WWJ IX: Psychotic Penguins: The Crossing of Helcaraxë

[Nogrod]

“The Noldor came at last far in to the north of Arda; and they saw the first teeth of the ice that floated in the sea, and knew that they were drawing nigh to the Helcaraxë. For between the land of Aman that in the north curved eastward, and the east-shores of Endor (which is Middle-earth) that bore westward, there was a narrow strait, through which the chill waters of the Encircling Sea and the waves of Belegaer flowed together, and there were vast fogs and mists of deathly cold and the sea-stream were filled with clashing hills of ice and the grinding of ice deep-sunken. Such was the Helcaraxë, and there none yet had dared to tread save the Valar only and Ungoliant.”

“The fire of their hearts was young, and led by Fingolfin and his sons, and by Finrod and Galadriel, they dared to pass to the bitterest North; and finding no other way they wandered at last the terror of the Helcaraxë and the cruel hills of ice. Few of the deeds of the Noldor thereafter surpassed that desperate crossing in hardihood or woe. There Elenwë the wife of Turgon was lost, and many others perished also…”

- The Crossing of Helcaraxë as told by J.R.R. Tolkien in “The Silmarillion”

The snowy blizzard was filling their eyes and mouths, forcing them to lean on each other, bending down to resist the onpouring snow. The icy desert cracked and hummed beneath their feet making their misery and anguish even harder to endure. There was only the wind, and the blinding snow and ice all around them.

Elenwë was making her way with her husband Turgon’s household. They were fighting against the storm of frost like all the others. There were no lords or servants here. There was just the Noldor united against the might and the ill-will of the Helcaraxë.

First Elenwë thought she had only imagined it. She thought she heard a faint crack as she took a step. She glanced at her young daughter, Idril, and saw the same fear in her eyes. Others were having similar expressions. Elenwë knew she was not the only one who had noticed the cracking. “Stay calm! Walk carefully, but swiftly. The ice seems more solid over there near Fingon’s host. Let’s try to get there”, Lord Turgon shouted to his household. His words were muffled in the snowy wind.

Cautiosly, the company started to move again. Suddenly a huge gap opened beneath their feet. The grey sea bursted out with a huge roar, splitting a small group of Elves from the others. Many were screaming as they saw their kinsmen fall into the storming water. Elenwë and a couple of other Elves had barely avoided falling to the gap which was now separating them from the host. They were on an ice floe. It started to move.

Many were taken by the grey waters. Idril and Turgon were both with the main host. Elenwë cried out from the floe. Turgon bellowed desperately and was calling others to help in any way they could. Aredhel picked a great elven rope from her package and tried to hurl it to the ones on the floe. It fell short. The rope drifted on the grey waves separating the unfortunate ones from their kin. Galadriel and Finrod Felagund were watching in horror the things unraveling. “I have a bad feeling about this. That was no accident”, Finrod called to his sister Galadriel over the gusting winds.

- The Crossing of Helcaraxë as told by Sinlómien and Nogwë in “The Lost Histories of the Noldor”