It is the 1st day of Firith
In the 3015th year of the Sun
Of the Third Age of Middle-earth

The Enderi have ended, and now begins the season of Narbeleth that is also called Firith in the speech of the Sindar, and thoughts of the fading days of Laer brings to my mind the likewise fading of the days of the Elves.

Many a long year has passed since the Laegil of Lindon first came among the Tawarwaith of Eryn Galen and they welcomed us as kinsmen, for we were aforetime all of the Lindar on the Great Journey from Nen Echui. And thereafter were we both of the Nandor who lingered in the Vales of Anduin, before Denethor led our folk into Beleriand.

Likewise had they befriended the wandering Avari, for we had all of us been of the Nelyar kindred when Oromë first bade the Unbegotten to follow him into the West. And when Oropher led his household of Iathrim eastwards from Lindon to Rhovanion, they too were greeted as kin, for the Sindar are also of Telerin descent. Thus there was in Eryn Galen a merry mingling of Grey-elves, Green-elves and Wood-elves; but though we are akin, we are yet unalike.

For the Sindar desired to live the simple life of the Silvan Elves and adopted their speech and took names of Silvan form, yet they brought with them the wisdom, arts and skills of Doriath ere its ruin (and I count the written word to be the foremost of these!), and they united the scattered Tawarwaith into the Woodland Realm and became its lords. The Laegrim who came before them yet hold some customs of old: foreswearing the eating of flesh and dwelling only in the safety of the high branches of beech and oak; but otherwise the lore of the Laegrim is much alike to that of the Tawarwaith.

But that which sets us apart is our unlost hope to complete the Great Journey and take the Straight Road into the Uttermost West, whilst the Avari are content to remain in Middle-earth. We also hold great love for the beauty of the world, but greater still is our fear of fading into twilight unless we depart unto the Blessed Realm; for it is our doom to be bound to the circles of the world until its ending, and for those who remain to grow weary of the world as the fire of our spirits consume us, and we thus become unbodied 'Lingerers', unseen by mortal eyes and uncalled to the House of Mandos.

But this is no cause for estrangement between our kin, for while in our hearts we are Laegel and honour the lore of our forebears, we yet deem ourselves foremost to be Tawarwaith; a Green-elf clan in the Wood-elf kindred.

3