Disclaimer: I cannot claim to be, nor to have been J.R.R Tolkien. Therefore, all characters of his creation remain of his creation and not my own. As to the characters of my own fabrication, as well as the text that follows: I take full responsibility.

UPDATE: The next part is posted under the title Sprout. Happy reading!

Art and Other Sundry Drawings:

For those readers who like visual stimuli in the form of art, or who feel hopelessly lost geographically, I have created both art of some characters and architectural layouts.

Grey Havens: (remove spaces) http:/img. photobucket. com/albums/v16/chishionotenshi/Grey HavensLayout .png

Isilya's Bedroom: (remove spaces) http:/img. photobucket .com/albums/v16/chishionotenshi/IsilyasBedroom atGreyHavens .png

Tattoo: (remove spaces) http:/img .photobucket .com/albums/v16/chishionotenshi/Star ofElendilTattoo .png

Isilya: (remove space) http:/fav .me/d381c7w

All the children in Imladris: (remove space) http:/fav .me/d381ddf

Falasglin: (remove space) http:/fav .me/d381bpn

Beach time: (remove space) http:/fav .me/d3am6kh

Notes on the Text

The reader need not read these commentaries before the story. However, I hope that these might enrich your understanding of time, language and other items of discussion. It may be well to read at least the titles of each section before venturing critique on those subjects, lest I have already answered that charge.

Time and Aging:

A timeline can be appended to this text if requested. Certain dates are, naturally, estimated. The exact age, for example, of prince Legolas is not stated within any of the books. Nor is his birth date provided in the Tale of Years (Appendix B of the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King). Therefore, I have guessed him to be near the age of Elrond's sons. This is based upon the fact that Legolas is allowed to act a separate entity from his father though still under his command, as the twins are.

Whereas elves count their time by yen and not single years, I have made an admittedly giant deductive leap and allowed a yen to signify a year of growth for elves. By growth, I mean both physical and emotional. Without better evidence against this inference (excepting the horror of nursing a child for a hundred years!), I will allow that to stand. Therefore, even though Isilya is some 600 years old when this story begins, she still often behaves as a very young child would. And while Legolas is more than one thousand years old, he responds emotionally as a prepubescent might. I do allow them the retention of knowledge of that time which includes language, mannerisms and skills.

Names:

Isilya - The name Isilya does not actually mean " the moon" as Legolas thinks. In Quenya, Isilya means the day called The Moon. Because Legolas is so young (as well as not being a scholar), he may not realize that Isilya is actually the name of the day of the week. Isilya herself, being even younger, does not have a concept of the days of the week, and would not realize the difference either. She thinks Isilya the name given, rather than the object itself. By the time Isilya came to Imladris, the name would have stuck.

Other names - Other original characters are named using the Elements of Names in Sindarin and Quenya appendix in the Silmarillion, with much care not to accidentally combine Quenya and Sindarin elements.

Names of the seasons: I have named the seasons in Quenya, except where they have been left in English.

Language:

It is best to presume, unless otherwise said, that the elves speak in Sindarin. The exception is Isilya, who speaks in Quenya, unless otherwise said. Because her grasp of Sindarin is poor, it should also be assumed that she only follows the most basic concepts in that language. In other words, she only grasps those words in her vocabulary and does her best to align them with the emotional context. Think of her as a first year student of a foreign language.

It does appear, though I cannot be certain, that much of Sindarin sounds similar to Quenya, and therefore Isilya may be able to guess more words than, for example, a Spanish speaker might of Japanese. Examples that fuel this theory are Isil (Q. Moon), Ithil (S. Moon), and Lairë (Q. Summer), Laer (S. Summer).

I am aware of the controversy that I instill into this text by referring to Isilya's language as Quenya. It is likely that her idiolect is more akin to the unnamed predecessor to Quenya and Sindarin (hence Legolas and others thinking she has an accent). However, the name Quenya comes from the verb meaning to speak, and it is not therefore unlikely that the Avari, secluded by choice from other cultures, may have named their own tongue Quenya as well.

Another theory that the reader might entertain is that Isilya, who was spoken to only by her mother in her formative years, actually does speak Quenya. As Isilya's mother lived among the Noldor as a child, she might have there learned Quenya. When she came to despise the Sindar elves for their apathy regarding the tragedy that befell the Avari, she may have rejected Sindarin and spoken only Quenya, knowing that most elves do not have more than a passing grasp of that old language. (Following Thingol's ban on Quenya, Sindarin was the preferred language of elves, and Quenya therefore became more of a ceremonial language. High elves, kings, scholars, and possibly singers would be more acquainted with Quenya.) Isilya's accent would then be caused by the isolation from other speakers (both her mother's and her own) for several hundred years.

Who else speaks Quenya and why:

Thranduil and Elwen both speak and write Quenya, for the sake of correspondence and contact with the other elves. Elrond, raised in Maedhros's court and thereafter living among the Noldor, speaks Quenya fluently. Because he knew Isilya's mother and grandmother personally, he speaks Isilya's idiolect easily. Celebrían, as Galadriel's daughter, would also be well acquainted with this ancient tongue. Círdan is Noldor, and therefore speaks that tongue. Falasglin, who was born in Mithlond and dwelt there in his childhood, speaks the language well. It may be presumed that the Noldor of Mithlond also speak Quenya. Notably, Haldir does not speak Quenya, though he knows some ballads in that tongue.

Of the children, Arwen is best at Quenya, for she has the patience to learn the subtleties of it. Elladan and Elrohir know it when it is spoken to them, but they do not employ it frequently. While Legolas can hold conversations, and is improving in Isilya's idiolect, his grasp of some of the concepts is tenuous (hence his confusion of Isil and Isilya).