Stories of Arda Home Page
About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

Fighting Dragons  by Larner 22 Review(s)
periantariReviewed Chapter: 6 on 7/6/2011
Loved Sam's curiosity in what a balrog is in the first and his innocent response was just adorable.
The second one is so sad! :*(

Author Reply: Unfortunately, innocence must so often be the price paid for dearly won wisdom, as both he and Frodo learned through such bitter experience. But I can so imagine practical Sam thinking of a practical use for such a creature--before he had first-hand experience with the horror of it!

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/7/2011
so now they’re properly dead and gone

I like Frodo-lad's explanation! The Wraith-Problem is properly solved - and the hobbit children are safe :-)

Author Reply: Oh, yes, and not only the Hobbit children, but all children within Middle Earth are free of the threat of wraiths!

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 6 on 6/7/2011
Sam has always practical ideas, even how to "use" a Balrog!

But poor Frodo! He was far away with his thoughts, maybe reliving Gandalf's fall with the Balrog over and over again. So it was really a good thing that Sam could distract him for a moment.

Author Reply: Oh, somehow I missed this one. I can definitely imagine Sam thinking of the practical uses of such creatures--heh!

Now that they've survived the day, it's inevitable that the realization of Gandalf's fall will hit them, and particularly Frodo. Yes, he needed Sam's presence, I think.

Thanks so!

harrowcatReviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/7/2011
And it is no bad thing that such horrors remain things of fairy tales. Ancient horrors can be symbols that children can learn from to deal with present evils. (awful grammar!) But the children of the Shire always found it hard to believe in the truth of things outside their world experience and the travellers were mostly glad that it remain so. I am loving these Larner.

Author Reply: Yes, now wraiths are indeed things of legend. But Sam remembers--too well--when they were more. Thanks so, Harrowcat.

Linda HoylandReviewed Chapter: 7 on 6/6/2011
I love Frodo Lad's version of the story!

Author Reply: I'm glad that now no child anywhere needs to fear the Ringwraiths, and much of it due to Frodo's stubbornness and Sam's courage and loyalty.

ArmarielReviewed Chapter: 6 on 6/5/2011
Balrogs!!!!

I wonder what people would say if I got one for a pet........................



Author Reply: You could keep it in Namo's firepot, I suppose! Heh!

AntaneReviewed Chapter: 6 on 6/5/2011
Love Sam's practical use of a Balrog. :) And even more that he can make his master laugh even in grief. *hugs him*

Namarie, God bless, Antane :)


Author Reply: Oh, Sam's nothing if not practical, even in his whimsy! Thanks so, and I, too, was glad that Sam managed to provoke a small laugh, at least, at that moment.

AntaneReviewed Chapter: 5 on 6/4/2011
So now we seen the inspiration for Sam's poem! :) What a horrible sight when he sees them for real.

Namarie, God bless, Antane :)

Author Reply: Oh, yes, we see what inspired the poem, followed by his first true sight of the dreadful things! Glad I wasn't there to see it with my own eyes--the eyes of the imagination are bad enough!

Thanks so, Antane.

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 5 on 6/4/2011
“I swear, them’s worse than I ever thought from old Mr. Bilbo’s stories.”

That they are indeed!

But the occasion on which Sam came up with his poem was very funny. Ted Sandyman - who else ;-)

Author Reply: It was fun trying to think what might have inspired the poem to begin with; and who better to inspire the image of Tom "lasting lame" than seeing old Sandyman hopping around, nursing his foot, while Ted flees and the stone sits there, perhaps wondering what all the hollering is about? Heh!

And the real thing is indeed worse than the imagined monster!

Thanks so, Andrea.

harrowcatReviewed Chapter: 4 on 5/31/2011
Some people never seem to learn and Ted is one of them! It was a shame that the Travellers had to learn the hard way about the actual truth of many of Bilbo's stories. I bet they were glad that they never had to meet a dragorn though. They did get to see some of the wonders too.

Author Reply: Ted Sandyman didn't appear to learn at all. His father was his own Hobbit, and Ted was content to sell his birthright to others, preferring to stand in what he imagined to be the protective shadow first of Lotho and then the ruffians who ran Sharkey's mill. And now he finds that Sam is not easily intimidated or bullied, having faced so may enemies and survived them all. It's a former warrior he faces now, not merely a simple gardener who cannot imagine being tested.

And I bet they are all glad not to have had to face a dragon as well as all they did see.

First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page

Return to Chapter List