The Daughter of Felarof
by Evermind
Ages, and ages back, I prodded my
muse in the direction of Felarof, and this is what she came up with! I
really do worry about her sometimes... I imagine it as a kind of legend
or old tale, the sort Merry might have heard in Rohan.
The Daughter of Felarof
Hîn en Rochîr, she was named by the elves of old, child of
the horse-lords. But many other names she has had, in song and tale,
and in the speeches of beasts and birds and the many tongues of men.
Mîr en Amon: the jewel of the hills, Simbelmyne Eadig: the
blessed memory, and the Daughter of Shadow. But most often among the
Rohirrim she was called the Daughter of Felarof, and that is how she is
remembered in all the tales of those days. Her true name cannot be
told, for it is forgotten, and all concerning her is shrouded in
mystery.
It is among the Rohirrim that legends of her deeds are first recorded,
and many at first said that she was one of them, but that is now almost
certainly proved false. Some said she came of a forbidden union between
a wild man and an elven maid, because of her affinity with the earth,
but this is mere fantasy. Among the eldar it is said that she was a
maia, of the people of Orome, Lord of the Forests, but it is told that
she was, like Bombadil, a renegade, who had forsaken the blessed realm
and the long fruitless toil of the Valar, and sought in Middle earth to
make a place for herself. In this it is likely that they have the true
tale. Elves are usually correct about most things.
Her appearance varies greatly from tale to tale, most often she is said
to be a girl child, though her age was never known, and changed but
slowly and erratically as she willed it. Most accounts describe her as
small with dark curls, and bright eyes, brown skinned and slender, clad
in white. But there are other tales, and nothing about her is certain
in these later times. All that is known about her is that when Eorl and
the Rohirrim came from the North, she was there. Whether she journeyed
with them, or settled in Calenardhon of her own accord is unsure, but
in all the tales she is agreed to have a great accord with the wild
things, and a deep knowledge of the land. Her affinity with horses is
most greatly cited, and she is said to run with the wild herds, needing
neither sustanence nor rest, and being able to summon all things of the
wild to her as she will.
The tale of her birth is strange, and probably now a matter only of
legend. It is said that when Eorl came from the North, he found a white
mare standing upon the summit of the high hill where later Meduseld was
raised. He took the mare, and tamed her, breeding her to his great
stallion Felarof. When the season waned, the mare gave birth to her
foal, a snow white filly, and suckled her in the golden straw of Eorl's
own stable. Yet when Eorl returned he found no colt at all, but a human
babe lying in the straw at the mare's feet. The babe was gone by
morning, and the filly also, but from that day forth the mare was wild
and would let no man handle her. As for the child, she disappeears from
all recorded history, reappearing only later as the charcter of legend
which she has today become. Whether she was in truth the daughter of
Felarof, that great sire, now only the wise can tell.
