Some of you might wonder why it is forbidden to bring anything to the dark elven home that was carelessly picked up in the unmapped North of Middle-Earth. This tale is supposed to give you the answer; for there are many sinister powers still lingering on this earth that we do not understand yet -- there, in the highest, cold North, where the Eldar do not dare tread and where life becomes a test of survival.
- Viraïgon
The Bone-Tree
Once upon a time wandered a young, learned dark elvish maiden called Sonotäe through the unmapped North and found on her way through a great, dead forest a little bone that protruded up from the earth.
She pulled forth the finger-long bone and studied it in detail. But as much as she thought about its origin, she could not bring it into line with one of the creatures that were known to her, for neither to a vile monster nor to a barbarian or even an Elf would it be a match.
»How peculiar«, Sonotäe said to herself and placed it into her pocket.
As she walked a few steps further, she came upon a glade where paled bones were piling up.
Here she found skeletons of all beings that she knew, but as much as she sought through the pile, she found again no match to the little bone. Neither did she understand why the remains of the dead were hoarded to such a great heap in the middle of a dead forest.
So did Sonotäe take the little bone with her, in order to show it to the scholars in the land of the Conclave.
Upon her return, night had already fallen and so did she lie down and soon had sunken into a deep sleep.
There she dreamed that the small bone spoke to her: »Plant me! Plant me and I will become a beautiful tree for you.«
Sonotäe was hardly awake as she placed the small bone into a pot with good earth and watered it.
At night, the little bone appeared once more to her and pleaded: »Plant me! Plant me and I will become a beautiful tree for you!«
Sonotäe dug the little bone out and put it into a larger pot with even better earth and set it down on a spot where the sun illuminated it with its shine.
But once again did she suffer the small bone in her dream that did not halt in its pleading: »Plant me! Plant me and I will become a beautiful tree for you!«
The maiden was puzzled as to what she could do to plant it even better, and walked out into the garden to look after the small bone in its pot.
She perceived a cry from the distance and saw children that shouted and cried. They tried to chase away a wildcat from the garden.
Yet before Sonotäe could interfere did one of the boys grab the pot with the small bone and hurled it after the beast, but missed it.
The vessel struck one of the girls against the head that fell down upon the earth in an instant and lay still with open eyes. She was not dead, but all the shaking of her friends did not help.
Sonotäe hurried to the scene and saw that in the open mouth of the girl was earth -- and that the small bone was stuck in her throat.
She reached out with her hand to remove the small bone and to bring the girl to a healer as the small bone spoke with frivolity: »Now I have the flesh-earth for which I hungered, and the blood-water for which I was thirsty.«
The eyes of the poor child broke and Sonotäe saw how the cheeks became more and more gaunt, the body dwindled, until nothing was left but a husk.
The small bone sang: »You planted me! Now I grow for you!«
From the mouth of the unlucky girl shot a thin bone stem and grew up, while roots came cracking like white serpents over the ground.
Sonotäe leaped back, but the boys and girls were pierced by the swiftly striking roots. They fared not better than their friend. The essence of their life was taken from them, while the bone tree was rising trembling in height and width.
»You planted me! Now I grow for you!«, it sang now in a deep, thundering voice and its stem became so thick that the maiden could no longer have wrapped her arms around it.
Sonotäe ran away to seek for aid, in order to bring a halt to the gruesome, terrible bone tree.
Dark Elves hurried to the scene, armed with the best weapons forged from Galvorn that could be found, but none of it could inflict any harm upon the bone tree. The branches made of bone swiped the brave warriors to the ground, the roots shot suddenly from the ground to pierce them and to rob them too of their life essence.
»You planted me! Now I grow for you!«, it echoed terribly over the pile of corpses and the bone tree grew and grew and grew.
Gleaming white it rose over the land of the Conclave, its roots dug through the earth, broke forth without a warning and attacked the citizens. The remains were gathered by the bone tree and pushed beneath its stem, so that it soon stood on a pile of skeletons.
In that moment it became clear to Sonotäe how all the bones could be gathered on the glade and she did the only thing that she could think of.
Quickly she ran into her study and mixed a strong poison that would have been sufficient to kill thousands, then she hurried back.
»I planted you! Now die through me!«, the maiden called and gulped down the elixir. Then she threw herself upon one of the roots.
The bone tree drew greedily from her blood and took the power of her flesh. In the same moment it became as black as pitch. The white bone branches, the roots, the mighty stem -- everything died.
And whiled Sonotäe passed away with a smile on her lips, the bone tree fell and dispersed. Nothing remained of it but black ash that was carried over the land of the Conclave and blown far away by the north wind.
Until today, there has been no scholar who could explain what kind of small bone Sonotäe had found in the wastes of the unmapped North.
But since this very moment of time, it is forbidden to pick something up in the wasteland and bring it back to the land of the Conclave.
For there cannot be a greater warning than this true tale.
