psocoptera: ink drawing of celtic knot (lbreak)
[personal profile] psocoptera
Am seeing Two Towers again tomorrow. V. excited.

Have been wanting to write something Tolkien. Despite meaning to respect the integrity of the books, this does, alas, use the phrase "silken elf-locks". Spoilers for Return of the King appendices. 174 words.


Gimli sits in the prow of the ship, his fingers wrapped in strands of gold. His beard has long since gone white, his eyesight is failing and he dozes often. Once while asleep Galadriel's hair blew away on the wind; Legolas replaced it with three strands of his own. He does not know if Gimli cannot tell or does not mind.

It is Legolas who looks back, although the shore has long since passed beyond even his eyes, keen though they are as ever. He had begged Arwen to come with them, in the end, until she laid her white fingers across his lips. "Remember him for me," she had said, only that and "Remember me for him." Memories are weightless as footsteps on snow; by the side of the ship Legolas had broken all his arrows, his ship's sails need no attention and so he has nothing to fill his empty hands.

In the bow Gimli runs silken elf-locks through his cracked fingers and smiles sleepily. The water grows paler every mile.

Date: 2002-12-22 08:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] myalexandria.livejournal.com
fanTAStic. wow. the image of Legolas breaking all his arrows. and the last sentence.

note: NOT condoning the elf/dwarf slash. I stick to my position that people under five feet tall do not, under any circumstances, have sex. dwarves! hobbits! under five feet tall! no sex! (kelilah should be pleased to note that she is off the hook here.) but! nonetheless, lovely writing :-)

The water grows paler every mile is going in my file of "sentences I wish I'd come up with."

Date: 2002-12-22 07:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] psocoptera.livejournal.com
Thank you! I feel very honored now.

For what it's worth, I don't see this Legolas and Gimli as having ever had sex, or kissed, or had UST... exactly. I think they're the most important person in each other's lives (well, actually I think that much is canon) and it's slash to the extent that maybe there could be some chivalry-romance kinds of elements to that, like carrying tokens from each other, or praising each other in rather poetic terms. But sex? No. And I don't think it's a matter of height, to me... I don't think anyone in Middle Earth has sex. The elves are tall, but can you picture Elrond having sex? Or Galadriel giving birth? One might think they must have, but I find it more plausible that the begetting of children in Middle Earth is not accomplished by biology but by the drawing of little lines on geneological charts. Even if you're the pre-eminent human couple of Middle Earth, you don't have sex, you stand on a wall and let your hair mingle in the wind.* That said, I'm all in favor of elf/dwarf slash that respects that, if you would even call it "slash" without the sexual element, or given that they are together as permanent comrades in canon, not to start a huge debate about the definition of "slash". Er, I guess I mean I feel that there's interpretational space around "companions" and "friends" and "life partners" that can be interesting without getting into icky
"he hefted his hefty dwarf thews over the slender limbs of the elf" territory, not that I have any idea exactly what a thew is.

*Which might work as a reproductive method if you're a fern, or perhaps an Ent.

Re:

Date: 2002-12-22 09:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] myalexandria.livejournal.com
I think thews are clothing. though I could be mistaken. Pants, more or less. :-)

Date: 2002-12-30 05:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kelilah.livejournal.com
Um, you would, in fact, be mistaken. Thews are, like, muscles and sinews. Which makes more sense, because "mighty pants" just makes me laugh.

Date: 2002-12-30 05:42 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kelilah.livejournal.com
::kerthunk::

Okay, you broke me. That was *gorgeous*. Fucking *Arwen* broke me, and I don't even like her really.

With the wow and the old and the leaving. Yeah. Broken.

Date: 2002-12-30 08:24 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] psocoptera.livejournal.com
Woot! Broken Kelilah!

Thank you so much. I've kind of been toying with something else involving Arwen, which won't be nearly so good and you won't like nearly so much, so I'm glad to have come up with this one first ::grin::.

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