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Jay's Drabblets  by Jay of Lasgalen 10 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 24 on 1/6/2006
When even an Elf is concerned about the houseless dead, it's time to move on. And I can appreciate his grief and fear of them, and the unvoiced pity.

Author Reply: I wrote this one Halloween - I had ghosts on my mind! After thinking about the implications of the Houseless Ones, I used the idea again in a chapter of 'Along Came A Spider'.

ForodwaithReviewed Chapter: 24 on 11/5/2004
Oh, very well done. Nice and eerie, just the perfect amount of unease for a good Halloween drabble.

Author Reply: Thank you! It was one of those 'spur of the moment' things that came to me that afternoon. It's gone done incredibly well - I'm glad you liked it!

DeepBlueSomethingReviewed Chapter: 24 on 10/31/2004
(Shivers!) That gave me goosebumps. Great job!

Author Reply: Goosebumps and shivers? Wonderful! I do like to have that sort of effect on readers.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 24 on 10/31/2004
Gimli seems fairly unconcerned - but I suppose he hasn't seen them yet! The whole concept of the houseless spirits of elves haunting Middle Earth is quite spooky. I hope that they manage to make their way home in the end.

Author Reply: Gimli thinks the Elf is teasing him! Little does he know ... they will have an uncomfortable journey, I think.

Thanks for the review.

LamielReviewed Chapter: 24 on 10/30/2004
Ooooh... I particularly like the description, "misty flames flickering slowly above unseen candles as pale lights and shadows grew." Now I'm very curious: where are they? Where are they going? Why do the dead follow? In many ways this drabble is perfect just as it is - those sorts of questions are what gives a good ghost story staying power. But it would be nice to see it fleshed out a bit too.


Author Reply: I took part of that quote from the Passage of the Dead Marshes - it fitted perfectly.

I'm trying hard to resist all th people who've asked for a longer story - I want this to remain mysterious and unanswered. Thanks for the review!

elliskaReviewed Chapter: 24 on 10/30/2004
Also, I was looking at your reply to one of the reviews for this chapter and you said you wish you could remember where you saw the ref to Houseless Ones--you aren't talking about the reference in LaCE, are you? Where it says:

"If the hroa be destroyed, or so hurt that it ceases to have health, sooner or later it 'dies'. That is: it becomes painful for the fea to dwell in it, being neither a help to life and will nor a delight to use, so that the fea departs from it, and its function being at an end its coherence is unloosed, and it returns again to the general orma of Arda. Then the fea is, as it were, houseless, and it becomes invisible to bodily eyes (though clearly perceptible by direct awareness to other fear.)

It continues:

But it would seem that in these after-days more and more of the Elves, be they of the Eldalie in origin or be they of other kinds, who linger in Middle-earth now refuse the summons of Mandos, and wander houseless in the world...unwilling to leave it and unable to inhabit it, haunting trees or springs or hidden places that once they knew. Not all of these are kindly or unstained by the Shadow. Indeed the refusal of the summons is in itself a sign of taint."

Scary!

Author Reply: Thank you!! I knew I'd read it somewhere, just couldn't find where. Thanks for finding this.


elliskaReviewed Chapter: 24 on 10/30/2004
Ooo, that is spooky. Somehow it's scarier if its elves because you know those that refuse the summons were not quite right. It's hard to be spooky in such a small amount of space. Good job.

Author Reply: Thank you - I knew Legolas was not afraid of human ghosts, but elvish ones? Perhaps.


Jay

docmonReviewed Chapter: 24 on 10/30/2004
wonderfully gloomy and spooky. perfect for this day! a chilling and haunting look at how elves could have felt about their dead.

monica

Author Reply: Good - gloomy, chilling and haunting are all effects I was trying to achieve here. Thanks for the comments!

LKKReviewed Chapter: 24 on 10/30/2004
Very spooky, Jay. A perfect elvish Halloween drabble. For an elf, being trapped between Arda and the Halls must hold the ultimate terror. The Great Unknown, just as death is the unknowable to us. shivers Well done!

Author Reply: Thanks - I'm glad this made you shiver! I just wish I could remember where I've seen reference to the Houseless Ones. I'm beginning to think I made it up.


Jay

JessieReviewed Chapter: 24 on 10/30/2004
Spooky, very spooky. Just in time for Halloween! :) Good job!

Author Reply: Thanks! I took some of the words from the scene at Paths of the Dead, and others when Frodo Sam and Gollum passed through the Dead Marshes. Now that was really creepy!

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