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Interrupted Journeys: Part 2 Journeys Perforce  by elliska 5 Review(s)
BodkinReviewed Chapter: 11 on 12/5/2004
Just noticed a title typo - feuds is 'eu' not 'ue'. Sorry to nitpick.

Author Reply: For heavens sake, always tell me those things. I hate that stuff. I never notice it. I'm off to fix it. Thanks! :)

BrazgirlReviewed Chapter: 11 on 11/18/2004
Uau! What a discussion... I think it was the worse thing Amoreth had to hear from someone. He said he distrust her, he doesn't see her as his wife... that her tongue is a threat to their love... And he is right! They had had that conversation before and she should have get it by now.
Thranduil irritated is always nice for me. I love this elf.

I was so anxious to read this chapter... thanks for the update!

Author Reply: Hi Brazgirl! Yes, Amoneth got a harsh lecture an I agree, what Aradunnon said had to sting pretty badly. She deserved it. And it's only the beginning. I am proofreading the next chapter right now and I hope to post it this evening. Amoneth faces Thranduil in this one. I have to agree with you--I find an irritated Thranduil to be a lot of fun. So I had fun with the next chapter.

Sorry the update took so long this time. In addition to an insane workload, my car died and my dog is having liver surgery (can you imagine such a thing for a dog!) and both my husband and I got the flu! It's been a tense last week. :) Thank heavens I have the fun of LotR fanfiction!

French PonyReviewed Chapter: 11 on 11/18/2004
I'm sorry I'm late with this, but I've been kind of depressed all week, and today was a not-good day, so I'm not really up to leaving a long, charming review. Is it okay if, just this once, I tell you that I really liked this chapter and leave it at that? I promise I'll be a better Pony next time.

Author Reply: Oh, you are always wonderful--especially when you go to the trouble to review when you don't feel up to doing anything. I'm sorry to hear it's been a hard week. I wish I could take you out for lunch or something because everyone knows there have been times when just reading your reviews has lifted me out of a sour mood so I owe you. Blow off school today, call in sick from work and pamper yourself--yummy lunch at your favorite restaurant, nice reading.... You deserve it. You work hard and write great fic on top of it. Hope you feel better.


daw the minstrelReviewed Chapter: 11 on 11/17/2004
Nobody does politics like you do, Elliska. This is just wonderful. It gives such a sense of the larger world and the Mannish history that sweeps by while the Elves endure. I had to laugh about the naming of Dol Guldur. It reminded me of discussions I've seen about how countries should be named on maps in order to avoid being imperialistic.

I enjoyed seeing Amoneth being slapped with the truth again, but it seems to make only a temporary impression on her. We'll see if she does better this time. She really needs to have the fear of Thranduil put in her if she can't behave herself out of love or good sense.

Author Reply: Thanks Daw. :) I have to tell you how grateful I am that you asked that question in the yahoo group. I made some assumptions about the men east of Mirkwood that wouldn't have been completely wrong but they also weren't nearly as interesting as canon (imagine that). I was stunned to learn about Vidugavia calling himself King of Rhovanion in the 1200's--that's just too close to when this story is set and it indicates a much more powerful group of men much further north than I had imagined. Also, otherwise I would have completely forgotten to mention them in this story and I would have lost some good material in the next one. I think later I would have realized it was a hole for Thranduil to have discussed these changes with everyone but his closest neighbors, so I was very glad for that discussion topic.

And it did amuse me. This 'King of Rhovanion,' in truth a Prince of the Northmen, seemed to just come to power and then his kingdom diminished by the end of the 1300's. Nothing compared to the view on history that writing elves has forced me to take. It seemed fast to me so you know it would to Thranduil.

I laughed at the Dol Guldur thing too. Who knows who really named it but we know it was Men that started calling the forest Mirkwood so I thought I'd take a poke at that.

This reality slap for Amoneth has only just begun. And I think I've decided to take the more difficult story route so Thranduil is not going to be the only one to deal with her. But it will be memorable this time.

Thanks for the review!

PS--I laughed when you added to that review about the Enchanted River--not to worry, it would never have occured to me. I can hardly wait to see what you do with it. My mention of it is really very brief in what will likely turn out to be the last chapter of this story. It also gets mentioned a few other times in other stories but it's never a major plot point that I can remember. I just wanted to see how people felt about it/if it would rub people the wrong way. And to make sure I hadn't missed anything in canon--after all, I misplaced an entire Mannish kingdom. :)

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 11 on 11/17/2004
Aradunnon is being quite firm here! (About time.) I hope it has some effect. Tact hasn't. Ignoring it hasn't. Maybe she's one of the sort of people who has to live something before she can internalise it. At least he has given her a rule that surely even Amoneth can understand. Everyone except him is public. And a warning that surely even Amoneth can understand. If she cannot make peace with Thranduil and is sent away, she goes alone. I think she needs a trip to Amon Lanc to see what is going on with her own eyes.

I liked the men turning up - and their difficulty with understanding that straight away to an elf can be a couple of lifetimes away to a man. The man from Esgaroth seems much more intelligent than the little lordling, but I suppose that he has only just come into the role of heir and might show a bit more sense next time they meet. I can see why he's worried if the elves are moving their armies away from protecting the areas near their lands.

The indignation about men daring to name somewhere in his realm - understandable (but funny).

Good chapter. Got to go.

Author Reply: Amoneth has been given something to think about. But it's not over for her yet. She still has to talk to Thranduil. An angry Thranduil.

I had fun looking into the men. They actually didn't have any role in this part of the story until Daw brought up the topic of Men and their history with the Woodland Realm for her current story in the SoA yahoo group. That made me think about it and it's a good thing too because if I'm exploring the move to the stronghold, and Thranduil discussed it with people as far aaway as Imladris, surely he discussed it with his closest neighbors. Plus, I had a lot of fun looking into that. I learned a lot about the Northmen and their origin and their interaction with Gondor and the locations of their realms east of Mirkwood. There was really more to it than I initially thought.

The Man for Esgaroth was older and knew Thranduil (even with his capital in the south, I assumed Thranduil had been trading with Esgaroth because they had long held the trade route along the River Running). The 'young lordling' is just that--young. I imagine he would be the great grandfather of King Vidugavia (canon--father of Vidumavi whose marriage to King Valacar of Gondor caused the first kin strife in Gondor and who had the nerve to call himself King of Rhovanion), so I think his arrogance is a family trait. But I thought that Thranduil's presence clearly protects more than just his own realm and if they were fighting Easterling raids and amongst themselves as canon shows, they couldn't want an orc problem on their western front.

I got a kick out of Thranduil's react to Dol Guldur myself, especailly given that within a hundred years Men rename his whole forest to a less than flattering name.

Thanks for the review!

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