Chapter Text
Even deep in the woods far inland as far away as he could go he could still smell the salt from the sea on the wind. It seemed to Dagnir that it was just another thing to blame the Sindar for. Had they not come to his woods, brought their foreign ways and their militaristic manner to the Greenwood, he and his family would still be able to live their lives in peace and harmony. But others in his settlement had welcomed Oropher and his followers to the woods, and had been seduced by their fair words into accepting Oropher as their king. Silvan ruled by Sindar.
Dagnir had refused to bend the knee and had taken his family deeper into the woods spurning their words of warning of a new darkness emerging from the south. What did they know of the woods, they who had lived in Menegroth and then in Lindon?
He had thought they would be safe but he had been wrong, and his youngest son had been swallowed by that darkness, so Dagnir, and what was left of his family fled into the West to await the rebirth of their child. Those ages of waiting had cost him his wife and his other children as well for they had chosen to travel on and live with his wife’s family leaving him alone, something else to blame on the House of Oropher.
The woods here were beautiful but were not the same as those he had been born in and he still awaited his child’s return and with it he hoped his wife and other children. Isolation had just added to his hatred of the family who he blamed for all his misfortunes but now, now …
Word had come five years ago that one of Oropher’s ‘get’ had come to Tol Eressëa and with a dwarf! Dagnir had sneered at the news! It was just the sort of attention seeking thing that the Sindar indulged in.
He expected the worst, but for some time there was little more information from the Valley of the Elms, only gossip that a great house was being built; a house fit for a king. It had not surprised Dagnir that such a display of extravagance and excessiveness had taken place. It was what he had always feared would happen, even though he had never seen Amon Lanc itself, he had heard of its splendour and had come to his own conclusions as to what it would look like. It seemed that the grandson was as full of his own self-importance as Oropher was said to have been. Still, as long as Thranduilion remained in his valley and confined himself to building his houses Dagnir did not care what foolishness he indulged in.
He, Dagnir, the acknowledged elder of a group of several settlements deep in the hills of Tol Eressëa, would have nothing to do with the Sindar prince and he would do his best to see his people did not have anything to do with him either. He would continue to lead the Silvan folk who had settled in the woods and to act as their voice at the councils in Avallónë or beyond. He was well respected, his voice listened to and his opinions valued. He would not have his position usurped by the mewling grandson of Oropher of Doriath!
But then as the seasons turned, Dagnir had seen some of the families in the settlements move away from his woods. They gave various reasons, slipping away quietly and choosing not to say where they were headed. It was not until he learned that many had relocated to the Valley of the Elms where Thranduilion now lived that Dagnir had realised how insidious this young elf was turning out to be! And his old resentment turned to active hatred and that hatred led him to look for a way to gain revenge.
And then just when he despaired of finding some way of showing the Sindar upstart what he thought of him, Dagnir was offered an opportunity even he could not have dreamt about.
Elrond of New Imladris, a Noldor halfbreed who was worse than the Sindar princeling wrote to him asking if he would, offer his expertise and knowledge to Oropher’s spawn.
Had he been alone Dagnir would have laughed aloud! Surely the Valar must be listening to his prayers, for Elrond Eärendilion was asking his help in supporting the grandson of Oropher in his dealings with the councils in Avallónë and Valinor.
The half-elf had written to him of the prince’s youth and inexperience. He had spoken of Dagnir’s knowledge and expertise, and his loyalty to the crown of Greenwood the Great, and how he was sure he would wish to offer his support to the princeling so that he could find his feet and not make too many gaffes in the hidebound world of Valinor’s halls of power. How amusing that was!
Dagnir could not have wished for a better opportunity Here was one of the most revered elf lords asking him to guide and direct the descendant of a lord he had hated from the first and whose actions had led to the death of his son. Here finally was his chance to gain revenge, to pay back his losses, to show up the house of Oropher for what it was, and he could do it all while appearing on the surface to be lending his considerable assistance to the one he wished to destroy.
It would mean him leaving his woods but it would be worth it. All he had to do was insert himself into the household of the Sindar lordling, and then begin to destroy him from the inside revenge would indeed be sweet.
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