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The Lord of the Rings
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Cross-cultural
LCC1: Folk of a Different Race by Lemur

Ah yes, "the moment" as Tolkien carefully did *not* tell it. Nice use
of Gandalf's last request to Gimli and Legolas (unless one counts "Fly
you fools") as the means by which to bring Gimli and Legolas to the
point where they are willing to try to befriend each other.

Cross-cultural
LCC2: Horses and Verses by Altariel and Isabeau

It's always a trick to make two first person points of view read like
two truly different personalities. Unless, of course, you have a
partner in crime. This collaborative story is uniquely structured:
events and words overlap, so that the reader sees the same
conversation through the eyes of the two participants. One might
think that such a structure would lend itself to a certain staleness
due to repetition; certainly the first real conversation between
brothers-in-law can be difficult. The context of a funeral feast, of
two men who have just come into their own in difficult circumstances,
who are still finding their own way in the new lease on life they've
been granted, and are just waking to the real possibility of love in
politics, could easily turn into an angstfest. Finally, first person
points of view lend themselves to heavy, melodramatic introspection.
Yet the authors of this fic have turned out a finely balanced, lively
work that gives the reader a sense of emotional depth for both Faramir
and Éomer, of that ever elusive sense of "place" out of which each
character acts and reacts. In the end, it makes one wish that life
imitated art in such difficult conversations. These two men are not
yet friends, nor are they enemies—rather, they are unchosen family,
and they are bound together by a woman whose influence over them both
while she herself is often absent from the scene is rivaled only by
the influence of the dead. Fans of Faramir or Éomer should enjoy this
immensely.

Cross-cultural
LCC4: Keeping Secrets by Deborah Judge

One of the most unusual, and unusually successful, twists I have seen
in LOTR fanfiction. This story of Gimli and Éowyn takes one of the
most loathed plot twists and makes it work. Gimli and Éowyn behave
believably, and make me believe that the conversation could have
happened. The ideal of love to which Gimli holds, one that will allow
him to share a part of the life of his beloved without ever obtaining
the whole, resonates well both with a warrior ethos of sacrifice for a
beloved brother in arms but also with a sort of prolongation of love
precisely through the renunciation of its earthly possibility. Better
to sacrifice for love's sake than to have no expression at all of love
since it can never be fulfilled. Gimli's sympathetic identification
with Éowyn's plight is well-handled, appropriate to the characters. It
also foreshadows, and validates by supplying it with a tradition and
personal history, Éowyn's decision to take up the sword as Dernhelm.

Cross-cultural
LCC5: Knife Work by Thundera Tiger

An entertaining vignette about the orc slaying scorecard that seems so
disproportionate in its early stages. It could have happened this way,
even though I'm not sure I quite buy the explanation. But hey, it's a
fun action sequence, and we get a somewhat rare interaction between
Éomer, Legolas, and Aragorn. The newcomer, Éomer, gets a brief glimpse
into a more established friendship between Legolas and Aragorn that
allows for some friendly if morbid humorous banter that helps the
reader shift gears after Legolas finally succeeds in slaying his
twenty-fourth orc.


Cross-cultural
LCC8: Those Who Remain by Marnie

Lovely vignette exploring the difficult role of companion to a
ringbearer, what that means, and what returning home without him (or
her) means. Celeborn is very much an Elf, and with that uncanniness
that Elves wear like clothes when seen through unelvish eyes. The
parallel journeys of Celeborn and Sam, as they watch the rings take
hold of those they love, and watch life-long companions pulled away
from them by something stronger it seems than even love are very
poignant.

Drabble
LD1: "And get my pipe out of my pack, if it isn't broken…" by Lindelea

Nice juxtaposition of said and unsaid that makes us aware of what is
really going on beneath the light talk.

Drabble
LD2: Fireside Chats by Lindelea

Interesting. I liked Éomer's line suddenly appearing as a final
comment on Frodo's latest fireside chat.

Drabble
LD3: I See the Moon, and the Moon Sees Me by Lindelea

The parallel reassurances worked nicely in a situation where reassurer
and reassured are very much reversed.

Drabble
LD5: That Which is Fairest by Elana

I liked Gimli's little revelation, here, about the nature of beauty.
Would that we all had such moments more often!

Drabble
LD7: The Stone Tree by LKK

That kernel of strangeness left in Legolas intrigues me, although I
suspect it has roots deeper and wider spread than Gimli can yet fathom.

Gondor
LG1: All of Them Together by Fileg

Across leagues and future rivalry, Denethor and Aragorn have something
in common: a child's song that fathers sing to their children. I loved
the rhyme—it had that singsong feel to it that suits those sorts of
ditties, and is easy to remember. That Aragorn has to fight to
remember it, and ends up with the words and the vague impression of
his father's presence was very poignant, especially in the face of
Boromir and Denethor. I always think of Aragorn's wandering years as
the years when he was figuring out who he was and how to make who he
was fit with the expectations of others; that he gets a piece of
himself back in this tale somehow makes that general picture more
complete for me.

Gondor
LG4: Failure by Liz

Tough space to write in, Faramir's dreams just before Aragorn heals
him. I found Finduilas somehow the most horrific, perhaps because she
seems the most untouched (no flesh falling off bones and burning or
rotting, etc.) until the bloodstains become apparent.

Gondor
LG5: Queen's Gambit by A L Milton

Very intense portrait of Arwen and Faramir's embryonic relationship,
and a lovely sense of being in Faramir's head, of having everything
fade away save that chess board and the person pushing the pieces.
Interesting that so ruthless a game would be the point of contact
between these two, and Arwen's willingness to forfeit a clean win in
favor of a stalemate was a rather oblique manner of opening the game
outside the board up, at once a test of Faramir's perception and a the
only possible move she could have made that might have worked. I
suppose this would be the chance she takes on her "opponent", and it
seems she is at the least as good in her risks as Faramir generally
is. Loved this! (And I'm tickled you liked the substitution of
"captain" for "bishop".)


Incomplete
LI3: Messages by Shakes

I've enjoyed following Anakil's (mis)adventures up through the battle
for Osgiliath. This opened the world of Gondor's army up, and I
absolutely love the use that Anborn is put to. For some reason, he
just isn't as popular as Mablung or Damrod in fanfiction, but here we
get to see him front and center. It's a rather hectic and bewildering
world for a boy like Anakil, and one with its jealousies (the other
boys) that threaten to be more unbearable, in their way, than even the
discipline the lieutenants impose; where boyish idealism and desire to
prove oneself lead to ambiguous positions. I thought Boromir showed a
keen eye for judgment in kind when he delivered Anakil over to become
the messenger that Anakil had pretended to be—mercy on the one hand,
but also forcing Anakil to deal seriously with the choice he made.


Poetry
LP1: All Ye Fellowship of Nine by Azalais

Hysterical retelling of LOTR. The parenthetical comments were always
the final nudge that made for laughter rather than simple smirking.

Poetry
LP2: Finduilas by Fileg

Denethor does have a strong voice, and certainly, the fire, pyre, and
light/darkness imagery suit him.

Poetry
LP3: Goldberry's Song by Vulgarweed

This poem has a marvelous rhythm to it, a lovely flowing, sing-song
feel (appropriate given the characters), and Goldberry comes at long
last into her own as an elemental personality who seems truly to fit
Middle-earth.

Poetry
LP5: Song Fight at the Swan and Cygnet Saloon by Chathol-Linn

This poem inevitably makes me think of "The Devil Went Down To
Georgia"—it's about a singing duel between Bard and Legolas to settle
a contested wager, with the "Orkestra" waiting about to take out the
loser. Clever in its word play, irreverent, and just down right
funny—if you have a sense of humor, you will laugh.

Vignette
LV5: Goes A Courting by Chris

This was so well-written, so very dwarvish in sentiment—love and
craft, craft and love, and the joy of being caught up in a work that
challenges and seduces you to carry on. This is everydwarf and any
dwarf who speaks and gives us a glimpse of an underwritten corner of
Middle-earth.


Vignette
LV6: Repairs by Isabeau of Greenlea

Another piece that got at that single-minded dwarvish tenacity. The
repeated line worked very well, orders Gimli's actions and concerns,
orders the unfolding of the story, and gives us a glimpse of how the
dwarvish mind works in this one particular dwarf. Legolas feels to me
more like an elf from "The Hobbit"—there's something almost child-like
about him, despite the turn of talk to weapons-smithing.

L1: A Different Kind of Sacrifice by Suzene Campos

I did like this story. It gave me an angle on movie!Gimli that went
beyond his use as comic relief and underappreciated grunt in the
arsenal of the West. It gave his humor—exaggerated, almost
stereotypical for me by the end of the films—a rationale that was
plausible.


L5: Estel by Viv

I enjoyed this tale of Aragorn's youth. Nice connection of Arathorn's
name with the idea that the eagles bring hope to the Elves, being
messengers of the Valar. The genealogy can't fail to be noted by a
perceptive boy, who recognizes that his father's burden (and that of
the Eagles) has somehow fallen to him: he is hope, and so caught up
already in a tale far vaster than he can probably imagine.

L6: For The Road by Alawa

An unusual interaction—Bilbo and Aragorn, even if only through the
medium of a letter. One imagines Aragorn must have been very drawn to
the one other mortal person in Imladris, despite his affinity for and
familiarity with the Elves. A fitting bon voyage for Bilbo, at once
humorous, humane, and bittersweet.


L7: Gilraen's Memorial by Alawa

This fic managed to take several of my complaints about
movie!Aragorn—his fear of his heritage, his refusal of a burden he has
been preparing to assume since he came of age, the tension between him
and Elrond, and the (at the time) unfathomable (or rather, all too
fathomable, given the Arwen Warrior Princess rumors) motives of PJ for
leaving Anduril in pieces in Rivendell—and make something coherent of
them that was consistent with the themes of the books, or so I thought
and which yet remained solidly within the movie framework. Eloquent,
wise, and incorporating on a much more nuanced level the shadow of
Isildur's tainted legacy, this fic really opened movie!Aragorn up for
me and helped me see the book!character I loved in the scripted
character on the screen.


L16: Whistling Past the Graveyard by Shunt

This story makes the most of the Khazad-dûm scenes. Feeling one's way
in the darkness, aware of the morbid history one is literally passing
through. Boromir's memories of old superstitions in Gondor, of
counting every stair in the Tower, were very aptly juxtaposed with the
climb up the stairway of Khazad-dûm. Great atmospheric writing!

AUTHORS (remember to comment on the writer as regards to the category,
not the story, here):

Poetry
LPA2: Azalais
All Ye Fellowship of Nine

Azalais' evil song muse is something I look forward to around
Christmas time. Long may it live and inspire transformations of LOTR's
story and characters, all to a singable tune!

Poetry
LPA3: Chathol-Linn
Song Fight at the Swan and Cygnet Saloon

I don't analyze poetry well, but I did find this to be very creative
and eminently speakable. Trips off the tongue very nicely, and the
imagery is wonderful.

Poetry
LPA8: Vulgarweed
Goldberry's Song

Vulgarweed likes to find underwritten corners of Middle-earth and open
them up for readers. The poetry fit the character of Goldberry very
well—it felt like she would have said something like this, that the
form of the narration was integral to the character's self-expression.
Well done!