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Till We Have Faces  by Antane 2 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 25 on 3/16/2014
Wonderful to see the healing inspired by Nienna begin to take hold, and to see Frodo able now to continue the process on his own.

Author Reply: Isn't it? Though I didn't plan this, she knew it was necessary and came to him and I'm glad now she did for this is just want he needed.

Namarie, God bless, Antane :)

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 25 on 3/16/2014
Sam's love still shines so strongly in Frodo's heart. It's lovely when he talks about his Sam, and talks about all he did for him. I wrote once in a story that Frodo became the phial, filled with light --- and Sam, the hand which held it up so that it would not be lost. It's a part of the tale that Bilbo needs to hear, to really understand the type of help that Frodo needed in order to survive the Quest, and was blessed enough to received. And now the Lady has "shone a light into all the dark places of myself that I have feared to tread." That's truly the path to healing.

Author Reply: I love that thought about Frodo and the phial and Sam's hand - how beautiful is that! :) I read this marvelous description of them by Alison Milbank:
"The main problem for the reader is how to separate in his or her mind two characters who have been a pair all through the novel, and who belong together. Despite his marriage, parenthood and obvious delight in Shire life, Sam is incomplete without Frodo, and Frodo an attenuated presence without Sam’s earthliness. ... Sam, ... is not just a reassuring physical presence but an active agent in the rebuilding of his community, and in forming human relationships. ... Sam is not to be reduced to an allegory of the body, for he is much more than that, but the separation of the two at the Grey Havens is emblematic of the sorrow of the separation of the soul and body at death, while their solidarity gives a taste of the ecstatic reunion of soul and body at the Resurrection (Chesterton and Tolkien 111)" To me, this has the image in arises that Sam as the body that encases the soul, and the light that shines softly from Frodo is the light of the soul from within the body.

I think Nienna's arrival, which I hadn't planned for this story but she wanted to come, knowing how much she was needed, is what will get Frodo 'over the hump' as it were in his healing. Through her light and understanding, Frodo will come to understand himself fully and what truly happened.

Namarie, God bless, Antane :)

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