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| Battles Won by daw the minstrel | 59 Review(s) |
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| Fadesintothewest | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/10/2004 |
| Oh Daw! This was quite beautiful. Touching, funny, full of warmth and love all at once. It was great to see Legolas and Eilian enjoying each other so much and the last scene with Ithilden and Thranduil was as much fun as it was touching! Author Reply: Glad you liked it, Fades. I quite enjoyed writing the whole thing and particularly chapter 2. I'm sure Legolas will remember playing with his father and both brothers and then sitting on Ada's lap in his jammies, clutching his blanket, while Ada helped him eat because he was too sleepy. ;-) | |
| caz - baz | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/10/2004 |
| it was really my fathers fault he helped build the igloo and he's also helped us to build dens in the hay with much the same effect but usually we threw the mud pies that we'd just made at the oncomers then. although i do remember trying to play gladiators on this stack of hay which was in the shape of a pryamid my older brother and his friend won rather unsurprisingly. I must say the best was when we'd hide in the willow tree and wait for someone to come down are drive and then throw water bombs at there cars i used to think that was the best as we usually didn't miss because the cars had too slow down to go over the sleeping policeman. | |
| FirstMate | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/9/2004 |
| This was such a great story! I really enjoyed reading this happy little account of the family. There is so much hardship later on, so it's comforting to see some of the happy memories they have stored up which can help them through the dark times. Uhm, I know this comment refers to your first chapter, but I also wanted to say specifically that I enjoyed the scene where Ithilden promotes Eilian. Throughout all your stories, you've given these characters such depth and that scene sums things up so nicely--Eilian, who has turned in to a great warrior but is still insecure and Ithilden who is reluctant to give him added responsibility, not because he can't handle it, but because he doesn't wish to burden his brother. It just helps develop them as characters and I liked it! Well, another wonderful story to add to your collection! Can't wait for the next one! Author Reply: Thank you, First Mate. I had a good time writing about the House of Oropher at play. I'll bet Legolas treasurs this memory of playing with Ada and both of his brothers. That scene between Eilian and Ithilden was particularly interesting to write from Eilian's POV. I had to sort of stay in his feelings and it helped me shape the scene, I think. daw | |
| Nilmandra | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/9/2004 |
| I laughed myself silly at the snowball fight, and am glad Legolas has this memory of playing with Ada - he will long remember this - his whole family in a snowball fight! The pov was carried off well - and I do like the ending with Thranduil and his elfling all cuddled up together. Author Reply: You are very nice to do this, Nilmandra. Surely you spent enough time helping me on this story already? I, too, like the idea of Thranduil caring for Legolas and refusing to let anyone else do it. And I expect this is a day that Legolas will long remember. His Ada and both brothers played with him. Thank you for all your help on this. | |
| Justafan | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/9/2004 |
| How adorable! I love this little snippet of Legolas's younger life. Eilian playing snow tunnels with them seems so right and cute. Author Reply: Thank you, Justafan. I had fun writing this. I think Eilian is good for his family. He helps them play and laugh when they need it. daw | |
| LOTR lover | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/9/2004 |
| Terrific! Everybody's happy (except maybe Maldor) and relaxed, even His Majesty. What a lovely interlude in all their battle-torn lives. I think you did a fine job with the first-person narration. I really like Eilian. Author Reply: I had a good time writing about Thranduil's family playing together. You are so right: they needed that. And Thranduil was wise enough to realize it. I like Eilian too. It was fun to be in his head for a while. | |
| caz-baz | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/9/2004 |
| i believe chapter 2 was better than chapter 1 in the way of your writing and it did work, personelly i prefer to read things not from the 1st persons percpective but it was well written for a first attempt - take that as a compliment i'm british. very amusing i remember building igloo's like that with holes in the roof and then throwing snow balls at people as if the igloo were my castle i also remember getting my mum's friend who wasn't expecting someone to jump out of an igloo and throw snowballs at her, or my brother squirting her husband with his water pistol. we both got a thorough telling off. haha that was fun. Author Reply: I enjoyed writing chapter 2 more than chapter 1 because I was rolling by then and it was a lot of fun to plan the snowball fight. You are so bad, Caz-baz! Thranduil was too happy to see Legolas having a good time to scold him very much. | |
| Jebb | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/9/2004 |
| This was so lovely and such wonderful interaction between all the 'players'. I loved Legolas's helpful comment re.Meldor Indeed what are brothers for? Also the way Legolas wanted to protect Aneal's naneth poor little lost elf. The ending was superb good for Ithilden and Ada and for Ada seeing how much the day with his brother had helped with Legolas' healing process and acknowledging Eilian's role in his brothers life I htink it wasn't just the elflings who benefited from the snow play but the whole family thank you Author Reply: Legolas and Eilian may just have "helped" one another into trouble, but they did it out of love (and stupidity). Eilian was right to recognize Legolas's need to protect Annael's nana. If they had thrown snowballs at her, I think it would have ruined Legolas's fun, and despite the fun he himself is having, I think that Eilian values that the most. Yes! they all needed to play and Eilian helped them all and Thranduil recognized it. A nice family moment. Thank you for this nice review, Jebb. | |
| mistry89 | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/9/2004 |
| I am delighted to see you write another young Legolas story. I think it is easy for readers of JRRT to forget that the elves we know best are extraordinary (not that we know any well, but they are generally far from your average elf-about-wood) and that things happened to contribute to the character we see. Legolas *had* to have had momentous things occur - things that made him open to experiences not commonly sought after by elves - particularly one with an ada with such a very good memory! It's lovely to see Legolas having fun - "I am Ada!" is a classic! And the bond across the (very many) years separating brother/s and parent dissolves for this little piece of time. Seeing Turgon again was lovely too, and I suppose that future Daw-ed readers will miss that little (poignant) nod to him, but then they are lucky, as they will have the rest of the fabulous story arc to read! “Ithilden directs warriors, not elflings.” I smothered a grin. Her tone left no doubt as to which task she thought was harder. How very .... restrained of Eilian, and it is another lovely line. Slowly, Legolas smiled. “We will be warriors together,” he announced happily and crouched to his tunneling. I grimaced. I hoped not. We come (well, most recently)from reading _Fire and Shadow_ to this, so this is a poor-doomed-to-disappointment Eilian, and very farseeing Legolas. (ducks in a row!) I thoroughly enjoyed this and always look forward to your writing. I confess, I am not a big fan of first person stuff, I think that writers live so much with their characters inside their heads that it gets difficult to separate the thoughts :) - so often 1st person work comes across as if the character is either orchestrating the events (even to knowing the inner thoughts of other characters) or utterly passive (a narrator in costume). This is not a criticism of fan fiction, by the way, this is true (in my very humble opinion) of original fiction (what a silly term!). However, Eilian comes across as part of an ensemble, rather than the epicentre, indeed much of his attention is on Legolas, as is (in his opinion) the attention of the the other (related) characters. For me, this is why it reads so well .... and the fact that Eilian has a *voice*, and it is true to the character we have come to know. It has also reminded me that it is good to step outside your comfort zone - even when reading! I'm no expert, I only know what I like ....... and I like this. There are very few (that I know of) sites/places to read pre-lotr fiction that deals with Legolas as a child/youth, and with that increasingly threatening backdrop spreading rumblings and rumours of unrest, to add reality (I can't believe I wrote that!) to the story, so thanks again - a favourite character/time of mine, written beautifully. Cheers, Helen Author Reply: You are so right in saying that Legolas's childhood and youth had to have shaped him into Legolas of the Fellowship! He didn't get to be that Elf overnight. To me, his family had to have played a big role in his development. How could it be otherwise? I love having you pick out those lines. They are some of my favorites. I figured that Legolas might be too young to think very abstractly yet, so "I am Ada" is, to him, the same as saying "I am King." Your thoughtful comments on first person POV are very welcome. I'm not going to write this way again any time soon, but I learned some things from doing it and it was fun to be in Eilian's head for a time. Your last paragraph really caught what I'd like this whole series of stories to do. Thank you so much, Helen. | |
| Camp6311 | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/9/2004 |
| That was a fun story to read. It was good to see Thranduil's family in a happy moment. My favorite part had to be Thranduil and Ithilden joining in the snowball fight, but having Legolas plunk Maldor with a snowball was a close second, and he was so polite about it too: “Mae govannen, Maldor”. I don't have any expertise to comment on POV, all I know is that it worked for me. Author Reply: Thranduil and Ithilden surprised me when they joined in the snowball fight. I was typing along and there they were! I'll bet Legolas remembers playing with Ada for a long time. That has to be a treasured moment. Eilian may not treasure getting trounced by Ithilden in quite the same way. When I thought of having Maldor come along the path, I was like Legolas, pink with suppressed glee. Thank you for your kind words, Camp. | |