Yahoo Forum Archive

Title: Fire and Flowering · Author: Raksha the Demon · Genres: Romance:
Incomplete · ID: 58
Reviewer: julia · 2006-07-25 23:23:09
Very good ficlets, erotic without crossing the line into embarrassing
ickiness, a skill which I wish more fic writers possessed. I'm not the
world's hugest F/E fan, being a dyed-in-the wool A/A junkie, but you do
a good enough job with them here that I am able to enjoy the pairing and
their erotic adventures. The last ficlet, with the kids and the
mistletoe, was my favorite. I also believe that Fara and Eowyn had more
kids than Elboron, and Eowyn's enjoyment of the kissing under the
mistletoe leading to more than kissing in the bedchamber is very cute.
-----------------------------------
Title: Gaiety in Gondor · Author: Raksha the Demon · Genres: Humor:
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 563
Reviewer: julia · 2006-07-25 23:28:39
Absolutely hilarious, all arising from a misunderstanding between the
King and his Steward of "gaiety" in men. Well-written dialogue paired
with both Gimli and Legolas joining the dancers at the end, which is
very funny to picture, the dwarf and the elf dancing, let alone with the
"gay" men.
-----------------------------------
Title: Dance on the Way Down · Author: Aliana · Races: Men:
Post-Sauron's Fall · ID: 734
Reviewer: annmarwalk · 2006-07-26 00:34:01
I like the way you begin by contrasting the two healers: the young girl,
giddy child of peacetime, spritely and full of the promise of joy; and
the veteran healer, survivor of the siege, whose girlhood was given up
to war and her part in it. The youngster sings a song, a snippet shes
heard in passing; but the song awakens memories in her companion of
those unsettled days when she was adjusting to her world turned upside
down both by the end of the War and her new life as a bride.

The healers thoughts are reminiscent of what weve heard from our own
mothers and grandmothers, of the strange and heady days following the
end of *their* war - even now, we hear songs of the 40s and 50s that
make no sense whatsoever to us, but turn their eyes dim with wistful
memories. Through the medium of the citys celebration of the harvest
festival youve reminded us very deftly of the many burdens that are
borne quietly and patiently so that the young may sing and dance,
untroubled.
-----------------------------------
Title: Come When You Are Ready · Author: EdorasLass · Genres: Alternate
Universe · ID: 795
Reviewer: annmarwalk · 2006-07-26 00:44:34
No matter how many times I reread this, it always has the same impact,
like a punch to the gut. I know you have a dark streak  we saw it in
Love Me And Despair- but this tale is even more horrific. Poor
Denethor, wandering all unknowing between life and death, drawn by the
voices of his loved ones who have gone ahead. He searches for them,
desperately seeking Faramir in particular, remembering, perhaps, how in
his last conscious moments how his thoughts were for his younger son.

Your description of Denethors charred, ravaged body, and the anguish
and courageous fortitude of his caretakers, is sickeningly vivid. As an
AU, this is extraordinarily haunting, so very plausible.
-----------------------------------
Title: Heirs of the Oath · Author: Elana · Races: Men: Other
Fixed-Length Ficlets · ID: 151
Reviewer: annmarwalk · 2006-07-26 00:46:44
Oooh. Simple, well-told, spine-chillingly beautiful.
-----------------------------------
Title: First Night · Author: Pearl Took · Races: Hobbits: War of the
Ring · ID: 400
Reviewer: annmarwalk · 2006-07-26 00:50:07
Oh, what a wonderful story! I like the way you start out by highlighting
the difficulties Pip is encountering is a man-sized world  the high
steps, the heavy water pitchers. I chuckled to myself when he wistfully
longed for a bubble bath, then considered the stern city as [not a
place of soft round things like bubbles.] Poor, lonesome Pip!

The stream-of-consciousness writing style is quite engaging, too, and
suits Pippin and his quicksilver mind just perfectly. His fear for
himself and the city, and for Merry; and his guilt over not thinking
about Frodo and Sam are all brought out quite well. A brief touch of
The Sight as he feels the Enemys thoughts directed toward the city
adds just an ominous tinge that is very well done without adversely
affecting the mood of the piece.

The lavender, though! What a surprise, what an unexpected delight! How
lovely to see his fears eased by a scent from his childhood, something
that signifies rest and contentment and loving care. Wrapped in memory,
he is able to rest in peace. What a lovely, imaginative touch.!
-----------------------------------
Title: Banished · Author: shirelinghpc · Times: Fourth Age and Beyond:
Gondor · ID: 993
Reviewer: Marta · 2006-07-26 01:24:21
Oh, this was cute! I'm sure Pippin thought he was edoing the right
thing, but Legolas's fury is entirely understandable. Thanks for such a
light moment.
-----------------------------------
Title: Come When You Are Ready · Author: EdorasLass · Genres: Alternate
Universe · ID: 795
Reviewer: Marta · 2006-07-26 02:37:56
This is a touching tale that by the end had me weeping like a baby. I
don't think we are truly meant to enjoy it but rather to be moved by it,
and it definitely does that job. It is so compelling that I could not
put it down, and each new revelation as we learn a little more of
Denethor's condition is more potent than the last.

This short piece is slightly AU in that Denethor does not die
immediately on the pyre but to very good purpose: his searching for
Faramir was touching beyond words, and the way the author used
Finduilas's song, at first faint but growing to ["a chorus unto itself"]
that echoes throughout the whole house -- they wowed me and left me
gasping for breath at the same time. When a story affects me bodily as
well as mentally I know the author is a skillful one indeed.

Boromir was also handled very well here. At first he seems like a
petulant child wanting his father to come join the family *now* - but I
have to wonder, as the story progresses, if Denethor gets some feeling
of himself in time, where exactly he is. By the end he is contemplating
bating his son over his unmarried state. I can see hints of the little
boy we see in EL's "Nanny" stories, but also much more than that.

Brava to the author for such a well-rounded view of Denethor in this
most difficult of all fanfic stories. This one won't be leaving my mind
any time soon, you can be sure of that.
-----------------------------------
Title: Before Thangorodrim: The Last Fall of Himring Hill · Author:
AWing · Times: First Age and Prior · ID: 78
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:48:07
Awing delivers a tense, family drama as Maedhros and Maglor are
confronted with some familiar figures from their past. The army of the
Noldor has come from Valinor to help fight the War of Wrath, Finarfin
and Finrod among them. It's a shattering reunion in many ways--Maedhros
and Maglor are on the ragged edge sanity, and self-destructive on every
possible level. It's not just that Maedhros' fortress at Himring is to
be destroyed (and he's the one destroying it), but both he and Maglor
have despaired of any dispensation from the curse.

They're eaten out and hollow, painful reminders to family of the princes
they had been, and equally painful reminders of the kin-slaying they
have bound themselves to in pursuit of the Silmarils. Powerful in their
own destructiveness, they seem already faded, only half present to the
world and numbed to the point of being unable to hear the anger and
anguish directed at them by others.

Into this drama comes the curious parley with a herald of the Easterling
force occupying Himring. The plight of the Enemy's servants here becomes
apparent--friends of neither orcs nor any of Morgoth's inhuman servants,
yet bound by an oath and with their own pride, they, too, have been
drawn into a net of accursed allegiances, made playthings of fate, even
as Maedhros and Maglor and all the rest have been. The background of
this story, of the incomprehensibility and remove of the gods, of the
inability at times to discern what makes one more trustworthy than
others, gets its airing here, and it is wholly appropriate that as the
Amanyar debate the fate of the occupying force, it is Maedhros who
states plainly the question confronting them: will they grant mercy to
those who are asking for it, and for some route away from the carnage
that awaits, even if they are enemies?

And it is that in the end that differentiates one set of gods from
another, beyond even the existence of Aman as opposed to Utumno: as
Finrod reveals to his devastated cousins, those Kin-slayers who had died
before them do not wander houseless, but have all been gathered to
Mandos' care. It is the one moment of grace for Maedhros and Maglor, one
that remains singular and seems to bear no fruit. The story goes on, for
even as the Easterlings, Feanor's sons are bound by an oath they will
not surrender. Compact and powerful, it's a story well worth reading.
-----------------------------------
Title: Gundabad · Author: Salsify · Races: Dwarves · ID: 79
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:48:50
Salsify likes to give us stories from perspectives usually overlooked,
either rereading well known stories (like Eöl's) or finding characters
who are not given much representation. Here, she tackles the mystery of
Gundabad, the legendary home of the Longbeards, but which is strangely
never spoken of in Tolkien's corpus. Moria and Erebor are both
reclaimed, but no plan to retake Gundabad is ever mentioned.

The reason for this, Salsify speculates, is because the attempt had
already been made. We follow a group of Dwarvish warriors as they fight
the last battle and enter the chamber where Dúrin first woke. Salsify
draws in a number of elements - the Arkenstone (or rather, what the
function of the Arkenstone), the orcish love of explosives, Dwarven
mining craft, and the sense of a primal place at the heart of every city
that makes it what it is. One gets a sense for the weight of history for
Dwarves, and the way stonework and the importance of place in the world
intertwine for them.

I'll leave the ending for other readers to discover, but it is an
evocative vignette that brings the Dwarves to light in a short space.
-----------------------------------
Title: Last Rites · Author: Isabeau of Greenlea · Genres: Drama · ID: 80
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:49:08
I have to say, this is one of my favorite Isabeau of Greenlea stories,
and it's partly because it was such fun to watch it evolve. The framing
concept of last rites is put to good use here: although Boromir has been
formally laid to rest by Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, there remains
unfinished business. Imrahil and his family have not been told the full
story, and the books say that Aragorn kept Boromir's last words to
himself for quite some time, but not forever.

Having both parties come together to talk about Boromir's death lets
Isabeau fill a gap in the story that one feels where Boromir's story is
concerned. Setting this story on the eve of the battle before the Black
Gate also creates an urgency for the characters involved in this
reflective form of memorial, as they try to lay to rest not only
Boromir, but their own senses of grief, grievance, and guilt. In this
sense, it is not simply extreme unction, as it were, that is performed,
but confession that allows the characters to face the prospect of the
next day having made some peace with themselves and their roles in
Boromir's death.

By tying this to the "Best-loved Sons" series, Isabeau is also able to
draw in Pippin to deepen both his relationship to Boromir, and to help
develop Andrahar's character during a time of grief. Pippin does have
role to play: one he's played before, namely, the "small stone" that
falls and creates ripples far beyond what one would expect. We also see
him humanizing his relationship with Denethor, putting his oath to the
Steward in context with his sense of debt to Boromir, and then finding
the repayment of that debt in his service to Andrahar. Andrahar, for his
part, starts his journey towards healing, and of course, he and Imrahil
always play well together. An enjoyable story that ends on a hopeful note.
-----------------------------------
Title: Strange Fortunes · Author: Tehta · Times: First Age and Prior:
Incomplete · ID: 81
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:49:51
The sequel to 'Flawed and Fair' follows the continuing drama of
Ecthelion and Glorfindel as they try valiantly to make their way through
this comedy of errors. Some time after their aborted trip to Himlad, the
Theban band of Gondolin, as Tehta aptly labels them, are following up on
their efforts to prepare the city for any eventuality by organizing the
annual war games. This time, it is Maeglin's inimitable combination of
hauteur, geekishness, socially inept courtship, and jealousy that start
things in motion, as Salgant becomes a (traumatized) spy and composer of
slanderous tunes, Egalmoth runs interference, Idril and Glorfindel plot
to spare her her odd cousin's courtship (and attendant bad poetry), and
Ecthelion, getting odd silences and misinformation from all sides,
misinterprets that new closeness as itself a courtship. Stolen maps of
the contest terrain, getting caught quite literally with their pants
down, and the threat of Turgon's wrath and expulsion from the City leave
both him and Glorfindel with quite the mess to clean up.

What's not to love about a story that incorporates the simile "my love
is like a crippled orc" and makes it work out hilariously? This reader
is eagerly awaiting the conclusion (hopefully not too much longer
delayed... *ahem*) to another amusing romantic comedy. (Now hurry up and
write it, Tehta! And publish it, more importantly.)
-----------------------------------
Title: Red River · Author: Altariel · Times: Fourth Age and Beyond:
Gondor · ID: 82
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:53:14
The Fourth Age is always the age of mundanity, where humanity finally
gets its wish to no longer be living under the sway of the embodiment of
evil and then proceeds to muck things up quite nicely by itself. "Red
River" is thus exactly the sort of story that needs to be written about
after the fall of Sauron: Gondor and Harad have to learn that Sauron is
no longer the excuse for bad political relationships, and to look beyond
old enmities.

The original Haradric character, Raskandhar, shows himself a gutsy
politician, using the symbolism of Aragorn's own story to criticize him
and his inability (or is it unwillingness, after a fashion?) to garner
the conciliar support to resolve a situation that, while beneficial in
the short-term to partisans in Gondor, is destroying Raskandhar's
people, his own ability to govern and care for them, and will eventually
lead to bitterness that will simply continue the legacy of bloodshed.

Faramir (because it is Altariel, and so we know Faramir must be lurking
nearby -- a good thing) gets to act the part that (mis)fortune assigned
him: as the king's good steward, whose role, as Aragorn puts it, is to
humiliate him every so often, he is careful to make certain his king
gets the necessary dose of political and moral humiliation where it
matters most. In so doing, he serves both Gondor and Harad (and so
justice) well, and one comes away with the sense that Aragorn will have
to do some serious thinking and work to repay that service.

'Red River' is a timely story in this sense. It speaks to both LOTR's
post-war context, and to globalization in its essence, highlighting the
futility and ultimately moral complacency of trying to limit the horizon
by which one judges claims on justice to past wrongs when the present is
constituted by unjust social interactions that are in fact breeding more
and reciprocal wrong-doing that will end by harming everyone. Well
played, Altariel, and in an enviably concise manner.
-----------------------------------
Title: Planning Ahead · Author: Gwynnyd · Races: Men · ID: 84
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:53:50
Everyone knows the story of Arathorn and Gilraen--the unlikely
love-match between Arathorn, nearly sixty and in the prime of his life,
to Gilraen, who at twenty-two was considered rather young to be married.
It was Ivorwen, her mother, whose foresight tipped the balance in favor
of Arathorn's suit, and we know Gilraen also had foresight. However,
Gwynnyd pushes its manifestation back quite a bit in this amusing
glimpse of a precocious five year-old tending to an injured, thirty-nine
year-old Ranger. Poor Arathorn is confessedly not himself, and having to
deal with a foresighted, unnaturally dignified child who insists that he
will be giving her a ring and telling her he loves her one fine day is
more than he can handle. Great comic pacing on this short fic, Gwynnyd!
-----------------------------------
Title: Flotsam · Author: Salsify · Times: The Great Years: Vignette · ID: 85
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:54:44
War breeds much ugliness, something that keeps coming to mind given the
current state of affairs. The difference between necessity and justice,
between right and good, is one that often gets lost or is used to sweep
questioning and reflection under the rug. Merry takes a step back, lifts
the rug, examines his own escalating reaction to something that he had
not at the time paid much attention to--the fate of the slaves of
Isengard, and their hideous, half-orc offspring, all of whom were drowned.

His conclusion, that based on everything he knew and came to know of the
situation, they could not have foregone the diversion of the Isen into
the caves, and so that they had done right, if not good, remains in
extreme tension with his knowledge that nevertheless, they did not do
*everything* they could have done to spare the innocent. No one went
down searching for slaves who could be freed, for example. And in the
end, despite his reasoned conclusion that right was served, even if not
good, he cannot but return to the bare fact that faces him and calls
into question all his rationalization of motive: that at the end of the
day, what spurs his reflection is the death of a half-orc child that had
done nothing to merit a capital sentence.
-----------------------------------
Title: Quo Vadis? · Author: Tehta · Times: First Age and Prior · ID: 86
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:55:03
Tehta's Salgant usually serves as the moral foil to her Glorfindel and
Ecthelion. Here, he gets his own tale told--or at least its ending.
While Gondolin burns, Salgant, a rather pitiable Nero-figure, finds
himself terrified and unable to face the music, as it were, 'til his own
life is directly under threat. Then even he manages to attain a certain,
pathetic nobility, as the power of elvish song finally finds its proper
end in sending orcs tumbling from their efforts to scale up the walls to
his house, and ends up charming even a dragon (who of course is amused
by the ill fates of his bureaucratic rivals). But it doesn't blossom
into a warrior's final defiance--Salgant's gift isn't to create the
great music of his time that bows to no one; his gift is flattery, and
in the end, that is his final fate--to flatter his captors, and like an
elvish Scheherezade, earn a daily commutation of the sentence of death.
Defintely Tehta's most sympathetic portrayal of Gondolin's least-loved
harpist to date!
-----------------------------------
Title: The Still Point · Author: stultiloquentia · Times: The Great
Years: Gondor · ID: 87
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:55:25
Although I hate the concept of OTP or 'ship or what have you, given my
attachment to Aragorn, this is certainly the one romantic relationship
that is guaranteed to interest me. It is, however, one that is
underwritten, not simply in terms of quantity but most severely and
definitely in terms of quality. Thankfully, Stultiloquentia comes to the
rescue.

It's Midsummer's Day, and the wedding has come and gone and now it's
time to get down to the business of enjoying the night, which entails
some sneaking about for the King and Queen of Gondor. I love the
prelude, the teasing testing of Aragorn's endurance--Arwen shows herself
to have a certain mischievous streak which is very welcome. Stulti gives
us a very poetic first night together, filtered believably through
Arwen's perspective--the meeting and parting of mortal and immortal
desire in the act of love. It's beautifully done without being overdone,
and very satisfyingly erotic without any need to resort to literal
descriptions. Kudos to Stulti for that.

It would be simply a lovely piece of erotica if it ended with the
wedding night, but the fic continues into the next morning, into the
aftermath of that shift in Arwen from immortality to mortality, and the
emotional effect on both Aragorn and Arwen as they confront this new
aspect of her existence--the direct result of their love. Stulti doesn't
allow it to descend into angst, but she gives that moment its proper
weight and ends it with a joke that takes the newlyweds back to where
they began the day: in bed, heedless for a little while of the time, and
so reclaiming a certain mortal aspect of eternity.
-----------------------------------
Title: Was It For This? · Author: Alawa · Genres: Drama: Remembering ·
ID: 88
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:55:50
I remember reading this when it came out as part of the HA onlist
Memorial Day challenge and being blown away. For such a short fic, it
covers a huge space, temporally and psychically, and with such elegance!

Aragorn's relationship to his father, Arathorn, is a major element in
many fics that try to sketch out the making of the man we see in LOTR.
As a young man, newly returned to a home he cannot even remember, the
weight of the paternal legacy must naturally have inspired questions:
who was Arathorn? Why did he leave his young, new family? How should
Aragorn view the forces and obligations that drew him away? How should
he relate to the formative (if buried) events of his life: the death
(and life choices) of his father, which made him an orphan, his mother a
widow, uprooted them both, and condemns Aragorn to follow in Arathorn's
footsteps as a Ranger? Hence the titular question: for what purpose, all
this suffering and confusion? For the scorn of Breelanders? For another
life worn out in unseen, unappreciated service?

Alawa brings us full circle, from the posing of such questions to an
older Aragorn, who has gone searching for answers in Bree, in Rohan,
Gondor, and Harad, and returned to his father's grave to discover that
it is love that binds them to their common paths. Arwen and Gilraen
provide the common reason, ultimately: to be loved, which is to say to
live, to have a life with someone to return to.

Very well done, Alawa!
-----------------------------------
Title: A Message and a Bottle · Author: Larner · Genres: Drama:
Featuring Pippin or Merry · ID: 89
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:56:09
For those needing a bit of cheering, 'Message and a Bottle' may be just
the ticket. There's a lovely, sunshiney feel to the whole story that
says "Fourth Age" to me, and the voices seem right to me for the
hobbits. It's a simple tale: a bottle is sent out, message within, is
received, and sent back. But it's more than that, it's about casting
oneself out into the great void that separates us from those who have
left us behind, only half-hoping (if that) to receive a reply. When the
proof that we are still connected to those departed loved ones, that
they have heard us and can and care to respond to us, comes unexpectedly
home one day, it's a rare, wonderful moment of feeling the universe to
be a whole and beholden to something greater than chance.
-----------------------------------
Title: Four Conversations and A Dream · Author: Forodwaith · Times: The
Great Years: Post-Sauron's Fall · ID: 90
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:56:42
As in all her stories, Forodwaith writes with style, confidence and
precision. Arwen is once more her subject, the giving of her place on
the last ship west to Frodo is the occasion for delving a little into
Arwen's first efforts to grapple with her newly won mortality.

And it is a grappling: Galadriel, Gandalf, Arwen herselfall of them
immortal, yet they struggle with Frodo's fading. Although Arwen ponders
the lack of clarity of mortal dreams and the silencing of the world as
mortality takes hold, immortal sight is no clearer when it comes to the
riddle of mortality and the path to healing, nor could it show Arwen the
full scope of her choice, as she admits when she corrects Frodo. She and
he are both on journeys with no clear end, for all that their
destinations seem clear enough: Valinor, and a grave in Middle-earth.
Arwen's absent mother hovers ever in the background, Celebrian proving
the key to both insight into Frodo's condition and also the cipher that
brings the story to its unsettled ending, marking the limits of insight
into Arwen's own condition.

Satisfyingly enigmatic and elegant, Forodwaith!
-----------------------------------
Title: Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit · Author: Altariel · Genres: Drama:
Gondor Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 91
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:57:06
Back in the dark days of elementary school, my fourth grade teacher read
'Watership Down' to us. We all loved it, and I am certain we secretly
hoped our pet rabbits had fascinating lives and their own language.

So it was a trip down nostalgia lane to see Watership Down crossed with
Lord of the Rings--and it works! Ithilien under threat is not just home
to Faramir's Rangers: as we discover in the chapter 'Of herbs and stewed
rabbit' there are coneys out there. One of the companions of the
unfortunate rabbit that Gollum catches speaks of the darkness of the
land, and the overwhelming sense of evil in terms anyone will recognize
who has read Richard Adams' tale. A great skewed perspective on this
chapter that succeeds in making it feel new--well done, Altariel.
-----------------------------------
Title: Seam of Stone · Author: hossgal · Times: The Great Years · ID: 129
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:58:29
'Seam of Stone' brings together an interesting take on Gimli's role in
the triangle Aragorn/Legolas/Eowyn. You read that right. I'm not much
into Aragorn/Legolas, but hossgal writes lyrically, and she contrives a
fascinating air of complicity and peace, of tension lying just out of
sight behind an adjective or a phrase. The whole story is filled with
crannies and little recesses that lie unseen or only half-seen;
characters move in and out of sight in an Edoras as windswept-clean as
one might image, but which yet holds secrets. The style is wonderful.

Gimli is the keeper of secrets in this story, the disapproving guardian,
who seems as guilty of longing for what is beyond his reach as the
Ranger who seeks the impossible in Legolas. Whether it is Legolas
himself or a distant elven other whose name is never spoken in this
story does not matterwhat matters, so far as Gimli is concerned is that
he does not see Éowyn for the peerless woman that she is... one whom
perhaps even Gimli desires, or else in whom the image of Galadriel he
finds again--Galadriel, who is equally inaccessible to him. Lust and
longing also drift in and out of focus, in and out of shadow though
forever taking place under Shadow, as Gimli notes--it is heard but not
seen directly, but Gimli knows of it, and he keeps it secret, tries
sometimes to keep it bottled.

And he will lie to Éowyn when she comes calling, seeking after Aragorn,
though his heart isn't in it. And he'll advise Legolas not to give to
Aragorn what no friend should ask, and have his advice quietly cut down
as of little import, for when the age itself might end, what, after all,
is a little "missed courtesy" or even a "friend's slight" if it brings
comfort enough to go on?

Troubling in tone, an interesting meditation on the weakness of all
things that end (mountains, dwarves, Men), beautifully written, hossgal
manages (thank God) to bring some complexity to what might have been a
very standard slash scenario without it. It puts some ambiguity into
Aragorn and Legolas that deserves ambivalence; it shows us a Gimli whose
complicity belies the cleanness of his words and makes us wonder whether
he also knows, in thought if not deed, the same fault he takes Legolas
to task for. Even for those who don't care for Aragorn/Legolas slash, as
I tend not to, should give this one a try.
-----------------------------------
Title: Athelas · Author: Waltraute · Times: The Great Years: Gondor ·
ID: 243
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:59:12
Bergil is one of my favorite Gondorian characters, perhaps because he is
so young and irrepressible and out of place in a city under siege. But
he has his own courage and a will to serve where needed, and he does his
duty. Here we see the cost of that duty, as Bergil passes through the
ruins of the City he had known to find the kingsfoil Faramir needs if he
is to live. How he finds that kingsfoil and comes to know of it
introduces us to a marvelous original character, Mumbler, an old, senile
man who every so often goes wandering and comes back with what might
seem to be a useless trinket or weed, but which he tells Bergil is 'foil
for the king.' In a chest that contains rubbish to all other eyes,
Mumbler keeps it - one is reminded of Bilbo's poem, and the line that
from the ashes the fire is brought to life again, referring to Aragorn.
Here, in the rubbish and the waste, that has meaning only for those with
memory, lies the key to salvation for Faramir, and Bergil has to nerve
himself to look for it literally amid the ruins of a dying city.

It is here that he realizes he is not in fact innured to death, not yet,
but he prises the kingsfoil from its tomb and returns with it, to the
reward of knowing that his efforts were not in vain, that Faramir will
live, and the memory of an old man be redeemed.
-----------------------------------
Title: Until the King Returns · Author: Marta · Races: Men: Vignette ·
ID: 540
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 02:59:51
Mardil 'the good steward' is for the most part a name in history,
occasionally appended to one of his descendents. There isn't much to
know about him, other than his surname, 'Voronwe,' said to mean
steadfast, and that he was the first ruling Steward, when he failed to
prevent childless King Earnur from riding off to his doom in Minas Morgul.

This story takes what we know and inverts it. It's a risky tactic--it
does not always succeed, but in this case, I think it does. Mardil
becomes a politician saddled with a Council already jockeying to succeed
Earnur, who neglects his dynastic duty to Gondor in favor of a dangerous
obsession with what is ultimately a personal insult calculated to get
his goat. The king's loyal steward, seeing in both liegelord and fellow
counselors a common pettiness and blindness, such that Gondor is
neglected or else eyed like a prize to be claimed at all costs, even the
cost of possible civil war to win the throne after Earnur's eventual
demise, Mardil makes a political decision. When the challenge comes
again from Minas Morgul, he deliberately fails to restrain Earnur, but
lets him go.

No Earnur means the necessary business of attending to Gondor's needs is
done by one who cares for them properly; no body means an interval of
space for Mardil to consolidate his power and ensure the succession of
Stewards, holding the place of the kingship open, and keeping the throne
clear of claimants who would plunge Gondor into another Kin-Strife. That
includes the claim from the North Kingdom: for Gondor to avoid being
split among factions, in this case, Mardil decides what is needed is a
king permanently in absentia.

He still feels guilt, and wonders whether he has done the right thing,
ultimately. But it's not an angst-fest, which is important: he's a
politician, operating politically, and he cannot allow himself to feel
that sting too much or he might falter and bring down the whole house of
cards. It's a troubling tale of politicking, and an interesting
speculative inversion of what we would normally expect of the House of
Húrin.
-----------------------------------
Title: Dance on the Way Down · Author: Aliana · Races: Men:
Post-Sauron's Fall · ID: 734
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2006-07-26 03:00:28
Aliana has a wonderful ability to evoke tone, and draws her
characters--often nameless, but never faceless for they are always
memorable--deftly, yet quietly. Hobbit-like, their manner of speaking
about hardship tends to heighten the impact because it is not
overstated: things happen, thus and so, yet life goes on.

This is a story of life going on, twenty years after the Ring War. One
gets a sense of the chaos of war, of the boundlessness and limitlessness
it imposed: memory seems very compressed, unnaturally sharp in some
places, dim in others. Not simply time, but everything is out of joint:
there is no more banality to life, but a healer's daily task of binding
up a cut leads to a kiss between total strangers and it doesn't seem
uncalled for; they were too young (and probably too harried) to feel any
shame over it. Later, in the present of the story, they will see and
remember each other, and find that they are now too old to be
embarrassed about it: it's as if they've skipped the middle season of
their lives when things could be common and ordinary.

Instead, it has been twenty years of learning to live with nightmares,
in oneself or in one's spouse, or listening as old songs, with terrible
words, are transformed one day into songs whose lyrics know nothing of
the horror of those days. And that is, one senses, as it ought to be for
these characters, who have seen enough of dying and death and pain to
want to memorialize them in a popular song--let the words go, just as
the kiss is let go in order to cultivate other loves, and shyness is let
go to dance or sing once in a while.

A lovely vignette that once more does honor to the healers and soldiers
of Minas Tirith, Aliana!
-----------------------------------