Aurëthil Eryndaë Age: 5209 years old during the War of the Ring. I, Aurëthil Eryndaë, was born in Greenwood the Great, under the rulership of Oropher, in II 1200, 11 Coirë. My parents, were Sindarin Elves from Doriath, who followed Oropher and his son Thranduil to the east with the idea of founding Elven realms. In II 1693, the war between Sauron and the Elves began, and due to all the sadness it brought to the Elven kin, my parents heart longed for the west, and decided to leave, looking for peaceful lands on the other side of the sea. Still, I chose to stay though all my family was leaving and I wasn’t sure of when I’d see them again... I was 493 years old, and though I was not a child, that age ain’t old for an Elf, so as my father was a royal messenger, the son of the king, Prince Thranduil, contacted an Elf he knew and asked her if she could take me under her wing. That’s how I met Laebeth, and with time she adopted me as her daughter. Laebeth had been born in Lindon, also during the Second age, but almost 500 years before I was. She was half Noldor, ¼ Teleri and ¼ Vanyar, and when her parents left she became a wanderer and a warrior, trying to protect all good things in Middle-earth. I lived and travelled with her for years, she was my mother, but also a teacher. Many things I learnt from her, she tought me how to use a sword, and how to fight, but most of all, she told me all she knew about Lindon, and Eregion and all the places she had been to or heard of. In one of our journeys, we stayed in Grey Heavens for a while, since Laebeth had some issues to arrange with Círdan. There I met a Teleri elf, a Falathrim, his name was Dînairë and was a very close friend of Cirdan and Gil-Galad... a son of the Teleri of the host of Olwë that remained in Beleriand during the Great Journey and were under the power of Círdan. Born before the beginning of First Age, he enjoyed the peace of Beleriand before the return of Melkor. In that time he, like his people, became a mighty mariner, and the inborn love of the Sea bloomed with full strength. Like many of Cirdan's people, he was friendly towards Noldor and fought with them during the Nirnaeth Arnoedidad, where a company of Falathrim under the banner of Fingon fought. Miraculously surviving the battle, he was able to return to the Falas, just to face their destruction by Morgoth a short time later. Among the few of the Falathrim to escape, he was with Círdan and Gil-Galad at the founding of the realm in Lindon, at the beginning of the Second Age...where we met. Our love grew and in II 1800, we got married. So I stayed in Grey Heavens (though my heart longed for my woods on the east) where my first son, Elnarsil was born in II 1909 along with his twin sister Arele, some years later Aman Kano was born and last but not least Anglachel. But life in Middle Earth was not easy to all elves thanx to the Dark Lord, so that's why we adopted our first sons of the heart Lyceus and Fëanen, who in that difficult time were looking for a place to call home. My kids learnt there everything about ships and the sea thanx to Círdan and their father, they got to love it badly, the sea and all military stuff related, every single one of them. In II 3428, I moved to Greenwood the Great. War was upon us, and in Mithlond my husband and kids followed the Noldo Gil-Galad. I couldn't... Noldor had been the destruction of Doriath, I wouldn't stay there watching a Noldo destroying Mithlond. Well, that's what I thought at the time, so I went back home. Two years I stayed there, living under the trees of the woods that had turned darker to my sadness... but even there, war reached me. Greenwood was getting ready to join the other Elves and men in the battle of the Last Alliance against Sauron, and I got news that my kids and husband had gone to Imladris and joined Elrond’s and Gil-Galad’s troops... if I had joined them my future had been so different... but I didn’t know. We fought in the war of the last alliance, my family with the Noldor, I with Oropher's army of course, but not alone, since Dînairë was allowed to join me. Far we got and crossed Middle-earth right into Mordor...and when we thought victory was near, darkness covered my life. Oropher's problems with Gil-Galad could not be hidden anymore, and led his army against Mordor's power. His son Thranduil remained behind and my husband took my place in the charging army ordering me to stay... that was his death and the birth of Eryndaë. (*note: that's my second name, it means "Wood's Shadow") The king of Greenwood had perished as well as most of his troops, my husband dead as well, and though sitting next to his still warm body, no tears came out of my eyes, my laugh was hardly heard anymore, I had no purpose in life... but I grabbed his sword Harualph (meaning "Swan of Wounds" - which after the war passed to Elnarsil) and went back to the battle, full of hate and wrath. I had changed. The happy Elf Aurëthil had died when Dînairë died and a new personality replaced her. Isildur cut the ring from Sauron's hand, and the Dark Lord vanished... for how long? No one knew. The ring was not destroyed, and then lost... but little we cared anymore about it, we had lots of problems to fix... so though my children moved to Rivendell, I went back to my woods, with prince, now king, Thranduil who'd have to organize a destroyed kingdom after the death of his father. Greenwood was called Mirkwood and we moved north, where the king built halls inside of a mountain. Keeping the enemy away from our home was our mission now. I became Thranduil's messenger and member of his guard. Years passed, almost 3000... but that didn’t stop evil from coming back... I was still at Mirkwood or course, fighting orcs and all the horrible creatures of Sauron who tried to make of our forest his home. I was there when Bilbo Baggins, the Hobbit, and the Dwarves were caught, I fought in the Battle of the Five Armies in Thranduil’s troops. I was a female Elf, and female Elves weren’t meant to be in armies, but time had turned me into a cold warrior, I couldn’t change what I was, what's more, I realized that I was even ejoying it. Maybe that was my destiny, maybe this one was the real me. I knew I had not been really happy when living in a home all the time doing wife work, and that thought made me feel worse guilty... because if I had stayed at Mithlond and accepted Gil-Galad's rulership, my kids would have a father... I got to meet lots of important Elves and even men in my journeys to deliver messages from my king... and in one of those adventures, I was sent to Rivendell, home of my children and also of Laebeth and her husband Arlo Cúthalion. She was named General of the Elven Army of Rivendell, and offered me a place in it as well. To me it was a hard choice... leaving the woods and my friends and people or leaving my family again. I chose the second option, I needed Laebeth, her advises and words... and I owed it to my children... they needed their mother, I could not run away from my past any longer. In that army, I got to be Second General, but never left the woods, instead, I’d travel to Mirkwood every single time I had some free days. Being in Imladris, I met a young Elf called Valanar. He had been born in Mithlond around the same time when my twins had been born, I knew his parents from there, just like I knew him and his brother as well. But now he was all alone in Middle-earth, since his parents had sailed to the West and his brother had perished in the Last Alliance war... his life was very similar to ours, so I adopted him as my son. But the ring was found, Sauron's shadow was getting powerful again, and because of that, some of my children started to sail west. Arele first, and then Lyceus with Anglachel. When my son Lyk left with his wife, I adopted my grandson Aduchil, who chose to stay and was a member of the army, as most of our family was at the time. To me he was like one of my kids... but the list was not complete at all, because not long after that, I opened the doors of my family to another Elf, Lady Shadowdawn, a spy leader of the army who had grown up in Fangorn with an adoptive Ent father. The war of the ring was about to begin, many battles had the Elves fought to avoid it, but nothing was enough... and right when all faith was being lost in the world, and darkness was covering it all, Aurëthil the cold General, the military Elf, the one who showed no fear nor feelings nor pain, the one with a cold heart only happy in battle fields slaying the enemy, the one with the biggest pride and sarcasm... was tamed by the most unexpected Elf. Her mother Laebeth had an adoptive brother, Laivindil, born a few years before the exile of the Noldorin Elves. Being a Noldo himself, he followed Fëanor's kin to Middle-earth where with the passing years he became a wanderer, residing here and there in search of his lost mother. He was adopted in Imladris by Laebeth's adoptive parents, and joined the army as well. That's how he met me, his "niece" Aurëthil. My first impression was that the Elf was annoying, truth is he was the only Elf able to control my temper, so it was nothing easy to accept that my pride and sarcasm had no effect on him... maybe because he was just as proud and sarcastic as I was... though I didn't want to accept it. It turned into something that got my attention, and I even started to enjoy it... then admiration replaced it, he was a great warrior, great leader of the Sea Forces, with a great sense of humor... I found myself without aparent reasons spending more time among the sailors of the army, even when not enjoying the sea... admiration became friendship, friendship got stronger... and so strong it got that we got married and bought a house in Forlindon, I Adab-nan-Falas (the house by the coast), where many of my children followed us. (Though by that time, my time was mostly spent in Imladris, battle fields and Mirkwood.) The One ring got to Frodo, then he destroyed it in Mount Doom, and evil left these lands finally... it was no time for armies anymore, no time for swords, my soul could had some rest then, so I went back to Mirkwood, which name was changed to Eryn Lesgalen, but I realized I couldn’t stay in one place for a long time anymore, so when the son of the king, Legolas, moved to Ithilien to found an Elven realm there, I followed him. But Laivindil didn't enjoy the life in forests, he loved the sea as some of my kids, so as wanderers we were, we'd spend our time in all the places we called home. But time went by, years passed very fast, the last elves left to the west, even the Elves from the forest... Legolas and much later Thranduil as well, so I couldn’t avoid that destiny anymore. It was during the Forth age, (IV 120), when we got into our last journey. We were two of the last Elves to sail to the west, where Laiv found his mother, and I could meet my parents again, a brother born there I didn’t know of, my children, Laebeth, and many friends. I planted seeds in this new land, seeds I took from the trees I left behind, many Elves from Mirkwood did the same, so after some years, we could rest under their leaves, a new Greenwood, now on the other side of the sea and in peace. Back to the top Return to the front page of the book