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| The Minstrel's Quest by Gentle Hobbit | 8 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Budgielover | Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 7/9/2005 |
| What I enjoyed most about this chapter was obviously Merry (surely you are surprised?) and Merry's description to Farohan of his much-loved cousin. From a technical aspect, the shift in voice from the formal to Merry's informal 'hobbit voice' was a delight. Merry was perfect, teasing and loving and proud of his cousin, yet wishing the minstrel to understand that the Ring-bearer is as human (or hobbit) as anyone else. | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 7/7/2005 |
| Greedy yet generous, naive yet wise and learned--yes, the Hobbit of contradictions. | |
| Rosie-Ann | Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 10/25/2004 |
| I'm stuck somewhere between laughing and crying - this story, chapter five in particular, is so poignent and wonderful. If I were at all good at writing lays or such like that I'd happily write a lay to go with this - but then again, it would be at least as long as the Red Book by the time I got everything important in to it! Perhaps I'll try anyway. For my own benefit... Oh, don't mind me, I'm just rambling. This is a wonderful story, though. One line would have me laughing out loud, and the next would have me on the verge of tears. Wonderful. ~Rosie Author Reply: Only now do I realize that this review has been sitting here patiently for me to read it! I think the email somehow got lost. I'm sorry! What a lovely review. Thank you so much for telling me that I have moved you to laughter and tears--what a compliment! Don't you worry... ramble all you'd like! :) (And I think that I'd be hopeless in trying to pack all of Frodo's deeds into a lay. I don't envy Farohan his task.) | |
| FantasyFan | Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 9/12/2004 |
| I must say I am enjoying your story very much. Poor Farohan! It's an enormous task to know Frodo, and he's been thrown into in under a good deal of pressure and with scanty and contradictory information. It's a good thing that he's got a few more days to work it all out. I'm looking forward to getting the perspective of whomever he talks to next. Author Reply: Thank you! Yes, Farohan's going to need those few days! And Frodo is such a complex character... I don't envy Farohan at all! | |
| Fantas | Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 9/12/2004 |
| Grey Wonderer | Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 9/12/2004 |
| I hadn't thought about where the song would be sung until this chapter. I like that the minstrel is able to control where he will perform the song and that he is thinking what will best suit his needs. The talk with Merry was priceless! Now the minstrel is probably completely confused after all that talk of stealing mushrooms and being a greedy hobbit! Too fuuny! I wonder what the minstral will make of it all and how he will use the information that he has now. Looking forward to more! Author Reply: I really enjoyed writing about the "flummoxing of Farohan" by Merry. Merry isn't going to make it easy for the poor minstrel, no, not at all. Thank you for your review! | |
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 9/12/2004 |
| Interesting question about where Frodo ends and the Ringbearer begins. Where do our private selves become the person of the public deeds we do? I have to tell you a story though that I thought of while reading about Farohan. It's from David Lodge's very amusing novel, "Small World." It's about this guy who teaches in some small university in rural Australia and longs to make the big time. He submits a proposal to give a paper at a big conference and to his own surprise gets accepted. Then he has to write the paper and he finds that he always gets stuck in the same place. He's actually still stuck there when he gets up to speak at the conference and just when he's coming to that place, with terror in his heart, someone has a heart attack at the back of the room and the session ends! Maybe Farohan can pray for something like that. :-) Author Reply: I enjoyed reading this story. What thing to happen! But, alas, Farohan will have no such reprieve. We already know that he must sing the whole blessed thing from beginning to end, since it is recorded that he does so in RotK. And, yes, you have put your finger on one of the key points of the story: the difference (or lack thereof) between Frodo and the Ring-bearer. | |
| shirebound | Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 9/12/2004 |
| What a fascinating story! I do love this description: "A minstrel's work lay in the recording of events and the teaching of people -- to be continually at the service of the Court which asked for such knowledge to be given, sung and written." Good old Merry, to give such a down-to-earth impression of Frodo -- and yet laced with respect and wonder, all the same. He knows that Frodo can't have changed very much... yet wonders, in the same breath, if he indeed has. Author Reply: You have caught the very "essence" of Merry's involvement in this chapter. I do love reading your reviews, Shirebound. You so often go unerringly to the heart of what I'm trying to convey. | |