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Eleventy-one Years: Too Short a Time   by Dreamflower 3 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 39 on 5/26/2014
Otho as a student doesn't sound appealing to me, either! So, what is the reason for deciding to employ Bilbo as his tutor, I wonder? Start casing the joint?

Author Reply: Partially. Also, Longo realizes that if his ambition for his son to inherit the headship is to come to fruition, Otho will need the knowledge of his Baggins side of the family.

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 39 on 5/25/2014
The advantage of having a relatively young teacher is that he still knows how nice it was to go outside and play! And Bilbo likes Drogo very much, so he gives him a clever excuse to go outside.

I don't think he would ever do that for Otho! Let's see how Otho behaves as a pupil!

Author Reply: Exactly! (Not to mention that he still knew how nice it was to go outside!) But, yes, Drogo's one of his favorite pupils.

You are likely right.

LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 39 on 5/23/2014
Bilbo sounds like such a good teacher! No wonder his students have such high regard for him.

Your Shire society is so fully developed; I feel as if I'm rambling along a country lane, on my way to tea in the village as I read through a chapter. Business firms and named houses, descriptions of meals, children playing (is it British Bulldog? I know our young hobbits played the game described in this chapter, among others, but I don't always assign the right name to the right game), older brothers teaching younger sisters to know their letters, or to swim (a shiver of foreshadowing there... of course Primula would have known how to swim. Did she sacrifice herself trying to save her husband?).

Author Reply: Oh wow, Lin! Thank you! I feel much the same BTW about *your* Shire! Of course I've built these things up over all the years--I can't believe I've been writing fic for more than ten years!

The game I describe is the one I'd always known as "Red Rover", but it might very well have another name in the UK. Those sorts of things often do.

I think Primula would have at least tried to save Drogo; but I've always thought something could have interfered with her efforts--perhaps she struck her head on the boat or on a rock, or perhaps her skirts and petticoats got tangled in the River's debris? In my Shire the Brandybucks had deduced that first circumstance as the most likely, but I leave it as uncertain because certainty would not have fueled all that gossip.

Author Reply: Oh wow, Lin! Thank you! I feel much the same BTW about *your* Shire! Of course I've built these things up over all the years--I can't believe I've been writing fic for more than ten years!

The game I describe is the one I'd always known as "Red Rover", but it might very well have another name in the UK. Those sorts of things often do.

I think Primula would have at least tried to save Drogo; but I've always thought something could have interfered with her efforts--perhaps she struck her head on the boat or on a rock, or perhaps her skirts and petticoats got tangled in the River's debris? In my Shire the Brandybucks had deduced that first circumstance as the most likely, but I leave it as uncertain because certainty would not have fueled all that gossip.

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