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Fiondil's Tapestry  by Fiondil 11 Review(s)
SerindeReviewed Chapter: 35 on 8/27/2010
The first time I read it at airport. Not the best place to read it so I am rereading it now.

Hilarious. Sad. One can easily imagine how upset Fëanaro was.

The pride, the pain, the insecurity, the unsatisfied need of love.

His mother is dead. His mother died as the only elf in Aman. He will never see his mother again. His mother died because of him. His mother is dead in spite of him. He was not good enough for her to choose life. He is the only elf, who will never see his mother again.

He is the only elf having a step mother and step brothers. A step mother who is replacing his mothers tapestries with her own, a step mother who started to use another china, a step mother who is gradually erasing all what was left from his mother.

And after Foremost. Yes, his wife abandons him. But it does not matter. He has his father. The first time in his life, he has his father for himself. No courtiers, no subjects, no step bothers or a stepmother stand between him and his father attention. He has all what he all life had dreamt about, what he had all life wanted, what he had all life craved for – the love he so wanted, the unconditional fathers love. His mother is dead. He will never see her again. But he still has his father and he has his father unconditional love. So he can spend long winter nights by playing Monopoly and Scrabble and long summer "white" nights by walking along the sea.

He is exiled, but he doesn’t mind. For the first time in his life, he is content. For the first time in his life he feels truly loved. But it is only mirage.

His mother is dead. He will never see her again. She is dead because of him. His father is dead. His father is dead because of him. He was not at Foremost, when his father mostly needed him. He was not good enough for his mother to choose life instead of death. He killed his mother. She is dead because of him. Now his father is dead, he died in the moment, when Feanaro felt for the fist time in his life truly loved. He died and Feanaro was not at Foremost to protect him.

And the Valar do not help. The ruler is entitled to ask help and advice from his subjects, he is also obliged to rule with help and advice of his subjects. And the first duty of the Liege lord is the duty to protect. Valar failed their duty. Melkor is one of them. They failed their duty and they are not willing to rectify the situation.

And the Oath is sworn, and since there is no way back or it seems....


Author Reply: A very interesting and well thought-out analysis of Fëanáro's mindset, Serinde. I can see why an airport was not the best place for writing this. Thank you so much for reading this story and sharing your thoughts about it. I really appreciate it.

SurgicalSteelReviewed Chapter: 35 on 11/4/2008
The last bit with the mispronunciation causing misunderstanding and 'pulling him' made me laugh, and reminds me of mispronunciations causing bad misundertandings in the L&D suite when I was a medical student. One little consonant makes such a huge difference sometimes!

I enjoyed this!

Author Reply: Thanks, SS. Glad you liked this one. Sometimes all it takes is one little consonant and you have a whole mess of trouble staring down at you. *grin*

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 35 on 11/2/2008
Trust a linguist and philologist such as Tolkien to find a way to tie even the pronunciation of words into the strife known in Aman before the forging of the Silmarils! Fascinating!

Author Reply: I found the whole concept quite fascinating as well so when this particular prompt came up I knew what I wanted to write about and tying it all in. This story actually takes place before Melkor is released from Mandos, so you can't even blame him for this. This is all Fëanor's doing, though I'm sure Melkor exploited the situation for his own benefit once he was freed. Just goes to show that you don't need Evil personified to make people's lives miserable, we're quite capable of doing that all on our own.

artistic spriteReviewed Chapter: 35 on 11/2/2008
A strife cause by pronounciations. No wonder the elves ended up in MiddleEarth, I'm sure the Valar are sick of hearing the 's' or 'p' argument! Real hilarious Dil!:D

Author Reply: Thanks, sprite. I'm glad you enjoyed this one. Thanks for letting me know.

KittyReviewed Chapter: 35 on 11/2/2008
Really, Fëanor was quite the drama queen. To be offended about this one change so much seems silly. Finwë is right; language changed and is still changing in our times, and Fëanor can’t stem the tide, no matter how much he wants to. And to think that was how the kinslaying and the wars started ... *sigh*
And of course, it doesn’t help to know that the Valar are right in their worries. Though I have to admit, their discussion was fun. It so great how one is able to play with words sometimes, isn’t it?



Author Reply: As the Valar point out, Fëanor took the language change as an insult to his mother's memory because she used the /th/ sound and was proud of her adherence to the purity of the language. Fëanor decided to make the change a personal thing rather than seeing it as a natural part of life evolving in its many forms, including the linguistic.

I had to do a little searhing for words that originally had separate sounds so that their meanings would be clear but now with the blended sounds their meaning could only be gotten from context. Luckily, I found them, hence the fun with them at the end. Playing with words is a lot of fun or at least I find it so. *grin*

Independence1776Reviewed Chapter: 35 on 11/1/2008
Well, this certainly gives yet another dimension to the rift. I've known about this, but haven't been able to find HOME XII to actually read about it.

Entertaining and yet bitter because we know what happens at the end.

Author Reply: You might be able to find a copy at a local library or at least be able to ask for them to find a copy within the library system if your local branch doesn't have it. And it's available now in paperback at the bookstore so it's not so expensive.

This story is rather ironic, especially the last part with the Valar, since they are unaware of the tragedy that will soon come.

6336Reviewed Chapter: 35 on 11/1/2008
I can see where Feanor is coming from, but wars have been faught over less. A language has to grow and evolve, look how Sindarin developed from Quenya, plus all the other dialects in Enorath. He would have done better to have turned his thoughts and energies to other things! I know this sounds a bit priggish, but it is so easy to let a language degenerate too, dropping letters and mispronouncing words can cause no end of problems and mirth!
More please,
Lynda

Author Reply: Fëanor is somewhat like the French who try vainly to keep their language 'pure', but no language is ever 'pure' (unless it's the language of heaven) and a language that doesn't evolve simple ceases to be spoken. I think Fëanor would've been appalled at hearing Sindarin and would've died from shock if Morgoth hadn't gotten to him first. *grin*

Nieriel RainaReviewed Chapter: 35 on 10/31/2008
LOL! Just like Feanor to get so bent out of shape over such a thing. :)

Author Reply: Fëanor always struck me as being somewhat obsessive about the wrong things. I'm sure if he were living in our times he would've been placed in a mental hospital from the very beginning. *grin*

harrowcatReviewed Chapter: 35 on 10/31/2008
*grin* Reminds me of the quote, "Two nations divided by a common language," about Bitain and America.

Author Reply: A very apt quote for the Noldor as well. *grin*

RedeReviewed Chapter: 35 on 10/31/2008
I love your stories, and that you are so well versed in the languages of your subjects. The Glorfindel Books and Tapestries are phenomenal. Your personifications of the Valar, especially Tulkas and Namo, are by far my favorite. I think that if I could believe in a higher power I would want to believe in deities like them.

Quick question: I thought that the voiceless dental fricative /th/ was characterized by the barred 0, instead of the hard eth? And thoughts?

Author Reply: Hi Rede. Thanks for letting me know how much you are enjoying my tales. I appreciate it.

As for the two /th/ sounds.... if you say the word 'thorn' and the word 'with' you will notice that the first /th/ is the hard sound because you have to put your tongue between your teeth to say it. 'edh' is not hard but soft and is characterized by the /th/ sound in "with". In Sindarin, for instance, the hard dental /d/ suffers 'soft' mutation to /dh/ which is the 'edh' sound. I hope that clears things up for you.

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