Reviews (316)

Author's reply

Yes, Saruman has a GREAT deal of growing up to do. He's not very thoughtful at the moment, and as was noted by Bodkin, far, far to full of self. He wants to bring Sauron down completely, but fails to see just how this cannot be done by one alone, not even one of Sauron's former peers. Endorgil may have realized he wouldn't live long; but to have it due to the Istar's own loose tongue must have been, once he realized (if he ever did), quite ironic.

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I guess I've been reading your reviews today in reverse order, so bear with me. And I know how school years can send things wonky. I doubt Olorin would take this commission lightly, and would wish to think deeply about it before even discussing it with Manwe. And to delight in the gifts of Breath, Light, and Song would be the greatest delights, I'd think, for those who'd been created to see the Creator's own face. There is indeed a decided contrast between the two Maiar; one that I wanted so to explore and play with. Saruman had to have more taken from him; Gandalf gave up more than was needed; and I think this basically shows the basic difference between the two of them. I first started thinking about Radagast when I read some of Jodancingtree's stories about Frodo needing healing; in her AU version Frodo only finds healing when he follows Radagast back to Mordor to assist in restoring its ecological balance. She wrote some fascinating thoughts; and one day I'll read her series about the Queen's Orc, too. I've let them languish too long, I think.

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Yes, the forerunners of the Bagginses, the Tooks, the Brandybucks--and the Sackvilles. So glad you appreciate it!

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The beginnings of wedding ceremonials amongst the Hobbits of Eriador, and I suspect such tended to change terrifically much over the centuries--or millenia. One sees that from the first nonsense syllables perhaps formed the greater part of names for males, while names of natural features and flowers even them were given to females. Saruman has his strengths, but they are as yet outnumbered by his weaknesses, I fear. In the two thousand years Gandalf spent in Middle Earth there must have been many mortals he saw born and then die. He must have become well acquainted with the grief of seeing them leave Middle Earth, even as he rejoiced to have known them at all. And Merlin reminds me partly of Frodo, but also of Pippin and his father, somehow.

Author's reply

I grieve I misspelled Maglor's name--have corrected it. I find my mind does this--assigning incorrect spellings and wanting to stick with them. Had to correct it when I wrote chapter one as well, although I did that before posting it. Thanks for the heads up. I see Hobbit life tied to rituals all along the way, as well as having been primarily insular from the beginning. And they make quite a contrast to the Elves, but then being mortal they don't have all of the time in Arda in which to consider things before acting. Once an Elf makes a decision, however, I suspect he would be extraordinarily efficient in seeing it implemented. And thanks again for the correction. I do appreciate them.

Author's reply

Considering how faulty my own memory can be, I can't criticize that of others, I find. I've been fighting a variety of computer problems of one sort or another for months, so I can certainly appreciate how you feel at yours behavior. I had tickets to see the Shore concert in Seattle, then missed it, and have kicked myself repeatedly ever since.

Author's reply

It was one thing when, as a Maia Olorin could swoop into Middle Earth, throw on an aspect for a few days or so, offer his wisdom or advice, and then disappear back into Aman again. Now he's stuck here, and sees mortals over periods of time. And facing the loss of those he has come to appreciate while in the body of a Man, no matter he remains an immortal, must be supremely difficult for him. Sounds like a good plan for you to be on your dad's insurance so you can help ease the burdens on both your parents. They are tremendously lucky, I hope they realize.

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Gandalf will be in Middle Earth for roughly two thousand years in the seeming of an elderly man, and watching mortals come and go is something he will have to face innumerable times. And even our favorites do in their time die, even Aragorn (I still weep for that, you know). Merlin is the ancestor of the Tooks and Bagginses and Brandybucks and, unfortunately, the Sackvilles as well; you'll likely see a good deal of familiar behavior in him and his progeny, I suspect. And I'm also glad his grandmother is feeding the Tookish part of him. I suspect that there were many names that tended to get recycled; and why not have two famous ones there from the earliest days of the Hobbits in the west? I suspect Galadriel and Gandalf would often anticipate how the other would react in various situations, and I can't imagine that they'd have been unaware of one another all that time in Aman. But I don't think in the end Gandalf would have accepted the role of head of the White Council until none could deny what Saruman had come to. And in the earliest days Saruman probably did well enough--he's more of an administrator kind of individual than Gandalf is, I think.

Author's reply

I'm so glad you apparently find this a believable look at how the Hobbits first lived in Eriador, before the brothers brought them west of the Baranduin into what was to become the Shire. Am so enjoying your story, you know.

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Trevor Jones's score? I wish I could hear it. Howard Shore's score is marvelous, of course, and I think that Trevor Jones's music was used in one of the series of previews for FOTR--I thought it was marvelous, and wish I could see the original movie for which it was written. I know that when I first heard the music as Gandalf drove into Hobbiton with Frodo I about melted, and I was already thrilled to hear a version of "The Road Goes Ever On" when Frodo first realized Gandalf had arrived in the Shire. And the music for the Lighting of the Beacons thrills me each time I hear it, as does any small bit from "Into the West." The daughter of Finarfin, Galadriel lived in Aman under the Light of the Trees, and came to Middle Earth at the same time as the revolt of the Noldor. I'm not certain whether she or Maeglor, who was one of Feanor's sons, is the elder; but those two are the oldest of all Elves to linger in Middle Earth at the time of the Ring War. I know there is another LOTR suite besides Shore's, and I wish I could find it again when I have the money to buy it. And I'd love to have a copy of Swann's "The Road Goes Ever On," music he wrote for the songs his friend Tolkien wrote for LOTR. I've done my own compositions for many of the poems and songs, back when I was in eighth and ninth grade, using my dad's piano.

Author's reply

I swear I can do my best a million times to make certain all the text is the same sized font, and the new laptop will change it anyway. Drives me crazy, for when different sized fonts are encountered here, the server on which SOA is loaded sees them as reason to put the offending text at the end of the file. GAAACK! Anyway, it appears once again to be fixed. And Gandalf does realize there is special interest in the Hobbits not only from himself but from others, and now his own curiosity is on the alert. And thanks for the heads up on how the board reformatted the chapter.

Author's reply

The Tale of Years indicates the Istari began arriving around the end of the first millennium of the Third Age, and the first immigration of Hobbits, mostly by Harfoots, was noted in Eriador somewhere between 1000 and 1050 Third Age. The second wave was mostly Fallohides and that was followed by mostly Stoors, although the dates appear somewhat tenuous. I suspect the full movement of the Hobbits into Eriador probably took several generations, and probably a couple hundred years. We know some Stoors returned eventually to the valley of the Anduin, probably late in the second millenia, perhaps about the same time as the founding of the Shire with the grant of the lands west of the Baranduin to Manco and Balcho, and it's likely Smeagol and Deagol's family came from that return eastward. We know that what hair Gollum had was lank and thin and fairly long, and I used that as a reason to indicate that Stoors might generally have had straighter hair than the other two lines. The Tale of Years indicates the first hints of Sauron's return were noted with the beginning of the building of Dol Guldur in what was beginning to be known as southern Mirkwood in 1100, although no one was quite certain it WAS Sauron until Gandalf entered the fortress in the third millennium of the age. Perhaps I'm making the actual first meeting of the White Council a bit later than canon, for this visit of Gandalf to Lorien takes place about 1350to 1360. Tolkien indicated that Meneldil himself, the son of Elendil's second son Anarion, was the first to refuse to accept his cousin Valandil as High King once Isildur was known to have been killed on the journey northwards. Apparently he found himself chafing at the idea of being a secondary king under his cousin, even though it was Isildur who had installed him as King of Gondor with the clear intent that Isildur would be High King until his death and his own heirs would follow in that role until the end of days. Nor does there appear to have been a great deal of respect of the northern kingdom or kingdoms by those of Gondor at any time. I suspect Romendacil's refusal to attend the first council was a continuation of a longstanding Gondorian tradition of pretty much ignoring all of northern origin as much as possible, seeing the northern kingdom as being rustic and uncouth and lacking in appropriate royalty in its line of Kings. And so it was (in my interpretation, at least) that the White Council came to be made up of the three Istari who remained in the western lands and the greatest of the Elven lords of the time as indicated by Tolkien himself.

Author's reply

Thank you, Linda. Now to get the next chapter quite finished and posted.

Author's reply

Yes, Saruman is at the moment quite a mix, not wishing to bow his own knee or see others doing so, but apparently somewhat intimidated by those who take power to themselves. And learning how to create jewels of Light must have been interesting. Yet while Olorin is creating his to fulfill the particular purpose of reconciling two of the Valar, Saruman must do so merely to display his power and superiority, then thinking since it isn't apparently more glorious that Olorin's it must somehow be lacking. He's a prime example of those who cut off their noses to spite their faces.

Author's reply

I love the idea that Saruman is "tallist" and agree with that evaluation myself. But just as Sauron overlooked the importance of Hobbits, so far Saruman has done so as well. But that we are more afraid of the rare lion than the apparently inoccuous mosquito that so often carries disease such as malaria and Nile disease and other nasties is such a reality; and so we avoid drinking the liquor in the martini and choke on the olive! Heh! But I like to think that for the longest time Saruman didn't even think about Hobbits until he realized they'd been involved in finding, safeguarding, and eventually carrying the Ring to its destruction. Too bad he couldn't have continued unaware of them, of course.

Author's reply

Of course these are different from their distant descendants, for they've not yet become "manified," if you will. There's quite a bit of time before the Hobbits of Eriador become those we are more familiar with in Bree and the Shire. So far they remain largely hidden, and rarely have much to do with the Big Folk save to trade for the moment; although they are quite hospitable, of course. And, of course, Gandalf is already fond of this Hobbit, and it will forever color his interactions with the race, I think. Place names, the names of fathers, identifying features, and names of professions were very common sources of surnames. My nick comes from the Alvin Maker stories by Orson Scott Card and reflects my profession as it did for Peggy; my maiden name came probably from one of my ancestors owning the property through which a stream or river ran shallowly enough to allow it to be forded, and he probably collected a toll on those who used that ford; my mother's maiden name probably came from the family tendency to produce rather short and slightly built men who tend to appear dark, a description that certainly fit my grandfather and is the translation of the name "Blynn," and all you have to do is look at how Sam's family name first was Gamwidge, the village from which they originally came, shifted to Gamgee, and then was changed completely to Gardner to see how names have been known to change if someone is best known for a particular thing such as being the most consummate of gardeners that was ever born.

Author's reply

Oh, am so glad you appreciate it, Shirebound! Thank you! And the coming of the Hobbits to Eriador must have been done quietly for most of the rest of the folk there to remain basically unaware of it for so long, and not to consider them dangerous or likely to take over their territory or try to exploit them earlier than happened. That they would have hidden themselves in the early days seemed therefore likely. And in coming west as they did so quietly, they managed to slip right under the radar of Mordor.

Author's reply

I caught that error in my rereading of that chapter that night to my client who loves my stories, and have it corrected now. Man, I embarrass myself sometimes! And I like to think that Gandalf and the progenitors of the Bagginses and Tooks would have hit it off from early one. Am so glad you approve.

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Yes, Gandalf knows a good deal the Hobbits themselves don't remember; and I do like to think that the earliest of Gerontius's and Bilbo's lines would have appreciated Gandalf very much, and that the associations would continue for a very long time. So glad you approve!

Author's reply

I think that the Old Took and Bilbo would both see parts of themselves in Bilbiolo, and probably Frodo, also. It said in the book Gandalf knew more about the true history of Hobbits than the Hobbits themselves; and so I thought I'd work on that one. I caught that error as I was reading from the original text to my client who loves my stories, and corrected it yesterday before I had time to read your note. Am grateful for your heads up, of course. Typos are us, it appears!

Author's reply

Oh, there are more stories coming within this one, of course. But these blasted plotbunnies are doing their best to run the nuzguls off, I find! Please bear with me! And thanks so much for the feedback. Am so glad this view of how the Hobbits might have lived east of the mountains and why they came west into Eriador is so well received. Have based the wildfires and drought effects on our experiences here with the coastal ranges--so many serious fires tend to spring up just over the Cascades from us there in the rainshadow; and I myself live in a small rainshadow valley of the Olympic Mountains and see so markedly how just a few miles and degrees of angle can completely change the climate from one area to the next.

Author's reply

I don't think I've read any Rutherford, so must look into his works now. But I know from other research how surnames often came to be applied, and this seemed a logical indication of how Bilbo sprang from the Bagginses. Tolkien himself indicates that the Gaffer's family came from Gamwidge, and that in time the placename for his hometown came to be his last name, corrupted to Gamgee, only to be overwhelmed by Gardner as a result of his most famous son's avocation. And I felt that one of Elrond's sons, being about nine hundred years old or more at the time, was the perfect Elf to first become aware of the invasion of Hobbits into Eriador. And it does show how Elves endure for centuries, in spite of the twins' age in comparison to so many others of their kind of whom we know to be living in ME at the time. Thanks so much for the response.

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Oh, I agree, Bodkin--too much "self" in Saruman and not enough empathy. Allowing too much scope for power over others to those he already sees abuse such power, and not able to turn to proper wisdom himself. So glad you appreciated this chapter.

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I tend to agree that Curumo's self-delusion tended to mask his total lack of proper mindset both from himself and from others. Yes, learning too much as well as too little of what he OUGHT to be realizing.

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I tend to agree; but the fact he fairly early on was doing his best to convince all that the Ring itself was lost forever when he had reason to know it wasn't is a good indication he was not interested in truly cooperating with others from an early point in his career. It says that Saruman made several visits to the East during his time in Middle Earth; that he would have met Pallando and Alatar as they started their own journey into the lands there seemed logical; that he'd give such advice but without indicating they should truly work for promoting responsible and benificient government seemed characteristic of how I see him. Thanks for the feedback.