"Welcome my kin, friends and my sworn brothers. We gather together today to witness and celebrate the union of a beloved daughter with another, one whom we have come to recognize as our own.

My contemplation prior to this event, led me to ponder that it is rare that a daughter of the Dúnedain is married outwith our kindred, and almost unheard for our kin to marry among elf-kind. However, as I witnessed Wren's approach towards us today, I was struck by the thought that perhaps in this instance, this particular daughter was never fully ours, but merely lent to us for a time."

Strider looked at directly at Wren as he said this and smiled, his face full of warmth and affection.

"Today Legolas, Prince of the Greenwood, son of Thranduil, son of Oropher will be united in body and spirit with Aletheîa, Ranger of the Dúnedain, daughter of Nerwen, descendent of Númenor."

Strider then nodded gently toward Nerwen. Nerwen turned towards Wren and tenderly held her daughter's face in both hands, before lightly kissing her forehead. Then she took up a position in front of the couple, and laid Wren's hand in the hand of Legolas. From her pocket, Nerwen took an interwoven-silken cord and wrapped it twice around the pair's clasped hands. As she did so, she spoke a blessing in Adûnaic, her voice wavering only momentarily as she began.

"What is to be joined here today, let nothing force or tear apart. Today you become one flesh, cleaving from your families unto each other. May your days together be long and your union blessed."

Nerwen looked to them both and smiled, her eyes almost indiscernible glassy, before she took her place between the sons of Elrond. Strider resumed the Adûnaic blessing, his tone solemn but sincere, his voice resounding around the clearing.

"As you are bound one to the other, with a bond not easy to break.
Learn from each other, grow in wisdom and love.
So that your marriage will be strong and your love will last, 
In this life and beyond."

Strider then held their joined hands in and looked at each one of them in turn as he announced "Legolas and Wren..." He stopped and corrected himself "Aletheîa and Legolas..." as a smile crept around the edge of his lips and his grey eyes twinkled.

He continued in flawless Sindarin.

"Will you pledge to take one another as your constant friend, partner in life, and your true love, 
Will you love each other without reservation, honor and respect one another, from the rising of the sun till the setting of the stars,
Will you protect each from harm, comfort one another in times of distress, through all that may come and all the days of your lives together?" 

Legolas looked towards Wren, as she stood resplendent on her grown, her simple beauty made his soul ache. Her unfettered happiness radiated from her, so much so that she appeared to shimmer in the sunlight. He looked deep into Wren's luminous brown eyes and they stilled his pounding heart and all but captured his breath.

She grinned at him and gave him reason to speak, and so they answered in unison.

"We pledge it. Till the setting of the stars."

"Then let it be so." Strider announced with an authority that only confirmed his unknown, yet unequivocal stature and echelon. 

Strider then cocked his head to one side and beamed at Legolas.

"Gwador nín*, you may now kiss your wife!"

As Legolas kissed her, the clearing erupted with loud cheers and whistles, but the elf prince did not care. He kissed her long and passionately. When he finally relented, Wren was left breathless and he felt her use his arm around to steady herself. They both the turned together to look upon those that they loved. Their hands inextricably linked, the hearts and souls now irrevocably and infinitely bound.

Legolas's eyes glanced off the faces that he had come to know and trust in his time with the Dúnedain. He nodded respectfully at the uncommon spectacle of a smiling Beringil, standing with his arm around his wife and young son. His eyes wandered to Rodorin, their altercation long since forgotten and forgiven, standing next to Kalin; Legolas's sharp eyes did not miss the discrete but unmistakable smile that passed between the two of them. Gelwin stood with her parents and siblings, her face aglow her, hands clapping gleefully. Elladan and Elrohir, who stood on either side of Nerwen, the expressions almost the mirror image of one other, as they both grinned and winked at Legolas. His eyes rested on rested upon Nerwen, her brows high and lips set, a reaction likely due to his lengthy embrace of her daughter, Legolas guessed. But perhaps a trace of a smile lurked there somewhere, Legolas could not be sure.

Strider interrupted Legolas's thoughts. "Let us conclude the joining of hearts, as is our custom."

Then Strider began to sing the closing Adûnaic benediction, the steady timbre of his voice reverberating in the very fiber of the age-old trees, as a tangible reverence stilled the air.

"May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
May the light of friendship guide your paths together,
May the laughter of children grace the halls of your home.
May the joy of living for each
other bring a smile from your lips, a twinkle from your eye.
And when eternity beckons,
at the end of the life heaped high with love,
May the you both find peace in the arms that have nurtured you
the whole length of your joy-filled days."

Strider paused for moment, in the silence that still engulfed the clearing, before saying, "And now, come let us celebrate this union in the fashion of the Dúnedain and show the elves among us how to cèilidh*!"

The clearing immediately became a hubbub of activity, as a large bonfire was soon stacked and lit. Several men bought forth a large wild boar, that Elladan had shot the previous day, and set about mounting it on a spit. Tables and chairs began to appear as if summoned from nowhere, as simultaneously large casks of mead and wine were rolled in. Daernon exchanged his lute for a set of uilliean pipes*, Maeve picked up the fiddle and Faolán began play the bodhran*. Before Legolas could have thought possible, the music and celebrations were in full swing.

Legolas had never seen anything of the ilk before, as elven celebrations were sedate in comparison and their dancing refined. The dancing of the Dúnedain could only be described as wild, as the villagers spun each other around like whirling dervishes, exchanging partners and crossing over and under at every turn.

"This is a cèilidh?" he asked Wren, as he caught his breath, bewildered and taken aback after being launched and flung between the bosoms and arms of multiple women.

She laughed gleefully, "Yes, and with your elven reflexes, I thought you would be able to keep better time!" As she glanced at Elrohir as he passed by, himself spinning a giggling Gelwin.

Legolas's eye caught Nerwen sitting in a stately fashion to one side; although she had a tankard of mead in hand. "I might need some respite." Wren followed his eyes and smiled.

"It is probably best you save your energy for after the party Elf-Lord," Wren said, as she grinned irreverently. "Elladan and Strider owe me a dance anyway." Wren kissed Legolas lightly on the cheek and went to accost Elladan.

Legolas walked towards Nerwen, who eyed him almost warily, as he approached her. He could never be sure with Nerwen however, she was almost impossible to read. She nodded, as he sat down next to her and they watched the dancing wordlessly for several minutes.

Legolas cleared his throat. "I promise to take good care of her."

Nerwen cocked her head. "I expect you will try. I know that she is safer with you than she would be with anyone else. But do not underestimate her own ability to get herself into trouble." Nerwen said wryly.

Legolas laughed nervously. He then cleared his throat to address an issue that had hung over him in the few weeks.

"Nerwen, I realize it is with some reluctance you have allowed Wren to come and live with me in the forest. How would you feel if she lived further from her home at some point in her life?"

There was a long pause.

"The truth be told, Master Elf- "

"Please Nerwen, call me Legolas, I am now your son-in-law, we are family..."

"Legolas. The truth be told, I would be sorely disappointed if you told me you had no intention to ever leave New Fornost and its surroundings. Wren was not made for staying in this village. Neither was Strider. You are all destined for something greater than this small hamlet is able to offer you." As she spoke, she gazed beyond the immediate scene as if blessed with the foresight of elves, and then afterward turned to look pointedly at the elf prince.

Surprised and honored by her words, Legolas lowered his head humbly in return.

At that moment, Elladan intervened. "Ai, Legolas stop stealing all the beautiful women of Fornost for yourself, Nerwen is mine for the next dance."

Nerwen chastised Elladan, but as she did so, a rare laugh was heard. And Legolas was sure he saw the faintest of blushes as Nerwen's face was lit up by the glowing fire in fading light of the day.

As she rose to leave, Legolas bowed respectfully, casting his eyes downward and murmured almost inaudibly, "An honor, as always, Hiril nín*."

"My Lady? You should probably start calling me naneth* now, should you not, Legolas."

His head flicked up sharply, quick enough to catch a wink, as she smiled and turned to dance with Elladan.

Legolas followed them towards the melee of dancers and saw Gelwin pass by now partnered with Rodorin. Gelwin threw a with a wistful look towards Legolas, whilst completely unaware that she was standing on Rodorin's toes. Legolas smiled graciously back at her, and she beamed before she was spun around and he lost sight of her.

His eyes then hunted for his beloved, Wren was not hard to find. As she danced, the iridescent green shades of her dress cast an emerald glow on everything in the nearby vicinity. Her long, dark mane flowed gloriously behind her and the delicate silver circlet still resting on her head sparkled in the firelight. But more distinctive was the joyful laughter that followed wherever her went, like at that moment as she laughed loudly with Strider, her head thrown back .

Legolas watched her, and the contentment and anticipation inside him grew. As he gazed at his new wife, he decided that he could not share her anymore. She was his. And he was taking her home.

Legolas moved swiftly between the throng and tapped on Strider's shoulder, speaking quietly in his ear, "Strider, I believe you have something of mine that I would dearly like back!"

Strider grinned in return. Then Legolas grabbed Wren's hand, and nodding farewell to both Strider and Nerwen, he slipped away with her, just as the party was gathering steam.

He picked up a lantern on their departure, as night had fallen, and together they walked hand-in-hand through the forest, until they arrived at the base of a large oak tree, where Legolas stopped. Wren's eyes widened in surprise as she looked around, as the absence of any apparent dwelling was evident.

"What have you been doing in the forest the last two months, I understood you were building us a home?"

Legolas grinned, then he reached out and tilted her chin upwards, holding his lantern aloft. There, thirty feet above the ground, resting on a large, sprawling branch of the oak tree, was a quaint wooden cottage.

"Behold my beloved, your castle in the trees!"

Wren clasped her hands her mouth, her gleeful laughter escaping.

"How do we get up? There are no lower branches, and well, this ..." Wren exclaimed, as she gestured to her gown.

Legolas smiled and released a rope that was pegged against the tree and pulled. As he did so, a large boulder that was resting on the ground, rose into the air, clearly fastened somehow to the same length of rope. As the boulder was lifted high into the trees, a small platform, only a couple of feet square, with the rope running through the center of it, was gently lowered and passed by the boulder in the opposite direction.

The platform came to rest on the floor. Legolas continued to hold the rope in one hand, his shoulder taut, he wrapped his free arm around Wren's waist and pulled her tight up against himself as he stepped on the small platform. Just then, the full moon broke the clouds and cast an illuminating glow on everything it gracefully touched. Legolas gazed in quiet awe at Wren for a moment, before saying softly.

"Hin gelair lín orthernir 'uren, a thîr vain lín darn thûl nín*"

Wren returned his gaze. "Meleth nín, guren min gaim lín*."

Then she lent up and to whispered in his ear, "You should know that at this moment, right here and now, that I am no longer afraid."

Legolas lent and kissed her and as he did so, he then eased off some of the tension on the rope and they sailed into the air toward the treehouse, with his new wife laughing all the way.

-0-0-0-0-0-

*Gwador nín ~ My sworn brother

*cèilidh ~ Nope this word is not Elvish! It is in fact Scottish Gaelic, pronounced 'Kayleigh or Kaylee'. It usually involves Gaelic folk music and some raucous dancing, and it is pretty much how weddings are still celebrated in Scotland (see clip below). Like a barn dance but better! Am pretty sure the Dúnedain would have something similar!

*uilliean pipes ~ a type of bagpipe, wedged under the elbow and are almost always played sitting down.

* bodhran ~ an Irish frame drum, handheld and struck either with the bare hand or a piece of wood called cipín.

*Hiril nín ~ My lady

*naneth ~ mother

*Hin gelair lín orthernir 'uren, a thîr vain lín darn thûl nín ~ Your radiant eyes conquered my heart and your beautiful face takes my breath away

*Meleth nín, guren min gaim lín ~ My love, my heart is in your hands

Woah, the elf prince is off the market! Moving swiftly on, there are some other loose ends we need to tie up! Hope you enjoyed the Dúnedain wedding - not necessarily authentic but Tolkien didn't give us much to go on!  Thank you for reading as always!

I would love to receive your comments and PLEASE vote on this chapter if you enjoyed it. Each vote and comment help the wider circulation of my story, I really appreciate them!  

Videos: Some Scottish Cèilidh music and dancing to get you in the mood!