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| Keep Alive the Memory by Celeritas | 7 Review(s) |
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| Virtuella | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 11/27/2008 |
| Arrrgh, the narrow-mindedness of these rustic hobbits is so frustrating. All this condescending talk about "Outside". I want to slap Kira's mother! Well, it looks like Kira is going to find out more. And yay for mud fights! Author Reply: I'm reminded a bit of Frodo's mentioning that he had wished at times for an invasion of dragons to stir up the otherwise quite dull (often frustratingly so) Shire. And of course they'll condescend about Outside because they know absolutely nothing about it... *sigh* Oh, glad you liked the mud fight! There's something incredibly tempting about dirt after a spring melt... | |
| Agape4Gondor | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/20/2008 |
| Ah ha! So there might be elves and dwarfs and such! Author Reply: Might be... that qualifier is always necessary for the skeptic-turning-believer. That coat has certainly gotten Kira's curiosity up! | |
| Linda Hoyland | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/16/2008 |
| This is a delightful glimpse of Hobbit life.I hope they get to know that Elves are real! Author Reply: Thanks, Linda! Unfortunately with so many of them gone over Sea there are fewer and fewer elves wandering through the Shire, and that makes them harder to find, even for those who still believe in them. But this is still the early 4th Age, so there is hope yet. | |
| Kara's Aunty | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/9/2008 |
| Hello! Oh I'm so glad Kira managed to save the poor rabbit. I would've cursed Tom forever if he'd killed the poor thing. Where exactly does Kira live? Does she have a club foot? Why is she always so poorly? What happened to her father? Why won't her mother talk of their genealogy? I expect you've got the answers to these and many other questions already written down, so I'll just have to stay tuned. Roll on Monday! Maureen Author Reply: Wow, that's a lot of questions. Tolkien never gave us any maps of the Shire beyond the one at the beginning of FotR, so "on the White Downs south of Michel Delving" is about as specific as I get. I do have a bit of a map crudely sketched out that shows exactly where she lives in relation to the town and her friends. The Burrowses farm the field directly behind Kira's home; Tom lives on a farm that's quite close to town and Kira is a bit south of him. Other than those nuggets of information I don't really have anything, though some of the history of the house gets revealed over time. I haven't given too much detail on the foot both because I want to mask my own ignorance of such matters and because I don't know how easily recognizable things like a club foot (as opposed to other foot defects) would be in the Shire. I dislike it when in stories authors use knowledge from their own times to explain or even identify problems that the characters would not have been able to. (I am a huge fan of the Mysterious Victorian Illness and lament its demise.) What you need to know about the foot is 1). it's crooked, 2). Kira cannot walk on it, and 3). touching it hurts her, a lot. Modern me would say that this is because since it came together wrong (the bone placement is off, for instance), this left some really exposed nerves, but I'm sure you'd be able to come up with a better explanation. If this fits with club foot, feel free to read it that way; if it doesn't it's something else. How Kira can get around with one foot and one crutch beats me, but she did start out early and hobbits are remarkable. Any other medical-type questions I must profess complete ignorance at and hope that it doesn't throw you out of the story at all. The other questions will, of course, be answered in the course of the story. | |
| Raksha The Demon | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/7/2008 |
| Kira's mind, and hence her world, are opening up indeed. Good to see that the old mithril corselet is still in the Shire - that can prove to be quite a catalyst. Can't wait to see where Kira's renewed curiosity will take her! Author Reply: Yup--it's hard to see something that awesome, especially when you've read about it, and just dismiss it. "Where" Kira's curiosity will take her is handled in the next chapter. "How far" for me is the real question. Thanks for reading! ~Celeritas | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/7/2008 |
| Oh yes! The mithril coat! I had a hunch it might come into play sometime during the story. I am really intrigued as to the dealings of the Proudfoots, and why Kira's parents didn't want anything to do with them--I do hope we will find out why! Aside from all that, I really love the "hobbitiness" you have captured so well--the playfulness and friendship of the children for one thing, and Kira's appetite, for another, LOL! You have made the Shire very familiar--and yet, there are just enough differences to show that this isn't the *same* Shire now in the Fourth Age as it was at the end of the Third. Author Reply: I'm glad you liked the "proof" Kira was demanding in the previous chapter. Next chapter will have some awkward dealings with the Proudfoots, but other than that I'm afraid you'll have to wait till near the end of the tale. Glad you think I'm somewhat accurate regarding hobbit appetites. I often get so caught up in the plot that I forget that Kira has to eat! And it's also very helpful to know what kind of a job I'm doing in painting the Shire--similar, but different--because that's my intention. More differences should show themselves in time, as well as (eventually) explanations/justifications for those differences. I hope you like the direction this story is taking! | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/6/2008 |
| Oh, it's kept there, is it now, Bilbo and Frodo's mithril corslet and the matching belt? How wonderful she should see it! A lovely day, and I find I love these children, for they are so like the children we were--before growing up stole the others from me. Has a feeling of the Would-be-goods to it! Author Reply: The mail-coat is a bit of fudging, since anything Really Really Cool (tm) had a tendency to go West after the Third Age, but I thought it would be a very hobbitty thing for the Travellers (especially Frodo, in memory of his uncle) to just stick the thing back where it had lain for the last 60 years, for those with the eyes to find it. I'm glad to have caught something of the nature of children, simply going outside and playing, because of course I'm now (aren't we all?) a bit removed from that experience. Maybe Kira (the later one through whose veil I sometimes tell this story) is remembering it that way too--a lot of the "playing" scenes tend to have a certain nostalgia to them that was not consciously intended the first time round. | |