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Title: Sarn Gebir · Author: agape4gondor · Genres: Adventure:
Fixed-Length Ficlet · ID: 398
Reviewer: Raksha the Demon · 2007-12-12 02:45:29
A fine action vignette with a sobering and bracing ending. We can see
the strength and determination that made Boromir so beloved in Gondor;
and his familiarity with boats comes through well here.

Title: Multicultural Interactions · Author: annmarwalk · Races:
Cross-Cultural: Gondor · ID: 18
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-12 05:50:18
What a charming tale! And what a pleasure to read this little
vignette, with the way it imagines what the son of Faramir and Éowyn
might be like, at least at this age, a character for whom there is no
description in the canon text�"who is not even named, if I recall. With
virtually nothing to work with, you make this character very
plausible�"and likable.

Your Elboron seems to have the fire and drive of his mother, but the
reflective, probing intelligence of his father (not to mention an
excellent vocabulary). I loved the little touch in which, dashing
across the courtyard of the Tree, he is distracted by the sight of the
moonlight dappling the stone. He crashes into Elanor not because he is
distracted by the beauty of the scene, but by words and their usage.
[“I was distracted a moment,”] he explains, [“thinking about the
oddness of the word ‘dappled’ in terms of moonlight on stone, rather
than sunlight on green leaves.”] That is so perfect for the son of
Faramir.

Get that boy a degree in linguistics! (I always thought Faramir and
J.R.R.T. had more in common than the dream of the wave.)

P.S. I love how you do so much with deceptively simple narrative
ingredients. Brava!




Title: Behind Every Great Man... · Author: annmarwalk · Times: Mid
Third Age: 2851 - 3017 TA: Drabble · ID: 52
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-12 05:50:51
Where is *my* Mormegil? As Pippin said, [“I’m getting one!”]

Fortunate is the steward who has such a man in his service!

Title: For the Dwarves, Gimli · Author: annmarwalk · Races: Dwarves ·
ID: 155
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-12 05:53:10
[May contain spoilers]

I loved your humorous peek into the home life of young Gimli.
(Incidentally, I thought Gimli’s salt pork line in RotK was one of
John Rhys-Davies’ best-delivered comic lines in the three films.) Even
more I loved the way you let us look into the mix of intense feelings
caused by Gimli’s commission to go on the Quest, once the news was
brought to his mother. The juxtaposition of the words first spoken
([“A great honour!”]) and the pause that followed as they resonated
for her ([“no one would meet her eyes”]), prepared well for the
intensity of her response as the implications of that “honour” sank in.

As always, Ann, you are able to express a great deal in little space.


Title: Charms of Wisdom and Grace · Author: annmarwalk · Genres:
Drama: Ithilien · ID: 460
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-12 05:54:36
[Contains spoilers]

Ah, the mystery of your poem, [“The Weaver’s Song”] is made a little
clearer. I still don’t know who wove a cloak for Boromir (unless it
was Faramir!!), but I love the notion that the things one makes, if
made with love, carry a beneficial power. This seems to be the notion
in this vignette, as well as in your triolet. [“His father’s love,
interwoven with the colors and scents of home; charms of wisdom and
grace,”] is the charm here, and Faramir, surprisingly a weaver, is the
one who casts it, this time for his son.


Title: Where There's Life, There's Hope (and in need of vittles) ·
Author: annmarwalk · Genres: Drama: Gondor Drabble · ID: 463
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-12 05:55:39
Gosh, this is good, Ann. It's only brief, but you do so much with it.
["The staff of life"], wheat was called, the typical component of
bread in the Western world. You have made that oft-heard saying come
alive in your story so that it conjures up not just life of the body,
but life of the spirit, and life of the will. Thus nourished and
sustained, the King of Gondor will go on.

Title: End Times · Author: annmarwalk · Genres: Drama: Gondor Drabble
· ID: 702
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-12 05:57:42
[Contains spoilers]

What a great introduction to [“The End of Dark Days”]. It goes so well
with that fic, I wish you had cross-posted it there, perhaps in
italics, up at the top of that story. Every LotR reader knows what is
going on in this passage, but they still would wonder (if there were
no title to let them know) whose voice is speaking. Your full story
(["The End of Dark Days"]) would let them know, as well as�"more
importantly�"establishing just what Mag had seen that had made her so
emotional when she finally gave way, speaking to Nanny of what had
been going on in the City.



Title: The End of Dark Days · Author: annmarwalk/EdorasLass CoAuthors
· Genres: Drama: Minas Tirith · ID: 56
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-12 06:00:24
[Contains spoilers]

What a *great* story your two have written! It pulled me in then
dragged me to each subsequent chapter without stopping. The pacing,
the establishing of time and place, the characterizations�"everything
was what I could wish and more.

I knew that Mag is an ongoing character of yours, and I have read one
or two tales in which she is featured�"enough to know that she is a
cook in the Steward’s house who is very fond of the Steward’s sons
(and they of her)�"but this could be a stand-alone story. I need never
have heard of Mag to become completely engrossed in the story.

All of your original characters, not just Mag, were convincing. They
were also endearing. Nanny’s brother Pilimór was only present for part
of a chapter, but he won my heart immediately. I even cried over Mag’s
tale of the death of Donal the cobbler’s nephew, who died before the
tale began, simply because of the excellence of the story-telling.
Apart from their own tales, your original characters provide excellent
eyes through which to show the events of the canon story in a
different light, offering new insights and even more reasons to care
for already beloved characters. Your depiction of the cost of war,
even honourable war, is very moving in this story. I was brought to
tears in the paragraphs in which Minas Tirith and the Gondorian
survivors pick up the pieces of their lives.

You have the gift of bringing Tolkien’s [“gaps”] to life in way that
is faithful to the source, while offering insights culled from your
own lives and experiences (I suspect). Interpersonal insight is
everywhere evident, along with a sad wisdom, leavened throughout with
your signature warm, engaging sense of humour.


Title: The Company of Heroes · Author: annmarwalk · Races: Hobbits:
Children · ID: 393
Reviewer: Mechtild · 2007-12-12 06:04:51
[May contain spoilers]

There, now you’ve gone and made me cry. Simply, with un-mushy
tenderness, you showed Sam, his children, and the readers coming to a
deep insight into Boromir’s role in the Great Tale, and the bringing
of the Quest to fulfilment.

Stylistically, I admired the way you let the phrase, [“it worked out
fair”] sound three times, each time striking a different note,
emotionally and in terms of sense. The way the three phrases were
used, even the word [“fair”] was heard in a richer, more complex way.
I heard ["fair"] in the sense of *just* (i.e. Boromir paid his dues,
righting his unworthy actions with noble ones), and I heard ["fair"]
in the sense of *high* or *worthy* or even *beautiful*. For Boromir’s
part in the Quest did have its own beauty and value. Even his fault,
grave as it was, in the end seemed like a dark but strong, necessary
thread woven into the larger narrative tapestry, without which would
have come apart�"or never been woven at all.

As for your portrayal of the children, I was especially tickled by the
image of little Ruby waving a *stuffed oliphaunt* by the leg, and the
way you had here verbalize Boromir’s name, [“Bo’mir! Bo’mir the Tall!”]

This was very well-conceived and crafted, Ann. Thank you.