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| The Lap of Time by Gwynnyd | 11 Review(s) |
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| pearnshaw | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 11/29/2013 |
| I recently discovered your stories and I have since read all of them many times. I just want to let you know that I love your work. You have an amazing grasp of the characters and their maturity and wisdom really shows through in your writings. More often than not, authors tend to write lord of the rings fanfiction like teenage drama, but your stories have a kind of emotional and philosophical depth that are rarely seen in others. They are beautiful and moving. If you ever write more, or have other writings posted elsewhere, please let me know. I would be your faithful audience. | |
| galathil | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 6/22/2013 |
| Hi Gwynnyd,I have come across your powerful story. It makes one stop and think about life,and our time on this earth.What sort of legacy we will leave for our children.I know that both Arwen and Celeborn will find what they where looking for.LOL Galathil.Can't wait for another story soon. | |
| insignia | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/21/2006 |
| I have just finished reading all your fic listed on this site and have enjoyed them immensely. They have given me much food for thought. The series of drabbles was a bit hard to read from "Next" to the next page without using the chapter headings to find out who was who, but that made it more exciting as you had to think really hard sometimes! I found this story sweetly sad, but at the end felt that renewed happiness was not far off for Arwen, although poor Celeborn was in for a distressing time. The rose analogy was great, and so well recalled by Arwen. What was the bit that owed something to Kipling (not a Kipling buff, sorry)? Author Reply: Thank you! I'm very pleased that my stories gave you food for thought. I've certainly spent a lot of time thinking about the contradictions and things JRRT left out of his works. The Kipling poem "The Sack of the Gods" can be found here http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Sack_of_the_Gods I heard it sung back in the 70s (by Robert Asprin who wrote the Thieve's World books very late at night at some SF con or other) and it has stuck with me ever since. The story is of a hero and a lady who try to storm Valhalla and fail. The gods do not kill them for their presumption, but put them to sleep until the world has need of them again. It contains the lines: They are forgiven as they forgive all those dark wounds and deep, Their beds are made on the Lap of Time and they lie down and sleep. ... They will come back—come back again, as long as the red Earth rolls. He never wasted a leaf or a tree. Do you think He would squander souls? JRRT, of course, was probably familiar with Kipling's works, so I don't feel too bad about stealing Kilping's imagery, as it fits into JRRT's world so perfectly. Thank you very much for reading all my stories! You've made this author's heart go pit-a-pat! | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/16/2006 |
| I, too, explored this theme in "Light on the Way." Why she chose to follow after is one of the great questions Tolkien left us, and this one is all too plausible. Yet she is following the Elven way in the end, fading as do the Elves until she is able to come to her Estel once more. And he does await her--of that I'm certain. Author Reply: Hmm, I'm sure they were reunited beyond the bounds of Arda, but I don't see her 'fading'. I think she did find the courage to accept the gift to Men and just step beyond life once she was free of the distractions of the court. Thank you for your comments. Gwynnyd | |
| docmon | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/14/2006 |
| a provactive scene. very intense. well done. Author Reply: Thank you. Gwynnyd | |
| Amy | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/14/2006 |
| I don't have the words to say, but I found this very moving and powerful. Arwen, bereft and lost, not sure how to follow him. Lovely vignette of Aragorn with Eldarion demonstrates how strong the bond of love and respect was and how sharp the loss. Author Reply: Thank you! Bereft and lost are the perfect words to describe Arwen wandering around Lorien. And I'm sure Aragorn was a great father! Gwynnyd | |
| Linda Hoyland | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/14/2006 |
| This was so sad and beautiful.I like the strength of your Arwen that she does try to live on for her family. Author Reply: Thank you! She tries, but I think she comes to realize that was a mistake an dher place is with Aragorn, even beyond Arda. After all, if Arda Healed comes to pass, her family will join her there eventually! Gwynnyd | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/14/2006 |
| this is only a parting for a time, and your fate too is entwined with ours. I do hope so. I think it would have been hard for Arwen to let go - and that she wouldn't have been entirely sure how to do it. After all, it's not a skill Men have to learn - it tends to happen without our volition. (Unless you are a Dunedain king of Numenorean blood.) It is remarkably courageous of Celeborn to offer to help her free herself from Arda. He needed her reassurance that partings would only be temporary. Very moving. Author Reply: Thank you! I've read several fics that, while good, seemed strange to me, in that after Aragorn's death it seemed as if Arwen *always intended* to go to Lothlorien to die right after Arogorn did. That felt very wrong to me. If she didn't go with Aragorn, why wouldn't she have just stayed in Gondor with her family? I doubt if Eldarion drove her out. I can see Arwen as an overwhelming mother-in-law, but surely not an interfering or bitchy one! The passage in HoMe 10 on Aragorn's passing: "The passing 'oversea', therefore, of Mortals after the Catastrophe - which is recorded in The Lord of the Rings - ... was in any case a special grace. An opportunity for dying according to the original plan for the unfallen: they went to a state in which they could acquire greater knowledge and peace of mind, and being healed of all hurts both of mind and body, could at last surrender themselves: die of free will, and even of desire, in estel. A thing which Aragorn achieved without any such aid. " A feä needs to be at peace to achieve that kind of end, and I think that was hard for Arwen, especially surrounded by people who wanted her to stay. | |
| demeter d | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/14/2006 |
| So powerful! ... no soul is squandered, not his, not mine, not yours..." I think deep inside of all of us is a longing to believe that we do not just fade away, that we matter, and all that we have lost will someday be restored. I enjoyed, too, the image of a land at peace. In our "Real World" that comes too seldom and does not last. But how lovely it is to conceive and dream.I have read several lovely fan-fics about her death and their reunion. This takes its place with the best of them. One reviewer speculated that the thoughts on souls could have come from Elrond. He suffered so many losses in the books that I sometimes thought he feared death. But at the same time, he was able to give hope and comfort to so many. Surely he must have understood the Creator's concern for all races and creatures. I think the greatest thing that the good professor gave us is that sense of hope. There are people, who, like the Elves, feel like this world is all there is for them. The character of Elrond, caught between both worlds as he is, seems to say that we are both of this world and another. Like your Celeborn, for hope's sake, I hope that that is true! Author Reply: Thank you! I'm sure there was a lot of wisdom to pass around amongst Elrond, Celeborn and Aragorn. I love the spirit of hope that pervades Tolkien. I really like the thought that the "Golden Age" that shows up so often in mythology is a barely remembered echo of the reign of Aragorn and Arwen. Gwynnyd | |
| Fiondil | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/13/2006 |
| "...When the music sounded, it already contained within it everything that Arda is, in a complexity too great for any mind save Eru’s to comprehend. He turned Eldarion to face him. Taking the rose from my hair, he pressed it into Eldarion’s hand and, smiling at him, said, ‘Eru never wasted so much as a flower or a tree. How can you think he would squander souls? Men will have a part to play, before the new beginning, and after.'" This section is truly inspirational and something that Aragorn would say. I wonder if he came to this conclusion on his own or if Elrond taught him it? I imagine growing up as the only mortal child in Imladris he might have felt the same way as Eldarion at one point and Elrond, in his wisdom, gave him a lesson similar to the one Aragorn gives Eldarion about the rose. In fact, I suspect this lesson is relevant even today where many things (including human beings) are squandered and their right to exist deemed of less worth in the 'scheme of Arda' than others. The rest of the story was very poignant and one can see why Celeborn is called "the Wise". Nicely done. Author Reply: Thank you. Aragorn may have been able to give himself to Eru, but Arwen obviously had more trouble. The strange assertion that 'it was not her lot to die until all that she had gained was lost,' always bothered me. I'm not sure I answered all my own questions, but I think I have a better understanding of her now. And yes, I agree, nothing should be 'squandered'. Gwynnyd | |