The chapter where as I expanded on their captivity I realized I had more to write about Gondolin than I first thought. And the nadir of Faron’s psyche. Also where I figuratively pull out a big fat red marker and circle this canon line:
“But Morgoth thought that his triumph was fulfilled, recking little of the sons of Fëanor, and of their oath, which had harmed him never and turned always to his mightiest aid; and in his black thought he laughed, regretting not the one Silmaril that he had lost, for by it as he deemed the last shred of the people of the Eldar should vanish from Middle-earth and trouble it no more.” [Silm 293]
And we wrap up the Daily Grind and Gossip of Angband Arc.
The later half of the First Age from the perspective of two elves trapped in Angband, loosely inspired by A Dance of Dragons. The childhood companion of Finduilas Faelivrin must take the princess’s identity to survive in the enemy’s hands. Another prisoner, regretting he did not join Beren’s quest, tries his best to save her.
AO3 – Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6
“She should not look to me for rescue.”
News of Menegroth’s fall came via the boasts of the King of Angband to his captains, Balrogs, and orcs. “My enemies do my work for me,” he was said to have crowed, his laughter echoing to the lightning-scarred rafters of his throne room. The orcs toasted to the Kinslayers’ names, laughing and praising them, and their mocking joy of what had happened drove Faron to the far corner of the warg kennels to puke out the dredges of his stomach.
After that, Faron no longer listened intently for the captains of Morgoth to grace the lower levels of Angband with their stories of the outside world.
Gondolin was all that was left now, Gondolin and Lord Círdan’s island across the Bay of Balar. The Dark Lord had overthrown all other elven strongholds or lands of men who opposed him. He had breached the walls of Himring and topped the towers of Eithel Sirion, turned the forests of Dorthonion into a land of nightmares and the flowers of Ard-galen and Lothlann to ash, ran packs of wargs unhindered through the Pass of Aglon into the fertile plains below and through the Forest of Brethil, placed Dor-lómin under the hand of his cruel mortal allies and stretched his oppressive rule to the sea.
Doriath with its impenetrable girdle and city of a thousand caves had been the first to stand against the might of Angband and had never been breached by Morgoth in all the centuries of war, but it had been destroyed nonetheless. Nargothrond had been found and conquered. Of the three hidden cities only Gondolin remained untouched.
It was Faelindis who first told him of the newest captive to fill the tiny holding cells for those deemed Angband’s greatest prizes.
Release from Bondage – Chapter 7
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