Anestel
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Anestel |
| Author(s): | Esteliel |
| Date(s): | January 2003 - ongoing (WIP) |
| Length: | > 250 000 words |
| Genre: | slash, AU, mpreg, slavefic, bdsm |
| Fandom: | The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion |
| External Links: | LotRfanfiction.com; AO3 |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Anestel series is a series of Tolkien fanfiction by Esteliel that is written and posted as a work in progress. The first chapter of Anestel was posted to the LXF Mailing List on 31 January 2003. So far, the series consists of 4 main stories with several additional ficlets and drabbles; as of May 2011, Fael Amrûn is being written and regularly updated. The total word count for the series so far has reached 250 000 words.
Summary
Author summary: A series chronicling the emotional and sexual growth of Legolas. This story starts in a rather dark place for him, and deals with themes like rape and slavery, although things will change for him. Eventually, this stoy is about a consensual BDSM relationship and deals with the question if and how love is possible after what took place at the beginning of Glorfindel and Legolas' relationship.
Anestel was the first story Esteliel wrote and posted in the Tolkien fandom. It was followed by Ethuil'waew, Cuil Eden and Fael Amrûn, though chronologically, Ethuil'waew takes place before Anestel and tells the story of Glorfindel and Legolas' first meeting.
Anestel opens with Legolas arriving in Imladris as a prisoner - and pregnant with Glorfindel's child. Legolas is allowed to stay, though no one in Imladris knows his true identity as a prince of Mirkwood, and is seen as Glorfindel's toy, someone of little more worth than a slave. Later, his true identity is revealed, and he bears Glorfindel the heir he has long yearned for, their son Gîlríon. Over time, their relationship slowly changes, as Glorfindel becomes more and more aware that Legolas is far more to him than just a slave. In Cuil Eden, Glorfindel takes Legolas and their son on a journey to Lothlórien. Legolas slowly begins to believe in himself, and Glorfindel at last admits to the love that has grown between them. In Fael Amrûn, they return to Imladris, where their love must meet the test of most people's continued dislike of Legolas.
Along with their growing love, Legolas also becomes more aware of his submissive side while Glorfindel continues to educate him in the arts of pleasure and pain.
The author describes her work as containing slash, mpreg, kink, BDSM, non-con and dub-con, although these words seem somewhat stark and inadequate when dealing with a work of such emotional scope. Each one is vital to (and is indeed intertwined with) the intensely character-driven plot, and the disparate characters of Glorfindel and Legolas. This is one of the very few stories where the sex is essential to the growth of both the main characters, and those who read the Anestel series will soon realize that the sex is neither prurient nor gratuitous, but rich with meaning. Glorfindel is naturally dominant, and Legolas submissive, and thus Glorfindel is truly the mentor and architect of Legolas' blossoming sensuality. The link between them, savage though it is at first, is apparent to the reader long before the growing love is realized by Glorfindel, and Glorfindel himself, for all his quintessential arrogance and his cruelty toward Legolas, is in fact too passionate to ultimately remain unmoved by Legolas inherent sweetness and responsiveness. Each gives the other what they need, and it becomes a spiritual bond as much as a physical one. Legolas is clearly and absolutely the victim; this cannot be forgotten, and neither can Glorfindel's treatment of a young soul who was already wounded before their first meeting. Glorfindel's bright and brilliant soul has become darkened with war and perhaps with disillusionment; one considers the weight that must rest on his shoulders, bearing the legend of Glorfindel, Lord of the House of the Golden Flower, Lieutenant of Turgon, who died dueling a Balrog. Nothing excuses his actions toward Legolas, but one comes to see that he has desperately needed everything that Legolas is. As for Legolas himself, a reader might wonder if his love and need of Glorfindel is a desperate act of self-defense which enables him to survive, but for all his gentleness, Legolas has a vein of courage that equals any fabled warrior, and a wonderful honesty. He has seen Glorfindel at his worse, and loves him. One cannot help believing, that however these two met and came together, it was destined. They need each other, and the love grows.
As Fael Amrûn progresses, Legolas must use the bedrock of Glorfindel's love and encouragement to grow into the warrior who becomes the sole Elven member of the Fellowship of the Ring.
Works in the Anestel Series
Legolas is pregnant with Glorfindel's child, but there has been nothing but hate between Imladris and Mirkwood for centuries...
Anestel, sequel to Ethuil'waew, is certainly the most brutal in the series when read from Legolas' viewpoint.
Despite the manner of his child's begetting, Legolas can feel its soul growing within him, and loves it. He can see no other alternative but to make his desperate way to Imladris and hope that Glorfindel will shelter him. His wet, weary arrival, and the insults he endures at the hands of the Imladrian Elves, are a foretaste of what is to come. Glorfindel remembers him, but there is an attitude of carelessness in his recollection, as if, returning to Imladris, Legolas had been relegated to one of the many men Glorfindel had taken in two lifetimes.
Legolas begs for sanctuary, and Glorfindel, knowing that the growing child is indeed of his begetting, takes Legolas under his protection, although it is obvious that Legolas, at this point, is simply a very unusual male body carrying Glorfindel's child. A vehicle for childbearing, if you will.
And here, when asked his name, Legolas lies, calling himself Anestel, believing that, if they knew whom he was, the Elves of Imladris would not accept him. The hatred between Mirkwood and Imladris is of five hundred years duration, and Legolas reasons that no-one beyond Mirkwood would know him by sight. To Glorfindel, and the others in Imladris, he is a Sindarin 'stable-boy,' albeit one who bears Glorfindel's child, a dream that the Elf-lord had long believed would never become a reality.
Glorfindel wishes to keep 'Anestel' close by, and Legolas becomes his sex-slave. He he is too weak and ill from the changes in his body to fight, and has nowhere to go were he to flee. For the child's sake, he is forced to accept everything everything Glorfindel visits upon him. It becomes heartbreakingly clear that Legolas is so desperate for attention that even when he is subjected to Glorfindel's BDSM games, part of Legolas needs it. This is perhaps the true awakening of Legolas as a sexual male who naturally submits to a more dominant partner, and Glorfindel is one of the most Alpha males ever written in the annals of fanfiction. He is also extremely experienced, and allows Legolas satisfaction because it pleases him, which is another facet of his arrogance. There are others in Imladris who would bed Legolas selfishly, and although Glorfindel is selfish (at this point.) it strokes his ego to know that he can so thoroughly master Legolas body, and play him like a virtuoso.
There are some glimpses of what is happening to Glorfindel which, were they absent, would paint an unremittingly bleak picture of Legolas' life in Imladris. One can see Glorfindel feels both protective and possessive when seeing Legolas so young and vulnerable, yet his carelessly bestowed caresses mean far more to Legolas, who clutches at any scrap of affection that comes his way. This emotional hunger for love is one of the most heartbreaking aspects of the story, and Legolas comes to associate and to connect pleasure with pain as Glorfindel's sexual games gradually become more sophisticated, for Glorfindel is certainly a master at the games he enjoys, and deeply esoteric. Legolas, so much younger, cannot possibly understand why he can feel pleasure both during and after Glorfindel's 'punishments', and believes himself so shameful and worthless that when a reader looks back on Anestel one can only marvel that he survived. The reader can see the courage Legolas does not know he possesses. Perhaps he forces himself to live for his child, accepting Glorfindel's usage because there was nothing else he can do, but this implies a bedrock of bravery. The rest of Imladris, most notably Erestor and Elladan, agree with Legolas' perception of himself, and consider Legolas a thing. Naturally that view seeps down to most of the valley's inhabitants.
Matters change when a group of Lothlórien Elves, including Celeborn and Haldir arrive in Imladris. Haldir, in fact, has seen Legolas in Mirkwood, and reveals him at a morning breakfast. Legolas is forced to endure humiliation before the Elves of both Lothlórien and Imladris, though Glorfindel is determined to keep the one who carries his child. The political ramifications of this startling disclosure are discussed by Elrond and Glorfindel, who wish to find a way of using Legolas presence in Imladris to end the long war. It must be noted that the conflict between Mirkwood and Imladris is not a war such as was the Last Alliance; rather it involves merchants and couriers being attacked, and Imladrian patrols captured and ill-treated by the Elves of Mirkwood. Legolas has seen a little of this mistreatment, and one realizes that the Imladrians consider themselves forced into a war they did not want, to paraphrase Glorfindel.
Elrond and Glorfindel believe that when Thranduil knows that his youngest son is in Imladris, pregnant with Glorfindel's child, his anger will cause him to make mistakes. Thranduil does not declare open war, which was possibility, but does send a small group of spies over the mountains. They are lead by Thranduil's eldest son Celeirdúr, crown prince and skilled warrior, in the hope that perhaps they might break Legolas out of Imladris and return him to Mirkwood, and if not that, to discover if the rumors are true.
Glorfindel is sent out with picked warriors of Imladris and return with Celeirdúr, a much better bargaining chip than Legolas. Upon seeing Legolas, Celeirdúr also dismisses him furiously as a whore but later, after having been sexually misused by Elladan and Haldir, and released by Glorfindel's intervention rather on Legolas' behalf than his own, Celeirdúr rests in Legolas bed. After initial indecision and reluctance, he becomes tender toward his younger brother, which may mean Legolas has the support of at least one person in Mirkwood.
Celeirdúr's capture leads in time to a truce between Imladris and Mirkwood; with Thranduil's second son Galuron sent as hostage to Lothlórien, and Elrohir to Mirkwood.
The night after Celeirdúr's departure, Legolas goes into an extremely difficult labour, exacerbated that the fact that the birth canal must open and widen to admit the child. Elrond believes Legolas might die, as does Glorfindel, and certainly here the reader can see that Glorfindel no longer (or not entirely) views Legolas as simply some-one carrying his child. He wants Legolas to live, and Legolas does, after giving birth to a son, Gîlríon.
After Gîlríon's birth, and Legolas recovery, Glorfindel's sexual games of BDSM become more voluptuous, and Legolas ever-more responsive. He has come to utterly depend on Glorfindel as is evidenced when two young Imladrian Elves taunt and attack him, and Legolas flees to the safety of Glorfindel's arms, while feeling ashamed of his weakness and his crookedness in finding comfort in the arms of one who uses him as a plaything. It appears that Glorfindel too knows that Legolas should learn how to protect himself; as a victim will always attract those who like to victimize, thus Glorfindel arranges for Legolas to begin training with the sword and bow.
Anestel is the story of a young Legolas forced into the position of slave and plaything to a far more powerful Glorfindel. There could hardly be two more different characters. One can hate Glorfindel for his lack of empathy, his cruelty, for using his overwhelming sexuality to mold and dominate Legolas, yet there does seem something more within him, something hidden under the magnificent and rather tarnished gilt. At times one can see the warmth, the generosity and the intense love that Glorfindel is capable of, were he only to admit the beautiful, sorrowful, sweet and responsive Legolas to the hearthside of his heart.
Seldom is any tale told of deeds of lust among the Eldar... Yet the story of Glorfindel and Legolas is just such a tale.
In this story we meet a very youthful Legolas, and while it would be rather inaccurate to call him an abuse victim, it is clear that he is ostracized by his father, and has been sent from the halls, living as one of the youngsters who guard the horses. The task is not onerous, but there is a definite sense that Legolas is, in effect, almost banished. While the reasons may be valid, they remain unknown until Cuil Eden, but Legolas has clearly suffered emotional damage, and desperately needs approval and love. He is, in Ethuil'waew, a perfect victim for the darkly arrogant and bitterly angry Glorfindel. Because Glorfindel should not be in Mirkwood. Imladris and Mirkwood have been in a state of war for centuries, and the hatred between them runs deep. Thranduil's antipathy for Elrond and Glorfindel is violent, and Glorfindel's mission into an enemy realm is a dangerous one. He is, however, behaving honourably in this instance, for he had witnessed the mistreatment of some Imladrian warriors at the hands of Mirkwood Elves, and has followed to see where they are taken.
Glorfindel does not know who Legolas is, and Legolas is equally ignorant, but for a moment, we see that he was delighted that such a glorious being should take an interest in him. Glorfindel, still furious, mishandles Legolas, and rapes him. Here it becomes a little ambiguous. Elves are generally supposed to give up their lives when raped, and Glorfindel knows this. He forces Legolas to feel pleasure, thus sidestepping what would have been murder. And yet, it was rape. As Legolas sinks into a sleep of shock and exhaustion, he reveals his name.
Why does not Legolas alert any guards? Why does he not immediately go to his father? He is deeply ashamed. All he desires is to win his father's love, and now feels himself disgusting, weak, depraved, unworthy of notice. He decides he will no longer dream of making Thranduil proud, that all he is fit for is guarding the horses.
But Glorfindel did not leave the forest after raping Legolas. He remained, still hoping to learn more about the Imladrian prisoners, and evading the guards. Legolas does not know this, but is eaten by guilt at the realization that the famed (or infamous, in Mirkwood.) Glorfindel managed to enter Mirkwood, that he, Legolas, had in the end, wantonly begged for what Glorfindel gave him. Not only was Legolas shameless, but complicit in hiding a traitor, but by this time he is entangled in such a knot of emotion, that it has effectively silenced him.
And then, Legolas begetting day arrives. Deep within, he longs to be recalled to Thranduil's halls, but instead receives a brief missive signed by one of the king's advisers. Thranduil considers that due to the ongoing conflict with Imladris, a begetting day celebration would be inappropriate, and Legolas is to remain with the horses. Heartbroken, Legolas runs weeping into the woods,where Glorfindel comes upon him again. Defeated by despair and sorrow, Legolas does not fight.
There perhaps it might have ended, with massive damage to the young Elf prince, had something not occurred which was utterly unforeseen by Legolas, but goes some way later explaining his segregation. Legolas bloodline carries a unique gift: he can bear children, and Glorfindel's seed begins to grow within him. At last, knowing that something is wrong with him, Legolas seeks out a healer, who reveals that he is pregnant.
The king's rage is violent, and Legolas, terrified that his father will kill the child of one of his greatest enemies, confesses that it was a Man who had him, a Mortal. Thranduil, calling him a whore, banishes him, drawing his sword and threatening to end Legolas life if he does not leave. He is no longer Thranduil's son. In utter desperation Legolas flees the halls, mounts his mare Lainiell, and rides away from Mirkwood...
Shall Legolas always stay little more than Glorfindel's slave, or might there be true happiness for him after all? A visit to Lothlórien brings many revelations for him and Glorfindel both...
Legolas and Glorfindel return to Imladris to continue to explore the depths of love, passion, desire - but also to teach other compassion and forgiveness. Legolas has made allies among Glorfindel's men, but will their support and his Lord's obvious love for him be enough to sway the hearts of most of the inhabitants of the valley of Imladris?
During his youth in Valinor, Glorfindel becomes aware of how his desires seem to differ from those of others...
His father is fond of silver, but Legolas loves only gold.
Legolas finds himself in need of what only Haldir can give while the Fellowship rests in Lothlórien.
He would not fail his people, even though his heart had died in his chest long ago.
Glorfindel meets his fate at Cristhorn. Written for the SWG 5th Birthday theme "Clash of the Titans".
Glorfindel's past, from his youth in Aman to his death at Cristhorn and his eventual return to Middle-earth. A collection of drabbles and small ficlets written for Back to Middle-earth Month 2011.
Comments
This is so much more than a rape/slave/kink story that I think those who have commented upon it negatively simply do not have the emotional depth to understand it. It deals with some very deep and thought-provoking issues. Legolas is young, has no self-worth, is very gentle, and has an enormous untapped love to give, but he has never seemed spineless or weak to me, he would not have survived. Being gentle and loving does not equate with being a wimp!
I went from wondering how Legolas could live with being a slave when he deserved and desperately needed more, to actually not being able to pair Legolas with any character but Glorfindel. I have never read anything like this story for the sheer growth and exploration of two completely different characters, who, in the end, are so well matched I will evermore see them together. It takes a something special for a story to have that much of an impact, and when you read as much as me you come to realize how few even remain in the memory. With this series I can read and re-read it because each scene is so deep with revelation and meaning. Even what may seem like a purely kinky sex-scene illustrates the relationship between the two, what Glorfindel wants what Legolas needs, an evolution of emotions between two very different people.[1]
This is such a beautiful story! All the passion and emotional turmoil is overwhelmingly inviting! I absolutely love how you've developed their relationship throughout the series! Although I always get a bit annoyed with Glofindel's mean and arrogant behaviour in Anestel - it fits perfectly to how he's changed later in Cuil Eden! I have to be honest I've been on this site since February 2010; and I must have read the Anestel series twenty times thoroughly through already. To think I lived without the thrill of your series for so long!! I hope this series goes on and on for years to come!! [2]
What an incredible accomplishment. I came upon this story a bit more than a year ago. I didn't think that people ever wrote BDSM, M/M or MPREG, and yet, there were Glorfindel and Legolas. (A quick and very heartfelt Thank You goes out to Spiced Wine, since it was her unqualified praise of your writing that pulled me on to your story.)
This has been a phenomenal growth experience. Legolas and Glorfindel both have grown in so many ways, and through that growth, they have realized that they are only complete within the view of the other: that they complement each other, that they mirror each other, that they fit each other. This, you brought forth so beautifully in this story, that I have specific chapters that I have read again, and again, and again.
I can only say thank you, because without your words, my world would have been much poorer. If you weren't going to continue this story, I would be writhing on the floor in abject pain. Fortunately, such over-the-top excesses are unnecessary since you will, indeed, be continuing this in the next scenario/book. No matter how long it will take you to write their story, I will be walking this along with you every step of the way. [3]
It is such an emotional and beautifully descriptive piece of work. I cannot tell you how much fear, anguish and joy it has brought me. That, I suppose, is a true test of a writer's skill. You certainly have the wonderful ability to sweep your readers away into another world. I loved seeing the growth that Legolas and Glorfindel experienced. [4]
Fannish Activity
Several fans have written stories that take place in the Anestel universe or use its characters. [1]
- A Light in the East by Spiced Wine (The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion Legolas/Glorfindel, Legolas/Vanimórë, Legolas/Maglor, Maglor/Vanimórë bdsm, rape, kink, mpreg - a crossover of Dark Prince with Esteliel's Anestel verse.)
What would have happened had Legolas not been able to flee to Imladris and Glorfindel when he found he was pregnant? What if he fell into entirely different hands?
After the Last Alliance, Vanimórë, freed for a time from Sauron's control, made himself the ruler of Sud Sicanna, a wealthy city in the Harad. Five hundred years later, he journeys to Szrel Kain on the Sea of Rhun where rulers of the East are meeting to discuss renewing their attacks upon Gondor. Vanimórë goes to gather information, to keep his finger on the pulse of events.
Legolas, banished from his home, wanders into the hands of a clan traveling back to Rhun after a summer of trading. The Men, afraid he will bring ill-luck on them, mean to sell him, and in lands where the Dark Gods are worshiped Legolas' uniqueness would mean sacrifice, the death of both himself and the child he bears: Glorfindel's son.
He falls instead into the hands of the Dark Prince, the son of Sauron, who understands neglect and abuse only too well...
- Pen-Estel by Esteliel and Pippychick (The Lord of the Rings, Legolas/Glorfindel, Legolas/Elrond, rape, kink, mpreg)
An Anestel/Cuil Eden AU storyline: A chance encounter with Elrond means that Legolas is once again a plaything, just when he had become settled with Glorfindel.
There is also fanart for the series created by several artists. [2]