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Dreamflower's Mathoms I  by Dreamflower 9 Review(s)
Kaylee ArafinwielReviewed Chapter: 58 on 10/26/2011
Okay, this made me feel better. =) It's certainly happier than the last one!! *hugs little Merry* I wish I could have a white Yule!

Kaylee

Author Reply: It is a happy little story! I love to write about little Merry and young Frodo when they both lived at Brandy Hall!

Obelia medusaReviewed Chapter: 58 on 12/6/2006
Delightful! Ah, how I love your baby hobbits. :P

Author Reply: Wee!hobbits are adorable, aren't they?

GamgeeFestReviewed Chapter: 58 on 4/16/2006
What a sweet pair those two are. I picture Merry as that kid from The Christmas Story, lol. That footprint trick works in dirt and sand too, so they could have still played if there was any of that around. Merry and the riddles was adorable. He loves to show off how clever he is - so long as he doesn't hear one he doesn't know!

Author Reply: I do think they are sweet together. They love each other so much, with Frodo adoring his little cousin and Merry worshipping the ground Frodo walks on. They really do have a lot of fun together.

My own older cousin taught me that footprint trick using the fog on the schoolbus window! And I used it once when I needed some wrapping paper for a baby shower and didn't have any--I took some plain leftover bulletin board paper and made them all over it--worked great.

Children that age go through a phase when they love repetition, and they love to show off--Merry happened to be going through it at the time! *grin*

Queen GaladrielReviewed Chapter: 58 on 2/9/2006
*giggles* Merry is just too cute! And I love the way Frodo spoils him! LOL! It's just too much of a temptation to spoil adorable little ones sometimes. :) And you really make him seem like a real child, getting upset if he doesn't know the answer to a riddle, and loving the repetition. Love it, love it!
God bless,
Galadriel

Author Reply: I absolutely love to write young!Frodo-wee!Merry. Frodo just dotes on the lad, because Merry is his own little ray of sunshine, that brought him out of his darkness of grief, and he *does* spoil him. Fortunately, as JRRT informs us, hobbit children do not spoil easily, so even when indulged, they usually remain sweet and good-natured. Merry spoils Pip the same way--yet Pippin cheerfully allows his cousins to boss him around.

There is a stage children go through--modern children at that age, will, for example, want the same movie played over and over again. In other times, it would have been songs and stories and riddles and word games.

mews1945Reviewed Chapter: 58 on 12/24/2005
I'm very glad you left links to your Yule fics. It's fun to read them on this Christmas Eve morning. I love Cousin stories, and this is such a gentle tale that it makes a body feel warm and loving.

Author Reply: I'm very glad you enjoyed them. I love to show young!Frodo and wee!Merry in Brandy Hall before Frodo moved away. I'm glad it made you feel warm & loving--that was just the mood I hoped for, in spite of the cold and frost!

GryffinjackReviewed Chapter: 58 on 10/15/2005
Little children are so manipulative, aren't they? Little Merry knew exactly what would work on Frodo to get what he wanted. Really, all three of the cousins knew how to use their eyes, whether blue, grey, or green, to their best advantage.

What wonderful riddles! And how bright of Merry to correctly answer these riddles he had "never" heard before. lol!

"Merry hung his arms around the bottom fence rail and leaned back, grinning up at Frodo. 'That’s easy! A chimney! And' he gave Frodo a sly look 'you got stuck in one once.'"

I want to read about Frodo getting stuck in a chimney! Have you written that story? Where is it at?

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but the voice you give to Bilbo is so spot on, as are all of your characterisations and voices. He really is a breath of fresh air when he makes an appearance in a story.

Author Reply: Yes they did! They most certainly did! *grin*

Most of those riddles are actual old nursery rhymes that I found or remembered. And little children of that age *love* repitition. It's what makes them want the same bedtime story over and over, makes them watch the exact same video over and over, or makes them sing songs like "The Song that Never Ends" or "Little Bunny Foo-Foo".

So far, that's just a little anecdote told around the dinner table in one chapter of "A New Reckoning". I've yet to turn it into its own story, but I would not be surprised if it did one of these days. That's where a good many of my stories come from. "Merry's Milestone" for example was just such an anecdote in "A Conspiracy of Hobbits."

I try to make the "voice" of each character consistent with the books, with perhaps a slight overlay of the movie. I adore Bilbo, and am so glad that you think I get him right.

LarnerReviewed Chapter: 58 on 7/21/2005
I used to make fairy footprints myself on paper with fingerpaint for use in wrapping paper. It can be fun. Nice to see the relationship between Frodo and Merry before Frodo went to Bag End. And I suspect that for Frodo those lessons with Bilbo WERE fun.

Author Reply: I loved to make them on the frosty windowpanes. It was an older cousin who taught me how to do that on the schoolbus windows. So I thought it a very appropriate thing for Frodo to show Merry.

My Frodo absolutely dotes on little Merry, and it is only Merry's sweet nature and Esmeralda's vigilance that keeps him from spoiling the child completely rotten, LOL!

And you are right about the lessons, too.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 58 on 7/11/2005
Cute spherical little Merry - pouting to manage his cousin. I love the way Frodo calls him 'sprout'. And the fairy footprints are sweet.

Author Reply: I love how cute little children are when all bundled up for the cold, and could not resist the chance to do that to Merry. And as to the pouting, at that point in his life, he was probably more spoiled by Frodo than Pippin was later on by him, LOL! I am quite sure he "managed" his cousin outrageously even as he adored him to distraction. And you will notice that once the pout served its purpose, he was his own sunny sweet self. 8-D

I've always loved those little footprints, and it was an older cousin who taught me how to do that, so I thought it only fair that Frodo teach Merry.

Mum's the WordReviewed Chapter: 58 on 7/10/2005
Thank you for this lovely mathom, Dreamflower. With your vivid descriptions I could picture everything as if I were there. Very imaginative and very well written!
Thank you again, and a very happy, hobbity birthday to you!
Mum

Author Reply: Thank *you* for your kind words!! 8-D

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