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The Acceptable Sacrifice by Larner	14 Review(s)
Endaewen	Reviewed Chapter: 44 on 2/16/2006
Beautiful. I love the thoughts of Frodo as he's watching the glass-blower. Author Reply: Oh, am so glad you approve as well. I've been rereading the chapters as you've commented on them to remind me, and it's been interesting revisiting where the tale has wended its way.

Armariel	Reviewed Chapter: 44 on 12/16/2005
Wonderful, lovely, enchanting descriptions here. Just try setting ME loose in that glass shop! I'd buy up everything in sight. Well, I'd want to! I'm terrible that way, when I'm traveling in a foreign place and I'm caught inside a wonderful shop full of THINGS...I remember when I was in Germany, we visited the Meissen porcelain factory and it was full of the most wonderful stuff, but I didn't buy a THING (other than a book) because it was all outrageously priced! But if it hadn't been! I love THINGS...I've been redecorating my home recently and I'm still buying THINGS for it.... Well, I'm babbling now...Love this chapter! Heheh, I think I distinctly remember that bowl from another story....The idea of beautiful THINGS coming out of the ash...does the image of the phoenix ever come to mind? Author Reply: I've loved fine glass for years, and when we had an antique store we specialized in it. Let me see some fine etched glass or cut cased glass, and I drool, although my favorite is pressed and cut glass. So glad you feel toward Celebrion's shop much as I do.

Antane	Reviewed Chapter: 44 on 12/11/2005
Nice to have Frodo see the beauty fire and a furnace can help achieve to help combat his other terrible memories. I think this was last chapter, but I'm sorry he feels he has to conceal his symptoms of illnesses now, it will only deepen and lengthen his pain. And sorry he already seems to know he will not heal. My poor Frodo... Namarie, God bless, Antane Author Reply: Sometimes the only way to fight an intense fear or phobia is to go through it and see the beauty or relief that can come out of it. And this is the experience Frodo now has. The moments over the glowing magma within the Sammath Naur would undoubtedly have sparked horrible associations, I'd think; to now tie glowing material no longer to those moments of being taken by the Ring but to seeing such loveliness emerge must have been very freeing. Frodo was always a very private person, or at least that is how I've always imagined him and portrayed him in my own writings; and minimalization is very common to PTSD. Frodo is definitely minimizing his symptoms to others starting now in my story; undoubtedly throughout his time in the Shire in the books and movies. It's part of the disease, unfortunately. And I think he'd have begun to realize by now that he will never properly heal. That he will actively begin to degerate will come in time, though.

Andrea	Reviewed Chapter: 44 on 12/10/2005
What a beautiful chapter! The rising of the sun and the clear view over lands, where in former times there was only shadow. Like in that wonderful song (one of my favourites, in fact), "Above all Shadows rides the Sun ...". And the glassblower! When I first read about him, I was fascinated. I can see the same fascination in Frodo, when he first watches the process of glassblowing. He is a lot stronger now, otherwise he would not have been able to stand it. But it was worth it, it helped him to realize, that Sauron is gone and the world is renewing. And even the ashes can be used to create beauty! Author Reply: So glad you appreciate it, Andrea. Sam's song has always been one of my favorites as well, and I think it is one of the most touching he wrote. And this would be a healing moment for Frodo, I think, to see beyond the devouring fire to the creative one, and to see beauty literally rising out of ash! Thanks so much for your comments of appreciation!

Baggins Babe	Reviewed Chapter: 44 on 12/10/2005
Beautiful imagery here, Larner! The ultimate irony is that Sauron could create nothing within Orodruin and yet all that ash can help to produce beautiful and exquisite works of art, and best of all, Frodo was able to fight the memories of Mount Doom and watch such beauty come about. How sweet that he took something home to Gandalf - perhaps the healing process begins here? Author Reply: The healing process has been ongoing, but there is a definite turn for the better emotionally, for the moment at the least. And to stay with it and see that this fire is creative and not destructive would be most reassuring to him, I think. He'd wish to share that moment somehow, I think, particularly with Gandalf--perhaps he doesn't quite appreciate just why; except both of them have been reborn from fire.

Radbooks	Reviewed Chapter: 44 on 12/10/2005
Poor Aragorn! He needs to go and do some sparring and work off some of his frustrations. Of course that will only give him relief for a couple of hours. :) More King's Commission stuff here! I've read it several times (I print stories out to re-read when I can.) and so I remember when Ruvemir talked to the neighbor lady and she explained what Frodo had said about Mordor,etc. And the man cleaning up the ash. That was fascinating to see that process, but then to see Frodo's reaction was hard. I'm amazed he could make himself sit there. The beauty that comes from ashes is always amazing. I do not like these other dreams Frodo is having... the ones from his times in Mordor and carrying the Ring are bad enough, but these other ones are horrible too. Author Reply: It's a pleasure to find some folk reread some of my works, and certainly I have loved The King's Commission--particularly as long as I spent writing the thing. Yes, some mentions of what happened there from a different point of view, as Frodo finds reassurance that it is over. And glad you appreciate the glassblower and the fact that Frodo fights his fears to find this encounter with such fire to be far different than the last one. I would think the temptation to remain in Gondor near Aragorn would have been strong; yet Frodo realized he needed to go home. That his prescience would be warning him of problems back in the Shire would, I think, be a logical thing for him to experience. And, yes, these would be particularly trying for him.

Linda Hoyland	Reviewed Chapter: 44 on 12/9/2005
I was very interested to read more of the glass you often mention.It is lovely to think that creation can come from destruction. If only Frodo would discuss how he felt more and show his drawings to Aragorn and Gandalf instead of burning them. Author Reply: It was fun to write this at last, and to show Frodo going through his fear and thus conquering this one, at least, rejoicing to see a beauty Sauron himself could never appreciate coming out of the very symbol of his intent to dominate all. But it was so hard for Frodo to do so with his disgust for himself and his memories. It was hard enough, I suspect, just to commit them to paper itself. It's part of why in "For Eyes to See as Can" I have Bilbo giving him the stationery box, as Frodo has such a difficult time unburdening himself to others. Once the PTSD set in, it would have been nearly impossible to do, I think.

French Pony	Reviewed Chapter: 44 on 12/8/2005
I think one of your great strengths is in describing all the various crafts that the people in Minas Tirith do. Glassblowing is so fascinating, and it's not something I've seen often. I love the way that the glassblower is specifically using Sauron's ashes. In a way, he's performing tikkun olam, healing the world by taking a source of pain and using it to make the world more beautiful. Frodo ought to have just a little bit of that volcano glass to take away with him. Maybe a little pendant that he can wear where the Ring used to be. That might go towards healing the ache of loss there. Author Reply: Yes, this is indeed deliberately symbolic of the literal rising from the ashes of Gondor, Minas Tirith in particular, and of Frodo's eventual healing as well. Mention of the glassblower and the volcano glass is made in several of my stories, particularly of a particular bowl which you will see a bit later on, after the marriage of Aragorn and Arwen. I've seen that this bowl has managed to inspire others in their writing of post-Frodo Minas Tirith, in fact, which is delightful. And I'll have to think about what particular token of volcano glass Frodo might take with him, although a pendant would conflict with the Evenstar gem. I love to think that Minas Tirith becomes again a center of artistic endeavor, particularly after Aragorn meets a particular sculptor. Thanks so much for all the feedback, as you appreciate, I'm sure, how it keeps us writing.

Raksha The Demon	Reviewed Chapter: 44 on 12/8/2005
The notion of the artisan forging such beautiful glassware from Orodruin's ash is lovely. And how nice of Frodo to commission a wedding present for Faramir and Eowyn! They will surely treasure the Ringbearer's gift... Author Reply: Yes, I think that the idea that such beauty can come even from volcanic ash I've long felt was one which was symbolic of Middle Earth emerging into the Fourth Age, the Return of the King, and the acceptance by Frodo of the healing offered him. And I'm certain that Faramir and Eowyn would treasure such a gift offered them by Frodo.

harrowcat	Reviewed Chapter: 44 on 12/8/2005
Wonderful, wonderful description yet again Larner. I think that it is all the little details that you weave into the scenes that make them come so alive. Like Aragorn using his dagger as a paper weight in the previous chapter for example! I spent an entire wet and rain-sodden morning of my camping trip last Summer, (well, so-called Summer in Norfolk, England,) watching two glass-blowers in complete awe and fascination! I stood through the whole talk twice! It is sad that Frodo feels that he has to hide or mask his illness and pain. He is reminding me of someone with Anorexia. (And come on Arwen! Get your palfrey to put a spurt on or you will have a wraith and not a warrior to greet your arrival! g Author Reply: The hiding of the symptoms is not that uncommon in depression, to which anorexia is tied, after all. But we are talking here of a Baggins, a family which, if it isn't as strictly as predictable and conventional as it would like to think of itself, nevertheless would like to appear that way. Frodo feels he must show the appearance of being capable and self-sufficient, even if he isn't. The keeping up of appearances will very nearly be the death of him in the end.... Glad you feel the glassblowing appeared to be realistic--or apparently you did. Have watched a few shows on the process, and find it fascinating, myself. I do tend to be a bit of a detail person, which can make scenes either deadly dull or add realism--am glad I appear to do the latter. And I agree about Arwen. I've always suspected Aragorn would have had his patience greatly strained that last month! Author Reply: By the way, as I live in the Great Pacific Northwest, believe me, I KNOW about rainy summers. Our joke is that during the summer, if it falls on the weekend we'll go on a picnic. We don't tan--we rust. The fact that the University of Oregon's sports mascot is a duck is indicative of how we live. But the University of Washington's mascot is the husky, indicative of Seattle's ties to the Yukon and Alaskan gold rush. Anyway, wish I could come over--we'd head off to York and pretend we are Owen Archer and his wife the apocathery. (I LOVE York, you know. And the lady who writes those books is from Seattle.) I love going into the Merchant Adventurers' Hall there--you know about every King ever to rule Britain went there to borrow money for one enterprise or another. And I love the archaeology site in the undercroft. And I went through most of the bookstores there last time I was over. Did I ever tell you how much I love York? Heh!

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