Lament of the Fays

A dirge of sorts for elves and gnomes.

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. Of Esmos.

Once upon
a time long ago
when the world was young
and it hadn’t grown cold,
there were forests with fays
and they never grew old…

The trees shined green,
and the beasts were all tame.
Elwayae blessed all,
kept the fays in His Name.
But the peace wouldn’t last,
for trouble soon came…

Brothers!
Kin of the forests!
Why did you leave us?
Why did you go?

Sisters!
Kin of the meadows!
Why did you leave us…
for the world below?

When shadow had filled
the whole of the world,
the wrath of the sea
had at last been unfurled.
The One saved us all,
but the shadow remained…

Maedb plann’ed and plotted
in the depths of her lair.
She turned the land cold
as her silver-white hair.
Above schemed Soon,
and poor Lunadain…

Brothers!
Kin of the summer!
Why did you leave us?
Why did you go?

Sisters!
Kin of the spring time!
Why did you leave us…
for the world below?

The Elven and Gnomen,
the folk of the two,
pulled way from Elwayae,
The One whom they knew.
With chanting and carving,
they saw their task through.

Before The One’s time,
they came to join Man,
or at the least
that was their great plan.
Slowly they died,
as they left E’davlan.

Brothers!
Kin of the forests!
Why did you leave us?
Why did you go?

Sisters!
Kin of the meadows!
Why did you leave us…
for the world below?

Author's Note

Potentially set to music (I arranged a tune inspired by Scarborough Fair), this is somewhat of a sorrowful ballad pertaining to the origin of elves and gnomes in the world of Soyl.

Reviews

[JL Jacobs]

I liked your vision and think you should make this into an actual song. It reads like a play on Broadway with a modern day Shakespearean twist. I also love how you incorporated the voices of the "brothers" and the "sisters" of the forest. Poetic and creative. Thank you for sharing!

[Jonathan Lee]

Thanks for reading :)

This poem is part of the greater world of Soyl, which is the same setting as the three fairy tales I've posted elsewhere. This particular song is supposed to have been composed originally in the Fey tongue (I back-translated half of it) and hints at the origin of elves and gnomes.

Elvalar and Gnomekos were betrayed and murdered by their own sons (Soon and Lunadain) as part of a magic ritual to bend E'davlan--the mystic isle of the fays--back to the world of men. They succeeded in turning a fraction of the island away and then sailed away back across the West Sea towards Kinmonia.

When they arrived in the world of men, however, they found they had lost their immortality and were cursed to ever diminish in the world. Thus with each successive generation the elves and gnomes grow smaller and smaller until one day their races will pass away, never to see the end of days (when fays and men will be reunited once more).

As a fun etymological side note: In Soyl the reason elves and gnomes are called as such as they are the children of Elvalar and Gnomekos, and called in ancient Kinmish as Elvalen and Gnomeken. The former was then shortened down to Elv- with the -en suffix being transposed to the more standardized -es to render Elves, and the latter was confused with "Gnomekin" as in the "kin of Gnome" and thus was shortened down to Gnome(s). (Not unlike how "apron" is a corruption of "napron" born out of a confusion between "a napron" versus "an apron.")