WWXLV: The Fellowship of Saruman

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

Galadriel returned to the group after having wandered of for a while, she was of course influenced by the events of Caradhras with. . . ., but that had to wait for now. She knew that she would not be able to get look upon the recent events with clarity before she had dealt with what happened in Eregion. Her heart was filled with sorrow over the departure of Mithrandir, she knew she could have done more to prevent it, but she had not listened to her heart when it mattered the most and now her most trusted ally was gone.

First she turned toTom Bombadil and for what seemed to be forever the two beings stared in silence at each other, then Galadriel spoke “I am most disappointed in your choices Iarwain, beings that have walked this earth as long as you and I should know better than to cast away the wisdom of Mithrandir so lightly. Indeed my heart warned me that our wits would fail and Mithrandir would be send away, but Alas I heeded it not. You should indeed have known better than to send him away on this early stage because of his silence, I understand that you do not like to wander in doubt about Mithrandir’s allegiance, but more time should have been granted. The wisdom that you spoke in early in Eregion seem to have left you and whether this was merely miss judgement on your part or calculated, I know not and I fear it will stay that way until you depart us.”

Galadriel the knelt before Lobelia so that they could speak eye to eye “I have no great experience with Halflings, but sturdy people you are and strong willed. You’re heart seems filled with sorrow and anger, it seems that you try to turn people away from you and not show weakness. Why you walk about with this stern façade I cannot yet tell and if I need to worry I know not, but for now I shall stand by my choice of supporting you as ringbearer.”


Galadriel arose again and seemed taller than ever, she eyed everyone of the company that she had not yet addressed and spoke. Before I can reveal to you my thoughts on what we experienced on Caradhras I need to share with you some thoughts about what happened in Eregion. She spoke out clearly so that everybody could hear her voice.
”Gildor you too should know the ways of Mithrandir, but yet in your pursuit to make him talk you did not let him gather his thoughts and worse is that you yourself got blinded and could see little else.”

Galadriel paused for a second before continuing addressing the group.
“In Eregion I suggested that Halbarad should depart our company. . .I stand by what I said and did in Eregion, I thought your quarrel with our ringbearer most disturbing and out of place. However more disturbing behaviour have been seen since then and I unless you give me furthermore reason to I shall hold it forgotten. One thing I will ask of you is to explain your change of heart in Eregion. . .first you accept my choice a choice that was not easily made and then you turn on me in what appear to be an attempt to throw suspicion on to me and Mithrandir”.

“And Eomer one cannot be surprised with your view of me, however honourable and wise your house may be it also have a tendency to show distrust where trust should be and have higher regard for floods of empty words than of the fewer expressed with more care.”

“I shall finish with a few words about people that I do not know much about, but non the less my respect for the have increased, I speak of you Master Dain and of you Radagast. I have not had dealings with dwarves since the elder days, but indeed Dain seem as fine representative for his people and I think his council will be essential for this quest to succeed. Of Radagast’s wisdom there can be no doubt and so far I see no reason to doubt his allegiance.”

“Of the rest of you I shall not speak yet, for even my thoughts are clouded by the recent events”

[Gwathagor]

Originally Posted by Rune Son of Bjarne

Galadriel paused for a second before continuing addressing the group.
“In Eregion I suggested that Halbarad should depart our company. . .I stand by what I said and did in Eregion, I thought your quarrel with our ringbearer most disturbing and out of place. However more disturbing behaviour have been seen since then and I unless you give me furthermore reason to I shall hold it forgotten. One thing I will ask of you is to explain your change of heart in Eregion. . .first you accept my choice a choice that was not easily made and then you turn on me in what appear to be an attempt to throw suspicion on to me and Mithrandir”.

"I was cautious at first, Lady, and needed time to think. Also, had I reacted violently to your accusation, it would have only incurred more suspicion. But later, as I pondered your charge against me, I realized that it had no substance. Even now I am puzzled by your accusation: to what quarrel do you refer? I have not spoken directly to Mistress Lobelia since the start of our journey. If I have spoke against you, it has not only been to question the validity of your argument; not yet have I attempted to impune your integrity. Not yet."

Somber and bewildered, Halbarad departed to eat and think.

[Meneltarmacil]

"Hmmm," Ugluk growled. "I find the disappearance of Gandalf to be suspicious-looking. His style of arguing has often been considered suspicious, even when not a traitor. I can excuse Halbarad and Eomer; they know him little. But Gildor and Bombadil? No, they're too wise and have been around too long to not be familiar with him."

The hungry Orc noticed a large rat crawling around and quickly stabbed it. After he'd finished eating the rat, he spoke:

"Halbarad does seem quite the suspicious one, but then again, he's fairly new to this sort of thing and bound to make mistakes. I'm not letting him out of my sight at all, but he's not at the top of my list either."

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

After hearing the words of Halbarad Galadriel feel deep into thoughts and she seemed like asleep, when she finally spoke her face was full of sorrow.
"You did right in speaking against me, please accept my deepest appologies! I have backtracked my thoughts and discovered that I made a grave mistake in Eregion. . .in my haste I mixed the words of you and Theodred"

"I must be alone with my thoughts for a while and re-analyse the previouse events"

[Gwathagor]

Originally Posted by Rune Son of Bjarne

After hearing the words of Halbarad Galadriel feel deep into thoughts and she seemed like asleep, when she finally spoke her face was full of sorrow.
"You did right in speaking against me, please accept my deepest appologies! I have backtracked my thoughts and discovered that I made a grave mistake in Eregion. . .in my haste I mixed the words of you and Theodred"

"I must be alone with my thoughts for a while and re-analyse the previouse events"

Halbarad thought carefully for a moment or two.

"Lady, I am inclined to believe you meant no harm. I, too, have made honest mistakes and have no desire to condemn the well-meaning."

Nonetheless, Galadriel's sudden change of stance had taken Halbarad by surprise, and he wondered if he ought to be more suspicious of the Lady of the Galadhrim.

Indeed, he thought, such a swift and easy reversal on the part of anyone else would immediately arouse the suspicion of every honest member of the Company.

Though he determined that Galadriel's mistake probably had been honest and was not grounds for accusation, he resolved to watch her closely if he could. Then he smiled, for he had just found a note of humor in that dark day.

"It is curious, Galadriel...you say it was Theodred's words, in fact, and not mine that had originally drawn out your suspicion, and yet it is now Theodred who seems most eager to take your side."

And then grim and stern Halbarad laughed, as he had not in a long while. Theodred had been brashly eager to confirm Galadriel's accusation which was now shown, essentially, to be an indictment of words spoken by Theodred himself. This struck the Ranger as paradoxical, and even funny. However, he soon quelled his mirth, for he knew it was inappropriate in light of the dark events which had thus far haunted their journey. He resumed his usual sad, thoughtful expression. There was work to do.

[satansaloser2005]

Theodred made a brief appearance; hearing the end of Galadriel's speech, he realized that he must also have a few words with some of the group.

"Galadriel, I, too, regret now the decision to allow Halbarad's continued presence with our fellowship, and while we may disagree regarding....regarding your lifestyle....I feel that for now at least I have no choice but to trust you, at least regarding the curious behavior of Halbarad.

"As for the rest of you, I must speak my mind. Those of you who were responsible for Gandalf's departure, I express my displeasure. Though there were others less worthy to travel with us, you ignored this fact and called for his dismissal from the fellowship. To add to the crime, you saw that, mere moments before we were to reach our final concensus, he was unprepared to defend himself against your accusations and so you set to outnumber him."

Theodred had avoided the rest of the group during the night, speaking quietly with Eomer, one of the only fellowship members he found trustworthy. After the company's discovery of Elladan's grim fate, Theodred realized that Elladan had refused to voice an opinion regarding the previous day's banishment, as had Radagast and the revolting creature called Ugluk. Perhaps he was aware of something dangerous, maybe he had discovered the identity of one of the traitors? He shook the idea out of his mind and strutted away, careful now to keep his thoughts to himself; at this rate, even his own kin wasn't to be trusted. Behind him, he could here Bombadil's incessant rhyming.

[Nogrod]

Tom Bombadil had been mainly quiet the days after his friend Gandalf had parted from the fellowship. He was lonely indeed and longing for Goldberry didn't make him feel any better. He had even pondered it a few times whether he should just turn back and leave the whole adventure to the others. If not for any other reason but to bring back his joy of life and nature. He had also thought it back again and again what happened that evening when they had decided to vote for Olorin to leave.

There were many who hadn't said a thing. Those Tom found particularly suspicious although one of them, Elladan, had been brutally murdered by the traitors and thus proven innocent. There were those who wilfully spread out the voting which finally ended up in the nasty choice between Gandalf and Halbarad. Tom had disliked the widening scope of choices that time as they seemed to bring everything to a last moment randomness but they could be also seen as true trials at actually sending out someone who in fact was a traitor. But in the end it resulted in the early calls for Gandalf and Halbarad remaining the only choices.

Somehow he had then a nagging feeling in the back of his head that on this mission Halbarad would indeed be of more help to them than Gandalf. He had it even now. Yes, it sounded bad and felt bad. But still he felt it. Somehow Gandalf was not what he would be; intelligent, helpful, insightful, leading, caring... Some had said the wizard had just thought of things but Tom felt Gandalf hadn't been even interersted in the fellowship's quest in the first place. He knew Gandalf well enough and the Gandalf they had with them was not the Gandalf he knew.

But still he had asked himself a hundred times whether anything he would have done would have kept his friend Olorin around now that he knew he was no traitor. But the end-result was always the same. No one was ready to save him, no one came to help... not even Galadriel herself who now quite hypocritically blamed others of wrong choices...

No one knew who the traitors were... except the traitors themselves. And those who spoke after the fact.

Even if the sun had arisen and they were coming swiftly downhill leaving the horrors of Caradhras firmly behind them Tom didn't feel like singing. But he took his own way down drowned in his own mind, for all this reflection had strengthened one thought in him. They killed the young Elladan, cruelly and brutally. And I will not rest until this is solved. I owe it to Gandalf as I was one of those sending him home - however uninvolved he were. But I need to walk alone to think properly...

[Rune Son of Bjarne]

"Iarwain, you think that I spoke words of hypocricy earlier? But hypocricy demands a false decleration of belife and in my defence of Olorin there was no falseness, that should be clear. I may not have done what I should to protect him and it may indeed seem convenient that I now declare that I feared this might happen, but it is the truth and does not in any way conflct with what I stated earlier! I do regret not speaking clearer in his defence and even though I feared he would fall victime to our insecurity, even I cannot see all ends and wrongly thought that it would suffice to say that I did not think him a traitor."

Galadriel once again fell silent and thought back on previouse events and the grave and almost unforgivable mistakes she had made earlier on the journey.

[Groin Redbeard]

Dain's heart was heavy as he descended the pass of Caradhras. He had not regretted his decision for Gandalf's departure, for indeed it was Gandalf's silence that had in the end condemned himself, but the loss of Elladen was a greater tragedy. In the eyes of the dwarf Elladen was a wise elf and would be a great asset to the fellowship, but alas he has fallen.

Dain heard the kind words of Galadriel. "I thank you my lady for your approval, but I think that my words are more of a hinder to this fellowship. In the future I will be more cautious when offering my advice, not to say that I won't offer it at all. Indeed if more people were in on the debate of yesterday a traitor might have been found and forced to leave instead of a good man. Therefore I pray that the more silent ones of the fellowship: Elrohir, Theodred, Ugluk and Eomer speak up and offer their advice in the matter today, some good thoughts were found among you, but were not pressed enough to be seriously considered. Speak up, lest suspicious eyes fall on you who are innocent; let us not repeat the doings of yesterday!"

Dain listened to the conversation eagerly, hoping that the fellowship heeded his words.

EDIT: X'd with Galadriel

[McCaber]

Elrohir rose from where he had been sitting.

"You wish me to be more vocal, when these traitors have taken the life of my brother? Nothing good can come from hasty accusations now.

If only I were more convinced of the orc's guilt, it would make my choices much easier. But for this, I am prepared to set aside my hatred of Uglúk to find the traitors.

But let us wonder why Mithrandir was sent away earlier. Out of the four who voted for him, only Dain gave any long explanation of his choice, and Halbarad said nothing about his reasoning at all. I would think that it was to save himself, but he never explicitly said so.

This, together with the attention he received yesterday, moves Halbarad to first on my list of suspects."

EDIT: crossed with Halbarad

[Gwathagor]

"You are justified, Elrohir, in your wish to hear my reasoning. There was not time yestereve for me to explain my vote, though I expressed my intention of doing so. I will now.

“I believe that Bombadil, myself, Dain, and Gildor were justified in voting for one who spoke too little to be helpful, promised he would not vote and promptly did, and, finally, gave no good reason for his voting. In short, he was obscure, erratic, and inscrutable. As has been said, Gandalf, in the end, condemned himself by his own actions.

“We were wrong, yes. But it was an honest, reasonable mistake, and I expect you would have done the same, had you not voted for one who gave you neither provocation nor offense. I speak, of course, of Ugluk. Perhaps you wish to explain your vote as well? I imagine that I am not the only one who found your vote thoroughly inexplicable."

[Meneltarmacil]

Elrohir, I'd like an explanation from you as to what makes me suspicious. Granted, I'm an Orc, but have I done anything to make you doubt my loyalty to the White Hand? You seem to have voted for me without much reason other than that I'm an Orc. You maintin suspicion of me today. I'd like to know why.

[Meneltarmacil]

Er... wait. I see you've backed off somewhat on your suspicion of me. Good, but I'd still like to know why you find me suspicious.

[THE Ka]

Radagast joined the others slowly back down from the pass, but the heaviness in his somber actions wasn't from defeat at Caradhras, but the loss of Elladan and that of Gandalf. He sat quietly and starred deeply into the distance of his own thoughts and worry, while it felt the literal age of his body was finally coming up on him as if in some cruel joke to his worthiness for such a challenge of the Fellowship.

Of all the ages I've passed, to have Olorin distrusted so by those he had openly embraced is something I have never known. Or the great loss of Elrond's house, such a noble elve has lost too much by this world to be stripped of more kin. I greatly hope he will not loose further meaning to stay in Arda, but after such as this I cannot judge his actions. Nor would I have thought I'd be so lost now, even among a company of great hope. If anything could become worse, may the Valar pity us in our despair.

Thoughts of a darkened sky seemed to creep up on his mind, but quickly he shook himself out of it realizing that if anything, he might carry on the work of the Gandalf he remembered and in honor.
Quietly, but assured he added after listening to the debate on what had passed after Gandalf's departure.

" Our recent days have been ones in loss, as we all are sure. Even though we have lost kin and kif and we are asundered in doubt, I can hold no grudge against you who voted Gandalf's leaving. It would not be in his hope, and what I have known him for, to become revenged in sorrow, but instead to aid what work there is yet to be done. That, if any of you feel shamed in guilt by your choice should remember about him, and should not continue punish yourselves needlessly.
What has happened on the pass I fear is only a taste of what our traitors wish to befall us and any hope in this journey. Though, for what I know Gandalf, and have come to know Elladan of, they would not wish us needlessly to stab blindly in the dark with our fears or hatred. We should act in our reason and hope."

He regained breath before he spoke again,

" I am sorry I may not add anymore thoughts, but I must like most of you, think greatly on this matter that it might not effort in vain."

[Thinlómien]

Gildor had not spoken before, for he had spent the beginning of the day singing a lament for Elladan, his brave kinsman.

"His death is an evil we can not leave unavenged. Who did this foul deed? Everybody saw the footprints. Now, we Elves do not tread that way and leave such marks on snow as we walk. Therefore, I conclude that at least one of the traitors is not an Elf. But with Elladan dead and innocent, that does not actually help me, for I anyway know that there can't be three guilty Elves around, for that would mean that I myself would be guilty, which I'm not." He smiled, and his smile was a sad one. "So after all it does not help us at all that the murderer left footprints. We must find other clues then."

Gildor sighed. "Who of us would kill Elladan? I can not answer that question before musing on what people said in Eregion properly. Maybe some of you has an idea? The only reason that occurs to me right now would be that it would leave no tracks except for the actual footprints."

"Lady Galadriel and Captain Uglúk, you accuse me and Iarwain for accusing Mithrandir and say we should know better. I know he's a wise wizard and can be of great help with his Maiarin intuition, but I also know that when he regards some mission unimportant, he does not bother to commit much time to it. Why would he? He's here to save Middle-Earth, how could he attend every quest with full enthusiasm? Maybe he just didn't regard this quest as very important." Or maybe he did not want to show important because he grudged Curunir of coming back and taking his place. He banished the thought. Old Mithrandir is not like that.

Then Gildor buried himself deeper in thought, swearing to return the words said in Eregion to his mind before opening his mouth again...