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| Shire: Beginnings by Lindelea | 8 Review(s) |
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| Matt | Reviewed Chapter: 31 on 2/27/2017 |
| Two thumbs up for this story. Early history of the various groups in Middle Earth is one of the things I'd love to see more of--and this one is very very well done. I like your characterizations, the research you've done on the migration is well considered and the forces driving the hobbits further from their original home make sense. Did you ever continue this piece? Are there others in this genre out there from other authors that you like? Thanks again, and so much, for a great read. Off to discover (or rediscover in a few cases before I got impatient with your chapter length), some more of your work. Thanks loads for your hard work on this excellent fic. Author Reply: Much belated thanks, Matt. I just now saw this review when I was looking something up. I hope this finds you well. | |
| Nienor Niniel | Reviewed Chapter: 31 on 7/30/2006 |
| Oh, they are remembering something after all, both Hobbits and Elves. This was a really lovely ending for a great fic! Thanks for sharing, Nienor | |
| Inkling | Reviewed Chapter: 31 on 2/20/2005 |
| Ah Lin, this was such a lovely ending to the story! Was it Elladan who saw Bilbo and left such an indelible impression, filling his heart “with unknown longing”? And so in the prologue it was the Old Took then, telling tales to a young Bilbo? This story was every bit as wonderful as I thought it would be, and your Fallohides have captured my heart. Someone thought they were unhobbity? To me they are the very essence of hobbit-kind…all the best qualities of hobbits, with the surface trappings of Shire civilization stripped away. They do the right thing instinctively, without thought of what’s in it for them, as when they help Grandalf or the Elves. They have a nobility of spirit and a quiet dignity that are both inspiring and humbling. You can see how centuries of easy living could turn them into the fussy, complacent hobbits of the late Third Age, but you can also still detect in the modern hobbits the traces of their forebears: “There is a seed of courage hidden (often deeply, it is true) in the heart of the fattest and most timid hobbit”… Every now and then—not often—I come across a story that I think Tolkien would have enjoyed. This is one of them. Thank you so much! | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 31 on 10/1/2004 |
| My goodness, this has been a lovely and ambitious story! I don't know that I'd ever have the nerve to tackle the origins of the hobbits and the Shire, but I am so glad that you did! And I loved your little epilogue. I would guess the Watcher to be either Elladan or Elrohir, as they seemed to be on such fond and familiar terms with Pick. So, Bilbo took after that particular Tookish ancestor, eh? Clever! Author Reply: My goodness, I didn't answer any of your reviews on this story? Bad me! Was glad to get the feedback even though I've been remiss in answering. Thanks so much. (and yes, Bilbo, and I think Pippin, take after Pick the most) | |
| ShireDweller | Reviewed Chapter: 31 on 1/28/2004 |
| Bilbo! What a wonderful way to connect the past and the "present", with an immortal elf seeing a long-gone friend in Bilbo. | |
| Lyta Padfoot | Reviewed Chapter: 31 on 1/28/2004 |
| Young Bilbo is adorable! Wonder what the Watcher would have thought of Frodo or Pippin. Good to know Pickthorn is remembered. Still curious as to who Pick marries, but maybe we'll find that out in the next story. | |
| Pearl Took | Reviewed Chapter: 31 on 1/28/2004 |
| Ah! "Beginnings"! Oh yes. I can hardly wait to continue this journey we have all begun! You have captured me with your epic tale. Pearl Took Author Reply: Thanks, Pearl. Do you think readers would be too confused if one of the heroes in the next part is named "Sam"? (For some reason Samson Roper, the son of Samneth Roper, great-grandson, I think, of Beechnut the Roper of the Fallohides) is winking at me from across the room. I keep telling him his name ought to be Sandy Roper, but hobbits can be awfully stubborn as you know. | |
| FantasyFan | Reviewed Chapter: 31 on 1/28/2004 |
| I like the epilogue. To see Bilbo when he was so young, before any of his adventures, is quite a treat. Here it seems that Somebody has sparked that little Tookish part of him, long before Gandalf set it ablaze. I'm not sure that the chapter fits here, as Part I does not bring them to the Shire proper, but it is an adorable little vignette. Though, it does remind me of the visions the Old Thorn had just before his death, where he could see his line continued in our heroes. Author Reply: The prologue and epilogue are bookends of a sort, or perhaps endpapers in a book, meant to contain the tale. Yes, that echo of the Old Thorn's visions was deliberate. Perhaps I was too subtle or the tale ran too long, but you're supposed to think of the grandfather in the prologue when you read the epilogue, and wonder if perhaps this is the Old Took telling tales to young Bilbo, even though it could be any Tookish grandfather and grandson the way it's written. This last chapter was one of the first written. I had thought to leave it off, but Pearl's plaintive inquiry about hobbits reaching the Shire made me reconsider. Since I don't know how long it'll take me to get the hobbits to the Shire (this story has taken the better part of a year to write), I thought I'd offer a bit of hope. Also, since Pick and Thorn aren't planned to appear in any future instalments (the next is set about 150 years later, when they are dust and perhaps a memory lingering in stories told to the great-grandkids), the Elf's momentary arrest over Bilbo's resemblance to those hobbits wouldn't make sense if I put it in one of the later parts. Thanks for taking the time to comment! | |