THE DRAGON SLAYER
by Soledad
Disclaimer:
Frumgar, Fram, Legolas, Scatha the Worm, the Éothéod,
Middle-earth and its history and geography belong to Professor
Tolkien, whom I greatly admire. I'm only trying to fill in the
gaps he so graciously left for us, fanfic writers, to have some
fun.
Holdred Anlaf, his House, the clans and certain customs of the
Éothéod were borrowed from:
http://rohan.elendor.net/culture/overview.html
However, every unknown character, both Éothéod and Dwarves,
belong to me, as does the concept of the Dwarven city under the
Grey Mountains as described in this story - and the concept of
the dragonbirth.
Rating: mostly G to PG. This is a straight and innocent story. More a fairy tale, actually.
Introduction
Feel free to ignore it, if you find such things boring. You would understand the story nevertheless. However, it might help to see it in a wider context, which is the Third Age of Middle-earth. This short intro chapter would offer you some basic background information which you might or might not find useful. It's up to you to read it or to leave it.
Other resources:
The articles of Michael Martinez, found on
www.suite101.com/articles.cfm/tolkien
Especially: Make room for dragons!
Where have all the dragons gone?
How did Tolkien actually portray the Rohirrim? and
Them Dwarves, them Dwarves! Parts 1 & 2
Sir Walter Scott's excellent novel ''Ivanhoe'', which served me as a great inspiration by portrayig everyday's life in an ealdorman's home. Some descriptions were lifted from there with small modifications - these are always mentioned in the footnotes.
There are other interesting websites, concerning Old English and Anglo-Saxon customs, but they didn't play any important role by writing this particular story.
Time frame:
According to Appendix A (II.) to ''The Lord of the Rings'':
[The forefathers of Eorl] ''loved best the plains, and delighted in horses and all feats of horsemanship, but they were many Men in the middle vales of Anduin in tohse days, and moreover the shadow of Dol Guldur was lengthening; when therefore they heard of the overthrow of the Witch-King (in the year 1975. Third Age), they sought more rom in the North, and drove away the remnants of the people of Angmar on the east side of the Mountains. But in the days of Léod, father of Eorl, they had grown a numerous people and were again somewhat straitened in the land of their home.''
Their former home was in the Vales of Anduin, between the Carrock and the Gladden Fields. The leader of the migration of the Éothéod was named Frumgar; and in the Tale of Years ist date is given as 1977 (3rd Age).
Now, it's also known from the Tale of Years, that the Dwarves fled Khazad-dúm in 1981, after they had accidentally awaken the Balrog, who slew two of their Kings, Durin VI and Náin I. Many of them settled in the Grey Mountains, which ran eastward from the Misty Mountains and near the northern border of Mirkwood. My Dwarf city, Govedar, is, however, not one of these new settlings. It's a very ancient one, dating way back to the Second Age, perhaps even to the Elder Days. I haven't decided yet.
Also, the Dwarves here belong to another House than Durin's folk, and their language is different, too. The name 'Govedar' has no meaning whatsoever, neither in Westron, nor in Khuzdul - it comes from an original story of me (as the concept of the whole city, actually), and I chose it because I liked its sounding.
The most important events of this time frame:
1947 - End of the North-kingdom. The Witch-King overruns
Arthedain and takes Fornost.
1975 - Arvedui, last King of Arnor, drowned in the Bay of
Forochel. The palantíri of Annúminas and Amon Súl are lost.
Eärnur of Gondor brings a fleet to Lindon. The Witch-King
defeated at the Battle of Fornost and pursued to the Ettenmorrs.
He vanishes from the North.
1966 - Aranarth son of Arvedui takes the title of Chieftain of
the Northern Dúnedain. The heirlooms of Arnor are given into the
keeping of Elrond.
1977 - Frumgar leads the Éothéod to the sources of Anduin
1979 - Bucca of the Marish becomes the first Thain of the Shire.
1980 - The Witch-King comes to Mordor and there gathers the
Nazgúl. A Balrog appears appears in Moria and slays Durin VI.
1981 - Náin I slain. The Dwarves flee from Moria. Many of the
Silvan Elves of Lórien flee south. Amroth and Nimrodel are lost.
1999 - Thráin I comes to Erebor and founds a Dwarf-kingdom
''under the Mountain''
2000 - The Nazgúl come to Mordor and besiege Minas Ithil
2002 - Fall of Minas Ithil, afterwards known as Minas Morgul. The
palantír is captured.
At the time of this story Eärnil II ruled in Gondor.
About Legolas' rôle:
Since the Withered Heath (where, according to ''The Hobbit'', the great dragons or longworms dwelt) was awfully close to the nrothern borders of Mirkwood, it would be hard to believe that the woodland Elves could just sit down and wait until someone takes care of the new threat. They were used to defend themselves against many different sorts of mosnters; and since I don't go with the Barbie-with-a-Bow routine for Legolas (in my stories he was bord in the Second Age, but still too young to fight in the Battle of Dagorlad), it seemed natural to me to send him out on this quest.
About the story itself:
In many ways, it's more like ''The Hobbit'' than ''The Lord of the Rings''. There aren't political troubles between Dúnedain kingdoms, no particular Elven issues are handled. There is a dragon that has to be slain, and exactly that is what will happen - with all its consequences, that aren''t always pleasant, especially when Dwarves are involved. No, I won't tell more. You'll have to read the story.
The main reason for writing this story is the fact that I always wanted to do a Tolkien fic about a dragon, since tehre are so few of them, and even they mostly portray very unbelievable dragons. Except the Silmarillion fics, of course - deep bow to Finch here. Scatha is a honest, old-fashioned, down-to-earth evil worm, that deserves to be slain and that will be slain. Period.
Since this is a story more than a millennium before the Ring War, I let myself be inspired by the speech patterns of Sir Walter Scott's ''Ivanhoe''. I hope (since I'm not a native speaker) that I haven't made any too ridiculous errors. Also, I used those speech patterns mostly for the Éothéod, assuming that the language of Elves and Dwarves changed less and more slowly, due to their longevity (or immortality, in the case of teh Elves), while for the Éothéod, Westron isn't a native tongue (either), so they are more influenced by their own language. (Well, to be perfectly honest, I simply couldn't resist to use those patterns, but didn't want to make the whole story too tiresome to read.<g>)
You still with me? Thank the Valar. Now we can go on to the actual story.