Lithil's Lullaby: Between Battles and Dreams | Legolas Fanfic

Prologue + Forword + Trigger Warning

In the shroud of fog, thick, it lay, a blanket in the sky so gray.
None could flee its clutch so deep,
Save one, whose secrets in shadows creep.
The Keeper of Truth, a beacon so bright,
In Middle-earth's darkness, a guiding light.

Call forth, O Keeper, reveal your grace,
Without you, we're lost, adrift in space.
In fate's cold hands, we'd surely fall,
But with you, we might just stand tall.

Yet, hear me now, for I must say,
If you believe life's merely a play,
Beautiful, whole, and rightly sweet,
Then, dear Keeper, we're not yet replete.
For nothing's complete, or so it seems,
In a world where truth is but in dreams.

If someone claims to know, to see,
The truth of now, of what might be,
Let them step forth, their hand raise high,
Yet the air stays still, their claim a lie.

We're blind, it's true, we know not much,
As dark forces rise, our souls they touch.
But truth, though painful, must unfurl,
O Keeper of Truth...
Awaited you are, in this mist of lies,
To clear our sight, open our eyes.
Though your truth might small appear,
This here is a great tale of a ring, my dear.

Saturday, March 21th, 2020
Lithil-RaVen

***

Welcome to this fanfiction!

I hope you enjoy reading it. First, I want to clarify a few things :)

1. Feedback and suggestions for improvement are always welcome. Even if it's just to correct errors related to grammar, spelling, and minor logical mistakes if you find any. I'm open to other suggestions as well, but this fanfiction is complete (at least in german), and I do not wish to work on it further, than translating it.
Errors that I can quickly fix will be addressed, all other suggestions will be considered for my future works when I write them :D One always aims to improve oneself, but I personally do not want to be tied to a story forever.
Thank you for your understanding!

2. The rights of this work belong to the fabulous J. R. R. Tolkien, and I hereby praise his works. However, my own ideas stand out due to my invented character and scenes :D For this reason, scenes that are solely the product of my imagination, such as conversations, my characters, etc., are not allowed to be copied. Since this is fanfiction, it's permitted to be inspired by other stories, but beyond a certain extent, it should be agreed upon and credit given^^
Phew, I find the copyright on Wattpad regarding fanfics complicated, but anyway :)
I hope I've understood it correctly myself.

3. WARNING: This fanfic exclusively deals with content from the books!
Also, I do not own any rights to the photos.

4. The story contains 455,000 words in german, if anyone is interested^^
The english fanfic will certainly turn out to be a bit shorter.

5. I'm happy to have written this fanfic, and the title implies that Elves sleep. I've spent a long time on this topic and Tolkien never mentioned that Elves ONLY sleep with open eyes in a trance. It's often mentioned in Tolkien's books that Elves have beds, such as in Elrond's house. It's mentioned that Elves are an enduring species and need less rest and sleep. Sleeping partly refers to elvish dreaming.
I found a good source on this whole topic. In other works, Tolkien even actively describes an Elf sleeping. The following Elves are named: Turgon and Finrod sleep on their journey through Beleriand and both have the same dream. Gwindor sleeps in an Orc camp when Turin finds him. And Luthien, who puts her guards to sleep. Although it's a magical sleep, to delve into all three stories would require more than I do here. (Here's a good page https://middle-earth.xenite.org/do-elves-sleep/)
I've been in many forums that discuss the books. Unfortunately, there are so many pages (including the German FandomWiki to some extent) that just go by the films. I searched for a long time for a clear answer because Tolkien has said a lot about everything. There's even a lot known about the sex lives of Elves. The fact that he doesn't mention that Elves ONLY sleep with open eyes and all other mentions and the fact of chambers lead me and many others to conclude that Elves need little sleep, can skip nights, but their bodies also need to rest.
Whether it's that Elves lie down and stare at the sky, but also truly sleep. Probably they can decide this as individuals. Unfortunately, there's no definitive statement from Tolkien, but with this paragraph, I wanted to explain how I came up with my title :D
Of course, I would be interested in your thoughts on this because it's a very popular topic, but otherwise, you'll hear from me again after the first volume.

Trigger Warning:

- Descriptions of violence with blood, etc. (mainly/primarily related to fights)
- Descriptions of abuse
- Trivialization of violence in jokes (e.g., suggesting a person should be executed or shot with an arrow instead of being pardoned; such statements are consistent with the world of The Lord of the Rings)
- Insults
- Intimate scenes
- Sexism as a joke, e.g., male pride, women shouldn't fight, male desires, judging appearance, etc. → HOWEVER: In no way is sexism glorified in this fanfiction! It merely reflects the gender roles created by society (in this case, Middle-earth).
- Racism toward dwarves, elves, and humans
- My invented character Lithil as a potential trigger: Lithil is portrayed as a strong personality. She is stubborn, loud, blunt, and doesn't recognize boundaries (or at least ignores those of others). Lithil might be seen as 'too much,' which I can understand. Some may think she lacks necessary depth (i.e., more weaknesses), but I intentionally designed her to appear like a force of nature. I understand that she might not be to everyone's taste (in fact, I’ve only created a character like Lithil once - here and nowhere else), but I love her for exactly that reason.

With that, I don't want to make this too long and am simply happy that my english Legolas fanfic is online.
With that, I'll take my leave.

Best regards!
Your RaVen