...
2) I started off intending to call Volume One in my book series, "Cold War in Arthedain". The main character starts making her mark on the world in the late 1300's of
the third age in (you guessed it!) Arthedain. But the best parts of the story, that deserve the most attention, start some 600-700 years later in
Gondor or
Wilderland after Arthedain was destroyed.. I consider the later parts of the story to be "the main storyline".
Why not just start the story around the year 3A 2000 instead? Funny you should ask! I'm not truly sure what my answer will be.
The story in the 2000s has roots in the 1300s. The
events of the preceding centuries made the main character who and what she is. And whilst they did not make the antagonist in the 2000s the person they are, they did motivate the antagonist to strike back at the main character once they are able to.
So, it's essential story information.
I've been revealing bits and pieces of it in the main storyline. Like the fellowship, the characters spend much time travelling on their quest. They have to talk about "something" on their journey, so why not tell stories from the past? The entire fellowship needs to know stories from the past to fill in critical gaps in their knowledge. They can share those
tales around the campfire. It's also a great way to slip in some red herrings.
But some things happened to the main character, things the antagonist did to her she never intends to share with ANYONE. Not her champion. Not her husband. Not her children. What she went through was vile and she still feels shame, disgust and anger. Side effects from it have altered key aspects of her behaviour the reader needs to know about but her fellow travellers won't learn (if she can help it).
She also participated in activities which were honourable but clandestine. She is not at liberty to talk about them. So, again, the campfire tale approach won't work.
In the absence of a solution despite much thought given to the problem, I did what I always do. I start writing and see what comes out. Sometimes what I write works as is, at other times the process gives me the write "in" to modify what I've written into a solution. And sometimes it doesn't. Too early to tell with this problem yet!
More on this tomorrow, I just discovered it's 2 hours past my bedtime!
Well, a bit after "tomorrow" but hey, we do what we can!
My wife had knee replacement surgery two weeks ago yesterday. That's taken the bulk of my time and energy. It went well and now that things are settling down again, I'll be able to write more.
I'm 29 pages into this chapter. So far, I'm at 5 different people expressing what happened from their own point of view. There's a lot going on.
The following is probably boring as all get out, or likely to be considered cray-cray, but it is what it is.
Relevant Pre-chapter story info:
Main character (nickname Míri) is a superlative
bard. She is the ardalagan
Lorien, i.e., the royal bard of Lorien. It's a court position that's part emissary, part herald, part court entertainer.
On a mission for her king, she re-finds the man she believes is the love of her life (and vice-versa) in 3A 1973 after meeting and being separated by fate back in 3A 1390. As a key member of Lorien's court she must have her king's permission to wed. They
travel to
Khazad-dum where he awaits word from her. (He was banished long ago and has been working to be considered worthy again. He is a descendant of
Feanor.) She goes into Lorien to make her petition. He is still considered unsuitable (a very prudent decision) if not a correct one.
Amroth forbids the marriage, forbids her to contact him (other than to convey this knowledge), and forbids her to leave Lorien. She misses the fall of Arthedain whilst she is sequestered in Lorien. Aside from missing all that adventure and the associated tales of heroism and valour (a hard punishment for a bard of her skill!), she has no idea what has happened to the orphanage she founded and concealed in a fen in Arthedain. She gets word the orphanage survived the war, Khazad-dum falls to
Durin's Bane, her dear childhood friend Nimrodel flees Lorien and Amroth goes after her. Before leaving, he makes the main character his regent, both due to her ability and because her sense of duty will bind her in Lorien in his absence. Nimrodel disappears, Amroth disappears, and
Celeborn and
Galadriel come to Lorien to help stabilize the
realm after Amroth's sudden departure. She hands over the regency to them. Celeborn appears to take a solid dislike to the Míri. He makes a comment that Durin's Bane might be a better neighbour than the
dwarves and a prince of House Feanor makes his position clear.
From about 1389 until 1973 she spent most of her time in Arthedain warring against
Angmar's spies, saboteurs, and traitors in Arthedain. In that warring, she earns a nemesis, an
evil elf whom she drives out of NW
Middle-earth with a clever trick and a cunning intelligence operation. Sadly, it's the only time she ever outsmarts him, but he remembers. Oh, how he remembers! His speciality is rotting a culture from within.
At one point, she was betrayed by a fellow elf (Angall) who went bad. Angall betrayed his companions. Many of them died. Miri was one of the few who lived, and that barely. Angall joined
Sauron's side (whether he knows it's Sauron or not, she wouldn't know, given that none of
the wise know Sauron is back yet.) In the 3A 1600s Miri was on a ship that foundered in a storm off the coast of
Umbar and was sold into slavery to one of the lords of Umbar, who was Angall in human disguise. She managed to escape when the plague hit Umbar a number of years later. Fearing retribution from Angall that would interfere with her ability to keep her orphanage safe, she sent him word that no matter what he had done, if ever he needed a sanctuary, she would offer him one to the best of her ability. It was a peace offering in hope, only offered for the betterment of the children in her care. 20 years ago, Angall dropped off his newborn son Dirgon for safekeeping. Dirgon was raised like all the other children in the orphanage to value knowledge and lore, to share it willingly, and to learn and honour kindness, courage and loyalty to the Free
Peoples. He knows his father brought him here for his safety, but nothing else. Oh, FYI, at this point in time, I've chosen for Umbar to still be part of Umbar. (
Tolkien was ambiguous over when it broke away from Gondor, I decided that was unlikely to have happened before Gondor sent such a large army north to Arthedain. That means Angall will be in hiding from Gondorian authorities when Dirgon is taken to Umbar.)
Whoosh, that's a lot!
Chapter info:
Start the chapter with a comment from the historical compiler of this work. He explains who has provided the material and that he has concerns about one of the tale-tellers becoming an unreliable witness in part.
Next comes a letter from Miri to Galadriel and Celeborn, sent from
Lindon. In short, she reports what she learned about Nimrodel and Amroth's fate over the last 2 1/2 years of searching southern Gondor (you read that info in LOTR!). Glad you 2 are in charge of Lorien. She took ship in Gondor to Lindon and is going on to Arthedain to determine what needs doing. Oh, and Toodles.
Sgt Joe Friday of Dragnet fame would be pleased as her letter is "Just the facts, ma'am." This is short and sweet, less than a page.
(Incidentally, this sets the stage for her to turn that research into a hauntingly lovely ballad about Amroth and Nimrodel (which you also read in LOTR!) FYI, this is a great rendition of the ballad:
. )
The next section is told by Elnarion, the elven headmaster at the orphanage hidden in the fen at the confluence of the
rivers Lhun and Uialduin. He explains how she holds the elven-made wards in the fenland and uses them to get back unseen and unchallenged to the island in the fens where the Orphanage is. They talk the next morning and fill in each other on the happenings in her life in the 14 years since she was last here. She volunteers to escort a recent graduate of the orphanage (Dirgon) back to his family (more on that later). Elnarion explains that Arthedain no longer exists and no longer has a king. Aranarth has chosen to remain in hiding and styles himself chieftain of the
rangers. The realm has been ruined by Angmar.
She ponders upon this and realizes her work to save Arthedain is over. She knows enough to realize that whatever moves the forces of evil in concert will now move its focus south to Gondor, so that is where she needs to set to work. She rips the wards over the lands out of her heart and gifts them to Aranarth, whom she avoids meeting because if she doesn't do this quickly, she'll lack the courage to do what is right. The sudden awareness of the entire fenland knocks Aranarth for a loop and she uses the opportunity to leave, with Dirgon trailing along behind her.
The next section is told by Dirgon. He's a 21-year-old half-elf. Dirgon remembers her (a bit) from when he was 7 and younger, but now he has to reconcile those warm and loving memories with the woman he now travels with. He has a head full of knowledge and a bit of a temper, but no practical ability to put it to use to deduce what will be going on around him in the world of his father he's about to enter. She feels honour-bound not to bad-mouth his father to Dirgon. She also feels honour-bound to make sure he knows what he needs to know and that she's prepared him to make "good" decisions in all senses of the word. She had not planned to be away from him for the last 14 years, so she's got to evaluate him and prepare him for what is to come and she's only got this journey to do so. She chooses two main lines of work, the first is to get him used to evaluating what people say against what they do against what he knows from other sources - all whilst he's having to deal with people who tell him "something" that's true but in a misleading way. She will continually trick and mislead him with wordplay until his mind and instincts are well-honed against it. He'll be angry, frustrated, puzzled. She'll be hiding things from him, things she wants him to find out but he's got to figure them out for himself. There will be a constant tension between them, mitigated by the fact that she's a truly loving and sweet woman who loves him just like all her other children at the orphanage. This has been very hard to write!
Second, she wants to expand and strengthen his sense of empathy. If that becomes strong enough and he becomes sure in his own mind on what is right and what is wrong, he won't willingly follow the path of least resistance in his father's house. That would be to go along with whatever evil his father is up to and wants him to help with. Life doesn't have to be about power over others. It can be over love, friendship and honour. So she takes him on a roundabout overland path to Umbar and his father. (She refuses to tell him the route they will take, she makes him guess and deduce it as they go.) The circle thru razed Arthedain to witness the aftermath of that destruction - death, ruined and cursed land, etc.. Then they go thru the western
shire and stop for her to perform at the mid-summer Faire in
Michel Delving. She teaches him how to apply cosmetics to hide their flawless elven skin so they can pass as humans. (Tolkien never said
elves had big, long, pointy ears to my knowledge.) She wants him to both experience what a well-ordered land with peaceable people can truly be like and see she is still the same loving person with children his 7-year-old self remembers.
There's a side quest to see if she can learn news of Amroth or Nimrodel with the
palantir in the Tower
Hills,
the one that is keyed to
Valinor. This part is only thinly sketched out.
From there, they head across southern Minhiriath to its eastern coast and up to Lond Daer to find a ship to SW Gondor. Dirgon is learning how to travel unseen, unremarked, and to mislead those who spot them should misfortune make their passage known..
In Lond Daer, she'll run across a bard entertaining the local nobility using altered forms of old heroic tales. The altered forms denigrate the courage and honour of the tale's heroes in subtle ways. She recognizes the irony in how this is accomplished. When the bard recognizes Miri's harp and unintentionally shows fear, she knows her nemesis is back at work in this part of the world after an absence of nearly 600 years. She challenges the bard to a duel of song and tales and sends her packing in disgrace with her hosts. But that means Miri must quickly leave the area lest she be captured (again) by her enemy. This is just sketched out, but in some detail.
From there, they travel thru the backcountry of Gondor to Sarn Erech in Morthond. Miri isn't in her light travelling disguise here because she recently spent 2 1/2 years searching for Nimrodel and Amroth in this area. An insufficient disguise would be more noteworthy than just being present in the area. In Morthond there's a small party of dwarves who work in the mines now that they are homeless after the fall of Khazad-dum. One recognizes her from her visit there with her betrothed. He was a good friend of her betrothed. He approaches her to give his condolences at her loss, but botches the job. Worse, she doesn't know her betrothed died in Khazad-dum protecting his friends amongst the dwarves, so the news is a real surprise of a gut-punch. For the first time in her life, she gets drunk.
A patron in the
inn asks her to sing for them (she's known to be a truly excellent bard). She does, but the sorrow in her overwhelms her. Her mournful song is so intense and so strong many of the patrons flee in dismay and despair. Others have to be restrained to keep them from harming themselves. Others collapse in weeping heaves of sorrow. The shades of the dead bound by the Stone of Erech are drawn to the sorrow and hundreds of them enter the town and then the inn or the public square outside it. She has no idea, she is lost in unrestrained sorrow.
The watch arrive with piercing lights that drive away the shades and she and Dirgon are unceremoniously tossed out the
city gate. She is not arrested as she is an established emissary to Gondor from Lorien and only the
King of Gondor can punish an emissary. But she can be banned from Morthond by the princess and that happens. The good part of this is that Dirgon demonstrates he's fully learned the lessons of empathy and loyalty to one's companions in how he responds to this adversity.
Dirgon skirts over the abasement of herself that Miri undertakes to get back into the good graces of the princess of Morthond. (The princess is a great person and they had been quite friendly.) This is why our historian compiler of these tales considers Dirgon to have become an unreliable witness for this part of the tale. This part is written.
The historian adds in a letter sent by
the Master of Edhellond (an elf-haven at the mouth of the river Morthond in the Bay of Belfalas, across from the newly renamed
Dol Amroth) to the
Lady of the Galadhrim. In it, the master relates a tale told to him by reliable
elf-friends at the court in Morthond, of the dread events that happened due to Miri's song (having no idea as to what caused it) and the self-abasement she suffered to make amends. This part is just sketched out.
From there we return to Dirgon's tale. They go to Harondor and Umbar. He's figured out Miri thinks his father is a traitor who is actively and willingly evil. She hands Dirgon off to Angall. She has no home in Lorien anymore, no home at the orphanage in Arthedain anymore, and no future with her deceased betrothed here in Middle-earth either. Her duty to her ward Dirgon is complete and she really doesn't care what happens to her anymore.
Whether Angall has remembered his honour, or Dirgon insists upon it, or Angall realizes it would be a kindness to kill her (so he doesn't), she leaves them in peace. She disguises herself as a human male and hires on as a mercenary guard on a trade caravan to
eastern lands and disappears from the knowledge of the wise and her enemies for many years. This is very, very lightly sketched out.
Oh, forgot to mention that a sixth person, an ex-assassin for her nemesis, who defected, is the one who made the historian aware of Dirgon. He had been sent to track down Dirgon and kill him, but chose to fake the killing before he defected. I may add a bit from him at this point as he's been pretty quiet of late.
Next few chapters:
She won't be able to return westward several years later as Umbar falls to the Dark priests. Instead, she takes a trade caravan to the far south, to a trade port she visited on a mission for the
White Council back in the 1600s. (It was this port she was returning from when her ship foundered off of Umbar and she became a slave there.) She finds true love. Comes back to NW Middle-earth by sea to reconcile herself at court in Lorien and to get permission to marry. In the process of that, she gets into the main adventure of the book.
This chapter and the next couple afterwards complete the transition from counter-intelligence activities in Arthedain to heroic quests in Gondor and the rest of NW Middle-earth. They set the stage for the return of her nemesis and his well-motivated and well-conceived attacks on her and her friends and loved ones.