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Jewels by Lindelea	4 Review(s)
Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 8/28/2006
Yes, it is past time to speak to Rosie; and Frodo's own words of wisdom do come from experience he's not yet sharing.

Pearl Took	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 7/5/2006
This is delightful, Lin!! I don't remember if I read it before, but I'm really enjoying it :) I love all the various "jewels"; well done!! Author Reply: Ah, Pearl, how lovely to hear you are enjoying this! "Jewels" was my first major effort, and it is the "chain" on which all my "pearls" of stories hang. The timeline I made for "Jewels" ended up being the doorway to an entire Shire in my imagination. Isn't it funny how that works?

FantasyFan	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 7/4/2006
How is it that Frodo and company hit immediately on the perfect way to drive the dark away from Merry? Song and light and laughter work well, indeed they will work well for many years, but were they just lucky this first time, or is it just hobbit-sense? Frodo at least is attuned to what Merry is going through, and is watchful for the return of any symptoms. But who does he have watching out for him? Perhaps this is why he asked Sam and Rosie to move in with him - it is his own version of surrounding himself with loving hobbits. I've always thought that Frodo probably loved little children very much. His experience when he was growing up showed him surrounding himself with successive generations of younger cousins. What a shame that he never was to marry and become a father himself. It is such a key conversation that Frodo and Merry have in the garden. How sad it is for Frodo to realize once again that his cousins have been marked so deeply by their ordeals, and I wonder if it didn't also dash some of his own hopes for recovery to think that others who had undergone terrible things, like he had, might always have to be on their guard against the Dark. To me, Frodo pretty clearly suffered a form of post-traumatic stress syndrome, in addition to whatever physical ills he might have taken away from the quest. I don't claim to have any personal knowledge of the struggles people with this disorder go through, but I have had my own struggle against a form of the Darkness. It is a difficult thing to have to choose to walk in the light, and one of the most difficult things about it is the knowledge that the struggle will probably never end. For Frodo to come to a place of some acceptance, as painful as it is, is only one more remarkable thing about him. Author Reply: Hmmm. How is it that Frodo and company hit immediately on the perfect way to drive the dark away from Merry? I think it is, as you said, just hobbit-sense. Hobbits have been driving away the darkness with light and song for hundreds of years, after all. I do wish Frodo might have married and had children of his own. It is a measure of how wounded he was, and how little of him was left, perhaps, that he was unable to settle down to married life. I read PGY a long time ago and was fascinated by the two timelines, one where he stayed, even though the marital arrangements don't seem to bear much relation to what JRRT put forth in his letters. (His discussion of life-long monogamy and "all else [being considered] under Shadow" has stuck with me since I first read and pondered it.) I wonder, sometimes, if my writing in regards to post-Quest Merry is AU. JRRT doesn't mention at all any aftereffects on Merry's part, after all. He and Pippin ride singing through the Shire, bright and brave in their mail. Nor is any struggle mentioned on Sam's part, so far as I remember of the Grey Havens chapter. Perhaps I write Merry fighting melancholy because it is something that runs in my family, and we so often write what we know. I do, however, like to write Frodo as coming to a peace with his lot. It was comforting to give him a reprieve of sorts in "Long and Passing Thing" (oops, it's really "Small" not "Long" but we call it "Long" around here), thinking he was dying, and giving him a chance at life even if he had to sail away with the Elves to find it. Better, in my mind, than him being so broken, so shattered that he had to leave. I never had peace with that scenario, whether or not that was JRRT's intention.

harrowcat	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 7/4/2006
I remember a little bit of this Lindelea. Looking forward to re-visiting an older friend. Author Reply: Ah, glad to hear that re-visiting is a pleasant occupation. Thanks!

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