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


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Ancestress by Dreamflower	10 Review(s)
Eirinn Leigh	Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 10/26/2015
Hobbits are the steady quarter notes, half notes and whole notes that fill the entire notation from top to bottom of a musician's sheet music with not room left for but the most fleeting measures of melody... yet without them and the 3rd position flutists, 4th seat violinists, tubas, violas and so forth that play them the music would be less rich and the melody would falter. That is what hobbits are. Unseen and indispensable. Author Reply: Beautifully put, my dear! Thank you for extending the metaphor in such a lovely manner!

Kaylee Arafinwiel	Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 10/25/2011
poor Frodo! But it's entirely reasonable he might think so!! Kaylee Author Reply: It truly does seem like the logical conclusion to come to when faced with the history of the Third Age; Frodo can't quite understand that time and causality has little meaning to Eru.

Kitty	Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 8/5/2010
Yes, that was what I thought Frodo might be feeling when he left so abruptly. When one puts these quotes together like he did, he had to feel like a pawn. Author Reply: Yes, I am sure that he did. In truth, these are questions that readers of LotR also ask. I've read more than one fic in which either Gandalf or the Powers are accused of manipulating Frodo's life. I thought I might deal with that subject here.

Soledad	Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 7/18/2010
Ouch! Not exactly pleasant considerations. I can understand Frodo, though. The Powers are way too manipulative sometimes for us, lesser beings. Author Reply: Well, taking the facts of the history of the Third Age into account, it seems an only too logical conclusion to come to...

Grey Wonderer	Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 7/5/2010
That would be a very troubling thought indeed, that your entire life and that of your people had only been for one purpose. It's not something that would be pleasant to consider even if that purpose had been so great a task. Author Reply: No, it's never pleasant to think that you've been used, even if, as you said, it was to a great task.

Antane	Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 6/29/2010
Oh, no, my beloved Frodo, not at all an afterthought! Don't you see how incredibly special hobbits, especially you and Bilbo, and even Smeagol, are from your remembered quotes? Not pawns at all, but sacred vessels. Namarie, God bless, Antane :) Author Reply: He doesn't see it, no, not quite yet. He still has much to learn. But I think by the time he hears the rest of Grandmother's story, he will come to understand.

Virtuella	Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 6/28/2010
I think this is a very understandable reaction, and Frodo is quite right to ask as he does. Author Reply: If you look solely at the facts, it's not a very difficult conclusion to come to. After all, hobbits don't show up until the Third Age, they are never mentioned in the First or Second Age, and it seems they are inextricably bound up in the matter of the Ring, from Smeagol finding it first, to Bilbo finding it after him and passing it on to Frodo, it does rather seem that way... Of course there is more to it than that.

Celeritas	Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 6/28/2010
This reminds me of Gandalf's saying, after suggesting that Frodo was predestined, "That may be comforting to you," and Frodo's reply: "It isn't." Which I had always taken to mean, "No pressure or anything," but there's always that free will/predestination undercurrent. Poor fellow!--but even our own paltry creations can have both beauty and utility, and I have a feeling that when the Divine is involved the two get so mixed up in one another that they become indistinguishable. There may be a Shadow-fighting purpose in afternoon tea (creature comforts tend to work that way), but I'm blest if I can think what it is specifically. Author Reply: Indeed. That exchange between the two of them was part of what set me on this particular theme of the story (there is more than one). when the Divine is involved the two get so mixed up in one another that they become indistinguishable. It often happens that we try too hard to second-guess Divine intent. Why did one person miss that plane that crashed when others didn't? Is there a reason someone was rejected for a much-desired job? Doesn't it feel purposeful if one is late for a meeting, only later to discover that there was an accident on one's route? Or that one misses by seconds a falling tree limb when walking? But the truth is, our paltry minds cannot fathom the Divine, and our own cause-and-effect logic is very limiting.

GamgeeFest	Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 6/28/2010
The Shire-folk, his people, hobbits. Had they never been anything more than pawns? Those last lines say it all. Poor Frodo! To feel that way is truly horrible, especially considering all that happened to him because of the Ring. This is a lot for him to process, though I'm sure (or I hope) that there is another aspect to all of this he does not yet understand that might help alleviate the sting of it. And I loved that Aunt Dora's voice is still chiding him. :D Author Reply: though I'm sure (or I hope) that there is another aspect to all of this he does not yet understand that might help alleviate the sting of it. Yes, there will be more that Frodo does not yet understand, which will play out in this story. We don't tend to forget the "Aunt Doras" of our lives-- or their advice!

Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 18 on 6/28/2010
Truly tearing, tragic thoughts! To think that Hobbits were always intended to--, well, to clean up after the rest? I see why he is so upset! At least not all his thoughts are merely for himself! He follows the steps of his uncle, yes; but also of those who marched out with Bucca of the Marish and how many others over the years? Author Reply: Indeed. The thing is, looking at the history of hobbits, objectively and story-internally, there is a lot that might point one to that rather distasteful conclusion: no one ever heard anything of them before the Third Age began, which happens after Isildur's failure to destroy the Ring. Both the finders of the Ring were hobbits: the Stoor, Smeagol, and Bilbo Baggins. Hobbits have a lot of resilience, and very little ambition for power as a race, and they also have an extra measure of compassion-- the ultimate "anti-Ring" weapon. The hobbits are mostly guarded away from influences that might have corrupted them. And then the one of the Istari best equipped to deal with the Ring is drawn to them... But of course, that's not the whole story, is it?

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