldarion)
News of King Tar-Aldarion and the Elvish Queen’s debarkation, and her mother’s suicide, reached Ancalimë before Aldarion and Galadriel.
They arrived at the palace not knowing, laughing, crowded by throngs of admirers, amazed to see one of the Eldar from Valinor by way of Middle-earth once again visiting Númenor. Just as it had been clear to her mother, it was obvious to Ancalimë: Galadriel was Aldarion’s mistress. This was why her mother committed suicide. Her father didn’t even know it had happened. Seeing him so happy, Ancalimë feared when she told him, he wouldn’t care.
Kasanari: *waspishly* Well, I’m sure if he didn’t, Polychron would find a way to blame it on Galadriel, Erendis, or Ancalime herself because of course the noble Aldarion can do no wrong!
The happy couple laughed in happy ignorance, giving each other surreptitious glances an eight-year-old could figure out.
Tharkos: And literally no one thought to report to the king that the queen was dead? Has Numenor no messengers, no courtiers seeking the king’s favor, no soldiers or servants who might be sent by their superiors to deliver news with or without the crown princess’s orders?
Ancalimë was horrified. “How dare you bring your mistress to our home! Did you really think you could get away with this deception?”
Kasanari: To be honest, it didn’t sound like he was trying to hide it at all…
The sudden silence filling the palace was deafening.
Breathless, Ancalimë went on. “Why even try? I care not that she is Elvish or a Queen! She is nothing but a common – ”
“Tread carefully, Ancalimë,” her father the King Aldarion said, with an upraised hand, and all were silent. “You will not slander our royal guest. I’ve had the inheritance laws changed to accommodate your future rule. I can have them changed again, or simply disown you: cast you from the royal family – forever. If this is what you want, say the first hateful, spiteful thought you have in that overly precious head. Such thoughts are unbecoming to a Queen. The moment I hear one, just one, pass your lips, a future Queen you will not be.”
MG: …yes. Aldarion, who went out of his way to change Numenor’s succession laws so that the reigning monarch’s eldest child inherited regardless of gender specifically so Ancalime would have the crown (albeit at least partially motivated because he was fighting with Erendis at the time and she didn’t want her daughter to be queen, admittedly) would be willing to both disinherit and outright disown her for being rude about a woman who is, in fact, as alleged, his mistress (now, had Ancalime finished her sentence, I suspect whatever word she would have said would have probably been out of line, but considering she’s both grieving her mother and clearly enraged at her father’s behavior, I find it hard to fault her overmuch). But clearly, Ancalime is the bad guy here. And I’ll note that, once again, Aldarion himself mostly seems to avoid the blame – Ancalime is attacking Galadriel, and we’re clearly supposed to side against her for it, but either way, it’s placing the blame on a woman while letting the man off the hook. And it really rubs me the wrong way. And I mean, canonically Ancalime understood both her parents’ positions, but always sympathized with her mother over her father and disliked and distrusted men in general. So… let him have it, if you’ve got to attack someone over this.
The Unfair Sex: 83
Enraged, her future threatened so carelessly, so easily, Ancalimë ran wordless from the chamber. She rode her horse alone past the peak of Meneltarma, where she herself had spoken to Manwë and Varda, as the first-ever acting Queen of Númenor. Fording the Siril river and passing the Noirinan valley, which held the tombs of Númenórean kings and queens, she reached her private palace at Hyarastorni, in the province of Emerië.
MG: …and, now Ancalime is so distraught about being told off by her father that she literally flees the city and runs halfway across the country to get away from him. On the one hand, that’s certainly… melodramatic of her (did Polychron think the logistics of this through, at all?) but also, all things considered, this is clearly a woman in tremendous emotional distress, having been hit with the triple-whammy of her mother’s suicide, discovering her father’s affair, and nearly being disinherited for confronting him over it, just for a reminder. Like… are we really supposed to think she’s the bad guy here? I don’t particularly like any of these people right now (and I’ve not forgotten that Polychron gave Ancalime the ring of mind-rape either, or the consequences of that!) but out of them all, she has most of my sympathy.
It was in the region of Mittalmar, full of high mountain meadows, gently rolling pastures and grasslands in the south-west of Númenor. This was the region of shepherds where Ancalimë had been raised alone by Erendis, while Aldarion had tarried in Middle-earth.
Kasanari: …I would rather read about the shepherds than any of these people, thank you kindly.
Potentially Triggering Content Ends Here
Galadriel remained a guest of Aldarion at the Royal Palace of Armenelos, where she blossomed.
Kasanari: *drily* To everyone’s tremendous shock, it turned out Galadriel had secretly been an Entwife the entire time.
Six months later, she gave birth to a daughter they named Celebrían.
MG: You know, I’d always presumed that Celebrian was, at least partially, named after her father, Celeborn. Except her father here is Tar-Aldarion, so that’s, uh, kind of an interesting choice in that context, isn’t it? And yes, you all read that right, in this version of the story Tar-Aldarion is the true father of Celebrian, who was secretly half-elven all along, and just… what? Why? Why did this plot point occur to Polychron, and why did we have to have the better part of two chapter’s worth of flashbacks setting up the revelation? Spoilers, it doesn’t even matter meaningfully in the present day of the story (though maybe this is another thing that would have come into play had the “saga” continued, especially since one of its main villains is Celebrian’s son and all). Or maybe I’m giving Polychron too much credit. But in any case, in the context of this fic specifically and Middle-earth more generally, just… what?
In Númenor, their daughter grew and not even Ancalimë ever knew where the Princess lived.
Tharkos: An impressive feat, considering Celebrian would have been, by my reckoning, the only elf-child on the entire island. Just how isolated was the poor girl?
Before Galadriel came, Ancalimë had been genuinely curious to see what had drawn her father east. She had wanted to follow in his footsteps and experience the wonders he described on the shores, valleys and towering snow-covered mountaintops of Middle-earth.
Now she had no need to go. Aldarion had shown her what had drawn him. He’d gone to see his mistress. She was certain they had been together for years. They may have even started before her parents married. Galadriel was immortal, much older than she looked, and Elvish women were rumored to esteem strong age in men. It was rarer than a rarity, unheard of among Elves, who barely aged. Maybe her father had been something of a novelty for the harlot Queen of Edhilon. It didn’t matter. Galadriel being an Elven Queen only made it worse.
The Unfair Sex: 85 (maybe it’s just me, but the portrayal of Ancalime and Galadriel here feels rather judgmental towards both of them)
Ancalimë heard people say, ‘Of course he took an Elvish Queen to wife, and one so beautiful – who wouldn’t? No man could refuse the charms of such a woman.’
Kasanari: …which is why, of course, there have only been a literal handful of marriages between elf women and human men recorded in the entirety of Arda’s history (and, beg pardon, but Aldarion married Galadriel? I know Aldarion is a widower now, but Galadriel is still very much married to Celeborn, and I didn’t think the laws and customs of the Eldar permitted such things!).
Never again did she speak of the lands in the East, traveling there or supporting Middle- earth against their enemies. Many believed the breach between Númenóreans, and the Eldar and Valar, began with Ancalimë’s antipathy for Galadriel.
MG: So… yeah. Apparently, not only was Ancalime’s personal bitterness towards Middle-earth and subsequent neglect of Numenor’s alliances there, but the actual breach between the Numenoreans and the Eldar and Valar were all because of Aldarion and Galadriel’s affair! Not because the Numenoreans envied the elves and Ainur their immortality, and grew to desire dominion over all the lands of Arda and to view that as their birthright – nope, it all got started because the king had an affair, and his daughter was (understandably!) upset about it. Just… just think about the implications of what you’re writing, Polychron! Please.
Loremaster’s Headache: 294
The Unfair Sex: 86
Ancalimë went in secret to the Council of the Scepter and told them she feared for her life. A great evil had been born in Númenor. She dared not speak of it, lest the King learn of her words and disown or destroy her for trying to save the Kingdom. He was bewitched, enchanted by Dark Magic woven on the shores of Middle-earth.
The Council demanded she tell them all she knew. She refused.
Tharkos: *snorts* Which was not suspicious in the slightest.
She was too terrified, she said, of what the King would do. So they wrote a letter of Amnesty and swore themselves to secrecy. At her insistence, they put in writing: they would never reveal to anyone by any means, explicit or implicit, that they had spoken with Ancalimë.
As proof of their fealty, they also wrote and affirmed: no matter what the King might do in the future, upon his death, Ancalimë would receive the Scepter and White Crown, regardless of whatever transpired between now and the death of the good King Tar-Aldarion.
Kasanari: …I was not under the impression that the council had the right to explicitly overrule the wishes of the king in such a matter? Perhaps I was mistaken?
This was what Ancalimë had been waiting for. Once the documents were written and signed in secret, and sworn upon by Manwë, Varda and Ilúvatar himself, she revealed her father had been seduced by the Queen of Elves.
Tharkos: And the Council then threw her out for wasting everyone’s time on something that was obvious to all of them, I trust?
MG: And I’ll remind you that there was another oath in Arda’s history that was quite famously “sworn upon by Manwë, Varda and Ilúvatar himself” (though I think Polychron means “by” rather than “upon” unless Arda’s supreme deity and the two greatest of the Valar were kind enough to manifest physically in the council chamber so everyone could touch them, because that’s what it means to swear “on” something – to swear your oath while touching or holding it; remember in Two Towers, Frodo lets Gollum swear by the Ring, but wisely refuses to let him swear on the Ring) – the Oath of Feanor. Which everyone in this room should know ended very, very badly for everyone involved, because an oath of such power, once sworn, cannot be forsworn, however much you might want to. And, frankly, “the king is having an affair” is a serious matter, but it doesn’t seem to merit, you know, that.
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 118 (hope everyone in this room is happy they may have just inadvertently damned themselves to keep this oath for all time)
The Unfair Sex 87 (placing the blame solely on Galadriel)
Her father, the good and kind King Tar-Aldarion, felt pity for this strange and wanton creature, who was outcast from her people. He had brought her in desperation to Númenor for sanctuary. She was married (gossips around the court said) with a family of her own.
Kasanari: Ah, yes, the famously outcast queen of Eregion. Ancalime, dear, I’m (largely) on your side here, but do try to make your lies a bit more convincing?
So great was this harlot’s shame, none in Middle-earth would bear her or her bastard child Celebrían to live, just as none in Númenor should.
Kasanari: …I take it back. Celebrian is arguably the only completely innocent party here; kindly do not take your wrath out on her in such a way. I presume that, as a bastard, she is not an eligible heir to the throne, so simply leave it at that.
The Unfair Sex: 88
Galadriel had arrived pregnant with the King’s child. But now, it was too late. On Númenórean soil, this witch had borne a half-Elvish Heir, an Elven half-breed abomination: a claimant to the Crown by which this scheming enchantress meant to usurp the throne in a bloodless coup for Elves. Using her wiles and false devotion to conquer Númenor, she would rob Men of their Eru given Right to this island Kingdom, and the prosperity and tranquility of Men.
Tharkos: Ah, yes, an “Elven half-breed abomination” – just like your nation’s founder and your, Ancalime, own ancestor Elros Tar-Minyatur. Kindly refrain from slinging such words so casually; you never know who you might end up tarring with them by mistake. And while I am not familiar with your succession law, as Kasanari has already noted, Celebrian is a bastard; I do not believe she would be considered a legitimate heir to the throne in any case.
Loremaster’s Headache: 296 (still blaming Numenor’s enmity for the elves on Celebrian’s existence, and again for Celebrian being explicitly Aldarion’s bastard)
The Unfair Sex: 89
Elves were clearly incapable of this, forever embroiled in endless wars. Had not the Valar been forced to decree the Ban of Elves, giving Númenor to the Men of the Edain alone? This vile enchantress would surely displace, enslave or destroy the Men of Númenor. Had not the races ever done these things between their divisions, from one kind to another?
MG: Uh, no. The Edain were given Numenor for their role in the wars against Morgoth; it had nothing to do with keeping the elves out. Hells, at this point the elves of Eldamar and Eressea are still friendly with Numenor and should visit fairly regularly. This isn’t just xenophobic lying, it’s really bad, easily disproven xenophobic lying, to people who should absolutely know better. Come on, Ancalime. You can do better than this!
Loremaster’s Headache: 298
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 119
These were the dark designs of the evil Queen of Elves. She had forsaken her lawful husband and forced Aldarion to forsake his lawful wife.
There was worse.
Upon arrival, Galadriel had bewitched Erendis. She had forced the Queen to take her own life! After her mother leaped to her death in the water below the pier in the harbor of Rómenna, Ancalimë had been forced to flee the palace. If she hadn’t, she would have been next. The people of Númenor would have been left without an Heir – exactly as Galadriel schemed.
Kasanari: Impressive that Galadriel apparently connived all of this before even setting foot on Numenor, and somehow ensorcelled Erendis into suicide without ever having met her! If she’s that powerful (and, logically, none of this holds up to begin with), what even is the point in opposing her?
The Unfair Sex: 90
The Elves were terrified of their enemies in the East: nameless powers rumored to be the sons and daughters of Morgoth.
MG: …considering Polychron’s villains and their, uh, proclivities, I’d say Morgoth having children in this warped version of Arda is entirely plausible (Tolkien seemed to have viewed Morgoth, who had deteriorated into a purely destructive force, as being incapable of siring offspring, but I don’t think Polychron would let something like that stop him)! And Polychron did make sure to include Morgoth’s non-canon wife…
Their own Númenórean ancestors had sacrificed so many of their own lives to defeat these foes during the War of Wrath.
Winning and receiving, deservedly from the Valar, this idyllic and tranquil Land of Gift, they were intended to be free of that strife and those wars against these same opponents. Now, Galadriel was trying to drag King Tar-Aldarion and the Númenóreans back into their wars.
Tharkos: An impressive feat, considering the elves aren’t actually at war with Sauron yet and won’t be, by my reckoning, for centuries still.
Did not the Council possess in their archives, the letter written by the Elvish High King Gil-galad, which would attest to the truth of her words?
The Council was shaken.
They called for the letter to be found. It had been written to King Tar-Meneldur, Aldarion’s father, by Gil-galad, more than a hundred years before:
A new shadow arises in the East. It is no tyranny of evil Men, as your son believes; a servant of Morgoth is stirring, and evil things wake again. Each year it gains in strength, for most Men are ripe to its purpose.
Not far off is the day, I judge, when it will become too great for the Eldar unaided to withstand.
Behold! The darkness that is to come is filled with hatred for us, but it hates you no less. The Great Sea will not be too wide for its wings, if it is suffered to come to full growth.
MG: So, yes, canonically Gil-Galad did send this letter to Tar-Meneldur, but is Ancalime implying that Gil-Galad sent Galadriel to seduce Aldarion into allying with him? After waiting more than a century? Does this not strike anyone here as a bit of a stretch?
“See!” Ancalimë screamed. “The Great Sea has not been wide enough! The Darkness comes! Its road to full growth began when Galadriel arrived and gave birth to Celebrían. Only a fool would deny my father intends to make this Elvish whore a Queen, for by coupling with Galadriel, has he not already made an Elvish Queen a whore?”
Kasanari: So now Galadriel is the victim of Aldarion’s seduction… and possibly also the harbinger of the same evil that she wants to recruit Numenor to fight against… can Ancalime try to actually make sense, please? Oh, but that might get in the way of portraying her as an irrational shrieking woman, and we can’t have that!
The Unfair Sex: 91
For days in secret, never leaving their halls, the Council held long, rancorous, sometimes violent meetings to determine how to prevent the loss of their ancestral home.
MG: So, uh, were the Council members literally fighting each other here, or…? And did nobody else in the Numenorean upper crust notice that the Council had seemingly barricaded themselves in their chambers and refused to leave? Did nobody think this was suspicious? Did nobody think to tell the king?
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 121
After exhaustive debates, never in unity, a majority was finally and painfully achieved.
They carefully wrote out their Declarations and then summoned the King. When he arrived, they feigned his palace servants had come anonymously, in fear for their lives, to save Númenor from the deceptive wiles of this treacherous Elven Queen.
They presented King Tar-Aldarion with a Decree, affirming Númenor was for Men alone, and only Númenóreans of all the races of Men. It was definitely not for Elves or Dwarves.
MG: Now I’m just imagining that this “Decree” was just a crude “No Elves and Dwarves Allowed” sign hung by the harbor at Romenna. Classy.
Therefore, this Elvish Queen and her child Celebrían, regardless from whence they had come, who the father was, or where they intended to go – they could not remain in Númenor.
Aldarion had broken the Laws of the Valar by bringing her and the entire Kingdom was in deadly peril.
Tharkos: …somehow I don’t think claiming divine provenance for the laws you literally just wrote yesterday is particularly wise. Then again, these Councilors, whoever they may be, have not overly impressed me thus far, so perhaps they deserve whatever foolish fate they bring upon themselves.
If she stayed, the Council would have no choice but to interpret the acts of this Elvish Queen as Acts of War. If Tar-Aldarion defended her, he would be a traitor to Númenor. They would be left with no choice but to Depose him as an unlawful and traitorous King.
Aldarion was stupefied.
Kasanari: As am I. This entire plotline beggars belief, and not in a good way.
He thought he had been so careful. Only his most trusted lieutenants and their families knew Galadriel had given birth. It must have been one of the wives.
Tharkos: Which does not explain how Ancalime knew… or, if Aldarion did tell Ancalime, why he doesn’t suspect her when she has made her antipathy for Galadriel and Celebrian quite plain already.
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 122
Yet he accepted and understood. He and Galadriel had gone too far. These things could easily be misinterpreted as the threats he himself had labored to make Númenóreans believe were terrible, relentless and deadly.
Kasanari: Are we going to get any explanation for what those threats might be, or not?
Now they believed him. He couldn’t fault them their belief, he had created it.
Kasnari: When. How. Explain, Polychron!
After leaving the Council, Ancalimë had returned to her palace and sent Aldarion a letter as if she hadn’t left. He never knew it was from her lips these lies had spread.
Tharkos: …despite her being, in every way, the obvious suspect. Perhaps this is yet another charming properly of that especially loathsome Ring she now wears?
He saw how grievously and sore afraid his subjects were, how terrified of Galadriel and the dark wars of evil threatening to consume Middle-earth.
Kasanari: Those hypothetical wars that haven’t even started yet, and which Numenor will not get involved in until the time of, I believe, Aldarion’s grandson’s great-grandson. Truly, an urgent crisis.
Those wings had now reached across the ocean with fear and spread upon the shores of Númenor. He suddenly saw that these wars could actually consume his beautiful and peaceful island kingdom. Filled with shame for the part he’d played, he saw his subject’s fearful looks and heard their desperate rumors growing: of invading armies and coming wars, which neither he nor the Council could stop.
So he withheld rebuke.
Tharkos: I will not be so restrained. This entire subplot is nonsensical, leaves me consumed with loathing for everyone in it except the child, and seems to exist primarily to lay all the blame for Numenor’s eventual crisis and downfall at the feet of two women rather than its actual later causes while avoiding engaging with the king’s own blame in these matters and utterly ignoring their actual cause. Am I correct?
* * * * *
Alone in Rómenna, Galadriel had troubles of her own. She had Aldarion’s child without becoming mortal. It had never been done. She had broken too many Laws of the Valar to count.
MG: That’s… not how that works. Luthien gave up her immortality as her price for resurrecting Beren, not for being with him in the first place. Idril Celebrindal married Tuor and had a son, Earendil, with him without ever needing to give up her immortality at all (and indeed, though they vanish from history after they left Middle-earth to seek Valinor and their fate is unknown, the Sil notes that there is an in-universe legend that they reached Valinor and there Tuor was made immortal rather than Idril losing her immortality, though it's left ambiguous if there’s any truth in it). In the Third Age, Mithrellas, the ancestor of the Princes of Dol Amroth, never lost her immortality, though history does not record her fate; Arwen gave up her immortality to stay with Aragorn, but she was able to do that because she was the daughter of Elrond and, like her father, was given the choice of which kindred of the Children to belong to. Elves having to give up their immortality to have children with mortals has never been a requirement (though the vast difference in lifespans in one reason why lasting romantic relationships between elves and mortals are so rare); OTOH, elves having children out of wedlock is, AFAIK, unprecedented… but for some reason Polychron doesn’t have Galadriel worrying about that. Though now I’m reminded of the slew of early-2000s fic written by people who took the “Arwen gives Aragorn her Evenstar pendant at the same time as she promises to give up her immortality” to mean all elves have a literal “immortality necklace” they have to wear at all times to stay immortal.
Loremaster’s Headache: 300
She would never be allowed to return to Valinor. She had traveled so far beyond the line, she had made it impossible for the Valar to forgive her.
MG: *flatly* Really. Taking part in Feanor’s rebellion wasn’t unforgiveable. Going to Middle-earth specifically because she desired to carve out a kingdom for herself wasn’t unforgiveable. But having an affair? She’s damned forever! No unfortunate implications there?
The Unfair Sex: 92
It was almost as if she wanted to be banished to the Void beyond the Doors of Night. There she would find herself alone with the only other immortal to have ever been banished – Melkor.
MG: Okay, now we’ve gone from “barred from Valinor for having an affair” to “imprisoned forever with the literal devil for having an affair.” Escalation much? On the plus side, Galadriel and Melkor could star in a wacky sitcom about their eternity as roommates and all the hijinks they get up to together! *beat* Nah, I think we’re back in “fate worse than death” territory with that one…
Love had drawn Galadriel to become one of the two most reviled immortals to ever exist. It was unthinkable, yet it had happened.
Kasanari: Meanwhile, somewhere in Middle-earth, Sauron was certain he’d just been quite terribly snubbed.
MG: Yeah. Morgoth, Sauron, Gothmog, Feanor, Maeglin… there’s a bunch of immortals who’d be far more reviled than Galadriel would be for this even under the worst-case scenario (unless Polychron really thinks “had an affair” puts Galadriel above the likes of Morgoth’s two closest lieutenants and the Eldar’s most infamous traitor, because if so… eesh).
These were the Laws of the Valar. She couldn’t plead ignorance. She knew the Laws better than anyone. She had been tutored by the Valar in their own Halls and Gardens.
MG: …though she was starting to think that maybe she should have actually paid attention in class those days instead of sitting around doodling in her notebook – alas, hindsight!
The worst part for her was, she had fallen in love with Aldarion as she never had before,
Tharkos: I suppose we can now add Celeborn along with Sauron for having been snubbed…
and now she was afraid he hadn’t fallen in love with her. The call of his duty to his people and Kingdom was pulling him away. It never had with Celeborn or Celebrimbor.
Kasanari: The last we heard of Celebrimbor, he was literally planning on making an all-powerful ring for the sole purpose of winning you back, so… perhaps do not be so quick to say so?
She planned to tell him she had decided to become mortal and stay in Númenor with Celebrían, not as Queen and Princess, but as private guests of the King. They would live out the ends of their days as mortals, grow old together, and see who would be taken by Death first.
MG: Except Galadriel isn’t one of the Peredhil (and as for Celebrian, having a choice between being mortal or immortal was a blessing explicitly given to Earendil and Elwing, their children and, seemingly, their grandchildren; Tolkien’s notes indicate that the half-elven should probably be presumed to be long-lived but mortal by default) so this shouldn’t even be an option for her.
Loremaster’s Headache: 302
Aldarion returned from the Council and told her the three of them must sail back to Eregion immediately.
The situation in Númenor had become dangerous.
Rival factions were forming. He feared for their lives. He feared for his own life. He feared for the first time in its history, Númenor would experience war – a bloody Civil War. It wouldn’t matter who won: Númenóreans would lose.
As their King, this he could not allow.
MG: Funny how Tolkien’s writings mention none of this and indeed indicate that we’re still centuries off from corruption truly beginning to flower in Numenor (hells, the most overt act of alliance between Numenor and the Eldar, Tar-Minastir sailing to Gil-Galad’s aid in the War of the Elves and Sauron, is still centuries away from happening!), and longer for things to reach the crisis point and boil over…
Loremaster’s Headache: 304
If he left now, when he returned, he may have already been Deposed. He could find himself arrested and executed.
Tharkos: Considering that such a thing has never happened any Numenorean monarch before, by my reckoning, I would think the Council might be wary before taking such a dramatic step and setting a precedent that can’t be taken back?
MG: Yeah, looking ahead and noting that even when Numenor had very unpopular or controversial monarchs, and even when the internecine violence between the Kings’ Men and Faithful boiled over, no king (or queen) was ever executed by their own people makes me think this is not a step the Council would take lightly, if they even have the authority to do it at all.
But even with this uncertainty hanging over his head, he sailed from Armenelos to the far side of the island to ready his ships for another long ocean crossing.
Kasanari: *arches her eyebrow* An impressive feat, considering Armenelos is landlocked (I believe Numenor’s greatest ports were Andunie and Romenna). Perhaps the Numenoreans invented airships while no one was looking?
MG: Maybe we’ve taken a detour into Rings of Power-verse, which seemingly combined Armenelos and Romenna into a single city? *shrugs*
Loremaster’s Headache: 305
Preparing his ships to sail with Galadriel and Celebrían, he refused to entrust their safety to anyone else, even at the cost of his throne, and on his return, his own life.
Tharkos: *snorts* And so once again Aldarion vowed to crew the ship entirely by himself. Truly, he was the greatest of all mariners!
He was in love with her.
Before they left, he gave her seeds from many flowers and trees: golden elanor, star-like niphredil, and most especially, the silver seeds of malinornë trees. They were the things which had impressed her more than all the other wonders of Númenor. They were the things she had talked about most incessantly. The sliver trunks and golden leaves of the malinornë were the things she had said she’d miss the most.
MG: …yeah. In canon, the seeds of the mellyrn trees of Lorien did originally come from Numenor… but they were given by Aldarion to Gil-Galad, who in turn gave them to Galadriel, who would plant them in Lorinand (what would become Lorien). But I guess literally everything important in the Second Age has to come down to Galadriel’s affairs. *rolls their eyes* Riiight.
Pervy Hobbit Fanciers: 50 (you know what, I’m going to go ahead and add some points here for the affair, its effects, and the earlier implication that elven women are just that damn irresistible to human men)
* * * * *
Bringing Celebrían and Galadriel safely back to Lindon, Aldarion sailed away from Middle-earth for the last time in 988 of the Second Age. Neither of them spoke of what would happen when he restored order in Númenor, and returned to see her and Celebrían. She assumed it would be well before the arrival of the Millennium, which she planned to celebrate together.
Kasanari: Considering that Polychron just explicitly said Aldarion left Lindon for the last time, I can only conclude Galadriel’s legendary foresight has failed her!
Aldarion had traveled back-and-forth too many times to count. She was sure he would make the crossing many times again. After his ships pulled away, holding little Celebrían’s hand, she allowed herself to feel the fear which had been whispering in the back of her mind.
Before he left, he had given her a letter and a small gift. She opened the letter first.
Dearest,
Since there are no words,
MG: *Aldarion* I’m going to write a bunch of words. Funny how that works out.
remember how it felt when our eyes met; the stirrings in our hearts when we touched; the sounds of soft repose, lying together in the silence of the world, hearing only each other. Remember the rustling of our bodies, stirring. The rhythms of our heartbeats and breathing. Remember the sweet fragrances in our hair, on our skin, in our clothes. I will carry forever the taste of your kiss and you will always be this close.
MG: *Aldarion* I’m planning to haunt you after I die. Thought you ought to know.
My love is named Celebrían and Galadriel,
Anardil
The Beauty Of Fire
Princess Azula: *pokes her head in* Oh? Did someone send for me? That title sounds interesting…
MG: *shoves Azula out* Hey! You’re not in this sporking! *muttering* Though I might end up calling on your services for something else before too long…
Azula: *from out of sight* I heard that! Ask nicely, peasant!
MG: *sighs*
At the prow of my ship I watch sea birds appear
Who sing with their souls to influence the choice
Of a mate, with the promise of love and good cheer
All that I hear in the sound of your voice
Standing above the dark blue of the sea
Gazing at the light blue filling the skies
The line of the horizon appears to be
Were Eru has hidden the blue of your eyes
Over the fields on the first day of spring
A blithe bee flies among flowers he sips
And the nectar for whose sweetness to the skies he takes wing
Is, I know, not as sweet as the taste of your lips
When I feel the caress of the wind on my skin
Then I long for the warmth of your form by my side
When my soul feels the depths of the Night closing in
Then I’m drawn to your light like the Moon draws the tide
Yet the oceans between us continue to grow
And the days pass so slowly while we are apart
But the love that we’ve kindled continues to glow
And each memory, like a coal, is the fire in my heart
Divided by distance which stands like a wall
My hands cannot touch you, but my heart still remembers
So though you’re not with me I still can recall
The beauty of fire from the beauty of embers
Kasanari: *tries to work out the rhythm and meter of this poem. Fails* At least he’s not just ripping off a superior poem from the source material this time?
Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her face. Never, in all the millennia she’d lived, had anyone made her cry.
MG: Considering all the centuries of grief Galadriel has lived through, I find that very difficult to credit!
She unwrapped the present, opened the small box and was dazzled by a magnificent golden Ring set with a glittering red beryl gem.
Tharkos: *outraged* By the Four! Polychron, enough is damned well enough!
Rings-a-Palooza: 147
She would never have believed he wouldn’t come back to see her and Celebrían again, until that moment. She had assumed he would remove his opposition in the Council, consolidate his rule and return for them. It’s what she would have done in his place.
She was sure when seeing them again, he wouldn’t be able to refuse to take them back to Númenor. The problem had been, she was right. So Aldarion never came back, or saw their daughter, the sweet, so very beautiful Celebrían, ever again.
Kasanari: …and if I actually liked any of these people, I might be moved by this. As it is, I mostly just feel sorry for the girl, who is blameless in this and probably has no idea why it is happening.
Her return to Lindon, which she had imagined would be a last look and a final goodbye to Celebrimbor and Celeborn, became a permanent homecoming.
MG: …except Galadriel wouldn’t end up living in Lindon long-term, and anyone who’s familiar with LotR knows that, so… not so permanent after all?
Turning her back on the West, she felt the cutting, cracking feeling she had never known, yet instantly recognized: her heart was breaking.
MG: *flatly* Polychron, all that description makes me think of is a cartoony “glass shattering” sound-effect. If you were trying to be serious and dramatic… that wasn’t it.
She never spoke of this to anyone. Yet when alone, she feared the unthinkable: the father of their daughter would never return or see her grow into a woman. She recognized belatedly, something similar had happened to Ancalimë, because of their affair.
Tharkos: *tilts his head, then shakes it* No, I can’t make sense of it, and I don’t want to. Can this not be over?
Now she regretted what she had done. Not that she had loved Aldarion, nor bore their beautiful daughter, she regretted hoarding his time without thinking of Ancalimë’s needs, and what their time together had cost his other daughter.
MG: I mean, if I understand the timeline right, Ancalime would have already had a lonely, isolated childhood (as she did in canon) long before Galadriel entered the picture and she and Aldarion began their affair, so this part at least isn’t her fault?
For Erendis, Galadriel felt contempt. Erendis had made her harbor, let her sink to the bottom of it. It was better than she deserved. She had rejected her own magnificent husband and King. Galadriel was certain Erendis deserved worse.
Kasanari: *outraged* This woman was driven to suicide as a direct result of your affair with her husband! The least you can do is show her some sympathy! The very least!
The Unfair Sex: 93
Galadriel returned to her palace in Edhilon with Celebrían, clutching the seeds of the malinornë. They reminded her so poignantly of her undying love for Aldarion, and her foolish mistake: the only Elvish woman to break the Laws of the Valar.
MG: …as opposed to all the other elvish women who went to Middle-earth with the Exiles in defiance of the will of the Valar, including some of Galadriel’s own relatives…
She could never return to the Undying Lands. Her life would be very, very long in Middle-earth. Over tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years, she would age. Her face would wrinkle, her beautiful golden hair and its iridescent golden light would dim and turn grey, until the coming of the Dagor Dagorath, which she would face as an ugly crone.
Tharkos: And of course we must come back to Polychron’s favorite topic – a woman fearing old age! Because that idea has not been beaten into the ground already!
MG: And I’ll note that we really don’t have a good sense of what extreme old age looks like in elves (mostly because, even by the time of LotR, the elvish race hasn’t actually existed long enough for any of them to get that old) though an early idea that Tolkien discarded was that they literally shrink (ie, becoming the tiny fairies of later legend); later he seems to have considered a process of “fading” into pure spirit. On those occasions we see elves who look or act like very old mortals, it’s usually because they’ve suffered some sort of trauma that caused it (such as Thingol’s grief and guilt over Luthien’s first death, or Gwindor being enslaved and tortured in Angband).
Loremaster’s Headache: 307
The Unfair Sex: 95
Celeborn agreed to raise Celebrían as his own daughter and they never mentioned her true father. For most of her life, Celebrían didn’t know she was half-Elven. When she grew up and fell in love with Elrond, everyone was surprised, except Galadriel.
Kasanari: And those two ideas are related… how, exactly?
She knew Celebrían was just like him, half-Elvish, and because Aldarion was her father, a much closer cousin than if she had been Celeborn’s daughter.
MG: *stunned* Is Polychron implying that Celebrian was more attracted to Elrond because she was related to him? Gah, did Marion Zimmer Bradley come back from the dead to (literally) ghostwrite this part? Also, the only half-elf/half-elf pairing I can think of in Arda’s history was Earendil/Elwing, who met because they literally ended up living in the same town (the refugees of Doriath – Elwing’s people – and the refugees of Gondolin – Earendil’s – both ended up settling at the Havens of Sirion). The Peredhil don’t seem to, like, somehow find each other or anything (and Celebrian should probably have been long dead by this point anyway; she’s not a descendant of Earendil and Elwing, and shouldn’t have had the chance to choose immortality – she might have lived as long as Elros, circa 500 years or so, but probably no longer, if Aldarion really was her father).
Loremaster’s Headache: 310
They married and had three children: the Elvish twins Elladan and Elrohir, very rare among Elves, as Aldarion’s forefathers Elrond and Elros had been; and the dark haired Arwen, who took after her grandfather Aldarion.
Tharkos: And who did not at all take after her dark-haired father, who she is supposed to strongly resemble. And the way this is worded implies that Elladan and Elrohir were elves, but Arwen was not. How… odd.
None of Celebrían’s children learned they were Númenórean, until they each wore Elentári in the Third Age of Middle-earth.
MG: Except that Elrond was the twin brother of the first king of Numenor. Aragorn describes him as “the eldest of all our race” in RotK, “our race” in this context being the Dunedain; he may have chosen to be counted among the elves, but he always maintained a connection to the Edain side of his heritage, and his children were at least kin to the Numenoreans on his side. Hells, Elladan’s name is usually glossed as “Elf-man” but could also be read as “Elf-Numenorean.” Clearly, their parents were trying to keep their heritage a secret!
Loremaster’s Headache: 312
Celendrian learned of their loves and losses when she put on Anqaúrë and slept, and sleeping, she dreamt, dreams of Númenor.
Kasanari: And of course, we must be reminded that our actual point of view character is experiencing all of this in the form of visions granted to her by that abomination of a ring. But this is her only appearance in this Four-forskaen chapter, as it finally, finally comes to a close.
MG: So, this section… I kind of hate it. First off, the Tar-Aldarion/Galadriel ship continues to be absolutely inexplicable (just… why these two characters, exactly?) and when you add in Celebrian’s “real” parentage (which will never really be relevant again) it just makes it even worse. But then you add in things like Erendis’s death, Ancalime’s bitterness and cynicism and Numenor’s growing hostility towards the elves and make them direct consequences of the affair (when obviously they had nothing to do with it in canon because it didn’t happen in canon) and it really feels like the fic is going out of its way to blame everything bad on that homewrecker, Galadriel (especially when Aldarion feels like he largely escapes getting tarred with that brush, despite obviously being just as involved in things). It just really makes it feel like another case of the fic’s weird and uncomfortable gender politics rearing their head, especially when you considering Ancalime doesn’t come off very well either. In fact, looked at objectively, all of these people are behaving pretty terribly (except Celebrian), which makes it really hard to care about any of this. Gah. Well, the good news is, we’re finally done with the Galadriel/Tar-Aldarion subplot. The bad news is we’re still not done with the flashbacks; next chapter has some actual present-day scenes, but continues with the Second Age stuff as well as we finally get to Sauron’s arrival at Eregion and the forging of the actual Rings of Power. And Polychron’s take on these events is… kind of wild. We’ll see you then! Our counts stand at:
Bigger, Louder, More!: 71
Expansion-Pack World: 23
Feel My Edge: 83
Happy Ending Override: 24
Linguistic Confusions: 36
Loremaster’s Headache: 312
Pervy Hobbit Fanciers: 52 (adding a couple of more points for how apparently all of Numenor’s subsequent history turned on Galadriel and Aldarion’s sex drives)
Plot-Induced Stupidity: 122
Rings-a-Palooza: 148
Take That, Tolkien!: 31
Traveling at the Speed of Plot: 35
The Unfair Sex: 93