News Resources
Login
Become a member
Help
Search
|
|
| About Us News Resources
Login
Become a member
Help
Search
|
|
|
| Shire: Beginnings by Lindelea | 5 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| PSW | Reviewed Chapter: 26 on 2/8/2025 |
| I’m sure the Elves absolutely loved all the babies coming! What a time of rejoicing. :-) I’m sure Thorn will be back, but I don’t like all this talk of ‘if you don’t come back’… Hope he’s back quickly! Author Reply: Considering that Elves celebrate "Quickening" as their New Year (if I'm remembering right), I think they'd find babies wonderful and full of wonder. I don't think the Fallohides take life for granted at this point in time, after all the losses they've suffered over recent years. | |
| Inkling | Reviewed Chapter: 26 on 2/17/2005 |
| Oh my, I think I needed to get to the Last Homely House as much as the hobbits… All-Around? LOL!! Loved the hobbit-sized table settings, and the Elves sitting in the Hall of Fire holding hobbit children. Sad that, over time, this close relationship with the Elves would not last…and even sadder, perhaps, that while the hobbits would forget, the Elves would remember. The sadness of mortal lands… So the wives follow their husbands in death…the last missing piece of the puzzle as to why there were so few remaining hobbits. And though Violet lives, “she seldom spoke to any, ate little, and wandered the halls like a small, sad wraith.” What a tragic image! And the Thorn’s name was Buckthorn! I’d wondered… “He'd found the hobbits were better able to concentrate with food to nibble.” Elrond is becoming an honorary hobbit! He’s going to miss them, I think. This is a wonderful line: ‘One Elf and one Fallohide,’ Blackthorn answered firmly. ‘How can any stand against us?’ It’s nice to see Black truly becoming The Thorn… Author Reply: "All-around" was such fun when it popped up out of nowhere! I wonder what Elrond might have been thinking when Bilbo arrived with the Dwarves... Thankfully, the time of healing at the Last Homely House offered Blackthorn the respite he needed to be able to transition into the role of Thorn. After crossing the Misty Mountains, the Fallohides seldom heard the Voice of the Lady. (Her Voice, or Someone's Voice, at least, does pop up a few times in the next story that talks about the Hobbits moving to the Bree-land, but it's not the same as in the Greenwood, where all the Thorn had to do was walk deeper into the forest and listen very hard.) | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 26 on 10/1/2004 |
| Oooh, nasty king. I wouldn't want Glorfindel and the Thorn mad at ME! (Rubs hands in anticipation) On to the next chapter!! Author Reply: Glorfindel is scary when he's riled up, for sure. | |
| Lyta Padfoot | Reviewed Chapter: 26 on 1/24/2004 |
| Has Pickthorn dissapeared? He's my favorite character. I'd love too see more of him though Blackthorn is an interesting character. The weight of responsibility appears to be settling well on his shoulders. Author Reply: Not sure what you are asking; he was in this chapter. He's the one who fetched Violet (his mum) to Lily's side. You'll see more of him when (Black)Thorn gets back from Rhudaur with Glorfindel. Not much left to this part of the story, really. The journey to Cardolan, meeting the Harfoots, settling down, and an epilogue. Then, I think, there will be a part 2 with Marcho and Blanco, unless that's part 3, and part 2 involves the hobbits moving from the "lost villages" in the angle to Breeland. After all, M and B go from Bree to found the Shire. Anyhow, haven't got the later parts worked out yet. Am still thinking about M & B and what sort of hobbits they are... all I know at this point is that they are brothers, and that they inspire many hobbits to follow them. | |
| FantasyFan | Reviewed Chapter: 26 on 1/20/2004 |
| I am intrigued about the way of the People that one does not survive the loss of a mate. Certainly this does not persist into the new land (which you even say - new land, new ways) but there are echoes of it in the Hobbit aversion to remarriage, as well as where we have seen a Hobbit turn his face to the wall to welcome death. It is not that grief is lessened, but that somehow they accept better than we do that death comes to all, and that sometimes it is not the worst choice. I have to think about that a bit more. I noticed that Black at the beginning of the chapter becomes Thorn by the end. In the birth of the next generation, he has accepted leadership more fully. And I loved the gentle response of the elves to the birth of hobbit babies. Of course they haven't seen young ones in a very long time, and never ones as small as this. It seems perfectly natural they would want to hold, and sing, and nurture in a way I think only elves could. Elrond is really tenderhearted (who would have guessed!) and already half a hobbit. It must have pleased him to no end when he encountered Bilbo. What is Glorfindel up to? After Elrond, he's the scariest Elf-lord. If the King of Rhudaur knows what's good for him, he won't mess with a twice-born Balrog slayer and one who hears the Lady! Looking forward to the battle of wits. Author Reply: Thanks for the review! I was beginning to think the story had lost its (whatever it is). Can you tell I'm brainless tonight? Going to take the night off from writing and watch "Pirates of Penzance". Death, after all, is the Gift of Eru. The Men of Numenor fell because they desired immortality, didn't they? Hobbits are perceived as purer and more innocent, so perhaps they have not been corrupted by the longing for prolonging life beyond its prescribed span. Don't get me wrong; they love life and revere it, refusing to take the life of another hobbit, say, and not prone to suicide (so I was told when I had Estella contemplating such in "Ruffians" when there seemed no other escape). It's just that they are not afraid of death. I guess I get this impression from Pippin beneath the troll. He doesn't seem frightened. Tenderhearted Elrond comes from the description in The Hobbit, "kind as summer". I can just see the Elves enjoying the babies... Am still working out just how Glorfindel scares the king of Rhudaur. (What makes Elves scarey? Why are people in awe, just seeing an Elf? Cannot find an explanation. The Elves are powerful, my "Tolkien Companion" says, but neglects to go into detail. Guess if Glorfindel can stand against the Nazgul, mere Men are no match for him; that is the premise from which I'm working.) The Muse has a magnificent speech worked up, just am not sure where in the course of events it falls. Black, too, has something to say. | |