-The Lothlorien! Says Aragorn. I am happy to hear the wind in the trees again! We are hardly more than five leagues from the Gates, but we can go no further. Let us hope that here the virtue of the Elves will guard us this night from the peril that is coming behind us.
-If only the Elves still remain here in the darkening world, says Gimli.
-It is a long time since any of my people have returned to this land from which we set out in the distant past," says Legolas, "but we have learned that Lorien is not yet deserted, for there is still a secret power that keeps the country safe from evil. Nevertheless, its inhabitants rarely let themselves be seen, and perhaps today they remain deep in the woods, far from the northern border.
-They certainly remain deep in the woods," says Aragorn, sighing as if inspired by some memory. We have to fend for ourselves tonight. We will go a little further to the middle of the trees, and there we will leave the path to look for a place to sleep.
He took a few steps forward, but Boromir didn't follow him and remained undecided:
-Is there no other way? he asked.
-What better way would you like? Said Aragorn.
-A simple road, should it lead through a hedge of swords, said Boromir. Our Company has been led by strange paths and, until further notice, to bad fortune. Against my will we have passed under the shadows of Moria, to our doom. And now we must enter the Golden Wood, you say. But we have heard of this perilous land in Gondor, and it is said that few who enter it emerge, and of those who do, none have escaped unharmed.
-Do not say unharmed, but by saying unchanged you will be in the right," Aragorn replied. But knowledge is lost in Gondor, Boromir, if in the city of those who were once wise they speak badly now about the Lothlorién. No matter what you think, there is no other way for us unless you want to return to the Gate of Moria, climb the mountains without a clear path or swim the Great River alone.
-Well, go for it! said Boromir. But it is perilous.
-Perilous, indeed," said Aragorn, "beautiful and perilous, but only those who fear evil, or who bring with them some evil. Follow me," said Boromir.
Some time later they came to a river.
-Here is the Nimrodel! said Legolas. On this river, the Wood Elves composed many songs long ago, and we still sing them in the North, remembering the rainbow in its waterfalls and the golden flowers that floated in its foam. Everything is dark now, and the Nimrodel Bridge is broken. I am going to bathe my feet, because it is said that water is good for tired people.
He stepped forward, went down the steep bank and entered the river.
-Follow me! he shouted. The water is not deep. Let's ford on the other side. We can rest on the other bank, and perhaps the sound of the waterfall will bring us sleep and forget our grief.
One by one they went down after Legolas. Frodo stood for a moment by the edge, letting the water flow over his tired feet. It was cold, but the touch was pure, and as he moved forward and the water rose to his knees, he felt his limbs washed from the stain of the journey and from all weariness.
Merry and Pippin couldn't resist the urge to splash each other and Sam contemplated the splendours of the river in admiration.
When the whole Company was on the other side, they sat down, rested and took some food, and Legolas told them stories of the Lothlorien that the Black Forest Elves always kept in their hearts, stories about the sunlight and stars on the meadows along the Great River before the world was grey.
-Can you hear the voice of Nimrod? asked Legolas. I am going to sing you a song by the virgin Nimrodel, who had the same name as the river by which she once lived. It is a beautiful song in our language of the forest, but here it is in the language of the West Indies, as some people in Imladris sing it.
With a soft voice, which barely dominated the rustle of the leaves above them, he began:
He was once an elven virgin
Daytime shining star
His white coat was gold edged,
Her silver grey shoes.
A star was placed on his forehead
A light on her hair,
Like the sun on the branches
Golden in beautiful Lorien.
...
Legolas's voice changed, and the singing stopped:
-I can't sing any more, he said. This is only part of it, I have forgotten a lot. It is long and sad, for it says how pain invaded Lothlorien, the Lorien of the Flowers, when the Dwarves awakened evil in the mountains.
-But it was not the Dwarves who did the evil, says Gimli.
-I didn't say that, but the evil did," Legolas replied sadly. So, from
Many Elves of Nimrodel's relatives left their home and went away, she got lost far to the south, in the passes of the White Mountains, and did not come to the ship in which Amroth her lover was waiting for her. But in spring, when the wind passes through the leaves, her voice can still be heard near the waterfalls that bear her name. And when the wind is in the south, Amroth's voice rises from the sea, for the Nimrodel flows into the Silver Course, which the Elves call Celebrant, Celebrant in Anduin the Great, and the Anduin flows into the Bay of Belfalas, from where the Elves of Lorien took to the sea. But neither Nimrodel nor Amroth returned.
never. It is said that she had a house built in the branches of a tree that grew near the Cascades, because it was the custom of the Elves of Lorien to dwell in trees, and perhaps it still is. That is why they were called the Galadhrim, the people of the Trees. In the depths of their forest, the trees are very tall. The inhabitants of the woods did not dig the earth like the Dwarves and they did not build strongholds until the Shadow came.
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The Daughter of the Moon Volume I
FanfictionElenwë is an elf. Well... half an elf to be exact. She didn't always wonder who her parents were and where her special abilities came from. But more and more she wondered about her origin. Raised in Rivendell, by none other than Lord Elrond, she su...
