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A Deck of Heroes  by Larner 8 Review(s)
GamgeeFestReviewed Chapter: 15 on 12/28/2009
This is heartbreaking and yet so full of hope.

Author Reply: I agree, GamgeeFest. How Gandalf must have sought to see Frodo granted the peace he so needed!

KittyReviewed Chapter: 15 on 12/20/2009
He was disappointed to wake to the realization that he was yet alive within this world, I think. Very true, I think. He had really meant to sacrifice himself.

He received little honor and less understanding from his own people for all he had sacrificed for them. Which is exactly what annoyed me the most - that he was so loved and respected by everyone all over Rohan, Gondor and Arnor, but with the exception of the Shire ...

But at least he had the chance to live on Tol Eressëa, to heal there and enjoy his life, even if he could not stay in the Shire and have the family he had craved. Better than dying in the Sammath Naur.

Author Reply: After all he'd been through, to waken back in the body he'd thought he'd quit must have been such a shock. And to return to the Shire and find that no one there cared to truly know what happened outside it--or at the most only a very few--may have seemed in some ways a relief but at some level must have been a disappointment at the same time.

But I am so glad he was allowed to find both his peace and his joy again!

Thanks so, Kitty.

Linda HoylandReviewed Chapter: 15 on 12/18/2009
Poor Frodo,the Ring took so much from him!

Author Reply: Oh, it did indeed, Linda. The Ring was the ultimate scourer away of the ability to rejoice!

VirtuellaReviewed Chapter: 15 on 12/16/2009
"What griefs he has known since, the worst being the realization that he has no further place within the world as he found it."

Very sad, very true.

Author Reply: Indeed, Virtuella. Thank you so.

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 15 on 12/16/2009
That was the worst, I suspect--that sacrifice of his identity as a Hobbit of the Shire.

So true and so sad!

But the last sentence can be seen as the beginning of a new life and the promise of complete healing!

(I still wonder whose POV this was!)

Author Reply: Well, we know that for Frodo this was indeed a new beginning after being granted time to set his life and affairs in order for Sam to follow him, and for Sam's family to fill the gap left by his leaving.

As for the POV--who else probably knew him from his adolescent years and probably appreciated what Frodo saw as he looked at Saruman besides Gandalf? I still see him as the one who receives and so hallows Frodo's acceptance of the gift offered him as Frodo crossed the gangplank to enter the ship.

Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 12/16/2009
The prose in this was gorgeous, but I found this sort of left me wanting more. The Hanged Man isn't really about the suspension between life and death and it's not even really about the transformation - it's more about that one moment as you're suspended when you have such a crystal clear insight into something that nothing else matters but that insight. This really would have worked better for Death.

Author Reply: Am so glad you appreciated the prose, even if I did manage this morning to find one error that needs correcting. I think that Frodo found himself endowed with great insight while he held the Ring, although he appears to have turned it outwards, away from himself, seeing more of the nature of good and evil than he had known previously, and opening himself to recognize his own gift for foresight.

As for Death--I have a character already in mind for that one, when the time comes. As I read the nature of the card as it's been interpreted historically, there appear to be several different foci that might be invoked, and so I chose to examine the nature of transformation more than full insight.

Thanks for your feedback.

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 15 on 12/16/2009
So, come my friend--come now and know the final act of transformation. Realize now that if you have lost yourself as a Hobbit of the Shire and a mere mortal from Middle Earth, it is merely the prelude to finding yourself as you are now capable of being.

This is absolutely beautiful.

Author Reply: Am so very glad you feel that way, Shirebound. Thank you so very much!

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 15 on 12/16/2009
Oh my!

Frodo Baggins was never a simple Hobbit...

*sigh*

I'm guessing that the POV is Gandalf--

I love the final line: There is still so much for you to know, and to do, and to be.... the prelude to a new Adventure...

Author Reply: Oh, indeed! No, never a simple Hobbit; and Frodo needs to learn that what he told Sam applies to him as well!

Thanks so, Dreamflower!

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