Gold Ribbons

I finished a fic today that's been a year or so in the making. I found it about three months ago. It tackled the idea of Fingon, several years after his rebirth, retreating from Tirion and establishing his own household on the far banks of Aman. Over time, his settlement grows, he brings Maedhros out of Mandos, and ends with their marriage. 

It was one of the first fics I started, back when I had less of an understanding of who these characters were. The fic introduced me to various fanon concepts I've come to embrace and I'm grateful for that. 

I was aware of Russingon (the Maedhros/Fingon ship) before this, in fact, recognized it had to be A THING just from the canon story itself, but this fic helped to flesh certain aspects of it out to me. Fingon's gold hair ornaments (either bands or ribbons) are pretty well known.

In this fic, he wore ribbons. After his death, Maedhros kept some of them and basically carried them as a love/mourning token until his own death. Even after that, Elrond kept one of them as a memento to his foster father and the great love he'd lost. He presents the ancient ribbon to Fingon as proof of how devoted to him Maedhros stayed. 

This part of the story was so very well written. It's the moment I really fell in love with the story, just this idea of such deep love and loss. I knew I would finish it to the end. 

Speaking of, the last chapter of the fic dropped today. It ended well and I will miss it.