harrowcat
· 23 November 2021
· Chapter 9999: Author's Notes
Hi Larner,
I just wanted to let you know that I've just finished reading 'Acceptable Sacrifice ' for the umpteenth time. It is not an easy read and I find that as I get older and my own health deteriorates I resonate more and more with Frodo.
I also find that I see or appreciate something different each time. For example just how similar are Elrond and Frodo in their individual griefs at losing Arwen and Aragorn.
Thank you so much for this and all your works. I find I also miss the heyday or Stories of Arda and Authors and reviewers sparking off one another.
Hugs, Elizabeth
I've finally finished this massive epic, and I'm more impressed now by the level of detail, the effortless shifting of points of view, and the research that went into crafting it than I was the first time, having made a few attempts at something of similar scope which all fell flat. Now I want to reread The Choice of Healing, Reconciliation, Filled with Light as with Water, and, I think, Reunion? Not to mention The King's Commission, Go Out in Joy, and all of the things I've missed out on in the last few years. It may take me as much time as I've missed to catch up and revisit my favorites! There are a comparative few fanfiction stories I would love to have in a format independent of internet access and particular websites, like favorite books, and many of yours are among them.
Author's reply
I am truly honored, my Lady. The cycle of this, Reconciliation, and Reunion were the three stories I truly wished to write, and it took me some time once they were written to find my muse again. Now it's time and energy that are my bugaboos. I am finding being in my sixties and having diabetes undermines my energy, and with my work being more physically challenging rather than being mostly minding others that also decreases my energy for writing.
Thank you so, and hope your own writing is fulfilling and productive.
Such a beautiful wedding! I wish we'd had Frodo at ours! Or maybe just as a guest afterward...most of the actual day is blurred in my mind because there was so much to do and our photographer insisted on a zillion pictures while I wore a summer dress in winter weather and shoes I would have gladly burned afterward. I just love the cord of many colors to reflect all the moods, and all of Frodo's words to Sam and Rosie and the wedding vows. I also giggled over Sam's major freak-out the day before. So good of Frodo to send him off for some relaxation!
Author's reply
Preparing for a wedding can be stressful, as you know from experience. The multicolored wedding cord has been a part of my stories since "The King's Commission," so I had to find a way to work it into Sam's wedding as well.
We were married in June, and the day was clear, and the hatch for the station wagon stuck open, and I thought we'd never be able to head for Victoria as we'd intended!
Sam needed to come off of perfection mode, and Frodo was the Hobbit to relieve him, although he ended up doing more than was strictly good for him. But the wedding came off well, and I think everyone was glad Frodo officiated!
Queen Galadriel
· 1 February 2014
· Chapter 76: 76: A Dwarf's Touch, and Shadows
This is so tender. I love what you show of Gimli here. He gets overlooked too much, I think. I'm glad he and Frodo had this moment together.
I've been on a write-a-thon all day working on what I hope will be a novel. It's dealing with some pretty heavy stuff at the moment. This story is just as heavy, but for some reason, reading it recharges my batteries for more of my own writing. Maybe because for all my style and yours are different, and fanfiction and original contemporary fiction are very different genres...I want to write this deeply and have this level of insight, and just be this awesome as a writer when I grow up! *grin*
Author's reply
I do like to include Gimli when I can. He is such a beloved character for all of us, I think. And I do hope the novel is working out.
And when I grow up.... Heh!
Queen Galadriel
· 31 January 2014
· Chapter 74: 74: A Mother's Love
Oh...this is just so sad. I'm enjoying getting to read this story minus my teenage flare for the melodramatic that colored everything I did and read when it was published. :) But this is still the most heartbreaking point of the story so far, because Frodo tries so hard to keep everything in and maintain his dignity and not let his perceived failure touch the Shire or those around him, and this is how it comes out.
While I try to finish school, I've turned to making things and selling them, and parts of the process are tedious. Getting to read this while I work is so nice. I'm also starting to work my way through the books, starting with The Hobbit, and it's reawakening my Shire-dwelling muse. The amount I need to refresh myself on is staggering, though.
Author's reply
You aren't the only one who is making things and selling them, usually on the internet and at craft fairs, to try to make ends meet. Have several friends who are doing much the same, and all of them say having an audiobook of some kind helps them get through it. And I'm thrilled to think you're possibly going to return to writing again! So, read away!
Frodo's loss of his parents at such a young age had to have colored his manner of interacting with the world quite a bit, and there must have been times when all he wanted was to sit in his mom's lap and be comforted. But you aren't the only one who has known a tendency toward the melodramatic, you know. I, too, get that way, and I don't have adolescence to use as an excuse at the moment! Heh!
Queen Galadriel
· 28 January 2014
· Chapter 50: 50: The Bride Cometh
Hello again after eight months! I've been revisiting Middle-Earth lately and rereading some favorite fanfiction works, and just had to reread this epic. I was going to wait until the end to review again, but it's so long and complex I thought the halfway point was a good place. I certainly remember now why I checked every day for story updates when you were writing this. But at the time, I focused so exclusively on the hobbits that I don't think I fully appreciated what life you gave to Minas Tirith and the people in it. It's mind-boggling! I've thought of trying to finish my long-abandoned fic called Renewal, but I hardly need to...I can just point to this one! I'm enjoying my reread very much.
Author's reply
Oh, but my Lady, it is so good to hear from you again! I may have focused this on Frodo, but there is no question that all of our beloved characters from LOTR are encompassed within, save, of course, for Boromir. But in many of my later stories even Boromir is now represented.
But we would love to see Renewal finished, too. You have your own tales to tell.
Thank you so much for letting me know you are revisiting!
6336
· 13 March 2013
· Chapter 2: 2: Honored
Have just started rereading this. Dosen't Frodo ralise that if he had not had the stength of will to deny the ring all thge way from the Shire to the mountain, Sam would not have been able to get him to the Sammath Naur(Sp?) and Gollum would not have been there to take it into the fire?
Silly Hobbit!
Lynda
Author's reply
You made this comment just as I again began suffering from computer problems, an inconsistent occurrence since early December at this point. Yes, Frodo is being silly, but he at least is awake and beginning to realize that being alive isn't necessarily as horrible as he might have thought. Thank you so, Lynda!
Szepilona10
· 9 November 2012
· Chapter 9999: Author's Notes
I really love this story :). Maybe because it was the first of your stories that I read or maybe because it is so well written, either way, I enjoy rereading it and discovering new details that I missed the first times around. Ever since I was young (OK, I'm still young, but anyway :D), I've avidly read books about/written by Holocaust survivors. I'm not sure why I began reading them as a 3rd or 4th grader as most of the stories are really depressing, but they helped me to develop compassion. When I read "The Acceptable Sacrifice," I can see these stories in Frodo's. It is a story that is sad and happy at the same time, a depressing, yet hopeful ending. This is the kind of story that makes me cry, which I will admit I did while reading the last two chapters. I'm not sure if this review makes any sense at all, but at least the story does :D
God Bless!
~Szepilona~
Author's reply
There wasn't much Holocaust literature available when I was a child in the fifties, so I truly became aware of the situation in the sixties as some of the testimony from the Nuremburg trials became available, and as a dramatization was made of the trial transcripts was released. I remember reading it in my high school drama class, and we discussed how we would possibly stage such a play, probably in the gymnasium as a sort of theater in the round.
But it was our family visit to the Dachau concentration camp that fully sparked my interest, and I began amassing a collection of books about the camps and the manner in which inmates--Jews, Gypsies, political prisoners, those in "protective custody" (mostly family hostages of potential dissidents to the Nazi regime), ministers and priests and nuns who spoke out against Nazi atrocities, and those who were mentally deficient, ill, alcoholics, permanently disabled, and so on, as well as testimony from camp survivors.
Both Frodo and Sam went through the kind of privation experienced by those who went through the camps, and all four Hobbits had to have suffered some degree of PTSD, although Frodo's was the worst, having gone through the additional emotional, intellectual, and spiritual torture offered by the Ring.
Thank you so much for your comments. I am honored to know that this story has meant so much to so many.
nancylea57
· 22 February 2012
· Chapter 51: 51: The King's Wedding
as often as i've read this i just realized you hove elrond tell all of gondor that aragorn was thorongil
“You who were born Aragorn son of Arathorn, chieftain of Arnor, and Gilraen daughter of Halbard, you who were known in childhood as Estel, the hope for the free peoples of Middle Earth, who was known in Rohan and Gondor as Thorongil, the Eagle of the Star,
and yet years later in the king's commission it is still an open secret, how could we all have missed this clue??????
Author's reply
Oh, dear, Nancy--I see I didn't respond to this at the time you asked the question.
Yes, I have Elrond giving all of Aragorn's titles and names, but I wonder how many actually listened at the time? Pippin had been told again and again that in the Council of Elrond it had been revealed to all that Aragorn, as Isildur's Heir, was intending to resume the Kingship of both the North and the South; yet he had to be admonished by Gandalf not to walk around with his wits dulled and his attention distracted once they got to Gondor, and not to say too much about Aragorn to Denethor. Start going through so many identities and roles, and your average individual will tune out somewhere along the way!
I'm so glad you read this again and appear to have noted something new in the reread!
And I apologize for not responding at the time you posed your question. Life this year has been very traumatic, I fear.
buffyaddict
· 13 September 2011
· Chapter 9999: Author's Notes
well, i've spent the last hour or so weeping at my desk.
i've spent the last several days reading your amazing fic. i read lotr as a child and know that i loved it (my 12 year old self named my stuffed unicorn aragorn, after all). i loved the movies as well. i spent last week rewatching them and have been on a huge quest for good lotr fic, something i've never read before. after spending some time on the mefa website, i cam across your story.
and i am overwhelmed by your story. it is so beautifully written, so perfect. every character is right, especially aragorn and frodo. oh, your frodo. i love him so. i've begun reading the books again, and plan to read this fic again, once i have finished rotk.
i plan to work my way through your other stories now. i see you have a new story loosely based on the wm3 case which astounds me. i am in awe, madam, or your skill and imagination.
i have no proper words to tell you how much this story meant to me. i am only sad that i've already read it, i can't imagine i will find another fic this amazing, or this bright. you mentioned how frodo shone with light. so did this story.
thank you.
Author's reply
Thank you so, Buffyaddict. This story was indeed a work of love. After I finished it, I wrote "Reconciliation" and then "Reunion," both of which are considerably shorter than this one but which complete the stories of those who loved Frodo, and Frodo and Sam's reunion after Rosie's death. Actually, almost all of my stories, long and short, are written within the same "universe" and all are written to fit together. I do have some AU ("alternate universe") stories as well, and a few short crossovers, most intended to be humorous but a couple which are more serious. I do a lot of writing any more, so you'll find a I have a number of collections of short stories, mostly gapfillers, as well as the novel-length tales. "Murder Most Foul" should be posted in its entirety by the end of the week. I've been following the WM3 case for many years now, and that I should finish posting it and the author's notes on the Many Paths to Tread archive just as Jessie, Jason, and Damien were released was totally coincidental--or perhaps it was, as Dreamflower suggested, "meant to be."
You might also like my other epic, "The King's Commission," which was I think the fourth novel-length story I wrote.
As for naming things after the characters in the books--when my dog had puppies when I was fifteen, one was named Thorongil and the other Estel. Guess who I've loved since I first read the books back when I was in my early teens? I was thirteen when I started reading The Lord of the Rings, and finished it just before my fourteenth birthday!
6336
· 20 March 2009
· Chapter 19: 19: A Fresh Wind in the Citadel
Working my way through this one. Do you have any plans to write the story of Estel falling asleep at the feast? I wonder what he was up to to make him so tired?
Lucky little Birthday Boy!
Lynda
Author's reply
Oh, I've considered it, Lynda. But look how long it took me to write the story of Aragorn's first white cat! I'll do it one day, though, I promise!
Dear Larner,
Thought I'd let you know that my dad added your email address to my contacts, so I can email you and you can email me!
God bless,
Elizabeth Anne Lucy Wherry
Author's reply
Thanks, Elizabeth. Glad you're still reading, and hope you are enjoying the story.
Eliazbeth Wherry
· 11 December 2008
· Chapter 9: 9: The Minstrel of Gondor
Poor Frodo, I'd hate to be refered to as Lord or anything like that!
God Bless
Elizabeth Anne Lucy Wherry
Author's reply
Then you do understand just how he feels.
Sorry to be delayed in getting back to you, but this last week has been very trying at work. It's nice to be able to just type today and not worry about my client for a couple days.
Dear Larner,
I'm so glad Frodo has found something to keep himself occupuied(I misspelled that). Also I'm joining Szepilona...When are you going to put Halabard in another of your stories?
God bless
Elizabeth Anne Lucy Wherry
Author's reply
I'm also glad that Frodo found things to do about the camp. And one day I may write my Aragorn and Halbarad story.
You and Szepilona may wish to read Radbook's "In Aragorn's Safe Keeping" stories at http://www.fanfiction.net to get a good idea of the relationship Aragorn had with his kinsman, although she has a couple stories on here, too, with their relationship. Right now I have so many storied going at the same time it's difficult to get to all of them, much less add more!
Thank you so.
Eliazbeth Wherry
· 9 December 2008
· Chapter 3: 3: Feast Not Enjoyed
Sezpilona was Quite pleased I finally got around to telling you by the way.
Elizabeth Wherry
Author's reply
I'm honored, Eliazbeth.
Eliazbeth Wherry
· 2 December 2008
· Chapter 3: 3: Feast Not Enjoyed
Dear Larner,
My best friend (the one who got me into SoA and your stories) wanted me to tell you her name. Her actual name I won't give but you should be firmiliar (I misspelled that) with sezplino10. She wanted me to tell you that we are best friends.
Author's reply
Oh, I'm glad you're a friend of Szepilona! I've enjoyed having her read my work and comment on it, and she's worked through a good deal of what I've written over the years.
I really like this subject since why Frodo was so calm after distroying the Ring was always a big thing I pondered, which is probably why this is my favorite story. Also don't try to email me as your email will not get across unless I have your email.
Author's reply
Then we must resort to this for now, although I believe you can send a private email via this site as well.
Tolkien in his letters did state that Frodo was calm and at peace because he saw himself as having sacrificed himself for the safety of Middle Earth (and probably mostly for the safety of his own corner of it in the Shire), and that he truly believed his death would be upon him in moments--that the sacrifice would be consummated. But it did not come--not then--for he still had lessons to learn and help to give and life to learn to live again before the end.
How much he left undone due to growing weakness and disassociation and how much due to his own inability to accept he could not do all he would do--who is to say? He had such a mixture of pride and humility to him!
And if you should desire to email me directly, my email address is not precisely difficult to learn. It is blslarner@olypen.com at least for now! Heh!
Elizabeth Wherry
· 24 November 2008
· Chapter 2: 2: Honored
I started your story The Acceptable Sacrifice at my best friend's house and as soon as I got home I had to google Stories of Arda and read more of not only this story but all the others. Thanks for writing such awesome stories
Author's reply
I am honored, Elizabeth! Thank you so much for letting me know.
This story was inspired by Tolkien's comments on why Frodo appeared so calm and at peace there on the side of Mount Doom after the destruction of the Ring, and I found it took on a life of its own, and managed to combine two story ideas I'd had gnawing at my vitals.
Now, if I can just find time and energy to finish with the Nuzgul that keeps playing in my jewelry box! I'm about halfway done with that one, I find!
Szepilona10
· 11 November 2008
· Chapter 46: 46: Bathing in Strawberries and Cream
I still can't belive that you managed to get Hardorn to help do the canning! I can alredy hear Hildigor laughing about it!
Author's reply
I'm certain Hildigor would find it wonderfully amusing, thinking of the King's best warrior wearing a towel about him and helping at putting up jam! Heh!
Am so glad you're enjoying this!
Szepilona10
· 10 November 2008
· Chapter 41: 41: Night Summons
To bad you married off Hardorn, 'cause I think he's cute!
Author's reply
He might be a bit old for both of us at this point, though! (Grinning!)
Thanks for the feedback.
Szepilona10
· 10 November 2008
· Chapter 29: 29: Assumption and Innuendo
Yippy! Hardorn can laugh!
God Bless!
~Szepilona10~
Author's reply
Oh, yes, he can. Am glad you got to see him here, too.
Lúmë
· 11 June 2008
· Chapter 9999: Author's Notes
I must be the last of your fans to read this one. I must admit, the subject daunted me and I read your stories above and below, always thinking, yes, one day I will read it.
And now I have. And it was moving and uplifting and yet every bit as gruelling as I thought it would be, following Frodo on his continuing journey.
I formatted it to read on my Palm handheld (it being easier to snatch a page now and then on the Palm) ... did you know that this story (including Author's Notes) has 4999 Palm pages? That's a huge tome :) ('The King's Commission' by the way, has 3512 Palm pages.)
In any case, as always I am astounded by the detail you manage to include in your stories. Your stories read like I'm watching them on the big screen. And I can turn my attention away from the action for a bit and look around and see all the little bits of life just happening on the edges, as it always is. Wonderful experience to read a story like that, and I thank you!
Author's reply
I am honored you have read it at last, Lume. This combined two different stories that had worked at me for some time, and so it ended up much longer than I'd expected it to be. In my old version of Microsoft Works I write under it runs 766 pages in 12 point Barbedor T font. One page short of 5000 pages on your Palm, eh? That's overwhelming!
I am so glad you appreciate the level of detail, and that you feel you are actually seeing it unfold before you. That is how I feel as I write, as if I'm describing what I'm seeing and hearing and experiencing, looking through the senses of the characters. And it's always wonderful for me to explore how children perceive what's happening around them as I write.
Thank you again for the feedback, and I'm so glad you braved the grief and pain to find the Light along the way. I like to think that this was what Frodo himself found.
An excellent story, Larner. I couldn't get away from it for the last two days - but since I'm on holiday and sick like a dog, I could afford to indulge. :))
As I started your stories with the Tenant, it was good to meet Bartolo again - he's such a wonderfully quirky character.
Author's reply
Somehow I missed this, Soledad. I'm honored you read and enjoyed this. And am glad you find yourself enjoying poor Bartolo. He is indeed quirky, I'll admit, and has been managing to insinuate himself into my stories for some time now, from "Stricken from the Book" to "Go Out in Joy."
harrowcat
· 3 October 2007
· Chapter 48: 48: "I Have Found It!"
Oops! I had forgotten this. Thanks for reminding me Larner.
Author's reply
Glad you enjoyed reading it again. Thank you for sparking the other story!