Fic - A Kingly Gift - 1/1

[evandar]

Title: A Kingly Gift
Author: Evandar
Fandom: The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings
Rating: G
Genre: Gen
Pairing: Implied Thorin/Bilbo
Disclaimer: I do not own The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings and I am making no profit from this story.
Summary: No one in the Fellowship knows the true meaning of the mithril shirt, save for Gimli.



When Frodo staggers to his feet, carefully supported by Sam, and opens his shirt, gasping that he isn’t hurt, Gimli cannot help but let his lips part and his eyes widen in shock and awe. He labels the mithril shirt that glitters brilliantly in the gloom “a kingly gift” before he can stop himself – and tries not to wince as generations-old secrets weigh upon his shoulders and stick in his throat.

Not that anyone bar the elf pays attention to his comment, and all the pointy-eared princeling does is roll his eyes. He thinks, no doubt, that Gimli is merely a dwarf sighing over precious metal – and perhaps he is right, though he has no idea of how precious the metal is.

Or what it means.

Mithril, the rarest of metals, is only worked on by the line of Durin. Only those of direct lineage – the kings, the lesser lords, their children – may shape the metal as they please. It is part of why the cost of mithril is so high – and why it was only ever sold to those who were kings or princes in their own right.

He has known almost his entire life that Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain, presented Bilbo Baggins with a mithril shirt, and he has known for almost the same amount of time what exactly that presentation meant. It is another thing to actually see it, see its lustre and its quality peeking out from under stained cotton and Aragorn’s splayed palm. It is the greatest treasure forged within Erebor, and it was intended – though Gandalf’s claim that Bilbo had not known its worth rings horribly true in more than one way – as a betrothal gift.

The line of Durin only gift mithril to those who will be joining it.

Comments

[elletromil.livejournal.com]

This is really really really beautiful.

But you killed me with the last sentence.

So, yeah I'll just be on the floor, rolled up in a ball, crying. Don't mind me.

(I really liked it though)

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Thank you! <3 Glad you like it

[dt_maxwell.livejournal.com]

I'm with elletromil. I am currently rocking back and forth and trying not to weep, because as beautifully written as this is, it is also a ginormous punch to the gut.

...*rereads again*

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Thank you! <3

I was writing it thinking 'Thoriiiiiiin D:'

[zedille.livejournal.com]

This is really excellent work -- I love how understated it is, but you manage to convey so much in the few words there are. And you include all this extra character narration and worldbuilding in -- we really get a sense of how much there was going on behind the scenes, that we're not privy to since it's only dwarf culture. So effective, and you take us to this inevitable conclusion that is so heartbreaking in how much it leaves unsaid (since we all know how the earlier events went, too). Really liked the LOTR-era callback to The Hobbit!

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you <3

Tolkien never says much about dwarf-culture in the books, really, and I've always felt a little sad about that since Gimli's my favourite LotR character hands-down and what we are told implies that they've got a whole lot of culture going on there in the mountains. So. World-building. Because that's totally not a hobby of mine, right?

And yeah, the Thorin/Bilbo-shipping reeeeeeally breaks my heart all over the place. Watch this space. There will be more. And more from Gimli, because yeah, I fangirl.

[zedille.livejournal.com]

Worldbuilding is the best, especially in fic! And especially with Tolkien's world there's just so much going on all the time and so much to explore. Tolkien himself focused mostly on the elves (and he didn't finish with them, at that) so that leaves us with all the realms of Men and Dwarves and so on. There was absolutely stuff going on there even if we don't really see it that much!

(Ooh seeing Thorin/Bilbo from Gimli's POV sounds lovely, it's not something I've seen too much of previously :D)

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Not that the elves weren't awesome as well *cough*Glorfindel*cough*, but they did take up most of Tolkien's writing and leave little room for anything else. Even with the men, he mostly talks about the ones of elvish descent or the people of Numenor.

(There might not be more of this one since I don't want to spoil it, but I have plans *cackles*)

[zedille.livejournal.com]

I have to admit Elrond is my favorite xD but yeah, it's so easy to get caught up in the scope of Tolkien's writing (especially in the Silmarillion) and the quantity of cultures and places he writes about, that you end up forgetting that there were people and things going on besides what Tolkien writes about, too. Even among the Elves, the story doesn't really focus much on the Avari who didn't go to Valinor, or the Vanyar or Teleri beyond their interactions with the Noldor. It's like Wicked's tagline, "so much happened before Dorothy dropped in" -- we don't see any of it in canon but it is there for us in fic!

Sorry, I have Tolkien feels :D and all fic will be happily contributed to those!

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Nnn, I really want to read The Silmarillion again, (haven't read it for almost a decase) but I'm not entirely sure I could justify buying a new copy. (The copy I have is in a box on the other side of the world, and asking my family to ship it over would get a resounding 'wtf no'.)

But you're right. Tolkien wrote so much - an absolutely unbelievable amount - but there's still so much that he didn't write, which makes it the ideal playground, really.

Soooooo many Tolkien feels. :D

[zedille.livejournal.com]

Hm, there are probably copies of the Silmarillion (of dubious legality) floating around online? Or I think I have an ebook version of it I could upload for you, if you like :)

(On that note, I'm on vacation now I could certainly do a spot of re-reading myself! Time to hit up the library :D)

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Oh, I gave in to the temptation and bought the Kindle version shortly after I posted that. XD Not that it's managed to download yet...crappy New Zealand internet *grumbles*

I just know that I'll end up with Celebrimbor-feels again. And Glorfindel-feels. And then I'll be a mess all over the place. XD

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Okay, replying to this comment because of space. Yeah.

I meant the time he spends onscreen in Unexpected Journey. If there has been footage released for Desolation of Smaug then I haven't heard of it...and I'm fairly sure that it would send the fandom corner of the internet into some sort of meltdown.

I think Smaug was the last, but it is possible he was related to Ancalagon. He's definitely of the same type. Wasn't the first dragon (forgotten the name) wingless?

And I got so confused and frustrated with all of the 'fin' names. And the habit of having more than one name, or aliases, and by the end I was a ball of fourteen-year-old frustration. It took me about three months to get through it the first time, and I'm a fast reader.

And the more I talk about The Silmarillion the more I want to read it again, and the more I dread it, because yikes. It's a big universe to take in, let alone dabble in. But I have to now, because of tolkienbigbang and oh god what have I got myself into...

[zedille.livejournal.com]

Ahah, I just follow the link in the notification emails, so in theory I know my comment conversations with people go on and on and the space gets narrower and narrower, but yeah. Here we are.

Ah right, got it! I've seen gifs of behind-the-scenes Dwarves In Barrels on Tumblr, like I mentioned, but that's it, nothing else, and certainly no more Thranduil or Legolas. And I guess it wouldn't make sense to release any footage before even a trailer, either...

[moves dragon speculation to other comment]

It's even worse when you consider that the names we see the Noldor presented with are mostly in Sindarin so then there are all the Quenya forms of things to be messing around with, too. Thankfully the habit of having multiple names died down by the Third Age (could you imagine the narrative if Legolas had three interchangeable names?) though Aragorn/Strider/Elessar/Telcontar/what am I even missing certainly revived the habit with a iwll.

The first time I read the Silmarillion I got super confused by the Ainulindale -- I was like "this has nothing to do with Lord of the Rings!", and I stopped reading it entirely. Thankfully my second shot was rather more successful!

My goal someday is to read through more of the supplementary material for myself, but since so much of it isn't in a coherent narrative idk how likely that is. And ooh did you sign up? Good luck, I'll be here for cheerleading if you'd like :D I wish I knew how to finish things....

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

I've seen a couple of images of Legolas, like the one where he's talking to Bard and one where he looks like he's carrying Orcrist, but nothing about the Elves other than that. Dwarves in Barrels is going to be a thing, isn't it. Those pics are everywhere.

Aragorn was certainly going for some kind of record there, I think. How many names does one guy need? And then there were the titles!

Mm, I was a bit confused by the Ainulindale - like, "why is this here?" - but I got through it okay. I did get through The Silmarillion far quicker the second time around, about two weeks, but then I put it aside and left it there for a very long time because my place as 'nerdiest nerd in the family' was cemented and I didn't have the strength to go through it again.

I've tried reading some of the Histories, but the lack of coherent narrative was a bit of a sticking point. Some of Tolkien's letters have interesting snippets in them, but I didn't manage to finish them before I started travelling and had to leave the book at home.

And I signed up twice. One fic will be Thorin/Bilbo, and the other Celebrimbor/Narvi, because apparently I'm a masochist fan of dwarf/other species relationships.

[zedille.livejournal.com]

Legolas and Thranduil, how are we going to be able to take the perfection? (And the moose. Though do moose even live in forests?) And yeah iirc there was some speculation about if the dwarves-in-barrels were covered, like in the book, or if Thorin & co. were just floating around with their heads sticking out. Though if it's the latter surely the elves would notice?)

We thought Fëanor's kids were bad with names, but Aragorn really gave them a run for their money, didn't 'he?

It's funny because of course, after having gone through the Silmarillion, the Ainulindale is so simple and easy to get through, since the narrative is so coherent. That really is the problem with the Histories -- they really are Tolkien's notes, with various versions of things presented with commentary, and not "Extra Finalized Bits Of Canon Material We Couldn't Fit In The Silmarillion." I've tried flipping through them but I don't know where to start? How do people index things? (I cheat and rely on Wikis, etc.)

Those two fics sound fascinating -- you've already demonstrated you can do Thorin/Bilbo believably, and I am curious to see how you write Celebrimbor too! I am here to cheer you on :)

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Not to mention Kili, Thorin and Bilbo as well and Benedict Cumberbatch's voice. We're all just going to sit there hyperventilating from too much pretty.

Wiki says they live in "boreal and mixed deciduous forests of the Northern hemisphere in temperate to subarctic climates" so I suppose they do. And we now know what kind of habitat Mirkwood is, beyond 'damn scary'.

Maybe they take the lids off once they're in the river? They don't seem to be being rafted... And yeah, I think the elves would notice a bunch of dwarven prisoners in their barrels no matter how drunk they were.

Rereading it, he just seems to pick up another name every other chapter or so. Hell, he's got two in the first chapter he's in!

I wish they'd turned out as extras that couldn't be fit into The Silmarillion rather than the jumble that they actually are. I mean, in a sense it's very interesting to see which bits were edited from what and how they differ, but actually trying to read them is...yeah. Wiki is your (and my) friend.

Thank you! I think I'll definitely be needing those cheers. :)

[hobbitdragon.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes YES YES. Oh my god yes. Headcanon approved!!!!
Thank you for writing this. I love it. <3

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, we're headcanon twins, then.

I'm glad you like it! <3

[the-summoning-d.livejournal.com]

Oh god. Right in the feels.

Beautifully written.

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Thank you! <3

[adrieunor.livejournal.com]

Such a great story told in such a small space. That last line is just icing on the cake, really. This story is gorgeous. And quite painful, actually.

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you. <3 I got a whole boat-load of feels over that coat last time I read the books, and then the film and the hug and gaaaaaaaaaaah.

[lilyoftheval5.livejournal.com]

Oh, simply love the possibility.
What a great idea about Mithril.

[ferowyn.livejournal.com]

You made me cry :'(
This is beautiful! And heartbreaking