Chapter 431: First Steps in Valinor
Olwë's invitation surprised Kael somewhat.
Galadriel, Elrond, and Gandalf all smiled but said nothing, leaving the choice entirely to him. Arwen likewise stayed quiet — wherever her husband decided to go, she would go with him.
Kael did not take long to consider. He inclined his head and declined with genuine warmth.
"I am deeply grateful for the invitation, Your Majesty. But as you said yourself, we have only just arrived, and the Blessed Realm is still unfamiliar to us. I would prefer to take time to understand this land before making any decision about where to settle. I would not want to choose in haste."
Valinor was not Hogwarts. It was home to Elves of every lineage, to Maiar, and to the Valar themselves — the true powers who governed this place. Until Kael had a clearer understanding of where he stood and what was around him, he intended to move carefully and make no commitments he might later regret.
Olwë accepted the refusal without the slightest sign of disappointment. He was generous by nature, and merely waved a hand with easy grace.
"That is a sensible approach. Whatever you decide in time, the doors of Alqualondë will always be open to you."
"You are very generous, Your Majesty," Kael said sincerely.
There was something about Olwë — the ease of his manner, the unhurried breadth of him — that made respect come naturally. He was the kind of figure whose presence invited both admiration and comfort without demanding either.
At Olwë's insistence, the whole company took up residence in the palace for the time being and were received with great hospitality.
Círdan, having completed the task the Valar had assigned him, settled in Alqualondë as well. Olwë welcomed him warmly and set him to work as one of his chief counsellors, with continued responsibility for the construction of ships.
During the days that followed, Kael sat with Gandalf, Elrond, Legolas, Elladan, and Elrohir, exchanging news and gathering what he could about Valinor. Arwen spent her time with her mother, Celebrían, and her grandmother, Galadriel. Elthir was introduced by Olwë to companions of a similar generation among the Teleri and went to meet them.
From his conversations with Gandalf and the others, Kael gradually built up a picture of the land he had arrived in.
The Elves of Valinor were divided into three great peoples: the Vanyar, the Noldor, and the Teleri, dwelling respectively in the cities of Valimar, Tirion, and Alqualondë, each people governed by their own High King.
The Vanyar were the first of the Elves to reach Valinor, and they had never left. They were held to be the most beautiful of all the Elven peoples — a quality of sacred luminosity about them that had given rise to the name the Light Elves. They devoted themselves primarily to closeness with the Valar and to the praise of the light, and were especially beloved by Manwë, King of the Valar, and by Varda, Queen of the Stars. As a mark of that favour, they had been permitted to dwell alongside the Valar and the Maiar in Valimar itself.
Their High King was Ingwë — one of the three Elves first summoned by the Valar as ambassadors, the first to reach Valinor, and among the first to behold the light of the Two Trees. His standing was unmatched: not only King of the Vanyar, but the acknowledged High King of all Elves everywhere.
The Noldor came second — renowned for their learning and their craft, and for their long friendship with Aulë, the Valar's great craftsman, from whom they had learned much. Their early lord had been Finwë, the second of the three ambassadors, and Galadriel's grandfather. He was also the father of Fëanor, maker of the Silmarils and the Palantíri, and his story had ended in tragedy — murdered by Morgoth when Morgoth stole into Valinor to take the Silmarils.
That act set in motion everything that followed. Fëanor roused the greater part of the Noldor and led them out of Valinor on a march of vengeance, and in their fury they committed the Kinslaying at Alqualondë — attacking the Teleri for their ships. The Valar had warned against the departure and were not heeded. The Noldor who left were exiled. Those who had taken part in the Kinslaying and shed the blood of their kin were bound further still, by the Doom of Mandos — condemned to endless grief and betrayal, and barred from Valinor forever.
Only those who had not participated in the slaughter — those who had been swept up in the march but kept their hands clean — were eventually forgiven, after their service against Morgoth in the War of Wrath. Galadriel was among them.
Not all the Noldor had left. A portion stayed. Chief among those who turned back was Finarfin — the youngest son of Finwë by his second wife Indis, a Vanya, from whom he had inherited something of her gentler, more reverent nature. When the march reached Alqualondë, and the killing began, Finarfin could not continue. He led those who would follow him back to Valinor and was forgiven and permitted to remain.
Finarfin became High King of the Noldor, remaining in Valinor, ruling from Tirion. In the First Age, he led the Valinorean Noldor in the War of Wrath against Morgoth. It was worth noting that Galadriel was his youngest daughter — she had marched with Fëanor and not turned back with her father, and after the War of Wrath, she declined the Valar's pardon and remained in Middle-earth, choosing only to return at the end of the Third Age.
Upon her return, she had been reunited with Finarfin in Tirion, where she now lived. Elrond, through his connection to Celebrían and his many ties to the Noldor, had settled there as well.
Legolas, as a Sindarin Elf, had gone where most Elves arriving from Middle-earth went — to Tol Eressëa, the island off the eastern coast of Aman. He had been reunited with his father Thranduil there, and the two of them now led the Elves who had come with them in a beautiful stretch of woodland on the island.
As for Gandalf — Olórin, as he was properly known — he was among the greatest of the Maiar who served Manwë and Varda. He had studied under Nienna, the Lady of Pity, and spent long periods attending her at the Halls of Mandos, listening to the words of the dead and drawing wisdom from them. He made his home in the Gardens of Lórien — the gardens of the Vala Irmo, Master of Dreams and Visions, at the western reaches of Aman — and visited Valimar from time to time to study and take counsel with the Valar and other Maiar. The Gardens of Lórien shared their name with Lothlórien in Middle-earth, but they were a different thing entirely — the most serene and beautiful place in all of Valinor, where Irmo's wife Estë, Lady of Rest, also dwelt and brought healing to the weary.
By the time Gandalf and Elrond had finished, Kael had a working understanding of the land he had come to.
Aman was a continent roughly comparable in size to Middle-earth. Its terrain rose in the east and fell toward the west. Along the entire eastern coastline, curving from north to south in the shape of a crescent moon, stood the greatest mountain range in all of Arda — the Pelóri. The Valar had raised them at the dawn of days as a rampart against Morgoth, a wall to protect their dwelling place from any power that might come against it from the east.