Wintering with Sorrow

by Himring

Summary:

During the Long Winter in Rohan, the king's sister and his nephew have retreated before the invaders to Harrowdale.
They have lost contact with the remains of the defeated army, which was driven to the Hornburg. They know that Helm's older son has fallen and fear for the rest of their family.

Notes:

• Inspired by The Dead of Winter by Samuel Menashe

This drabble is based on the LOTR Appendices canon. It may work for War of the Rohirrim fans as well, though?

Inspired by the linked poem; for more details see end notes.

Hild sat by the window, spinning steadily while, equally steadily, snowflakes drifted down to join those below. They had not melted at Dunharrow to show the ground beneath for months. She heard Frealaf stomping, shaking the snow off his boots before he came and joined her.

‘No news from the Hornburg?’ she asked.

He kissed her cheek.

‘No news. At least our enemies are hampered by the snows as well.’

Hild nodded. It was cold comfort, literally so, but she had not hoped for better. It was Frealaf who wept for uncle and cousins, when only she could see him.

Notes:

Written for the SWG Insta-drabbling session for December. The prompt, for which thanks to Elrond's Library, were the following lines from Menashe's poem: Wintering with snow / That did not melt / It fell long ago / At night, by stealth.

The ficlet is 100 words in MS Word and, for that reason, was also claimed as fill for the December challenge at tolkienshortfanworks.

I have previously written about Hild here: Suffered Grievously in the Cold

I have also written about Frealaf here: Two Rohirrim (see chapter 4).

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 5 of Tales of Rohan