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| In the West by Bodkin | 34 Review(s) |
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| perelleth | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/10/2005 |
| Wow bodkin! This was like a Christmas Special! Everybody around! I cannot choose a scene, yet seeing SIondel back was sonderful, and I absolutely pitied poor, exhausted Ithilden! It was very moving how he felt Lorellin coming home! He deserved to greet his mum, I deem! It was wonderfully done! THranduil and Eilian left at their own devices in LAsgalen with Celuwen in the midst was fun and wicked and poor Emmelin's doubts and pain until the sweet end was very very well done! Such a great thing to share, thanks! Author Reply: Just like a Christmas Special. Only Beliond didn't come on to cheers from the audience! I was so surprised at how the exhausted, pained Ithilden just flowed. And I was so glad that he was there when his naneth returned - and that she dismissed his guilt. Celuwen was probably glad to sail in the end - if the alternative was being the intermediary between Thranduil and his remaining son! Poor Emmelin. I wondered (as well as everything else) as if acceptance was important in those waiting too. Possibly. Thank you - and daw. It was great to play with her characters. | |
| French Pony | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/10/2005 |
| Do you use the phrase "grass widow" in England? Because this story seems to encapsulate perfectly the experience of being a grass widow (at least, from all the accounts I've read from them). It also reminded me quite a bit of my zayde's stories about his early childhood, traveling from Ukraine to America, and the long waiting that his family endured before they were reunited with his father. I love how you touch on the immigrant experience of the Elves in the West, how the new country starts out being so strange and foreign, but gradually becomes familiar and then becomes home. I also like that everything is not perfect -- especially Legolas's feeling that Thranduil should have been the one to greet Lorellin. On the other hand, if Thranduil had arrived before Lorellin had returned, he would have died right then and there, and that would have been a scheduling nightmare for Namo. Far better for her to return to her sons before her husband turned up. Looks like the only one missing is Turgon. Perhaps he's still embroiled in paperwork on account of his sharing a name with the King of Gondolin. Author Reply: Yes, 'grass widow' is a very familiar phrase! And this situation is one of many that you seem to come across in Tolkien that seem simple and straightforward until you really start to think about them - when they're not. And when it comes to long separation, the elves have got it cracked. The time scale I've worked on tots up to about 441 years from Sinnarn's death until his return - and I know that that's probably on the short side. Then, if it's hard to settle into the Blessed Realm as sniffed-at immigrants - what must it be like to return from Namo's Halls? A returned POW? But given enough time, almost anywhere becomes home - and give an elf a wood . . . Yes, I agree. Better for Lorellin to greet Thranduil than for him to wait for her. Unless the Blessed Realm is in real need of a spring-clean. (The picture of a scheduling nightmare for Namo is delicious.) Turgon. (And Galelas. And then there's Tynd. Not to mention the not-dead-as-far-as-I-know Beliond and Maltanaur.) I just love the picture of a bureaucratic mix-up and Mirkwood's Turgon being returned to the Gondolin crowd. I imagine total bemusement. And Thranduil's reaction should Fingolfinion be handed back to the hippie-bard-type whose name currently escapes me. | |
| daw the minstrel | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/10/2005 |
| Bodkin, I can't thank you enough for this. I love these characters and have been dismayed by the ones I killed, especially Siondel and Sinnarn. Seeing them alive and happy was tremendously rewarding for me. The image of wounded Ithilden was shocking. Like everyone else, I think of him as just about as indomitable as Thranduil, so seeing him in this state was really sobering. It suggested how bad things got in that last battle. But his voice and manner are still him, even if his body is damaged. And I took great joy in seeing him boss Legolas around again. Of course, given that Legolas has been Lord of Ithilien and one of the Nine Walkers, he's much less docile than he used to be! And of course, it's somehow typical that wild Eilian got off without a scratch. One of the things I liked best about this story was the way you working in all the chores they do. I could see their simple but hard working life in the forest. I think they'd be happy in that. They're wood elves, after all. It's rather cruel of you to leave Thranduil and Eilian alone together. LOLOL. Celuwen must feel like a permanent negotiator of truces. But I loved your picture of Lorellin. Ithilden's thoughts about her capture her just perfectly. Her "fierce, partisan love." Yes. That's her. I suppose she and Ithilden are about as mismatched as Thranduil and Eilian. She had asked herself questions about acceptance and obedience to the will of the Valar. She had asked herself whether the nature of a death made it harder to return. She had mused on feelings of guilt and helplessness, whether the complexity of the elf’s own nature delayed or speeded recovery. She had pondered love and the communion of two fëar. She had wondered about the bond between parent and child. Sometimes she almost felt she had grasped an idea so tenuous that it hovered beyond her understanding like a wisp of cloud in the dawn sky. Is this you thinking about leaving the Halls of Waiting, Bodkin? It would sure be me. This is hard to figure out. I loved the moment near the end when Elowen knows that Sinnarn is coming, even though Emmelin hasn't realized it yet. The ending made me cry. Doing this from Emmelin's POV was genius, Bodkin. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Author Reply: I was being haunted by Sinnarn - and Emmelin's despair - and suddenly decided that this was the only way to lay the ghost. I am so grateful that you are pleased and that you were happy to have it posted! And I was astonished how easily the Ithilden / Alfirin part wrote - I hadn't even thought of him struggling to survive dreadful injury for Alfirin's sake until he did. Whereupon it seemed such a very Ithildenish thing to do. Big brothers never give up attempting to boss their little brothers - and several centuries as his troop commander will only have reinforced that! There are so many characters that only occurred to me afterwards - not just Turgon, but what of Galelas? There's no mention of Beliond - or Maltanaur or Nindwen. And Tuilinn sort of made it - but what of her parents? But it would have been far too complex to add anyone else! I really like thinking about the sort of things that wood-elves would have to do to support themselves - and it would be hard work. Dull at times, too, and sometimes short of different foods. (And - er - drainage rarely gets mentioned!) Perhaps being the only two of the family left would be good for Thranduil and Eilian's relationship. Perhaps. And the last battles would have sobered Eilian, I think. Temporarily, anyway. Phew, I didn't dare touch Lorellin much - I am so relieved you recognised her. Unanswered - unanswerable - questions are very handy ways to deal with things where you just can't fathom the answers. And who returned when and why is just plain incomprehensible, I think. Without making it too neat, anyway, and inventing some neat points system. I am just thrilled you liked it. Thank you for inventing (most) of them in the first place and giving them the personalities you have. It's really something to have created characters so endearing that your readers cannot bear to leave in the Halls of Waiting or grieving their loss. Thank you for letting me play with them. | |
| Elena Tiriel | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/10/2005 |
| This left me in tears, Bodkin. Thank you! - Barbara Author Reply: Thank you. It was such fun to play in someone else's sandpit. I loved every minute! | |