Title: One, Many
Fandom: Silmarillion
Challenge: Drop
Other prompt: Mini-Wrimo 2020 picture prompt for 20 Nov
Rating: G
Length: 100
Content notes: N/A
Author notes: Thanks go to Zana, Morgynleri & Runa for encouragement & sanity-checking. The soundtrack for this is the refrain to The Toast to Unknown Heroes, with an echo of Hope Eyrie
Summary: Many drops can turn a mill, singly none, singly none


One, Many

A drop in the ocean, it is said, meaning an infinitesimal amount, something that makes no difference, one among many just like it, as small, as insignificant, ineffectual, unremarkable. But a single drop is not the point. (Though it can be: one teardrop can be important indeed, as Luthien might tell, were she not beyond the circles of the world.) The point is what many drops can do, together: Ice, river, mist, storm, well and rainbow, drowning wave and reviving draught, sun-caught spray and glittering snow.

Then again, some things the ocean holds, dropped into its keeping, unmatched under wave.


--The mini-wrimo picture prompt for 20 Nov: an arctic/ice-cliffs and ice-water thing.
--The Toast to Unknown Heroes (on YouTube)
--Hope Eyrie (this one performed by Daniel Kelly, who has a really beautiful voice.)