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tolkienshortfanworksAuthor: Himring
Title: Though I keep this from my children
Characters: Morwen and her son Turin (references to her husband Hurin and Lalaith, their daughter)
Pairing: Morwen/Hurin (background)
Text type / Format: ficlet, fixed-length
Source / Fandom: The Silmarillion, Children of Hurin
Rating: Teens
Warnings: reference to canonical character death
Word Count: 150
Summary: Morwen, whose view of the world has been permanently darkened by past sufferings, is concerned for her children.
Author notes: This is 3 x 50 words according to MS Word and so a fill for the July challenge (although there are no original characters here). It was also written for a prompt from the poetryfiction July challenge.
The world is more than half terrible, but Morwen is resolved to keep this from her children. And at first, as long as Hurin has hope enough for two, it is easy to believe she is succeeding—especially when Lalaith arrives, whose joy is so manifestly undimmed on any day.
But then Lalaith dies and Hurin stands weeping bitterly, cursing Morgoth. Turin awakes, after long watches at his bedside, and asks for his sister—and Morwen finds that all pretence has slipped away from her. But she also recognizes that Turin, so like her in some things, was never deceived.
Any faith in the world’s kindness Turin has was gained from others, not her—this beloved son who understands her too well even when they do not speak. She cannot comfort him. She cannot ask his forgiveness for pretending—for bringing him into a world even more than half terrible.
A/N: The poetry prompt was from Maggie Smith's poem Good Bones (available on the Poetry Foundation website). I have taken other parts of the poem as inspiration, too, and the title is a quotation from it.
Title: Though I keep this from my children
Characters: Morwen and her son Turin (references to her husband Hurin and Lalaith, their daughter)
Pairing: Morwen/Hurin (background)
Text type / Format: ficlet, fixed-length
Source / Fandom: The Silmarillion, Children of Hurin
Rating: Teens
Warnings: reference to canonical character death
Word Count: 150
Summary: Morwen, whose view of the world has been permanently darkened by past sufferings, is concerned for her children.
Author notes: This is 3 x 50 words according to MS Word and so a fill for the July challenge (although there are no original characters here). It was also written for a prompt from the poetryfiction July challenge.
The world is more than half terrible, but Morwen is resolved to keep this from her children. And at first, as long as Hurin has hope enough for two, it is easy to believe she is succeeding—especially when Lalaith arrives, whose joy is so manifestly undimmed on any day.
But then Lalaith dies and Hurin stands weeping bitterly, cursing Morgoth. Turin awakes, after long watches at his bedside, and asks for his sister—and Morwen finds that all pretence has slipped away from her. But she also recognizes that Turin, so like her in some things, was never deceived.
Any faith in the world’s kindness Turin has was gained from others, not her—this beloved son who understands her too well even when they do not speak. She cannot comfort him. She cannot ask his forgiveness for pretending—for bringing him into a world even more than half terrible.
A/N: The poetry prompt was from Maggie Smith's poem Good Bones (available on the Poetry Foundation website). I have taken other parts of the poem as inspiration, too, and the title is a quotation from it.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-02 09:32 am (UTC)It really is a very good fit for Morwen, though. This ficlet rang so true.