Ancalima I was born in Eryn Lasgalen (called by Men Greenwood the Great), in the second year of the Third Age, the same year that saw Isildur slain...We were simple folk, and my father was one of the hunters of Lasgalen. When Imladris folk call me "Lady" it makes me smile. My name, as far as I can tell, means "Brightest Light". My other name is Thinguru, "Grey-Dove". You ask of my past? "Ae, Yéni unótime! So many years ago that was, I cannot count them anymore. I remember the Forest before the Shadow fell on it. It was a beautiful place, full of music and wonderment. We spent days writing songs,and nights singing them, for weeks on end, simply rejoicing in the Greenwood, and in each other. But then there were rumors of fell creatures in spider-shape, moving into the treetops to the South, and breeding there. By these signs, we knew that the Shadow had arisen again, in the southern part of our forest. Evil entered, some were decieved by it, and many were destroyed. And then there was that one we do not name who came and took Amon Lanc for himself. Took it. The hill of our own people! Took it, and built himself a stronghold. He was called the Necromancer then, but he called himself Annatar, Giver of Gifts; for he said that it had been his name of old, but that the people of Arda had forgotten it in their ingratitude. He said that he had many gifts to give us. And my poor mother believed him. My mother...was taken by--them, and imprisoned in the tower of Dol Guldur That was what the mornaew-messenger said. I still have nightmares about it: ...Ancalima slept. And dreaming, she again walked the forest, as evening shadows fell in the tree-pillared halls of Greenwood the great. I am searching for someone, and I cannot find them. The path led her on, through moonlit glade and moss-carpeted thicket, until she realized that the wood was growing strange, and the night birds had ceased their singing. Here is a path I did not know before, and here the shadows grow deeper. Why does the nightingale not sing? "Dúlind, dúlind, mas laer lín? Amman ledhiach?" ( Nightingale. where is your song? Why do you go? ) Silence answered. As she walked down the path, one slender, sticky thread caught the edge of her dress, and held it. Something was moving stealthily in the branches above. I dare not look up... "Nan barad, nan barad," ( To the tower... ) the voices are saying...I must reach the tower... She tugged herself free, and running a short way,came to a clearing in the dark surrounding trees. Over head, a few veiled stars shone in the high dome of heaven. Before her the dark tower rose in the cold starlight. In the topmost window, a small light shone briefly, and even as she looked, it was put out. From the window, her Naneth’s voice cried, " ’Cali! Drego hi! ( Flee now! ) ’Cali! ’Cali!" My father went in search of our mother. When he heard the message that was brought to him by the mornaew, it was as if a madness took him. He ran out of our house without speaking to us, leaving his bow and his pair of long-knives behind. He should not have done that. And running, and running and running, Through darkening,tangling maze; And running and searching and running, Casting his desperate gaze On thicket, and briar and shadow, As darker the forest became. In darkness, and more than all darkness; He ran through it, calling her name. My little sister ran into the wood, carrying her silver lantern, and calling after Father frantically. I took up the knives, ran into the darkling forest,and followed. We were searching for them both, my sister and I. I found my father only. He was...suspended between two trees, entangled in a mass of spiderwebs. He looked at me imploringly, but he could no longer speak...I cut him down, and he died later that day. My mother was never released from Dol Guldur. Perhaps she is still there, but I have given up all hope. I have no family, now, as far as I know. My sister disappeared somewhere into Taur-na-Fuin , leaving only her broken silver lantern for me to find on the pathway, near Amon Lanc. I retreated northward, with the other Silvan Elves, and lived for a time in the Halls of King Thranduil, far in the northeast of our forest. After a time, life underground became unbearable to me, and I longed to see the sky,and hear the song of birds again. All good birds are beloved to me, and I speak with them in their own tongues, as with brothers and sisters. I have spent the years as a refugee, a wanderer in wild places, until coming at last to Imladris. I became obsessed with bringing light into dark places, by making lanterns of silver,candles of beeswax, and songs of words. I do this because there is still darkness in Arda. I devote my days to finding the material where it lies hidden from sight, working with it until it takes the shape it already has in my mind, and bringing it to a place where I can share it with others. In search of silver for my lamps, I made a journey to the Mines of Moria, in the beginning of Rhîw. My childhood friend, Maechen of Lasgalen was my faithful companion, as always, along with his friends Authon and Gornhír. These last were killed by Yrch on the way back from Moria to Imladris, and I was wounded. Maechen rescued me, and brought me to Barad Eregion, where he was killed, defending the camp from Yrch. I finished the journey in the company of Lord Glorfindel’s party, returning to Imladris in great grief and much torment of mind. Back to the top Return to the front page of the book