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| Duty Bound by Bodkin | 78 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| SlightlyTookish | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/15/2006 |
| This is a lovely story, Bodkin. Very sad, but very lovely. I like seeing this version of Boromir for a change. Author Reply: Thank you. It is a sad story - couldn't be happy, really. But I liked Boromir the husband and father-to-be. And I hope he sees them again sometime. | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/15/2006 |
| So very sad, and yet it had to be. It was not Boromir's destiny to be a happy husband and father. And he would have been good at it, too, I think, for his heart was a large one, in spite of his warrior's calling. Such a hard thing for him, to realize there was no way he could protect his wife and son from an unseen enemy--one that could not be fought with sword or bow or even bare hands. And that last sentence was perfect: no, he never came there again, not even in his own death... Author Reply: No, he never came there again. Poor Boromir. In some ways the elven boat seems a better end for a man of action like him than a stone tomb - but he deserved more. He wished to protect - and it led to his learning to love his wife, but I don't think it took any effort for him to love the child. Enemies he couldn't see and couldn't fight. Disease - and the temptation of a hope for Gondor's survival. | |
| Armariel | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/15/2006 |
| Really beautiful, sad and sweet and believable. Poor Boromir and poor Emeldis and poor baby...I hope they will meet in the hereafter! Wonderful use of detail throughout. ‘He talks to him,’ she confided, ‘and he likes to rest with his hand on my belly singing to the baby songs that he said his mother used to sing to Faramir.’ *sniff* I love a good tearjerker!! Author Reply: It had to be sad - Boromir wasn't a proud father. I, too, hope that they will be together in whatever afterlife they face together. And I loved the thought of Boromir singing and talking to his unborn child. | |
| Agape4Gondor | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/15/2006 |
| Very glad you wrote this. Great moments - The bath; Emeldis' crabbiness and Boromir's trying to understand/help; Boromir's remembrance of the hammock and trying to figure out how to help his wife be more comfortable; the story of Finduilas' death and Ioreth's defense of her Lady; Almiriel's presence (fate was kind in this for Emeldis); the disease; Boromir's inability to protect those he loved; Imrahil; and finally - Rath Dinen. Some laughter - The fact that nothing was thrown away... MY FAVORITE - 'He talks to him' - incredibly telling of Boromir's new-found attachment to his heir and to Emeldis. Thank you! Author Reply: I think Boromir softened toward Emeldis as he came to see her as in his protection - and felt he had let her down when he had promised to look after her. He would have made a good father - and been much loved by his son. Thank you for picking out the moments you liked. I enjoyed picturing Boromir with his head resting on Emeldis's belly as he talked to his son. Happy moments in a hard (if privileged) life. | |
| perelleth | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/15/2006 |
| Look at that, how the circle comes round! So many efforts, such a struggle and "waste" of illusion and feeling, to come back to the starting point: heirless and all of them carrying another painful wound. Curious, how things come out at times, no matter how hard we try. I liked very much the way you introduced illness in Minas Tirith. "No-one noticed its arrival" I loved that device. The illness was embodied, disguised,treacherous, but it *was* as well the people who were sick and to whom no-one paid attention in the hustle bustle... I really liked it. And I cannot help thinking that, had this happened indeed, it would have been another bending blow to poor Denethor, that all his toils were turned to dust by the enemy. A sad but curious tale. Author Reply: An inevitable loss really - the Boromir of the Fellowship wasn't a husband and father - but sad. I have a sneaking feeling Denethor would have wanted heirs of his blood and training to complicate the arrival of any pretender from the north - he would have preferred dissension to defeat, but then he grew too dependent on the Palantir to think much about the mundane. Minas Tirith must have been vulnerable to illness - and disease does come creeping silently on a breath. And didn't Sauron use illness to weaken his opponents or am I imagining that? Hard times - and growing harder. | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/15/2006 |
| Quite a proper ending, I think--the brief reminder that even in death Boromir son of Denethor did not return to lie by the wife so briefly known, the son he never saw. Instead the Sea accepted him at the last, and Ulmo saw to the disposition of his body. Alas that only in sad memory and imagination could he hold the wife so unexpected and loved not as much as yet as either deserved. Beautiful story, Bodkin. Author Reply: Boromir and Emeldis were, I think, growing to love and trust each other - and both took delight in the growth of their child (although Emeldis was undoubtedly fractious and nervous!) And it would have been a great affront to Boromir that he was unable to protect his wife and child against an enemy he could not see. He didn't return to the cold stone of the Silent Street - and his end was probably more suited to the man he was. He would have made a good father, though. I think his relationship with the hobbits (and his brother) shows that. Thank you. | |
| Larner | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 11/15/2006 |
| Even without the true comfort of undoubted love, yet the gift is given them--if she and the child survive the pregnancy and early infancy, of course. Glad to read on in this story. Author Reply: Thank you, Larner. I think Boromir would have softened towards her quite quickly - and he is a born protector. A tentative start would have become trust and turned to love, I think. But the outcome is unlikely to remain happy for long. | |
| French Pony | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/14/2006 |
| The idea that Finduilas died of cancer amid rumors that she died in childbirth is nicely done. One can see how word of a possible third pregnancy might spread, how Finduilas herself might have believed that she had a baby inside her instead of a tumor. But this current disease -- odd that it kills young adults but spares the elderly. Usually, disease attacks the children and the elderly, but spares adults. Perhaps this sickness is not entirely natural, especially given who lives next door to Gondor. But no matter how natural or unnatural the illness itself is, the way it got into the Citadel was entirely believable. A kitchen maid that no one cares about, handling food while sick, food that gets served to a pregnant lady who's somewhat delicate anyway. . . the perfect recipe for disaster. Author Reply: Thank you! I can see Denethor slamming down the shutters when Finduilas died and refusing to talk about her to anyone. The disease - I remember watching a TV programme about the 1918-19 Spanish flu epidemic that said that older people were more resistant because it resembled and epidemic that had been around in the 1880s. But it is also likely that Sauron could well have been seeding illness - isn't there some suggestion that he sent plagues through Eriador? And with so many of illneses, it doesn't matter how much you try to keep them out, as long as people need food and laundry and servants and guards and night-soil removers there are going to be ways for disease to spread. | |
| Raksha The Demon | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/14/2006 |
| What a heartbreaking AU - beautifully told, of course. No wonder poor Boromir was in no hurry to marry after losing his wife and child so sadly. And I assume that Imrahil's lady would soon follow. Wahhhhh. Nasty plague. (Raksha goes off to hug her dogs) Author Reply: I was intending to kill off Almiriel at the same time, but she insisted on surviving. But I think she is likely to be delicate from now on. Boromir had grown to love Emeldis, I think, and look forward to his child's arrival with joy. And he would have felt he had failed, too - even though he was in no better position than anyone else to protect her from illness. He would not willingly have remarried. Not for a long time, anyway. While Denethor has now, I suspect, become rather too enamoured of a spherical object to be quite as much on the case as he was. And it had to have a sad end - poor Boromir wasn't a loving husband and the proud father of a dozen kids. (Should I be sorry you want to go and hug your dogs? Or pleased to have had that effect!) | |
| mirthor | Reviewed Chapter: 2 on 11/14/2006 |
| Beautiful. Author Reply: Thank you. | |