The Golden Island by Zdenka
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tolkienshortfanworksAuthor: Zdenka
Title: The Golden Island
Characters: Númenóreans
Text type / Format: poetry, double drabble
Source / Fandom: The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales
Rating: T
Warnings: mentioned past deaths, fear of harm, may contain some of author's real-world feelings
Word Count: 200
Summary: After the War of Wrath, after everything, they came to Númenor. Númenor was supposed to be safe.
Author notes: Written for this month's challenge. It relates to prompt A in imagery and prompt C in theme . . . Also written for thedrabble_zone prompt "island" (which is why it's a double drabble). Title may change if I think of one I like better.
The Golden Island
Did we not believe, in those dark years,
That heaven had not forgotten us?
We kept our faith
In whispered stories, songs, beloved books
Passed down through many hands,
Prayers said in secrecy…
The gods answered our prayers,
And gave us Númenor, a shining jewel.
We came here following a silver path
Lit by a sky-borne flame.
Our hope, our refuge.
And all was well.
(Not all. Hope-blinded in this land,
We thought that all was well.)
Now that the seeds of hatred
Are sprouting from dark furrows everywhere,
And the Sea, once our defense,
Feels like a wall to trap us—
If this land loves us not, where shall we go?
Tell me, where shall I carry
My father’s stories and my mother’s tongue?
My grandmother’s brass lamp with its eight branches,
The necklace with our people’s star—
A gift from my great-grandmother when I came of age—
The well-worn books of prayer?
Wherever my foot treads,
The land weeps, gapes open to declare, “Your brother’s blood
Cries from the earth.” There is nowhere.
The sky is brass, the earth is iron under me.
Here too,
Here too my neighbors would light fires
If they but had the power.
Title: The Golden Island
Characters: Númenóreans
Text type / Format: poetry, double drabble
Source / Fandom: The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales
Rating: T
Warnings: mentioned past deaths, fear of harm, may contain some of author's real-world feelings
Word Count: 200
Summary: After the War of Wrath, after everything, they came to Númenor. Númenor was supposed to be safe.
Author notes: Written for this month's challenge. It relates to prompt A in imagery and prompt C in theme . . . Also written for the
drabble_zone prompt "island" (which is why it's a double drabble). Title may change if I think of one I like better.The Golden Island
Did we not believe, in those dark years,
That heaven had not forgotten us?
We kept our faith
In whispered stories, songs, beloved books
Passed down through many hands,
Prayers said in secrecy…
The gods answered our prayers,
And gave us Númenor, a shining jewel.
We came here following a silver path
Lit by a sky-borne flame.
Our hope, our refuge.
And all was well.
(Not all. Hope-blinded in this land,
We thought that all was well.)
Now that the seeds of hatred
Are sprouting from dark furrows everywhere,
And the Sea, once our defense,
Feels like a wall to trap us—
If this land loves us not, where shall we go?
Tell me, where shall I carry
My father’s stories and my mother’s tongue?
My grandmother’s brass lamp with its eight branches,
The necklace with our people’s star—
A gift from my great-grandmother when I came of age—
The well-worn books of prayer?
Wherever my foot treads,
The land weeps, gapes open to declare, “Your brother’s blood
Cries from the earth.” There is nowhere.
The sky is brass, the earth is iron under me.
Here too,
Here too my neighbors would light fires
If they but had the power.
