Act I, Part I: When the World was Young
When the world was young, the stars covered the coat of night in perpetuity. Theirs was the only light that shone on Middle-Earth, and their wonders were laid bare for all to witness. When the world was young, the waters glittered in the dark, mirroring the sky in ceaseless envy for its still unsullied countenance. When the world was young, the forests were without end and under their soaring stances, the darkness gave way to the wondrous glow of glimmering things that grew in silence.
When the world was young, there walked an elf, whose black hair matched the hue of the heaven above him, and whose grey eyes glimmered like the stars. It is not known where he hailed from, though it is sure he crossed the shimmering peaks of the hithaeglir in ancient times and came to Beleriand in the company of others. A child of twilight, he settled with the Sindar in Doriath, the realm of the much beloved King Elu Thingol.
Here, in the forests of Thingol's kingdom, he revered the light of the stars and indulged in the comforts of a world at the brink of its creation. He loved the songs of his people, for they were the Teleri, renowned for their voices, and most of all for that of the fair and radiant maiden named Luthien, daughter of the king, whose songs enchanted many a heart. But no singer or poet was he, but one who weaved his words more carefully, speaking only when it was of the utmost need. This curious silence, this ever-pondering, marked him as most mysterious amidst the Teleri. Some came to call him Aeglirion, for he was as stern and silent as a mountain, and so tall he was - even among the tallest of their kin - so that the name was found ever more fitting.
Aeglirion's love for the world he lived in was fierce, so much so that he could not part with it when the Valar called him westward, to the shores of Valinor, where the two trees Telperion and Laurelin bloomed still in all their splendour. The only Vala he ever saw with his own eyes was Oromë, the Great Rider, who coveted the lands of Middle-Earth in equal measure, and Tinnurion loved him for it. But when he too left for Valinor, Tinnurion forsook his devotion to any of the Valar and made a silent vow never to turn westward but instead stay in Middle-Earth to see it grow old - though that thought was all but present in his mind, for he believed that it never could, that the world would remain as it was, the way he desired it. When the world was young, so was Aeglirion.
