Stories of Arda Home Page
About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

A Dwarven Yuletide  by Soledad 13 Review(s)
LevadeReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 12/20/2005
SO many details. The details of Laketown, the Dwarven home and culture, especially the Dwarven Opera are lovely. I could see the caves and wish I could taste the food! Details are definitely a strength you excell at, Soledad, but you weave them around a beautiful tale too. I love Gimli and Legolas' friendship and Gimli not telling him why he was needed there was such a Gimli touch! Will you write any more in this line? I hope so -- there aren't enough tales of Gimli like this.

Author Reply: Thanks. I don't know whether the inspiration to write Legolas and Gimli friendship will hit again. I hope so, I love those two guys. And writing the part where Legolas gets his revenge by making Gimli dance with every Elf in the Greenwood could be fun. *g*

IthilienReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 4/13/2005
Oh, Soledad, pardon my late-coming to this story. I just blundered upon it and was completely taken. What a unique look into the world of dwarves! Fabulous! And...Gimli married? I had no idea! This is another very fresh approach to the characterization of my favorite dwarf. So many little details I loved in this story. For example, the close tie between dwarven words and words that I might be able to interpret had me smiling. And I loved the creation play that Legolas was witness to. It was rather appropriate that it was tied to that race's birth when our Western world ties the same date to the birth of Christianity. I loved the marriage vows and for dwarves how they are tied to the earth. I loved how moved Legolas was by the music and play. This sort of describes how others descibe the grandeur of elven works, and I enjoyed seeing the reversal of roles. I loved learning that dwarves breed large families (contrary to what is said of them), and that dwarf women do NOT have beards! And most of all, I loved the descriptions of the caves. They are much lovelier than I had imagined them to be, and now I have this new vision of dwarven life that has sparked a myriad of plot bunnies for me. Thank you for this lovely tale, Soledad. It is a wonderful piece in your collection.

Author Reply: Hello Ithilien!
I'm very happy that you liked my story so much. :)
Yes, one can see that German is my second language, can't they? And it's always great to find another Dwarf fan.

docmonReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 1/15/2005
this was quite wonderful! i loved seeing legolas learn to negotiate dwarven culture. and his reaction to learning there was to be a wedding was priceless! As was birna's reaction to meeting legolas. "But you are a lot less ugly than I thought." LOL! You captured the characters wonderfully; they felt quite true to the original. The ceremony felt decidedly dwarvish; good choice on inspiration. In fact, i felt all the details were rather inspired and imaginative: moving walls! great creative touches like that made the story feel real. great job.

monica

Author Reply: Thanks. I thought it would be interesting if Dwarves would find Elves ugly - after all, they have a very different idea of beauty, don't they? *g*

BodkinReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 12/27/2004
I just loved this - the look at the culture of the Dwarves was fantastic. I enjoyed the Narvi / Celebrimbor sidelight and the meeting with Gimli's parents and the celebration itself was so well done! I shall definitely be looking for more.

Author Reply: Thank you! :)
It's always a delight to find a new reader - and one who takes the time to review, at that. Much appreciated!

If you are interested in Narvi & Celebrimbor as friends, you might want to take a look at "Visits in Eregion" - the whole thing is about them.

RyanReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 12/26/2004
Great story, I hope it wins a Mithril award. I've been waiting for dwarvish stories for a long time, the few I can find are usually based more on D&D than the original mythology. I couldn't find the Mazarbul Chronicles anywhere, is this the first of the series?

It's probably worth pointing out that the black speech was also based on Valarin... but I wouldn't want to be the one to tell the dwarves that.

Author Reply: I'm glad you liked it. :)

There is one more story of the Mazarbul Chronicles currently posted in this archive. It's titled "Felagund and the Noegyth Nibin". Although "Visits in Eregion" has Dwarves, too. The Mazarbul Chronicles are independent stories, even though all take place in the same settings.

SiljaReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 12/25/2004
Ok ;) That was Icelandic, I was just asking if you were an Icelander because you used so many Icelandic names in your story for the female dwarfes, f.ex. Vigdís, Dís and Birna, (these are all very common names in my country and I know a lot of girls that have them)...also you used icelandic letters like ó in Glóin and stuff like that....
I am very curious to know where you got the names?
Did you perhaps know that Tolkien used many names from ancient Icelandic poems in his stories f.ex Gimli, Thorinn, Gandalf ...and therefor you decided to do the same thing??
I was just so surprised at first when I saw all the Icelandic names in your story but than just figured that you must be an Icelander...
Anyway please do tell me about it;)
Oh and Merry Christmas!!


Author Reply: I'm Hungarian, actually, but it seems we have the same accents on certain letters in our language. I took the Dwarven names from the Eddas, BTW.

Would you like to switch to private discussion? We shouldn't take up place here in the archive, I think... Merry Christmas to you, too. :)

NilmandraReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 12/25/2004
Soledad, this is a rich and wonderful look at Dwarven culture, an important day in their lives and so well told through the eyes of an outsider. I like how well they accept the elf, especially how gruffly they do it. The traditions are well done - I don't know how long this took to you write, but there is just an amazing amount of depth to this. Thanks for posting it here!

Author Reply: Thank you. :)
The story itself didn't took more that a couple of weeks to write. The plot bunny about Dwarven opera, however, had been nurtured for about a year or so.

SiljaReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 12/24/2004
A fantastic story, there aren't many good ones out there about Gimli but now I found on....oh and also:
Ertu kannski íslensk? Hélt það kannski því þú notar svo mikið af íslenskum nöfnum og líka stafina okkar í sögunni....jæja annars já frábær saga;)
;)

Author Reply: If you say so... *g* Care to tell me what it means? I'm glad you liked the story, by the way. Thank you for taking the time to review.

KarriReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 12/24/2004
A wonderful cultural encounter between dwarves and elves. I enjoyed it immensely! Thank you for this delightful Yuletide treat. :-D

Author Reply: I'm glad you liked it. :)
I thought that -since I wrote about Elven Solstice the last time - now I needed to do something different.

ElfiqueReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 12/24/2004
really lovely little ficlet :D nice one!!

Author Reply: Thank you.

First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page

Return to Chapter List