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| Mortal Memories by LOTRFaith | 2 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 7 on 12/22/2004 |
| I liked Thranduil's analysis of how his children needed the two parents to balance one another. I also liked Legolas pinning Elladan down and loosening his hair. Thalion must have been astounded when it happened to him. Author Reply: Since I milk almost every night I get to listen to Focus on the Family with James Dobson (I don't know if you've heard of him of not) but he has many times talked about the balance disruption when one parent leaves. Say by divorce or death or such. And I thought it was something that Legolas probably would face. It is usually not something that most people think about, which is why it was never addressed before. At least that's my excuse;-) lol.. Yeah I did that once to my sister. She had her hair up in a nice braid and I sat on her back with one hand holding her wrists down and pulled her hair out with the other. It was quite fun! Before she started screaming for mom though ;-P ... | |
| Shemyaza | Reviewed Chapter: 7 on 12/22/2004 |
| You've brought up a very interesting aspect of this whole 'Elves heading for the west and Valinor for healing' issue. I realise that Tolkien was trying to make his Elves very passionate and ethereal yet strong and fierce, but I constantly have trouble with his idea that these strong fierce people would just be so weak that they would fold, especially mothers of children. As a race they had gone through so much, I find it hard to believe that a mother, like Celebrian for example, would just leave her family when the going got rough. Plenty of women get raped in the real world and they don't have anywhere to escape to, they just have to suck it in and deal with it, and I imagine that the human women in Middle Earth would have done the same. They do it for the sake of the children who need them there. I know that as a mother myself I couldn't bring myself to just walk away from my children, even now, and they are grown up! A mother is generally a very fierce, protective creature when it comes to her offspring although there are always exceptions to the rule of course! To me, Valinor always sounds like a huge cop out bolthole and the Valars' almost jealous protectiveness of the Firstborn, was always far too proprietary. I think a race like the Elves would be made of stronger stuff somehow. However I do know that many admirers of the book feel that the poor tragic Elves, beautiful, wise and ancient yet full of sadness and tragedy are a very romantic aspect of the whole tale. I myself find it rather irritating sometimes. I like Tolkien's work, but I can't help thinking every time I read it and his notes/letters, that a lot of his own insecurities about life, death and relationships shines through, especially when it comes to the Eldar. If we are to suppose that Thranduil's Queen was absent from his early life because she just 'had to sail for the west' then if I had been Thranduil I would have found it almost impossible to believe that his wife could just abandon her child because she felt she just couldn't cope any more and it certainly wouldn't endear her to me as a partner. In fact I think I'd be rather annoyed to be left as a single father with a young child *and* a realm under threat to cope with. Again of course, Tolkien inferred that the bond between male and female was so deep that if one partner left or died, the other one would soon follow. Again another hopelessly romantic notion with no basis in practicality. I personally feel that Tolkien had a very stylised romantic idea about women in particular which had its roots in the era he lived in, where women were not considered equal. He appears to have an unrealistic notion about how they react to any given situation emotionally or otherwise. For example, He wanted Eowyn to sound like a tough shieldmaiden,butwhat she actually comes across as is needy and repressed rather than tough. Galadriel is meant to be wise, beautiful and all-seeing, but she comes across to me as a power-mad 'know it all' and her granddaughter has little to recommend her other than she is beautiful like Luthien, dances barefoot in the woods and embroiders a nice little banner when she has a mind to! I just feel that the fading and needing to go into the West is a weakness that doesn't sit well with the otherwise wise, perfect and pristine Elvenkind. If you're going to write about a superior race of beings and *want* the readers to be impressed with that aspect, then you don't give them feet of clay, or show them to have unresolved emotional issues or large amounts of emotional baggage. However, to get back to the point of your story, Legolas or indeed any other child, would have suffered a lot if his Naneth just toddled away for the Havens one day and nobody actually took the time to explain it to him. Children have a way of taking the blame for such things on themselves. No mother of any worth on this planet would willingly put her child through that sort of distress. Not even a supposedly superior Elven mother. Sorry about the rant, I am just always pleased when I find a story where such things aren't just 'explained' away or happen without consequences. Hopefully Legolas would gradually come to terms with the notion of 'death' and what it means to those left behind. Author Reply: Ummm... Wow.. long review... Thanks :-) | |