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| Eärendil’s Tale by Bodkin | 6 Review(s) |
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| lwarren | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/29/2005 |
| This chapter was especially effective - the bouncing back and forth between the normal gathering of adults talking and drinking wine to the horrifying memories of a terrified child during a deadly, pivotal moment of his life. The images you've painted of the murders of the other elves (how casually they cut down the nursemaid!) and of Maglor and Maedros are chilling. I'm so glad for the sakes of Elrond and Elros that some sort of sanity prevailed in the form of Maglor, and I agree with Elrond...it is hoped that in some time he would find some sort of peace. Celebrian's efforts at conversation were so realistic...she's the mediator of sorts, trying to make an almost impossibly painful situation normal. When Elrond went down on his knees before his naneth and took her hands, I almost cried. He's so good, and I was so glad for his parents (and him, too) that they have a son with such a big heart! Wonderful chapter, Bodkin! linda Author Reply: I have a sneaking hope that his love for the twins might be the thing to provide an eventual redemption for Maglor. He never seems to have been quite as keen on the whole oath/kinslaying/Silmaril bit as the other sons of Feanor. And yet he also seems to have been the one most likely to feel guilt. I can imagine Celebrian casting her eyes to the sky as she rattled on, trying to keep some kind of conversation going among three elves who were just staring at each other as they attempted to bring together past horrors and present tranquillity. If you are a long absent parent hopeful of reconciliation with an abandoned son, you would be very lucky if that son happened to be Elrond. Thank you for commenting. | |
| elliska | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 2/12/2005 |
| Wow, Bodkin, that was awesome! Sorry I'm late in reviewing this. I was at training all week with no Internet access. I have been going through withdrawal and this was incredible to come back to. I LOVED how you handled interspersing Elrond's memories into his meeting with his mother. And I loved the memories themselves. They way you described that scene--Elwing having to make a choice to give up the Silmaril or her sons--and everyone's terror and the harsh cruelty of Maedhros. Really well done. And I love how you and Celebrian lightened the mood. I think I enjoyed the thought of grasshoppers and thistles as much as Elrond did. This was just incredibly well done and another example of why I would never miss reading one of your fics. Great job! Author Reply: Thank you. Elrond insisted on doing it this way. And on putting in the italics. The contrast of sitting in peaceful Aman, yet mentally reliving violence and terror - and trying to come to terms with their outcome - must affect a lot of elves, I would think. I am wondering how Galadriel deals with it - it's been touched on in Letters from Home (which was my first or second story), but I think I know her better now. And she must have been a holy terror as an elfling - can you picture her as the baby sister of four big brothers. She would have been driven to get them to accept her on her own terms and see her as more than a cute and comic little elleth. In fact, without those brothers, she probably wouldn't have turned into the Galadriel we all know and many seem to loathe. And Celeborn - well, how could he have coped so well with his beloved if he hadn't had plenty of practice in holding his own with an elleth who could take on Morgoth and win? This story might get on to Earendil's voyages - if it can ever get past all the other things that happened along the way! | |
| Karri | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 2/10/2005 |
| A very vivid, emotionally-intense chapter! Wonderful writing. :-) Author Reply: Phew - glad you liked it. Thank you. Earendil might get to his later adventures in a while, but Elrond wants to know about other things first. And then he might need to spend more time with Elwing, I'm not sure. That's the trouble with being a lore-master - you want to know everything! | |
| paranoidangel | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 2/10/2005 |
| I was just thinking I'd quite like to read a reunion between Elrond and his parents, and there was yours, on the front page! I loved it as well, it was absolutely perfect. It seems right to me that Elrond wouldn't be immediately comfortable with his parents, or them with him. I liked Celebrian's attempts to diffuse the tension a little, and Elrond's memories of what happened at Sirion. And Elrond seeing his sons in Earendil. Author Reply: How strange! I find that I'm becoming convinced that more and more of the reunions or incidents that only get a passing mention would have been incredibly difficult to live through. And poor Elrond! He did really get the rough side of a lot of the heroics of three ages. Of course, being an elf-by-choice, there were a lot of peaceful times in between - but I'll bet it's things like Sirion and Dagolad and Celebrian's wounding that stick out in his memory. This started with thinking about Earendil's voyages - but I just can't get there - they insist on telling other stories first. Thank you for reviewing. More soon-ish. | |
| sqrt(-1) | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 2/9/2005 |
| What a hard thing, to see your mother again after so long and after being seperated from her in such a terrible way. And hard for Elwing too. I'm glad that Elrond and Elwing seemed to have come to some sort of understanding, as he did with Earendil in the last chapter. I like your Earendil and Elwing. I also really liked Elrond and Celebrian's conversation about the past deedds of her parents - Galadriel with grasshoppers in her hair and Celeborn putting thistles in Luthien's bed are very funny thoughts. So what did the young Earendil and Elwing do? Author Reply: Elwing was under 30 (approx) when Elros and Elrond were born - and some 6000 years have passed. Elrond had put up with a lot of tough blows in his life and I think he has learned to be pretty forgiving. Had she come back in his life when he was only a couple of hundred, I think he would have been a lot more resentful. I'm glad you like Earendil and Elwing - I think they need love. And Elrond will give them his care, although he will never be a son to them in the sense of growing up with their love and guidance. I think Maglor and Gil-Galad are his fathers in that way. I imagine Galadriel being a very naughty and demanding little girl - in the way that the youngest children of large families often have to be very much more - insistent, shall we say, to get the attention they know they deserve. And yet, at the same time, she would have been indulged, and allowed to pick up all sorts of ideas about being as good as her brothers. How else could she have grown up into the only elleth to challenge the males on relatively equal terms? And Luthien is cut of the same cloth. It's no wonder that Celeborn could cope with Galadriel - he had plenty of practice with battling with Luthien. What did Earendil and Elwing do? Don't know - they haven't said. Although they spent a fair part of their early years attempting to escape from the destruction of their homes and families. | |
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 2/9/2005 |
| How heartbreaking for Elwing and Elrond both. Elwing really had a tragic life. She saw so much destruction and death. The scene the Elrond witnesses is also frightening. It must have been both bewildering as well as terrrifying. And I kind of share the sympathy you give Maglor. Author Reply: The more you look at the early stuff - Doriath, Gondolin, all those First Age battles and so on, the more tragic it all is. And all squashed into such a short period of years. And Earendil and Elwing only appear to have been thirty-ish at the time the brothers Grim arrived in Sirion. They really are barely older than Elrond. But then, in some ways, I feel that Earendil and Elwing didn't have the happiest of times after they reached Aman either. It sounds quite romantic for Earendil to sail the night sky and for Elwing to fly out to meet him in the morning - but EVERY night for over 2 million of them? When do they get time to do anything else? Or interact with their family (such as is in the Blessed Realm)? And the White Tower sounds as if it is miles from anywhere else. I think it's Maglor's undecided fate that adds to my sympathy for him - at least the other sons of Feanor got to die and go to the Halls of Mandos, where, hopefully, they could come to terms with their actions - but Maglor is so isolated. And he seems the sort of person who might well be hard on himself. Not much to do with Earendil's Tale, but Elrond couldn't spend endless hours talking to his adar without seeing Elwing - and that was bound to be traumatic. | |