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Jewels  by Lindelea 2 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 2 on 8/28/2006
They are giving up entirely too easily, I think.

Bless Pippin for staying by Merry. But tomorrow is the New Year; and in Bywater Frodo has been going through his own painful memorial for the season.

FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 2 on 7/4/2006
This chapter is the stuff of nightmares for Pippin. They both had such a hard time leaving behind the horrors of the war, but by this time I think they were optimistic that the past could be left behind. No wonder Pippin is frozen in horror when Merry is injured. I imagine that he was just stunned that after every bad thing that had happened that they had survived, to have Merry hurt again over something as simple as racing a pony over the fields was just too much.

Then the ultimate nightmare: Merry is lost in the Shadows, and Pippin doesn't have a king there to help him find his way back. I remember the first time I read this, and I was as stunned and horrified as Pippin. Yet at the same time it seemed exactly right. Merry had been under the Black Shadow three times (in Bree, at Weathertop, and the massive trauma of Pellenor) and as hardy as hobbits are, the damage would have to be significant. If Frodo suffered anniversary illnesses, it made sense that Merry might, as well.

I also liked the way that the farmer and his family, and the healer both know and don't know the Travellers. They are the celebrities of the Shire, and very recognizable in their gear. The Shire acknowledges what they have done, but they don't know the details until Pippin has to spill them at Merry's bedside. I imagine most of the stories Pippin told while Merry was unconscious were tales of their childhood, but I'm sure there were also some of the happier tales of the quest, of their exotic friends, of the foreign places they visited, and of wonders and terrors that might have been routine to the teller and intended recipient, and make Ruby and Diamond want to run from the room (had they not been at the same time fascinated, not to mention aware of their duty). Hearing all the stories has to make Merry and Pippin so much more real to them. They are, after all, not just 'lordly'; they were hobbit lads who got stuck in trees, and it sets up future relationships very nicely.



Author Reply: Masterly summation of Pippin's reaction. As I mentioned, sometimes I think that my take on Merry is AU. I don't know what JRRT would have said about Merry suffering anniversary illness the way Frodo did. After all, Aragorn did say something in the Houses of Healing that rather contradicts the idea.

No wonder Ruby fell in love with Merry (and Diamond with Pippin), after coming to know them, in a sense, through Pippin's lifeline of voice and hand, holding on to Merry.

And dinner is ready, and I must go and feed hungry folk. But it has been nice to engage in a bit of give-and-take.

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