16. Love in other languages
Prompt: Bree: Hobbits are well known for their gift-giving traditions. Write a story or poem in which the exchange of gifts is featured, or use "gifting" as a theme for a piece of art.
He'd come to teach, to struggle and to save. Yet giving wasn't straightforward – one had first to be given.
Pallando hadn't expected gifts, but Children were prodigious! He found 'his' people ardent, violent, fractiously pious, wounded, passionate – desperately desirous of courageous, all-giving love.
Unbearable, his fiery brother's vicious perversion of that desire!
Yet even Sauron had had first to be given their language: their yearning for wholeness, for god-like union with God in life's grey years.
As they gave, so gave Pallando, testifying:
For frail flesh, to be living flame is to live where God dwells: patiently in each other...
Author's notes: Building off of "False Fire," fleshing out a little of Esteven's many-times-removed ancestral background.
Pallando is one of the Blue Wizards sent 'East'. I had him veer south eventually and settle in with the Haradrim. See "The Istari" in Unfinished Tales.
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.
