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Dreamflower's Musings by Dreamflower	120 Review(s)
Antane	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 12/28/2013
Great article! Gapfillers are fun to read and write because of all the things that could have happened and if done well, did happen, but just weren't written about :) Namarie, God bless, Antane :) Author Reply: Exactly! Or, were written in another POV, or were written just in passing and not in detail--so many gaps to fill, so little time

KathyG	Reviewed Chapter: 14 on 12/2/2013
Sam was a Ring-bearer, too, and he went over the Sea in the end. Could he have become one of the Wise, as well, do you think? Author Reply: I think it quite possible, though probably not quite in the same way Frodo did.

Kitt Otter	Reviewed Chapter: 15 on 11/29/2013
Some great advice, thank you! Gapfillers are my favorite, for the same reasons that I love history novels and science research: yes, we know how it all ends, but the most interesting parts often are the How and Why. Author Reply: Thank you! I love gapfillers myself, especially long plotty adventurous ones! That's what I hope to encourage with this look at some authors that I greatly admire and how they do what they do! And of course the "How and Why" are just as fascinating as the "What"!

Speedy Hobbit	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 9/7/2013
Definitely one who thinks they just have their young wait longer for the responsibilities of the coming of age- and they live longer simply because the altruistic, social and relaxed proclivities of hobbit society and their tendency to take care of each other contribute to longevity along with the resilience they have that exceeds that of humans against illness and injury. This chart is definitely useful for your work though! Author Reply: It's one of those areas where folks have to agree to disagree. I've read many fine stories by writers who hold your opinion. And though I think there is some evidence in favor of my theory, barring a finding of a definitive statement from Tolkien himself, we'll never know who's truly right!

Speedy Hobbit	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 9/7/2013
Definitely one who thinks they just have their young wait longer for the responsibilities of the coming of age- and they live longer simply because the altruistic, social and relaxed proclivities of hobbit society and their tendency to take care of each other contribute to longevity along with the resilience they have that exceeds that of humans against illness and injury. This chart is definitely useful for your work though!

Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 14 on 4/16/2013
And there were other ways in which he displayed his wisdom: Frodo recognized that in the end he MUST go on alone, that going into Mordor with eight others would be too much, and that the Ring was working to corrupt the others, and was particularly influential over Boromir. He was always compassionate, but he was nowhere as "soft" as Sam had believed, astounding both Sam and Smeagol with his awareness of Smeagol's true motivations in wishing to make his vow ON the Precious and in underestimating Frodo's appreciation for Gollum's proclivity toward violence. Seeing Frodo holding Sting to Gollum's throat must have surprised both Sam and Smeagol equally, I suspect. I've always suspected that he realized from close to the beginning that he would have to die to see the Ring destroyed, another reason he didn't wish those he loved to go with him into Mordor, for how could Aragorn become the King he was meant to be if he were likely to die along with Frodo when the Ring went into the fire? What would become of the continuity of leadership in the Shire if Merry and Pippin died in Mordor with him? And his recognition before he got home that the Shire would not be the same for him because he himself was not the same indicates just how wise he truly was. Yes, I do believe you are right--Frodo Baggins was truly among the Wise.

Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 4/16/2013
I was thirteen-fourteen. Couldn't find the library's copy of "The Ship of Ishtar," so the librarian in the SF-Fantasy section said, "If you like Merritt you will undoubtedly appreciate this, too," and she handed me The Fellowship, and I was lost. Tolkien and Lewis joined Abraham Merritt and Rosemary Sutcliff as favorite and inspiring authors. My dad was in the Air Force when I was born, but died when I was a baby. I, too, was seen as one of the school oddballs--very short and too young in my looks for most to take me seriously, and with definitely unusual tastes. Others were reading the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew while I was reading Howard Pyle and Abraham Merritt. My girl classmates were eyeing the boys while I was watching diatoms and fairy shrimp in our drainage ditch and ponds. Other kids were playing on the baseball team while I was learning the ropes of breeding, raising, and training dogs. My classmates were considering growing up to be stewardesses while I was headed for teaching from Kindergarten. And for years it seemed I was the only one in our huge high school who had read The Lord of the Rings! My life-long friends I made in college, not grade school or high school. My attention was drawn mostly by the nobility of Aragorn and the growing sense of brotherhood I saw between Frodo and Aragorn and Sam. That Aragorn vowed himself from the start as one to protect and guide Frodo was what struck me most in that first reading. I'm appreciating that friendship known between Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin more now that I am an adult and now have such friends myself. But I always saw it as significant that Frodo's closest friends all were younger than he, although we aren't certain just how old Folco was. Author Reply: All my closest friends were younger than I was--though only by a couple of years. Still that made the dynamic of the hobbbits' friendship very personal to me. I could never have envisioned those few friends I had sticking by me the way I stuck by them--I was older and should take care of them, not the other way around. (And that explained why I always felt a fifth wheel as my friends began to pair up.)But wouldn't it have been cool if they had looked up to me and cared about me the way Frodo's friends did? It wasn't until I was an adult myself that I realized that Frodo's friendships with his cousins and Sam must have been nurtured over the course of their lifetimes. I've always imagined Folco as about the same age as Fredegar. Perhaps it seemed logical to me that the two of them were closer to each other than to Frodo, Merry or Pippin.

Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 12 on 4/16/2013
It is good to see this perspective of the various relationships Tolkien developed in his epic. I grieved for Arwen that in the end she found it difficult to accept that among mortals there is an end, in this world, to our happiness just as there is to our grief, when we leave this life to embrace that which comes next. Yet that she recognized that Frodo needed to leave this world in order to heal properly to prepare for the next was, I believe, the act she needed to make to seal her own choice of embracing mortality. She was sacrificing her long-held virginity to become Elessar's wife; in doing so she perhaps sanctified that Frodo most likely knew as an unmarried male, sending him to her mother's care in place of herself, perhaps trusting that Celebrian would be able to help guide him through a similar healing process to that which she had experienced after her own terrible wounding at the hands of Sauron's creatures. Thanks for this thought-provoking essay. Author Reply: Tolkien was very fond of parallelism, and some of it is obvious (for example the parallelism between Merry and Pippin's storylines, or the connections between Beren and Luthien and Aragorn and Arwen, or even between Bilbo's adventures and those of Frodo, just to name a few) but some are much more subtle and do not jump out at the reader immediately, (like the parallels between Pippin and Faramir, or those between Faramir and Eowyn, or those between Finduilas and Gilraen). But yes, there were definitely those parallels between Frodo and Arwen that you mention in addition to the ones I cover in my essay.

Antane	Reviewed Chapter: 13 on 4/13/2013
Yes, I do remember Scholastic! :) I do not have any cradle to grave friendships myself. i love the way you say that, how true for our hobbits and their great strength. They have taught me so much about what love is really all about. This quote of Merry's is one of very favorites. Thanks for this great tribute to them! There's a delightful Facebook page called Concerning Hobbits, that you would be right at home at. I certainly am! Namarie, God bless, Antane :) Author Reply: I don't know if they still do that or not, but it was a great way for kids to get books! I'm glad you enjoyed this little essay. It was nice to do a little biographical meta without having to do any research or anything. I might check it out, but even though I have a Facebook page I almost never go to it or do much with it--I am afraid I've never cared much for Facebook, even though I know everybody seems to be there.

Antane	Reviewed Chapter: 14 on 4/13/2013
Interesting little essay! I had not considered Frodo in this way but he is indeed well-named. He and Bilbo are "especially graced and gifted" as the Professor noted in one of his letters. I think his wisdom comes because not only is he in contact with the One RIng but with the One, Eru Iluvatar, and all the grace that would from such an intimate union, even if his conscious mind was not aware of it. He certainly was gifted in many ways. Cheers for all the chosen ones, Frodo, Bilbo, Sam in particular! Namarie, God bless, Antane :) Author Reply: Oh, of course his wisdom came from Iluvatar; I think that it was a grace granted to him partly in recompense for all he suffered--not a reward, but an amelioration of sorts, and a result of the insight he gained through his sufferings.

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