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2.04.18
Never before Man came unto the sands of Anfauglith, until Nirnaeth Arnoediad, where was killed or maimed many thousands elf-kind, and more so of Men, good and evil-bound to undertake; Never had any beheld in full array and under the blaze of wrath, those Eldar who reserved their most contempt and vengeance for Melko and his host; to Men came never again Vala-call to head west forthwith hastening, and all their messages sent they of eagles, or elf-direct; thus Man knew not of Powers Westward, save a few only (as Tuor, for example, by direct discourse with Ulmo);
And in their places they told of blazing swords swung by terrible Fire Ones, good and evil; and of Anfauglith’s burning soil, dry dead to nothing living, came all their woes, and not only in song; or, not least in story and song, for how to escape its grasp and not hear Hell’s Utumno call? How to send word to Fathers there laboring, thrall-spirit? From Nirnaeth Arnoediad sprang evil thoughts, mostly, and came also doubts, or questions none to answer, but in jest, guess, and often to evil purpose or intent; so came priests bearing religion among Men.
More did they feign wisdom and lore of escape, than tell (fancied or learned) of any Power good, housed West, and overwatching all Arda, their governed realm; And in these priestly cults, there was recalled all the ancient lore of earlier age, how Man called forth of soil arose in the dawn, with a sun new rising too; and how battles ensued, Man and elf, to gain mastery, one over another; no death was then contrived, as yet, until the Melko-king who favors the elf-kindred, mated his deathful house’s seeds to those bearing man-child, and so the battles concluded, elf being deathless, against man easy corrupted, and frail, diseased, aging rapid to lay down in soil and wither, leaves every fall scattered by weather, light or rough, no matter; to earth drove them all, this death;
So also was it taught anew, that elves dealt in traffick of soul (of Men’s spirit) to Melko, and he in turn brought not full death upon their hroa; thus also was taught among new priests, that an elf hame finding, keep preserved; and placing hroa upon a stall amidst their village settlements, or encamped tentlands; or buried where plantings were; new life abundant may proceed, emanated forth of elf-hroa; and others also held thought that all elf-kind were in truth, of long ago, those men who most sacrificed offerings to Melko-Lord; and he rewarding diligence with mighty lore to make, and cunning wiles to enchant lesser creatures here awalk; now [Melko] repented in remorse of returning knowledge to elf, for had they not now rebelled against their master?
So man in all that age – even after the War of Wrath, and into the Second Age of Noldo Exile-ion – sorties threw they (men) against elf, to possess the magic hroa, and thereby claim kingship over some few others, misguided in darkness by lamps smoking over intervening lights;
Elves for their part returned the strikes, and yet more, spreading wonderful fear in tales of sprites and airborn(e) fae, water trolls and worse, monsters great, mostly, and not as fearsome as Melko’s simplest brutes – mostly kept away from Man, by some decree or natural disinclination, we know nor say not; Yet sufficient to ward off all, but the most hardy, curious, or troublesome men; Those were unhappy days for Men, afraid to see above those stars, glaring rather than gleaming, it seemed; or to learn of Arda, her making, and never to receive her gifts, freely bestowed; wary were they of any fruiting or beast easily captured or hunted; yet also feared they all else, to consume; or cultivate, seeing in their stores of even little food, wealth tempting others to slay and to take themselves, in their turn, to be slain; So in concealment found they seeming safety; and among others, searching out the concealed – hearing of magic Stores, or lore to hunt, or tools and weapons preserved of their fathers’ forging, sought in strength of body, in numbers ever increasing (by means we shall not speak of) to cow those hiding, into fearful submission, no longer concealing; red were those days, and black thereafter, in the nights, years upon years piling corpses, and retreating every one to Melko’s Unlight;
Until there came wandering – or stronger at arms, and more cunning in their exercise – those early Numenorean Men, pitying their kindred in flesh, and disposing those who yielded not to the rule of wisdom thus introduced; taught to sow corn, and pluck seeds of fruits, to aplanting, and to measure days, for harvest, or planting; and to rest; and how to rest, not idly, nor awaiting conquest; but to fashion themselves, as they wrought; weavings, spun webs of spiders’ silk; leathercraft, food preservation; wine-making, ale brewing, cheesing, all suited to each clan’s abundance, and to its increase; some there were excelling all others, in righteousness – meaning, belief in True lore, and exercise of wits to outplace dark lies, in root entangled, or the air resident polluting, with fragrance comely, reminiscent of Eru-breath (as they termed the petals given by Numenor’s maids); of the excellent people, Clan Bilha and she of Zilpah, most often were named, even to hearing of Eldar, come by Westernesse’s men, in reverence to these people’s doings, and proclivity to good.
So to them came in time, Ki-Abroam, though by many other names, and guises, residing; and he told them of himself, as one of former days, a father of their clans, begetter of many sons and daughters, by their matron-clan figures; so taking as clans to his house, in the giving of lore fabricated (mostly!), and by their receiving, he a protector became, saying,
Of Judas renown, his loins have I sprung,
Fifty generations up, and fifty more times fifty,
Climbing back to our shared forefathers, Adam;
Enoch of old, you name chancellor of those First Men
(as you call him, Daymon, in After Days);
Having received his name, and rightly reverenced thus it;
But no man was he, lord kindly, and keeper
Of Father’s Ways; No, of the Eldar,
Elves House was he, and so should ye all
First of Men here on Forsaken Lands raised,
Receive now such Eldar as here wander, stray
Or by purposes their own; and not as quarry, nor
Fetish housed or bound to your field’s fruiting,
Or your ladies’ birthing; But as brothers
Of One, and he mightier than Melko-king of
Men thrall and by wicked ways, ensorcelled;
To this One shall ye be led,
As goats herded unknowing to mountain pasture
Green, against a withering summer’s hot winds;
And not by man shall those goats be
Thus headed, nor rearwarded; nor unmarred
By wolf’s bites, by men, neither;
By an Eldar Come of Enoch, and promised to thy fathers,
From his fathers, to redeem these clans, when
Most dark lies lands themabouts;
This stick’s half, broken, I give to thy keeping;
Everafter, until one bearing the other half
Broken, return whole each part, to its other side;
And him shall ye call Mos’th and thy children, his
Israel Broken off, beyond any to give or sew
a one whole, save one you do not now know.
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