The waters of the Forest River flowed swift and strong nigh the green-shadowed glade that was home to the Laegil of Mirkwood. There the great beeches came right down to the riverbank, till their feet were in the stream, and upon a thick beechen root sat mother and son, dangling their legs in the clear running water; but while it swirled around the elf-maiden's calves, the short limbs of the elf-boy barely dipped his toes in its wet coolness. The summer sun was bright above the forest roof and its dappled light glimmered upon their heads; in its luster their hair gleamed auburn against the tree's broad silver bole.
Amdirren was teaching Methlegel[1] the art of carving a flute with tools of wood and stone in the manner of the Elves of Lindon aforetime; wood-shavings scattered from their hands and were swiftly swept downstream as they fell.
And while he watched his mother demonstrate some specific aspect of the skill, there flashed a glint of gold as the sunshine played upon the slender ring she wore on her right hand. This he knew to be the token of her wedding to Gellin, his father, but she wore another ring that hung upon a thong clasped about her neck, fashioned from oak-wood and cunningly carven in the likeness of leaves and vines entwined.
'Emig, what is that oaken ring you bear?' he asked, pointing.
'Ah, ionneg, therein lies a tale.' Amdirren answered, her eyes tender with memory.
'And I would very much like to hear to that tale!' said her son, ever curious.
'So be it, Cethron,' she winked and Methlegel smiled widely at her use of his Mother-name.
'It was in Eryn Galen that I first met your father and Gladhron, his brother. We were still elf-children in those days, though I was begotten and born in Lindon while clouds of war yet darkened the land ere the ruin of Beleriand. Do you recall what you have learned of the War of Wrath aforetime?'
He nodded. 'Aye, you and Atheg, and Tawardil and Echeleb, your fathers, have all told me tales thereof; and of the wrath of the Rodyn I am much afeared.'
'Indeed, their wrath is terrible, but be not afraid. Instead take comfort in their love for the Eruchîn.'
'But if their love for us is great,' the elf-child protested, 'wherefore do they not protect us from the Shadow of the Forest? Are we forsaken?'
'Hush now! Speak not so, dear one... in their wisdom the Rodyn meddle not in the affairs of Ardhon unless at great need, for it is by our travails that we learn and grow and they would not hinder us in this regard. Just as my love for you as your mother means I must oft allow you to err.'
'Me? Err? Whenever have I gone astray?'
His mother smiled down at him. 'It would seem that you have strayed from both your flute's making and my tale!' she retorted.
Methlegel laughed. 'Verily!' he agreed.
* * *
Amdirren watched her son renew his labour with vigour; his short slender fingers were nimble and quick. 'Alike to his mind,' she thought affectionately. As with all elf-children he had learned to speak and walk and dance ere a year had passed after his birthing,[2] yet there was a swiftness in his thought and understanding that she deemed uncommon. Indeed, Methlegel was quite unalike Amdiran, her firstborn son who was begotten in the Watchful Peace after the Necomancer had fled the forest, for it was the elven custom to beget children in days of happiness and peace[3]; but her secondborn had come in Iavas five years before, while the Shadow had benighted Taur-nu-Fuin anew. Could it be that this taint had not darkened his heart as she had once feared it might, but had perchance instead instilled in him greater will and early wisdom? She shook her head to clear it, and continued:
'Thus I was thirteen years of age when your father was born in the western glens of the Emyn Duir...'
'O! You are older than Atheg?' the boy exclaimed. His mother laughed. 'To you who has seen the red leaves fall but five times only, perhaps thirteen years seems long for it is wellnigh thrice your young lifetime. But your father was thirteen years himself when we chose one another to be wed.'[4]
Methlegel counted on his fingers. 'And you were then six and twenty?'
'Indeed, but our love was the will of my fae and of his, and by our spirits we were bound together; and that bond -- our love -- is imperishable.'[5] She laughed, and the sound of her voice sang clearly above the rushing riverwaters. 'And when he was of age for our betrothal he was full-grown, yet I grew but slowly, and thus when we were wed I seemed the younger, though he was one and fifty years and I four and sixty. Thus he said our marriage was always meant to be!'
Her son laughed too, high and clear it rang among the whispering trees; his eyes glanced eagerly at the ring upon her breast. 'Do not spoil the tale with haste,' she told him, marking his glance, 'you will yet learn of my ring of oak!'
'Forgive me, Emig,' he said, though he was not abashed and grinning.
She tousled his hair with her empty hand, and with the other poked him gently in the ribs with her unfinished flute; squirming from the tickle, he nearly dropped his own.
'Nae!' he cried, catching it deftly ere it fell into the streaming water.
* * *
'Now ever has it been the custom for the betrothed to give rings one to another, as well you know, but now in these latter days they are rings of shining silver. But in those days King Oropher and his Iathrim court would not yet bring their art and skills to the greenwood for wellnigh seven hundred years, and the Wood-elves delved not for gold or silver, nor had we elf-wrights for the fashioning of jewels. Therefore we crafted rings of wood as betrothal gifts, whereafter at our wedding feast we received back one from the other our carven rings, which we cherish ever after.'[6] She fondly touched the ring upon its thong. 'And then we gave in exchange our rings of gleaming gold; and these were rare and precious, for they were gotten in trade from those Dwarves of Hadhodrond or Erebor who traveled aforetime along the Men-i-Naugrim.'
'So this then is the ring you crafted? With your own hands?'
'With my very own hands.' Amdirren nodded gravely in gentle mockery, but then she held it up before his eyes and laughing said, 'Do you approve of my handiwork?'
'It is wonderful,' he breathed as he gazed upon it. 'Nay, it is glorious! I feel a lightening of my heart and the stirring of joy as I behold it, but I know not why.'
'For it was made in love, with love and for love. My heart's bliss instills it and the virtue of my fae abides therein.'
Methlegel sighed happily.
His mother put aside her half-made flute and gathered her little son into her arms. 'Just as you, too, were made in love, with love and for love,' she murmured in his ear, then she kissed him upon his sun-bronzed brow.
'And my brother also?' he asked.
'Aye, and Amdiran also.' A shadow passed over her fair face, and Methlegel cupped her cheek in his small palm.
'Forgive me, Emig,' he said, but this time in earnest. 'I did not mean to bring you hurt.'
'Nor did you, dear one,' she smiled. 'There is naught amiss, but for a brief moment my heart was darkened. Yet I grieve not for him, for I know a day shall come when I will greet him once more in the Undying Lands, and my love is ever with him in the Halls of Awaiting. But you are here now, and my love has greater strength within the Hither Shores!'
She embraced her son tightly and kissed the crown of his head; his hair smelled of honey and wildflowers.
'But now,' Amdirren said gaily, 'we must give some love to our flutes ere the Sun sinks and we toil under starlight!'
* * *
[1] He had not yet taken his Chosen-name, Legelion.
[2] "The Eldar grew in bodily form slower than Men, but in mind more swiftly. They learned to speak before they were one year old; and in the same time they learned to walk and to dance, for their wills came soon to the mastery of their bodies."
- Morgoth's Ring, 'The Laws and Customs Among the Eldar'
[3] "Yet it would seem to any of the Eldar a grievous thing if a wedded pair were sundered during the bearing of a child, or while the first years of its childhood lasted. For which reason the Eldar would beget children only in days of happiness and peace if they could."
- ibid
[4] "Those who would afterwards become wedded might choose one another early in youth, even as children (and indeed this happened often in days of peace)..."
- ibid
[5] "And the beginning of marriage is in the affinity of the fëar, and in the love arising therefrom. And this love includes in it, from its first awakening, the desire for marriage..."
- ibid
[6] "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."
- ibid
It should be noted that this tale is set in the 2970th year of the Third Age, when Legelion was but five years of age; also that these anecdotes are not in strict chronological order.
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