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A Small and Passing Thing  by Lindelea 5 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 54 on 4/23/2023
Oh, yes--the anniversary of Weathertop.

FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 54 on 10/30/2003
I forgot - I was going to complain that Freddy asked for a pencil. It seemed anachronistic, but I looked up the origin of pencils and found out they were in use in England since 1564 and mass produced since 1662, essentially in the same form as we have them now. So it isn't too odd to have pencils (along with Umbrellas) in Tolkien's Shire, a sort of 1800's setting. Now 1100s-era Rohan, they might not have had pencils there. It still sounds a little strange (though the crunchy pencil joke is funny) but I guess I can't really complain.

Author Reply: An incredibly belated LOL...

FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 54 on 10/30/2003
Ah, scenes of domestic bliss, and Elanor soon to make her presence felt. Freddy is very sharp, and it must be quite a relief to him to hear the truth, that there is medication in the tea which can make him feel better. You know, if it hadn't been for his illness, he might have been elected Mayor instead of Sam. I think people would have remembered his heroism as the Rebel, and his carefully cultivated reputation as a wastrel would not have been held against him. Certainly a gentlehobbit like Mr. Freddy would have been much more suitable than Sam the Gardener. Just a thought that came to me.

October the 6th has come, and I thought more might be made of it. Last year, Frodo's shoulder pained him and he was uneasy all day. In March, he was catatonic for 24 hours. I thought he might be sicker this October, instead of just lost in himself in the evening. At the least, catching Rose as she fell should have given him a pang in the bad shoulder: instead he seems very much himself at the noontide meal. However, the secene in the study is properly spooky, and as usual you have woven the words of canon into your story very well. (On the second reading, I caught the 'vague anxiety about his master' phrase.) Of course, I don't know what you've got planned for the winter months, but he's got less than a year now to get to the point where he can't stay in the Shire, and I was expecting more build up toward that in the October illness. Silly of me, that expecting thing, isn't it, since you're writing a story I never could, and your plots haven't disappointed me yet. I imagine it's more anxiety-producing to be writing during the time actually referenced in the books, rather than the spinning of pure speculation you can do 15 years later.

Author Reply: Ah well, then, Frodo has got you fooled as well as Samwise. I suppose we had better give the reader a peek inside his head at this point.

This is a part of the story that has kept me cogitating for weeks. Tolkien made light of Frodo's troubles, or at least he made little mention of them once our hero returns to the Shire. Frodo wore a white jewel and often fingered it. He went back to ordinary attire. He quietly dropped out of all the doings of the Shire. Not much alarming there.

You read about the anniversaries and you'd think he was improving!
Mar 13: Farmer Cotton finds him on his bed, half in a dream. Sam returns twelve days later to find him completely recovered.

Oct 6: Frodo says something or other that alarms Sam but then gets up, "the turn seems to pass" and he is "himself" the next day. No comparison to the all-day business that assailed him on the road to the Shire the previous year.

Mar 13: Frodo conceals his illness with difficulty, but he manages to conceal it! No lying on the bed, half in a dream, at least not found that way by anyone... He's getting better... isn't he?

And then, boom! He's off with the elves, too badly wounded to stay in the Shire. You cannot know how frustrating I find "The Grey Havens" chapter. It does not ring in accord with Frodo's "Where shall I find rest?" in an earlier chapter, and there is no warning that he is suffering enough to have to leave Middle-earth behind.

It has been difficult to come up with an outline showing the subtle-but-steady decline, steady enough to justify his leaving, subtle enough that Sam can ignore the signs and be surprised at the departure. We'll see if I can pull it off.

See chapter 55 for the beginning of the end.

Tim the EnchanterReviewed Chapter: 54 on 10/29/2003
Poor Frodo... and very observant Freddy to guess right away what was the matter with Rose. Males usually are somewhat oblivious to such things unless they are already in the know.

Author Reply: Yes, males usually are, but for some reason I think of Freddy as inquisitive, a natural investigator. Bet if I were to start writing a hobbit detective series, Freddy would be the star... If he sees a puzzle his brain keeps working at it until he figures it out, even if he is busy about something else. Rose fainting, together with her and Sam's excitement coming back from the farm, combined with her looking wan and even greenish-pale sometimes in recent days was enough for him to make a guess. He'd seen his mum expecting Estella after all, when he was a sensitive and impressionable child...

?????Reviewed Chapter: 54 on 10/29/2003
Um, you've got two Chapter 53's.

Author Reply: Thanks! I hadn't noticed yet, was too busy trying to make sure the formatting came out right. The second cup of tea has not kicked in yet.

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