Reviews (336)

Author's reply

When I realized that the timeline would (just barely, if it's allowable to imagine "early in the New Year, after the heavy snow we had" as mid-February) allow Bill to witness the battle for Bywater, I began to ponder those five deaths that Butterbur mentioned to the Travellers. They weren't just numbers (three and two) but people ("all good fellows") with friends and families who cared for them ("and they're missed"). Thus, I did my best to make them as real as I could within the constraints I had to work with – including sticking as closely as possible to "canon" and how Tolkien presented the people and the locale, however brief his description was against the backdrop of the much larger story. Just like real life, even though big events may take place elsewhere in the world, it's what happens in our own backyard that holds the most meaning for most if not all of us, I should think. (And I would be perfectly happy to live the rest of my life without any "big events" happening in my backyard.) Sorry, I'm rambling. Current events are unsettling, to say the least. Working on this part of the draft sometimes feels like escaping into another world that, despite a few bumps in the road here and there, promises a refuge and respite of sorts. Thanks for coming along on Bill's journey. As the draft currently stands, Bill will have a lovely spring and summer, enjoying the blessings of friendship and recovering from long effort and semi-starvation. I want Sam to see him sleek and glossy when they meet again!

Author's reply

You're right. Even one person would be too many. But in the aftermath of a near-disaster, counting blessings is an essential part of the recovery process. At least I think it is. Thanks!

Author's reply

Oh, I am so looking forward to their reunion! Meanwhile, I've added a few glimpses of Bill's hobbits (like his dream at the beginning of this chapter) to a few of the draft chapters that are still to be posted to provide time clues to help keep track of where they are on the journey. Hopefully Bill's connection with wizards (and Elrond!) is enough to explain how he is able to dream of them...? He really is an ordinary pony, except that he has had some really extraordinary experiences and relationships. (He is too wise to let it get to his head, however.) Author Reply: p.s. I re-read part of your "Rohan Tapestry" today and saw your take on how many encounters Merry had with the Black Breath. But while re-reading the original as I was working on those "glimpses" I mentioned, I ran across another encounter that neither of us had counted! (Near Sarn Gebir, Legolas shot down a UFO! (I can call it that because of the discussion afterwards, where they couldn't decide what the winged nightmare had been. For example, Legolas answered Gimli's praise for his "mighty shot" by saying, 'But who can say what it hit?' In the discussion, I noticed that Merry didn't say anything, so we don't know how much he might have been affected. That said, Gimli felt something that reminded him of the Balrog in Moria, and Frodo felt as if something clutched at his heart, along with a deadly cold 'like the memory of an old wound, in his shoulder'. I had forgotten all about that incident until today!) [As they were paddling down the Great River through the darkness, ...a dark shape, like a cloud and yet not a cloud, for it moved far more swiftly, came out of the blackness in the South, and sped towards the Company, blotting out all light as it approached. Soon it appeared as a great winged creature, blacker than the pits in the night. Fierce voices rose up to greet it from across the water. Frodo felt a sudden chill running through him and clutching at his heart; there was a deadly cold, like the memory of an old wound, in his shoulder. He crouched down, as if to hide. (From the chapter, 'The Great River'.) (I have to add that 'like a cloud and yet not a cloud' reminds me of the shadow that passed over the stars after the Company left Hollin on their way to Caradhras, Gandalf's 'wisp of thin cloud' that Aragorn observed was 'moving fast, and not with the wind'. Was that incident the one you were referring to in your story, in Pippin's mention that 'one flew over us on its way to Isengard'?) So it may be that we can count Merry as having even more exposure to the Black Breath than either you or I originally calculated. Maybe? Author Reply: (oops, misplaced parenthesis, the bane of my review-reply existence. There shouldn't be one in front of "Near Sarn Gebir"; if you take it out, the passage makes more sense.) Author Reply: And an orphaned bracket, too, where the mate "]" is missing just before the quotation starts. I'm sorry for spamming you... I ate a few of the Girl Scout cookies that my nearest and dearest brought home tonight, and now my brain is racing and I can't turn it off. *sigh* Thanks for putting up with my rambling.

Author's reply

When JRRT describes Gandalf the White, he leaves off any mention of a hat or hood. The films apparently interpreted this as meaning "no hat". When writing Bill's description of Gandalf in this chapter, I closed my eyes and remembered Ian McKellen's portrayal, and it felt right somehow. Bill's inner Voices are heavily Gandalfian in nature. I don't know if the wizard is actually speaking to the pony at any point (especially considering all the things that must be keeping him busy at any one time), or if he imparted some essence of himself in giving Bill the words of guard and guiding. There are arguments for both sides. For example, Frodo heard Gandalf shout, "Take it off! Take it off! Fool, take it off! Take off the Ring!" on the summit of Amon Hen, which suggests that Gandalf might have spoken to Bill, mind to mind. Alternatively, the wizard's essence within Bill might have grown and changed when he was sent back, conveying a clearer vision of the Song and the Plan (and Planner) that Bill admits is beyond his understanding even as it makes him ultimately hopeful, no matter what the outcome may be. Sorry, I'm rambling. I need to wander off in search of some protein. Or water. Or something. Thanks for reading and for taking the time to share your thoughts! I do appreciate it.

Author's reply

LOL! He's not exactly a wizard among equines, though he has been heavily influenced by Elves and Wizards! Thanks. I appreciate hearing your thoughts.

Author's reply

It makes sense to me that he would have grown, especially when I think of how the Professor described him in Rivendell, and the way Gandalf spoke directly to him before the Doors of Moria and called him a "wise beast". I hope his growing ability to perceive light and darkness (that is, spiritual, not physical in this context) is believable, too. He has been keeping awesome company over the last few months...! Thanks!

Author's reply

Definitely famous last words. Thanks!

Author's reply

It really is a shame. I'm with you in thinking that Rangers should get more credit. Maybe they will after the King returns? I'm glad the description of the battle for Bree worked. It was a challenge to manage to keep track of so many people (and horses and ponies – and dogs, though they haven't been mentioned yet) doing combat in poorly lighted conditions, with one group having planned and coordinated their attack and bent on destruction and looting, and the other group defending their homes and families though unarmed and taken by surprise! (I was tempted to write that the townspeople threw taters, which I think would have a hard impact when thrown, but I settled for "vegetables" instead, which includes rotten tomatoes. Would the people of Bree have had tomatoes in the wintertime, I wonder? And now I want to think that Barliman has a hothouse, either as a part of the rather sprawling inn with its two wings "running back on land partly cut out of the lower slopes of the hill" and courtyard and included stables, or maybe he might have a glass-enclosed structure as part of a large garden plot away from the bulk of houses in the middle of town but still on protected land within the hedge and dike. After all, the Pony is known for its fine table! Now that I think of it, I'm leaning towards the latter idea, if only because the Bree-folk stopped the ruffians from overrunning the whole town and maybe smashing up people's back-gardens and such.) Thanks for listening! I so love to contemplate the workings of various parts of Middle-earth, and I know that you also delight in details, so you won't mind my rambling too much. *hugs*

Author's reply

Luckily, I can lean on canon in revealing Butterbur's and Bob's fate. Whew, I have to admit that's a relief. Horses can be remarkably resistant if they don't want to be captured, as the ruffians found out! I'm sure they would have put any captured horses or ponies to ill use, which makes me doubly glad for Bill's insight and leadership in this chapter and the previous one. Thanks for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts! I really appreciate it.

Author's reply

Oh, I think you'll love Blitz! Here's some information to help you find it. Blitz, by Hetty Burlingame Beatty Paperback ISBN: 0590014609, ISBN13: 9780590014601 Hardcover ISBN: B0006AWXDG, ISBN13: 9781111435615 e-Book ISBN13: ‎ 978-1789125887 The e-book ISBN is for Amazon's Kindle version, available for 99 cents. I was pleased to see that the Kindle version retains the illustrations I remember from childhood. You can currently find used paper copies on offer for less than $10, but since it's an older book, there may not be many available at that price. Here's how it begins, just to give you a taste of good things to come: THEY FOUND HIM ASLEEP beside his mother the morning after he was born, and they named him Blitz because of the zigzag white marking that ran like lightning down his little nose. The early sunshine was pouring down on the green hillside, and the brook in the valley was singing its spring song as it raced along. (The tone sort of reminds me of Black Beauty's "The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Some shady trees leaned over it, and rushes and water-lilies grew at the deep end. Over the hedge on one side we looked into a plowed field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master's house, which stood by the roadside; at the top of the meadow was a grove of fir trees, and at the bottom a running brook overhung by a steep bank.") Then follows the description of Johnny and his father coming to see the new foal, Johnny's father praising Blitz's dam, and little Blitz waking up in the middle of it all and having his first encounter with humans. All charmingly written. So life began for Blitz on a sunny hillside in the spring, and it began with kindness from the start... And, of course, it goes on from there. (And you're welcome!)

Author's reply

I really ought to revisit Black Beauty. I don't remember exactly who Joe Greene is. Was he the boy who almost killed Black Beauty by giving him cold water and no rug after the horse's long, hard effort? (Was it to fetch the doctor for the Mistress? I can't quite remember.) They gave him a second chance, and he made good. Or was that someone else? (And I think Joe Greene might have been different between the book and the film – and the television series? But I'm not sure of that, either. All that aside, I definitely have been wanting to revisit the movie since finding out that Sean Bean played a part in it! I just haven't got around to it, and now with the Olympics on every night, there goes my "extra" time.) When you said "managed to escape them", I actually thought about Bill possibly being captured and stolen and then breaking free and running back to the town, but I ended up going with the draft as written because the battle for Bree was about as much stress as my nerves could take this week. Hopefully, since I spared my nervous system the extra aggravation, I'll be able to finish the next chapter of When Winter Fell and post it tomorrow. (It is also quite stressful, which is why I'm budgeting my quantities of angst at the moment.) But you have good instincts for drama and tension in storytelling, I think. :) Thanks!

Author's reply

The ruffians are in for something of a surprise, I'd say. They're used to horses that have been trained to obey Men's orders, for starters. They have no idea what they're getting into now. Thanks!

Author's reply

I think, to use a hobbity food metaphor, Ferny's ruffians have quite possibly bitten off more than they can chew this time. Thanks!

Author's reply

I'm sure Bill would appreciate the sentiment. They need all the help they can get! Although even if I were a Big Man, I would not want to tangle with an enraged horse... There are horses as well as ponies in the stables, and even a pony can be a force to be reckoned with! Thanks!

Author's reply

I'm in complete agreement that he certainly deserves a bed of roses (without thorns) from this point onward! I've done my best to imagine such a thing. There are a couple of bumps in the road, starting with the next chapter, but nothing that comes close to the terrors and trials he's faced before now. Whew. Thanks!

Author's reply

There's a bit of Black Beauty here, along with a smidgeon of Blitz: The Story of a Horse (1966), two out of my massive childhood collection of horse books. I was incredibly happy to find a Kindle version of Blitz for 99 cents just before I sat down to write review replies today! And so, I bought the e-book to replace that long-lost but much-treasured paperback I once had. (My dad gave all my horse books and my equally extensive horse figurine collection to the young daughter of one of my cousins while I was stationed overseas in the military. I'm sure he meant well. He thought I was all grown up and didn't want or need them anymore. But I was crushed. I guess I should have rented a storage locker instead of leaving my childhood treasures stored away in boxes in the basement back home during my wandering stage.) Blitz is an excellent story that I must have read multiple times as a child since I can easily recall whole passages, including Blitz's life as a firehorse, his sniffing the hay in his new home after being freed from the cruel master who had bought him from the fire department, and his courageous trek through a blizzard to bring his new doctor-owner to a child that would have died without the doctor's skill. (I can hardly wait to read it all the way through again!) A reunion with Bill's mother – What an interesting thought! I had already been toying with the idea of inserting a reunion between Bill and his dam (which currently does not exist in the outline or draft), and now you've inspired me to take a second look. Thanks!

Author's reply

Oh, I know. This part of the story was an absolute pleasure (with just a couple hiccups) to write. Thanks! So glad to oblige.

Author's reply

Considering how long The Prancing Pony has been in business, as well as its reputation and the descriptions the Professor provided, I imagined that the inn's stables would have been equally well-designed and equipped. Butterbur certainly took great pains to see to it that his guests were comfortable during their stay. I can imagine no less for the guests' horses and ponies. Unfortunately, Ferny has little of good in him, and less of sense. The next few chapters should be interesting. Thanks!

Author's reply

Thank you for your thoughtful question. I simply tried to put myself in Bill's shoes, so to speak. What would I be feeling in his place? I combed Tolkien's work for every hint and mention of Bill, as well as every detail I could glean about the circumstances and surroundings as he journeyed so that I could imagine him going through all the experiences I could imagine along the way. I'm not sure which characters you're asking about in your question about their background stories? As much as possible, all the characters' background stories (even the wolves and the ruffians) are based on what Tolkien said about them in the first place, little as it might have been. For example, Butterbur said to the returning travellers that wolves were howling around the fences "last winter" and he mentioned heavy snow. So I thought about what that might mean: hungry wolves ranging farther than usual across a snowy landscape in search of prey. The same with the gangrels coming up the Greenway from the South; it seemed plausible that many of them came from Gondor and were captured passing through Rohan, where Wormtongue recruited them to terrorize the Shire. I have only recently begun writing about Rangers, and I'm still trying to feel my way along in their case, putting together Tolkien's narrative and his letters and what other people have said about his Rangers. I haven't read much Ranger-based fanfic compared to the amount of hobbit-fic I've devoured. A lot of what I've written about Rangers is based on logic and guesswork. For example, when I saw (from analyzing The Tale of Years) that Halbarad could appear in Bill's story, I read all I could find about him, and then I imagined that he had a soft spot in his heart for horses and ponies (which made sense in a pony-centered story) and went on from there. The same thing happened with Shadowfax and Radagast; looking at the map, I wasn't sure a lone pony could make it all the way back to Bree, what with wolves and dangerous river crossings and other dangers. So I brainstormed just what kind of helpers he might conceivably encounter and made sure the Tale of Years didn't specify that they were somewhere else at the time Bill was heading back to Bree. Then I read everything I could find about them – which wasn't much. So I guess I'd say that fleshing out the characters took a lot of imagination while still trying to stay firmly within the constraints of Tolkien's vision and world building. Does that answer your question? If it doesn't, quite, or if you have anything else that puzzles you, please feel free to ask. I love talking about Tolkien's universe, playing in his sandbox, and pondering the writing process and the sometimes mysterious ways it works. Author Reply: p.s. I had another thought. Bill's background was totally made up, of course. It made sense to me that Ferny could not have been his only owner – he had to have had good training and gentle handling at some time in his life, or he would never have been trustworthy or patient as Tolkien described him. Thus, I imagined he was originally owned by an old couple; the Man might have been a farmer or pony trainer, or he might have worked at some other trade but filled his time after retirement with raising and training ponies. When he died, his wife couldn't afford to keep both Bill and his dam, and so he was sold to Ferny (if you have read part 1, The Tenth Walker, you saw hints of those details). Speaking of his dam, his wise mother is a plot device of sorts that explains his memories and helps him understand his current circumstances at any point in the story. I imagined her as an older pony who had learned a lot of lessons over her lifetime and also remembered the stories passed down to her from her forebears. (I remember being fascinated by oral histories in my earlier years and included the idea in Bill's story.) The dying horse Bill remembers is another plot device to tie his pre-Quest memory of Halbarad together with his current experience. It was probably inspired by some scenes in Black Beauty, a childhood favorite of mine that most likely had a strong influence on how I told Bill's story by trying to see through the pony's eyes and other senses. However, hopefully the result is fresh and new and doesn't sound derivative.

Author's reply

I'm very glad. I know *I* enjoy reading fluff and comfort, but I still worry for some reason that other people will find it boring. (I never find it boring! But I'm haunted by memories of an old writing teacher who insisted that every story must have conflict and a climax and a resolution and all that. Rising action and falling action and... lots more technical stuff that I don't remember very clearly anymore.) And yet, one of the reasons I chose to explore h/c in the first place (all those years ago) was the anticipation I always felt in looking forward to reaching the "c" part. (And here let me insert that you do "fluff and comfort and well-earned rest and friends and meals" marvellously well.) You're very welcome, and thank you for coming along on the journey and faithfully sharing your thoughts.

Author's reply

I wonder how much of the Rangers' reputation was carefully cultivated by the Rangers themselves? Sort of protective coloration to avoid the Enemy's attention? Actually, I've wondered that for a long time. Good, I'm glad Barliman sounds true to type. And yes, regarding the spoiler alert, there's trouble on the way... Thanks so much for reading and sharing your thoughts!

Author's reply

I too have every confidence in Bob! I had a lovely time getting to know him a little better in the draft. Thanks!

Author's reply

You're right about that hard lesson. It's quite a satisfying scene, I must say. Hopefully it's not too much of a spoiler! I can easily imagine Bob the stable hobbit as the "salt of the earth" type. One of the hints the Professor dropped about him was that he started going home to his folks at nightfall after trouble came to Bree. He seems the responsible sort. Thanks!

Author's reply

Thank you for that observation! I was trying for Gandalf's voice since he's the origin of Bill's Voices. While Bill may have more encounters with Ferny (at least one at the Brandywine Bridge, off the top of my head if I'm remembering right), there's no need to worry about the pony. He fought off two wolf attacks, after all. A mere Man should be colt's play by comparison.

Author's reply

It has been interesting to witness his growth along the way, for sure! It makes sense that in his return to Bree, he's very different from the pony who left, considering all he's been through. (Including rubbing elbows with Elves!) Thanks! Most of the next few chapters can be classified as "fluff", I am glad to say. I know the Professor shied away from writing too much about Rivendell because he thought it would be boring, so I'm hoping that won't be a problem here.