Known by the Elves as Laehtardh in the elden days, these lands stretched northward of the Great Firth, seperating them from the Elf-realms further south. From the great crags and steeps above the Firth and the Western Sea, the land rose to grassy valleys and heathers, hill ranges and glens among the foggy slopes. The lands of Firthshire and Lothlachian lay here, and many folk dwelt therein, though there were few cities. The Cascading River, or River Alhun, twained the land with its great waters. Rising in the western headlands against the Sea, the river fell through high valleys and glens in Lothlachian down into a wide, grassy valley, with great cliffs and crags rising above the swift, wide river. North of the Alhun, the land rose steeply into the Cascading Mountains, and fewer folk dwelt here, save in the valley along the Alhun and in the High Glens, which were ruled by Firthshire, though oft in name only, for it was a remote, wild land, with hardy hillfolk. Great forests cloaked the mountains slopes, and deep gorges cleaved through the range, cutting far into the mountains. The highest peaks rose above tree and meadow to stony, cold heights where snow and ice remained all year, and deep cold caverns and dark grottoes cleft the peaks. But these high places were unfrequented, and rumor spoke of fell things in the deeps. But the valleys and gorges of the mountains were fair, though difficult to reach. Men dwelt only in a few river-valleys along the western edge of the range, but in the Valley of Dolamareth Elves of the house of Fianan lived, and therein was found beauty and splendour not known elsewhere in the world in those darkening days. The Elves of Dolamareth were friends and allies with the men of the surronding kingdoms and lands, and through their council, it is said, peace long prospered between the various folk. In a great, foreboding gorge westwards from Dolamareth there lay another Elvish realm, but of Clabathain and its stone and tree cloistered abodes no men had knowledge.
And living in the remote forests and high valleys that stretch mile after lonely mile through the mountains were a strange folk, little known in those days to man of elf: the Fabhairaen, or Elenas- or quite simply the Tree-folk, as they were known in Firthshire. For though they were now dwindled and lived far-off from men, in elden days they had come to the men of Firthshire and taught them, and it is even said that some came to live among men and in king's halls, as bards and sages. But those were long past days, and no longer did men know of the Fabhairean, save what a few old legends and tales spoke: of creatures in the form of a tree, with leaves and lichens growing about them, so that they seemed to be walking trees. They were not over-tall, but grand, and their feet were like great roots, and seemed to eat into the earth on which they stood. Their faces were clothed about in a thick covering of what seemed to be branches and leaves and lichens all thrown together; but these leaves never fell, but only turned to gold and scarlets come autum.
Of this folk's langauge I have gathered what I may, and perhaps more shall eventually be amended:
The Fabhairean Language:
A Brief Tome and Gloss
The Fabhairean, the tree-folk, were of old endowed with a rich and strangely musical tongue, given so that, it is said in their tales, that the praise of their Creator might flow with a unique beauty, such as was not heard in any other folk of the world, then or in these days. Indeed, their songs are of praise for the greatest part, and their finest songs are of praise for the One, the Living Word of Forming, Anabhun. Each word of their speech and song is vested with immense meaning, such as is not found in these latter days among men nor elves, for the tongue of the elenas, as they call themselves, has changed little in form or meaning since it was given to them. Their speech is very slow and gradual for the most, and would be taken almost for the creaking and swayng-noises of trees. But in song their words are voiced with great care and flow from their tongue, raised into the air with grace and care, so that it seems that some strange but wonderful and deeply beautiful instrument is joined with the slowly released words.
Of the history of this tongue, little, of course, can be said, because of its resistence to change. A few words they have found pleasing in other tongues and adopted them with little modification, these are marked thus in the gloss. Also, three dialects are found among the Fabhairean, one in the Cascading Mountians, another in the South-wood and Bogs. In the vast and remote South-woods the language has changed somewhat, and some words not known to the northern moutnains are spoken there. And another tongue there was, but it is now gone from this world. In Calabadros was it spoken, the beautiful forest of the Elvish-land before its destruction. It is said that in Calabadros Elves and Fabhairean (they termed them a’ Drusnair) raised the finest music ever heard upon the rims of the surronding seas: but all that is lost now, beneath the darkness of the ruined land, save in the memory of a few: and it is, like much that has perished, faint and disquieting.
There are slightly fewer letters in the elenai, the form used for writing Fabhairean word, than in Fithshire (standard dialect) or North-Elvish. It was devised by Niurnath the Learned, but few Fabhairean have used it, for they are not skilled at writing due to hindrances of their form. There was Greenstrand the Old, or Glenur na’ Abhru am’ Baird (his name in Firthshire), who was known to the folk of Firthshire as a great bard of song and verse. Greenstrand, perhaps, added several words to the elenai tongue, for he was a lover of all tongues it said, and not merely his own. He also added the letter q, as it was a component of some South-Elvish words he found.
The letters found in the elenai are: a, b ,c, d, e, f, h, i, l, n , o, p (loan-letter), r, s, u, and q (loan-letter), which is found in only a few words (such as quania: long journey, uquinn: a letter, nanquhau: a strange portent or foreboding.), all of which are loanwords from South-Elvish words (save the word naqui: a rush of air, wind, spirit).
The Gloss
North-elenas (Airta-elenasu)
leba’: stone, essence of natural hardness to the greatest extremetity, as in: in hard granite stone (au’ leba)
reab: raised place of stone, gravel, earth, formed not by hands (of earth)- a hill
nuan: ancient massif of stone, gravel, ice, snow- an alpine mountain
ualabre: bog-land, as characterized by bright growing things (ual) over the wet earth (abere) (lit.)
erecai: to bring forth from naught, to cause to appear only be immense, eternally endowed power
analhu: greatness, stemming only from internal, eternally bestowed attributes
elenas: those in whom (created) word is- Fabhairean name for themselves
rabuas: forest of great living trees, expanse of living woodland in immense size of area
ul: no, not
Anabhun: he who hath no darkness nor (evil) void, he who is of Light, Truth, pure Word (lit.)
ablas: trees of great height and beauty, living (under) light
haunesa: to give forth praise to one who is praiseworthy
nur: ye, you (formal form of address)
aloi: we, all of us
ldainnesa: to give
claben: in excess of, greater than
na: who (when used in question): Eri a’ na? (who is it?)
rua!: listen!
unpi: fell darkness, abscence of good, evil
ailhu: dark as in: ailhu uhla (dark of night)
feaur: men (loanword)
clachabh: unatural hardness, steel or iron (cf. Northern clach)
calua: gold (loanword from West-Elvish{?})
lauon: a star
fious: thought of one’s own
South-elenas (Elenas-cuam)
uir: ocean of great waves, stormy sea (loanword)
alhuul: darkness of evil night
naurlhu: grass-lands, boggy meads or savannas
ualaroum: bogs
A i’ Haunesa Oruann
(A Song For Joyful Praise)
Rua! Ni anh arini hreab a’ hnuan
Cudes reabh ni, cuale uni
A edh am’ analhu-res!
Ul ach a edh dlaus i’n epra
i edh a i Anabhun!
edh a laun ari ablas is rabuas
Nur fhidhani, alo ari elenas
nesa-dosa as doi haunes-ah
fh-lerecan nur, muirn-es a nur
E na edh a chaben nur eni
Erecas-s hloares?
Anashlu a Lhiades!
