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The night before I departed for Arthedain, I had a dream. It seemed to me that we were staying at Ethir Anduin, in the great house built by Tarannon over the water at the river-mouth. And as I once used to as a child, I had gone out wading in the falling twilight among the sandy channels, my skirts hitched up above the knee, when I heard the sound of music. At first, I thought it came from a boat with entertainers on a pleasure trip out from Pelargir, but the voices I heard were surpassingly fair and their song was mournful. I recognized that these were not the voices of Men. I was reminded of a half-forgotten visit with Adrahil at his dwelling near Edhellond; unexpected as it was, these must be Elves, now rarely seen.
The Elven ship approached. I stood silently and in awe, taking in the sight, believing they would pass me by without notice.
But one leaning in the bow called out to me: ‘Firiel!’
‘That is my name,’ I said. ‘But how do you know?’
‘Ah, you do not remember me, but I remember you,’ said she. ‘Are you not of the line of Elros?’
‘Indeed I am,’ I responded. And suddenly I was embarrassed, with my bare sandy feet and my skirt-hems moist and heavy with brackish water. My father might have felt I was no credit to our house, if he could have seen me there. But the Elf seemed to pay that no mind at all.
‘Then we are kin, distant as that may be. I am leaving Middle-earth. I have foreseen hard times coming, north and south, and I can no longer stay. Kinswoman, will you come away with me from the perils of Middle-earth to Elven-home?’
So compelling was the invitation that I stepped forward toward the ship without thought. But immediately my foot sank into the sand and water welled up from below, bringing me to my senses.
‘Kinswoman I may be,’ I called out, ‘but I was born Earth’s daughter. Thank you for the warning and the invitation, but I must stay and face the hard times as they come.’
And it seemed to me that she was truly sad at this.
‘I spoke unwisely, but from the heart,’ she said. ‘Farewell, kinswoman! May the stars shine over your staying!’
‘And over your going,’ I said, greatly moved. ‘Farewell!’
And the ship went past me and on out to Sea, but I woke up in my bed.
Maybe it was just anxieties about an unknown future, of marriage in a foreign land, that brought on the dream.
But somehow, I do not think so.