Roswehn of Mirkwood

Confessions

"And how will you call your son?" Bilbo asked, as he sat on a small bench with Roswehn, among the flowers he cultivated outside the house. Both were enjoying the early morning sun. Roswehn had chosen to stay in the Shire for five days. She wanted to know the world of the Hobbits and visit the famous four Farthings of the Shire. She would have never been able to return to Eryn Galen by the end of July, as promised to Thranduil.

"Haldir." She answered.

"It's a nice name, does it have any particular meaning?" Bilbo asked.

"It's the name of someone who loved me, an Elf of Lórien, he saved me, protected and comforted me, I think it's fair to pay homage to him in some way." Roswehn said. "The meaning of the name is hidden hero, that Haldir is really a hero, in his own way. You know, he convinced me to go back to Greenwood, even though he knew he would lose me. He wanted me to be happy. The heroes are not just those who sacrifice their lives for an ideal ... I have also discovered this, during the last year."

"But...forgive my question...don't you think you have ... loved too many Elves? I mean, first Thranduil, and then that one of Rivendell and this guy you are talking about now ..." Bilbo looked at her smiling, but Roswehn's gaze made him shut his mouth.

"What are you trying to say?" she asked. "Do you want to offend me?"

"No, no, no! It was just curiosity ..." Bilbo replied. She, however, could not really get angry at him: she could not resist that genuine, smiling face.

Except for that problem: the Ring. Roswehn was sure Bilbo kept it somewhere.

She had even thought of rummaging in his house, in a moment of distraction of the Hobbit. But he would have noticed: his house was so ordered in every detail, that the girl could never rummage around, without him noticing even a very small movement of the most insignificant object. As Thranduil knew the position of each leaf in Mirkwood, Mr. Baggins knew perfectly his house.

Roswehn laughed. "I see you understood last night's speech, my heart has been left alone for all these years, and now maybe I want to make experiences. Then, the Elves know how to capture your heart, I assure you." She revealed. "You have no wife, right?"

"No. I never thought about it, I'm fine here on my own. With my books ..." Bilbo said, crossing his hands behind his head.

"I've already heard this ..." the girl commented. "I think I'm a bit like you ... Maybe in the next life I'll be a Hobbit, a chubby Hobbit with lots of curls."

"And with big feet, no, you would not like it." Bilbo said. "How do you think Thranduil will react to the news, that is, to the fact that he will have a second son?"

"I really have no idea: what happened is against every elven law, just the fact that he feels affection for me is against the true essence of those creatures. In theory, when two Elves choose to marry and be together it is forever; there can not be two loves in the life of a pure Elf ... unless it is half blood, I'm well informed about that." Roswehn said. She felt as if she was in front of a confessor. Not even to Elrond she had revealed those things. "Thranduil had a wife, with whom he raised a child, and he still wears the ring that symbolizes their marriage. The Elves are inextricably monogamous, you know, at least they should be."

"Is it not that ... maybe ... he did not really love his bride?" Bilbo tried to ask. "I mean, you know, sometimes the Princes of a kingdom plan marriages for reasons that have nothing to do with love: to have an heir, to give their people a successor to the throne ..."

"But not the Elves. They take everything seriously, especially the relationships among them, but I am a human and ... I am afraid I am just a nice toy in his hands, as Edith says." Roswehn sighed. "This doubt doesn't leave my mind."