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English
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Published:
2025-04-06
Completed:
2025-04-12
Words:
4,490
Chapters:
7/7
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39
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Between The Histories

Summary:

The histories of Celeborn and Galadriel tell the story of a shared legacy. Between the histories is the story of a shared life.

Notes:

Welcome to Celedriel Week! I'll be posting a short snippet of their life together for each day of the event. The tags will be updated to reflect each added snippet.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Impressions

Chapter Text

Artanis does not think much of Celeborn, not at first. He is a silent shadow at his great-uncle's shoulder, and if shadow is perhaps not the right word for someone so light, silent certainly is. He hardly seems to speak a word. Artanis learns much in her time in Doriath - learns from Melian, from Thingol, from Lúthien - but she does not expect to learn much from Celeborn.

"Does he ever speak?" she asks Lúthien one day. Lúthien may be of her parents' generation, older indeed than both of them, but she does not feel as distant as they. She feels less like an aunt and more like an older sister, or what Artanis has always imagined an older sister to feel like.

"Who, Celeborn?" Lúthien asks. "He does, when he has something to say."

"And how often is that? Once a yén?"

Lúthien laughs, and the sound makes the birds flutter from their branches in delight. "He can be quite wise, you know. He is not as outspoken as many of our kind, but when he speaks, even my father listens."

"I suppose," Artanis allows, because it seems politer than saying, I'll believe it when I see it.

She keeps a closer eye on Celeborn after that, though. She waits, wondering if she will be privileged enough to see one of those apparent pearls of wisdom drop from his lips. She notices, the closer she watches, that Celeborn is gentle and careful and kind. He is good with elflings, and he is loyal to those who follow him, and he never uses his close kinship with the king to place himself above others. It would not be fair to Artanis's family to say that she has been starved of good men in her life, but she does not think any of them have been so good and so quiet about it. It almost makes her laugh, the thought of one of Fëanáro's sons even pretending to be such a nonentity. She is used to great men, and Celeborn does not seem to care much about being great, so long as he can be good.

And then, one day, she hears him speak. It is in some council with the king, and later, she will not even remember the topic, but Thingol says something that Celeborn disagrees with, and Celeborn speaks. His words, like him, are gentle and careful and kind, but they are also lined with steel. Celeborn is gentle, Artanis realizes, but that does not mean he cannot be strong. He is careful, but that care can turn into sharp-eyed precision. And he is kind, but sometimes kindness means that you have to be stern. Celeborn speaks, and everyone listens.

"I told you," Lúthien says to Artanis in a quiet, amused undertone, while Artanis does her best to hide her shock and pick her jaw up from the floor, "he speaks when he has something to say."

He does, and he speaks well. Artanis, despite herself, thinks she would like to hear him speak again.