The Origin of Love

[tehta]

Author: Tehta
Title: The Origin of Love
Pairing: Melian / Elu Thingol, Aredhel / Eol
Text type / Format: Purple prose / Acrostic
Source / Fandom: Silmarillion
Rating: Gen
Warnings: None
Word Count: 200, phew
Author notes: This is much purplier than my usual writing style. I hope it still works!
It is, of course, an acrostic. The answer links these two pairings even more concretely than the story.

Nightingales, flattering starlight, love at first sight: nowadays, such things are the cliches of romance, but once they were astonishing in their novelty. A Maia taught her birds a different type of song; a leafy forest turned the ever-present light of the stars into enchanted star-dust; an Elven king let himself lose his heart (and his purpose) on the strength of a single glance. None of the many wonders the Maia had witnessed as the world was made had prepared her for that miraculous moment, or for the other miracles that would follow.

Everything had been different, simpler, before they met. Love had been an ordinary sort of thing, no more compelling than a ripe fruit or a soft blanket, easy to understand and to control. Melian and Elwe altered its nature, turning it into a force that can draw anyone off-course, wise king or carefree Maia. Other lovers–all the lovers who come after–can now feel the same power.

There is a smith who shuns everything but his craft; there is a huntress who cares for little but freedom. How can those two be compelled to love each other, if not for the enchantment of the forest, starlight, and nightingales?

Comments

[eveiya]

Very nice! This is clever, interesting and well-written - and really not purple at all.

[tehta]

Thank you! Are you sure you are not a sockpuppet?

[shirebound]

This is absolutely lovely!

[tehta]

Thank you so much!

[sauronnaise]

This is much purplier than my usual writing style. I hope it still works!
Here I wished my English was good enough to write like that. You did well!

[tehta]

Thank you so much! I edited like crazy.

[hhimring]

Interesting musings and a neat acrostic!
The invention of romantic love in Middle-earth?
Yes, there is something about the place, isn't there?

Thank you for the prompt fill!

[tehta]

There is definitely something about the place. I could have gone with the idea that Eol went to live there SPECIFICALLY because he was lonely, but that's not the vibe he gives me. Maybe he went there to keep others out, spitefully.

The tags seem good!

[anna_wing]

I prefer the idea that he just liked it because it was dark and away from Thingol (too irritating) and Melian (too shiny). He was taken completely by surprise when Aredhel turned up and he found himself to his horror engaged in Dark Romance, when he would much rather have been hanging out with Dwarves and inventing exotic alloys in peace and quiet.

I have an ongoing WIP about Eol in Valinor, and I think that your idea of Nan Elmoth as a creepy, Romance-imposing environment would suit it very well...

[tehta]

I have an unbaked idea of a Noir-type story with Eol as a cynical smith and Aredhel as the dame who saunters in and ruins his life. I think it will work there, too...

[anna_wing]

Aredhel is absolutely a hard-boiled dame!

[hhimring]

Also: I added another couple of tags. Could you check in case they aren't what was wanted?

[silver_trails]

Very nice!

[tehta]

Thank you!

[anna_wing]

Very clever, and no more than a an appropriately delicate shade of violet!

[tehta]

Thanks! I feel like the omniscient voice needs SOMETHING for me to find it interesting. Opinions, poetry, slightly purple prose...

[vamp_ress]

Beautifully done, love the imagery in this one!

[tehta]

Thank you!