Another Moment of your Time by Larner
6336 · 2 September 2012 · Chapter 49: Snubbed
There's always one at every gathering who can't seem to keep his mouth shut, no matter what, or take the hint that his comments are not wanted! Twits! Huggs, Lynda
Author's reply
Yes, and I've met him a time or two! Heh! Thanks, Lynda!
Antane · 29 August 2012 · Chapter 48: First Fruits
What an interesting story! Love it. Even those who do not know Him still worship. Love the ending. Namarie, God bless, Antane :)
Author's reply
Oh, yes, I think those who love others as themselves always worship whether they realize it or not. Thanks so!
Andrea · 29 August 2012 · Chapter 48: First Fruits
How wonderful! I enjoyed this story a great deal! What others shrug off as eccentricity shows in fact the love for the world, all its creatures and their Creator. And the Creator chose our four hobbits because of this love, as well as the rest of the Fellowship.
Author's reply
I'm so glad you did enjoy it so much. Yes, eccentricity is often the name given to such love as our Hobbits were capable of. Thanks so very much!
Sunny · 28 August 2012 · Chapter 48: First Fruits
Not so surprising, I think, that Frodo would wish to adopt a Dúnadan custom duch as First Fruits. And it also wouldn't surprise me if this custom takes hold with Sam, Pippin and Merry and their families. And the basket is a "first fruit" of sorts itself, isn't it?
Author's reply
Nor would it surprise me if the Tooks, Brandybucks, and Gamgee-Gardners all take it up. And, yes, I thought that of Lavender's basket as well! Heh!
Teresa · 27 August 2012 · Chapter 48: First Fruits
Dear Larner, many thanks for posting this glimspe of the four before the Quest! It was an excellent look at the bond that grew between them all, and which would extend to Gandalf and the others in time. I also liked seeing how the Powers were aware of them and gave them pleasant dreams to offset the difficulties each would eventually face. Will Manwe, Varda and the others keep a closer eye on them now as time moves onward to the War of the Ring? As always, you enrich Middle Earth with your work! Sincerely, Teresa :)
Author's reply
I would hope that, having had their attention drawn so to these four and the others, the Valar would find themselves doing much to prepare them. As Gandalf said, Frodo was chosen to carry the Ring, and not by Its maker, and that meant that other Powers had chosen him and had done all they could to see him strengthened to what he must one day do and see. And if pleasant dreams were one of the benefits these could enjoy now, certainly I think the Valar would seek to offer them whenever they felt it would be beneficient.
Tari · 27 August 2012 · Chapter 48: First Fruits
What a beautiful birthday gift. Tolkien says that men faced the West at specific times. It would be nice to think that others thanked the Creator also.
Author's reply
Yes, the Men of Gondor faced the West in the Standing Silence, and the rite of First Fruits at the top of Meneltarma on Numenor is described in the Akallabeth in the Sil. And we are told that there were certain hallows within the lands of the Dunedain within Middle Earth, the King's hallow on Mindolluin and the hallow where Elendil's body was first interred in the Ered Nimrais. I would think that Frodo would find his imagination stimulated by such stories, just as I've had him taking on a Haradri custom of mud figures and translating them to snow for the winter time in "The First Snowfall of the Season," which was itself an expansion for a drabble-and-a-half I wrote one year for the additive words Advent Challenge on There and Back Again. Having to work "monkey," "bottle," and "bread" into so many FLFs led to some interesting ideas, I found.
Theresa Greenfalcon · 26 August 2012 · Chapter 48: First Fruits
This is Tracey - thanks for remembering my birthday! :) I appreciate it - and you - from the bottom of my heart- I hadn't gotten a card from family at all this year, so your mathom means more than I can tell you in mere words. Bless you, from the bottom of my heart! Tracey/Theresa Greenfalcon
Author's reply
Oh, I'm so glad that this was so appreciated, Theresa! I so hope that it is joyful for you in spite of the family's lack of observance. Have been there and done that, believe me. This one has been niggling at me since I went out blackberry picking (and cutting--the blasted things are now intent on taking my yard, it would seem, and are reaching out for the car again, overhanging part of the driveway again) the other day. I was glad to get it written out of my system, and for two deserving people!
Dreamflower · 26 August 2012 · Chapter 48: First Fruits
What a sweet story! I love the idea of Frodo trying to keep up the old tradition, and Pippin being curious enough to be the one to get the story out of him!
Author's reply
Whose imagination might be more open to such ideas than Frodo, and whose curiosity great enough to probe to learn the reasons than Pippin's? Actually, this was based on some of the question sessions I went through with the Kid when he was small and trying to learn just why his stepmom had a votive candle in the window each night from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, and the symbolism of the Advent wreath, and why the eggs at Easter, and so on. Intelligent children delight to know "why?"
Antane · 13 August 2012 · Chapter 47: Recovering from a Winter's Dip
This is the best part of being sick - staying in bed to read! Alas, I don't get sick enough to stay home anymore which is a mixed blessing. I'm glad he has that tea and his Merry. :) Namarie, God bless, Antane :)
Author's reply
Being ill can be a mixed blessing, as we well know! Heh!
Antane · 2 August 2012 · Chapter 46: New Roads and Secret Gates
I like stories with Faramir and hobbits too! :) This is sweet, especially the end - how wonderful that Faramir dreams of his beloved brother and cute/interesting about the great history of the shields that are now used as pot covers and cradles. If they only really knew and believed... Namarie, God bless, Antane :)
Andrea · 30 July 2012 · Chapter 46: New Roads and Secret Gates
Great addition! “I believe,” the Man murmured to himself, “that the Ringbearer will always follow new roads and secret gates within his heart, and I pray he always knows the pleasure of discovery I saw in him today!” Frodo does not need to travel "physically" to discover New Roads and Secret Gates. He just needs a book! And the links he found between Gondor and the Shire are really fascinating.
Linda Hoyland · 17 July 2012 · Chapter 45: Confrontation
it is so sad that some will neither believe nor appreciate what Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin did. Very well written.
Author's reply
I so agree, Linda. Thank you so much!
Andrea · 13 July 2012 · Chapter 45: Confrontation
She wracked her brain for some other charge to throw at him, but couldn’t think of anything else. And that's exactly what she did all the time during their conversation. Doesn't she see that Frodo blames himself already for too many things that happened? She should be proud of him and of her son, instead.
Author's reply
No, she doesn't see that at all, being rather too self-absorbed at this point. Thanks so, Andrea!
Antane · 13 July 2012 · Chapter 45: Confrontation
It's too bad that some/most hobbits never understood the great things Frodo and the others did despite all the explanations. Frodo is certainly right to be proud. Namarie, God bless, Antane :)
Author's reply
I know, Antane. And I am certain that Frodo would be extraordinarily proud of Freddy, once he knew what he'd done while the Travellers were gone.
Dreamflower · 11 July 2012 · Chapter 45: Confrontation
What a lovely Birthday Present, dear! Thank you so much! So much fun to see Rosamunda being set straight by Frodo himself-- I especially loved the moment when she mistakes him for a stranger! I've always figured Rosamunda blamed the Travellers for Freddy's plight as well, though she finds different scapegoats to transfer her ire to in my Shire. But it sort of makes sense, doesn't it? That she'd blame them.
Author's reply
And you are so welcome! Yes, it appears we both tend to see Rosamunda the same way, one who will always seek to blame someone for what she sees as going wrong in her world. And Frodo must have taken several by surprise when he returned, now looking so much older than when he left, and so much more serious than he'd been. Too much tragedy so concentrated in the last year would have definitely left its mark on him, I'd think. And thank Lily for the idea that some might not immediately recognize him. This story ended up having to be rewritten in a different time period from what I'd first thought before it would allow itself to be written.
6336 · 11 July 2012 · Chapter 45: Confrontation
And Roseamunda still dosen't get it does she? Huggs, Lynda
Author's reply
No, I doubt that she does! For her Freddy wii be her little boy who needs to be fed to keep away the demons she perceives threatening her from all directions, and Frodo somehow led him astray!
harrowcat · 11 July 2012 · Chapter 45: Confrontation
Rosamunda should also realise that her son is very much his own hobbit too. Able to make and stand by his own choices even about where he is cared for. Great POV of this moment.
Author's reply
Oh, I suspect you are right there, Harrowcat! Thanks so! Enjoyed playing with Rosamunda again! (Help! Small black dog is working on cleaning my face for me while I type!)
shirebound · 11 July 2012 · Chapter 45: Confrontation
Oh my, what an intense conversation. Rosamunda needed to hear all that, and perhaps Frodo needed to say it to someone at last.
Author's reply
Yes--it's time for her to realize that sometimes things just happen, and people react to them as they must. And Freddy was making the best decisions he could in the circumstances! And small Brendi is now doing his best to clean my eye for me! Aack!
Tigger · 18 June 2012 · Chapter 44: The Water is Wide
Oh this is so bitter sweet. Poor Frodo and I've never thought of his losses in this way before, but water has indeed taken much from him. Wonderful way at looking at how Frodo began to face his experiences and start on the road to recovery. BTW, Celtic Women's newest album Awakening also has a wonderful version of The Water Is Wide. Love their stuff and the harmonies they can create give me the chills. :o) Thanks for the lovely, but still bitter sweet, take on Frodo and his losses.
Author's reply
He is going where he can, hopefully, find the healing he so needs and deserves, but he is doing so at the cost of leaving behind all that ever defined him. And as he watches the expanse of sea between himself and those he loved widen, it must have been terrible. I'll have to find the album, I think! And thank you for the comments! This tune just radiated "Grey Havens story"!
Kaylee Arafinwiel · 18 June 2012 · Chapter 44: The Water is Wide
Larner, Well, I was already crying from Dreamflower's story, so that should've told me not to read any more with Frodo's parents drowning mentioned. *watery grin* But I did anyway, since that wasn't the complete focus of this one. I'm glad I did even so - I love Galadriel and Frodo, and the contemplation of their situation here. I feel sorry for Livwen, knowing she could never keep Frodo with her, but I am glad Frodo (and Sam) found their release at last. Your writing is artistic and poetic, Larner, and I'm always glad to read it, even when I don't always come up with something to say about it. :) Also, your title reminded me of the Dixie Chicks' "Godspeed" (that's a compliment, by the way, just so you're sure, lol!) and I think I finally understand why the words 'the water is wide' might be included in that song. Off to listen to that while I go back to sleep. *hugs Larner* Maybe someday I'll learn to review everything I read, lol! you and Dreamflower, Pearl, Cathleen and GamgeeFest, and maybe more, are why I like hobbits, after all...^_^ Kaylee!
Author's reply
It's always interesting when two people end up touching on the same situation in stories for the same challenge. But in listening to the song "The Water is Wide" that was my prompt this month, I found I had to write a Grey Havens story and look at all the times in Frodo's life he might have thought of the water being wide. And how could he not think at such a time of his parents' deaths when he was but a child. I suspect the Dixie Chicks were inspired by the folksong as well as me! I'd never paid attention to the words of it before, so I found myself thinking immediately of Frodo, the Brandywine, and the Sundering Sea as I listened. How could I not? By the way, your birthday gift was finally posted last week: http://www.storiesofarda.com/chapterview.asp?sid=6988&cid=30957
Teresa · 18 June 2012 · Chapter 44: The Water is Wide
How beautiful this was, and how sad! It made me think of those who have gone on ahead of me and how much I miss them....... but both Sam and Frodo gained healing during their separation; and their reunion finished the cure. It's sad that Livwen and Frodo were separated but here's hoping that they will be reunited at the end of time! Truly water had given Frodo both his greatest griefs but also helped to heal and strengthen him when he needed it. Many thanks for writing this! :)
Author's reply
I so agree--an element that both harmed and healed him. And once I had the theme, I had to sort of visit it on more than just Frodo! They will be reunited, Frodo and Livwen. Thanks so very much, Teresa!
Linda Hoyland · 3 June 2012 · Chapter 43: Disappointment
Poor Frodo not to get his squab, but delightfully amusing to read!
Author's reply
Oh, I agree! Poor Frodo! (Snicker!)
harrowcat · 2 June 2012 · Chapter 43: Disappointment
I think that I might just have been equally disappointed! But that type of meat gone off is decidedly stomach churning - well described!
Author's reply
Oh, don't I know it? It was fun to write!
6336 · 2 June 2012 · Chapter 43: Disappointment
Nope, they would not have held up well sitting by the fire all night! I think it will be quuite a while before Frodo forgives them! Huggs, Lynda
Author's reply
One birthday gift he received he didn't get to enjoy! Heh!
Soledad · 21 May 2012 · Chapter 42: A Quiet Talk
A lovely piece about friendship and family. But this knocked me over right at the beginning: “If you step on me, I shall be most upset.” It was too funny!
Author's reply
Well, when you're lying on the ground it would be easy to be ignored and trodden upon! I'd be surprised if Frodo hadn't sought to protect himself by speaking out such a warning! Heh! Am so glad you liked it, Soledad. Thanks so!