4. The Green Lands
THE GREEN LANDS
Faramir wakes from a dream.
There were flowers among the green grass. Elven-flowers that I have not seen in waking life, for they grace not these shores. I call them by name. Larielosse the ever-white, lissuin of the sweetest honey, and pale lavaralda, whose colours are lost to mortal lore. Elanor, and nephredil, that grow not in the land of Gondor.
Immortal alfirin, that covers the grave of Elendil.
In my dreams, it covers all of Númenor.
To the west the hills, the emerald grass, the empty halls and shepherds; to the east the shipyards, glass lamps, and tall black masts. I walk in the kingly places, passing through gabled roofs and marbled arches. I stand on the highest hill. I tread into the marshy reaches. There is a trilling in the air that sounds of an unearthly spring, and fear and love fill my mind.
For there is a wave. A great, peering wave. The sky is as impenetrable as shadow, indistinguishable from the Sea. It falls like a wrathful hand. Over all the green lands and bright lamps, I see the Sea, swollen with fury and mutiny, pressing on, coming on.
The Sea pounds on the rocky shores. It swallows the panicked decks of Rómenna, and rolls from flat and heathered moors into the valley of the dead. It froths on the wheat fields like an animal. The earth is split. The ships are foundered. Akallabêth! The Sea is a mouth. The light is faint and weeping in the sky. No more.
I am awake. An owl sounds. I open my window.
Down below the guard lights still shine, though the day is alight. I yearn for the colours of the lost flowers. There is a breeze that comes from the Sea, now and again, and in it I hear the terror and the grief. No more can we gather boughs of oiolairë for the prows of our ships, no more for us the golden laurinquë. The ship is lost and the Tree blooms no more. But alfirin ever grows on the graves of Men.
This is a work of fan fiction, written because the author has an abiding love for the works of J R R Tolkien. The characters, settings, places, and languages used in this work are the property of the Tolkien Estate, Tolkien Enterprises, and possibly New Line Cinema, except for certain original characters who belong to the author of the said work. The author will not receive any money or other remuneration for presenting the work on this archive site. The work is the intellectual property of the author, is available solely for the enjoyment of Henneth Annûn Story Archive readers, and may not be copied or redistributed by any means without the explicit written consent of the author.
