‘eeeey, that fic for @determamfidd is, uh, done. I know it’s been FOREVER since I first said I’d work on it, but uh, it happened. The ending could be better, but you know, whatever tbh. It took me a year to get that ending, I’m okay with it. My crops are watered, even if it won’t be a bountiful harvest or whatever.
Here, ya animals. That AU where Wee Thorin dies during the siege of Erebor.
“Bet I taste horrible,” Wee Thorin clutched his axe in shaking hands. The Orc before him was terrifying, but he would stay strong, and be brave. Like his adad and amad. Like Uncle Balin. “Bet I make you choke.”
“Well, we won’t know until we try!” The Orc sneered, and moved quickly towards him. As it lunged, Wee Thorin swung out his axe as he let out a terrified shriek.
He remembered nothing else.
=0=0=0=
It was very bright, where he found himself, and he didn’t hurt, but he was cold. He felt naked as a newborn bairn, and his nose scrunched a bit at that. He hated being naked, but mostly he hated being cold, and here he was both. He wrapped his arms around himself.
“Welcome, my inùdoy.” Thorin jumped and looked around, though he couldn’t see now.
“Who’s there?” He asked.
“I am Mahal.” The voice said, and the dwarfling froze.
They’d have to pass through not one, but TWO metaphysical barriers. There’s the wall between the living and the dead, of course. But there’s also the mists between Aman and Middle-Earth that separate the Blessed Realm from the ‘real world’ and keep it apart and inaccessible.
Hell, it’s hard enough for the spirits of the dead dwarves to make it there!
This is just an silly/odd idea, but I like to think that if a dwarf deliberately dropped something into Gimlin-zaram (say, a hammer, or a pen?), it would immediately sink without trace beneath the glowing water. No other change or sign to show its passing.
The next time that dwarf saw Mahal, that hammer or pen would be in His great hand, and he would give off a slight air of mild annoyance. He would give it back with pointedly deliberate movements.
“Please refrain from littering, my child. Please use the bins provided.”
The idea of Mahal somehow gathering litter is hilarious, but this is now making me question far too many things. Like what happens if you tie a string to the pen and lower it into the waters? Does the string snap when the pen disappears from sight or would it just keep feeding into the waters until you have no string left? Is there a bottom to the pool?
Could one pull the pen back up from the pool by the string if it did stay intact?
Could one theoretically swim in the pool? Like if instead of sitting on a bench and staring into the pool, you just jumped into it? Has anyone done that? Would your clothes get wet if you did somehow manage? What would happen if you dropped the pen while you were someplace on Middle Earth? Could someone else from the Hall find the pen later if they went to the exact same spot or does the pen disappear once it’s no longer touching a dead dwarf and Mahal has a dead dwarf litter radar and is going to have to go find this pen because you can’t just leave afterlife pens lying around on Middle Earth. That’s how you break the barrier between the living and dead, children. Could Gandalf pick up the pen and use it or can he only look but not touch? Does he send Mahal a message via god wifi to pick up this pen that Thorin dropped in Bilbo’s room because someone’s going to trip over it and cause a zombie uprising?
I’m going to go to the store before I start wondering about cross dimensional travel and death in the Tolkien universe and whether there’s like invisible litter all over Middle Earth from a bunch of dead dwarves.
They’d have to pass through not one, but TWO metaphysical barriers. There’s the wall between the living and the dead, of course. But there’s also the mists between Aman and Middle-Earth that separate the Blessed Realm from the ‘real world’ and keep it apart and inaccessible.
Hell, it’s hard enough for the spirits of the dead dwarves to make it there!
This is just an silly/odd idea, but I like to think that if a dwarf deliberately dropped something into Gimlin-zaram (say, a hammer, or a pen?), it would immediately sink without trace beneath the glowing water. No other change or sign to show its passing.
The next time that dwarf saw Mahal, that hammer or pen would be in His great hand, and he would give off a slight air of mild annoyance. He would give it back with pointedly deliberate movements.
“Please refrain from littering, my child. Please use the bins provided.”
AWW WAIT WHAT, I made you feel sorry for Sauron and not Mahal?! WHOOPS, author fail, whoooooops!!! 😀
eeep, yeah, the Sam moment, with the ‘I didn’t leave him’ – that was something I’ve wanted to write for AGES. So. Yep. *dodges the flying vegetables*
OOOH I am thrilled you liked the quiet little moment with Thorin and his decision about his beard! For such a short and unobtrusive little scene, it’s actually the culmination of a LOT of character threads and development, and lots of stuff that came before… like, a physical indication of just how far he has come, it’s actually a hugely big moment, wrapped up in a very small and gentle one 🙂
Hrera is my darling Queen of the Universe and I adore her lots.
HEHEHE, I am so happy you liked the letters, thank you! Thank you for a lovely comment and a lovely review, Nonnie!
idk, Nonnie. I’ve mentioned before that Mahal re-embodies his Dwarves in the Halls (there are a few answered asks regarding that, actually, if you check my ‘dwarves’ tag or ‘headcanony things’ tag). It’s a bit of a system, tbh, the way it has worked out. I’ll break it down, step by step, and see if that sparks any ideas…
Dwarf – Made by Mahal
Dwarf – Dies, is sent to Mandos’ Halls.
(canon bit: we know that the Dwarves believe that their halls of waiting, whilst still a part of Mandos’ domain, are set aside from other people’s halls. There they are looked after by Mahal until Dagor Dagorath, whoop)
Dwarf – in Halls, is re-made by Mahal in their eternal body (this guy takes a warranty seriously)
Previously, I have mused that perhaps those Dwarves who are truly awful souls, who are corrupted beyond help and are truly irredeemable, would not have been re-made by Mahal. Not sure where their fea goes. Perhaps Morgoth in Space has an Evil Dwarf Army, beyond the Door of Night?
Aw Yiss 