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Title: Graceful and Green · Author: Alawa · Genres: Drama: Ithilien ·
ID: 62
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-15 19:09:13
The traumatic experience of warfare calls for some of the most
strenuous and difficult works of mourning. It is not just the others
who are lost, but we ourselves as we had been who are lost, and both
losses require to be laid somehow to rest - memorialized.

Mourning and remembrance are the very substance of this stylish story,
with the two hobbit narrators  outside the ranks of those whose
rituals they share in, and yet brought inside them, enabled to
integrate their own loss of self, their own traumatic transformation
from ordinary hobbits of the Shire to the sacrificial deliverers of an
entire world.

Sam's drama is most interesting, and rightly central, I think: the
Sam-Gollum relationship was not only antagonistic, but between it and
the demands of the journey to Mt. Doom, Sam has been brought to see
parts of himself that he did not know existed, parts of himself that
Gollum brought out, and which now have a claim on him in the grieving
process. ["He's still here isn't he?"], Sam asks Mablung, and the whole
story to me turns around what to do with what is still here, and yet
must be in some way left behind.

["Rosemary for remembrance. Isn't that how it goes?"], Frodo says, and
so gives the key to the work undertaken throughout the story, by
various characters as they come to terms with the selves they have left
behind in the crucible of war, the selves they are not yet, and the
many who have been lost.

Title: Truce · Author: meckinock · · ID: 65
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-15 19:09:35
Meckinock has a deft hand at characterization, which is definitely
needed when writing Denethor. Very few Denethors get my attention as
having that combination of haughtiness, confidence, envy, and latent
fragility, all wrapped up in a sharp intellect. Meckinock's does, and
shows himself to have not simply intelligence but a genuine, ironic wit
where appropriate.

Denethor's general dislike of Thorongil, his recognition of an eerily
kindred soul in his least favorite captain, is well portrayed, right
down to the moment of weakness when dislike combines with insistent
curiosity to provoke deception. Denethor is out to learn the truth of
the man, who fascinates him as only a puzzle can, whether mechanical or
living. At the same time, it's a disavowed fascination, but one that
breaks through uneasily at times. No doubt this is why Denethor ends up
on the path to discussion of love lives with Thorongilwell, that, and
the fact that for the moment at least, Thorongil is at his mercy and so
in a way, less threatening.

I'm also quite intrigued by Denethor's characterization of Finduilas 
I've seen many different presentations of her, but this one stands out.
It's only a portrait, and given at one remove, but it is revealing and
also tantalizing. Denethor clearly does know himself and also her, and
knows in some sense that it would be a mistake, perhaps, to marry
herbut as with his little white lie to Thorongil, it is a mistake he
will be unable to avoid.

All this, and there are only two chapters. Hurry up and post more of
it, please! I am curious to know who will make it out alive, in what
the conversation about love will issue, and how Denethor is going to
resolve the fiction his curiosity has landed him in.

Title: A Time for Joy · Author: meckinock · · ID: 66
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-15 19:09:55
Meckinock tends to have an eye for the mortal perspective, and her
Halbarad has always tended to be the representative who gives it its
full due: no longing for what is impossible, nor bitterness that others
have what human beings do not, namely immortality.

Here, we find that Halbarad is the occasion for another airing of that
view, this time from the perspective of his wife. We begin with the
call, the arrival home of riders in the present day, after the Ring
war, but so quickly enter a flashback that the reader finds herself for
a moment out of joint, and then simply moving with the flow of memory:
another ride home, Eirien's fears, and the threatened, fragile
existence the Dúnedain eke out on their long watch, and which she sums
up in the following exchange:

[Pausing only long enough to pull the shutters closed and get a sword
in my hand, I ran for the door&. Three of them carried Halbarad into
the house, moving in discordant unison like some great, multi-limbed
insect. On their heels followed another group carrying my husbands
father. As I turned to follow them, a hand caught my shoulder. It was
one of the sons of Elrond; in the dark I could not tell which one. "The
time for swords is over," he said, and moved to pry mine from my
clenched fingers. "There will be no pursuit."

I stared at him. "The time for swords is never over," I replied, and
went to help the other women fetch bandages and water. ]

There is no reprieve and no time lived outside of watchfulness, of a
sort of waiting on death, which in this instance claims Eirien's
father-in-law but not her husband, despite his wounds. This
lack-of-reprieve, the fact that their time is a time of swords,
dictates a certain attitude towards life and death, towards joy and
grief. Meckinock paints an adept and sensitive picture of these poles
of human lifecompassion in mourning, and the refusal to denigrate it,
or to repress it, even though life goes on, and in the aftermath of
tragedy, there is always much to do. As Eirien puts it, as she sits and
watches over her wounded husband:

[Once we were alone his smile faded and he fell into silence for a
while, grieving for his father, and I held him quietly, happy for the
warmth of his body, the sound of his breathing. I badly wanted to tell
him of the baby, to bring joy into this joyless day, but I held my
tongue. Both Halbarads grief as a son and his joy as a father required
their full due, and should not be mingled in memory lest neither be
clearly recalled.]

One way of approaching this story is to take it up as a sort of
meditation on the Biblical phrase, [To everything there is a season],
including grief and joy. Paradoxically, though there is a season for
all things, Eirien herself, in order to respect the space of death and
life, grief and joy, in others, puts herself out of step with the
proper time. We get perhaps a hint of this in the blurring of times in
the opening of the story, and in the lines quoted above: she takes up
the sword when the moment for swords is past; she holds in joy for the
sake of grief that should be felt in full; and in the end, when her
turn comes to be the widow, she is out of step with the joy of others.

[Truly my grief must be an unwelcome guest at this gathering of joy.
Even Brandol looks guilty, and with bitterness I see that he is as
exuberant as the rest. Of course he is. For him, Halbarad has been dead
for two months or more. The grief of the Grey Company has been steadily
fading, while the promise of this joyous reunion has sustained them
through the journey home and trials so bitter I can scarce imagine
them. They will miss Halbarad, honor him, drink a toast to his courage
and get on with the business of living. It is the way of life.]

And so, as she has ever done, she puts herself out of step with her own
season of grief:

[I resolve for the sake of my husbands love of this people that as I
once held back my joy to give grief its due, so now I will do the same
for joy. ]

But she does it, strangely enough, in an effort to respect a disruption
of the proper order of things. For the king has been crowned, and so
she declares that ["The time for swords is over."]

In the end, it is perhaps Eirien's place to show us that despite there
being a time for all things, it is a human, mortal truth that we are
always out of step with this cosmic or 'proper' time, too early or too
late in our joys and our griefs, that we are in some way condemned to
be untimely creatures. But this untimeliness, which imposes its own
trials, is what makes Eirien a humane character, someone who suffers
and endures and who knows how to take a wound without bitterness, and
so faithful to the essence of a mortal life.

Title: Come Back to Me · Author: Marta · Genres: Romance · ID: 67
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-15 19:10:11
All right, mea culpa  yeah, I put her up to this by requesting
tree-sex with water spirits. It was a moment of desperation. And Marta
answered the call.

I had never thought about exactly how this sort of scenario might work
(that's the beauty of crack!fic nuzgul: *you* don't have to think about
how they might work; that's some other poor sucker's job); and in point
of fact, I try not to. Marta, however, plunged right in and found a way
of writing this story so that not only did the water-spirit/talking
tree dynamics seem plausible and sexy, she made it convincingly work as
a lesbian encounter. This despite the marriage-like arrangements both
Goldberry and Fimbrethil are currently in, despite certain problems and
uncertainties.

In fact, it's because of that uncertainty on Fimbrethil's part that
this relationship becomes possible. That by itself is not necessarily
enough, however, since I've seen any number of slash stories that make
space for the possible without yet taking care of the charge of
"arbitrariness." Why should this *have* to happen, now, and between
these two? What is it that is driving them and that makes this a good
story? It's a sort of branching out (no pun intended) by Fimbrethil,
her efforts to make sense of her situation at the moment, and the need
for companionship that a water-spirit, not truly bound by her form or
her gender, can provide.

Goldberry's own description of her relationship to Bombadil plays on
themes Tolkien wrote for them, but turns them to purposes that do not
as easily find a place in Tolkien's story:

["And what would my love mean," Goldberry asked, "if it came out of
fear or mastery and not from free will? For us children of the West,
love is not such a simple thing as it is for you. Tom and I are
partners, certainly. He brings me lilies and I remind him of all in the
world that is worth saving. But does he love me? My kind does not love
each other as yours do; that is for ents and elves and everything else
made from the bones of Arda. I certainly do not feel bound to him."]

Originally bodiless, there is a sort of boundlessness and bondlessness
to the love of a minor spirit  and this perhaps is precisely what
attracts Goldberry to Fimbrethil, along with, perhaps, the opportunity
to find another thing in the world worth saving.

So give this one a try  it's an unusual look into an obscure chapter
of Middle-earth's history.

Title: Divine Intervention · Author: Meril · Races: Cross-Cultural:
Incomplete · ID: 68
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-15 19:10:30
I had not seen the original poem until this year's Back to Middle-earth
Month, letter "V". I was delighted, and even more so when Meril added a
new verse from Yavanna's point of view.

Meril takes these two Middle-earth semi-divinities and gives them
wonderful, deificially catty personalities -- a sibling rivalry worthy
of and able to last the ages& in free verse poetry, no less. Varda's
poem has the ethereal precision that matches her position as the firer
of stars and cosmic observer: she plays the long game, notices disorder
in one time and place and redeems it in another time and place. Her art
is perfection, and there's a satisfying coolness to this poem  like
cut glass.

For Yavanna's poem, however, Meril takes the divine and the earthy and
combines them to yield a luscious, insouciant, mercurial mood, all
overlaid with the sleepiness of an ancient forest. Where Varda's verse
is cool, Yavanna's is all summertime warmth. Her divine sister is shone
in a less favorable light, and the mortal that commonly interests them
is subjected not to the even balances of inscrutable divinity, but to
the caprice of an irate, playfully vengeful spirit, whose love changes
with the seasons. Yavanna is the wildness that ancient societies used
to fear in elemental goddesses, and Meril captures this perfectly,
leading us to wonder: just what would happen in Middle-earth if Yavanna
were awake more often?

Title: The Sword of Elendil · Author: Gandalfs apprentice · Genres:
Drama: Incomplete · ID: 69
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-15 19:10:46
I got hooked on this story by the promise of a sustained telling of the
story of Aragorn's return to the Dúnedain, after his long stay under
the faery hill, as it were. It's been a lot of fun to watch it unfold 
Aragorn has that mixture of confidence, but also of doubt, and of
displacement as he returns 'home' to a place he has never known. It is
a coming of age story that is slowly unfolding towards the man Aragorn
must become.

Naturally, therefore, throughout the story, the shadow of Aragorn's
father lies heavily upon him: Arathorn is the ghost standing at his
shoulder, like an ethereal yardstick against whom he is measured by men
who had served his father, and who have had to struggle to keep the
Dúnedain alive in the absence of the Heir. That Aragorn and his mother
have been completely inaccessible to even Gilraen's family does not
help, for it has bred wariness and bitterness against Elrond among the
Dúnedain. When all one has of one's real father is a name and a
standard, whereas one's adoptive father has all the substance of
reality and much to do with the man one is, this sort of conflict is
both painful and difficult to handle.

At the same time, Aragorn is struggling to come to terms with his
tempestuous relationship with Arwen, trying to balance between the love
he desperately hopes may await him in the future and the past that
propels him onward, whatever he might desire. Halbarad's companionship
through it all is both welcome to readers who love the idea of
exploring that relationship further, and provides a unique viewpoint on
Aragorn, since all the other characters with whom Aragorn interacts are
either much older or else much younger than he is. Halbarad is a peer,
and their different lives provide another sense of the difference
between Rivendell and the Angle.

So, Ranger fans  give this story a read through, I think you'll enjoy
it.

Title: The Dryad · Author: Imhiriel · Times: Late Third Age: 3018-3022
TA: General Drabble · ID: 71
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-15 19:11:01
Drabbles are so very touch and go  one wrong word, and it can throw
the whole thing off for me.

This drabble tackles a single suggestive line in Tolkien's work, and
transforms it into a story of the essence of Ithilien. I love the
opening, with its three quick words that seem to make "Ithilien" just
another word * for * abundance and beauty.

The dryad who emerges as Ithilien's last defender, growing more shrubby
and earthy with the passing years, bringing color and new greenery to
the land, is a wonderful character. She is as stubborn as a weed in
refusing to give up the fight for her home, and although I just said
she seems to grow shrubbier with the years, she also paradoxically
seems to lose a bit of her substance as she goes about, slinking from
root to root. It's a long, hard fight, and she gives in the manner that
I imagine plants do  unstintingly, and perhaps not without cost, dryad
though she is. Her affinity for our favorite Ithlien Ranger is
unsurprising  she recognizes a kindred soul in him, someone to
protect, in order that he, too, could protect her home.

A lovely, imaginative piece, Imhiriel!

Title: Seen in the Halls of Dwarrowdelf · Author: Aruthir · Races:
Dwarves · ID: 73
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-15 19:11:19
I read this story on the strength of another reviewer's well-chosen
quotations, and felt I had been well-rewarded for following the link.
Desire and darkness come together here, and transmute into a kind of
obsession that leads to the death of an entire civilization.

Aruthir's look into the heart of the Dwarven soul, in its desire to
know, to master, and to create is effective, but I especially like the
point of view. The poem is a sort of warning from beyond the crypt, the
ghosts of Dwarven miners chanting their litany of foolishness,
self-reproach, in a sort of sign-post to travelers, as the poem itself
says: beware!

Sometimes, writers attempt this perspective and it just comes off flat,
as if we can see a little too well the pretense; this effort I think
works. Perhaps it is in part because it's a little too tempting to
apply the lesson to contemporary situations; perhaps it is the poetic
stylization, which I quite like. Whatever it is, it works very well to
keep this feeling genuinely eerie. Give it a try!

Title: A Boy and His Lob · Author: Ignoble Bard · Genres: Humor · ID:
162
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-15 19:11:42
"Charlotte's Web" is one of my childhood favorites  it's almost an
inherited taste. My mother used to read it to the first-grade students
she taught thirty years ago, and would get all teary-eyed and weepy
about poor, self-sacrificing Charlotte.

Imagine my surprise to find this story, which is sort of like
"Charlotte's Web," except crazier and with more sexual innuendo (or,
you know, *any* sexual innuendo). I know someone out there in fandom
has written a story about Legolas taming one of the spiders of
Mirkwood, but this takes it one step further: Legolas acquires his very
own arachnid pet, on which he lavishes affection, though of course he
doesn't tell anyone about the spider. In Mirkwood, having a pet spider
is probably like owning a pet skunk that hasn't been de-skunked 
likely to get you run out of town and the pet taken away to a Tragic
Fate.

Anyhow, Legolas discovers that his pet is smarter than it looks, and is
able to make webs that have words in them  words it has heard Legolas
say, no matter how inflammatory or revealing. I'm sure readers can
imagine the comic potential this sort of pet brings with it&

In any case, IgnobleBard's sense of humor shines through in all its
irreverent glory  this story is maybe not for the kids, but for
everyone else who's ever loved "Charlotte's Web" and laughed 'til it
hurt over a parody of a favorite book, you might give this one a try.

Title: Regrets and Consolations · Author: Mews1945 · Genres: Drama:
Youth · ID: 430
Reviewer: HonNVin · 2007-06-15 19:20:28
Oops! I'd left the review in the other section... uhh...
Well, I'll say here what I said there... this story is just full of
vibrant, colorful visuals, as is always with Mews' work. She paints us
a perfect picture of a mother's thoughts and emotions. It's written
with finesse and clarity, ending on a sweet note. Love it, I do. :)

Title: Mettarë · Author: Galadriel · Races: Men · ID: 34
Reviewer: annmarwalk · 2007-06-16 09:01:07
By the blood of our people are your lands kept safe,  Boromir cries
out, in anger and frustration, in the film version of The Fellowship
of the Ring. Many authors have focused upon his jealousy and suspicion
of Aragorn, but Galadriel instead has chosen to examine Boromir's
carefully veiled despair for his people, and how Aragorn is able to
provide him an unexpected measure of comfort and reassurance.

It is Mettarë, the midwinter holiday, and the hobbits are trying to
recreate in Rivendell at least a semblance of what they would be
experiencing at home. Boromir watches wryly, torn between condescension
and envy, comparing his own recent experiences in winter campaigns to
the unconcerned celebrations common in less troubled lands. He expects
Aragorn to commiserate with him, as a fellow warrior, and is startled
and somewhat insulted when Aragorn instead joins the halflings to sing
an ancient Mettarë hymn. (The imagery that this always brings to me is
that of the Psalmist: How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign
land? When will the anthems of Numenor be sung again in Gondor?) Even
though the words of the song are strange to Boromir, the ages-old
message of death and rebirth and hope are clear.

The story ends with Boromir begging Aragorn to sing the song again, a
powerful depiction of the beginning of his empathy for his companions,
and his growing acceptance of Aragorn's lineage and leadership.

Title: Burning Son · Author: Aruthir · Times: Mid Third Age: 2851 -
3017 TA · ID: 436
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-16 15:44:24
This set of inter-connected vignettes falls into two halves for me. The
first is a portrait of Wulf, in his relationship to his father and the
destiny he believes is his. It provides a certain framing for what I
think is the second part, but also in many ways the heart of the story:
namely, the story of how wars end, and the relationship that the end of
war has with those who began it.

Wulf is a classic megalomaniac, with an eye that is sharp where the
weakness of his father is concerned, but blind where he himself is
concerned (a trait he seems to share with his father, though he does
not recognize this). Freca, the drastically overmatched challenger of
Helm, was a fool in the eyes of his son, but a fool who made one worthy
gesture: he dared to try to give more to his son than he himself had.
Wulf therefore treats the invasion of Edoras as a moment vengeful
justice -- the accomplishment of his father's dream at the hands of the
more worthy son.

When the tables finally turn, and the Rohirrim return to drive Wulf and
his people from the city, Wulf is paralyzed by failed dreams. He has
failed to mold the wills of his people into a conquering force that
would bring all Rohan into his grasp; he has failed to rule
effectively. He claims that all common concerns - such as cold and fear
- are beneath him, and he exacts the ultimate price from those about
him who, as it were, feel these things on his behalf. His is the end of
a MacBeth, if we follow Levinas's reading: Wulf's greatest pain is that
the world does not end when he does - that his own callous defiance
(his madness, as others, even his own people call it) of the world is
not in the end the sustainer of the world, so that destroying him does
not bring down darkness.

We see this point driven home, among others, in the second part, where
we discover how the war ended. Helm's daughter and her warriors come
upon Wulf's wounded young cousin, Reth, alone. The lad does try to defy
them, but Feanwen convinces him to put down his sword, with the fateful
words: ["In another world, we could have been friends. In another
world, I could have been your Queen. Put down your sword."]

And the boy at last does. But when he does, and Feanwen approaches, he
discovers that he, too, has a blind spot, just as his cousin did. But
where his cousin's blindness concerned his own invulnerability and
greatness, Reth's blindness is the blindness that marks a man still
human - he trusts that the enemy, too, can weary of war, can act
sincerely towards another, and so discovers the kernel of truth falsely
presented in Feanwen's words. War ends with the extermination of all
those who could raise it again - the cousin of Wulf, one imagines,
could not be allowed to live, for he might become a symbol, and a spur
to action - if not of his own will, of the will of others who dream as
Wulf does and wish, through the chance position that others have
occupied, to advance their own vainglorious wishes.

The world doesn't end with Wulf, but he would have been most affronted
to learn that not even the war ended with him - that it ended with a
cousin he would have deemed too weak to be allowed to live (and who,
alas, was slain by taking advantage of that 'weakness'). This, Aruthir
intimates, is the price for the innocence of the children of Rohan, who
listen to the loremaster's tales of this time without understanding
their significance.

And sadly, while the war may have ended, wars continued - we know that
in the Third Age, the Dunlendings will rise again to continue the cycle
of hatred. So Wulf's cousin, in a sense, dies in vain - and Feanwen's
honor, too, is wrecked for no reason. Who knows what might have
happened had trust won the day in that one moment? Might history have
been different? Who knows?

Title: The Essence of Fire · Author: Rhapsody · Genres: Drama: General
Drabble · ID: 278
Reviewer: TrekQueen · 2007-06-16 17:14:40
I get shivers each time I read over this drabble! The inner monologue
is so true to the "fire within" from intense Curufin. I love how you
describe it as an element that is a part of every fiber of his being
and experiences. Ambition, love, anger, revenge... so many themes here
all down to the one moment he sees the flames of the ships. Intense!

Title: Property Rights · Author: Salsify · Races: Cross-Cultural · ID:
74
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-16 18:55:01
Salsify's Dwarves are always a wonderful read: she captures their sense
of place and displacement, their sense of the importance of belonging
and of belongings.

Here, we have the confrontation between Thorin and Bard at Erebor
redone, so as to examine what might have been driving each one. Old
history, barely a note in the Appendices, is brought to bear in the
form of ancestral tales passed down among Men and Dwarves, but passed
down differently.

Bard, frantic to protect his people from weather and starvation after
the destruction the dragon had wrought, can think only of the way the
Dwarves approached Fram: demanding goods, taking, apparently, no heed
of the fact that Fram had risked his life to rid them of the dragon,
and surely deserved recompense. Instead, Fram was slain by the Dwarves,
who were outraged with what he was willing to give them. Thus he comes
to the negotiation wary already, needing recognition first from the
Dwarves that he has a claim on their treasure as the dragon-slayer, and
also as the newly-made king of the destitute people of Esgaroth.

Thorin, however, remembers the story of Fram and the Dwarves
differently: coming out of the tradition of craftsmen, who had poured
their labor into the creation of the treasures of Erebor, the problem
is not the greed of Dwarves but the glory-besotted, might-makes-right
attitude of Men, who are blind to the sort of careful work of the
craftsmen and the way that such work connects it to its maker. It is
the craftsman who owns the goods, and the family when he dies, owns the
memory of what he was in the goods that are passed down. These are not
merely things that are useful or decorative; they are a record of
generations of labor and skill and identity.

Thus the meeting is at an impasse before ever the first words are
spoken  not out of ill-will or any particular malice, arrogance, or
greed, but out of caution, out of different ways of understanding the
connection of persons and things that never are given an explicit
voice.

It's a wonderful look at cross-cultural misunderstanding, which
requires a solid portrayal of each side of the dispute, and Salsify
delivers. Recommended for any fan of "The Hobbit," of Dwarves, or of
Bardings and little-explored corners of Middle-earth.

Title: The Turn of the Tide · Author: Altariel · Genres: Alternate
Universe: Gondor or Rohan · ID: 72
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-16 21:15:23
Once upon a time in Tolkien fandom, there was a real 'thing' in the
Alternate Universe category, for substituting Faramir for Boromir on
the quest. Obviously, the real killer would be the Parth Galen scene 
if Faramir is immune to temptation, then just what would happen there?
How would the quest go forward? How would he and Frodo get along? He
and Aragorn? Would Denethor go out in a despairing blaze if Boromir
were in 'safe' in Gondor? All these questions were certainly waiting to
be explored, and quite frankly, once I encountered Altariel's work, I
expected she would eventually succumb and write her own version.

Well, it's been several years since that initial reading of "Fire
Sermon," but finally, here we have it! Faramir goes to Imladris in
Boromir's stead!

Except, you almost miss it in the opening paragraphs  it isn't until a
little later that you realize that 'the Steward's son' isn't Faramir,
but Boromir, and then we see the unique focus Altariel brings to this
AU scenario: the relationship that is set up between Eowyn and
Denethor.

At this point, obviously Eowyn is at a low point herself: she has slain
the Witch-king, but that has not made her feel any less the prisoner.
She is, in many ways, Denethor's match  two people badly scarred by
their encounter with the Enemy's malice. And so there is the danger of
a new mauling, on one side or the other, for badly wounded people are
not always safe to be around.

I love the way Altariel aligns youth and anger, and the confused
uncertain defiance of fate over against the hardness and bitterness of
age that knows too much. I also love the way that Eowyn's swift meeting
and loving of Aragorn is effectively redirected: a chance encounter
with Faramir on his ride north to Imladris is all it takes to impel her
towards Gondor, when there seems to her to be no hope beyond simply
seeing the land for which Faramir may well have given all.

The relationship with Boromir in the first part of the story, as we
learn how Eowyn met and loved Faramir, and how she came to Gondor, is
beautiful in its spareness  a virtue Eowyn gives to Boromir, which
strikes me as fitting in its way. It raises so many questions that must
be left unanswered, suggests so much that will not be fleshed out in
this vignette, and so leaves one with the sense of loss and worry for
Boromir, who seems also to have been hurt along the way, though free of
the Ring's spell, he lacks the drivenness of bookverse!Boromir. Anyone
who has wondered what Boromir might have been like had he not gone on
that quest should definitely read this story!

Actually, anyone who loves the Steward's family of Gondor should read
this, or who finds Eowyn an interesting character. It's a lovely AU,
done in very few words, none of them wasted. Beautiful work, Altariel!

Title: Reflections of the Past · Author: shirebound · Genres: Alternate
Universe: The Shire or Buckland · ID: 359
Reviewer: Mews1945 · 2007-06-17 21:42:41
The story takes place in the author's "Quarantined" universe, and
introduces a new character: a puppy named Scamp, who becomes as fully
rounded and known as the other characters in the story. There is
humour, tenderness, even a bit of adventure with the discovery of a
treasure in Bag End that has nothing to do with Smaug's treasure. The
find is amazing, and believable, in the author's capable hands, and
leaves the reader wishing to be able to descend the stairs to Bag End's
deepest cellar, and view the ancient and precious beauty which resides
there. A gentle pleasure of a read.

Title: Wings · Author: ErinRua · Genres: Romance: With Rohirrim · ID: 9
Reviewer: Marta · 2007-06-17 22:07:08
This was a really nice story. It's nice to see Eomer out of his
element, but he seems to adapt well. Nice start to a long friendship
between him and Imrahil.

Title: Alone and Forsaken · Author: Linaewen · Genres: Drama: Vignette
· ID: 466
Reviewer: agape4gondor · 2007-06-18 13:50:50
'Brilliant!"

I could have cried at the paragraph about Aragorn and the City...
omg... wonderful writing... Indeed, it felt as if Aragorn WAS
belittling all Gondorians... because Boromir was unaware of the
Rangers' part in the battle should have been used to help him see, not
to berate him!
And the ending was perfect.... Though It is sad to know how the whole
thing ends! Though I almost choked on the last line - so incredibly sad
- he needed every ounce of strength to help him battle the Ring!
Again BRAVO - briliant!

Title: A Message And A Bottle · Author: Larner · · ID: 467
Reviewer: agape4gondor · 2007-06-18 14:21:50
Excellent - I had such fun reading that I noticed nothing but the story
- which is the best way to read. I stink as a reviewer of details... I
had to read through tears at the part in the tavern... and when Frodo
found the bottle. And the tension you created as the returned bottle
was opened by Sam - intense and wonderful. Milky tea - I loved it! The
burned vineyard - yes - a good vine can live through anything - as I
found out just this past week while visiting a vineyard in New Zealand!
Wonderful tale!!!!!!!!!!

Title: Longing · Author: Larner · Times: Fourth Age and Beyond · ID: 468
Reviewer: agape4gondor · 2007-06-18 14:31:15
An excellent tale - gripped me from the moment I started reading.. I
loved your thoughts on lembas, leaving loved ones, and all kinds of
such... I just re-read it before sending it off for nomination and,
again, found myself in tears as I read your description of Pippin's
longing. It spoke of so much - the feelings were raw - Brilliantly
written part... Thanks for sharing this.

Title: South · Author: Aliana · · ID: 469
Reviewer: agape4gondor · 2007-06-18 14:45:59
This was beautiful - hauntingly peaceful, yet poignant. It all means
very much to me. Beautiful.

Title: Marking Fours · Author: Raksha the Demon · Times: Multi-Age:
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 1
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-18 20:37:53
The connecting theme of four and father-son relationships works well in
these (appropriately) four drabbles. Faramir comes full circle,
achieving in the final drabble, in the presence of his own son, what he
could not in the first of the four: grief for his father. In between
there is forgetfulness and an almost-defiant indifference towards
Denethor: as Faramir discovers he loves Eowyn, he forgets himself; and
as he begins to make the first steps towards a new life with her, he
puts his old one aside, and Denethor and all of the concerns he can
imagine his father might have about this new life, are among those
things set aside. But grief eventually does have its day, as Faramir
begins a new chapter in his new life that recalls the old one in ways
that cannot be ignored or set to one side  it is in Elboron that he is
reminded that he himself was once someone's son, and is finally able to
grieve for his father. Nicely done, Raksha! Faramir and Denethor fans
should like these.

Title: Blooded · Author: Raksha the Demon · Genres: Drama: Youth · ID: 3
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-18 20:38:22
Faramir's first experience of warfare is one I have seen done before,
but a well-written 'first blood' story is always a welcome addition to
the fanfic corpus (no pun intended). Faramir here is contrasted with
Boromir, and there is an interesting element of deceit implied here,
when Faramir silently and accusingly thinks that Boromir should have
told him what it would really be like to kill another person. He feels
the mismatch of pride and horror  his pride attaches to his own
survival, but he can only feel numbed and horrified by the slaughter of
his enemies. I love in particular Faramir's horrified memory of his
enemy's death, of ["the quivering end of him."] I found that an apt
turn of phrase. And the fear that finally haunts Faramir seems
appropriate, the sort of thing that might well haunt someone newly come
to war in the lull after the first battle, as well as suited to Faramir
in particular.

Title: Beneath a Gibbous Moon · Author: Bodkin · Races: Cross-Cultural
· ID: 4
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-19 05:47:05
These conversational vignettes link together nicely over generations,
as Man and Elf ponder similar questions of hope and acceptance of fate,
of faith and necessity. The first one, between Elros and Oropher is in
many ways the most interesting to me: Elros's sense of his place in the
world, and of the relationship between all bodily beings and the Valar
is dead on the money, I think, and it is interesting that youth and
mortality should teach something to elven age and immortality. Yet I
think it is exactly the sort of lesson that a mortal creature can,
potentially, understand far better than one for whom death is an
unnatural fate.

By the time we reach Legolas, the general flow of advice goes in the
other direction, from Legolas to Aragorn, although the there is a
common sense of trying to come to terms with what may come, with the
chances of fate and possibly of divine intervention.

The middle episode marks an interesting interlude in that it seems to
me at least that both Man and Elf share a common self-confidence, in
many ways, or a trust in the wisdom and abilities of one's * own *
species or abilities that marks both Isildur and Thranduil, and which
sets that set of interactions apart from the other two, where, despite
the fact that lessons are learned, there is a greater sense of the
universality of the struggle and frustration with fate.

An interesting set of vignettes, all told.

Title: The Waves' Song · Author: Branwyn · Genres: Drama: General
Drabble · ID: 6
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-06-19 05:55:02
Elegantly crafted, as is usual with Branwyn's fics and ficlets, this
drabble gives a grey, lonely image of Arwen at the end of her life.
There's a sense of a return to the elemental, a disintegration as Arwen
stands in the face of a storm beneath Lorien's boughs, with her hair
streaming out behind her. I love the opening line: ["Winter swept from
the north on grey gull wings."] For some reason, authors can basically
buy me for a line or two with seagulls in it  I don't know why. But
this was lovely, as is the notion that in the winter winds that make
the trees sway, there's a hint of the sound of the sea that suggests
that Arwen shall soon, as it were, 'go home.'