Elves

The 15th day we left the Gravenwood, crossing through it not far from where I was caught in the accursed orc mangling trap. It was to the Gap of Rohan that we were bound, to recover Lord Anglachelm, at least, that was the idea.

Below our camp lay the Gravenwood, and when we first arrived there, I was mightily heartened to see its pines and majestic oaks and many white birches, and from a distance, I thought its tall, straight, good-looking trees suited me. I do not know why it is called the Gravenwood by the Ranger-folk, but perhaps it is because the Wildmen abuse the bark of its trees for their barbarous carvings.

Tonight I sit sleepless, and look into the night about me, dark, terrible things lurk there, and often the dread comes over me, that I feel my reason is overpowered, and my senses are bewildered. Abandoned to evil spirits, we are, we who followed because duty demanded it, because we swore to serve. How can we believe that our well-doing has availed anything? All our labors have met with failure, all good for nothing. We only seem to fill up every place with our trouble and strife. Behold the works of the proud Noldor!

Parnard ran on, keenly alive to the new sights and smells of this new land – on and on, chanting an ancient song under his breath, in time to his paces.

Sing the joys of vagabonding,

All that’s beautiful travels far.

Elves have an inexhaustible stock of songs and ballads, but this air was rude and simple, consisting of only a few notes. It was one of the songs sung in the Greenwood when he was young. He had not thought of it for years. Why now did he remember it, singing it to himself?

Even the moon colored pearl

The Ranger Baradír pulled out a stack of maps from a dusty shelf and smoothed them out on the table before him. “This is one of our best, drawn only a decade ago. It completely renders all the lands and roads of Rhovanion, in proper scale, and includes both major and minor settlements, all clearly labeled." Parnard gave it a cursory glance, munching on a cheese wheel stuck on the end of his eating-knife.

Parnard lay in a half-dream, his thoughts back in Imladris, beside the warmth of the fires. Earlier that day, the elves reached a ruined dwelling, roofless, its timbers brittle, charred. Yet another farmstead, burned down to the foundations. Even in this vast wilderness, hundreds of miles from any elvish settlement, those savages had found them, and had cut them down a few feet from their doorstep. Gnawed bones lay scattered around. When the scent of slaughter is wafted on the breezes, bands of hungry Wargs hasten from every side to the feast.

The fairest gift of strength is clemency

If the weak offend;

So kindly do not punish me

For having the fault of a friend.

My Lord,

My spirit was not haughty, but it was proud. In stubborn silence, I would sit under the dark pines, wondering why I was so ignorant that I could not answer the questions of children. I knew a few things, but what I did not know was immense. I wished to learn more about the world and see what lay outside the borders of my homeland. So I ventured forth, without any idea of what I would find. Exceedingly foolish it seems to me now, but at the time, I thought it was the best path.