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| The Heir Apparent by Mirkwoodmaiden | 6 Review(s) |
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| Nurayy | Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 5/13/2021 |
| Little Estel is adorable! I can't catch myself, so so sweet. He is enchanting them all. Awww! You have such a wonderful way of describing him. Pure cuteness :) Author Reply: Nurayy!! Thanks! I really do have fun talking about little Estel. I have a few Estel stories that happen in this timeline. I imagine him being precocious and intelligent and with the ability to charm all Imladris. Also I imagine Elrond to be an affectionate but also a cerebral sort of father. The kind that are always encouraging you to think and understand others. To see all sides of a problem and to understand there is often many right answers. So glad you are reading! and reviewing! Thank you so much! Stay Safe, mellon nin! ((hugs)) MM | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 3/28/2020 |
| Ah, yes, the frog! Had forgotten that. Love Gandalf testing the child, and the meeting witn the stallion. Author Reply: Larner! Yup! I do remember this being a fun chapter to write! It is only natural that young boys carry frogs around! And I always imagine that Elrond is a loving parent who is always teaching. Teaching Estel to always think, to always think about consequences of his actions, about respect for others and their ways. Always a mark of approval if Estel wants to introduce you to his horse! LOL. Thanks for taking the time to write! Hope this message finds you and yours in safety and good health. MM | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 11/8/2005 |
| The younger the individual when learning languages, the more facility they tend to show in learning more. I think Aragorn in the end probably was fluent in Adunaic, Sindarin, Westron, and Quenya, and added in Haradri and Rhunic and the Trade Tongue as he'd traveled widely. And as I have Gandalf first seeing Aragorn at about age eleven, I certainly can't complain about you having their first encounter at five! Love the frog and the fallen table. Author Reply: Larner! I did a little research on the Internet about language acquistion in the very young before I wrote the chapter and it seems that children can become fluent in both languages. They can have seemingly two mother tongues and can think in terms of both of them. Aragorn could keep Westron as his native tongue or not. Ah! The frog and the fallen table...what would be of real importance to Estel! I think we have our answer! :-)) MM | |
| Dot | Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 9/21/2004 |
| I just clicked onto your bio after leaving the review... You got married! Woo-hoo! Congrats!! I guess I have to forgive you for disappearing so... ;-) | |
| Dot | Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 9/21/2004 |
| Well! Hello there. I’m so thrilled to see you back again with this story. I was worried. I hope all is well. And what a great comeback! This chapter was fantastic. I thought it was a very good idea to bring the time forward a little. I’ll admit that I haven’t actually had time today to re-read the rest of it - I will when I can – but your pacing seems perfect to me. Estel appears to have well and truly settled in – and taken over as only a small child can! I loved the start with him trying to catch the fish. Elladan was certainly amused anyway! I guess our little man will have to learn throughout his life that elves can do some things that he just can’t, but at the moment he doesn’t seem at all bothered and is clearly determined to keep trying – and with his resolve I don’t doubt for a second that he’ll succeed eventually. You know, I always find it weird when Aragorn calls Elrond ‘Ada’. I just don’t see it. But in fairness, it does make sense in this story. I love that Estel is comfortable enough with him to run up and hug him. I get the impression that Gandalf is seeing a whole new side of Elrond as well! I really like how light-hearted Elrond and Elladan are with each other as well as the child. “I’m not having a repeat of last summer when she gave me an earful when you came down with the sniffles.” Oh, I love that. Apart from the hilarious image of Gilraen tearing into Elrond, it really showed how the elves had to take some time to adjust to having humans around. Clearly it didn’t dawn on them that little boys can’t be allowed to wander around in wet clothes… I thought you wrote Gilraen really well. Her pain doesn’t come through as strongly any more but there’s still a sense of it being there somewhere, buried perhaps not quite as deep as she thinks, as well as a certain loneliness that comes through despite her new life. I’m glad she’s found some peace in Imladris but I guess those hidden memories will have to be faced some day. I loved the line “They had given Estel back his smile.” It seems that as a mother that was all she wanted. It’s interesting that Estel senses that his mother is troubled sometimes but doesn’t know why. How hard it must be for Gilraen not to share his past life with him. It seems to that there’s a divide between them now, in that Estel becomes more elvish every day, adopting their tongue and way of life but Gilraen will always see it as something different than what she is and what she’s used to. Elmiran seems nice! Is there anyone at all who hasn’t fallen under Estel’s spell…?!! I get the impression that the frog incident is only the latest in a long line of such occurrences. I suppose Estel’ll eventually learn the lesson that Elrond is trying to teach him. “All living creature thrive best where there is a place to grow and be happy.” Ah, how wise. I must say, I totally agree with you that having Aragorn meet Gandalf is a great idea. There’s such instinctive trust on Estel’s part that it certainly gives weight to their later relationship. I enjoyed watching Gandalf piece together the different parts of this child’s life. He should really just go back and talk to Elrond!! Is Gilraen going to meet him? This was a wonderful chapter. Thanks for coming back to it. I eagerly await more :-) Author Reply: Dot! So happy that you’ve remembered my story! I’m glad that you liked the chapter. It wasn’t an easy one to write after being out of the swing of things for so long. I thought it was time to bring a little light-heartedness into the story. After all according to either the ROTK appendices or the HoME series I can’t remember which say that something about Estel charming the inhabitants of Rivendell. So I went with that. Elrond is for all intents and purposes Aragorn’s father. The only father that he remembers and in the appendices to ROTK it says that “Elrond took the place of his father and came to love him as a son.” So it is a double tragedy for Elrond. If the Ring War is lost it is obviously a tragedy, but if it is successful then he looses his daughter to the man he has come to love as a son. In the films this father/ son relationship is completely lost, which is a shame. You would never know that Elrond is Aragorn’s foster father. It was obviously something that Peter Jackson decided not to show. I thought about how to portray Gilraen living in Imladris. Given that she actually says “Onen I-Estel Edain, u –chebin estel anim.” (I gave Hope to the Dunedain, I have kept no hope for myself.) I thinking that she never learned how to live past the tragedy of her husband’s death and realizes that little Estel would never wholly be hers only. There is, as you say, dividing wall between them placed there by fate and circumstance. Later she comes to completely accept it, but it takes time. She doesn’t have the happiest of lives after Arathorn dies. But for now she is still a major part of little Estel’s life. I thought it was a good idea to have Aragorn meet very early. In the films and in the book you sense Aragorn’s complete trust in Gandalf. Their meeting when Aragorn is still such a young child can help to explain why it is so strong. Thanks for all the thought put into my work. It is really appreciated. :-)) MM | |
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 11 on 9/20/2004 |
| Oh my goodness, I can't believe this story is back! Yay! I loved the picture of Estel sitting in the pond, trying to figure out what went wrong. After all, he did just what Elladan did! But the poor little thing -- worried about his mother's 'troubles.' Children really are very sensitive. I have a friend who married a Frenchman. Their three children were born in the US and then they went to live in France for a while. The kids all spoke both languages, and so did she, but it actually sort of shook her when her kids started to be French children instead of American. She had no problem with a husband who was 'foreign,' but she didn't want her kids to be. Author Reply: Thanks! Daw! Glad to be back! I'll going to try to find more time for writing now! Hopefully. Glad you liked it! I found the chapter not easy to write because at first I felt it shifted too quickly into "happiness and light mode." But then after reading it through I think the shift was needed. After so much pain a little hope (no pun intended) was needed. A couple friends of mine in England were American but they had been living abroad for so long that their daughter (who is technically American) has never lived in the States. She was an English school girl, no different from her friends while her parents have never lost their accents. I was thinking of that when I was writing Estel. MM | |