Stories of Arda - Lord of the Rings Fan-Fiction Archive


	About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

When Winter Fell by Lindelea	4 Review(s)
Cuthalion	Reviewed Chapter: 12 on 12/4/2005
Ah - bad times are foreshadowing. Somehow the image of Fortinbras cowering on the field like a starvin rabbit, secretly chewing carrots, makes me shiver. (Sorry that I came so late. But things are a bit crazy over here right now.) Author Reply: KWYM about things being crazy. I have a respite only because I'm home with a sick child, and sneaking online when she's napping. Poor hobbits. From what JRRT says about this winter, a sandy carrot might seem like a feast, in time. Am still trying to figure out how Gandalf brings relief! After all, I don't know that he can conjure food... He's more of a fire-bringer, or am I wrong?

FantasyFan	Reviewed Chapter: 12 on 11/19/2005
So it's not madness at all, but some kind of foresight that has allowed Fortinbras' grandfa to see the coming inclement weather? He's getting the harvest in early, and ordering half rations against future disaster? That in itself is remarkable enough, but it also seems as if there's been a coup of sorts, and he's now locked away with the Uncles calling the shots now. Full rations are back, despite the fact that the ground is too wet to plant the winter crops. The idea of foresight is an interesting one. Several characters have it, so named , in Tolkien's universe, most notably, Elrond and Glorfindel, although Gliraen and Aragorn show flashes of it at times. Does it descend through the Elvish line? If so, we might have to postulate that fairy wife for the Tooks, because Frodo shows foresight in the form of prescient dreams during the quest, and afterwards when he predicts Sam's mayoralty and the names of his children (although not perfectly, and some could argue that it was a self-fulfilling prophecy because what else would Sam name them after that?). Of course, Sam has no Took blood, but even he has vague feelings like the one where, early in the quest, he feels that he has an important task to do before the end. Even in your own story, the early Thains are given visions of their descendants and several other characters move out of the purely physical plane at the point of death. It's a tough thing to pull off, adding that little bit of magic to the world while leaving it grounded enough that we willingly suspend disbelief as well as recognize our world in the creation. Author Reply: I was thinking of the dreams JRRT wrote into LOTR, as a matter of fact. And so Grandfa has suffered dreams, perhaps warnings from the Valar, but along with the predictions of gaffers and hunters and those close to the land that it'll be a harsh winter (things like extra-thick pelts, or like Pa Ingalls showing Laura the muskrat house, and how thick the walls were built, in an early chapter of "Long Winter", or old folk superstitions that a hot summer precedes a harsh winter--is that true? Don't know). It would be ironic if the hobbits themselves are growing extra-thick fur on their feet, as if their bodies know what is coming before they do, themselves. Hm. Might even write that fact in. I was originally going to have Gandalf warn the Thain, for it seems possible that the wizard would have some foreknowledge, but for the snippet in "Unfinished Tales" that implies that the wizard became interested in the Shire as a result of the hobbits' suffering and pity during the Long Winter. So I fell back on dreams, which while less plausible and possibly more contrived, do fit in with the original, at least.

Bodkin	Reviewed Chapter: 12 on 11/19/2005
Some of these Tooks seem very parochial and narrow. They are reluctant to tolerate anything that is outside their own experience - or, at the most generous, the experience of their grandparents. It's a wonder anything ever made progress in the Tooklands. It would seem that Grandfa had his reasons. I hope being proved right to have the proud Tooks slaving over the harvest on half-rations is going to be a satisfaction to him. At least until bad turns to worse. Author Reply: Ah, yes, hobbits as JRRT himself described them. Parochial and narrow. I suppose it is possible to be satisfied in an "I told you so" sort of way, even as the sky is falling around you. But a bitter satisfaction at best.

Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 12 on 11/18/2005
Aha--Grandfa had the right of it, and the holding of him imprisoned and cut off may lead to greater ills ere the end as a result of those who will not listen to his counsel. Author Reply: Too true! We ought to respect our elders, but so often we don't, especially when they are telling us things we don't want to hear, or things that don't make sense, such as ordering half-rations in the middle of harvest time when food is plentiful!

Return to Chapter List