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An Unexpected Adventure [Permanent Hiatus]  by KathyG 3 Review(s)
LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 35 on 6/12/2026
I was interrupted yesterday...

Every time I see Boromir mentioned, I smile. I'm glad he's still in the picture. I wonder what critical role he will play in future days?

Joey and Pippin make natural partners in crime mischief, even though Pip's essentially a teen in human years and so ought to have more sense than a small boy, wouldn't you think? But then, this is the same character who dropped a pebble in a well in an Orc-infested mine... (But I don't remember how this story presented Moria, so I may have to go back and read that part again... eventually. For the moment, my motto is "Onward...")

LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 35 on 6/10/2026
The kittens are quiet for the nonce. (only one is really a kitten, having just celebrated his first birthday; the other is technically a senior cat, but she plays as vigorously as a kitten and yells the loudest of the two)

Wormtongue was also the one in the book who threw down the Seeing Stone. I see he falls to arrows here, as well, though they are the arrows of Legolas and the King's escort rather than of Shire-folk. So the Scouring of the Shire is once again up in the air, in a manner of speaking. At least, I'm having trouble envisioning it, and so maybe you and DF decided to leave it out. I recently read someone's argument that the Scouring was actually Tolkien's main point of the story (and the hero's journey), even more than the Quest itself, so it's at the forefront of my mind at the moment. I look forward to seeing the version you and DF worked out. I have loved DF's Eucastrophe (and Shirebound's alternate version, as well, where Frodo doesn't sail West, if I'm not mixing up authors... I'm muddled today.)

LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 35 on 6/10/2026
I thought I had left a review on this chapter a long time ago, but I didn't see one when I glanced through the reviews just now. So in re-reading, here are a few thoughts that popped up:

As I think I said before, I love how gentle Glorfindel is with the little ones. I remember reading somewhere that Elves treasure children (because they have so few themselves? I can't remember, exactly.)

For some reason, I want a hobbity proverb about wishes to rhyme, or sort of rhyme. I have no idea why. It's difficult, though! ("If wishes were biscuits, we all would have whiskers" was one I dredged up from my imagination. "If wishes were cakes, we'd be big as drakes" ... where "drake" would be understood as a dragon ... or maybe "if wishes were pies, we'd be dragon-sized" Silly of me, I know.)

This will amuse you. I read "Megan" as "Mairen" singing the teapot song, and I thought, "How cute! Kaylee taught her the song!"

I love that the dog responds to Elvish commands. Our dogs over the years learned a few German commands (passed down in my family) along with English.

This chapter reminded me of a story here on SoA that I'd started to read but got interrupted and lost track of, about a woman taken in by Beorn (or maybe one of his descendants). I wish I could find it again.

Woo-hoo, Radagast! (One of the reasons I took a break from reading was because I was writing Radagast in Bill's story, and I didn't want my mental picture of him to blur. Since I write from a mental movie of sorts, I have to avoid reading about the characters I'm writing until I get past the part where I'm writing about them.)

Poor Haleth. Sigh.

Cryptic Gandalf sounds so familiar even though he's no longer Grey. "It" will pass you by... sounds almost terrifying in its vagueness.

I'm not dressed for a swim. made me laugh. It sounds as if the warriors surrounding him are rubbing off on Kevin.

Of course I'm sure you know that I would be delighted to see Merry at any time. So I'm with Kevin here. I love seeing Merry at his most playful and mischievous, living up to his name here. It still gives me a jolt to read that Saruman is dead... And Gandalf sums up hobbits (and, frankly, why I find them so delightful) quite aptly, I think.

More cheeky Merry! I love it! (I was coming to it, but I have been hindered by many other questions.)

Imagine meeting Théoden King. Sigh. "smell like a sweaty horse!" High praise, indeed! (My mom hated horse-smell so much that when I came back from riding lessons, I had to change clothes in the entry of our house, a closed-in side porch not easily visible to passers-by, before opening the door to the main house. I never did understand the problem...)

"Any friend of our brother's is a friend of ours" sounds Middle-earthish somehow. What do you think? It fits in with the values of earlier generations that I remember from long ago, like a man's handshake being as good as his word, which sadly does not seem to hold true these days for many of our public figures.

...the implications of finding pipe-weed in Isengard... Does that mean there will be a Scouring of the Shire? I wonder.

My dad smoked a pipe. For years, smelling pipe smoke (at least, if it smelled similar to the pipe tobacco he favored) made me want to look around for him.

O my. The young cats are playing vigorously and being very distracting with their incredibly realistic screams and pounding feet. I'm too distracted to write any more. If anything else crosses my mind, I'll try to include it in a future review. Of course, if all my meandering and rambling becomes annoying, be sure to let me know!

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