Analysing the Song of Pelinal, v3: On His Enemies

The third Volume deals with battles Pelinal fought with the Ayleid kings.

> Pelinal Whitestrake was the enemy of all elfkind that lived in Cyrod in those days. Mainly, though, he took it upon himself to slay the sorcerer-kings of the Ayleids in pre-arranged open combats rather than at war; the fields of rebellion he left to the growing armies of the Paravania and his bull nephew.

Pelinal was the champion of the Nedes, and not necessarily a general or front-line fighter (the first volume seems to indicate that he wasn’t on the same line as the military leaders of the Rebellion). These lines also set the tone of the rest of the volume, dealing with how Pelinal killed various Ayleid kings.

> Pelinal called out Haromir of Copper and Tea into a duel at the Tor, and ate his neck-veins while screaming praise to Reman, a name that no one knew yet.

Most of the Ayleid kings held nicknames, such as “of Copper and Tea” here. Tea is known on Tamriel, as Neloth seems to be a fan in the Dragonborn DLC of Skyrim, but it is unknown if this was already known in the First Era.

After his death, Pelinal seems to go insane (although his “first madness” is mentioned later in the volume), and he mentions Reman at Sancre Tor, the place where Reman Cyrodiil is said to be born.
This line gives some problems. While the Song deals with events in the Early First Era, it was only written down in the Second Era, after the time of Reman Cyrodiil. It is possible the composition of the text is older than that, but corrupted verses aren’t uncommon in older texts. This line may reflect later Imperial propaganda concerning Reman’s divinity.
On the other hand, Pelinal was from the future, and (semi-)divine. He could have been aware of the future birth of Reman, giving some credence to the story.

> Gordhaur the Shaper's head was smashed upon the goat-faced altar of Ninendava, and in his wisdom Pelinal said a small plague spell to keep that evil from reforming by welkynd-magic.

To my knowledge, there is no goat-shaped altar at Ninendava during the events of Oblivion, but it is possible that the ruin was raided by Nedes after Pelinal dealt with Gordhaur. The mention of welkynd-magic raises an interesting point. The text seems to hint at its use for regeneration or even revival. Welkynd-magic was very important to the Ayleids, not only in a religious sense (considering the obsession with light and the sky), but the Great Welkynd stones also seemed to form the nexus of Ayleid cities. The exact workings of Welkynd-magic is lost, and the accuracy of this text is unclear.

> Later that season, Pelinal slew Hadhuul on the granite steps of Ceya-Tar, the Fire King's spears knowing their first refute.

Hadhuul is described in the “Adabal-a” as one of the cruellest of the Ayleid kings.
From the Adabal-a:

> […] or, worse, the realms of the Fire King Hadhuul, where the begetting of drugs drawn from the admixture of daedrons into living hosts let one inhale new visions of torment, and children were set aflame for nighttime tiger sport.

Here, Pelinal kills one of the most hated enemies of the Nedes, and the weapons of the Fire King were unable to harm him, which is explained in the next lines.

> For a time, no weapon of the Ayleids could pierce his armor, which Pelinal admitted was unlike any crafted by men, but would say no more even when pressed.

The Knights of the Nine expansion states that Pelinal’s armour was a gift by the Gods. Also, the Song mentions that it comes from the future. Of course, the Ayleids (mostly Umaril) managed to eventually kill Pelinal, but this was only later during the Rebellion.

> When Huna, whom Pelinal raised from grain-slave to hoplite and loved well, took death from an arrowhead made from the beak of Celethelel the Singer, the Whitestrake went on his first Madness. He wrought destruction from Narlemae all the way to Celediil, and erased those lands from the maps of Elves and Men, and all things in them, and Perrif was forced to make sacrifice to the Gods to keep them from leaving the earth in their disgust.

This line portrays Pelinal in a more human form (caring deeply for those next to him, and training the rebels), but also in a more demonic and dangerous way. Both Narlemae and Celdiil are lost, but it seems to be a rather large area Pelinal destroyed. This also seems to be something the Gods didn’t really plan for Pelinal, and Alessia did all she could to not have them forsake her and the Nedes.
Again, the text references bird-like traits and symbolism concerning the Ayleids, as discussed in the previous volume.

> And then came the storming of White-Gold, where the Ayleids had made pact with the Aurorans of Meridia, and summoned them, and appointed the terrible and golden-hued "half-Elf" Umaril the Unfeathered as their champion… and, for the first time since his coming, it was Pelinal who was called out to battle by another, for Umaril had the blood of the 'ada and would never know death.

One of the last acts of the Rebellion was the seize of the future Imperial City (the genocide of the Ayleids only happened under the Alessian Order centuries later, and some Ayleid city-states survived next to the Alessian Empire).
This is the first mentioning of Umaril, and his epithets “half-elf” and “unfeathered” hint to the fact that he wasn’t (entirely) Ayleid. According to other sources (most notably dialogue in Knights of the Nine) state that he was a half-god, created from a pact with Meridia. This pact might seem strange, seeing that Meridia is a Daedric Prince, and most other sources seem to hint at a universal hatred towards them from the Ayleids. Meridia used to be a Magna-Ge, though, and her sphere includes light and live, two things the Ayleids seem to have worshipped in some way.
Umaril was deemed the only one capable of killing Pelinal, and this proved right (more on this in later volumes). Also, Umaril indeed did not know death, as he returned in the final days of the Third Era.

This ends the analysis of the third volume: On His Enemies.