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Beneath a Gibbous Moon by Bodkin	58 Review(s)
perelleth	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/24/2007
I was saying, before the void ate my review, that it is a fitting ending for the seires, with these two standing where his sires stod long before them, at the end and the beginnning of it all, dreading the night before the battle, as the time crawls when they wished that it would speed..or not. At least it did not rain! :-) A lovely piece before the Morannon, waiting for the new age, and a wonderful, most intelligent series! Author Reply: Doesn't it just make you sick, when you've written a review and the black pit eats it! Once the idea of the end of the three Ages occurred, this was an inevitable piece - Aragorn and Legolas enduring the night before the battle, knowing, as most of those before the Black Gate didn't, the real reason why this group of minnows were hurling themselves into the mouths of the sharks - and knowing how unlikely it was that any of them would be alive the following evening. But at least it didn't rain! And at least we know the outcome - and that those we follow survived the day to be present at the beginning of a new age. (Even if the new age provided its own pains.) Thank you, perelleth. I'm glad you liked it - and I'm most flattered!

shirebound	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/24/2007
‘I would have gone with Frodo to the end,’ he said, ‘but, perhaps, this is how I am meant to defend him at the last. ‘We are where we must be – and will do what we must do. Our faith is in Frodo.’ ‘We will play our part to the end,’ Isildur’s heir vowed. ‘Let no weakness of ours expose him to any greater risk than he faces already.’ What a wonderful conversation, and I love that it ended in hope. Author Reply: I think Aragorn would have found it very hard to let someone else take the responsibility - but, having done that, he would wholeheartedly throw himself into offering Frodo the very best chance he could. And it must have been so hard to face that small army, knowing that they had brought them to the Black Gate to die in order to offer a pair of halflings the chance to travel through Mordor unnoticed. Aragorn and the leaders knew it was a diversion, but the men didn't - and couldn't, if the chance offered Frodo was to be real. And thank goodness we know the outcome! It would be ... absolutely awful, to wait through that night, knowing what the dawn would bring. Thank you, shirebound.

MithLuin	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/24/2007
A lovely finish to your tryptych! Author Reply: Thank you, MithLuin. I'm glad you liked the series. They were fun to write.

MithLuin	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/24/2007
Oh, well done! I like how you capture their hopes, the reasons they are making their choices, their regrets....and how it ties into the original story, even if it is very different. Author Reply: Thank you, MithLuin. I'm glad you like it. It must have been a moment of hope - a beginning - but one scarred terribly by the losses that had got them all to that point. And there is an inevitability to their choices - something that led them all to the end we know. I thought about setting this before the battles - but, somehow, this seemed such a turning point. And sometimes you just need to write what comes out!

The Karenator	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/24/2007
Bodkin! I don't know how I missed these two chapters. I'm so embarrassed. I plead 'over-duties' of the only daughter. And now, I must plead mother duties for a moment. I'll be back later when I can read these chapters properly--because I couldn't stand to wait, I read them quickly--and will leave a real review. Oh...both chapters are so good! I sooooo have something to look forward to later tonight! Thank you! Author Reply: You haven't missed this - look! Here you are! I'm glad you had time for a quick read - there's nothing like a visit to Middle-earth for relieving a bit of real-life pressure - and you're welcome any time!

Envinyatar	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/24/2007
This is wonderful, Bodkin. It reminds me very strongly of the opening of 'Tigana' by Guy Gavriel Kay, which is intended as a compliment as that is my all-time favourite night-before-battle scene. I initially thought it was Aragorn at the beginning,particularly from "But he had always known that there was a way – if only he could find it." Very gradually you showed us that it could not be, however the fact that it was not clear shows how clearly you portray the Elvish part of Aragorn. I love the way Legolas conquers his own apprehension through being needed by Aragorn, and how Aragorn gathers strength in order to bring comfort to his own men. The frustration of having to rely on someone else to achieve the real victory is also well shown. Lots of nuances here, I think I shall need to read this story several times to fully appreciate it - which is not exactly going to be a hardship! Beautifully written and breath-taking - thank you for this. Author Reply: I read some Guy Gavriel Kay once - quite a long time ago and I can't remember the titles ... Summer something? ... but not Tigana. I'll look out for it! The night before battle must be atrocious - trying to behave normally while knowing that you are putting your life on the line in a few hours and that the morrow will change everything. Ghastly. I'm glad you weren't sure at the beginning! I hoped it would be ambiguous - after all, there wasn't any doubt who the two characters would be in this episode! Aragorn needed the support of the Firstborn, I think, at this point. Those who could see the bigger picture and who were facing the end of their own time in Middle-earth. I love the way the final battle is actually a diversion from the pursuit of victory - it's very symbolic - but people like Aragorn and Legolas would find it hard, I think, to know that they were trusting in someone else to ... do the business. (I think the 'For Frodo' line - together with Aragorn's expression there - has to be one of my favourite bits of the last movie.) It was more complicated to write than the others, because it needed to fit in with the book and ... the phases of the moon and all sorts of other details! Thank you, Envinyatar. I'm so pleased you enjoyed it.

Lianna	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/24/2007
I like this. Legolas is very elfy, but there's also a bit of the movieverse concept that Legolas -- and perhaps also Gimli -- were on informal terms with Aragorn and could be supportive of him in a way that most others could not. It's one of the few movie ideas that I really approve of. Aragorn in the book seems a bit lonely as he approaches the formidable task of being king. Author Reply: Aragorn is very isolated, poor man. By destiny and experience. (I do think he would have found aspects of being king very difficult. Surrounded by sycophants all the time - and being watched. While, on the other hand, he is already accustomed to being separated from others.) I don't go for the Legolas-is-my-best-friend kind of bond between them - but they could well have met, I think, when Aragorn took Gollum to Mirkwood - and I do think there would have been some recognition between the two of them - both the heirs of kings, long bound to fighting the rise of evil. And Aragorn, of course, is used to being with elves - and better able than any other living man to become friends with them. While, of course, they have the shared experience of the Fellowship - and the post-Fellowship activities. I think they would have become close in the way that shared peril builds bonds. (And Legolas did live in Ithilien - and remain in Middle-earth until after Aragorn's death.) So, anyway, I agree that friendship between Aragorn and Legolas was a good outcome of the movies - and it fits the basis of this trio of stories, too! Thank you, Lianna!

meckinock	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/24/2007
A wonderfully timely story, Bodkin. Could there ever have been a darker night than that one? You really brought home how men waiting for battle must dread and wish for the dawn, and how their thoughts turn to might-have-beens when they believe their lives can be counted in hours. And the agony that was Aragorn, knowing that not only his own life, but that of all his men, and the Rohirrim, and his beloved friends, and even more, the fate of all the peoples of Middle-earth, and even its trees and flowers, would be at stake with the coming of the dawn, and yet knowing that he must appear beyond doubt and fear to all of them, save perhaps a few trusted friends. How grateful he must have felt to have one such here with him now. I laughed at Aragorn calling Gandalf a gambler, "willing to risk all on a final throw of the bones," though I wonder it was not so much a willingness to risk all, but a simple acceptance that this was the only option which did not absolutely guarantee destruction. I loved his line in The Last Debate - I said this would be prudent. I do not counsel prudence. I said victory could not be achieved through arms. I still hope for victory, though not through arms. Like Legolas said at the end, a tomorrow built on faith. Author Reply: What a night! It's not surprising that the arrival of the dawn is, in many ways, a relief to those whose last night has been haunted by regret for the past and fear of failing their comrades in the day that follows. Not to mention dread of injury and death - and, possibly, when confronting this enemy, fear of surviving when all around you have been killed. And Aragorn - and the other leaders - know this is just a diversion from a hidden battle, but the vast majority there don't and mustn't know it. They have followed him in hope (there's that word again!) and he knows that he has, in all likelihood, brought them here to die against an insuperable force. Such courage! Legolas, the twins, Gandalf - they must have provided him with the understanding that helped him face his army calmly and encourage them to follow him. Gimli and Pippin - members of the Fellowship, yes - but he didn't know them as well and Pippin is young enough to need to have his courage bolstered. I think Gandalf was prepared to risk all - he knew that caution here would only lead to - well, another phrase that keeps cropping up - a longer defeat. He knows, as Aragorn does, that victory is not in their hands. And it is so good to see, actually, that it isn't the might of the warrior or the wisdom of the great that achieves success against evil - but the everyman. The strength of the insignificant, working together through a deep (and entirely non-physical!!) love that brings two small people to the place where qualities like love and mercy and trust and faith can overcome power. And hope. Always hope - the shining light in this Pandora's box of suffering. Thanks, meckinock. And sorry for wittering.

elliska	Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/24/2007
You pack so much into these. So much meaning that we, who know the future, recognize. I love that. And I love how in talking, these characters learn so much about themselves. And others--it must have been a bit chilling for Oropher to see glimpses of so many people in Elros. I think you capture very well why Oropher was as he was--it is impossible to imagine so thorough a loss in such a horrible series of losses. And I think he had many motivations to go east, some, that his wife hit close to, that he might have been less willing admit. But I love the ending, both for its meaning to these characters and for the allusion it makes to Elros's line. Wonderful! Author Reply: Isn't it interesting how things spring out of others? It never occurred to me when I started this with the Second Age story that there were First and Third Age parallels - and then, once it did ... In some ways, the First and Second Ages were easier - there is so much more you actually have to take into account with the Third - and the characters are more clearly defined, as is the background, the phase of the moon, the state of the sky, etc, etc. Would you believe there is a website that details the phases of the moon throughout the whole book? (I'm grateful to it, actually, but still ...) And, as soon as you focus on two individuals and put them together - well, there is so much. And Elros is so young, compared to Oropher, and descended from so many people who were important to him - and when you think that they are Elu, the Maia Melian and the half-Maia Luthien - well, it's hardly surprising they have left a mark on their descendant. All we really know about Oropher, I think, is that he was headstrong and prickly - and didn't like being told what to do by the Noldor, even when it would have been far more sensible to listen - but he was still there at Dagorlad, part of an army of elves and men. And that he was a Sinda prince. And with those details - well, I think his losses and experiences with the Exiles - and the Host - have to be a big part of why he turned out as he did. And he is a complex character. (Interesting, really. More interesting that some who appear purely to be NOBLE.) I'm afraid the 'hope' line was just too irresistible! And it does link all three episodes. Thank you, elliska. I'm glad you liked it.

Jay of Lasgalen	Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/24/2007
A tomorrow built on Hope as well. Poor Aragorn is so despondent - knowing there is such a very slim chance of any of them surviving, and knowing that he brought them all here. He's right, it takes a special kind of courage to face almost certain death against such odds. Legolas is very elvish here - so calm and accepting, at peace with whatever will happen despite his regrets and might-have beens. It would be good to have someone like that at your side, I think. Author Reply: Oh yes - a series where playing on the meanings of hope has offered lots of potential! It must have been a horrible night - as much of a test, in a way, as the day that followed. The warriors waiting round those small fires followed him there - they don't know that they are a diversion - and all the leaders must have been aware that the chances of surviving the day were negligible. Legolas is able to take a longer view, I suppose, and maybe greater experience leads to greater acceptance. Or maybe it is just that the movement of the pieces on the chessboard have attained a certain inevitability. It would be good to have his support - and that of Gandalf and the twins. They, at least, are a group of people who are not looking to Aragorn for the answers - they are playing out a game started long before his birth. Their presence must have comforted Aragorn and given him people to whom he could turn. And thank goodness we know the outcome! Thank you, Jay.

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