Yahoo Forum Archive

Title: Beneath a Gibbous Moon · Author: Bodkin · Races: Cross-Cultural
· ID: 4
Reviewer: Jay of Lasgalen · 2007-07-20 20:23:35
Wow - this was brilliant, Bodkin - perhaps your best yet. I'd come to
the conclusion that it *couldn't* be Legolas and Aragorn, or you
wouldn't have been so vague - but I never guessed Thranduil and
Isildur. That gives the story a whole new layer of sadness for them
both, because we know what happens. Very, very well done.


A tomorrow built on Hope as well.

Poor Aragorn is so despondent - knowing there is such a very slim
chance of any of them surviving, and knowing that he brought them all
here. He's right, it takes a special kind of courage to face almost
certain death against such odds.

Legolas is very elvish here - so calm and accepting, at peace with
whatever will happen despite his regrets and might-have beens. It would
be good to have someone like that at your side, I think.

Title: Great Oaks · Author: Bodkin · Genres: Romance · ID: 319
Reviewer: Jay of Lasgalen · 2007-07-20 20:38:06
I love it when other people have birthdays! There is such a rush of
wonderful stories for us all to enjoy.

I simply loved Thranduil here. He seems so very elfy - yet quite
different to the Silvan elves. I like the way they simply up sticks and
move, without leaving a trace behind.

Love at first sight - that seems very elfy too. The moment Thranduil
saw the face among the leaves, I knew who she was, and that he was
lost.

The ending was great. I loved Faroth's astonishment when this totally
unknown elleth appears, and Thranduil immediately asks her to marry
him!


Title: Day and Night · Author: Peredhil lover · Genres: Drama: Youth ·
ID: 190
Reviewer: Jay of Lasgalen · 2007-07-20 20:43:22
Poor Elrohir. His desperate determination to reach his brothers is
driving aside all his own exhaustion and pain - no wonder Glorfindel is
so concerned. I'm not surprised that Elrohir ignored him though, and
I'm glad Glorfindel saw the sense in a compromise. Trying to reason
with either of the twins at a time like this seems a *very* wasted
effort!

I loved the final scene with E3 all sleeping peacefully. Very nice, and
very sweet.

Title: Fell and Fair · Author: Elena Tiriel · Genres: Adventure:
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 526
Reviewer: Jay of Lasgalen · 2007-07-20 20:50:33
This is wonderful! I love the idea of a series of drabbles from
different POVs before, during, and after the battle. You chose such
unusual characters, too - the widow, the wolf, and the warg for
instance, which make this so interesting.

Most of all I love the legend of the Grey Ghostriders sweeping to the
rescue before riding off again. A pity they weren't there for Eomund.

***

["She is our grandmother."]

*Grin*

I wish I could have seen Eorl's face at that!

I love this collection of drabbles - and the subject matter. I really
liked the twins' appearance described from the horse's POV.

Thank you for this wonderful update! There are two parts I particularly
love - Galadriel's musings on the fate of the males in her family,
destined to be warriors; and Elrohir's thoughts as they cross the
Anduin that all their training was focused on that moment. It's a
chilling thought.

I love the lembas blessing too - the qualities and strengths it confers
seem to sum up the twins so well!


Title: Lighting Fires · Author: Gwynnyd · Genres: Adventure: Pre-Ring
War · ID: 95
Reviewer: Jay of Lasgalen · 2007-07-20 22:42:17
I felt very sorry for Estel here - he tried so hard and didn't give up,
but he still couldn't solve the problem. He should have asked Elrohir
to start with - his brother was injured, but not unconscious; and he
has far greater experience.

Estel is learning some harsh lessons - like the one about leaving
injured companions till last to ensure the message gets through. Mind
you, I can't see either of the twins abandoning the other in these
circumstances!

Elrohir was too hard on Estel. Yes, it was an important lesson he had
to learn, but he's only 11! It was funny when Estel began to argue the
point Elrohir had been making though :)

This has been a lovely tale. I like anything with the twins, but this
one with just Elrohir and Estel was a refreshing change.

Title: A Queen Among Farmers' Wives · Author: Imhiriel · Genres: Humor:
Drabble · ID: 635
Reviewer: Raksha the Demon · 2007-07-21 19:00:38
A very jolly drabble about Farmer Maggot's cheerful return from a night
of pleasant inebriation with Tom Bombadil and Mrs. Maggot's initially
less than cheerful greeting. [Ring a dong dillo!] indeed!

Quite well written and down-to-earth - I could easily see it happening
in Tolkien's Middle-earth.



Title: Stricken From the Book · Author: Larner · Genres: Drama: The
Shire · ID: 348
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:13:43
I love Larner's hobbits  they are so solid and real, and occasionally,
grumpy, as Benlo Bracegirdle is! Benlo Bracegirdle, who seems to be a
rather sour, not terribly pleasant or congenial fellow, for all he
appears to be staunchly honest and scrupulous, is tasked with the
equally unpleasant job of overseeing the legal business left behind by
the demise of Lobelia and her son Lotho. It is quite the mess! Lobelia,
trying to right a few wrongs, has left, as we know from the books, all
her assets to be used to help the hobbits made homeless and harmed by
the Occupation. This leads to all sorts of funny legal business, with
some trying to claim redress for things that never happened, and all
manner of shady Sackville-Baggins dealings that have now to be
addressed by the survivors and the struggling acting-Mayor, Frodo.

The striking out of names from the family book is less central, in many
ways, than the Benlo-Frodo relationship, although it is, ironically,
Benlo who might well have put the idea in Frodo's head. Broken families
and broken spirits sometimes try to cast out parts of themselves in an
effort to escape the trauma.

Benlo and Frodo aren't friendly  but as the story goes on, and the
toll of the Ring on Frodo's spirit becomes more and more evident, Benlo
begins to warm to him. We see, through his eyes, and his shock as he
begins to learn, little by little, just what Frodo and Sam and the
others actually did in the last few years, resonates painfully with the
line in RoTK, where Sam laments to himself that no one seems to know
Frodo's story, or to appreciate him as he deserves. A few loyal
lieutenants do  Isumbard and Berilac, Rose and a few others  but
Benlo (and many like him) have not the faintest notion. As Benlo
becomes acquainted with what Frodo has endured, he becomes, quietly,
one of his supporters, if from a distance.

A satisfying story, Larner!


Title: Requesting Mercy · Author: Larner · Genres: Drama: The
Fellowship · ID: 681
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:14:07
When Frodo woke up at Rivendell, and heard what Gandalf had to tell him
about the effects of a Morgul-blade, he was extremely grateful that at
the time, he had not known what he faced.

Larner, however, gives Frodo the knowledge, gleaned from Aragorn's
hesitant, reluctant (and highly edited) explanation of what
Morgul-blades do to their victims, and how he knows of their effects.
Poor Frodo, on top of facing a strangely colorless world, save for the
differently colored auras his friends are beginning to show, and severe
pain, cold, and lassitude, now has to deal with the ultimate choice:
should his struggle against the Morgul-blade fragment take a definitive
turn for the worse, will he become a wraith or will he ask for mercy
and a quick death? And if the latter, who should be entrusted with the
task?

While I'm not quite sure I buy Frodo's reasoning for excluding Aragorn,
who has, after all, done this before for other mortally-stricken
comrades, the interesting debate is the choice between Sam and Merry.
We also find that Frodo can and does have a will of his own, and one
that he will successfully oppose to even future kings  he has a
ruthless side, in the way he gets Sam to agree to take responsibility
for ensuring Frodo never becomes a wraith and that Aragorn isn't
required to step in.


Title: If You Should Die Before I Wake · Author: PipMer · Genres:
Drama: With Merry · ID: 277
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:14:40
The Fields of Cormallen, post-Black Gate and pre-celebration, seem to
be a popular story locale for those who like stories about the hobbits.
PipMer shows us Merry's journey to Cormallen and anxious waiting by
Pippin's bedside. I liked the way Gandalf's voice was used early in a
letter to set up the situation, and the notion that the Black Breath
lingers, even after the downfall of Sauron, is intriguing. Poor Merry,
for a little while absolutely certain Pippin had died because unable to
distinguish dream from reality!

Title: Mushrooms · Author: claudia6032000 · Genres: Drama: The
Fellowship · ID: 561
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:15:09
This is one of those misadventures that could all too easily have
occurred, and it is a credit to Claudia's descriptive skill that I felt
vaguely ill myself after reading this, and then went hunting for
information on mushrooms. The fruit of this research has been a firm
resolve never to eat any mushroom that was not grown in a mushroom
farm, for they seem entirely too likely to be poisonous!

I do wonder what poor Frodo ended up eating, though. Given the symptoms
and the time delay, I have to wonder whether he shouldn't have needed
some sort of organ transplant before the end of it! Ugh! The failure to
warn against picking foreign mushrooms, however familiar they may seem,
is one of those little things that slip the mind, to everyone's regret
 I am sure it is an episode our heroes will not forget for some time!


Title: Where There's Life, There's Hope (and in need of vittles) ·
Author: annmarwalk · Genres: Drama: Gondor Drabble · ID: 463
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:15:38
I think this will resonate more if one knows annmarwalk's Mag the Cook,
but even for those who do not, there's something primordially joyful
about the idea that after such an ordeal as Aragorn and Minas Tirith
have endured, the scent of a cook's ordinary activity should bring hope
and relief. In all the chaos and horror after battle, when one is most
exhausted and disoriented, the idea that somewhere, someone is carrying
out the ordinary task of cooking a meal can be a sign of the endurance
of the human spirit.

Title: Answers and Questions · Author: Peredhil lover · Genres: Drama:
Youth · ID: 189
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:16:12
The Elladan-Elrohir influence on young Estel's life is often the
subject of fanfiction, either tangentially or directly. Usually, I have
seen the twins acting together, in accord with each other on how to
care for and train their mortal adoptive brother. Peredhil Lover
presents a twist on that, giving Elladan and Elrohir distinctly
different approaches to Estel  so different, Estel can't recognize
Elladan's reaction as remotely stemming from love.

Elrohir's explanation, coming at a pivotal moment for a young man of
Aragorn's lineage and station, seems to blend with a general
coming-of-age, where responsibility and knowledge are both taken up in
a way for the first time.


Title: Blessed by Ilúvatar · Author: White Wolf · Genres: Drama: Elves
in Later Ages · ID: 485
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:16:40
White Wolf shows us the labor and loss of the Elves of Mirkwood,
toiling against the Shadow and losing their sons to its malice. Even
the royal family is not immune, as we begin the story at the funeral of
one of Thranduil's sons.

What we discover from this, and from the long, hard watches, and the
many other funerals that must be attended, is that Legolas is the
result of Thranduil's wife's desire for a new child. Not to replace the
lost brother, but there is a sense in which it is Narilal's death that
prompts that desire and gives the royal couple the will to act upon it.


Title: Stone of the King · Author: Rowan · Races: Hobbits: Drabble ·
ID: 309
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:17:06
An excellent moment in Frodo's development. Rowan gives a plausible
voice to the Ringbearer, as he begins truly to appreciate just how
heavy the burden of the Ring can be. One wonders what Frodo must have
thought of Isildur, and as he passes the Argonath, Rowan takes the
opportunity to show us, and to show us Frodo's essential compassion.
Feeling the weight of the Ring and its treacherous ways of worming into
the hearts of its bearers, he cannot find it in him to condemn Isildur,
despite all that has come from Isildur's failure to destroy the Ring.
Perhaps only another Ringbearer can have so visceral an identification
with Elendil's doomed son and accept just how little choice the Ring
leaves its bearers.

Title: Erestor and Estel: Hidden · Author: Pentangle · Genres: Drama:
Youth · ID: 167
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:17:31
A cute little vignette, featuring a confrontation between and young and
active Estel and a serious scribe of Imladris. Nice banter between the
two, and despite Erestor's frustrations with Estel, we note that he
seems to know exactly how to handle him, suggesting that he has spent
more time with Estel than one would expect, given his rather forbidding
demeanor. Even other Elves are not quite so wise to Erestor's ways as
one young boy, apparently. But in some sense, that doesn't matter: the
important point is that Estel knows Erestor well enough to befriend
him.

Title: Divided · Author: Pen52 · Genres: Drama: The Fellowship · ID: 223
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:18:38
Pen52 takes up the difficult topic of prejudice, division, and
forgiveness, using Pippin, Aragorn, and Boromir to good effect in this
interlude within the Mines of Moria.

It begins innocently enough with Pippin's enthusiastic (and
never-ending, it seems, harking back to Gandalf' comment in TTT)
questions to Boromir about the Swertings, aka the Southrons and
Haradrim, as Aragorn is forced to explain when it seems that Boromir
initially does not recognize the name. Pippin, of course, is simply
curious  wanting to know who they are, whether Boromir has ever
encountered any of them, how they dress, what they look like, how they
talk. Boromir is quite clearly taken aback, and one begins to wonder
whether his initial failure to respond to Pippin did not have more to
do with his consternation that light-hearted Pippin should have any
interest in the Haradrim than with any failure to understand the
reference.

This episode serves to highlight the fact that Men, unlike hobbits (so
far as Pippin and the others are aware), face the Enemy divided, with
some bowing to Sauron and others refusing him. Nor is this the only
division among Mankind, for where Aragorn refuses a wholesale
condemnation of the Haradrim, pitying the many who are moved by fear
rather than love of their master, and by fear of Gondor, rather than
anything else, Boromir cannot see beyond their service to the Dark
Lord. Whatever their motives, those motives cannot excuse their
opposition in Boromir's eyes, nor cover over Gondor's dead.

Had Boromir lived to be Aragorn's steward, one wonders what would have
become of this division between them over the Haradrim. It seems clear
from the way Pen52 ends the story that a cure and rapprochement would
have been hard to come by: there is something about killing your own
kind that wounds the killer, as Aragorn intimates. There is something
lethal in the very divisiveness of war between Men that makes every war
a civil war that cannot but profoundly wound even the victors.

An interesting and thoughtful story!


Title: A Mother's Wish · Author: Rhapsody · Genres: Drama: General
Drabble · ID: 429
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:19:06
Maglor is such a tragic figure in many ways  the only brother whose
fate remains unknown in the end, and so he is the subject of many a
tale that tries to write an ending for him. Rhapsody shows his story
from a different angle: from the perspective of a Mother still grieving
her child, yearning for him, who finally responds to his song. One
hopes something comes of her answering to his singing, some
reconciliation and reunion.

Title: The Gaze of the Lady Galadriel · Author: Aprilkat · Genres:
Drama: The Fellowship · ID: 600
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:19:36
This ficlet is a snapshot of a moment, more a mood piece than a fully
articulated moment. One feels its incompleteness and the anxiety of its
ending. What it is that the Lady Galadriel showed to each member of the
Fellowship remains, for the most part, a matter of pure guesswork, with
only a few characters even giving hints of what they might have been
shown. Boromir's sense that they are being tested or tempted is here
borne out by Frodo's testimony, careful though Frodo is to leave silent
what specifically he was offered.

Aragorn's troubled silence, as he and Frodo sit together in Lorien, is
enigmatic, and leaves the reader wondering as to his thoughts, or what
he saw. Brief, but intriguing.


Title: Last Light · Author: Ignoble Bard · Genres: Drama · ID: 194
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:20:06
This is a fantastic evocation of Orthanc, written believably from the
perspective of one of the trees of Fangorn Forest. The picture at the
beginning makes for a moving and compelling image of a tree in its
anguish  helpless before 'the quick ones', whom we realize after a
time are human beings and orcs. The tree (a Huorn, perhaps?) is
anything but quick  it is, however, all too aware of its helplessness
and the slow sense of doom building and marching upon it is very well
portrayed.

The tree, the last of its stand, remains alone amidst the ruin of its
kind, overlooking Orthanc, spared only because it chanced to be the
favorite perch of Saruman's spybirds, the crébain whom we later see
flocking over Eregion. The tree hears their news, enduring the
sharpness of their claws that seem to sap the life out of it quite
literally in a way.

There can be something tragic about trees, and about the natural world
when faced with the relentless march of inventive human beings and
wizards who use them for their own ends. Here, these ends are wicked,
and the tree seems to suffer from that knowledge. Orthanc here assumes
a menacing mien that it did not have previously  for it is one thing
to read Treebeard's reaction, and another to glimpse the power of
Orthanc from the perspective of one of its immediate victims  one of
the ones who will not survive to tell the story.

Well done, Ignoble Bard!


Title: In the Hours of Joy · Author: Spindle Berry · Genres: Drama:
With Merry · ID: 289
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 15:49:16
Ive noted before that the period between wounding and Pippins (and
the other hobbits) waking at Cormallen seem to be fertile fields for
writers. Usually, the perspective is that of Merry, occasionally of
Aragorn, and even more occasionally, other Fellowship members. Spindle
Berry takes us through this period of anxious waiting and uncertainty
from Gimlis perspective. Gimlis love of the hobbits, and his anger at
their condition, the sense that this is utterly undeserved  a
desecration  finds expression in a few different ways. His anger
towards Gandalf, whom he silently accuses of failing to value the
hobbits enough to leave them safely behind, for example.

But he also finds himself waiting and watching Merry, as Merry keeps
his seemingly interminable vigil over Pippin. It is almost as if
Gimlis own friendship for Pippin and concern are displaced onto Merry,
as if he must watch Merry only because Merrys unique friendship with
Pippin must not be violated  as if Gimlis own grief for Pippin should
not intrude, and so instead it fixes on the effects of Pippins
wounding on Merry. At least, this is the sense that I get.

Legolass brief and more or less quiet appearance is well-played, as is
the moment when Pippin wakes. Then only does the title lose its ironic
quality, as Elf and Dwarf, assured now that Merry and Pippin will be
well, experience their own catharsis and a rebirth of interest in each
others unique perceptions of the world.

Nicely done!


Title: The Undiscovered Country · Author: Wimsey · Genres: Drama: Elves
in Later Ages · ID: 715
Reviewer: Dwimordene · 2007-07-23 16:10:47
Wimsey takes a look at the difficult ending of Arwens and Aragorns
marriage. This is one of the most painful parts, in my opinion, of that
story, and the enigma of Arwen at the end is one that has attracted
many fanfic writers to attempt to fill in what she was going through.
Wimsey uses the classical stages of grief in an attempt to portray
Arwens frame of mind, as she goes through the sense of unreality and
isolation that intense mourning brings.

I think I liked best that when she meets with her grandfather and
brothers, at the edge of Lothlorien, she does not have to convince
them. They are able to allow her to go with dignity and with grace,
which suggests their own process of mourning differs from hers.
Bittersweet in the end, as one might hope, and well-written.


Title: Leaf Subsides to Leaf · Author: Ignoble Bard · Genres: Drama:
Elves in Later Ages · ID: 105
Reviewer: Raksha the Demon · 2007-07-24 06:50:02
Sad and beautiful vignette about the last meeting between Thranduil and
Legolas, as Legolas prepares to leave Middle-earth forever. I find it
very reasonable that Thranduil refuses to leave his home, and equally
reasonable that Legolas refuses to stay in the changed world where he
was born. The prose is simple and elegant, befitting the starkness of
the moment of eternal farewell between a loving father and his son.

Title: Green · Author: annmarwalk · Times: Late Third Age: 3018-3022
TA: Gondor Drabble · ID: 461
Reviewer: Raksha the Demon · 2007-07-24 07:31:21
Lovely, evocative account of Faramir's awakening to hope...I continue
to stand in awe of Annmarwalk's vocabulary; her ability to bring forth
physical sensations so vividly in short pieces like this.

And the last line is utterly gorgeous.



Title: Love Story · Author: Gandalfs apprentice · Genres: Humor: Other
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 273
Reviewer: Raksha the Demon · 2007-07-24 07:32:35
Cute ficlet that presents a most unusual version of the classic tale of
Beren and Luthien. I love the way that the most beautiful, high-Elven
episode of the Silmarillion has been transmuted into a legend, and now
a play, for a different race. It shows the power of both stories and
storytelling.

Innovative and amusing!

Title: Don't Be Deceived · Author: Imhiriel · Genres: Humor: Other
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 351
Reviewer: Raksha the Demon · 2007-07-24 07:33:11
A wonderful double-drabble chronicling an encounter that if it did not
actually happen in Tolkien's world, should have.

Imhiriel takes skillful advantage of the similarity between
descriptions of Bard of Esgaroth and Strider, in this story of an
encounter of Gandalf and a young friend with an enigmatic dark-haired
grey-eyed Man.

The identity of Gandalf's hungry, whining companion, juxtaposed with
the mysterious attitude of the man they encounter, strikes me as quite
funny as well as ironic. Well done!