Morlindalë : The Song of Darkness (Tolkien Quest) Morlindalë : The Song of Darkness (Tolkien Quest)

The Harrowing of the Hells
Among the Valar is counted and not least among the Powers Oromë the Hunter. This title he has taken even in the Music. For at first he sang with Yavanna of the beauty of the wilderness and he painted the delights of nature let loose. He sang the dream of wolves in their packs and eagles in their nests before he gave them to Manwë. His beloved since the Timeless Halls is Vana the Ever-young, the moist earth in which life germinates and the song of their love echoed around the throne of Eru Allfather. His closest kin among the Valar is Nessa the Dancer who danced in war at the beginning of time and is joined to Tulkas the Vailant. Yet even as he sang the green and the stags, he became wroth at the Discord who marred the universe. He was called Hunter as his accords corrected the disorder of flesh and indeed when he descended into Eä, he descended with horse, hounds and bow and arrows. He is the Horned King of the forest but his darts are destined to the servants of the Shadow. And so he never rested fitfully in Valinor but issued forth to ride through the forests of Arda. And when his great horn was sounded, the monsters of Estë and the nightmares of Irmo faded like mist under the sun.

During his travels he came upon Cuivenen and he saw the Firstborn had built the first villages across the lake and developed their first arts alone under the stars. Magnificent were the voices of the Quendi, as they named themselves, as they sang day and night. For they awoke without the sun and for the Elves the moon is indeed better than the daystar and most beloved of the Powers is Varda Starkindler. Still all was silenced at the coming of Oromë and many fled for they feared him greatly. It was said later that the servants of the Three who had ridden in the Host Dolorous were aggrieved of their defeat. In their minds always were the visage of the Valar in the days of their wrath and Oromë who had tried to stop them was not the least in their fear and hatred. And their whispers crept from the domain of Irmo to the ears of sleeping minds. The Elves were young then and their sleep was unguarded and they had not yet learned the arts by which they avoided the palaces of dreams and nightmares and the hallways of temptation. Still there were four who came to the Hunter without fear for they saw him with the eyes of the féa, the immortal soul.

And they were Ingwé, Finwé, Olwé and Elwé who was later named Thingol or Greymantle. Long they spoke of their surroundings and their histories and their beliefs and the Hunter was grieved of their speech. For they knew about the Yrchs, a blasphemy none of the Powers had imagined possible. Oromë after thanking them abandoned his high raiment of flesh and unseen and unclad issued to Valinor where he knelt before Melkor king and said : "I come from going in Arda, above and under it and before my eyes I saw the children of our maker. They labor under a shadow and their dreams are fearful and their nights haunted. We have seen the palaces of our delights ravaged by war and their sight brought us to such sadness we departed for this abode. Will we leave our brothers and sisters of flesh at the mercy of the Enemies? Will we not save them and nurture them so that we can Sing with them and find delight in each other?" So spoke Oromë and alas for his wish, for among his servants were those who would find the sons and daughters of Eru comely and fair and knew them as husband and wives.

Melkor heard this speech and agreed that the Elves should be delivered from the shadow hanging upon them. And so the Powers prepared to wage war once again, this time on the surface of Arda. It is said among the Firstborn they prepared not to heighten their might against those who had been their kin, but to diminish it so that their struggles would not crack the surface of Arda in twain. Yet such was the splendor of the host, the Firstborn were commanded to depart the waters of Cuivenen and dwell far to the south for a time and not see the army pass. For the forms they wore were baneful to flesh and mind alike and in their wake mountains crumbled and seas were filled up and the heavens rolled like a scroll. Yet what good could these shapes so terrible do against the Yrchs. Those spirits who had been of the Maïar fought and flew against the host of the Powers as giants and genies. The Yrch were not so mighty but when the Powers saw them, they knew fear and uncertainty. For they looked and were of the Firstborn even with minds ensnared and flesh strengthened. And for a time even spirits as Maïron the Admirable knew not if they had the right to strike them down. And they tried to restrain them and it was in vain. For even the touch of Mandos could not unweave what Irmo had sung. And even the touch of Melkor who had a part in everything his kin made could not break the chain who had coiled around their thoughts.

It is said among the Elves that captured Yrchs and the spirits of their slain who are caught in Mandos' net are kept in separate halls in Valinor, eternally asleep until the time come for the Powers themselves to make an accounting of their deeds. And Eru will look at them with pity for Estë and Irmo kept them in bloody innocence and what their bodies made as horror, their minds had no part of.

Yet restrained they were and soon the host came upon the delights of the abode of Healing and Sleep and Maïron and Eonwë were sent as heralds to bear the challenge of the Valar and hear the answer. And they came for a doomed battle. Choose 1

[] Estë came as a great beast with seven heads and ten horns and upon the heads names of blasphemy. She came as a beast and the woman who rode him, resplendent in nakedness like one of the Yrch and yet all the more terrible. She had a cup filled with the foaming blood of her creations and she was drunk of her own flames. Her lord was there too, a mist upon her shoulders, like a mantle and a crown upon her brows. She came with blows and kisses both, like someone who is drunk or in the thrall of the lotus and her love was as the kiss of worms. She contended even against Tulkas until she was chained and Irmo with her.

[] Irmo came and the world broke asunder. For he was an image and a mirage, a mist of green and untaken opportunities. And the Powers pursued their brother in the labyrinth of his own being and even Tulkas could not break the pathways of the Lord of Nightmares' dream. And when they cornered him after running for seven fractions of eternity in the chaos of their own thoughts, they found Estë like a great flower of flesh with toothed blossoms. They found her as a delightful waterfall taunting them with the renewal who would never come. And Irmo shifted shape and sunk deeper and deeper into sadness and melancholy to the point where they chained him unclad and unseen, the art of Aulë ensnaring even the shadow of sorrow.

And the Valar leveled the fortresses even as they never found neither Ungoliant, nor Melian, nor Olorin and this would have grave consequences for in the departure of the Elves to fair Valinor, one of the three would ensnare Elwë Thingol and join to the Yrch, the Sindar, the grey elves whose banner is the color of Nienna.