The Hole Next Door
(Mid Spring)
Gildor's caution about the tribal loyalties of the Bruinien and Hoarwell settlements stayed with Noldo, and he gave it plenty of thought. He decided not to travel down the river and through the settlements, but to settle on the northernmost, or north-western-most edge of the settlement. He wanted to be as close to Forlond, or perhaps Imladris, as he could. He wanted to give Adaron easy access to him and his family. Adaron liked the idea.
So that meant the Hoarwell, he thought. He wanted the northernmost section that was included in the settlement, so they swung north and followed the river southwards. When they arrived after a long and pleasant journey, they stopped at the first hobbit dwelling they found, and got directions to the nearest patriarch's dwelling. Noldo sent Sindo alone down the river to find the patriarch and obtain permission to settle, and also with instructions to find the nearest Inn; Noldo wanted a mug of beer.
Meanwhile they stayed and chatted with the hobbit. His name was Sandy Shallows, and he was a fisherman. He had a small, well-made wooden boat, and he fished the river and had a small garden. He was delighted to see Noldo, and a bit in awe of the elves.
"We don't see many of the fair folk on this part of the river. I hear tell that they can be heard singing in the forest betimes, but I'm not big on the forest. I'm happy with my fishing. There's odd folk in those forests, I hear."
Sandy assured Noldo that the beer at the Inn downriver was pretty good considering, and the food was proper. "You'll be settling hereabouts, maybe?" Sandy asked.
Noldo nodded. "I don't mean to interfere with your fishing. How far upstream do you fish?"
"Well, now, I can show you if you step up on the hill above my front door." Noldo followed him up. "Higher, now, up over here. All right. Now see that bend there? Beyond the rock. There's good reedy fishing right there. Beyond that it's all sandbar or sandy bottom for miles and miles; I never go past that sandbar."
Noldo nodded. "We'll look at the land above the bend, if that's all right with the local Patriarch... what did you say their name was?"
"Fernybanks. Go ahead and look at the hillsides, lad. Nobody as comes from across the Misty Mountains is bound to be refused. There's a loyalty here, there is. You'll be welcomed."
Noldo sighed. He wondered what part of the Anduin that the Fernybanks were from originally, and if they knew, or had known, any Fairbanks. He shook off the question.
"Fernybanks. Well, all right, and thank you. We'll go and ride the land now. Thank you, Sandy, and I hope we'll be seeing more of you. You'll send Sindo upriver to us when he returns?"
"Aye, that I will. Good luck to you." Sandy nodded and waved, and returned to his baskets of fish.
Noldo and all the elves led their horses upriver, past the rock and around the bend, and went a ways beyond that for good measure. Mirthlûn had a critical eye on the hillside.
"Here, I think the earth turns from sand to good soil; up there, to the right of that little ledge outcropping. There are woods behind it. I wonder how far back those woods go."
Thorontir obligingly mounted and went to explore.
Noldo liked the idea of having his hobbit-hole up by the woods; he had never relished being too close to the river, always having worried about floods. "We could fit two smials up there, couldn't we, Mirthlûn?"
"Smials?"
"That's what we call our tunnels."
"Smials. Why do you want two?"
"One for Sindo, one for me. He'll settle down and marry, too, one of these days. As soon as he comes of age, I hope."
"When will that be?"
"He's twenty-seven now. Another six years."
"And you? How old are you?"
"I'm thirty-one."
Mirthlûn raised an eyebrow at him, and Noldo nodded. "Yes, I did. Three years early. I thought you knew."
"What I don't understand, " Mirthlûn continued as if nothing had happened, "is why you don't build one large hobbit-hole, with lockable or barrable doors."
"Well, I suppose we could. But normally it's one smial per family. Well, but I suppose the larger families, the dynasty sorts of families, they build big interconnecting tunnels, but..."
Mirthlûn smiled. "Perhaps we should build two smials connected by a barrable tunnel."
"Perhaps we should ask Sindo what he wants."
"All right."
"But you are right about that hillside, Mirthlûn. I like the looks of it. There's only one thing wrong with it. It faces east, not south."
"Ah, I see your point. Then, " Mirthlûn swung his eyes further upriver, "That would be a better spot."
Noldo agreed. The new spot had all the advantages of the first, but the river had bent eastward for a long reach, and so the broad bank faced due south, and the woods ran due east-to-west behind the hillside, offering shelter. The sun would be bright on the hillside all winter. The soil was a rich loam. There was room for four or five good-sized hobbit-holes. And Noldo liked the idea that it was a bit further removed from Sandy Shallows' hole.
They waited for Thorontir to return; his horse was blowing hard. He had run his horse ten miles into the woods and returned. Noldo was delighted to hear that the woods were fairly deep.
The ladies and children stayed waiting for Sindo, and the rest rode up the hillside to survey the surroundings. They spread out, and explored the woods, letting the scenery dictate their speed and focus, moving through the woods in a broad and wide semi-circle around the prospective site.
The woods behind were deep and rich and healthy, with a moist but well-drained forest floor and the same good soil, and the elves thought that they could be quite content in woods like these. Noldo saw enough signs of game that he concluded the woods were teeming; Ranger had said that the hobbits here primarily gardened and fished, and from the sign, not much bothered the wildlife here. Noldo also thought that Lorien would like the woods. After an hour of happy exploring, they returned back to the hillside.
Noldo and Mirthlûn discussed several possible front-door sites, and discussed how the smial-tunnels would wind into the hillside, and whether they would turn left, or right, or branch both ways. Mirthlûn seemed determined to build Noldo a palace.
Noldo discussed the possibility of having a back exit from the tunnel directly into the woods. Mirthlûn loved the idea.
The ponies Noldo wanted kept where there was a close water supply, and that proved more of a challenge, until Thorontir remarked on a bubbling brook that tumbled down the hillside to join the river from the woods. That was further upstream still. So the stables had to go on the right of the brook, farther upstream, and the hobbit-hole on the left of the brook. That shifted Noldo's front door further upstream still. At first Noldo did not want it quite that far upstream, and they debated a while, Mirthlûn cautioning Noldo that a long walk to the brook would seem worse in the winter than in the summer. "And you'll need a good sturdy bridge over the brook so that the ponies can cross."
In the midst of all this discussion, Sindo returned. He had had a pleasant meeting with Fernybanks, who had listened to his story and told him to settle and dig where he pleased anywhere on the outskirts of the settlements, and then had walked him down to the Inn and bought him a beer, and introduced him to several of the locals.
They had asked his name and his origin, and he had told them both; they had listened without recognition to his name and Noldo's, but when he mentioned the Langwell River, they had nodded. "There's a few folk from up that way." He had asked whom, and had been told that there were four or five families further down river.
"Well, we're not going down river, " Noldo said. "I know I said I wanted a mug of beer, but it will have to wait. Come and see what we've been planning." Noldo, Sindo and Mirthlûn went back to the hillside and began planning in earnest.
Mirthlûn asked Sindo whether he wanted his tunnel connected to Noldo's or separate. Sindo didn't know. But when he mentioned the backdoor into the woods, Sindo brightened. "Oh, I'd definitely like that. We could make the backdoors close, if we wanted to. That would almost be as good as a connecting tunnel."
But Mirthlûn was fixated on connecting the tunnels. Finally, in the end, to make him happy they settled that they would dig long storage tunnels towards each other, far enough so as to be almost connected, but leave them separate. Then if they wanted to it would be a simple matter of breaking through a foot or two of earth and connecting the tunnels later. And the backdoors into the woods would be from those storage tunnels. To this Mirthlûn acquiesced.
The sun was setting, and being rather tired from all the debating on tunnel design, they all gathered at the edge of the woods, some dangling their feet over into where the grassy hillside began, and watched twilight fall over the river as they ate and sang softly. Noldo held Lorien who held Lundo; Naurloth and Sindo sat on one side of him, and Adaron, Lothuial and Thorontir on the other side. Beyond them, primly side by side and hands carefully folded in their laps, sat Mirthlûn and Lothlûn.
The odd thing, thought Noldo, is that even after all these months-- has it been over a year now?-- Mirthlûn can talk anybody's ear off but hers. With her Mirthlûn is completely tongue-tied. He wondered if that would last another twenty-one years, or more.
Tomorrow, he thought, he would ride downriver with Sindo and ask to borrow shovels. And as soon as he had two shovels, the digging would begin. He was looking forward to it. The first priority was making a snug place for Lorien and Lundo, and Lothuial, Lothrin, and Lothlûn, to sleep. He did not doubt that the elves would spend most of their nights in the woods, but in case it rained, the ladies at least would be dry.
********
Noldo was astonished at the progress that they had made in just two weeks. Mirthlûn was a formidable taskmaster, and Thorontir, Adaron, and Naurloth needed little urging once they appreciated the task at hand. To the left of the brook and Noldo's front door, and furthest downstream, Sindo's smial had a front hall, and from there branching to the right, had a bedroom, and a parlor roughed out, with plans for a kitchen and pantry and then the long storage tunnel running towards Noldo's smial. There was a layer of last-years' hillside grass on the floor. Sindo missed the heather from the Ettenmoors, but he did not mention that, nor complain about the slightly dusty grass.
Noldo's smial had the front hall, a steadily lengthening tunnel reaching towards Sindo's tunnel, and off it were three rough bedrooms and one rough parlor with a fireplace. They were planning on starting a kitchen and pantry the next day. Thorontir had assumed charge of the fireplaces, and laid the hearth with rounded river stones, and then went into the woods for rough stones for the chimneys.
The one thing that the elves did not consider was wooden paneling or doors. Noldo asked Adaron about that as they dug side by side in the parlor, and Adaron replied, "We would be grateful if you dealt with that when we are gone; we would rather not see the trees fall."
"Perhaps we could barter for already cut wood, " Noldo mused.
"You could, " said Adaron, "if that would make your own mind easier."
That meant it wouldn't ease Adaron's mind at all, Noldo guessed. He personally had no desire to begin offending Adaron in any way, least of all by cutting down trees. Adaron observed, "At the rate at which Thorontir is bringing in stones, you may not need the wood for much beside doors."
Noldo smiled. He would worry about the details later. Their hole on the moors had never been lined with anything but heather, thatch, or woven branches. It had been snug enough. One good door for him and one for Sindo would set him at ease.
"I wonder, " said Noldo, "what we could do with driftwood that is lying along the riverbank, or fallen wood that is lying on the forest floor. Perhaps we could put some of that to a good use."
Adaron realised how hard Noldo was trying to avoid offending him, and nodded. "Yes, perhaps you could. It is a good thought."
There was a shout from Sindo, and Noldo saw a pony laboring hard halfway up the hillside, carrying two hobbits. He wondered who they could be. Slowly everyone came to a good stopping point, and came out to the hillside.
The pony was either old or unhealthy, Noldo could not tell which. One of the hobbits slid off, and slowly led the pony the rest of the way up the hill. The hobbit limped rather badly on his right leg, and Noldo noticed he held the reins awkwardly in his left hand. His right hand he kept in his pocket. The lass on the pony had her face turned down. They looked pained and weary. Pity welled up in Noldo as he watched them climb. Lothuial and Lothlûn started up the hillside to the campsite to gather some food for them, and Thorontir headed for the brook to fetch some water.
They came closer, and Noldo and Sindo drew together and stood side by side. Finally the pony halted, and the lass slid off, and the hobbit removed the pony's bit so he could graze. Now that they had almost arrived, they seemed hesitant to approach further. Noldo and Sindo glanced at each other and started to approach them. Lorien swept forward to their side, holding Lundo, and the four of them met the two hobbits.
The cause for the hobbit's lameness became clear; burn scars ran across the right side of his face, and down his neck. From the way he moved, it looked as if his entire right side had been burned. Noldo glanced at the lass, and saw that she likewise had burn scars, down the left side of her face from the corner of her eye downwards, though not as broad or deep. She walked with a slight limp, on her left side. But both her hands had been badly burned. Noldo and Sindo's hearts wrung with pity, and they were hesitant to speak, but Noldo said, "Good afternoon, and welcome to our homes, such as they are."
The hobbit looked them each in the eye, and said, "It's good to see you so well. You're looking healthy, Noldo. And you, Sindo, you're strong, a fine strapping lad."
Baffled, Noldo looked at the hobbit again, and suddenly his head spun, and his knees felt weak. He raised his eyes to look past the hobbit at the lass, and as he recognized her he burst into tears.
It was Ned and Waterlily Fairbanks.
*******
The Fairy Wife