Chronicled in Mithlond in the realm of Lindon,
On this the 48th day of Iavas in the Year 3018 of the Third Age.
Six days have passed since the news of the death of my father and his companions reached Mithlond, and today their bodies returned to the Grey Havens and have been interred in tombs of white marble with great ceremony. From this room in which I write I can hear the lament the Edhil sing for the dead, but I have not the heart to join them; for me the grief is still too near and much weighs heavily on my mind besides.
Naneth, in her anguish, has become ever more weary of the world, burdened by both its sorrows and her own, and speaks no words save, 'Penin estel!' in her weeping. I fear that she yearns for release from the labour of living and will waste away in grief, and so it is my thought to counsel her to take the Straight Road; to seek rest and solitude in Aman the Blessed Realm before she is consumed utterly in spirit and body by her torment.
I doubt not that she will agree, but on condition that I accompany her on the White Ship, and so I must prepare to forstall her arguments; for I have sworn my oath of vengeance before the Valar, and so sworn it may not be broken. Also, I am young still; my grief will one day diminish and I will yet find joy in the experience of Ennor. She may contend that it is her maternal duty to remain with me until I am full grown, but it is clear to me that she will not endure her melancholy for yet another fifty years.
Nay, she must leave now before, alas, it is too late. She is a Healer, she knows that hers is an affliction of the spirit and as such can not be healed in the mortal lands, for recorded in lore is the counsel of Manwë:
"Marriage of the Eldar is by and for the Living, and for the duration of life. Since Elves are by nature permanent in life within Arda, so also is their unmarred marriage. But if their life is interupted or ended, then their marriage must be likewise. Now marriage is chiefly of the body, but it is nonetheless not of the body but of the spirit and body together, for it begins and endures in the will of the fëa. Therefore when one of the partners of a marriage dies the marriage is not yet ended, but is in abeyance. For those that are joined are now sundered; but their union remains still a union of will."1
I shall feign to seek safety with a kinsman, perhaps of her choosing, which should allay her concern for my lingering in the Hither Lands while she departs. It grieves me that I do not intend to keep this pledge, but not as much as it would to see her waste away in grief.
1 "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar" - Morgoth's Ring
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