The Love Song of Tar-Meneldur Elentirmo

velvet dark caresses my brow
humbled beneath night’s canopy;
the soundless song of Varda echoes through the sky
a swell of diamond-lights, her celestial gifts
pulling taut my bowstring soul

blindness is my wish, the price but a sliver
to bask, even for a moment, in her radiance
or perhaps, brighter yet, to be refined-
to become, at the last, a lone note, aloft
in the shimmering star-dance, hallowing dusk to dawn

from atop this tower, her luminous treasures beckon closer
yet glisten so far beyond my reach; wingless, bound to earth

the patterns of her charges are my familiars,
their slow motions in her vaulted realms
as intimate as lover’s breath

what other name could be mine?
what other place on this island - on this earth - dearer to my heart
than where I am closest







For those who are not familiar with the Kings of Númenor and Unfinished Tales: from Part Two, Chapter I, "A Description of the Island of Númenor"- 'Towards the North Cape the land rose to rocky heights, and there great Sorontil rose sheer from the sea in tremendous cliffs. Here was the abode of many eagles; and in this region Tar-Meneldur Elentirmo built a tall tower, from which he could observe the motions of the stars.'

Tar-Meneldur Elentirmo was the 5th king of Númenor, and his name means 'Star-watcher.'

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