I owe the inspiration for this story to Sharon, Child of the Seventh Age. She mentioned during a debate on the Barrow Downs forum, that the Fallohide tendency towards adventure and seafaring and most especially Frodo and Bilbo's being drawn to the elves, could indicate that the "fairy wife" mentioned in The Hobbit could have been a silvan elf. This raised numerous issues, some serious and some perhaps trivial: social barriers, parental approval, disparity in height, etc. It seemed impossible, and yet, could it have been?

For me personally, the worst barrier was actually Tolkien's statement that elf-mortal unions were rare. Somewhere he mentions that there were only three: Aragorn and Arwen, Luthien and Beren, Tuor and Idril. So if there had been an elf-hobbit marriage, it would have had to have been kept a secret even from The Historian Himself, and thus, from the elves or the elven community at large. Determining why such a marriage would have been kept secret from the elven community at large was, to me, the greatest challenge of writing the story. But there were other challenges; overcoming, or circumnavigating, cultural barriers not the least.

Sharon provided numerous suggestions and recommendations, which proved very helpful. I asked Lindil to proof the story for any possible abuses of osanwe; he also made several other suggestions, as did Nar. Those suggestions yeilded several needed revisions and clarifications.

If the story is successful, I remain in their debt.

Footnotes follow for those interested in such details; otherwise, feel free to proceed to Chapter One.

FOOTNOTES

Of The Fairy Wife: In the introduction to "The Hobbit", Tolkien casually mentions:

"It was often said (in other families) that long ago, one of the Took ancestors must have taken a fairy wife. That was, of course, absurd, but still, there was something not quite hobbit-like about them, and once in a while members of the Took-clan would go and have adventures."

Of the Elves and Osanwe (from Many Partings):

"Often long after the hobbits were wrapped in sleep they would sit together under the stars, recalling the ages that were gone and all their joys and labors in the world, or holding council, concerning the days to come. If any wanderer had chanced to pass, little would he have seen or heard, and it would have seemed to him only that he saw grey figures, carved in stone, memorials of forgotten things now lost in unpeopled lands. For they did not move or speak with mouth, looking from mind to mind; and only their shining eyes stirred and kindled as their thoughts went to and fro."

Of Galadriel and Osanwe (From The Mirror Of Galadriel):

"And with that word she held them with her eyes, and in silence looked searchingly at each of them in turn. None save Legolas and Aragorn could long endure her glance. Sam quickly blushed and hung his head."

This is the story of the migration of an early Fallohide family across the Misty Mountains, fleeing from the advancing darkness circa Third Age 1150.

The Fairy Wife

1: The Hunt

2: The Tree Line

3: The Staring Game

4: Settling

5: Calling

6: What Noldo Wanted

7: The Hillside

8: Decisions

9: Sindo

10: Departure

11: Brothers

12: Fire

13: Acceptance

14: The Lune River

15: Family

16: Trials

17: Honesty

18: Lorien's Secrets

19: Friends

20: Discretion

21: The Hole Next Door

22: Reckoning

23: Extended Family

24: Epilogue

From HoME, J. R. R. Tolkien:
From OF THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS AMONG THE ELDAR PERTAINING TO MARRIAGE AND OTHER MATTERS RELATED THERETO... Aelfwine's Preamble.

The Eldar grew in bodily form slower than Men, but in mind more swiftly. They learned to speak before they were one year old; and in the same time they learned to walk and to dance, for their wills came soon to the mastery of their bodies....
...For at the end of the third year mortal children began to outstrip the Elves, hastening on to a full stature while the Elves lingered in the first spring of childhood. Children of Men might reach their full height while Eldar of the same age were still in body like to mortals of no more than seven years. Not until the fiftieth year did the Eldar attain the stature and shape in which their lives would after- wards endure, and for some a hundred years would pass before they were full-grown.