"Inventing Gondolin", by Himring - Challenge: In Time

[hhimring]

Title : Inventing Gondolin

Author : Himring

Fandom/Source : The Silmarillion, History of Middle-earth

Rating : PG13

Characters : Salgant, Maeglin

Disclaimer : Tolkien's characters (no offence intended, no monetary recompense received).

Spoilers/Warnings : For the chapter ‘Of Maeglin’.

Summary :  Maeglin begins to talk. Sequel to Lemon Tarts of Gondolin, but can probably be understood on its own. (2 x 100)

‘You’ve stopped talking to me, Salgant.’
‘You didn’t seem all that entertained...’
‘True, I wasn’t entertained, but I was trying to follow, trying to work out why things were meant to be funny.
I thought I knew Gondolin, Salgant. I’d imagined it all, from my mother’s stories. Uncle Turgon was just like my father, only without the not-so-good bits, and I’d convinced myself there was a place waiting for me here. Here, I’d fit right in! Then we arrived and I realized right away, even before…
I’d invented Gondolin, Salgant, out of whole cloth. The city was nothing like that.’

‘Your mother had left things out?’
It was still strange—wrenching—to think of their lady Ar-Feiniel in Nan Elmoth and worse, knowing the end of it.
‘My mother left things out in her stories, yes—fewer major things than you might think, but so many small ones that it did not even occur to her to mention. And I asked no questions, or the wrong ones, content to believe Gondolin would be Nan Elmoth, only with more room to breathe… ’
‘You’ll get used to us in time.’
‘Maybe. Keep talking, Salgant, as I try to work things out.’

Comments

[liadt]

Ace:)

Aw, poor Maeglin not fitting in anywhere and finding Gondolin wasn't as he hoped and now he's stuck!

[fredbassett]

but I was trying to follow, trying to work out why things were meant to be funny.

I love the sense of dissociation that this conjures up.

[hhimring]

Thank you!
I think Gondolin must have been quite the place for in-jokes! Salgant would probably not realize quite how much.
And that's not even taking into account that Nan Elmoth doesn't sound like the best place to cultivate one's sense of humour and of course Maeglin's would have suffered anyway from recent events.