Riddles in the Downs

[Huinesoron]

Okay, here we go:

Red for fire, burning fierce
From forge to raging final cost.
Black for kinship's oath renewed,
A crown unsought 'neath shadow lost.
Silver shining for the gold
That lingers when all hope is gone.
Thrice we chose - but at the last
What choice shared we, all three, ere dawn?

hS

[Urwen]

Red for fire, burning fierce
From forge to raging final cost.

These sound like Feanor.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Urwen

Red for fire, burning fierce
From forge to raging final cost.

These sound like Feanor.

At least some of those lines refers to Feanor, but Feanor is not one of "we, all three".

hS

[Urwen]

Red, black and silver...

[Galadriel55]

The gold one initially reminded me of Aragorn - all that is gold does not glitter - and thus potentially Men of Dunharrow fulfilling their oath before the dawn from the Orodruin cloud, but can't really fit that to the rest of the lines.

Kinship's oath renewed sounds like Fingolfin's assurances that he will follow his elder brother, and his unexpected and unsought title of High King (but beneath shadow lost? No idea).

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Urwen

Red, black and silver...

Yep. Though technically black is an assumption, and red could be more precisely described.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

The gold one initially reminded me of Aragorn - all that is gold does not glitter - and thus potentially Men of Dunharrow fulfilling their oath before the dawn from the Orodruin cloud, but can't really fit that to the rest of the lines.

None of those, I'm afraid.

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Kinship's oath renewed sounds like Fingolfin's assurances that he will follow his elder brother, and his unexpected and unsought title of High King (but beneath shadow lost? No idea).

This, however, is exactly what "kinship's oath" and "crown unsought" refer to (and how did Fingolfin's reign end? "...shadow like a thundercloud / and o'er the the gleaming king it bowed...")

hS

[Urwen]

If red is Feanor, black is Fingolfin and gold is Finarfin, then who are the 'three'? It could be three of them, but you said Feanor isn't one of the three. Hm, maybe their children...but that doesn't work either, because while Feanor and Finarfin have a surviving child, Fingolfin does not...


Unless it's that choice, but if it were that choice, there should be five, not three...Or, it could be three, because three were in the last set, and each set chose once, making in three sets with three choices...