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The Sandbox  by Celeritas 8 Review(s)
LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 1 on 9/21/2009
Just FYI, I don't think I've written at length about the Feast anywhere, just little mentions here and there (hints, rather like your Falling Out. And you've got me tantalized--Just what is it that was being demanded of Faramir, that was so terrible he felt it necessary to abdicate? *g*).

I was influenced by Jodancingtree's joyous celebration in the aftertime; it got me thinking of a grand, neverending reunion, from which my idea of the Feast sprung. From there it developed in its folklore amongst the hobbits who spoke of it in my stories, like someone telling a little one that people weren't lonely there, because though the separation in Middle-earth might be for years, on the other side it would seem but a moment (time worked differently there).

My first mention of a feast, after reading that story of Jo's, came in a challenge piece for one of Marigold's Challenges (http://www.storiesofarda.com/chapterview.asp?sid=1841&CID=7675). It was published on LJ long before I copied it over to SoA. The idea of the Feast just grew from there.

In "Flames" Ferdi tells Farry what he knows about it: http://www.storiesofarda.com/chapterview.asp?sid=156&CID=962 and in "All That Glisters" Pippin tells one of the sons of Elrond what hobbits believe http://www.storiesofarda.com/chapterview.asp?sid=2707&CID=12188, and then in "Healer's Tale" a character saying farewell to Pippin tells him to save him a spot at the Feast, and not to eat up all the seedcake, and Pippin answers that he'll set aside his portion of liver as well.

There are more mentions of the Feast in various stories of mine (though I can't remember exactly where at the moment, and it's time to start our history reading for the day), and Larner has adopted the idea and made it her own, and I can't give you any references for those, either! But if you are interested, she might be able to direct you to her stories which incorporate the Feast.

Hope I haven't told you more than you wanted to know!

Author Reply: Goodness, it's been forever since I've read any of Jo's stuff!

And I do think that leaving just glimpses of the hereafter is the better way to go about it, since then you don't brush elbows as much with primary-world religion and its relationship to the secondary--would that I had that level of self-control!

Anyway, I much appreciated your hints and your providing them here! I have encountered Larner's iteration of the idea but it's a little spiritual for my tastes. And when it comes to authors' notes, there is no such thing as "more than you wanted to know!"

As for my little hints, if that's what you're wondering (and not what particular event triggered the whole darn thing) I think it could be pieced together with the same sort of logic that I used to arrive at creating the event in the first place. There's a certain inconsistency in dates if you compare Significancies in KatM to the limited information we have on manuscripts... And that's all I'm going to say for now...

LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 1 on 9/20/2009
LOL!

Ah, how I love the idea of a sort of everlasting-feast-family-reunion-celebration going on for hobbits, in the aftertime.

Thanks for the link!

Author Reply: You're most welcome, and thank you for reviewing!

I really can't envision any other sort of afterlife for hobbits without changing their nature (plus the idea of food staying just the right temperature really is something close to perfection). Apparently (looking farther down the list of reviews) this is something we share, but I've scoured your works for a mention of it and never been able to find it!

Anyway, I'm glad this pleased. I like the opportunity to get hobbits to interact but sometimes the timelines of the characters get in the way.

~Celeritas

ArmarielReviewed Chapter: 1 on 8/1/2009
A most delightful piece, and quite different. Brought a smile to me!:):):):)

Author Reply: Thank you!!

Esquire_of_RohanReviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/11/2009
Very good! I like this!

Author Reply: Thank you so much!

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/8/2009
Wonderful! Lindelea's Feast taken to its extremes! We do influence one another, don't we?

And I can so see Frodo adopting Elanor in this manner, and all the interruptions as she looks for Fastred! Heh!

Wonderful indeed, and thanks for the joy and laughter--and poignancy--of such a reunion!

Author Reply: ...Actually, even though I've recently done a Lindelea trawl, I don't think I've ever read that piece or those ideas... If I have, it was years ago and I've quite forgotten about it!

I LOVED doing the interruptions; I imagine that one minute spent with such Characters as the Travellers could very quickly turn into an hour. As usual, it's up to the women to save the day.

AntaneReviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/8/2009
What a lovely reunion for Frodo and Elanor! I love spending time with Frodo in the same way she did before she accepted the Gift - and more just staring at the lovely pictures of him that is my screensaver! :) - and learning so much from him. I imagine his arrival would cause a bit of a stir and people would be coming up to him a lot and still are. I look forward to doing it myself one day. And seeing everyone else too. Please continue!

Namarie, God bless, Antane :)

Author Reply: I do think that Elanor was THE first Frodo fangirl, or at least a forerunner to the concept (as I think she'd think of him as a friend rather than fancy him). I have a few ideas as to Frodo's own arrival, and I imagine that somehow he managed to cause enough stir about Sam's imminent one that he got a quick private family reunion with his uncle and parents and all the OTHER people of his generation and above that he knew before getting inundated with all the well-wishers.

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/8/2009
*grin* I love your idea of a hobbity version of Heaven! How sweet! And all of the "other" hobbits finally having to realize they were wrong about Frodo...LOL! And all the hobbits are being very...hobbity!

And, of course, your tantalizing hints about the Falling-Out...

And I would guess that somewhere along the edges or over the hill, hobbit heaven butts up against the one for Men, and that our four heroes were able to welcome Elessar when he arrived there, and to see Boromir and Faramir once more...

Delightful!

Author Reply: Yes, I imagine that a lot of hobbits had to for whatever portion of their purgatorial, pre-hobbit-heaven stay go through the painful realization that they were wrong! Although I imagine it must have gotten as close as you can get to irritating in heaven for Frodo to have to be apologized to all the time!

Yeah, sorry about the tantalizing hints...

I imagine that the Mannish limbo-y heaven-type place is somehow dimensionally separate from this one, rather than physically. So that somehow, if you've known enough Men to really be okay with going there, you can dimensionally wink yourself out of this one and into the other. It did not take the Travellers very long to figure it out.

I cannot see a hobbity heaven without hobbity hobbits (if that made ANY sense), which is a large reason why I tried to make this sort of pre-actual-heaven place. Any sort of afterlife fic automatically brushes into bits and pieces of theology, which I wanted to largely avoid. So I took a page from Catholicism and decided that actual heaven, where there would be much more mingling of the races and types of mortals, was closed off until Certain Historical Events of a Redemptive Nature occurred and in the meantime there was some sort of limbo. So I've been able to retain personalities (pre-further refining/sanctification that must take place once the One is revealed), marriages, and other things that clash with my theology. Borrowing from Catholicism has also allowed me to do a bit of a setup where Frodo knows, to an extent, what is going on Below.

AND. Hot food that stays hot. If that isn't heaven for hobbits I don't know what is.

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/7/2009
“Well,” said Sam, “I always did say that Elanor got the greatest part of the Lady’s blessing. And if she was as beautiful as an elf, then maybe, I thought, she’d have the memory of one of them folk, too. So I asked her if she remembered you, and she did.”

“Dad’s giving me far too much credit. I hardly remembered anything—just the sound of your voice, and your eyes, and I don’t even remember when he first talked to me about it. He just said that I should always strive to remember you each day, because otherwise I’d forget what you looked like, and I was going to be the last hobbit in the Shire to know."


How absolutely lovely and fascinating.

What an adorable story. Hooray for 'happily ever after', no matter whose daughter she ends up being! :)

Author Reply: I first developed the idea of Elanor's remembering Frodo for a bit of bittersweetness in my OC epic, and now every time I write about her it seems to come up! (And I should add that it would have gone the way of most early childhood memories if Sam hadn't kept on reminding her of it.)

Hooray for 'happily ever after' indeed! :-D

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