The Hours

[thrihyrne]

I got all inspired by musesfool's idea of writing vignettes based on the Monastic hours. While hers is set in HP, mine will be set within the Ardaverse. Why not? Neither realm really has religion (or practised religion) nor monastic orders, and in M-E, no clocks, but so what- it really is a great format. For those who are interested: called "The Hours" (how's that for unique, lol), and all of the vignettes will take place during one key day in the WR, March 14. Each one will also focus a particular aspect of the senses, I think.

Vigils (3:15 a.m.)- Denethor sitting with Faramir in the White Tower; touch

Lauds (5:45 a.m.)- Eowyn waking up with Merry in front of her; Merry waking up, his thoughts; waking Dernhelm/Eowyn up from a nightmare; smell

Terce (7:30 a.m.)- ?? Pippin with Bergil?; OFC in Rohan burying an adolescent boy from wounds received at Helm's Deep; taste (not in a nasty necrophilia way, but perhaps she'll have a complete lack of taste, or the ever popular phrase of feelings "turning to ash" in her mouth

Sext (12:15 p.m.)- hobbit being tortured up in Bag End, probably Lobelia Sackville-Baggins; touch

None (2:15 p.m.)- OC Dwarf of the Lonely Mountain walking to Dale for battle (have to do more research on this, but I know the Dwarves and Elves fight side by side on March 17th); sight

Vespers (5:30 p.m.)- Haldir in Lorien, before their battle; smell

Compline (7:30 p.m.)- back to Denethor/Faramir in the White Tower as Denethor gets serious about his pyre-making

The first vignette is

Vigils, 3:15 a.m.

Minas Tirith

Denethor sat, a damp piece of cloth in his hand, gently caressing his son’s fevered brow. Two flickering candles stood sentry at the top of the makeshift bed, providing the only light in the cavernous stone room. Dimly the Steward heard the noises of unnumbered foul hosts, tirelessly forging the destruction of his city.

His city. A shudder of anger rushed through him, and he clenched his fist around the cloth, causing two drops of water to roll onto Faramir’s cheek. Denethor steadied himself and leaned over, delicately dabbing the water and smoothing back a sweaty tendril of hair from his son’s steamy skin.

“Hush, my son,” he murmured as Faramir uttered something unintelligible, his eyes moving back and forth under closed lids. “We shall soon join our ancestors, and be done with this never-ending dark.”

“Lord Steward!” A clerk came bursting in, then stopped, riveted to the spot by Denethor’s look of unchecked rage.

The Steward spoke quietly, with a tone so icy that the man winced hearing the words. “Penick, I did not call for you. Now GET OUT.”

The man wavered. “But Lord Denethor, the Prince Imrahil bade me ask about his nephew- ” His voice trailed off into the gloom.

“Get out,” Denethor hissed.

The clerk turned and ran.

The Steward rose and walked to the door, shutting it firmly. He returned to Faramir’s side, intertwining his hand with one of his son’s. The skin was hot, his palm slick with sweat. A ghostly smile flitted across Denethor’s face as with his other hand he stroked the bruised fingers, wondering how many years it had been since he had actually touched his son. It was all so achingly clear now. With clarity of purpose had come freedom; he felt liberated, able to express his love for Faramir, to offer to the fire the deadwood of his spirit. Here, in the gloaming and hush of stone he could, at the last, let his affections wash over his son, in a silence bought at terrible cost.

The whole series will probably be pretty bleak, given the time period, but should be interesting to try and write from so many different perspectives and geographies. Haven't had a chance to work on "Speak, Friend, and Enter" since last week, but I have mostly finished my R/S story, currently being beta read by palarran. I've been doing lots of explicit slash reading, to be honest. Research. Yes, it's research. I can almost convince myself of that.

I should be working on my website, but I'm also trying not to try and do everything-all-at-once when I'm having to work some operas and last weekend we had the kids… but this weekend we won't, though I'm seeing several people this weekend, a rarity for me. And I'm rejoining choir, so there goes more time, but I have really missed singing.

Oh, I forgot to mention that last Saturday I went to the grocery store and while I was there getting cheese in a jar and pretzels, I bought a $10 fan magazine. *sigh* Normally I am unwilling even to spend $4.50 on a magazine, and I probably wouldn't have bought this one (had heaps of pictures about LotR and Harry Potter) but there was a full-page photo of Ron Weasley. What can I say? The only thing that would have made it better was if there had been a decent photo of the twins. Grrr. So now I can have a full-page Ron to keep Eowyn and Gimli company on my wall at work. ;)

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I really like the first piece, and I think it's a really good idea for a series of vignettes. Look forward to seeing them all back to back.

Re:

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Thank you, Altariel! I'm lately afeared of adjective overuse, but am glad that you enjoyed at least the first draft of the first vignette. I've only written about Denethor as a child, so this is a first!!

Re:

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Very nice premise. Interested to see what results. I've written a series of 6 very short vignettes moving throughout one day (not fixed intervals), and was quite pleased with the results. The difficult thing was transitioning from one scene to the next; I found it helped me to have an overt link between the scenes, especially for the first transition.

Re:

[thrihyrne.livejournal.com]

Very nice premise.
Thanks, but ultimately I must be grateful to musesfool for the concept, even though our workings are completely different and within different fandoms.

I've written a series of 6 very short vignettes moving throughout one day (not fixed intervals), and was quite pleased with the results.
And those would be found where??

I found it helped me to have an overt link between the scenes, especially for the first transition.
I'm hoping that with brief Author's Notes which explain that each event is on the same day that that will be link enough. I'm also hoping that nobody else has tried doing this within Tolkien fandom! At not quite a year of knowing about fanfiction, it's entirely possible that this has already been done and I just don't know about it. I hope not. ;)

Re:

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

There's so much Tolkien fanfiction that somebody's undoubtedly had a go, though I can't think of an example offhand. But don't let that put you off!

My version is on my hard disk only -- though it is actually fanfic (Charlotte Bronte), it's the prologue of a pro novel I'm trying to write. I could mail you a copy if you're interested? -- though be warned the scenes are (intentionally) *extremely* short.