'Father?'
'Yes, my son?'
Legelion lay upon his belly on the greensward , his crossed feet in the air, his toes wagging. With feather quill and oak-gall ink he was steadfastly writing on a leaf of parchment, the tip of his small pink tongue protruding from the corner of his mouth in concentration. Writing! The boy seemed to be always writing nowadays... "my practice of the runes" he called it. Nevertheless, he alone of all their kin was skilled in the art, and it gave Gellin great pride to see him thus.
'Did you know that in Doriathrin your name is "Gellind"?' his son asked.
The Elf smiled. 'Indeed, I did not,' he replied.
'And Mother's names, Amdirren Reniel, would be "Amdirraen Raeniel".'
His beloved wife! She who had urged him to beget a second child after Amdiran, their firstborn son, was slain in the Battle of the Five Armies; his spear and his life both sundered by the black tide of the orkish[1] horde while the Elves were at bay about their king upon the southern arm of Erebor. And though his heart misgave him, for he deemed it would be unkind to bring a new soul into a world of shadow and peril, she it was who swayed his mood and thus bore the elf-child lying here before him.
O! How his heart stirred with joy each time he beheld his son; how his hope was rekindled! And this indeed was fitting, for Amdiran had been named for their "Long Hope", but their secondborn was to be called Amdirvethen, their "Final Hope", ere Echeleb his father had pressed for the boy to instead be named Methlegel, the "Last Green-elf". Yet it was Echeleb who had counselled his misgiving with the words, "Oft hope is born when all is forlorn!"[2] Mayhap for him the grief of lost Amdiran was still too near for such a remembrance, for his father had been close to him both in love and in the battle, and with his own eyes he had seen the young Elf fall.
As if hearing the thought of his father, the child looked up and said, 'Amdiran is "Amdirand", and his byname is "Eithilemhren" instead of Eithilevren. Is it not curious that the woodland tongue[3] is so alike to the speech of Doriath?'
'Eithilevren', thought Gellin wistfully. His firstborn's prowess with spear and shield was esteemed by their clan, and thus was he accorded this after-name by them; Amdiran had been a warrior, stern and bold. But Legelion they had called Feveren, for so strong and gay a spirit is in him; no warrior he, yet he assails knowledge as resolutely as any soldier besets a foe!
Gellin was ever grateful for the wisdom of his wife, and for her will and desire that gave to her the strength of being, in mind and in body, to beget their second son, though the weight of years had gathered on her spirit. His long, long love for her had grown even greater for that, and even moreso in the years that had followed. He smiled. The coming of Iavas would mark fourteen years since Legelion's begetting; thirteen years had he been among them, and that was Gellin's own age when he had pledged his love to Amdirren in the forest of dark fir upon the slopes of the Emyn Duir, and they had chosen one another to afterwards become betrothed and wedded! Alas that his son would not know that same joy of love and betrothal here in Taur-nu-Fuin, for there were no young elf-maidens among their number...
He saw then that Legelion's shining eyes were on him, patiently awaiting his reply.
'Are they not akin?' he asked hastily, to hide the wandering of his thoughts.
'Teithoron says they are indeed,' the boy replied thoughtfully, 'but they were sundered by leagues upon leagues, and Doriath stood a long age ago. And Echeleb tells that the Danian tongue of Lindon in the West was unalike to the Danian of the Evair that removed thither from the East.'
'And what of the others of our kin? Can they also be thus rendered?' Gellin asked.
Legelion grinned eagerly. 'I deem they can!' he said, and bent his head to his parchment once more.
Gellin laughed aloud. The child's quick smile always brought to him a lightening of his heart, as a ray of golden sunlight breaking suddenly through sullen wet clouds brightens a dull and gloomy day. His own name meant "Joy Heart' and his brother Gladhron's, "Laugher"... and it seemed to him that both these qualities were mingled within his son, but their blending did not diminish either, rather it heightened their degree.
Again the boy seemed to know his thought.
'Gladhron, your brother, and Echeleb and Tawardil remain the same, but Delloril, your mother, is "Delthoril" and my mother's mother, Reneth, is "Raeneth". Amathel, wife of Amdiran, is "Amathael".'
'And all this you can tell by the writing of their runes?' Gellin asked, astonished.
His son gave him an artful grin. 'Nay,' he answered merrily, 'I asked Teithoron this very morn!' And he burst into gleeful laughter!
'Young imp!' his father cried, leaping up. Legelion sprang to his feet and fled, still laughing. But his short stride was no match for his father, who caught him up and threw him down upon the fragrant grass, and tickled him till tears of mirth streamed down his cheeks; then thrice he kissed his son upon his brow.
* * *
[1] " It should be spelt ork... but I had used the spelling orc in so many places that I have hesitated to change it in the English text, though the adjective is necessarily spelt orkish."
- Nomenclature of The Lord of the Rings
[2] The Return of the King, 'The Last Debate'
[3] "There was a sound of soft laughter over their heads, and then another clear voice spoke in an elven-tongue. Frodo could understand little of what was said, for the speech that the Silvan folk east of the mountains used among themselves was unlike that of the West. Legolas looked up and answered in the same language.* "
- The Fellowship of the Ring, 'Lothlórien'
* Appendix F: Of the Elves:
"In Lórien at this period Sindarin was spoken, but with an 'accent', since most of its folk were of Silvan origin. This 'accent' and his own limited acquaintance with Sindarin misled Frodo..."
It should be noted that this tale is set in the 2977th year of the Third Age, when Legelion was but twelve years of age; also that these anecdotes are not in strict chronological order
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