I was sitting on a beach watching a colony of tiny crabs who lived along the surf line when a light began to grow in the West. Soon the crabs were forgotten as I watched the Moon peek over the horizon for the first time and climb into the sky outshining the stars a hundred fold. I still recall sitting on that beach shivering, though the air was warm, for I knew that it was a mighty sign, though I had no idea of its meaning.
Seven times the new Moon had traversed the sky when out of the west came a far greater light and, still sitting on that lonely beach, I watched the Sun climb over the Western horizon for the very first time. To say I was stunned is far too limiting a description, and if the rising of the Moon was a mighty sign it was as nothing to the glory of the Sun.
On that first Day I could feel the world changing around me. At first the birds and beasts were silent so far as I could hear, all no doubt as startled as was I at this great new light. Then slowly the birds again took flight, and the little crabs began to again peek out of their tiny holes in the sand. And as the Sun and the Moon traversed the sky in a sort of dance I saw that while the Sun held her course the Moon was somewhat wayward in his, and that the very waters of the sea seemed to follow somehow in that dance rising higher at times and receding at others.
Then to my great surprise, the Sun and the Moon both settled below the horizon in the West again and for a time I wondered if indeed they were gone, but soon to my surprise the Sun arose in the East and rode across the sky, again setting in the West as the Moon rose now in the East. And this has remained their pattern to this day, though as all know. the Moon is still wayward so that sometimes he is in the sky at the same time as the Sun and at others neither is above the horizon and the stars again may be seen as they had been all my life to that point.
The thought came to me to return to Beleriand and learn if the Elves of that land understood the meaning of these great omens of light that now illumined the world, and I set out back to the north. However, the journey was long and made much longer because with the coming of the Sun many things that seem to have lain dormant suddenly awoke and among the trees of the great forests there awoke myriad lesser plants and flowers bloomed where none had before, and with them came new creatures like the bees that flew from flower to flower. All of these things called my attention away from the journey, but none so much as the coming of Men.
I first encountered the Second Children along the sea shore, though I had at the time never heard of the prophecies of their coming. They spoke in course voices and had an ill-favored look about them that I have since become rather accustomed to. I watched them from hiding for a long while as they attempted to catch fish in the surf. And I watched in dismay as another band of similar type came up the beach and a confrontation arose between the two groups.
They fought one another there on the beach for no apparent reason that I could discern. Certainly, there were enough fish in the surf for both groups, but this seemed to be their nature and I was both appalled and gratified that I had not gone forward alone into their midst. It was then that I first chose to avoid contact with these new people wherever possible, and to a large degree I have done so through most of my life since, though there have been occasions when that has been impossible without forsaking some other aim.
Because of both my own nature and the abundance of new and wonderful things that seemed to awake with the new light, each it seemed requiring my attention, the trip northward to Beleriand took somewhat over two hundred years as they are now counted with the rising and setting of the Sun. And when I finally arrived I found much turmoil and wondered if my return was indeed wise.
As before, I followed the coast to the Falas and met with Cirdan’s folk. There I learned of the return of the evil one to his fortress Angband just to the north of Beleriand, and of the coming of the Nolder out of the West and their intent to make war upon their enemy. They told me of the great fortress cities of the Nolder, and of the fences of enchantment that the Queen Melian had caused to encircle the lands of Doriath. And though they closely associated the coming of the Moon and Sun with the return of the evil one and the arrival of the Nolder even Lord Cirdan could not fathom the full meaning of the omen, though he agreed that it was a powerful sign.
Eastward then I traveled and after a time came to the boarders of Thingol’s realm and the Girdle of Melian. And though I felt its influence I was able to enter into that land with little hindrance, for such was its power that creatures of evil and to a great extent the people of the Nolder also found themselves bewildered beyond reckoning while friends of the Sindar and could pass.
I was welcomed in Menegroth by those who remembered me and found rest and comfort there for some time though not the answers that I sought. Or perhaps I did get the answers but not in the form that I had hoped. For within Menegroth I met for the first time the Lady Galadriel and the Lord Celeborn who had by then taken her as his wife.
Galadriel was very beautiful, rivaling even the Queen, Melian, even as she still is today, and she was strikingly tall. We became friends in that time and I learned much of what had transpired in the Blessed Realm prior to the Nolder’s return, though at times her words and thoughts were guarded when speaking of the Nolder’s departure from Valinor and I did not press for more at those times.
For her part, the Lady was also most interested in hearing tales of those who had refused the call and of life under the stars and among the great forests of the East. In these tales the Lord Celeborn also took interest, particularly in the ways that the lives of the Avari had differed from those of the Sindar of Beleriand.
But the Lady also spoke of her despair for the task that the Nolder had set for themselves and her belief that they could not hope to prevail over Morgoth whom even the Valar feared, and though he remained silent on the subject, Celeborn’s eyes spoke of his agreement with Galadriel’s assessment. And so it was that when eventually I resolved to turn my path again to the east of the world the Lady came to me and whispered that unless I returned soon I should look beyond the Ered Luin if I wished to seek out her and the Lord Celeborn.
