Connections 2 – Imladris

Father came home.

He visited Elrond, together with some other family-fathers who also lived here in Imladris with their families. I heard how the front door was shut and how my parents were quietly talking to each other. I couldn’t understand what they were saying because they were cautiously quiet.

Too quiet if you ask me. Someting was going on.

I turned on my back and stared at the ceiling of my room.
My thoughts began to wander. My father, the tailor…

Should I step into his shoes and learn the craft of tailoring, too? I didn’t know. I already have tried to handle needle and thread but I think it’s not for me. I was never really satisfied with what I created. Whatever I designed was not as elegant as the clothes my father made. He tried to cheer me up and told me I should not give up this quick. “Mastery doesn’t come all by itself. You will have to be patient and practice a lot to be a real master”, he kept telling me. Of course he was right. He was a tailor for more than three hundred years now and of course his skills were superior. This year he gave me a dress after the fashion of the Galladhrim for my birthday present. He had designed it by himself after a pattern from Caras Galadhon. It was white with golden applications and it was just gorgeous. I like it very much and I wear it as often as I can.

My parents were still talking in the livingroom downstairs. What was going on there?

Then the front door was opened, Elhendir came home.

Elhendir -my older brother- came home from his watch in the outskirts of Imladris. He alrady has found his profession. He came to be a great hunter and was very skillful with bow and arrow. Elhendir often took me with him on his watch and showed me the regions around Imladris. Sometimes we even saw one of the trolls in the valley but we always were careful enough to not cross his ways.

“Good evening!” he said out loud to make sure everyone would hear him.

I jumped onto my feet, got into my slippers and went downstairs to say hello. “Welcome home, dear Elhendir”, I greeted him as I approached him, “How was your watch?”.

“Quiet. No Yrch in the area. They don’t dare to come into our vicinity.” he answered.

I went up to him, smiled and gave him a hug. Then I saw into his face and it was calm. He watched the parents and surmised that something serious was going on. Then he looked at me, puzzled.

“Glenwin, Elhendir, please come to us we need to talk with you”, father said from behind me. I turned around. Mother was standing next to him and her face was torn. She seemed to be happy and sad at the same time. It was confusing. Elhendir and I said nothing and went to the table and we all sat down.

Father began: “I visited Elrond today.” He looked at Elhendir then at me.

“Elrond advised us to leave Middle-Earth and travel to the grey havens to the white ships and go across the great sea Belegaer. He said the elves must leave Middle-Earth. We have fought all too much and it is time for Mankind to take upon this duty. Your mother and I have decided to take Elronds advice.”

Silence…

The thoughts raced through my head: Leave Imladris? My beloved Imladris? Impossible!
“I don’t understand.”, I said, “We have a good life here. There are no real threats here to prey upon us. There are only some wild animals and the dumb trolls in the Bruinen valley but…”
“My dear daughter”, mother said and looked at me. “You are young and you haven’t encountered the real dangers which threaten us in all Middle-Earth yourself. But you know what they can do and what they already did.”

Glorafinde… My aunt went on a quest to seek confrontation with the Yrch. She wanted to hunt them down and wipe them off Middle-Earth. Wanted to “Get rid of their gross grimaces” how she told us in a quite unlikely manner for an elf “once and for all.”
Four months later they brought her lifeless body back to us to Imladris. Two Yrch arrows stuck out of her chest. We never came to know what exactly happened but the outcome laid there covered by a blanket yet blatantly before us.

That happened a long time ago, her day of death came and went for the 80th time this year. Eighty times we had to live through this dire day full of grief and eighty times we were reminded of the shock and the loss our family had to suffer. I was only a child back then but I will never forget the sight of my aunt as she laid there. Motionless, inanimate, cold and dead. Placed on a stretcher and in her those foul arrows. Those venomed and accursed Yrch arrows.
And I will never forget how my mother collapsed in her pain.

Yes, I could understand why she wanted to leave, even though I did not made myself clear how urgently she needed to go. She wanted to flee the memory. But we all also knew that we would never be able to really escape from this memory. The remembrance was and still is burned into our souls and we will carry it with us for all time to come.
But something gave my mother the hope that she could find peace in the west. But maybe it was only the hope feeding itself.

As I thought about all this my mother broke out in tears. Her own memories overcame her. “I don’t want anything happen to you. I don’t want to lose my own flesh and blood! Everytime you two go away…” She stalled.

My eyes filled with tears as I saw her standing in front of me. She trembled in her despair. And I understood that it also was not clear to me how she must have suffered in all the years. How she was full of fear everytime Elhendir and I went on a stroll through the surrounding landscape. She never said a word to us about it. It was not clear to me up until this moment.
I walked up to her and took her in my arms to try to solace her. “Nothing will happen to us, mom.” I said with as much conviction I was able to bring up. “Nothing will happen to us”, I said again, “We will go”.

The family stood together and we hugged ourselves. We would leave Middle-Earth. The time had come to say our goodbyes to my friends here in Imladris with the only hope to meet again sometime when they also would go on their journey across Belegaer. It would be a sad farewell. Never again I would be happy at one of Elronds festivities and laugh and dance and sing there. But there was no alternative if my mother was ever to be healed from her wounds.

One month later the preparations for the long journey to the Grey Havens were finished. Our house was given away, our furniture was sold and everything we now posessed was only that what we had with us and what our horses were able to carry.

And so we began the journey. After we climbed the steep and narrow path we approached the border of Imladris where we stopped and took one last view back. My eyes wandered from west to east. There was the stable with it’s master and over there were the forges where I stood so often and watched the metal smiths. The fire and the ember did fascinate me everytime anew but I saw no value in making armor or swords. I do not want to kill and I don’t need such weapons. My view went eastwards. There was the market place just next to our house where father stood so often to sell the clothes he made. He stood there only yesterday and sold his last pieces so he didn’t have to take them onto the journey. My parents did not take anything with them which they would not really need. They wanted to start from scratch – in a new future and a new world amongst elves and without the war against the Yrch.

I looked further to the right. There was the pavillion where many a feast was celebrated. Where Elhendir found interest in a young lady for the first time. But before he plucked up all his courage to speak to her someone else had come and won her heart. Oh how angry he was about himself. He had his chance but wasn’t able to seize it. I think if he will meet another elven woman who interests him this won’t happen again.

Then my view went over to Elronds house which stood there tall and impressive. Higher than all the other houses it stood in the eastern end of the valley. At so many wonderful merriments I have been there! The singing contest two years ago! Or the poem competition last year where I won second place! How proud I was and am even today!

“Glenwin, come… we must go on”.

My fathers voice called me back to reality. I said my goodbyes to Imladris and panned one last time to the west. I silently said goodbye to our house and turned around. Then we left the valley and went out into the open highlands of the Trollshaws.

And so we followed the path which many elves already had followed and many elves after us will follow.

-------------------------------

Floradine took a log from the basket and put it into the fire which still burned in the fireplace.
“Imladris is so beautiful.” she said.

“Yes it is”, I agreed.

Some time ago Floradine went onto her own journey and she indeed came to Imladris herself. She has seen how Imladris looks like today, she has visited our old house and met the people who live there now. Floradine is a lively little Hobbit lass. Adventurous like Elhendir she is, and inquisitive.
But her real motivation for her journey was that she wanted to see where I came from. That brought her so far from the Shire. She began to seek her own roots there where I had mine.

She came to me and hugged me. I pulled her up onto my lap and took her in my arms. And this way we sat there for a while at the fire until I saw that she had fallen asleep. I took her up and carried her to her bed and covered her with a blanket. Then I went back to the fireplace, sat down and watched the dancing flames. I listened to my memories for a long time at this evening…