Ithudenia

Lolarien

**Ithudenia**, also known as **Ithudenia the Fair**, is an Elf-maiden described in many legends of both Elves and Men. Ithudenia's beauty is said to be without rival, surpassing that of even the fairest Quantar.

## **The Tale of Ithudenia the Fair**

Here follows the tale of Ithudenia as it is told most often:

This is a tale of the days of old

when the grass was greener and the

stars were not yet veiled.

Deep in the woods where the Elf-kind dwell

children are born of the flowers that fall,

soft and golden with a sweetest smell,

from the boughs of the Elf-tree strong and tall.

One day in an autumn now long past,

grew a flower more beautiful than all.

It brightly shone when it fell at last

on the grass where it seemed so frail and small.

The final rays of the setting sun

softly warmed the golden Elven flower.

The moon then rose as the day was done,

shining silver rays in this darkening hour.

By the light of moon, and ray of sun,

the golden leaves of the flower unfurled.

Revealing a life that had now begun.

A new Elven child, brought into this world.

There on the grass her eyes gazed with love,

at the greenest greens of the leaves so high

and the light of silver stars above

and the graying blue of the dimming sky.

Her hair was dark as the shade of night

that is cold and naught but star and moonlit.

Yet it seemed to shimmer with gold light

as if setting sun still shone upon it.

The Elves all quickly gathered around

the newborn Elf that needed to be seen

And there they saw that upon the ground

lay the fairest child that has ever been.

Ithudenia they named the Elf child,

she who walks in light of both day and night.

They saw in her eyes a spirit wild,

And within her heart burned a fire bright.

She quickly grew, and was loved by all,

by Elves and even the forest itself.

She'd sing to trees, no matter how small.

They grew so tall, and so too did the Elf.

All the Elves longed to hear her fair voice,

they came from far to look upon her face.

Rather she'd flee if it were her choice

and find another fox or leaf to chase

Wandering far she roamed the wood,

dancing as light as a summer's breeze

smelling the flowers wherever she could.

In winter watching all the lakelets freeze.

Her Elf-ears adorned by silver bright.

fairest rings she wore on her nimble hands,

twinkling trinkets as pure as starlight.

Jewels and gemstones brought from far-off lands.

In her untamed heart she longed for love,

not the love her kin had had for her grace,

but a love she had not yet learned of.

She felt in her that this was not her place.

One morning she fled on grass still dewed

to the woodland heart where the trees are old.

She'd plead and sing what her mind pursued,

to be free of what she felt she had been told.

Wishing to freely walk without bind,

shedding her name known by all Elven-kind.

By her beloved beauty unconfined,

to find her a new life perhaps less kind.

Her yearning voice was filled with sorrow,

and her song the roots of the world did hear.

Her wish was granted that fateful morrow,

she woke on the wood's edge with no Elf-ear.

Clad in leaves and flowers she lay there.

Her name forgotten, yet her grace remained.

There a man then found the girl so fair

perhaps by chance, or perhaps by fate chained.

He watched her start to dance in the dell.

A time he stood there, watching with care

Til he called to her, 'Amariell!',

That which flutters freely through the air.

The girl halted in the morning rays

as she looked about to find who called her.

Their eyes then met and in all their days

They would not call any moment fairer

Alon the man was called he told her

and in the light of her eyes he could see

sun and moon's glow and drawing nearer

blue of sky, green as leaf of linden tree

A streak of silver he could see appear

as veil of stars in the dark of her hair,

a blessing of the woods she held dear.

He beheld the young maiden truly fair.

He mistook her for a girl of Men

for her ears had now lost the shape of leaf.

In his gray cloak he covered her then

and took her to his home upon the heath.

There they warmed themselves by hearth and tea.

Their eyes glanced freely at one another.

Fire they felt, a light they could see.

No cold nor rain nor storm them could bother.

They walked that spring day, to hilltops high.

And then pledged themselves when day was done

to one another under a starry sky.

But their journey had only just begun.

Together they fled, on skipping feet

from the southern sands to the western strands.

From crimson canyons standing in the heat,

to spraying plumes of steam in northern lands.

Along babbling brooks they sang of fate.

Oh, how kind it had been to bring them there

to ancient trees towering tall and straight

and walls of granite in lands of the bear.

Such long paths their journey led them on.

Through their love they shared a life without end

as it belongs to woodland's children.

And then back to the Elven woods they went.

Now together they've spent endless years,

known by many names through the ages long,

in a woodland vale where fall no tears,

among the trees where still they sing their song.