About Saelbeth

Title: About Saelbeth
Chapter: 1/7
Author: Marina aka Aearwen samthase@aon.at
Beta: Lynn the wonderful
Rating: PG-17
Disclaimer: The places and King Thranduil as well as Maeglin belong to Master Tolkien. I wrote this to depress myself and will definitly get no money out of it.
Warning: graphic violence, character death(s)
Pairing/cast: OMC/OFC (Saelbador/Marigold), Thranduill, Saelbeth, Maeglin
Time line: 700 years before the fellowship reaches Imladris
Summary: This ficlet is a side story to a novel length fan fiction RotF at http://www.orgsites.com/wa/maeglin/_pgg1.php3 . It tells the sad romance of Saelbeth's parents.
Author’s note:The description of the mean and dangerous elves is something I took out of the old songs and sagas of Europe. In German we call the elves Elben or Alben. They were feared and hated. In today's German you still find some words that deal with the Alben. The word Albtraum = elf dream = horrible nightmare...People thought that if an elf came into your room at night, they tried to suffocate you....
The changlings are also the unwanted gifts of the elves. People thought here in the mountains, that if a child did not develope right that the elves had put a changling into the crip before the child was baptized.


Chapter 1

The grass below her knees was soft and still moist from the morning dew. The young woman was picking herbs and the early morning hours were the perfect time. Swiftly her sickle cut through the lady's mantle. Her sister soon would give birth to her child and the herb would help her afterwards to regain her strength.

She stopped for a second to rearrange her strawberry blond hair that fall over her eyes and pinned it back under the hood of her clock.
Her eyes gazed over a couple of marigolds that grew beneath a young birch.
She smiled when she remembered that her mother had picked some of those yellow and orange flowers that morning, when the young woman had been born.

Her slender hands grabbed the next bunch of herbs. She cut them and carefully tucked them into her pouch. She wanted to be done collecting before mid day. Then she would sort the herbs out at her family's little cottage again and dry them before storing them for later use.


Suddenly, she lifted her head as melodious voices, sweet and sad sang in words she did not understand.She concentrated to understand the language, but it was nothing that she ever heard before.She stared wide-eyed in the direction from which the music drifted. Her eyes traveled toward the trees and she thought to see movements surrounded by light, that Marigold could not describeIt was as if people were walking between the trees, collecting herbs as she did so far from their dwelling.


She reached under her cloak to assure herself that the dagger that her father had given her to protect herself was still there. Relieved she could feel it, the young woman grabbed her sickle tightly and she returned to her work. The melody filled the air and she tried to hum along, but her voice and her mind were not able to follow the music.
Marigold got up from her knees and decided to get a little closer to the light and shadows that she could see in the distance. She slowly walked through the forest moss that made her bare feet wet. As she was just a hundred feet away, she hid behind a big tree. Marigold's mouth slowly dropped open as she watched the most graceful beings she ever had seen.
Clad in light grey and white, they seemed to flow over the moss and grass, while their hands picked herb by herb. Their hair was light and shimmering in the early morning light. Marigold could not say if these were women or men. All of them were so slender and equally dressed and their hair was flowing over their shoulders down to their hips, forming a halo around each single one of them.
Marigold thought to be dreaming and forgot the time and place around her. She could not take her eyes off their movements.Those must be elves, she thought. . She had heard stories that they were living out in the woods. None of her dwelling nor in her family had ever seen one of them.
All of a sudden, Marigold felt her heart, as if it was being squeezed tightly by a cold hand. The stories of the cruelty and arrogance of the elves as they were told since generations flooded her heart. She saw one of the beings look in her direction with eyes as cold and of a color that she had never seen before. Marigold jumped up and ran as fast as her small feet could carry her over the forest floor.

Breathless, she grabbed her small pouch to get home quickly. As she finally saw the first building of her small dwelling, Marigold sighed with relief and lowered her pace.
"Why are you already home?" Her mother gazed over the face of her exhausted daughter.
"I saw elves, mother!" Marigold exclaimed.
"What a bad sign! What a bad sign! You saw elves on the day that your sister delivers her child. This is ill news." The elder woman began to bewail with a cry.

Marigold wished she had not said a word. When she saw the elves, she had been hypnotized and until that one looked into her direction she had not felt any danger coming from them.
When she saw who? The elves? Make it read like this.
When she saw the elves,....so change the word ‘them’ to elves.
Change the word ‘seen’ to felt.

The whole village gathered together when the dreadful news spread about the elves, causing the people to lament.
The eldest of the dwelling tried to silence his people. "There has not been a report of elves ever since our forefathers founded our place. They will come with wrath and hate over us. Save your children, save your wives and daughters!"

Marigold's father took her aside. "Did they see you? Did they talk to you?" He queried desperately, seeking an answer. He held her on her shoulders and shook her in the same desperation that matched his voice.
"No father, I fled before they saw me." Marigold hid the fact that she had been watching them singing between the trees.
In a haste the villagers tried to build little barricades just in case the elves would come and rob their belongings. Since uncounted years, they believed the old songs of the cruelty of the elves, their endless wars against humankind and the dark power.

Marigold lay awake that night, wondering what would have happened if the elves had seen her.Would they have caught and killed her? Were they really so mean, bad and arrogant? And was it true, that they could come at night and exchange infants with changelings that were found in their cradles, while the mothers wept bitterly over the lost of their babies.
Thoughts like these kept her awake for hours and just before the rooster crowed, she finally fell asleep.

Roughly, she was shaken from her sleep again. Her mother had stepped into her room under the narrow roof. "You need to get more lady's mantle!" Her mother exclaimed, urgently Your sister’s bleeding does not stop. The elder of the town is watching over the child, so that those elven beasts can not change it without our knowing!"

Marigold made haste down the wooded stairs and then threw her cloak over her rough hemp clothes. She made big steps and from time to time, walked backwards into the woods so that if there were elves again, they could not cast bad spells on her. But the closer she got to the trees the more her courage sank. She knew she had to hurry to save her sister.

The dark shadows of the mighty firs seemed threatening to her today and slowly she snuck under the trees. Pulled her hood deep over her face and tried to breathe as quiet as she could. The elder had said, that the elves had a good hearing with their beast like ears. She tortured her brain about those ears. She had not paid any caution to them. Were they different then hers?

A sudden roaring sound made her stop. Marigold froze. A bear, brown and big stood in front of her. She had not seen the sow or her cubs. The mighty animal shook her head from one side to the other, foaming at the mouth, she snarled. The woman started to shake in fear. Marigold pleaded to the gods to help her. The sow got up on her back paws roaring louder.

The stinking breath of the beast brushed hard over her face as the animal moved closer, hovering over the frightened woman. Her cubs hid behind their mother, while she defended them.The bear raised her strong claws to strike the woman and again she roared loud and deep. Her jaws opened and Marigold could see the yellowish teeth that would tear her to pieces.

Marigold was petrified, staring at the upset bear that was going to kill her. She did not hear the singing she had heard the day before. She did not realize that the bear stared at something behind her, shaking her head softer.The young woman stiffened, she sensed someone behind her, but she did not dare turn around. Was it another bear that now intimidated the sow?

But the beast turned and purred to her cubs and started to retreat deeper into the forest. Marigold sank onto her knees. Tears of shock and fear were running down her cheeks as she watched in disbelief the animal leaving.
"Thus you shall not wander alone in these dark forests." A voice that she never had heard before came to her ear. The elves, they had caught her!
Marigold jumped forward and turned, grabbing her dagger as she wanted to flee through the forest. But the being caught her faster then light and held her tight.
Screaming the woman tried to stab him, moving her hands defensively in front of her. Quickly the elf kicked the knife away and grabbed her tight. "Go away. Go away! Beast!" Marigold yelled at him, hammering her fists against his chest.
"There is no need to fight me, I am not hurting you." his dark melodic voice calmed her a little. As soon as he relaxed his grip on her, she started to struggle again. Softly the elf began to sing and Marigold felt sleepy and comfortable instantly "You speak my tongue, beast? And you enchant me so you can harm me." Marigold tried to speak more but her lips got so heavy.

"I am not beast. I am an elf." Slowly he lowered the two of them to the mossy ground while he gently stroke her hair. "Marigold do not fear me."
The eyes of the woman popped open in an instant and the little hair in her neck stood straight.
“How do you know my name?"
"You talk to the flowers."*

Had he watched her while she had been collecting herbs? Chills traveled down her spine at the abominable thought. Had she not been so extremely calm from his singing, she probably would have attacked him again. "I speak your tongue, because my Lord Aegnor had taught us all." He released Marigold. She sat there in the moss and grass and stared in disbelief at the light haired being. He was taller than all of her kinsmen. His green eyes were so rich in color like the clover on a spring morning. His face was even, his chin strong and his ears pointy. The light bounced on his nearly white hair. She never had seen anyone like him. He got up on his feet and bowed politely. "They call me Saelbador. I used to be from the North until our lands were destroyed."

Marigold could not take her eyes from him. She suddenly was aware, that these creatures were not mean and bad. Someone as beautiful as he with a voice that made even the nightingale's singing sound like a craw's lament, could not be cruel and mean. Saelbador tilted his head and smiled. He had read her thoughts. "Do not worry, these bad things are not true. We love the kindred of men."

The elf took her hand and pulled her up to stand. His clothes blended into the forest and if he would move quick, she would not be able to see him anymore. But Saelbador reached into his bag and pulled some herbs out. "Give this to your sister and she will recover soon. And take the child from the elder. The dirt in his hut is not good for it's health."

Marigold did not know what to say or what to do as he packed them into her pouch. "Thank you elf, Saelbador." He smiled and revealed a row of shiny white teeth that were arranged like the pearls on the queen's necklace. None of the men in the village had many teeth, especially white ones. "It is only Saelbador. And now go, do not get lost again. I can not always watch over you."

The young woman nodded quickly and started to run back to her village. She did not know how to explain to the fellow villagers that the elf gave her medicine for her sister. Nobody would believe her. But the closer she got to her home, the more she became troubled. Dark thoughts came to her mind. "This is poison. My sister will die if she drinks tea from that." She told herself but then she changed her mind again. Saelbador had seemed to be so honest. And suddenly she was sure, that he would not lie to her.