Horse Theft

squirrelwrangler:

“We need horses,” King Fingolfin said, and to which the princes of his host agreed. Some heads nodded more vigorously than others, but no one present refuted his statement. The boost to mobility and size against the orcish army had been well-proved by the cavalry victory of the sons of Fëanor before the moon arose. 

But only the sons of Fëanor and their followers possessed any horses, for they had transported the animals aboard the stolen Swan-ships. It had proven impossible to herd any creature across the frozen darkness of the ice desert, nor had the followers of Fingolfin and Finrod attempted to do so. Nor had they any horses or other beasts of burden remaining to even attempt to take with them across the Helcaraxë when Fëanor had betrayed the host by taking the fleet and abandoning them. He had loaded all the animals that the Noldor had the foresight to bring in that hurried flight onto the largest of the Swan-ships before he disembarked in secret. 

To his best friend, Turgon privately confided that his brother Fingon was as wroth at the theft of his beloved steed as to the general betrayal at Losgar. Finrod believed it, for he had observed that among the later messages containing proposals for possible reconciliation that Fingolfin had sent to Maglor after learning of what had transpired before their arrival were demands for the return of Fingolfin and Fingon’s horses. Turgon’s personal opinion was that food was a more pressing demand, though he conceded to Finrod that plough animals would greatly increase the production of arable land, and thus horses would be a boon.

The Sindar elves of this new mist-laden land did possess horses, though the animals were few and far between because of the onslaught of the army of Morgoth. Herds of thousands had been slaughtered by the orcs, and most of the surviving animals had been rescued by taking them south into the protection of the Girdle or by fleeing east and then south. The horses and other livestock that the Sindar herdsmen had been able to protect and hide from the orcs were therefore all the more precious and guarded. 

In any case, the native horses of Beleriand were smaller creatures than the Noldor were accustomed to, almost uniformly of a black or bay coloration, though some had a lighter dun coat, with sporadic stripes and spots, and universally with a long black stripe down the back. Their heads were large and ungraceful, eyes small and dark, and the manes and tails thick and coarse. Prince Fingon disparagingly likened them to donkeys and asses, yet he was first to entreat the Sindar horse owners to allow him to examine the horses and worked tirelessly to assist in their care and tend to lingering wounds. Fingon’s interest back in Valinor had heavily skewed towards all forms of equestrian competition, a passion he had shared with Aunt Lalwen, and no one was better at creating an instant rapport with the animals. Unlike gregarious and charismatic Turgon, his older brother Fingon had always very few friends, and those few but close bonds of friendship had mostly been forged in the paddock fields or as friendly rivalries in the equestrian sports. 

Angrod’s wife, Edhellos, had bred and raised horses, selling the finest to the various princes, and she had personally bred or trained the majority of the horses paddocked in the Fëanorian camp. She too would glared across the lake in the direction of those stolen herds, murmuring dark and vicious words too low for any to hear. Then to quell her hate temporarily she would visit the Sindarin herds, though that had the opposite effect of only inflaming her jealousy. “We need horses,” Angrod said to his older brother, “for my marriage depends on it.”

Finrod enlisted Turgon’s help in conferring with the leaders of the Sindar elves in Nevrast about possible purchases of some of the remaining horses. Sheltered in the marshland around the lake in eastern Nevrast, multiple herds of these smaller gray and white horses -ponies, truly- had survived. They were too short to be comfortably ridden by the taller Noldor; Turgon in particular looked comical standing next to one- but for pack animals and pulling farming equipment they would more than suffice. And they were more aesthetically pleasing than the other breeds native to Northern Beleriand, if the princes were honest. So Finrod began to divvy some of the jewelry he had carried across the Helcaraxë to people he trusted, his sister-in-law Edhellos and his childhood friends Edrahil and Heledir chief among them, to bargain for horses for the Noldor under King Fingolfin.

According to a helpful Sindar herdsman named Annael, yes, the natives of Beleriand did have ‘tall horses’. The King of Beleriand, Elu Thingol, was taller than even Prince Turgon, and needed a refined and spirited mount equal to his stature. There was a royal herd of leopard-spotted destriers,

horses as strong and swift as any son of Nahar, but they could not be found north of the Ered Wethrin.

Still the existence across Lake Mithrim of the Valinorean horses, tall and strong and more than a few stolen, tormented those that brooded over them and the necessity of horses for the war effort against Morgoth. 

This goaded Heledir to make the suggestion one night to Angell and a few other warriors of his acquaintance that they should cross the lake in secret and rustle horses. Secret plans were made, getaway routes carefully examined,

Edhellos consulted and inducted into the conspiracy along with her husband, and rope stockpiled. 

Thankfully Fingon returned from his daring rescue, facilitating a more genuine probability of reconciliation between the two Noldor camps, and the eventual goodwill gesture of the return of several horses and additional livestock. Thus the raid was unnecessary (and plans for its existence denied).