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Return to Me  by Strange Blaze 7 Review(s)
SimplegirlfromLPReviewed Chapter: 9 on 6/16/2020
This story was just as wonderful the 2nd time around. I hope you are well and will finish this story, you seemed so eager. This story has such great promise. I think you said it was your first time writing a fanfic, well congratulations, you are doing a great job. This story can go so many places. I would imagine the angst Soraiyel goes through as she is parted from Legolas especially with their telepathic connection. Did Legolas close his mind to her during the stressful and dangerous parts of the trip? During the quiet times, would he speak with her? Would that be too much for her? Did she stay in Imladris to comfort Arwen especially with this special gift Sorayaiel and Legolas share?
Anyways, hope you will continue to write.

SimplegirlfromLPReviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/15/2020
You are so cute with the explanations. This is my second read through with your story and I know it will end soon. So I am reading it anxiously knowing it will end soon.
I hope you get this email and I hope you are ok and that nothing serious is the cause for your writing to have ceased.

endorearwenReviewed Chapter: 9 on 1/2/2014
BRAVO, Strange Blaze! Writing so consistently from a single point of view, especially the first person, is not an easy thing to accomplish, yet you have done so with masterful skill!

I LOVE the Thranduil of your creation. This kind, gentle and loving King is exactly how I would imagine him. The scene wherein Sorayaiel re-lives the loss of her parents demonstrated well Thranduil's tender side. That scene certainly cut to the core. The emotion of the moment, the desperation of the losses, the sense of fear about the future, all articulated so clearly that tears came easily to my eyes.

Perhaps the most touching thing to me in your writing is the depth of connection you have created between Legolas and Sorayaiel. Your presentation of the intimacy they have shared for so long resonated with the strongest desire for true love that every human heart yearns to discover for itself. At times, I was afraid at the risk this connection meant both were facing if the other suddenly disappeared from their life. It was a horrible thought, yet the fearlessness with which they embraced their love gave them each the strength to follow the joy of abandonment that comes from such complete self-giving. I felt a sense of hope in journeying with this couple through the many challenges and dangers they faced - not only of the happiness that time might provide to them but also of that endless happiness they would share when they crossed into Valinor and were together until the end of Arda. In some ways, the depth of connection between their hearts, fears, and minds felt like a preview of that inexplicable joy that all in Valinor are blessed to have until Arda's end.

The revelation of Fanwen's involvement in Sorayaiel's parents' untimely deaths and the dramatic effect it took on her character was most intriguing. I thought it an exceedingly clever way to remind the reader of the long Ages that elves live in Arda and of how closely connected this necessarily means they all are to one another. Kudos!

I found myself stopping on purpose, rationing the pages, because I didn't want the story to end too quickly, so fond had I grown of your original characters and the loving life they enjoyed. The connection to them was instant, deepening with every revelation of their histories - not an easy thing to achieve.

I am most disappointed that you have ceased writing these stories. There are so many plotlines that I would very much like to have seen you 'tie up' the ends on. However, I do thank you for sharing these two beautiful stories with us readers. They are fabulous and I will re-read them many more times before losing my enthusiasm for them!

emjoReviewed Chapter: 9 on 1/8/2005
Please update, Please

MirielReviewed Chapter: 7 on 8/25/2003
Kudos for being the only fanfiction story I have ever seen with Dwarf women. I myself have written a story soley on a Dwarf women, posted here at "stories." I am pleased to see the your Dwarf Men atttitudes toward women were exactly the same as mine.

I disagree on the bearded women. I believe that Dwarf women had beards.
The passage in Return of the King says that "[Dwarf-women] are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears of other people cannot tell them apart." … In Peoples of Middle Earth there is draft material from that Appendix, and the draft version of this passage says that "There is no difference in substance in the present text, except for the statements that they are never forced to wed against their will (which ‘would of course be impossible'), and that they have beards." Why JRRT chose to omit this information cannot be guessed.

In the post-LotR Quenta Silmarillion is a section containing "the words of Pengolod concerning the Naugrim" (pp. 203+ of The War of the Jewels, US Edition at least). In paragraph 5, we learn that "no Man nor Elf has ever seen a beardless Dwarf–unless he were shaven in mockery, and would then be more like to die of shame than of many other hurts that to us would seem more deadly. For the Naugrim have beards from the beginning of their lives, male and female alike; nor indeed can their womenkind be discerned by those of other race, be it in feature or in gait or in voice, nor in any wise save this: that they go not to war, and seldom save at direst need issue from their deep bowers and halls."

I rest my case. Also, the phrase "go not to war" is the premise for my story. Anyway, glad to see that another writer has thought of the Dwarf women. Cheers!


MirielReviewed Chapter: 3 on 8/25/2003
So far I love it, but I wanted to take a moment and tell you that Chapter 3 needs a bit of editing. The whole chapter is underlined, and the last half is in italics. This happens to me very often as I post here, thus I thought that you might like to know. Simply go into the editing for this chapter, hilight the text and click on the italics and underline button. You then will have to go back and re-underline and re-italic what you wanted that way. A pain, yes, but it makes the reading experience so much easier. Off to go read more!

Cheers!

FadesintothewestReviewed Chapter: Author's Notes on 7/28/2003
I am glad that I have found your story and am enjoying it. Your female OC is solid and well developed and I do not think a Mary Sue. Unfortunately female OCs are automatically labeld that and if that is such then this is a damn good one!

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