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Dreamflower's Mathoms I  by Dreamflower 15 Review(s)
RobbieReviewed Chapter: 93 on 10/1/2012
That's so sweet! I love you hobbit stories. Since about a week or so I'm working my way through your stories and I'm astonished how well you capture the tenderness and belonging between the hobbits as well as the workings of their society. Through you work I found a whole new appreciation of Pippin, not that I didn't like him before, but he feels more of a "whole" person now. But I especially love Sam-stories. How he finds his place in the group of travellers (instead of below it) is just too touching. Thank you!

Author Reply: Why, thank you very much, Robbie! It is always good to find a new friend, and someone who likes my stories. And it's always very nice to see a new review for an older story!

I try very hard to figure out who the hobbits are. I like to take the clues we are given in the books about their personalities and work out how they became the persons they were in the story. I have always loved the friendship and loyalty and love between the four, so it is my delight to try and flesh it out a little, filling in the gaps that JRRT left for us.

I'm very pleased to meet you!

good_one_pipReviewed Chapter: 93 on 6/27/2006
This whole story I was wondering about what the title had to do with things. When it becomes clear at the end, I couldn't keep the tears from stinging my own eyes. What a sweet idea for a story. I could definitely see it happening too. That's why I keep coming back to your stories on Stories of Arda. It's like a little bit of Middle Earth that I haven't read before. Not Tolkien, but the characters are so like those of the books that I feel like they've been revived somehow, if you take my meaning. Your stories are always true to the characters. Thank you for giving me a little bit of my hobbits back.

Author Reply: What a sweet thing to say! *blushes*

This was written for Marigold, she came up with the bunny for it when she was beta-ing "Chance Encounter". I had Gandalf musing that it was normal for hobbits to sleep like that, and that they always put the most vulnerable in the middle. He notices that Sam is now in the middle instead of Pippin. She wanted to know about the first time that happens.

I am glad that you really feel I stay true to the characters. That is the nicest thing anyone can tell me.

Anso the HobbitReviewed Chapter: 93 on 2/20/2006
Dear Sam! This was so full of love that you have me going all emotional again. Thank you dear!

Author Reply: Aw, I'm so glad you liked it. Those four really were full of love for one another, and so very happy to be reunited, all alive, despite the odds!

PIppinfan1988Reviewed Chapter: 93 on 2/12/2006
Well, this is certainly a sweet moment with Sam's pov; the protected becomes the protector. And Pippin, most assuredly, has grown--in more ways than one. :-) I enjoyed this very much!

Pippinfan

Author Reply: Yes, a nice role reversal. It was a chance for Sam to realize just how that growing up affected things!

Glad you liked it!

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 93 on 2/11/2006
But it did make a body feel older.

So true. They grow up and become independent and then start looking after you!

I love Sam's point of view - he has grown so much over the quest. The Gaffer would hardly recognise him in some ways and yet, really, his good Sammishness has just intensified. It must be disconcerting for him to see Pippin and Merry as warriors. Fully adult and responsible.

And I like Anwald. He's a delightful addition!

Author Reply: Yes, nothing like seeing the ones you've known as little ones all grown up to make one suddenly feel the weight of years.

"Sammishness". I like that. What a wonderful way to put it--all those things that make him essentially Sam: his earthy practicality, his hidden poetic streak, his hobbit-sense wisdom, his deep-rooted loyalty--yes, the Quest just took all those things and refined them into essential "Sammishness".

And it is disconcerting to realize how quickly his friends have matured. Merry of course, was close to Sam's own age, but Pippin's a good ten years younger!

And I'm glad you like Anwald. I think that when he was a child he must have been told stories about the mythical holbytlan, and was just fascinated to find them true!

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 93 on 2/10/2006
Oh, how beautiful, and seeing Pippin taking now his rightful place as one of the protectors.

Author Reply: Thank you. I thought that it might work that way, you know--Pippin's grown into a mighty warrior now, as Sam and Frodo have slowly begun to find out. And Sam deserves to be one of the protected, as Pippin well knows.

MarigoldGReviewed Chapter: 93 on 2/10/2006
Oh, wonderful, thank you for writing this! I liked too many bits to quote them all, but did of course especially like poor Pippin's knee acting up and Merry hugging Frodo after their *discussion*... : )

I just started writing a bitsy ficlet about Gandalf knowing that Merry and Pippin were planning on going along, so I was really pleased to see that mention as well!

Thank you again! You should have more challenges to stump the author as I have lots more bunnies for you, lol : )

Author Reply: *grin*

Well, I knew you would like those things when I included them, LOL!

I thought that might be an interesting clanger to drop. And really, he hung around from sometime in April all the way to the 20th of June. I am quite sure he would have picked up the vibes and known what it meant!! But of course, the funny thing would be Frodo's reaction, as well as Merry's and Pippin's, on finding out that their secrets had really been no secret at all.

Oh, I get *plenty* of bunnies from you anyway, you rascal! I am quite convinced that you are over there running a bunny breeding program!! (And how about that lone little bunny I gave you?) 8-D

rabidsamfanReviewed Chapter: 93 on 2/10/2006
Oh, that's marvelous! I love seeing the "rearrangement" of the hobbit pile from Sam's point of view, and I love it that he accepts Pippin's choice to rearrange, even though Pippin just got dosed by Aragorn.

(And bonus! It's sam!comfort with the whole Fellowship around! *bounce bounce bounce*)

Author Reply: I kind of had a hunch you might like this one! Thank Marigold for the bunny--when she was beta-ing "Chance Encounter" for me, she told me she wanted a fic about the first time Sam found himself in the middle instead of the outside!

*grin* I am glad that you are feeling up to bouncing, dear! So glad you made it home, and are doing well.

CitrineReviewed Chapter: 93 on 2/9/2006
“Mr. Pippin,” Sam hissed, “hadn’t you ought to be between your cousins?”

Pippin chuckled softly. “I don’t think so Sam.”

Sam was startled to realize how much larger Mr. Pippin really was. “But--”

“Shh. Sam, this is fine. This is where I belong now.”


I don't know why, but that bit right there just really touched me. Pippin has grown so much, and not just in height. When Sam got tears in his eyes, I did, too.


Author Reply: Aww...

It *is* touching for Sam to realize how grown Pippin is. I think that as they all began to recover, and Sam began to appreciate what Frodo's cousins had gone through while they were separated, that it was the beginning of a deeper and truer friendship for him with those two, one that would help to sustain him a couple of years later when Frodo left.

LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 93 on 2/9/2006
Aww, this left me with a bittersweet feeling, and a smile. I like all the little details, and the "matter-of-facts" thrown in, like "the old way" of sleeping, among hobbits.

Kudos to Marigold for requesting this!

Author Reply: When I began to try and puzzle out the "whys" and "wherefores" of the "hobbitpile" (which is a fanon concept I *love*) I decided that for clannish and social creatures such as hobbits, sleeping together like that would be natural, especially in dangerous and uncertain circumstances, when the older or stronger would sleep on the outside, and the younger or more vulnerable on the inside. This fell away during the more civilized times in the Shire, but it would instinctively come back when the circumstances warranted. I alluded to this in "Chance Encounter", and when Marigold beta'd for me, she said she wanted a story about the first time Sam slept in the middle.

She does have a way of finding the most persistent bunnies...

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