1. Songbird
for Finrod Felagund
This old cold
how like a sly lime
this peering hollow
in an evil hour,
sings into your bones.
Is it the same ice, Felagund
left by some heatless,
heatless fire, an empty keel there of
blood kin oath
yet none you took, yet there you lie.
Mortals and oaths!
Knowing nothing
of the death not but written in;
Felagund, do you yet know what I know:
all your kingdoms turned clay.
And yet you lie dying!
Tell me then
the estimated boundaries
of our circumscribed world,
where your mind wandered in all the time hence.
For I remember you last
a moonlit movement lost amid wolves and darkness;
for defeat was as fate deemed,
yet by your grace was the fate won:
I see the
pallid brushstrokes
in your futility.
No evil rent your hands,
neither fang nor treachery, though
his song echoed in the harrowed halls.
Your words betrayed you.
And your gaze flaring,
what triumphant movement in defeat
cast into the dark
a muted songbird
fallen, with wings contracted
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.
