"Peace and Joy and wisdom"

Several years ago, searching thru Tolkien, I found this as a motto for the Arda groups of Second Life in "the Book of Lost Tales"

of more worth than all the glory of Valinor and all the grace and beauty of Kor is peace and happiness and wisdom,

I translated the "peace and happiness and wisdom" using [site] into quenya, " Sére ar alasse ar saila!", meaning (Peace and joy and wisdom!)". This short gesture has been popular since then.

But much darker than the snippet I give is the full quote from a speech of Manwë (King of the Valar, called "Gods" in this version). The Noldor from Kor (Tirion) had behaved selfishly and unfriendly to the Valar and each other. Taking advantage of this created sorry state, Melko caused the first death of an elf, the first regicide, and the first orphan.

Without the Gods who brought you to the light
and gave you all the materials of your craft,
teaching your first ignorance,
none of these fair things you love now so well
ever would have been;

what has been done may again be done,
for the power of the Valar does not change;

but of more worth than
all the glory of Valinor and all the grace and beauty of Kor
is peace and happiness and wisdom,
and these once lost
are harder to recapture.

Cease then to murmur and to speak against the Valar,
or to set yourselves in your hearts as equals to their majesty;

rather depart now in penitence
knowing full well that Melko has wrought this evil against you,
and that your secret trafficking with him has brought you all this loss and sorrow.
Trust him not again therefore,

nor any others that whisper secret words of discontent among you,
for its fruit is humiliation and dismay."

While Manwë certainly preaches eloquently, I am simpler spoken:

if you must chose between
your friendship and your stuff,
choose your friends.
They are harder to come by and harder to make
than anything made by hands.

And, when you make that mistake, as we do because we love our stuff,
apologize and atone to your friends and those that helped you.
and turn away from those that lead you astray.

Letters about Dwarves

This, from a unsent addenda of a letter JRR Tolkien to Rhona Beare in October 1958, colors "The Silmarillion" (published posthumously in 1977 from stories JRRT had been writing since 1914) Chapter 2 "Of Aulë and Yavanna" comparing "Christian Mythology" (JRRT's own phrase) "sin and the fall" to good races erring in his own stories.

Aulë, for instance, one of the Great, in a sense 'fell'; for he so desired to see the Children, that he became impatient and tried to anticipate the will of the Creator. Being the greatest of all craftsmen he tried to make children according to his imperfect knowledge of their kind. When he had made thirteen [One, the eldest, alone, and six more with six mates], God spoke to him in anger but not without pity; for Aulë had done this thing not out of evil desire to have slaves and subjects of his own, but out of impatient love, desiring children to talk to and teach, sharing with them the praise of Ilúvatar and his great love of the materials of which the world is made

The One rebukes Aulë, saying that he had tried to usurp the Creator's power; but he could not give independent life to his making. He had only one life, his own derived from the One, and could at most only distribute it. 'Behold' said the One; 'these creatures of thine have only thy will, and thy movement. Though you have devised a language for them, they can only report to thee thine own thought. This is a mockery of me.'

I notice dialogue differences and a few additional facts in this version of the story: "mockery", "thirteen", and later, "laughter".

Then Aulë in grief and repentance humbles himself and asked for pardon. And he said; "I will destroy these images of my presumption, and wait upon thy will.' And he took a great hammer, raising it to smite the eldest of his images; but it flinched and cowered before him. and as he withheld his strike, astonished, he heard the laughter of Ilúvatar.

'Do you wonder at this?' he said. 'Behold! thy creatures not live, free from thy will! For I have seen thy humility, and taken pity on your impatience. Thy making I have taken up into my design.'

This is the Elvish legend of the making of the Dwarves; but the Elves report that Ilúvatar said thus also: 'Nonetheless, I will not suffer my design to be forestalled: thy children shall not awake before mine own." And he commanded Aule to lay the fathers of the Dwarves severally in deep places, each with it's mate, save Dúrin the eldest who had none. There they should sleep long, until Ilúvatar bade them awake. Nonetheless there has been for the most part little love between the Dwarves and the Children of Ilúvatar. and of the fate the llúvatar had set upon the children of Aulë beyond the circles of the world Elves and men know nothing, and if Dwarves know they do not speak of it.

And one more later paragraph, marginalia to Colonel Worskett in September 1963

No one knew where the Ents came or first appeared. The High Elves said the the Valar did not mention them in the 'Music'. But some (Galadriel) were of the opinion that when Yavanna discovered the mercy of Eru to Aulë in the matter of the Dwarves, she besought Eru (through Manwë) asking him to give life to things made of living things not stone, and that the Ents were either souls sent to inhabit trees, or else that slowly took the likeness of trees owing to their inborn love of trees. (Not all were good [illegible word]) Then Ents thus had mastery over stone. The males were devoted to Oromë, but the Wives to Yavanna.

Nice to find answers about ent-wives, dwarf-wives, and the laughter of The One.

Appearances

(This is a mirror post from Second Life note card by Lihan Taifun of JRRT quotes.)

"Now the Valar took to themselves shape and hue; and because they were drawn into the World by love of the Children of Ilúvatar, for whom they hoped, the took shape after that manner which they had beheld in the Vision of Ilúvatar, save only in majesty and splendour Moreover, their shape comes of their knowledge of the visible World, rather than of the World itself; and they need it not, save only as we use raiment, and yet we may be naked and suffer no loss of our being. Therefore the Valar may walk, if they will, unclad, and then even the Eldar cannot clearly perceive them, though they be present. But when they desire to clothe themselves, the Valar take upon them forms some as of male and some as of female; for that difference of temper they had even from their beginning, and it is but bodied forth in the choice of each, not made by that choice, even as with us male and female may be shown by the raiment but is not made thereby. But the shapes wherein the Great Ones array themselves are not at all times like the shapes of the kings and queens of the Children of Ilúvatar; for at times they may clothe themselves in their own thought, make visible in forms of majesty and dread.
...
"Then Melkor saw ... that the Valar walked on earth as powers visible, clad in the raiment of the World, and were lovely and glorious to see, and blissful. ... His envy grew then the greater within him; and he also took visible form, but because of his mood and the malice that burned in him that form was dark and terrible.

Silmarillion, "Ainulindalë"

[Ulmo] does not love to walk upon the land, and will seldom clothe himself in a body after the manner of his peers. If the Children of Eru beheld him they were filled with a great dread; for the arising of the King of the Sea was terrible, as a mounting wave that strides to the land, with dark helm foam-crested and raiment of mail shimmering from silver down into shadows of green. ... Ulmo's voice is deep as the deeps of the ocean, which only he has seen.

Silmarillion, "Valaquenta"

In the form of a woman, [Yavanna] is tall, and robed in green; but at times she takes other shapes. Some there are who have seen her standing like a tree under heaven, crowned with the sun; and from all its branches there spilled a golden dew upon the barren earth ...

Silmarillion, "Valaquenta"

In Angband Morgoth forged for himself a great crown of Iron, and he called himself King of the World. In token of this he set the Silmarils in this crown. His hands were burned black by the touch of those hallowed jewels, and black they remained ever after; nor was he ever free from the pain of the burning, and the anger of the pain.
...
Nonetheless his majesty as one of the Valar long remained, though turned to terror.

Silmarillion, "Of the Flight of the Noldor"

[Arien, Maia of the Sun] was chosen because she had not feared the heats of Laurelin,, and was unhurt by them, being from the beginning a spirit of fire, whom Melkor had not deceived nor drawn into his services. To bright were they eyes of Arien for even the Eldar to look on, and leaving Valinor she forsook the form and raiment which like the Valar she had worn there, and she was as a naked flame, terrible in the fullness of her splendour.

Silmarillion, "Of the Sun and Moon"


Of old there was Sauron the Maia..... He became the most trusted of the servents of the Enemy, and the most perilous, for he could asssume many forms, and for long if he willed he could still appear noble and beautiful, so as to deceive all but the most wary.

Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"

[During the fall of Númenor] the world was broken, and the land was swallowed up, and the seas rose over it, and Sauron himself went down into the abyss. But his spirit arose and fled back on a dark wind to Middle-Earth, seeking a home.

[After the fall of Númenor, Sauron returned to his old haunts in Mordor, in Middle Earth.] There now he brooded in the dark, until he had wrought for himself a new shape; and it was terrible, for his fair semblance had departed for ever when he was cast into the abyss at the drowning of Númenor.

Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"

But at last the siege was so strait that Sauron himself came forth; and he wrestled with Gil-galad and Elendil, and they both were slain, and the sword of Elendil broke under him as he fell. But Sauron also was thrown down, and with the hilt-shard of Narsil Isildur cut the Ruling Ring from the hand of Sauron and took it for his own. Then Sauron was for that time vanquished, and he forsook his body, and his spirit fled far away and hid in waste places; and he took no visible shape again for many long years.

Silmarillion, "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age"

[Gandalf describes his battle with the Balrog:]
" ... I threw down my enemy, and he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side where he smote it in his ruin. Then darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time, and I wandered far on roads that I will not tell.
"Naked I was sent back -- for a brief time, until my task is done. And naked I lay upon the mountain-top. ... There I lay staring upward, while the stars wheeled over, and each day was as long as a life-age of the earth. ... And so at the last Gwaihir the Windlord [Chief of the Eagles] found me again, and he took me up and bore me away."

The Two Towers, "The White Rider"
(According to the timeline in Appendix B, Gandalf was dead for 19 days.)

"If you must know more, his name is Beorn.
He is very strong, and he is a skin-changer.
"... He changes his skin: sometimes he is a huge black bear, sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a great beard. I cannot tell you much more, though that ought to be enough. Some say that he is a bear descended from the great and ancient bears of the mountains that lived there before the giants came. Others say that he is a man descended from the first men ... I cannot say. ... He is not the sort of person to ask questions of. At any rate he is under no enchantment but his own. ... As a man he keeps cattle and horses that are nearly as marvelous as himself. ...
As a bear he ranges far and wide."

The Hobbit, Chapter 7

"The realm of Sauron is ended!" said Gandalf.
"And as the Captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out toward them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent: for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed; and a hush fell.

Return of the King, "The Field of Cormallen"

"To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mist gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered, looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away, and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.

Return of the King, "The Scouring of the Shire"

Mahtan's Bride

One cliché solution for a missing role play parent is "she died long ago". I prefer to make the absence more interesting, with a hint that the role could be played when the player appears.

My dear friend Maralee plays Nerdanel, Fëanor's wife. Her character father, Mahtan, played on occasions by other players as suits them, merits several lines in Chapter 4 of "The Silmarillion".

While still in his early youth he [Fëanor] wedded Nerdanel, the daughter of a great smith named Mahtan, among those of the Noldor most dear to Aulë; and of Mahtan he learned much of the making of things in metal and in stone.

(note that Feanor is a youth, so she is therefore older than he!)

Bitterly did Mahtan rue the day when he taught to the husband of Nerdanel all the lore of metalwork that he had learned of Aulë.

Thus, Mahtan doubtless awoke in Cuiviénen and made the great march to Aman, became a magnificent student of crafts that Aulë taught everything he could, then taught the next generation of Noldor elves, including Prince Feanor, what he knew. One can even invent stories about Mahtan easily:

When the Teleri were welcome new arrivals and guests in Tirion for a year, Mahtan was torn because he dearly wanted to be the master architect of Alqualondë for the Teleri, but was newly wed. So in such a time, to choose between go and build, as he loved doing or to stay and be the husband his lady deserved was no easy burden to him. But it was the lady herself who resolved it by insisting that Mahtan teach her stone craft during the building of Alqualondë, so both they went and made themselves a home in Alqualondë as he and the Noldor and Teleri constructed the rest of the city. Then they returned to live in Tirion just before Fëanor's was birth and their home is still there near the palace on the hill.

And of Mahtan's wife, Nerdanel's mother? There is nothing, not even a name on JRR Tolkien's copious genealogies. "Mahtandil" [mah- "great" + tano "smith" + -ndil "beloved"] would be one of her titles. We can guess that Mahtan's bride was not royalty or she would have merited some mention if she were..and we can guess that she, like he, was among the first of the created elves, awoke on Cuivienen and had the urge and courage to make the trek to Aman with King Finwë and others. Without doubt she loves him deeply, not only for who he was, but what he made.

Perhaps the mother was like Nerdanel ["nerdo" strong man +"anel" daughter] .

Nerdanel also was firm of will, but more patient than Fëanor, desiring to understand minds rather than to master them, and at first she restrained him when the fire of his heart grew too hot; but his later deeds grieved her, and they became estranged. Seven sons she bore to Fëanor; her mood she bequeathed in part to some of them, but not to all.

Maralee suggests poetically:
My father loved her as one loves their next breath
yet they were never demonstrative with their love
I do not think I ever remember then holding hands, for instance
but she cared for him in ways that supported his creativity
He spoke of how he would spend long hours sharing his ideas with her
and how she had a gift to refine his ideas without him suspecting this
and she left a longing in my heart for the gentleness she possessed
I only know that my father kept her memory alive always with his enduring love of her
and he was never the same...
He seemed to take her loss and create a new energy with it
perhaps it is why some of his inventions were so intense..

Or perhaps she is something like Yavanna, (Aule teh Smith ::Yavanna = Mahtan the Smith :: [his wife]?), implying that she is intensely interested and skilled in plant and animal life and independent in her thinking and actions.

Perhaps she was close to Miriel and Finwë, the first King and Queen of Noldor, would have been her contemporaries. Perhaps she was like Miriel ["shining jewel daughter"] some in this story:

Míriel was the name of his [Fëanor's] mother, who was called Serindé, because of her surpassing skill in weaving and needlework; for her hands were more skilled to fineness than any hands even among the Noldor. The love of Finwë and Míriel was great and glad, for it began in the Blessed Realm in the Days of Bliss. But in the bearing of her son Míriel was consumed in spirit and body; and after his birth she yearned for release from the labours of living. And when she had named him, she said to Finwë: 'Never again shall I bear child; for strength that would have nourished the life of many has gone forth into Fëanor.'
Then Finwë was grieved, for the Noldor were in the youth of their days, and he desired to bring forth many children into the bliss of Aman; and he said: 'Surely there is healing in Aman? Here all weariness can find rest.' But when Míriel languished still, Finwë sought the counsel of Manwë, and Manwë delivered her to the care of Irmo in Lórien. At their parting (for a little while as he thought) Finwë was sad, for it seemed an unhappy chance that the mother should depart and miss the beginning at least of the childhood days of her son. “It is indeed unhappy,” said Míriel, 'and I would weep, if I were not so weary. But hold me blameless in this, and in all that may come after. She went then to the gardens of Lórien and lay down to sleep; but though she seemed to sleep, her spirit indeed departed from her body, and passed in silence to the halls of Mandos.
The maidens of Estë tended the body of Míriel, and it remained unwithered; but she did not return. Then Finwë lived in sorrow; and he went often to the gardens of Lórien, and sitting beneath the silver willows beside the body of his wife he called her by her names. But it was unavailing; and alone in all the Blessed Realm he was deprived of joy. After a while he went to Lórien no more.

And this, being almost everything JRRT wrote, leaves us digest it and imagine what might have happened to her. And since I don't play the role, I do not get to decide motivations and "speculative history", but can suggest fates:

1. "Mírindil" she chose to be called: Míriel's dearest and closest friend, from the first moments elves walked in the world. Since they were not sisters, they arranged that their children be married, even before thy had taken husbands, that they might become true sisters. Indeed, each took a fine husband, Mírindil naming her daughter after her husband's legendary strength. Nerdanel grew to adulthood, but as events unfolded decades later at Fëanor's birth, Mírindil finally escorted Míriel and Finwë to Lorien, staying behind happily, while Finwë had to return, his kingdom to guide. She sometimes appears in elvish dreams, happy under silver willows beside her sleeping, dearest friend.
   
   
2. Or we can go back to "she died."
   

How to Create RP

From Second Life's Lexie Lucas by an author who wishes anonymity (tell me is you change your mind, author!) but says, "feel free to post that note card on your blog".

OK!

USING YOUR CHARACTER TO CREATE RP
(or: 'How To Avoid Standing About With Nothing To Do')
reprinted with permission of author
=========================================================

Huge sim-wide roleplays are all good and fun, but what happens on the side and in between? This is where your and others' characters come in. These are just some tips to help inspire players to keep roleplay evolving freely on a variety of levels.

1. Character flaws/habits/quirks.
=====================
Your character's strengths are, of course, ever useful to the land, to friends, in battle and other circumstances. But the fun can often arise from a character's weaknesses or flaws. Consider these carefully and how you might bring them into RP.
Your character may have a phobia... Try putting them in a position where this phobia can manifest itself. Perhaps they are an addict... perhaps they are prone to jealousy... store these facts in the back of your head and play on them.
Give your character a habit or quirk to flesh them out. Not only does this give more depth and insight into them, but it gives them something to do. Think about yourself or people you know in real life for inspiration.

2. Goals.
======
Set goals for your character, long term and day-to-day, from the most mundane routines of life to their grandest ambitions – this not only keeps them motivated, but gets them out and about in the sim where they may naturally bump into somebody and get into conversation. The smallest details in your RP can flesh it out. You are creating a life, and that life needs desires and purpose no matter how ordinary. Examples...
X is hungry. X wants to find a meal.
X is dabbling in potions and needs to find ingredients.
X has a friend who is unhappy. X wants to try to help them or cheer them up.
X ate some bad fish and seriously needs to find either a physician or an outhouse.
X is a demonic power-hungry being who ultimately wishes to overthrow the king. Today, X is going to work on turning the king's personal advisor against him.

3. Jobs.
=====
Everybody has a guild they are affiliated with, their main job. However there are work opportunities in the villages which can give you more play and lead to more and interesting RP. Consider having a skill, craft or trade on the side which your character can perform in times of peace. A strong-armed warrior could double as a blacksmith or butcher... a herbal healer might also run a farm... an apprentice mage could sideline as a tavern maid... etc. If there are players already fulfilling these roles, go and make up some excuse to need their wares or craft skills and go RP with them.

4. Variety - the Spice of Life.
==================
Be rounded and varied in your personal storyline. If others find you entertaining, they will enjoy RPing with you. RP isn't always about 'winning'.. it is about mutual entertainment.
Try not to make it kill after kill or tragedy after tragedy. If you are a 'dark' character, try to think of ways to be bad beyond relentless slaughter, as this can put some players off playing with you. Be creative and clever with it. How can you use people or play them off against each other? How can you trick an individual or make them conform to your whim?
Likewise, try not to find yourself in a cycle of getting captured/injured/in dire tragedy and having people rescue you all the time, as this too can become dull very quickly. If your character has been through a huge tragedy, try to find them a pleasant storyline.. see them happy. The more rounded the character's personal storyline, the more interesting they are for others to play with.

5. The Medieval Era.
=============
Medieval fantasy is set in... whaddya know... the medieval era. This is not only for human players - if you are playing a fantasy character from medieval folklore, be sure to do some research about the era. We all create the authenticity of the medieval world we play in. More so, the medieval setting is there to inspire your play. Explore folklore of the time to inspire character. Medieval folklore is littered with fantastic, imaginative storylines, which are begging to be put to use in RP.

6. Help Each Other.
============
Take an interest in other people's characters and their personal stories and goals. Help each other's stories to develop. In a dull moment, why not share stories of your characters' pasts? Who knows... maybe some seemingly unimportant detail might inspire some further RP.

7. Go With The Flow.
============
RP is more like improvisational acting than creative writing. Anything can happen, simply because there are so many minds together at once. Know your character well enough to adapt to any given situation while still remaining consistent and always keep in mind that other characters have their own agenda and motivations and will not necessarily do what you expect.

8. Have Fun. ;)
========

Dawn of the Fourth Age - "Aule in Mandos"

When asked by the RP leaders in Second Life's "Dawn of the Fourth Age" RP why Aulë didn't appear in Alqulaondë more often, the obvious answer is that Aulë bases out of distant Valimar. When asked to provide an RP regarding what he'd been doing, I wrote something they liked well enough to post to their blogspot site with no changes at all (a rarity, I'm told). Disappointingly for me, they chose to have others continue the the story arc without my input. Good luck to them.

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

This letter is carried by a maia in the form of a badger:

"To the High King of Arda, Manwë Sulímo
A letter from Aulë Talka Marda
Written in the Halls of Mandos, the ancient secret cells of Melko,
On this Spring Equinox of the year eleven of the fourth Age of the Sun and Moon

My dearest Lord High King, Aratar and Brother in the will of Eru Ilúvatar:

It is with regret that I find myself detained interminably in the duty of enlarging the Halls of the Dead in anticipation of the armies of the dead that would arrive here at the passing of the Third Age. Although I am weary of this work, I sending this letter at my first opportunity to explain my prolonged absence and request your further forbearance in the completion of my duties.

My duty is ever to oversee, if not construct personally, the major works and domains of the Vala in the World and the immortal souls that dwell there, and this project no less than others has occupied my thought and energies these many long months. A great deal of the needed space has already been hollowed and finished, nearly enough to accommodate all anticipated need for the next few centuries.



Now the trap of Melko, who dwelt for three long ages here in the Halls of Mandos, has sprung on me. He, while here, was not idle: he left what I can only describe as arcane and obscene graffiti on the dark walls and stones deeps around the perimeter of the caverns of the dead, hidden through four long ages until I and my people discovered the beginnings of them while enlarging the Halls. Some of these diagrams and paragraphs, scrawled in Black Speech, in Valarin, in Quenya and Sindarin and Common tongue, and even, frighteningly, in Khuzdul, describe horrible procedures and rituals for making natural beasts into fell creatures, for subverting fair plant-life into poisonous abominations, for devising destructive energies both physical and magical and emotional torments to break the sane mind. Some appear to be insane and demonic raving. Some are taunts written to me by name. Some are potent wards and spells that catch and bend the mind and body and spirit of those who happen on them.

These dark magics Melko left here are most dangerous and strong. On unexpectedly finding and opening these secret cells and the magics therein, six Maiar were quite badly damaged by the energies unleashed on the opening of the wards: those I sent with escort to the Lake of Estë to rest and recover. Three were rendered insane: those I sent with an escort to the Gardens of Lorien to find peace and calm. I dismissed almost all of the Maiar who aid me in this excavation and stone work in the Halls. The remainder I sent to complete the small remaining work of finishing the new Halls extension, then resume their duties in Valinor. There is some secrecy among us about this discovery, but a secret known to more than three is no secret, therefore I asked no oath of them for silence, only their wisdom in sharing what they know.

After hiding the entries to Melko's cell in Mandos, so that none of the wandering ghosts or spirits nearby will happen here, I and only two of the most magically adept Maia in my service are slowly and carefully dispelling the runes and enchantments we find, and wiping away the danger in the walls of the old cells of Melko in Mandos. The magics sometimes surprise me in the strength and subtlety, but I take grim satisfaction in seeing them dissected and dismantled one by one. We are carefully recording what Melko wrote and devised, for whatever else he is, he is clever and subtle. This prolongs the time it will take us to cleanse them all before we vacate this place for it is too fraught with peril until this work is done, thus I am effectively trapped and cannot anticipate the end of it since Melko spent many long idle years creating this ghastly and abominable testament.

Further, I must confess to you now, my Lord, that your brother Melko anticipated that I would be among those who found these writings, and his writings to me personally do pierce my heart. In example, there is one long quarto laying at my feet the troubles of the Noldor: He writes that my dealings with the Noldor was detrimental to them, that my attitude of teaching the most willing while neglecting the unwilling cultivated elitism among them, that my favoritism of some among them harbored alienation among them, that my teaching metallurgy directly brought about the Banishment of Fëanor and therefore the Kinslaying of the Teleri Elves of Alqualondë, that my renouncing my love for them separated them from the Vala who would aid them in Middle Earth, that they would be better and truer Children of Iluvatar had I not meddled in their affairs, that I did a fine job of molding them to be haughty and dangerous, nearly as well as he might have himself. These are clever deceit and false causation in sooth, but also in sooth these echo some of the fears in my own heart. Even now how can I face the Noldor who have returned to Aman when I forswore my friendship and patronage to them in ages past? I would not treat them with enmity, but my heart is broken still, and I cannot face those I once called "Aulendil". I am uneager to walk under the sun or moon or stars of Aman yet for my heart is too heavy for now.

Now I know that I am missed and loved in Aman and I miss these dear ones also. Yavanna or any of the Valar or Maiar would rush to aid me and even dwarves and elves also at even a hint of my request and need but I would not wish this. You know that this news will dismay many into pointless turmoil and rash actions, thus I must invoke your circumspection regarding it, if you will. I fear that even this outcome, of either isolating myself from my loved ones or placing them in peril, is one that Melko devised as an energy draining and time-consuming, delayed and poignant revenge on me for his own chains. It is only a matter of some finite time, though, before this, my fated work, is done and well done.

In the meanwhile, I pray and request that you will advise me as you will. The maia bearing this letter knows the way to me, and can return safely to me on your order. I further pray that you will find some way to relay something of my situation without alarming those we love, and to convey my best wishes and hopes for a speedy return to those who care for me.

I remain ever yours, in the building of Arda,
Aulë Talka Marda

High Elvish marriage

Researching High Elvish weddings is a relatively fruitless task. JRR Tolkien's trilogy and Hobbit contain none of them. The Silmarillion, often detailed, give no details at all about ceremony. "While still in his early youth, [Fëanor] married Nerdanel" is about the longest Elvish description you will find. The only Valar wedding described is thus:

Now it came to pass that while the Valar rested from their labors, and watched the growth and unfolding of the things that they had devised and begun, Manwë ordained a great feast; and the Valar and all their host came at his bidding...
And it is sung that in that feast of the Spring of Arda, Tulkas espoused Nessa the sister of Oromë, and she danced before the Valar upon the green grass of [the island] Almaren.
Then Tulkas slept, being weary and content.

One unusual wedding website quotes extensively from a "Morgoth's Ring" chapter: "Laws and Customs among the Eldar"

"At the end of the feast the betrothed stood forth, and the mother of the bride and the father of the bridegroom joined the hands of the pair and blessed them. For this blessing there was a solemn form, but no mortal has heard it; though the Eldar say that Varda was named in witness by the mother and Manwë by the father; and moreover that the name of Eru was spoken (as was seldom done at any other time). The betrothed then received back one from the other their silver rings (and treasured them); but they gave in exchange slender rings of gold, which were worn upon the index of the right hand.

Also, among the Noldor, it was a custom that the bride's mother should give to the bridegroom a jewel upon a chain or collar; and the bridegroom's father should give a like gift to the bride. These gifts were sometimes given before the feast. "

I extract these elements from the entire quoted text:

Courtship

♥ usually with familial approval
♥ sometimes since childhood
♥ no pre-marital conjugation

Handfasting

♥ in early adulthood, soon after age 50
♥ the father physically giving the daughter's hand to the groom
♥ the families announce betrothal.
♥ the two exchange silver rings
♥ handfasting lasts one year at least, often much longer.


The return of the rings signals revocation of intent to wed. Recall "one year" in age of the Trees is about 9.5 sun-years, so that is a nice long hand-fasting. In modern parlance, the "engagement" is similar: a time where the couple and their families learn to deal with each other and a large project of arranging the wedding celebration itself.

Marriage Ceremony

♥ brides mother and grooms father join the couple's hands.
♥ those parents bless them, solemnly invoking Manwë, Varda and Ilúvatar
♥ the silver rings are returned to one another
♥ gold rings are exchanged

Júli meldanyan, cuilenya ar melmenya

'To Juli my beloved, my life and my love'

The Wedding Feast

♥ occurs before or around the ceremony
♥ the king and/or father usually presides
♥ jewel and jewelry gifts are given to the couple
♥ food and music and dancing and vast attendance

♥ then sleeping happens and life goes on.

Now, to locate some elvish "solemn form blessings" to make a ceremony.