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With Their Heads Full of Dreams  by GamgeeFest 7 Review(s)
Queen GaladrielReviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/18/2006
Whoa! A dream within a dream! I hate when that happens to me-it's so weird. I love the foreshadowing here, and especially Frodo as an eagle carrying his Sam. :) And the maiden is Luthien. Isn't she? That scene in the valley was beautiful. I can't wait to see how they all awaken!
God bless,
Galadriel

Author Reply: It is in a way a dream within a dream. More than that, Sam is taken on a sort of vision quest and returned back to where he had been (similar to Ellie in "Contact").

Sam knows that his master is strong, but it is good for him to hear (even if just in a dream) that Frodo also knows this. He won't be as worried about Frodo as he would have been otherwise.

Elf FriendReviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/16/2006
Frodo as an eagle! *chuckles* That sounds just like a crazy dream! :) I like how this dream shows that Sam does realize, even if just subconciously, that even as he protects Frodo, Frodo will protect him. Also, Sam's dilemma whether to stay or follow the elves, I think, really reflects what happens to him in Lotr. First he has to leave home and follow Frodo into darkness and then he has to stay home and watch Frodo sail away from Middle Earth.

This dream was perfect for Sam! Can't wait for the next chapter! Featuring the following morning, yes?

Author Reply: Dreams do often include something that happened that day, and Frodo and Sam's talk about Frodo becoming a bird, as well as how Sam and his friends look for elves in the Woody End, were bound to make appearances.

Frodo is just as protective of his friends as they are of him, and Sam is no exception. Frodo will do anything he can to make sure his friends are happy and content and, in Sam's case, aren't left wanting for anything.

Sam *would* dream about Elves! For the first time, he has been presented with the dilemma that will plague him the rest of his life: stay or follow. And he will always follow.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/9/2006
Oh, to meet Luthien! How wonderful! And then the Mariner himself!

Poor Sam--going between the mundane, the heavenly, and the empty and back as he has. And yet it is a foreshadowing of what will come one day, and not necessarily a pleasant one.

Yet Frodo carries him back....

Author Reply: It will be some time before Sam realizes that was Luthien, but the Mariner has been a subject of fascination for Sam since he was a faunt. If Sam ever really did meet him in waking life, he probably would pass out!

Sam will take a similar route to this one day, though it will be far different than anything he could imagine. The heavenly will be strange and set apart, the empty will be devoid of everything but full of despair, the mundane will be a welcome reprieve. So long as he has Frodo with him, or know that Frodo is strong and whole, he can withstand all.

Thanks for reading!

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/9/2006
I tried to review this last night, and the computer ate it. Let's see if I have more success this morning!

This is great, GF! It's less of a dream than a prescient vision, and the symbolism is absolutely fascinating.

I am assuming that the Elf maiden was Luthien? That would explain Earindil telling Sam that he would never see her again.

"Remain or follow". This will be Sam's choice all his life: when Frodo leaves the Shire, when Frodo leaves Rivendell, when Frodo leaves the Fellowship at Amon Hen, when Sam thinks his master dead at Cirith Ungol, when Frodo leaves Middle-earth at the Grey Havens. And every time, Sam's choice will be difficult on the one hand, and simple on the other--difficult, because it means leaving behind everyone and everything else he loves and risking his very life, yet simple, because he will always be loyal to Frodo.

And I love that the Eagle was Frodo. There are so many different things to read into *that*! This has to be the best so far of these dreams, and I am going to have to re-read it several times to get to all the layers of meaning here.

Author Reply: Luthien it is, a most appropriate guide for Sam's dream quest.

That choice will plague him all his life and has even now begun to make its presence known in more ordinary ways, such as the night before, when the Gaffer tried to make him choose between staying at home for dinner or going to eat with his masters.

Well, Frodo is a Great Eagle because he and Sam talked about Frodo being a great eagle just before dinner. ;) Sam also associates the eagles with nobility and courage, two things he knows Frodo has in spades. That Frodo came for Sam is most significant - Sam knows that he can rely on Frodo no matter what.

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/9/2006
So, that Elven Lady was Luthien Tinuviel, right?

A very interesting dream. Once again it started out as if it was real. I can very well imagine Sam and his friends looking for elves in the woods.

“Shoulda brought rope,” he mutters to himself.

That's Sam, indeed!

And then the Elven Lady brings him to a place where all the heroes from great legends are assembled. And they bow to him! They seem to know already what Sam will do in the future, while he, of course, knows not.

“You must choose, Samwise. Remain or follow,” the Mariner says.
[...] his choice is between a known existence that is not his to live, or an unknown path that he may not survive.


This is a different situation compared to the choices he will have to make in the future. But the essence is the same and very simple: Remain or follow!

I also liked it that Sam was brought back by Frodo, as a great eagle.

“If you can carry me, then I carry you. I’m not a weakling.”

Right he is! Some people tend to forget this!




Author Reply: Yes, that is Luthien. She too, like Sam, had a hard choice to make between her father and her love, and she followed her love into the very pit of darkness. While her tale was meant to foretell the Aragorn-Arwen story, it also applies to the friendship between Frodo and Sam in many ways.

In the first chapter, Sam tells Frodo that he and his friends often go to the woods to look for elves. They also talk about Frodo becoming a bird. Funny how things will slip into your unconscious to come out in your dreams.

Sam and rope! LOL Nothing really needs to be said about that. ;)

Remain or follow will forever be the choices of Sam's life. Dreamflower lists all the major instances perfectly.

Frodo is the strongest hobbit that Sam knows. Perhaps not the strongest physically, though Frodo is much sturdier than people give him credit for (after all, he hauled Sam up from the cliff in Eymn Muil!) and by far he is the strongest in character. Everything Sam knows about nobility and compassion, he learned from Frodo.

harrowcatReviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/9/2006
Oh yes this is so very Sam-ish. I, too, loved the references to rope. I just wonder whether anyone starts suffering with deja vue later in their journey.

Author Reply: Even practical Sam can overlook things at times, and it always seems to be the rope. ;) Sam will likely recall this dream when Strider tells them about Luthien and Beren. He'll have some thinking to do when that happens, for then he'll realize this is more than just a dream. Thanks for the review!

Grey WondererReviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/9/2006
“Shoulda brought rope,” he mutters to himself.

If Sam ever wrote a book about his own life, that should be the title! I loved this one. All the talk about how tall elves are so great. These dreams are turning out to be very revealing indeed! Excellent chapter!

Author Reply: LOL, I can just *see* Sam writing "Shoulda Brought Rope: The Story of My Life" ^_^ For someone who comes from a family of ropers, he certainly never has any when he needs it!

Thanks for the compliments!

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