Of Uiloniell and Tinnurion
Uiloniell was a fair Elf maiden of the Silvan people of Lórien. Her hair was golden and her eyes sea-green; and she was ever silent, for she had made a vow not to speak ere she would see her mother and father again in Valinor. They had left the world at the end of the Second Age; her father perished under Amdir at the Battle of Dagorlad, and in her grief her mother followed soon after. This left Uiloniell much aggrieved, who vowed not to speak or sing again until they would be reunited across the sea.
Early in the years of Eryn Lasgalen, come Mereth Aderthad, a feast of reunion between the people of Lórien upon Anduin and the Wood-Elves of the north, Tinnurion found himself in a rare mood for shared merriment. He had come from his secret abode near the mountains of the forest to partake in the festivities, and lo, there he beheld the fair maiden Uiloniell, dancing silently round the newly growing trees, saplings of silver beech and dark oak.
Never had the Wood-Elves seen the Black Elf dance to a tune, but now he did so eagerly, and it had them much amused, for he danced strangely, almost like one aged among mortal kind. It was a moment of singular bliss for Tinnurion, the like he had not experienced since he walked the tender leaf-covered earth of Region in Beleriand of old. Little did it take for Uiloniell to notice him, and without words spoken they danced well into dawn and beyond, as the sun could not sway him otherwise.
From that moment of merriment came a bond of trust between two very curious Elves. And in the century prior to his fading, Tinnurion shared gleeful moments with her. She even offered him her father’s old armour, forged and tailored for his part in the conquest of Mordor. To mend the bite of time, she had the worn raiment reforged to fit his stature, and his particular taste.
Henceforth, by the love of Uiloniell, he walked armour-clad in the raiment of the Silvans of Lórien, and to their people he seemed almost fair now, near Sindar-like, as he had been in Eglador by Esgalduin. Would that he had never tasted the slavery of Melkor, he might have become great among the Galadhrim.
The love between Tinnurion and Uiloniell lasted only a hundred years, which is a short time in the reckoning of the Elves. And much of that time they spent apart, for Tinnurion could not quite live by her ways, though she made great effort to live by his. She went with him to his secret abode, making her the first Silvan Elf ever to set foot in those dim halls. There she lived with him, mending his hurts, and they would walk many nights under starlight together.
And in his time with her he grew less secretive and he would at times venture out with her during the hours of the sun. It was by Uiloniell’s doing that he travelled to Isengard, where now bloomed many flowers and grew many new trees. He met with the Enyd, the shepherds of trees, and by their draught was his maimed stature at last reformed. But there were some wounds that not even the ent-draught or the loving embrace of Uiloniell could heal, and when he was reminded of them, he took to lone wandering, parting with her for years without word.
The longest he was away, was when Tinnurion came by his old friend Burfi, who had by now become great among the dwarves of Erebor. They shared adventures in the second war of the Dwarves and Orcs, as the dwarves contested the Grey and Misty Mountains in the Fourth Age with the goblins that still resided there. And with great desire did they think of reclaiming Moria and make it a kingdom of dwarves once again. It was here that Tinnurion performed the last of his selfless deeds, and with it, the last time he would wield Níniolêg, the Weeping Thorn.
When he came home from his very last adventures and wanderings, the weariness for the world overtook him. In his desire to walk forever in the twilight of another world, away from the changing under the sun, he unknowingly hastened the fading of his hroä, and thereby he was ended. It is said that Uiloniell uttered his name the moment he passed into the Unseen, breaking her vow of silence, and because of it she travelled at last into the West.
