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And Where Are the Children? by Larner	8 Review(s)
Lindelea	Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue on 7/3/2025
Am FINALLY getting that vacation I've not had since last September. Will you be home next week? I'll be home most of next week, just a couple appointments to deal with. Maybe you can call me ahead of time so I don't miss you? It will be good to see you!

Lindelea	Reviewed Chapter: Epilogue on 6/28/2025
This was such a hopeful, joyful chapter! It really rounds out the story beautifully. Well done! I'm glad you reposted this after the hacker deleted it. Author Reply: I so hope that Baldry found acceptance within Bree as he did among Lodo Teasel's family. And I rejoice that at last I found the file, just where it ought to have been! Thanks so much for all the reviews. I do need to add author's notes, I think.

Lindelea	Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 6/23/2025
My heart goes out to the poor, anxious little girls. Telling Sam not to fuss must be a little like telling the wind not to blow... A Man! What in the world!? Poor fellow. But on the bright side, it sounds like he's been adopted by a hobbit family. I can think of worse things. But oh my! His reaction to seeing Frodo is frightening! (I love the details about the ponies...) What an interesting idea, that through the power of the Ring and the pureness of their hearts, Sam and Frodo were somehow able to guard what they held dear! At last, we have the explanation of what frightened the ruffians and their ponies. But alas, poor Frodo! I'm so glad they recovered the spinning wheel and looms! (Did I ever tell you how much Middlest of the Not-so-wee-hobbits longs to have a good-sized loom and a spinning wheel? She's already mastered the drop spindle and a smaller loom. But good tools are costly, so it'll have to remain something on her wish list, at least for now..) Was the secret bolthole, as was "common in the region", a relic of the goblin invasion in Bandobras's time? Imagining a Big Man as a Hobbit nanny made me smile. The last paragraph was a paragon of comfort. (I hope I used the word correctly...) It seems that what we mainly need now is to reunite the children with their grieving father. Author Reply: Considering what the children saw the Big Men do to their home and their father, I don't blame them for being anxious. It had to be a relief to find themselves being confronted by familiar Hobbit faces. Yes, telling Sam not to fuss must have been as meaningless as telling your average pomeranian not to bark. Heh! Sauron would have been appalled that his creation, his "least of rings," was used to guard people and places far to the north that were dear to the hearts of those who'd trespassed so in his lands. Yes, these two were sufficiently pure to bring goodness rather than evil and destruction out of Its power. I love your description of how in this case the Ring was inadvertently used to good purposes for a change! Thank you for that. Actually, the idea of the secret boltholes was inspired by "Thorn and Thain!" That the Hobbits of the Shire were hiding in trees and tunnels unseen by the Witchking's marauders to hide refugees from the battles as they fled west to Mithlond or the Elven strongholds has stayed with me for years. And that at least one small Man might find himself hiding from his own kind among the children of Lodo Teasel just tickled my fancy as well. Am FINALLY getting that vacation I've not had since last September. Will you be home next week?

Lindelea	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 6/9/2025
I hadn't thought of differences in table settings between the different classes in the Shire, but it makes sense! (Real-life anecdote: I remember my mom, who was a stickler for table manners and table settings in part because she came from a difficult background, talking about visiting an Italian family in the next neighborhood over in the early 1920s at dinnertime when she was very little. She still remembered that visit decades later because their customs were so different from her Irish family's: the helpers spread an oilcloth over the table and put forks around at every place, and then the cook (a mother or grandmother?) dumped a large pot of spaghetti into the middle of the tablecloth! Everyone sat down and used their fork to pull a large serving of pasta and meat sauce towards their place (my mom couldn't imagine not having plates, but their neighbors didn't seem to need any such thing, and she wished her own family could do the same!) and then ate. When the meal was over, someone washed the oilcloth with a wet cloth, someone else cleaned the forks, and when the oilcloth was dry, it was removed and folded and put away.) The evil plan (making hobbits slaves) reminds me of Sam's glimpse in Galadriel's mirror in the film. Clever Frodo! He sounds like an excellent guesser! (And I love Marjoram and her "Mister deputy Mayor" showing her obvious respect. As well as her spunky decision to leave the washing up!) And good for Sam! (Gotta love a stubborn hobbit in circumstances like these.) As the chapter goes on, Frodo's wisdom shines ever brighter. The children remind me of my story of Bolham the Red and his band who continued hiding in the Wood until Frodo took the trouble to go into the Wood himself and meet with them and convince them that the Troubles were over. If you're living in hiding, it can be hard to get fresh news! I'm looking forward to meeting Grandmother. She must be quite the character to have kept her grands safe and well through that terrible time. Will we also have the pleasure of seeing the father's reunion with his children? I hope so! Author Reply: When we visited with friends in Manchester, the forks were on the left and the knife and spoon to the right, while a soup spoon was set across the top of the plate as we set a used butter knife, for the pudding, or dessert. When we visited with Henry and his wife, Phyllis did the same, while if Henry set it he would do it US style. (He was from Georgia.) My daughter was expected to set the table formally, while her sons just throw the utensils atop the plate and expect you to sort them out. Haven't read the Bolham story--will have to find it once I'm up to date on those stories in the newer section. So glad you enjoyed the ending, so you know that Lodo is heading home to his kids. Author Reply: BTW, the vision Sam saw in the movie of the Shire aflame and his father trundling is barrow of possessions away from Bagshot Row as well as the image in the films definitely inspired the idea that the Big Men were instructed to prepare for the enslavement of the Shire's population.

Erulissé	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 6/6/2025
Wow! This story is making me a little emotional! Your descriptions are so wonderful, I almost feel like I am present. How very clever Frodo is. I am so happy that the children will have a chance to be reunited with their father. I can’t wait to see how this ends! Author Reply: Thanks so, Erulisse. I enjoyed writing this story. It's the first detective story I've penned, I think. Hope you enjoy the end, too. Will be adding author's notes soon, I hope.

Lindelea	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 6/2/2025
I love Treacle's immediate appreciation of the workmanship that went into the tack of Frodo and Sam's ponies. Sam is so good at shifting someone's mood. He's probably had a lot of practice. I'm glad at how Frodo shows his appreciation. I love your version of how Pippin got his nickname! I'm so sad at the loss of the spinning wheel and looms. (The Boss wanted them for when he got there? Oh dear. I hate to think of those precious tools put to some nefarious purpose or defiled simply for the pleasure of ruining something treasured and beautiful.) I hope they can be restored to their owners. And how wonderful of Bilbo! (The memory of Rivendell, and Sam's delicate way of handling the part about Frodo's injury... Well done.) The interlacing of the timing of events in this part of the Shire and in the Southland is interesting. I'm still not sure whether it was the world going still or something else that frightened those thieving Gatherers. Looking forward to more! Author Reply: I would think that the Shirefolk would be amazed at the items brought home from the southlands. Here were symbols they wouldn't recognize, and techniques with which they had no familiarity. Stories of Rivendell they might have heard, particularly from Bilbo Baggins. But who knew anything of Gondor or Rohan? Sam is well aware of Frodo's wish that the people of the Shire not become too knowledgeable about the possible evils faced out there, and would be careful in how he told Frodo's story, or so I think. And I agree that he would do his best to bring Frodo back to today's reality, not letting him dwell on his darker thoughts and memories. As for the interactions of what happened in the Shire to what happened in Mordor--well, that shall show out. Heh!

Lindelea	Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 5/27/2025
Intriguing, and I love the many layers you weave into your narratives. Like Lodo originally being from Bree but falling in love on a business trip. But the family story is so sad! Wife died in childbirth... Lockholes... wife's mother ill... farm burned, children disappeared. Hmm. Grandma might have something to do with that. (And now I have this mental image of Granny carrying a tiny baby in a front pack while commanding a rebel force made up of urchins – I think my brain may be mixing together The Beverly Hillbillies with Oliver!). I wonder. And poor Frodo is showing deep distress at hearing the story. And if Lodo's gone back to Bree, how will he ever be reunited with his children? Hmmm. A new path, recently travelled. I wonder if it's a vital clue? (How I love intelligent, protective Strider!) Hello, Berilac! Nice to see you helping out! In retrospect, anyhow. I wonder if the missing boards might have served as building materials for a shelter? And I think I understand the description to indicate that smaller tools (child-sized?) were taken, but larger tools (adult hobbit and man-sized) were left behind? But what could have frightened those poor horses and ponies to the extent that they came a cropper? I hope they weren't badly hurt or killed! How interesting that the Wood did not seem to suffer the same destruction as other areas of the Shire... Author Reply: You might look for my story "Guarding from Afar" to learn the history of why the woods were spared. Although you will find out more as this story progresses! Heh! Yes, I, too, love the idea that Frodo learned some tracking skills from out beloved Aragorn! (I'm still in love with him after over sixty years. Does it show?)

Lindelea	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 5/12/2025
Oh! I'm so glad I already finished my current "Tolly" story featuring Bindbole Wood, which I suspect might be the same place as your Binbale Woods, though I might be wrong... Reading on... (p.s. I have no memory of this story of yours; even if I might have read it at some past time, it's all new to me. Thank you for bearing with me when I called with a question about the story just now...) A-a-a-nd the mention of Foreyule makes me doubly glad! (Because the last part of the new "Tolly" story happens during Foreyule, though later, after Pippin becomes Thain.) It's lovely to see Bill and Strider and a glimpse of Freddy Bolger at the Cottonses' farm. Oh! Billy goats can be nasty, indeed! Sometimes our former community would have a potluck picnic on a farm, and the teens would play volleyball. If the ball got hit out of bounds into the goats' pen, it took a brave youth to fetch the ball back again! The devastation and losses described are heart-breaking. Also, how grievous that the work of Frodo's father has gone missing. I'm glad, though, that Folco has survived the Troubles in your story. Interesting about the Boffins. I just read recently (like in the past month) about how they weren't located anywhere specific, and then they were called "the Boffins of the Yale", but somehow they ended up living in Overhill. At the time I was writing my early stories, I couldn't find any information about them. Though Peoples of Middle-earth had been published, I didn't have access to it at the time. So I arbitrarily plonked Folco's branch of the family in Waymeet. Overhill sounds more faithful to the original author's intent, from what I seem to remember from my recent reading in History of Middle-earth. Looking forward to more! Author Reply: I've seen it referred to as both Binbole and Binbale, and am not sure why I chose the latter this time. It was fun to find my mind creating this backstory for the Wheatens, as it was earlier to find that of the Teasels, That I have teasels growing along my driveway made it easier to find a name for a Hobbit from Bree where plant names were commonly used as family names. As for the billy goat--that was easy to imagine! Heh! I never read Peoples, although I plan to now I have the three-volume set of the Histories on my shelves. I just figured that the Boffins must have had some land near to Hobbiton, and Overhill fit for Folco and his mother. After all, I have Ned Boffin, who married Daisy Baggins, living in Hobbiton itself. The Big Men and the Gatherers and Sharers did so much devastation before they were finally chased out or otherwise met justice. Am so glad I found this story hidden in my LOTR file after searching vainly throughout the rest of the document files for so long! May the site hacker get the justice coming for him!

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