III
When at last Neldion appears again in the histories of the Eldar, it is in the songs of the Falathrim. It is sung by that people that after the Arnoediaid, the mariners of Círdan found a young Quendë in a broken boast midst the reedy country of the Mouths of Sirion, hungry and queer in mind. When they asked of him his name, he told them it was Nenaras, and when they asked of him his lineage, he told them that he was of the folk of Orodreth and fled Nargothrond ere its sacking.
It was shame that bound Nenaras Neldion to that false tale. And long did he persist in its telling, even unto the Second Age when, following the War of Wrath, he came with the survivors of the ruin of Beleriand to the remnant-realm of Lindon. In that time, many other Fëanorians also came thither and though some of these claimed Nenaras as one of their kindred, he would not affirm this kinship. For a time this untruth was met by the Fëanorians of Lindon with wroth, but like hot fire that lacks fuel to fury, their temper, in time, came to cool and Nenaras dwelt among them peaceably. If the Fëanorian exiles forgave Nenaras of his falsehoods, it can be guessed that they did so out of a longing for the reconciliation of the Eldar and for an end to the ill humour that wrought their disunion upon the sea-swollen hythes of Alqualonde. Or, as is more likely, what peace Nenaras enjoyed in Mithlond was purchased for him by the good will of the Falathrim and not least because of the love and protection of his grandsire, Gaevirthirn, who followed neither wife nor child to Valinor but remained about the lands and waters of the Falas and was respected there as a great captain of the sea.
Now while Mithlond became as a home to Nenaras, little did he tarry there and often would he range the seas on voyages that lasted a century or more, like to a seabird who roosts only when the wind slackens his wings. In these travels, Nenaras craved not companions, for upon the waves of Belegaer, he befriended many of the seafaring Men of Númenor, who in those Middle Days delighted in the water nigh as much as the Teleri of Valinor.
Thus, while the Dúnedain may know somewhat of Nenaras’s travels, little do the Eldar, for such tales are the provenance of faraway waters and distant lands; the Seas of Easternesse, the shores of Far Harad or the Dark Lands, and many other places besides, with names queer even to the ears of the Eldar that are ever hungry for new tongues.
Though it is said that the sea voyages of Nenaras took him far from the concerns of Elfinesse, still he rode with the High King Ereinion Gil-galad to the Battle of Dagorlad and there fought valiantly. But, alas, as Minion perished at the Arnoediad so did Gaevirthirn, that worthy sage of sea-lore, fall upon the Dagorlad. There did Nenaras bury him alongside the graves of the Quendi of Oropher (who were distant kin to Gaevirthirn) in that place that Men would later call the Dead Marshes, auguring perchance that a mariner’s grave is a watery one. And in that barrowfen Nenaras placed a pearl of Valinor, which yet illumines the mirken depths of those thrice-cursed waters with the living memory of Eldamar. Rites paid and kin entombed, Nenaras followed the High King's host unto the siege of Barad-dûr, and when in years thereafter, that tower was thrown down and the Dark Lord defeated, he followed that host West to Imladris, but, to the sorrow of all, no longer was it led by the Noldor's most beloved king.
