Hello! I hope you’re okay with receiving questions about your fics on AO3; I’m currently reading The Light Under the Mountain and have a few questions!
First of all I want to say that I have no adequate words to describe how magnificent this fic is. My vocabulary is too limited to truly express how in love with it I am. I’ll just say that I feel guilty for reading it for free.
As for the questions - I’d like to clarify that I’m in the middle of chapter three as I’m writing this, so if there’s clarification in the later chapters then I apologize.
About Celebrimbor’s life; in canon (if my knowledge is correct), after his fallout with Curufin he stayed in Nargothrond while Curufin and Celegorm was exiled, then after the sack of the city he went to dwell in Gondolin, then after its fall he fought in the War of Wrath and then moved to Eregion. Did this all happen with your Celebrimbor? Cuz in chapter two Celebrimbor says about his Khuzdul books-
“I brought it here with me when I left Nargothrond,”
And to me it kind of gave the impression that he went straight to Khazad-Dûm after leaving Nargothrond; which, timeline-wise wouldn’t make any sense and as I write this out am realizing how silly this question is in the first place - but I just wanted to be sure.
On a related note, after the drowning of Beleriand, Celebrimbor founded Eregion. Where was Celebrimbor in the 700 years or so before Eregion, and what was he doing? On this I have no idea if there’s a canon record (I only read the Silmarillion) and if there isn’t, what’s your hc on it? Was he with Gil-Galad in Lindon? Or near the Havens? Was he wandering around in the wilds like Strider? Or most likely all three and more? In your fic the impression was that he went first to Khazad-Dûm and then Eregion, where Galadriel had started the work; is this assumption correct?
And the last one - lifespan of the Dwarves.
While in the third age the typical lifespan of the Khazâd is around 250 to 300 if I’m correct, Durin I did live up to over 2000 years old, so are the lifespans of the Dwarves in the Second age somewhere between that? I’m afraid there’s close to nothing I know about Dwarves canon-wise, so their lifespans are quite a mystery to me. I wanted to know how you calculated them in your fic.
That’s it for the questions. It got longer than intended; sorry for that!
I very much want to rant about how much I love your fic some more but it would mostly consist of silly emotes and incomprehensible keyboard smashes so I will refrain.
I hope you have a great day, and thank you again so much for sharing your masterpiece of a writing.
Oh, I'm thrilled to receive questions, not to worry! I must apologize for the delay in my response - I'm very sporadically on tumblr these days and I actually didn't see your message until yesterday evening!
First of all: Thank you so much for your kind words! I'm very happy that you like the fic and I hope you'll continue to enjoy it as the plot progresses (though you will likely have finished it by now, I guess).
But I absolutely get what you mean - I feel the same: there are so many great stories and pieces of art out there that are freely accessible; it's simply mind-blowing.
Again, I'm super flattered and thrilled that you liked Light Under the Mountain so much - and enough to type out such an elaborate Ask on tumblr at that!
As an aside, before I begin answering this: I am far from a Tolkien lore master, so there might be inconsistencies with canon or canon facts that have simply fallen by the wayside in my works, the sole reason being that I didn't know about them as I was writing the story.
Re: Celebrimbor's life - I'd say that he did travel to Gondolin and fought in the War of Wrath, too. I didn't have Gondolin and the WoW in mind as I wrote the sentence you were quoting, otherwise I would have clarified it. I'll think about changing the sentence, actually, so thank you very much for the heads-up.
Timeline-wise, there would be a few changes anyway, though, since Celebrimbor in this timeline delayed coming to Eregion for quite a few years since he was staying in Khazad-Dûm (which did not happen in canon).
Ost-in-Edhil was founded by Galadriel and Celeborn alone in this timeline, which makes Celebrimbor taking over more or less involuntarily in the later years all the bitterer - him being a late arrival and not having been present for the most gruesome years when the Elves were carving out a living between trees and stones and the city was more of a settlement in the wilderness, with no stone buildings and roads to speak of.
As for what he was doing before coming to Eregion - I personally think that he would have been hanging out around Lindon a bit, though not often in the presence of Gil-Galad. And before that I imagine him having had his Strider Years - being distraught and unhappy with the falling out he had with his father, as well as traumatized by the wars he fought in.
In your fic the impression was that he went first to Khazad-Dûm and then Eregion, where Galadriel had started the work; is this assumption correct?
And the last one - lifespan of the Dwarves.
While in the third age the typical lifespan of the Khazâd is around 250 to 300 if I’m correct, Durin I did live up to over 2000 years old, so are the lifespans of the Dwarves in the Second age somewhere between that? I’m afraid there’s close to nothing I know about Dwarves canon-wise, so their lifespans are quite a mystery to me. I wanted to know how you calculated them in your fic.
There wasn't much calculation involved, it was more like: okay, so Dwarves live around 300 years in Third Age, so what if they had diminishing lifespans like Men of Númenorean descent? How old would they have grown in the Second Age? Followed closely by: how old to they have to get for it to fit my plot?
And then I settled somewhere around 500-700 years.
Than you so much for your questions, it was a joy to receive them and to answer them!
Again, I apologize for having taken so long, but I've been travelling for some time and only recently got back home and got around to checking tumblr!
Thank you so much for everything! Having readers like you makes the effort of writing these fics worth it - and more!
Have a great day and take care!
