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| Jewels by Lindelea | 4 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Mysterious Jedi | Reviewed Chapter: 21 on 8/2/2007 |
| Excellent as always, Lindelea. Just as good the second time, especially when it's been a few years! Keep up the good work. Author Reply: Thanks for the good word! Glad to have you along. | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 21 on 7/31/2007 |
| Prescience such as Frodo's must have been as much a burden at times as it was a blessing. Poor Hobbits, both Frodo and Merry. And Sam is there to love them both and comfort them both as they need it. Author Reply: Yes. You know, when I wrote this, I wasn't sure if Frodo had a foreseeing of this day (what agony that would be! and not to be able to tell Merry about it...) or if he just knew that Merry would be dogged by Shadow the rest of his life, and that life has its inevitable sorrows, even tragedies. Since he did have a foreseeing of Sam's children (though didn't he name them a little out of order? I think so, anyhow), it's possible he knew this day would happen. *sigh* But there is the Feast to come, and if it's anything like we have here, since there's no marrying or giving in marriage in the beyond, according to something I read somewhere, it won't matter to Merry when he meets both Ruby and Estella there in the end. (Just one big happy family! What a thought!) | |
| FantasyFan | Reviewed Chapter: 21 on 7/31/2007 |
| How sad this chapter is. How horribly sad. A parent burying their child is sad, but even sadder yet is the loss of the bright promise of the day. It was to be a day filled with the essence of hope: focused on the future, bound with promises that last beyond death. Now, Merry can see nothing for the future. Even existance beyond the very moment of 'now' cannot be faced. The past is all he has left of Ruby, but it is over and gone, and there is no refuge there. Even Pippin cannot reach him, but Frodo can. And it is out of his own pain that Frodo does reach him, and in that shared pain Merry can hear him and remember that there is a thing such as light, and that even in this utter darkness remember his promise. It is so very, very sad. I find myself thinking of the North-Took family. After Jewels, we don't really see them, even though Diamond obviously remains a vital part of Pippin's ongoing story. I wonder how well they were able to recover from this tragedy. They are good strong hobbits, sensible and hard-working, a loving family. But I don't think we ever see them visiting their daughter in Buckland where Pippin first settles, or later at the Smials once he is Thain. Not even for Forget-me-not's naming day. Was it too hard for them to see Merry in Buckland, who should have been a son-in-love to them? Was even Pippin eventually too much of a reminder of what they had lost? I hope it did not come to that; I hope that Diamond remained close to her family, just off canvas, so to speak. I do feel very bad for them. Author Reply: You know, I read your thoughts on the North-Took family, pondering, thinking what the Muse intended (not just what I would want, if that doesn't sound too schizophrenic). Of course there are no later chapters posted here as of yet, but the North-Tooks do visit Buckland after this, at least up until the wedding, and though we don't see them in the glimpses of Buckland after that I think that there were still frequent letters, and as much visiting as farm life allowed. (It's just that those visits take place "off canvas" as you said. They weren't visiting Buckland during the spring flooding, for instance. In point of fact I think that Merry remains a sort of honorary son to the North-Tooks, with all that entails: birthday presents, visits whenever he can get away--which is probably not often--or whenever they can take a holiday--again, with the needs of the farm, not often--and that sort of thing). I can think of a few more reasons you wouldn't see such visits in other stories. One is that I don't spend a lot of time in Buckland; I seem to have got my head stuck in the Tookland much of the time. Another is that a visit by the North-Tooks would have to be carefully handled so as not to sound contrived, what with all the filling in of background and explanations for readers unfamiliar with Jewels. It is a tricky business, weaving stories together and yet making them able to stand alone. I hope that I succeed most of the time. Sometimes I will throw in an unrelated character (unrelated to the current story) when I can fit him/her/them in naturally (like Budgie and his little family appearing at Michel Delving in StarFire), but the North-Tooks at Buckland (after Pippin leaves and goes to Tookland, that is) seems a bit of a stretch. Even though those visits continued, they weren't germane to any of the plots that have arisen so far, and thus not pictured nor mentioned. Not to mention that these visits would probably have been happy times (a little bittersweet, perhaps, remembering Ruby and Thom) and thus not easy to write about. (Angst is easy to write about, humour slightly harder but still easier than everyday, mundane cheer.) I imagine, with their generous spirits, that the North-Tooks adopted Estella as a sort of honorary daughter-in-love, as a matter of fact, and considered Merry's and her children as grandchildren-niece-nephew-cousins (depending on whose perspective). Whew, am particularly groggy this morning. Did I clear things up, or muddy them? Author Reply: BTW, Forget-Me-Not's and Merigrin's Naming Day happened in March or April, didn't it? I think so, anyhow. The North-Tooks would likely have been in the middle of spring planting at the time. I'd think they'd send presents to the Naming, if not able to attend themselves. Perhaps a few bottles of Pearl's Dandelion Wine, and/or Raspberry Cordial ("wine for joy")... Author Reply: oh, wait, I just remembered. The accident/birth happened after Merry's bout with the Shadow, so the Naming did take place in April, and not "March or April"... I am spamming you this morning, apologies. But the second cup of tea is beginning to kick in, and that is a good thing, I think. Author Reply: Came back to reply to Larner's review and had one more thought to tack on. Was musing this morning about how JRRT situated Lithedays on the calendar... in between the bigger harvests, at a time when the farmers would likely be able to get away for a day or two, with their neighbours or hired hands covering for the care of the animals. He said somewhere that most marriages in the Shire took place in the Spring, and I was thinking it must be either when the ground is still too wet to plough, or after sowing's done. And then the Lithedays, with the Free Fair every seventh year (and the election of the Mayor) happens after the early harvests of hay and strawberries, but before the barley and vegetable harvests begin. (The wheat harvest is in there too, somewhere, I forget whether it's before or after barley.) Anyhow, I'm amazed all over again at the attention he gave to detail. Author Reply: p.s. I got your email a few days back, but lost it somehow (must have saved it to the wrong folder as it is not in any of the folders where one would logically expect to find it) and so I can't send a reply! I remember it was about a discrepancy, but for the life of me I can't remember which stories. *sigh* Sorry about that! | |
| harrowcat | Reviewed Chapter: 21 on 7/30/2007 |
| Oh, poor Merry. Well done Sam and Pippin. You made me cry Lindelea! Author Reply: Sorry. *hugs* | |