Chapter One Test Drive

First of all, if you have ended up here, I would like to thank you for your interest in my story! This is the first fan fiction I have even attempted to publish on the Internet. (All of the others fizzled before they even approximated completion.) If you are one of those no-nonsense folks who likes to get straight to the action, I will spare you any further words and link you to Chapter One now.

If you're still with me, and for whatever masochistic reason, you have some sort of interest in this project, then please read on!

I am a published writer with experience as an editor, and so when I discovered Tolkien fan fiction (particularly Silmarillion fan fiction), reading it remained a guilty pleasure of mine--so guilty, in fact, that I wouldn't even admit it to my husband, with whom I share nearly everything. I refused even to type the website names into my browser lest someone discover my "dirty secret."

Naturally, then, I was loathe to write a story with "someone else's characters." But I kept reading; I couldn't stop. It occupied many of the hours of free time that a very simple government job affords me. My particular obsession was for the Fëanorians, and the more I read, the more I got irked by the vast number of stories that take what I see as the cop-out route and make Fëanor and sons flat-out, straight-up evil. With my degree in psychology, I was always more intrigued to unearth their motivations, and they certainly had a few. Evil deeds were done--but why? This, to me, is fascinating writing. I do not seek to excuse the Fëanorians but rather to better understand them; slapping a label of "evil" upon them, to me, is akin to those rare folks who try to twist the canon to justify the actions of the Fëanorians by casting their victims as evil. Both are oversimplified and suggest a shallow reading of the story.

(As a testament to this fact, I once read a comment on a Maedhros-bashing piece on fanfiction.net that applauded the writer for pointing out that "Maedhros is the true villain in The Silmarillion." Am I alone in my apparent misreading that this right belongs to Morgoth more than Maedhros?)

After reading a similar story one day last August, I got so mad that I popped a disk into my work computer and started banging out a character study of Celegorm. Celegorm is probably the hardest of the sons of Fëanor to understand, but I was determined to do it, beginning with his childhood, when he couldn't possibly have been evil. What happened to change him? How was he shaped over the centuries from a child born in the Blessed Realm into a kinslayer willing to force a woman into marriage?

Eventually, the character study began to acquire a little bit of plot, then some of the other characters wanted to talk too, and so I let them. Next thing I knew, I had a lot of chapters and had started planning for prequels and sequels, and I realized that I was writing a bona fide fan fiction, yet it was some of the best, most inspired writing I'd done in years. So maybe fan fiction wasn't such a bad thing after all--maybe Dawn Felagund just needed to step off her pedestal of literary snobbery for a moment and remember that writing of any type should first be enjoyable.

As I am drawing near to the ending of this first part of my story, I am giving thoughts to posting it somewhere and so have started a revision massive enough to make me want to cower under my desk. I have completed my first revision of the first three chapters of the story--those that are written from Celegorm's perspective--but am in dire need of some input from other folks from the Tolkien writing community. The writing style changed as the piece moved from a character study and to a story, and the first chapters required a lot of reworking, as they were the weakest in the piece as a whole. I appreciate any and all comments and suggestions that people can give. If you hate it, don't be afraid to say so--but please tell me why. Likewise, if you love it--that's great too: Why do you love it, and what could I do to make it better? Constructive criticism is always most heartily appreciated. You may leave a comment directly in my journal or send an email to me at DawnFelagund@comcast.net.

One final note: This is a Silmarillion story, but I don't think it requires a lot of knowledge of The Silmarillion. It helps if you know who Fëanor is, but you don't have to be one of those nerds who can name every branch on the Finwion family tree. (No offense to those nerds--I am one of them!) However, because it takes place in Valinor, before the destruction of the Two Trees, the characters' names are given in Quenya. If you are not familiar with the Quenya translations of Silmarillion names, please reference my author's notes on The Quenya Names of Silmarillion Characters.

That done, it's on to Chapter One! Thanks again for reading!
Dawn Felagund

Untitled--Chapter 1

Tyelkormo
Chapter 1
( Read Chapter One )

Chapter Two