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I Entulessë (The Return)  by MJ 65 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 6 on 9/28/2010
Now, that was an exceedingly quick voyage to Aman, and it's interesting to learn that Gandalf is taking Frodo's suffering upon himself. Am glad that at last he's been convinced to allow another to take over.

I do find the overly humble Olorin unusual--I'd certainly never imagined that to be true of him. But at least he's willing now to rest.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 5 on 9/27/2010
A sweet and gentle arrival and perusal of this gift to Olorin. Love the idea that he can alter basic materials into what is needed by his thought. I have ideas on that theme myself, you see.

FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 19 on 9/27/2010
A very satisfying story - thank you. Well written, full of emotion and imagination and great characterization. I enjoyed it fully. By the end of it, I did remember having read it long ago, but the details were very fuzzy in my mind, and it was like a new story to me as I was going through it. I hope there will be more adventures to come? I remember you having a large unfinished WIP on your website. I hope that we will be able to read that in entirety, someday.

One last thought I had, reading this epilogue. The one thing I don't think Olorin can fully teach the Valar about is how humans percieve death. Yes, he can describe the process from the inside-out, so to speak, a valuable and unique perspective. But he's not a good representative for the sorrow, the loneliness, the fear and the burden that death, and sometimes even life, becomes to mortals. Perhaps some things are meant to be a mystery, even to the gods.

Author Reply: I hope you'll be able to read it, too — and finished. That's part of the plan. :)

I don't think that anyone can ever teach another person how to grieve, how to live, how to understand fully what it is to be something you are not, but I think that the fact that Olórin experienced actual death with no apparent certainty of what lay beyond it for him personally gives him a better understanding of mortality than he would have had, had he been sent as a Maia in a self-incarnate fana. He surely knew the sorrow of loss, as he had many friends who were mortal, but at best, he can share with the Valar his memories of all those things via ósanwë. Whether or not they understand it... He can but try. And as you say, some things are meant to be a mystery. But if he can help them gain a better perspective, and greater compassion for the human condition, then the effort will have been worth it.

Thank you again for all of your comments!

FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 18 on 9/27/2010
So it is to be a happy ending after all. I find it very funny that the cure required is for Gandalf to wear a very showy crown all the time, so that all who see him can be reminded of his accomplishments, the favor of Eru, and their own failure all at the same time. Very neat little package, that. Also pointedly funny is that Eru has deliberately chosen to appear in the form of a very insignificant servant (Ványalos). Don't know if any of the Valar even got that one.

My favorite part of the chapter though, is your independent support for my personal UUT that Frodo and Bilbo (and by extension Sam) would be granted the grace to live out lifespans unfettered by illness or other dimishment, and leave them at the point of their own choice in gladness and completeness. I could never believe they would arrive at the "undying lands," receive whatever support they could in the short years they had left, and then just die (no time left in Bilbo's case, Frodo's life would obviously have been severly shortented by his wounds, and Sam would have arrived as an old and grieving hobbit to find them both long gone). No canon support, as far as I know, for this idea; yet it is utterly consisent with other exceptions Eru has made to his own rules over the course of the histories. And makes me feel much better, as well.

FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 17 on 9/27/2010


I understand well the problems of the Valar, in deciding what to do and what not to do. It seems that the more information, and the greater intellegence, and the more power you have, the harder it is to decide. For every decision to act or not act has consequences, and often those that can be foreseen are unfortunate, no matter what the decision is. There is a paralysis of will that can result from the endless debate over consequences (as is often seen when any committee tries to make a decision!)

"Stubbornness" is how you describe a characteristic shared by Frodo and Olorin in this chapter, but I have been thinking that perhaps Frodo's experience, of endurance without hope, may be the best example for Olorin. Holding on is what he needs to do now, and of all the beings around him, perhaps Frodo is the best equipped to help him do that.

Then, the ending of this chapter is certainly an unexpected development! Was that truly Ványalos there with Frodo, or a manifestation of someone greater? And what does it presage for Olorin?

FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 16 on 9/27/2010
I have spent some time reflecting on the depth of Olorin's despair here, and it is profound. As Gandalf, his function was to encourage action and enhearten the resistance to despair, to "oppos[e] the fire that devours and wastes with the fire that kindles, and succors in wanhope and distress," and it seems he took this charge very seriously. I suppose it is easier to reject despair, even when no reason for hope remains, when the enemy you fight is clearly evil and your allies pure. I wonder if he realized that all of the Valar are complicit, not just Manwe, and he feels he has nothing else he can do but offer himself back to Iluvatar, hoping to escape final dissolution? I doubt he'll remain this way long though, for desapir is ultimately a cowardly reaction, and he's far from that. He does have one ally, Eru himself, who may be inscrutable but at the same time just, at least in Olorin's eyes. As much as he wants to deflect praise in his (real) humility, I think it overwhelms him how unfair this is, and that faith is not shaken.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 4 on 9/27/2010
An interesting thought, that Gandalf saw himself as somehow being insignificant. And the corruption of Palando and Alatar does seem terrible.

Now, to see Lorien through Frodo's eyes.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 3 on 9/26/2010
Now, THIS would be terribly disconcerting, to watch Gandalf so quit the body in which he has spent so long! Frodo must be appalled!

SiiwReviewed Chapter: 19 on 9/26/2010
This must be one of the most impressive stories I have read here. Everything is described so lively, it was almost as if I was looking out through Frodo's eyes, sharing both the awesome, joyful and the tragic with him. Some passages were plain painful to read, because they were described so vividly that it felt like i witnessed them myself. Especially when Olorin leaped off the mountain, i wanted to stop reading, what were you doing to some of my favourite characters!

You write of the unconditional, cosmic love of the Ainur for the Children in a way that brings tears to my eyes. I have read this in stories from other authors here as well, but it was unusually strong and hopeful in this one. It takes up a note from the original stories, in how the small and insignificant can prove to be more successful in the end than the big and powerful.

I hope that you will continue posting on this site. It is stories like this that makes this site so unique.

Author Reply: I will indeed continue posting (though perhaps not in such an intense frenzy!). How could I not when someone calls my work impressive!?! I'm so glad you enjoyed the story, despite the tragic parts (and I have been told by others that the "cliffhanger" you mention was a nasty place to end a chapter ;). But then, I have always felt that if you're going to send your heroes through the depths of hell as part of their Journey, the heights of heaven should naturally follow, and vice-versa. The reward should be commeasurate to the suffering, and the difficulty of reaching the reward equal to the reward received. A personal visit from Eru is a pretty big reward, as well as the gifts of healing he offered to Olórin and the hobbits. It is indeed great and cosmic love, greater than even that of the Ainur.

Thanks for your review!

curiouswombatReviewed Chapter: 19 on 9/25/2010
What a wonderful story, full of deep, thinky themes, all bound so beautifully together - and how wonderful that it should be the hobbits' love of riddles and puzzles that led to Olórin's healing.

Author Reply: "Thinky themes" — an amusing way to put it! I'm glad you found it so, since I do tend to think a lot about the things I write, and it's always a pleasure to know that the effort was appreciated by the readers. Having a Hobbit be the one to solve the puzzle was something I'd had in mind from the start, as it sort of brought things full-circle (pun only partially intended). Thanks for the review!

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