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Moments in Time  by Larner 13 Review(s)
SlightlyTookishReviewed Chapter: 21 on 1/12/2007
This is delightful! I love reading about pre-quest meetings between hobbits and Rangers, and Frodo behaved most responsibly here. I especially love how Pippin could see both Aragorn and Frodo's lights shining :)

Author Reply: Oh, I'm so glad you enjoyed this, here, SlightlyTookish. As for Frodo being responsible--I suspect around his younger cousins he tended indeed to be very much the bigger brother as much as possible.

Thanks so much for the response.

GrumpyReviewed Chapter: 21 on 10/28/2006
Ah the young hobbits and the rangers have a run in. Teach the rangers to stay off the road on marketday, take the detour arround the village. I am beginning to sound like I need some signs made up, or at least get this cat off my lap.

Author Reply: Yes, a definite encounter here. But then the Rangers aren't likely to be certain when the marketdays are likely to run, so you can't expect them to try to go around, particularly when the Bridge and the Road lead right into the market square, after all.

Yes, let's do some detour signs! As for the cat--well, I have my share of those, you know. Give yours a scratch behind the ears for me.

Linda HoylandReviewed Chapter: 21 on 10/28/2006
This was a delightful account of Frodo and Aragorn's first meeting.

Author Reply: Oh, so glad you approve, Linda! This scene has been working at me for a while, after all, ever since I wrote "The King's Commission."

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 21 on 10/26/2006
Very nice, Larner!

I enjoyed Frodo and Pearl, and of course, the growing frustration and maybe a little fear of Merry and Pippin about this development. I don't have older siblings, but maybe my brother experienced the same when I was growing older.

Back in the village the eight young Hobbits looked after them, and Pippin found himself watching after the longest. Something had passed between the tall Man who rode at the head of the troupe of Men and Frodo--some unconscious look of recognition, or so it seemed to the small child.

It is fascinating to imagine the first meeting of Frodo and Aragorn and the brief moment of recognition, Pippin observed. He even saw their matching Lights of Being. Pippin is amazing! Dreamflower called it "Tookish Insight" - I think that fits it best.

At that point of time, however, Pippin is still a child. And so Sweetwater's stall becomes the most interesting object in Middle Earth within seconds. That's how it should be. Far too soon he will be forced to act like an adult.

Author Reply: Yes, the Tookish insight at work, while Merry notes the physical details. I certainly remember the moment of recognition that my friend and buddy of a brother was gone, and instead I had this thing what seemed to have no taste in girlfriends and who showed off for the other guys. It was pretty painful.

And, as you note, the moment they're gone his interest reverts to interest in the candy stall in the market. Yes, whatever he's noticed, he remains a child still. So glad you approve.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 21 on 10/26/2006
Men on horses would be very scary as they rushed headlong through the Shire. Bit like elephants stampeding down Main Street.

Frodo - despite his sickening (!) basking in Pearl's smile - behaved boldly and confidently - but the star of the show for me here is young Pippin. Showing, as he does, the clear sight of the very young.

Author Reply: Started to respond to this the other day, and got sidetracked by a phone call, and didn't have time yesterday to get online.

I agree with you about how the Rangers would appear to the Hobbits. They'd be more than a bit frightening, I'd think.

I've seen the youngsters watching older siblings starting to get mushy, and have been one of them myself, so felt this was likely how both Merry and Pippin would feel about Frodo and Pearl just before she threw him over; but felt Frodo would be the protector in training even then.

But am so glad you feel that Pippin came off so well. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Peregrin Took, after all. Thanks so for letting me know!

KittyReviewed Chapter: 21 on 10/25/2006
It's not easy for Pip to realise his favourite cousin is nearly grown-up and will soon have other interests as well. Well, it's an experience nearly everyone has to make some day, though I suppose it is more apparent in this cause, as the age difference is so big and there is no way Pip will have the same other interests in the near future.

Loved the encounter between the Hobbits and the Rangers and the way Frodo acted to protect his younger cousins, even taking on seven men. So very like Frodo. And I think I remember this incident mentioned somewhere.
Interesting that Pippin realised that there had been passing something between Frodo and Aragorn. For his age surprisingly perceptive.

But you know now you will have to write something more about that, during oder after the Quest, how they realised they had meet each other already back then? *grin*

Author Reply: More plotbunnies being pushed at me, then!

When Big Bro forgot wanting to play Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon or Tarzan and Jane with our younger sister and me and decided older girls were far more interesting, and it was necessary to demonstrate his authority over us in front of his friends, I was heartbroken and furious. And those memories are still there, even though I've pushed them away and we've both grown up and have both raised children and all.... Guess it all got expressed here, or a lot of it.

And Frodo is already such a responsible soul, and, yes, ready to take on seven Men rather than to imagine his family getting ridden down. I felt it was perhaps time to write this little story that I'd briefly mentioned in "The King's Commission" and see just how it must have played out.

AntaneReviewed Chapter: 21 on 10/24/2006
An interesting meeting between Aragorn and his future small brother, both protective of the Shire and the people within. Pippin and Merry's jealousy is cute.

Namarie, God bless, Antane :)


Author Reply: Yes, each protecting others as he can best do so, and without the recognition as yet that they will be important to one another and the entire world of Arda one day.

So glad you enjoyed it.

Queen GaladrielReviewed Chapter: 21 on 10/24/2006
I never tire of seeing how different authors devise ways for Frodo and Aragorn to meet before the quest without making the story AU, and this is one of the best. I love the image of Frodo just stepping right out in front of the horses, willing to be trampled himself rather than let his cousins be hurt. I wonder if Aragorn remembered that encounter afterward.

And I wonder, too, if Merry and Pippin remembered how jealous they were of Pearl when they finally learned the truth about the nature of the Ring, or what had made Pearl forsake Frodo. I almost hope they didn't; it would be heartbreaking for them, on top of the grief already there at that time.
God bless,
Galadriel

Author Reply: I'd already indicated in "The King's Commission" that Pippin remembered seeing Rangers riding through the Shire from a childhood visit to Brandy Hall and a trip to the Bridge Market; that Frodo might have been along and still being hung upon by Pearl Took seemed a good possibility; and I certainly remember (when I try, at least) how my older brother's courting disgusted me when he was first starting out and I was still definitely a child.

It's not just jealousy of the one being courted, but the beginning of the realization that the loved older playmate won't be that forever, that the time has come for him to leave childhood behind and that relationships will be different from now on. Plus, folk who are gaga about one another are often SOOOOO soppy about it.

I've been able to mostly put my feelings about Big Bro's first dating out of my mind, except now and then they creep back in, I find. I found it didn't take a great deal to bring them back and assign them to Pippin and Merry.

Frodo's protectiveness for others I would think would have become quite developed by this time, just slightly over a couple years before he came of age. That he'd put himself between these hurrying horsemen and his own folk, particularly these younger cousins, just seemed natural.

And it's not a long enough or important enough situation for either to recognize the other afterwards--just the reproof to watch your speed and where you're riding on one side, the hurried explanation on the other; and both are then off, one to shepherd his companions to the market and the other to beat possible enemies to the Sarn Ford.

So glad it's satisfying and feels realistic at the same time.

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 21 on 10/24/2006
"Wonder why that one, the one in front, doesn’t have a star on his cloak the way the rest do?" he asked.

"Dunno," Pippin said, shrugging. "But he shone like one, you know


A most interesting meeting!

Author Reply: So glad you appear to have enjoyed it, Shirebound.

We hear about the star brooches of most of the Rangers, yet Aragorn's is never mentioned. Well, if you read all of "Lesser Ring" you know what I have happen to his and why; but it might well be something a quick observer of a momentary encounter might well notice, particularly young Meriadoc Brandybuck. And the future Thain and Took would notice the Light of Being, I think.

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 21 on 10/24/2006
Oh what an encounter! I just love little Pippin's POV in this--he's so full of a combination of childish concerns and Tookish insight! And I loved the image of Frodo intervening himself between his younger cousins and a possible threat. Very nice!

I wonder if in later years, Frodo and Aragorn remember this encounter?

Author Reply: So glad you approve, Dreamflower. And I've always seen Frodo the Tween as a protector in training--that he'd object to what he sees as a possible threat to his cousins' safety just seemed logical. As for whether they remembered the encounter themselves as Pippin later did, I dunno. Time will tell, I guess!

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