'Silver' | July 2024 prompt, multiples of 50 words

[with_rainfall]

 Author: with_rainfall
Title: Silver
Text type / Format: Dribble x 2 
Source / Fandom: Silmarillion
Rating: G
Word Count: 100 
Summary: Maglor and Feanor, bookended.
Link: AO3 | fan_flashworks post

Comments

[hhimring]

I like how the two halves mirror each other.
The connections and inversions are quite intricate and the intervening time span must be so vast!
And it's very moving, too, of course, that father-son relationship.

It is interesting to me that the instrument that attracts Makalaure's attention is a koto. Do you see that as a common instrument in Tirion or a rare one?

[with_rainfall]

Thank you so much! Glad the parallels and inversions worked for you.

The instruments that sound most 'silvery' to my untrained ear and the ones I could listen to forever are flutes (esp. the recorder, dizi and tin whistle). Maglor being a harpist, I could see him being mesmerised by a string instrument - especially as a child.

Honestly, I just picked one at random. Now you mention it, it'd probably make more sense to use a broader term, though (e.g. zither, harp), since the koto is specific to a time and place (especially a post-Third Age Mannish time and place), and is strictly speaking a type of zither.

[hhimring]

I didn't mean to start you worrying!
It worked for me that the reference was to a more specific kind of instrument, precisely because Maglor is a musician, even if he is very young.

The reason I asked was just because I wondered whether Maglor is also learning about an instrument that is new to him, here, besides being fascinated by the music played on it. It was more of a world-building question.

I suppose there might be readers who don't know what a koto sounds like (but I do). If that is a concern, you could put a link to a recording in the notes on AO3, perhaps? But also, these days, such things are not difficult to find out for people on their own!

[with_rainfall]

I didn't mean to start you worrying!

Oh, good heavens, I'm just being pedantic! :D Instruments are a product of cross-cultural trade, conquest and globalisation, so really you've sent me down a rather fun rabbit hole wondering aloud about the cultural zeitgeist (and creative paucity?) of Elves. Were their instruments more standardised because their societies were so tiny?

It worked for me that the reference was to a more specific kind of instrument, precisely because Maglor is a musician, even if he is very young.

Hmm, interesting! /is tempted to make Maglor a guzheng player

[silver_trails]

Beautiful.

[with_rainfall]

Many thanks :)