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| The Findaráto Diaries by Fiondil | 14 Review(s) |
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| Kaylee Arafinwiel | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 6/17/2009 |
| And so Finda learns about Gil-Estel, Tancol, for the first time! Ah, wonderful, meldonya. :) I was very happy to wake up to this little tale. (Off topic, by the way, thanks for answering my other questions...even if some of them were not exactly the answers I wanted, they're all I'm going to get and for now I'm content *lol* the rest is up to your Muse.) Poor Findarato, unable to sleep in the darkness! And being unable to hear about the Silmaril without panicking...yes, Feanor has much to answer for. I hope Finda will feel much better soon! (of course, the Valar call all times 'soon', so we'll see! And they're not the only ones!) Tye-melin, Kaylee! Author Reply: Hi, Kaylee. Sorry I couldn't answer all your questions positively. Some of the answers even I don't know for sure at this time. Anyway, I'm glad you liked this chapter. Poor Finda, indeed, but he should recover soon enough. In fact, the next chapter will show him finally facing his fear of the dark and dealing with it. Tye-melin! | |
| Thalanee | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 6/17/2009 |
| Small wonder actually that the poor ellon felt terror at the mention of the Silmaril and that he´s afraid of darkness. That was a sweet way to end this chapter though! Greetings, Thalanee Author Reply: Thanks, Thalanee. I'm glad you liked how the chapter ended. Finrod is remembering his death in the dark without actually remembering it on a conscious level, so it's even more frightening for him. He'll have to face his fears eventually (next chapter actually *grin*) before he can move forward. | |
| 6336 | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 6/17/2009 |
| Well I can quite understand his fear of the dark, it's how he died, in the dark, protecting Beren,hearing his fellow elves die one by one, waiting for a warewolf to come get him. Though he did get the warewolf, in the end, though the price was a trip to Mandos! Yes, I suppose hearing the word Silmaril would bring things back to him, Feanor has a lot to answer for! More please, lots more, Lynda Author Reply: True, Lynda. He is unconsciously remembering his own death even though he doesn't know it. Fëanor has indeed much to answer for, though I'm not sure if Finrod would think he has to answer to him for his own death, but certainly, the Silmarils were a contributing factor. I'm glad you are eagerly waiting for more of this story. There is certainly more to come. Thanks for letting me know. I appreciate it. | |
| Maire | Reviewed Chapter: 3 on 6/17/2009 |
| I'm sort of finding myself not quite sure how to react to this story. I sort of want to like it. I haven't seen many stories that deal with the immediate aftermath of elves being re-imbodied, so I kind of like that idea. Somehow, for me, it's just not quite ringing true. Finrod trying to establish the reconnections between body and soul reads (for me) like some bizarre combination between stroke rehabilitation and the ST:TOS episode 'Spock's Brain.' There's just something that feels off to me, and I wish I could state it more clearly. I'm also wondering how you reconcile the Valar who supposedly love the elves with Tolkien's Lord of Mandos who was all for killing Earendil for daring to set foot on Aman. The Valar (for me) read more like Norse gods than Christian angels, and so I frankly find your conception of them to be a bit jarring. I really want to like this, but I find that I can't quite. Author Reply: Hello, Maire. As I told another reviewer of an earlier chapter, *trying* to like something is sometimes an exercise in futility. You either do or you don't. As Yoda (in a completely different universe and context) says: "There is no try." *grin* I don't expect everyone to like how I write no more than I expect to like everything I read in fanfiction or elsewhere. Everyone has their own taste in literature. My interpretation of what an Elf whose fëa has been divorced from their hröa is just that... my interpretation. Others might see things differently and that's okay. I think that if one's fëa has been severed from one's hröa for centuries, perhaps for millennia, then there's going to be a (brief) period of adjustment while the two re-learn to mesh together again. That's how I wrote Glorfindel's re-embodiment in "Elf, Interrupted", so it's not something that I haven't written before. As for my reconciling the image of the Valar, especially Námo, with what we find in the Silmarillion.... Tolkien states more than once in his writings that the Silmarillion is a compilation of tales twice removed from the original sources. They are actually Mannish tales (most likely compiled in Númenor) derived from Elvish tales which are primarily (though not exclusively) from the point of view of the Noldor who left Aman for Middle-earth, following Fëanor. Their perceptions of the Valar, especially Námo, are necessarily colored by what they did (ie. rebel against the Valar). I have had Námo in my stories comment to some of the Elves that the Noldor who fled Aman had a jaundiced view of him given the circumstances of their flight and the so-called "Doom of Mandos". And I think you are misreading what Námo says in regards to Eärendil. He does not advocate killing him, he merely asks if it's possible for a Mortal to live in the Undying Lands among Immortals. I know many people have looked upon the Valar in a similar vein as you do, but I feel that that might be a misconception of what Tolkien intended. At some point, he specifically states that Gandalf as a Maia is an angel as conceived of in Christian theology. I take that statement by the Professor as my starting point with regards to how I portray the Valar. Other people may choose to see (and write about) them differently and that, of course, is their choice. | |