2004 Author Reviews for
Alawa

Alawa has quite an imagination. I would never have come up with such a thought that a jewel in the crown was a .. Don't want to spoil.

Alawa's stories here are fascinating because they're stories about other people telling stories. The first has Aragorn recalling his adventure as an apple tester with Bilbo and the second has Aragorn remembering his mother and her influence on events in his life. The story that Alawa tells is not about the stories that others remember, but their tales are used to enhance and enrich Alawa's tales. And Alawa's skill in writing makes it seem as though Aragorn is there telling us these things himself.

This poem seems lighthearted, and the structure reminds me of other poems that are indeed lighthearted, but hidden beneath that is a more serious subject, and I really like the way Alawa keeps it in the background but never lets us forget it. There's something of a warning in this poem, but Alawa never lets it get too solemn, making it accessible to simpler folk though they might not appreciate all that the Rangers do.

Nicely done poem which invokes the feeling of a children's play somewhere in Gondor or Arnor. Has a humorous touch and agrees very well with LotR.

Alawa has quite a talent. To take something so dismal as carting away bodies and burning them but also make it heartwarming takes talent. And to bring an original character to life in so few pages takes a skilled author and a wonderful sense of character.

"Hearth Companions" is a title which fails to invoke the story in my mind. But the story itself is gorgeous. It is a well crafted piece which shows the writer's abilities for invoking a whole life by words. The structure of the story holds the reader in thrall and the finish is the story's crowning. The author is a good writer.

There was a time when Alawa used to say that she wasn't a writer. I'm fairly certain no one will believe this after reading such a poem. In general, her poetry has been just lovely and leaves me quite envious of her skill!

This was the best poem I have seen so far in fandom (as far as I remember). Rhythm, style, words: all very well chosen and masterly used. Though a more frequent use of kennings would have enhanced the poem's impact on the readers mind in my view. The author has my admiration for her abilities in crafting a Tolkien style poem.

Going along with my other comment, Alawa once confessed to fear of dialogue-not that you would ever guess it from reading this. Alawa has an eye for picking the moments others don't see, and for bringing the inner landscape of a character to life in a way that is always as lively as her wording is lovely. She has a great sensitivity for the points of view that are excluded from the grand narratives, whether those views are those of a jewel-polisher, a keeper of the hearth, or a Ranger and his lady eclipsed by their son's epic tale. Her characters' inner voices are always very sure and carefully and sympathetically drawn, and I really felt Rohan come alive to me in and through her depiction of Meduseld. If you want a story where you will feel fully immersed in a character's world, try one of Alawa's stories.

Alawa managed to create an OC, give her a personality, an objective, and very real relationships with canon characters. By itself, this is remarkable, but Alawa also dove into Rohan's culture, contrasting it with other cultures as a means of getting more expression, and portraying it for itself as well. Winfrith finds herself in a changing world, and Alawa never forgets that, showing how Winfrith adapts little by little. It's not the quick adaptations that the younger members of the story go through, but rather it's the slow, considered changes of the elderly. Alawa makes Winfrith a very memorable character, and paints a wonderfully convincing picture of Rohirric customs that round out and compliment the culture of the Horse-lords.