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Rising to the Challenge  by annmarwalk 80 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 42 on 12/14/2008
Again, a marvelous image, of Eldarion using such a device to find specific stars! Beautiful and delightful!

Author Reply: I've never included Eldarion in any of my stories, ever, so it was quite interesting when he showed up. I found him to be a bit wistful, fascinated with the history and mythology of both aspects of his forbears, looking toward the past rather than the future. I hope I was able to convey that wistfulness here. Thank you for commenting!

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 41 on 12/14/2008
I've always wondered if this assistant swordmaster might himself have been Elf-taught.

Nice to read this one again, also.

Author Reply: You know, I thought in terms of an Easterling-trained swordmaster, perhaps a wandering sell-sword like Thorongil, but the idea of an Elf-taught master is very intriguing. Thank you!

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 40 on 12/14/2008
I still find the image of Merry as a painter of wooden toys, and keeping the Araw in memory of Boromir, to be a wondrous one. I've ever seen Frodo as innately artistic, as you know--this seems for my image of the two of them as a memorial to Frodo as well, that he would seek to give life to these wooden toys and animals!

Author Reply: You know, I started to write this as several different characters, including both Frodo and Faramir, but neither of them rang true for me - I think it was Merry's playfulness that spoke to me, as well as a really silly mental image of him concentrating over his work, his tongue just peeping out between his lips.

I think, too, that he would have felt Boromir's sacrifice and loss just as deeply as Pippin did, and that they shared many hours of remembrance, full of both pain and joy. Thank you for reading, and leaving such a wealth of thoughtful comments!

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 39 on 12/14/2008
I remember this one. Alas for Faramir's grandson, born too late to know the glory his grandsire knew, although he also has missed the terrors known in Denethor's day. Sad, poignant.

Author Reply: Poignant as Barahir's tale is, I love to imagine his fascination being ignited by the stories he heard at his grandsires' knees (and actually wrote another drabble about just that, Family History. How frustrating it must have been to have missed out on meeting all these fascinating characters by just a few years!

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 38 on 12/14/2008
Oh, that would have left both Frodo and Aragorn the more deeply scarred, had it happened so! Oh, how hard--how very hard!

Author Reply: Sorry! I don't know what it is about an AU challenge that brings out the ruthlessness in me! Though it's very satisfying sometimes to write something so entirely evil.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 37 on 12/14/2008
And that prayer was answered and granted, to the loss of Gondor and those of his companions who'd come to love him in spite of his growing obsession with the Ring and his father and brother.

Author Reply: Oh, my poor, poor Boromir! But his wish was granted, and gloriously so. My poor, poor, dear. *sob*

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 36 on 12/14/2008
And a perfect gift it was for the two of them! Heh!

Author Reply: And so he brought her the sun and the moon and all manner of treasure to adorn their garden. Thank you for reading and commenting!

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 35 on 12/14/2008
Ah--wonder which heir this one was? Arassuil, perhaps, or Argonui? Heh!

Author Reply: *grin* Marta (Telperion1)'s story put me in mind, for some reason, of Ron Weasley, so I couldn't help imagining a freckle-faced, impish Estel (even without the red hair).

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 34 on 12/14/2008
It would take a week--or much longer--to answer that; and I'm glad she did go after him. But it's so like a Hobbit to say things lightly that the truth of the heart not be too vulnerable, perhaps! Yes, Rosie, go after him!

Author Reply: In many ways, Sam and Rosie were able to communicate without words; she must have been stunned at his return to let her tongue get all tangled so!

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 33 on 12/14/2008
He has truly inherited his father's spirit, and the gifts of the full Dunedain, I believe.

Beautiful, Ann!

Author Reply: Thank you! I'd written this some time back and then forgotten it; I was pleased to see it fit well with other things I've imagined about young Elboron.

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