Stories of Arda Home Page
About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

The Heir Apparent  by Mirkwoodmaiden 134 Review(s)
NurayyReviewed Chapter: 6 on 4/17/2021
Dear Mirkwoodmaiden,
What absolutely touching, beautiful family moments! This is so much your writing. So heartwarming the emotions you evoke! There is so much love between them.
Even as tragedy strikes their bonds hold tight.
Aragorn is so sweet a child. I like the way you show him serious and pensive already, and curious and delighted by horses also, I love how Erithain makes him laugh, and I absolutely love the loving relationship with his father, the respect his father already gives to the small child in such a tender way.
Loved to see Gilraen so happy and so beautiful after birth.
It already pains me to think how soon the next tragedy will strike.
I hope this review finds you well. Take care


Author Reply: Nurayy!

Thanks! I really wanted to show the relationships of love and family and to show that Arathorn, Gilraen and little Aragorn as a happy, normal family before the tragedy that must strike rips apart their lives. I also wanted to show the loving relationship between Erithain and his nephew, little Aragorn. The love that existed. Also to give Gilraen some happiness before it is all torn asunder. Hers was not a happy life.

Anyone who says "Ónen i-Estel Edain, ú-chebin estel anim, meaning "I gave Hope (an obvious reference to her son's Elven name) to the Dúnedain, I have kept no hope for myself." has not had the happiest of lives. She sacrifices everything to defeating evil in Middle Earth and is left with little else. It was as feared by her parents in the earlier chapters.

I am well. Hope you and yours are safe and well. ((hugs))

MM

NurayyReviewed Chapter: 5 on 3/25/2021
Dear Mirkwoodmaiden, I hope you are well.
So meaningful all this chapter. You make me love Gilraen and Arathorn very much and also their families, showing such insight. Loved the shared feelings at the sight of the city and what it means to them. I felt how it tied them together even more. They are getting to know and value each other more and more.
The moment between father and daughter touched me particularly, Dirhael's tear... Usually so composed, and now... i could feel his emotions.
And Ivorwen is so nervous... a loving, worrying mother who wants just the best for her child.
Such beautiful images an relationships til now.
Be well


Author Reply: Nurayy!

Thank you so much! I hope you are doing well, too! :-)) I have always have such a fascination with the Dunedain that I had to write this story. A people that survived a 1000 years (1976 TA was when Arthedain, the last of the three kingdoms of Arnor fell) with the vision and quest to assuage Isildur's error and to reinstate the Heir to the throne of Men intact. To have survived the destruction of their cities and their whole way of life and to live for the dream of restoration has always captivated me. I wanted to show what it meant to be an Heir of Isildur and how it drives Arathorn and how happy he was to see that it moved Gilraen as well.

Also how Dirhael and Ivorwen are also driven by this legacy and how much they are willing to sacrifice for the good of their people. And yet they are loving parents who worry for their only daughter's happiness. The human side of what destiny costs a family.

Many fanfic writers and Tolkien thinkers write that the Grey Company was the last of the Dunedain, but that couldn't be. No group of people could survive 1000 years, even those as long lived as the Dunedain without some form or way of life, If only to find wives of like mind and understanding and thereby have children to further their way of life. Which is why I loosely based their re-constructed way of life on the Chieftain/ Thane relationship of Saxon England.

I really love this story and I am so glad you are reading it and enjoyed it! :-))

Be Stay, Mellon nin!

((hugs))

MM

NurayyReviewed Chapter: 4 on 3/16/2021
Dear Mirkwoodmaiden,
Oh, the elves come in! I love them. Elladan and Elrohir, and Glorfindel too!
I loved the trust Ivorwen gives to Elladan speaking to him, and how Elladan takes it upon himself to fulfill that promise to a loving mother.
I also liked how you weaved in the twins and Arathorn's backstories of grief and vengeance.
Ivorwen's sorrow at the loss of her sons touched me. In these few lines you described them so well they became alive and I could feel the mother's pain.
Take care


Author Reply: Nurayy!

The Elves have arrived indeed...and will be present for the rest of the story. Sorry for not answering back sooner. I really happy you are enjoying the story.

Ivorwen is a mother desperate to carve out some measure of happiness for her daughter and doesn't give two figs what it might cost her dignity. She takes a chance talking to Elladan and she doesn't realise the bond that exists already between Arathorn and Elladan and Elrohir. They saw him grown up in Imladris as well though he was a little older when he started his fosterage in Imladris.

I remember reading somewhere that the twins almost lost their souls to vengeance after their mother sailed to the Undying Lands and its stands to reason Arathorn would be scarred in some way as well.

"In these few lines you described them so well they became alive and I could feel the mother's pain."

Thanks! That little passage turned out well I was very happy about that.

Thanks for reading!

Stay Safe! Mellon nin!

(((hugs)))

MM

NurayyReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/12/2021
Another beautiful chapter. They are so sweet, so in love. Very tender moments.
And you write young adults so well. I liked how her little brother was embarrassed by Gilraen's motherly affection. I remember you wrote something like this with Háláf as his mother showed her fondness of him in public in Destiny's Child. That is so much how they really feel and behave at such occasions and I find it amusing.
The scene with her mother was so emotional, such feels. She wants her daughter to be happy as long as she can, although she knows that it will take a tragic turn. That is such a difficult knowledge to bear for a mother.

Author Reply: Nurayy!!

Hello! Thank you! *blush*

And yes I have an few friends with teenage children and this is exactly how they acted so it seemed only fitting. And Gilraen knew EXACTLY how much it would embarrass Erithain. Which of course is the point. What else is a little brother for but to embarrass the heck out of them ;-)

I really do love the way the scene between Gilraen, her mom and her friend turned out. Marriage and the birthing of children is essential to the Dunedain because without that their inheritance dies away. And that is what they live for.

No mother could bear to see her child unhappy but for Ivorwen it is doubly difficult because not only can she not stand to see her child happy. She has to encourage the match because through Gilraen will come the culmination of everything that the Dunedain have lived and survived for. All Dunedain are bound to this driving force of their survival; their reason for being. And Ivorwen knows the pain it will cause her child. That is really a very tough thing.

Thanks for writing!

Stay Safe and well

((hugs))

MM


Author Reply: Nurayy!!

Hello! Thank you! *blush*

And yes I have an few friends with teenage children and this is exactly how they acted so it seemed only fitting. And Gilraen knew EXACTLY how much it would embarrass Erithain. Which of course is the point. What else is a little brother for but to embarrass the heck out of them ;-)

I really do love the way the scene between Gilraen, her mom and her friend turned out. Marriage and the birthing of children is essential to the Dunedain because without that their inheritance dies away. And that is what they live for.

No mother could bear to see her child unhappy but for Ivorwen it is doubly difficult because not only can she not stand to see her child happy. She has to encourage the match because through Gilraen will come the culmination of everything that the Dunedain have lived and survived for. All Dunedain are bound to this driving force of their survival; their reason for being. And Ivorwen knows the pain it will cause her child. That is really a very tough thing.

Thanks for writing!

Stay Safe and well

((hugs))

MM

NurayyReviewed Chapter: 2 on 3/11/2021
Mirkwoodmaiden,
This was such a beautiful and sad chapter. So well done! The vision touched me really and made my eyes sting; so meaningful, so important, and yet so sad. The feelings of her parents at that knowledge, you wrote them so vivid, Gilraen's pain in the vision with her little son, it pulls at the heartstrings. So good how you give her credit in this story! Oh, and beautiful image of Elladan!
If I think this was even your first fanfic... Wow!

Author Reply: Nurayy!!

Thanks so much! There is not enough written about Gilraen. She is often forgotten or written out of so much Fan Fiction but she is so important and sacrifices so much for her people. Her life is unfortunately not really a happy one.

Read on! There is much more of Elladan and Elrohir! They are so easy and often so fun to write!

Stay Safe! Mellon nin!

((Hugs))

MM

NurayyReviewed Chapter: 1 on 3/8/2021
Oh, there they begin falling in love. And there's already a lot of turmoil and grief and resentment. I loved how in the end respect grows between them. The beginning of something important.

Author Reply: Nurayy!

So glad you decided to read or at least start this story. It was the first many chaptered story I wrote as fanfic and it really holds a soft spot in my heart.

I have always been fascinated by the Dunedain as a people. They survived the destruction of their kingdom and really their entire way of life and survived for a 1000 years. Arthedain, the last of the three kingdoms that was Arnor fell in 1975 TA. And yet their goal, their dream to the light restored and Amends for Isildur's failure remained true. How? That is why I am fascinated by the Dunedain.

Also I have always been fascinated by Gilraen, "I give hope to the world by I keep none for myself." She left everything she knew to go with Estel to Imladris. She is frequently left out of a lot of fanfiction but I think she is so interesting. Very strong woman who sacrifices everything she was to help her people with their density.

Thanks for reading.

Stay Safe ((hugs))

MM


Author Reply:
Or rather "Destiny" and not "density" :-) *sigh* I would love to blame Autocorrect for this but alas I cannot!! :-)

MM

ibonekiReviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 11/2/2020
This was such a lovely journey through Aragorn's life. Thank you so much for writing and posting!

Author Reply: Iboneki!

Thank you so much for writing to tell me! I am so glad that you liked it! I may add more chapters at a later date, but it is finished for now!

Stay Safe!

MM

SimplegirlfromLPReviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 4/30/2020
I enjoyed this very much. Loved to read about Estel's life in Rivendale. Thank you for writing.

Author Reply: Simplegirl!

Thank you for reading and taking the time to write. I am so glad that you liked it!

:-))

MM

LarnerReviewed Chapter: Epilogue 2 on 4/11/2020
And now he has come home indeed, with that final reunion that he's so desired since he was a small child.

Author Reply: Larner!

And as I have discovered in writing the Epilogue as I did I can add however many chapters I might want to add!

Thank you for reading it start to finish! I will probably be adding more chapters when the plot bunny bites!! Those plot bunnies can be vicious! :-))


MM

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 19 on 4/11/2020
I rejoice that he has found his place with his own people at last. Now, to see his mother return to them as well.

Author Reply: Larner!

Thanks for reading through the story again and with the new chapter added!

I do really hope you enjoyed it!

I suspect that Gilraen will soon re-appear!

Have you heard from Lindelea. Usually she has answered back on my reviews by now. In these times I worry.

Stay Safe

MM


First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page

Return to Chapter List