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An Autumn Fair in Halabor  by Soledad 2 Review(s)
DeniseReviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/23/2008
Awesome - another fully-fleshed and multi-layered character. I really like Mistress Betha even in her hardness and past regrets; every one of your individuals feel so real.

Your descriptions are just wonderful, too. Detail person that I am, I love learning that different cloths require different looms, for example.

I also love the connection back to Dol Amroth in this chapter, and the reference to trade secrets. It's easy to forget that people usually married within the family craft (or related ones) in part to keep their secrets methods intact, and how closely guarded it all was.

foreign customers, indeed! *g* The beating poor Betha's self-image took upon seeing the lady Elves is exactly how I would feel! Her gaping menfolk made me wish your divine Gildor had paid a visit. Turn-about, and all. :)

Author Reply: Too bad I haven't thought of *that*. But worry not, Gildor will appear later on, in all his glory.

Re: inbreeding
They not only married within the family craft, they also often married within the extended family, too. My grandfather came from a wealthy Saxon family, and they'd been marriages between cousins for so long that one of his sisters was a bit, well... dim.

I had great fun writing Mistress Betha - I like writing characters who aren't young and pretty. They're a lot more interesting, honestly.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 2 on 12/14/2007
Yes, she's done well by herself indeed, and the two Elves have only been slightly overcharged, I suppose.

Love the descriptions of the works.

Author Reply: I've read in one of Frances and Joseph Gies' books that - contrary to common belief - women in the Middle Ages *could* learn a craft and have wealth of their own. Of course, that usually happened when male relatives were dead or nonexistent, but it happened nonetheless.

I think the Elves would have realized, had Betha tried to overcharge them seriously. They just don't consider money so important as mortals do, perhaps.

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