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

[zedille.livejournal.com]

Although Peter Jackson might take a somewhat free hand with plot and characterization (or at least, "not entirely faithful to the books" which obviously has some canon purists up in arms) his vision of Middle-Earth -- the production values -- is just without peer. Casting! Costuming! Etc. (Well, I didn't think Celeborn and Haldir felt too Elf-like to me, but anyway.) I disagree with some of his choices but that is what Middle-Earth looks like to me. Which is also why I'd kind of love to see PJ do a Silmarillion thing -- I know that the plot would be impossible to make a movie out of, and it would certainly get bastardized in any adaptation, but it would be so pretty and tragic! (I harbor vague hopes maybe of someday a Game of Thrones type show. maybe.)

I'm sure there's some deep meaning to be had in the "Strider" title, something about how that was what his line-of-unbroken-descent-from-Isildur actually ended up doing, but even so. He had all the lineages of the First Age, ALL the fancy titles, and that's what he comes up with? (Is Arwen now "Arwen Telcontar"? or "Arwen Telcontári"?)

I may compromise and just look at the bits of things that people tend to cite a lot. Apparently there are certain essays and things that have large amounts of information and lists of things. I want to do the research, I think things are fun that way, but... how?!

I swear some Wiki said that there was mithril in Valinor? Though of course that was Valinor and this is Middle-Earth. Though id the Elves just not have a ready source of mithril until Moria happened? Though of course apparently Khazad-dum has been around since the First Age or something, according to something else I read (which may or may not be true), so I guess the Elves would have had some source of mithril even then. Do we ever see the stuff mentioned in the Silmarillion? Or I'm sure we do, but in what context?

You know where to find me! :D

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

A Silmarillion TV series would be a thing of beauty and joy and OMG I need it in my life. (Though even as a series it would be seriously hard to pull off and would need a huge budget and therefore will probably never happen. But. Yessssssssssss.)

I always thought she would remain Undomiel since that was her title?

There probably was mithril in Valinor, and the Noldor probably brought some of it along with them when they sailed East. And Khazad-dum was around in the First Age, at least in some measure, since that was when the Dwarves awoke and it was supposed to be Durin than founded it after looking in the Mirrormere. (At least, that's what I gathered from FotR.) I can't remember any Silmarillion references at the moment - still need to start rereading.

I'm probably send you a PM then, when I'm up to the plot development stage. :D

[zedille.livejournal.com]

Even if we never got an actual movie/tv series (I am also half convinced they'd ruin the plot irreparably), just the production values. Baby Galadriel and baby Elrond and Fëanor and everything. Well, apparently the Tolkien Estate didn't like the LotR movies because of how they changed some of Tolkien's messages (I shudder to think of what they must think of the Hobbit movies), so apparently they're never letting the rights pass to PJ. But it would still be so pretty.

I imagine that in practice, yes, she would remain Arwen Undomiel, because she had that going for her before she became queen, but technically in the historical records-based sense surely she would have joined the House of Telcontar and it would have become one of her afternames?? I don't know, that's assuming the names of royal houses even work like that. It's hard to know since a) we don't hear much about queens and b) royal lines seem to generally be "of the House of [person's first name]", not with a Random Quenya Word like Aragorn did.

Speaking of rereading, I finally obtained my own paper copies of the Silmarillion and the trilogy from a book sale today!! I am super excited :D (The Silm is the same edition and cover as the one I first read, but the trilogy's covers are just hilariously old, I should take a picture...)

I'll be happy to natter at you when the time comes! This will be fun :D

[hikarievandar.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard that (though I'm not surprised) and yeah. The Tolkien Estate must be absolutely frothing by now. But even if it wasn't PJ directing it, it would still be something I would love to see. Because the shiny and the pretty would be incredible, and even though a ton of it would have to be changed, it would be worth it.

What we have to go on for royal names and titles doesn't add up to much at all. And what might be commonplace for royalty in our world doesn't necessarily hold for those in the Tolkien-verse. Though I suppose Aragorn's Random Quenya Word eventually evolved into "of the House of Telcontar" rather than having all of his heirs named (for example) Eldarion Peredhellion Telcontar etc.

Lol, you should! My paper copy of The Silmarillion is a fairly ancient hardback that I inherited off my Dad. (Apparently he didn't make it past page two of the Ainulindale XD) I miss it so. Reading on Kindle is kind of weird.

I know, right? I'm really looking forward to it now. It seems so less daunting now that there's a person I can bounce ideas off. Now I just need to actually have the ideas... XD

[zedille.livejournal.com]

I wonder what a fully Tolkien Estate-approved adaptation of anything would actually look like -- certain things do have to be lost when you're adapting things to suit a new medium. (There was a LotR musical, even...)

I think Arwen gets referred to as "Queen Evenstar" in translation in the Appendices, so she might be also "Queen Undómiel" the same way Aragorn is "King Elessar", though we never see him as "King Elfstone". In any case it looks like their "given names" (Arwen and Aragorn) might not be used in official/historical documents much any more. Naming traditions in Tolkien are weird, ahah.

This is the cover of the Silmarillion I have -- those are clearly the Silmarils on the cover, sure, but I have no idea who that's supposed to be posing with them (why is their hair blue???) As for the other covers, they have to be seen to be believed, I'll see if I can post proper pictures later, or something. It's good to have proper paper copies to mark up and hold, electronic copies are just not the same at all.

I know you mentioned you were planning two, but I'm really curious -- what do you have imagined for Celebrimbor and Narvi? I don't think Narvi ever gets a mention in canon except for his namedrop on the door.