Stories of Arda Home Page
About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

In Empty Lands  by Larner 5 Review(s)
BarthandReviewed Chapter: 30 on 1/12/2016
I have read your story through now and in the whole enjoyed it. Your additions and expansions of the story have been mostly true to Lore with some exceptions. Do you have any basis for the blood magic bit? That seemed out of place to me. You've made only one serious error, in my own opinion and it is a whopper. Having Frodo assert that it was not him to volunteered to be the Ringbearer but some outside force using him shows you have missed the point of the story entirely. LOTR is a story about personal choice. Frodo's voluntary choice to bear the Ring is what made him noble. He was nobody's pawn.

Author Reply: The following is a direct quote from my original copy of FOTR, which my mother gave me for my birthday in 1966:

No one answered. The noon-bell rang. Still no one spoke. Frodo glanced at all the faces, but they were not turned to him. All the Council sat with downcast eyes, as if in deep thought. A great dread fell on him, as if he were awaiting the pronouncement of some doom that he had long foreseen and vainly hoped might after all never be spoken. An overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace by Bilbo's side in Rivendell filled all his heart. At last with an effort he spoke, and wondered to hear his own words, as if some other will was using his small voice.

'I will take the Ring,' he said, 'though I do not know the way.'

(Emphasis mine.) (This printing was made in 1963, and was the original published version without the changes Tolkien made in response to the Ace edition publication.)

The indication is that although Frodo did volunteer, still he felt, as Elrond was to say, that this was a fated thing, that this doom was already appointed for him. And I am certain that at times he regretted his words at the Council and wished to distance himself from them, convincing himself temporarily that it WAS someone else who spoke through him, even as he had felt at the moment he accepted the responsibility to see the Ring brought to Mordor so that it could be destroyed. It is in one of those moments of resentment that he's stuck with this mission that he says what he does to Boromir in my writing.

I do hope you can forgive me!

As for the blood magic--we know that magic was a good part of life in Tolkien's world, so I extrapolated from the types and forms of magic we are familiar with via tradition, myth, and legends. Blood magic has always been seen as being particularly potent, but it has always been treated as being on the verge of being forbidden. Just as sex without mutual love and responsibility has traditionally been frowned upon as it can lead to sometimes dreadful consequences, so blood magic is also so easily capable of turning dark. I suspect most honorable Men would avoid it so as to avoid the temptation to be drawn into it more and more deeply until they are corrupted by it. "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." But if they are seeking to again reforge and rekindle Narsil, as well as potentially tying it to Aragorn's bloodline, I do think that they would strongly consider using such blood magic to reach their aims.

I do hope I am making sense!

I admit to allowing a bit of movie-verse to creep in, with Frodo foreseeing the possible chaos of allowing others to begin making their own offers to take the Ring leading to the great argument shown in the movie, perhaps with this imagining being engendered in part by the will of the Ring Itself. Again, I do hope the readers can forgive this.

AntaneReviewed Chapter: 30 on 6/9/2015
Sorry it has taken so long to get to this. It is good to return to this story, though too bad Boromir was being so rude. But now he realizes the source of it. Alas for Frodo. Aragorn's words are so sadly true. Keep praying for dad, please. Le hannon.

Namarie, God bless, Antane :)

Author Reply: The Ring is capable of being subtle, but It would have found Boromir easiest to attack, I'd think.

And I continue to pray for your father. Bless him and your family.

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 30 on 5/14/2015
Very well done!

I think Boromir did not realize until Aragorn told him, that it was The Ring that spoke through him and not himself.

But the reader does! That it is not Boromir as we know him from your story.

Hopefully he will have enough time left where he can be himself again until it is over.

Author Reply: I hope that he does realize for as long as possible that the Ring Itself is seeking to suborn him. And I so hope he continues a sympathetic character through all that the Ring does to him.

Thanks so much, Andrea!

TariReviewed Chapter: 30 on 5/11/2015
This was an excellent read which left me wanting to read more. (What does leman mean?

Author Reply: Am not certain how long it will be before the next chapter is posted, although it's already taking shape.

A leman was a lover, but not a spouse.

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 30 on 5/7/2015
You so beautifully fill in these days of cold and hardship and uncertainty. That Boromir lasted as long as he did against the Ring's whispers and promises is commendable, but, as Galadriel would say, he "fought the long defeat".

Author Reply: Oh, I agree. I doubt that at first Boromir realized that the Ring's whisperings were indeed foreign thoughts--look how long it took Frodo to realize that it wasn't really his own wish that led to him donning the Ring, after all. Anyone dealing with the Ring for any length of time would be fighting the long defeat! That Frodo lasted as long as he did is the wonder.

Thank you so!

Return to Chapter List