caitri | That Which They Defend, Epilogue & Notes

EPILOGUE: THE ROADS GO EVER ON

Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.
--The Road Goes Ever On, The Hobbit

“What are stars made of, Da?” Elfwine asked.

Éomer smiled at his son. The two of them sat on the smooth stone steps that led to the Golden Hall. The late spring evening was cool, but not bitterly so. “They are light and fire, Beohrtan,” he said.

The boy was indeed his “bright one”—as curious and fiercely clever as his mother, his hair a dark gold. What a man he would be one day! The Rohir paused before continuing, just admiring his son—who was growing up so quickly. He would be ready to join an Éored of his own in a few short years.

“A friend of mine told me once that they are distant suns that shine on lands that are more distant yet,” he continued.

Elfwine frowned, his forehead wrinkling in thought, light blue eyes puzzled. “I am not sure I believe this, Da,” he said carefully.

Éomer grabbed the boy, pulling him close and tickling him mercilessly. “You don’t believe me?” he asked, laughing. “You don’t?”

Lothíriel chuckled at their antics, joining them outside. She was great with child once more, and held their daughter, little Morwen, as she slept.

“You should!” she said over their son’s giggles as she sat down next to her husband. “Your Father would not tell you a falsehood,” she added when Elfwine’s own laughter had subsided. She grinned at Éomer, her expression as light and impish as when they had first met. “Let alone a false tale of the Rodorbeorn.”

They shared a fond look, both remembering their friend, gone these eight years.

Elfwine nodded at her words, oblivious. “I have heard of him,” he said very seriously. “The other Rohirrim speak of him sometimes—the sky warrior.” He was quiet a moment. “And your friend knows about these distant lands?”

“He travels to them,” Éomer said slowly, pulling his wife and babe closer to him. “He has a mighty ship, and a clever crew, and they cast their way throughout the heavens.”
Elfwine stared up at the sky, expression rapt. He pointed at a moving light. “Is that them, do you think?” he asked.

“It may be,” Éomer said agreeably.

“Do you think I’ll ever go to the stars?” the boy wanted to know.

Éomer opened his mouth, closed it again. He wasn’t sure how to answer, but his wife spoke for him—wise as ever.

“Perhaps, my son,” she said fondly. “Perhaps such things may be.”

“Aye?” Elfwine frowned. “I—I’m not sure that I would like it in the stars. It seems like it would be lonely.”

He kissed Elfwine’s brow gently. “I think it is not so lonely, not when one has their kith and kin with them. And James T. Kirk assured us both many times that he had the best kith in the universe.”

“And that is a very big place indeed,” Lothíriel agreed.

And the three of them looked up into the sky, following the stars with their eyes.

THE END

Author’s Gratuitous Notes

So this is where I apologize to all the hardcore LOTR folks out there. I ended up committing a pretty big sin in worldbuilding on top of Tolkien’s world-building, but I wanted Jim to get completely immersed in Éomer’s world—which is neglected in comparison to Gondor and to the history of the Elves. (Seriously, multiple volumes get spent on the creation of the Shire, Gondor, the mythology of the Elves, etc—and next to nothin’ for Rohan. Like everything there is in relation to Gondor. Argh.)

So—sorry.

I combined a lot of the book and film elements for the Lord of the Rings parts. Several quotes are unabashedly taken from the films, while others come from the texts. In the books, gúthwinë is the name of Éomer’s sword, though its Old English origins does give it the meaning of “battle-friend.” And, uh, according to a friend of mine who is a Tolkien scholar, the subtext there? Is totally text. Awesome, huh?

Rodorbeorn is a rough approximation of “sky warrior” (rodor is “sky” and beorn is “warrior” or “hero”) in Anglo Saxon. Likewise Readsynne means “red” (read) “gift of the sun” (synne) and I have no idea if that would work as “sunburn”—but in the absence of an actual word for sunburn, it will do. This is what I cobbled from my friend Candy’s Anglo Saxon dictionary, so whatever I got wrong there is totally my fault and my fault only.

Speaking of dictionaries, major resources consulted include Noel’s The Languages of Tolkien’s Middle-earth and Pollington’s Wordcraft: New English to Old English Dictionary and Thesaurus. Crawford’s Daily Life in Anglo-Saxon England was also awesome for working out the sociological stuff that Tolkien kinda took for granted. And, uh, a bunch of other things were also referenced, so if anyone needs a bibliography, let me know. :D

Radagast is one of the Brown wizards and is only mentioned in the books. He preferred to spend his time with animals and stayed out of the War of the Ring. In Fellowship he’s responsible for bringing Gandalf to Saruman at Orthanc, not that he realized what the White Wizard was up to—but he also sent Gwaihir there and Gwaihir rescued him. Gandalf describes him as “never a traveler unless driven by great need” so that’s why he takes his time getting back to Jim. It’s not known if he ever went West or not.

So about Lothíriel. She is LITERALLY a fucking footnote in Tolkien’s text: all we know about her is that she is Imrahil’s daughter, has three brothers, married and had at least one son with Éomer, and that her name means “flower-garlanded maiden.” So. I did my best with her, and if she ended up obsessed with flowers in a different way than Tolkien meant for her to be—well, I kinda can’t make myself feel too bad about that. She was actually pretty vocal once she started talking to me. Go figure.

And yes, Elfwine is her son. Tolkien’s genealogical charts say he’s Éomer’s.

And really every character mentioned who isn’t in Star Trek? Is pretty much Tolkien’s except for a couple of minor Rohirrim and horses (I’m looking at you, Gleowan, Ceorl, and Ceinder). Minor character assassinations aside (Elfhelm didn’t die at the Hornburg, Herubrand wasn’t a homophobe…well, as far as we know anyway, Elphir probably wasn’t a jerk, etc.), I tried my damnedest to get the best of the books of the movies in here and keep to the spirit of both Tolkien and Roddenberry. I hope I succeeded. Ish.

Star Trek bits: The rapid aging on Gamma Hydra IV references the TOS episode “The Deadly Years.” And okay, according to Orci and company, Archer is supposed to have passed away after the Enterprise officially goes on her first mission, but I don’t care. I want him at Starfleet Command because he was just that awesome. So there.