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As she sat in the warmth of the morning sun, a strange thought popped into Elwing's mind, a memory of the visit from the Lord of Dreams. "Set your mind free of darkness, and remember all things, however dark, are more hopeful in the light," he had whispered, giving her mind ease and the willingness to continue.
Unfortunately, in recent times, after speaking with the Lord Irmo and hearing of the plight of her uncle, as well as remembering with horror her own fight to stay on course to see her husband, she was always aware of a nagging feeling that somehow, something was not right within the world. The plight of her uncle had set her on edge. Her own campaign to reach her husband had also left her with little hope that the world would ever be the same again. This she felt to the very core of her being.
Picking herself up from those dark thoughts, she thought she heard someone calling her name across the soft lapping of the waves. She looked up and dismissed it as the cry of the seabirds. But wait! No! There it was again!
A voice reminiscent of earlier days was reaching to her from far across the watery realm. A voice she instinctively recognised in her memories as that of the Lord of the Waters - her benefactor, the Lord Ulmo. He was calling for her to go to him. Being not afraid, the Lady Elwing reached out with her mind to find the presence of the mighty Valar, finding he was much closer than she had supposed. As she turned to look to the entrance to the harbour, there she saw, to her great surprise and utter relief, a familiar, yet strangely smaller, figure. She quickly rose and made her way around the harbour to the quay to welcome the Singer of the waves to the land of her uncle.
Ulmo watched the graceful glide of Elwing the White, her dainty feet sure on the path as she stepped out of the forest, walked across the green grass and stepped upon the white docks of Alqualonde. He noticed her feet seemed to barely touch the ground. She seemed to float instead of tread upon the ground. As she drew nearer, he softened his voice. "Hail, daughter of Dior and Nimloth, beloved of Eärendil." His voice still carried the roll of waves across sandy beaches.
Smiling towards the Singer of the Waves, the Lady Elwing answered, "Hail, dearest and most benevolent Lord of the Seas. It is with the greatest happiness I again look on your friendly countenance!"
Crossing his arms, Ulmo looked at Elwing, his piercing look regarding her. "I would know how Elwing the White came to the Swanhaven." Stern and aloof in his manner, there was a small play of a smile as Elwing approached him. He bobs his head at her friendly greeting.
"My Lord, it so happened that I was awakened several nights ago, at the imminent coming of dawn, by a dark sense of foreboding. I sensed a great menace around me, a menace which I found had driven my friends, the seabirds, to nestle on the shore close to my tower. I searched the skies for Vingilot to fly out and meet my beloved Eärendil to see if he had any inkling of what was causing the alarm of my friends, when I noticed in the skies an unnatural gathering of dark clouds. I felt a great need to see that shining hope in the skies above me, which drove me to transform, and use the gracious gift you once bestowed on me, to arise and begin my flight. Unfortunately, a dark foreboding menace robbed me of the joy of again seeing my beloved and caused me to drop from the sky."
He looked about the glittering jewelled city of the Teleri. "I think me that the absence of the Nelyar (Third), the Falmari who loved my seas as much as I do is an evil as great as any Melkor unleashed." He nods thoughtfully as he ponders Elwing's words, his heart troubled though his face was still, a mask of calm. "And you say that a great darkness robbed you of flight? What did it look like? How did it cause you to end up in the Swanhaven of your uncle?"
At this point the Lady Elwing bowed graciously towards her benefactor. Then looking again at his piercing gaze, she continued. "As I rose higher and higher through the unnatural clouds, that sense of foreboding, that dark menacing feeling of power unleashed itself into a tremendous physical force, manifesting in a powerful thunderstorm. It was as if the sky itself had turned against me, the clouds physically crushing me. I tried and tried to fly forward but, alas, the storm was so much stronger than I. I know not how I fortuitously came to fall in the seas around my uncle's home. All I know is that I have felt conflicting senses of both peace and alarm at finding myself here in such solitude - regaining a sense of the heritage of the Teleri."
Two dolphins jumped for joy in the breakwaters, chattering as they flung their bodies out of the water and dived back down. Ulmo paused, as though he was carefully listening to them, then turned to Elwing. "This ....this thing that cast you out of the sky...did it speak to you?"
Smiling as she followed Ulmo's gaze to the dolphins at play, she turned quickly back to answer, "Not in such a way that one might hear the words, my Lord. Though the seed planted in my thoughts throughout my ordeal was one of a loss of hope - such despair and hopelessness as I would not usually countenance in a normal storm. Never have I felt such an utter sense of despair - that nothing would ever be the same again."
The Lady Elwing looked up at the sky with the threat of a tear entering her eye. "My Lord, what if I am destined never again to see my beloved carrying the morning star across the sky? What if that dark menace has it in mind to destroy all hope and shrivel the hearts and minds of all eleven kind? I wonder if my uncle's disappearance is somehow linked with that same dark menace! The Lord of Dreams counselled me that my uncle is in trouble in some far off realm. He suggested perhaps I needed to decide what to do - stay and rest and await the return of the Teleri, or search out the lands of his cousin Queen Comet in the hope of finding him. I decided to rest awhile and feel my strength returning. I wonder if you can further counsel me my Lord?"
Ulmo answered her, his voice tender, like the soft lapping of the waters against the shoreline at low tide. "My child," he says, and his voice rolled about her like a gentle bob of a calm sea. "You must rest in the love and hope of Eru Illuvatar himself. You who have seen much travail in your own life know better than most life is ever changing." He paused. Behind him, in the distance, the dolphins give one more leap and swim away. "You know this, mayhap, more surely than the Vala, for time does not sweep us up in its net. It is but a backdrop for us...a tapestry upon the wall, in which is woven the lives of all the Children of Illuvatar." He advances, water pattering upon the white pristine docks. "In those tapestries both light and dark threads are interwined, " he continues. "It is both the trial and the triumph of Illuvatar's Children to weave these threads into the stories of their lives."
Ulmo cast his gaze again over the Swanhaven. "Thy uncle, Olwe, has been called upon to carry a great weight upon his shoulders. Ever were the Teleri and Vanyar obedient and faithful Children of Blesssed Eru, steadfast and faithful, even when it meant great tragedy." He paused and looked across the docks, as though, once more, it were littlered with the bodies of slain elves. He looks back at Elwing and commands, "Elwing, it is also thy time as well. Go, therefore, to Sylvahara, with all haste. Pause not but to call out to thy husband as you behold his vessel across the sky and see if he can answer your call. See what you can learn of Olwe, for his mind is closed to me, and this is a thing I have never known. Ever I have felt his quiet and steady presence, ready to serve the will of the Valar, his love for his people. But now I perceive a wall of darkness, and I am sorely aggrieved at this."
Ulmo retreats from the dock, pulling back and slowly sinking into the waters. "You have only to call out to me, Elwing the White, whisper to the waves...and I shall hear thee. " He extends his hand out to her and offers a large pearl, flawless. "Cast this upon the waters if you have need of me, and I shall know of that need and shall answer swiftly." He looks at her, and his features soften. "Go safely, go quietly, go quickly, and Blessed Eru keep you."
Her heart full to bursting, the Lady Elwing accepted the precious gift presented to her by the Lord Ulmo. "Again, I am in thy debt, oh gracious and most benevolent Lord of the Seas. How wonderful it is to know that in this world, even though I am alone in a far-off land, there is always someone watching over me. I shall call you, my Lord when my task is done." The Lady Elwing bowed reverently to the Valar, then looked again on his countenance and smiled. Then the Lord of Waves, Singer of the Sea cast off the form he was wearing, and spilled back into his ocean in a cascade of water.
With a great sense of purpose, yet with a small grain of fear planted in her breast, the Lady Elwing took her leave of her benefactor once more. Without a second thought, she shimmered into the shape he had long ago given her and started to fly upwards and outwards over the harbour of Alqualonde. Saying a mental goodbye to the home of the Teleri, and swearing she would one day return there with her uncle, she flew onwards and upwards as fast as she could while the sun was her friend and ally.
> Next
Unfortunately, in recent times, after speaking with the Lord Irmo and hearing of the plight of her uncle, as well as remembering with horror her own fight to stay on course to see her husband, she was always aware of a nagging feeling that somehow, something was not right within the world. The plight of her uncle had set her on edge. Her own campaign to reach her husband had also left her with little hope that the world would ever be the same again. This she felt to the very core of her being.
Picking herself up from those dark thoughts, she thought she heard someone calling her name across the soft lapping of the waves. She looked up and dismissed it as the cry of the seabirds. But wait! No! There it was again!
A voice reminiscent of earlier days was reaching to her from far across the watery realm. A voice she instinctively recognised in her memories as that of the Lord of the Waters - her benefactor, the Lord Ulmo. He was calling for her to go to him. Being not afraid, the Lady Elwing reached out with her mind to find the presence of the mighty Valar, finding he was much closer than she had supposed. As she turned to look to the entrance to the harbour, there she saw, to her great surprise and utter relief, a familiar, yet strangely smaller, figure. She quickly rose and made her way around the harbour to the quay to welcome the Singer of the waves to the land of her uncle.
Ulmo watched the graceful glide of Elwing the White, her dainty feet sure on the path as she stepped out of the forest, walked across the green grass and stepped upon the white docks of Alqualonde. He noticed her feet seemed to barely touch the ground. She seemed to float instead of tread upon the ground. As she drew nearer, he softened his voice. "Hail, daughter of Dior and Nimloth, beloved of Eärendil." His voice still carried the roll of waves across sandy beaches.
Smiling towards the Singer of the Waves, the Lady Elwing answered, "Hail, dearest and most benevolent Lord of the Seas. It is with the greatest happiness I again look on your friendly countenance!"
Crossing his arms, Ulmo looked at Elwing, his piercing look regarding her. "I would know how Elwing the White came to the Swanhaven." Stern and aloof in his manner, there was a small play of a smile as Elwing approached him. He bobs his head at her friendly greeting.
"My Lord, it so happened that I was awakened several nights ago, at the imminent coming of dawn, by a dark sense of foreboding. I sensed a great menace around me, a menace which I found had driven my friends, the seabirds, to nestle on the shore close to my tower. I searched the skies for Vingilot to fly out and meet my beloved Eärendil to see if he had any inkling of what was causing the alarm of my friends, when I noticed in the skies an unnatural gathering of dark clouds. I felt a great need to see that shining hope in the skies above me, which drove me to transform, and use the gracious gift you once bestowed on me, to arise and begin my flight. Unfortunately, a dark foreboding menace robbed me of the joy of again seeing my beloved and caused me to drop from the sky."
He looked about the glittering jewelled city of the Teleri. "I think me that the absence of the Nelyar (Third), the Falmari who loved my seas as much as I do is an evil as great as any Melkor unleashed." He nods thoughtfully as he ponders Elwing's words, his heart troubled though his face was still, a mask of calm. "And you say that a great darkness robbed you of flight? What did it look like? How did it cause you to end up in the Swanhaven of your uncle?"
At this point the Lady Elwing bowed graciously towards her benefactor. Then looking again at his piercing gaze, she continued. "As I rose higher and higher through the unnatural clouds, that sense of foreboding, that dark menacing feeling of power unleashed itself into a tremendous physical force, manifesting in a powerful thunderstorm. It was as if the sky itself had turned against me, the clouds physically crushing me. I tried and tried to fly forward but, alas, the storm was so much stronger than I. I know not how I fortuitously came to fall in the seas around my uncle's home. All I know is that I have felt conflicting senses of both peace and alarm at finding myself here in such solitude - regaining a sense of the heritage of the Teleri."
Two dolphins jumped for joy in the breakwaters, chattering as they flung their bodies out of the water and dived back down. Ulmo paused, as though he was carefully listening to them, then turned to Elwing. "This ....this thing that cast you out of the sky...did it speak to you?"
Smiling as she followed Ulmo's gaze to the dolphins at play, she turned quickly back to answer, "Not in such a way that one might hear the words, my Lord. Though the seed planted in my thoughts throughout my ordeal was one of a loss of hope - such despair and hopelessness as I would not usually countenance in a normal storm. Never have I felt such an utter sense of despair - that nothing would ever be the same again."
The Lady Elwing looked up at the sky with the threat of a tear entering her eye. "My Lord, what if I am destined never again to see my beloved carrying the morning star across the sky? What if that dark menace has it in mind to destroy all hope and shrivel the hearts and minds of all eleven kind? I wonder if my uncle's disappearance is somehow linked with that same dark menace! The Lord of Dreams counselled me that my uncle is in trouble in some far off realm. He suggested perhaps I needed to decide what to do - stay and rest and await the return of the Teleri, or search out the lands of his cousin Queen Comet in the hope of finding him. I decided to rest awhile and feel my strength returning. I wonder if you can further counsel me my Lord?"
Ulmo answered her, his voice tender, like the soft lapping of the waters against the shoreline at low tide. "My child," he says, and his voice rolled about her like a gentle bob of a calm sea. "You must rest in the love and hope of Eru Illuvatar himself. You who have seen much travail in your own life know better than most life is ever changing." He paused. Behind him, in the distance, the dolphins give one more leap and swim away. "You know this, mayhap, more surely than the Vala, for time does not sweep us up in its net. It is but a backdrop for us...a tapestry upon the wall, in which is woven the lives of all the Children of Illuvatar." He advances, water pattering upon the white pristine docks. "In those tapestries both light and dark threads are interwined, " he continues. "It is both the trial and the triumph of Illuvatar's Children to weave these threads into the stories of their lives."
Ulmo cast his gaze again over the Swanhaven. "Thy uncle, Olwe, has been called upon to carry a great weight upon his shoulders. Ever were the Teleri and Vanyar obedient and faithful Children of Blesssed Eru, steadfast and faithful, even when it meant great tragedy." He paused and looked across the docks, as though, once more, it were littlered with the bodies of slain elves. He looks back at Elwing and commands, "Elwing, it is also thy time as well. Go, therefore, to Sylvahara, with all haste. Pause not but to call out to thy husband as you behold his vessel across the sky and see if he can answer your call. See what you can learn of Olwe, for his mind is closed to me, and this is a thing I have never known. Ever I have felt his quiet and steady presence, ready to serve the will of the Valar, his love for his people. But now I perceive a wall of darkness, and I am sorely aggrieved at this."
Ulmo retreats from the dock, pulling back and slowly sinking into the waters. "You have only to call out to me, Elwing the White, whisper to the waves...and I shall hear thee. " He extends his hand out to her and offers a large pearl, flawless. "Cast this upon the waters if you have need of me, and I shall know of that need and shall answer swiftly." He looks at her, and his features soften. "Go safely, go quietly, go quickly, and Blessed Eru keep you."
Her heart full to bursting, the Lady Elwing accepted the precious gift presented to her by the Lord Ulmo. "Again, I am in thy debt, oh gracious and most benevolent Lord of the Seas. How wonderful it is to know that in this world, even though I am alone in a far-off land, there is always someone watching over me. I shall call you, my Lord when my task is done." The Lady Elwing bowed reverently to the Valar, then looked again on his countenance and smiled. Then the Lord of Waves, Singer of the Sea cast off the form he was wearing, and spilled back into his ocean in a cascade of water.
With a great sense of purpose, yet with a small grain of fear planted in her breast, the Lady Elwing took her leave of her benefactor once more. Without a second thought, she shimmered into the shape he had long ago given her and started to fly upwards and outwards over the harbour of Alqualonde. Saying a mental goodbye to the home of the Teleri, and swearing she would one day return there with her uncle, she flew onwards and upwards as fast as she could while the sun was her friend and ally.
> Next