Harperella of Dale

[Harperella]

Harperella was born in the year 3000 at the turning of the millenium. Her mother was Lalaith of Dale, a harper in the court of King Bain. Her father was Turn the Tinker, a half-Easterling Daleman. She was raised in a a working family, with her Mother performing in the court and father doing tinker work and crafting jewerly for the well off. Several things changed early in Ella's childhood.

First, Lalaith was no longer allowed to perform at the court. She had been riding there alone for many years to compose songs for the various members of the court. She never brought Ella or Turn on these trips, though she often took some of Turn's wares to sell to the gentry. One day she arrived with her daughter, Ella. The guardsmen would not let her enter and her horse reared as he grabbed at the reigns, nearly throwing the two off. The horse had to be left at the palace, and Lalaith and Ella had to walk back home. This was when Ella was 6.

When Ella was 8, Lalaith sent Turn to the Lonely Mountain to restring her harp with golden strings. Lord Brand's coronation was imminent and she wanted to perform his march for the ceremony. She was very nervous about the whole affair. Ella accompanied her father on the trip to the mountains. She saw wondrous and strange sights within the halls of the Lonely Mountain. They were treated rather roughly by the dwarves there and the work was done rather grudgingly, with the price higher than expected. Finally, the harp had been restrung with gold and returned to Turn and Ella.

On the way back from the Mountain, they saw flames from the neighborhood. Lalaith had perished, and the house had burned down. The fire was later blamed on the Dwarven fireworks that many townsfolk had purchased to celebrate the coronation.

Turn rebuilt the house and had to change his craft to rough smithwork. Many of his fine crafting tools had perished in the fire and the Dwarven wares had been eating into his business for some time. Also, with his wife dead, he had no more access markets at the court.

Turn commanded his daughter Ella to master the harp so that she could play the tunes that Lalaith once did. Though she was small, she tried very hard and became quite a good harper, having learned entirely from the memory of her mother's playing. Turn (and others) took to calling her Harper Ella. Or Harperella.

Turn became more and more bitter as the years wore on. He began to suspect that Harperella was not really his daughter. She had her Mother's red hair, but had blue eyes that neither Turn nor Lalaith possessed. He kept her cloistered for much of her life, playing the harp and doing work around the house. The rebuilt house was much smaller and only the hearth had survived the fire. The neighborhood never really recovered and became a bit of a slum. All the more reason for Turn to keep a close eye on his daughter.

When Ella was 14, she started to sneak out to see the various sights of the town. She befriended a travelling band of performers who came through town once a year. Their leader was a minstrel named Sevril, a Dunedain man of middle years. Sevril taught Ella well. And she soon learned the powerful songs of battle and healing.

Ella became more and more restless with her cloistered existance and took to leaving for longer periods of time. She even tarried along the nobler streets of the palace district as she grew older and performed along side Sevril. Eventually, Turn learned of this and grew angry. He forged an iron chain and fixed it to her mother's harp and chained it to the hearth.

After 2 days of this, Ella slipped off in the night with Sevril and his troup on their way across the misty mountains to Bree-land, where the living was said to be much easier.

During the long trek, they were beset by Bandits and Darril the guard died.

Later, as they passed through Chetwood, Sevril was taken by spiders in the night. He was never seen again, though his cries echoed in the night.

As the rag-tag band approached Archet, they were beset by bandits and captured. It is here that Amdir the ranger rescued Ella and the hobbits.

But this is only the beginning of the story... read the rest of the story in Harperella's Harrowing Tales