News Resources
Login
Become a member
Help
Search
|
|
| About Us News Resources
Login
Become a member
Help
Search
|
|
|
| Branwyn's Baubles by Branwyn | 93 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| Linda Hoyland | Reviewed Chapter: 21 on 1/23/2006 |
| This was very moving. | |
| Raksha The Demon | Reviewed Chapter: 25 on 1/23/2006 |
| Interesting basis for comparison. Evidently further research is needed. An unusual Elf-twins ficlet! Author Reply: The twins are having trouble keeping track of their own girl friends, and the elf maidens aren't any help because they can't tell the two of them apart very easily. Not that these guys would take advantage of that situation, no, not ever! :-D Thanks for reviewing! | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 25 on 1/23/2006 |
| It must be so frustrating for twins to be constantly confused. Or were they? Only a couple of hundred, eh? I'll bet their parents' hair nearly went against elven nature and turned grey over their first five centuries or so! Author Reply: Yes, I hear that the first thousand years is the worst. :-D The twins aren't sure who that letter is for since the maidens have so much trouble telling them apart. (But, as Edoraslass said over at LJ, maybe the elf girls don't care which brother they get...) | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 24 on 1/23/2006 |
| Interesting point about duty and individual responsibility - and how a servant in an autocratic society cannot defy his lord. And, in fact, the possible fate of Beregond just goes to show that refusing to comply with orders could have very serious outcomes. But also, how obeying them can have results too. Author Reply: Good point--poor Beregond thought that Aragorn was going sentence him to death. Though Denethor was clearly unfit for command by the time he takes Faramir to the Hallows (as Pippin points out to Beregond). Is the feudal "contract" void when the lord is no longer fit to perform his assigned duties? Unfortunately, those poor servants didn't have either the authority or the nerve to stand up to him. I have always wondered where was Imrahil, the one person to whom Denethor might have listened, while Denethor was going over the edge? Thanks for commenting! | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 23 on 1/23/2006 |
| Who was it who said, 'The harder I work, the luckier I get'? He might have been thinking about Denethor's younger son. Author Reply: Faramir's soldiers think he is lucky--they say "his life is charmed or fate spares him for some other end." Napoleon's soldiers also had an almost religious belief in their commander's luck, but Napoleon (at least early in his career) won due to careful analysis and planning. Smart is much more reliable than lucky. :-) Thanks for commenting! | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 22 on 1/23/2006 |
| Different viewpoints. I love Elboron's jolly pink oliphaunts. Hopefully he will never have to face their less amiable relations. Author Reply: I saw Elboron being fascinated by them in the same way that children in our world are fascinated by dinosaurs. Monsters that were real but are also safely gone. Thanks for writing! | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 21 on 1/23/2006 |
| The thought of Boromir's spectre fighting at the side of the faithless - is both chilling and comforting. He will have been missed by many. | |
| Bodkin | Reviewed Chapter: 20 on 1/23/2006 |
| One of those womanly tasks with which Eowyn would be as familar as sword-wielding. I love the different pieces of fabric - the rich red, the black, the green suitable for a child's gown. But I can see why the task would depress Eowyn - it's the unearthing of a past, a range of hopes and desires that never came to pass or ended in sorrow. Author Reply: Yes, everyone in that family (except, of course, Faramir) died before his or her time, leaving their work in ruins or unfinished. I am happy that you liked the different fabrics; I was thinking of how the people you love come to be associated in your mind with certain pieces of clothing or certain colors. Boromir=scarlet. Definitely. :-) | |
| Raksha The Demon | Reviewed Chapter: 24 on 1/22/2006 |
| This is an outstanding drabble - so much feeling caught in 100 words. We don't read much about the unfortunate servants of Denethor who carried Faramir to the Pyre, put him on it, poured oil on him, and would have set him and Denethor alight if not for the intervention of Beregond and Gandalf. Unlike Beregond, the servants weren't strong enough to risk their lives and honor to stop an atrocity - the choices were terrible. Some of them might not have even thought of disobeying. But the speaker in this drabble seems to be feeling guilty enough to be drinking and speaking defensively about the incident. Very nice! Author Reply: Yes, this poor guy is in desperate need of a psychotherapist. His rationalization is "I am not responsible; I am just a peon; I was just following orders," but even he doesn't really accept that excuse (or why the defensiveness and avoidance?). It seems likely that most or all of the servants involved would have known and liked Faramir--they are described in the book as "household" servants. And that makes their willingness to obey that much more frightening. Thanks for your kind review! | |
| Raksha The Demon | Reviewed Chapter: 23 on 1/22/2006 |
| A fine drabble; showcasing Faramir's care for the lives under his command; especially when he is about to risk them. Author Reply: Faramir is hard at work making luck. Thanks for your comments! | |