Stories of Arda Home Page
About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

Midnight At Bag End  by jodancingtree 4 Review(s)
ClaudiaReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 6/20/2006
Hi, I'm going way, way back to read some oldies but goodies and just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed this story. It was beautiful and melancholy all at once.

MartaReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 4/22/2006
Jo, what I really love about this piece is the tone you give Frodo. He is not completely selfish and not completely wholesome - there is a melancholy, a sense of lingering between the extremes of good and evil, that is truly believable. That melancholy is more believable than anything else would have been, and more heartbreaking. Well done.

Author Reply: I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Marta! Yeah, I think Frodo is a very complex person, and very real. This was actually a spin-off from a very long story called "Sam's Rose", exploring the time of the Quest from Rosie's pov, and then how she and Sam settled down at Bag End with Frodo, until he left Middle Earth. After I'd written Frodo's middle-of-the-night confession as Rosie heard it, I wanted to see how he felt about baring his soul that way.

Anyhow, thank you for reviewing!

jo

EilenachReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 12/2/2004
A hauntingly beautiful exposition on why Frodo had to leave. I think Tolkien was getting in a hurry at this point and did not give it the attention it deserved.
This is a particularly good paragraph:
"When the dark closes in and I wish I hadn’t come home – when despair fills my mind like a black fog and I want to curse Sam and Gandalf and the Eagles and all, for bringing me out of the fire and forcing me to live – I have to hold on to that. Sam’s face, with baby Elanor cuddled up against his heart, her golden hair tickling his chin. Rosie’s tender laughter, watching him."





Author Reply: I'm so glad you liked it, Eilenach. You may be right about Tolkien being in a hurry at the end of the book, but I'm grateful that he left so much room for fanfic writers to explore Frodo's reasons for leaving.

Thanks for reading!

jo

ShirelingReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 8/15/2003
Oh, Jo,
It's almost unbearable. So much pain, so much dispair and to still feel the taint of the ring!!

I am stunned by your writing. You have a talent that deserves to be shouted from the rooftops.

'Your' Hobbits are 'my' hobbits- brave, loyal, and loving.

With grateful thanks

Helen/shireling

Author Reply: Thank you, Helen! The more I read (and write) about the hobbits, the more I admire and love them -- I wanna be a hobbit!

jo

Return to Chapter List