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The Choice of Healing  by Larner 5 Review(s)
Queen GaladrielReviewed Chapter: 15 on 4/9/2006
 I know you just got an empty review; sorry, I didn't mean to do that--accidentally pressed post before I'd even written anything.

Oh, the first part of this chapter had me wiping my eyes. To think of Freddy meaning to comfort Frodo, and it working the opposite way instead...I've read
such things before, even heard true accounts, but it never ceases to amaze me. It's almost more heartbreaking that way. Reading this section a passage
from A Small and Passing Thing came to mind, about the Shire putting on her finest gown for Frodo.

Esmeralda is right: Frodo could be lying on his deathbed and still declare he was perfectly all right. To use a very Bilbo-ish expression, bless and bebother the stubbornness of Bagginses!

I loved the meeting with Glorfindel and the vision of Galadriel on the hill. Yes, she definitely knows how to reason with him, and it was very wise and effective to use the bowl.

Frodo's memory must have lived on long, long after he was gone. I like to think that, though there may not have always been a Baggins at Bag End, there would always be those who remembered them.

I've had far less experience than you have with drugs and such, and I wish for no more. I recall once having a very bad cold and my mother giving me Nighquil (sorry if it's spelled wrong) so that I could sleep it off. Well, she woke me not half an hour later, wanting me to take yet more herbs. I came down to get the stuff, and she gave me a pack of batteries I'd requested. The next thing I remember is waking up in my room and wondering what on earth I'd done with them. I found them nearly a week later, in a drawer that I never would have put them in had I been thinking clearly, and said I'd never take such medicine again if I could help it.

I share your fear of needles to an extent, but what really freaks me out is whatever the instrument is that eye doctors use to check the pressure. I just can't stand having something probing at my eye like that, and I know I've had more than one frustrated with me because of it.

Consider yourself fortunate. :) One of my little siblings will ask me to do something as simple as caring for a cut or scrape, and it leads to frustration on both sides because they're already in pain, and I'm terrified I'll hurt them worse just trying to tend it.

God bless,
Galadriel

Author Reply: I just deleted the empty one. Having done that a few times myself, or having written wonderful reviews only to hit the back instead of the post button I know how easy such things are to do.

As I've said before, it was reading "A Small and Passing Thing" that sparked me to begin writing fanfiction myself, and even this moment is almost taken from her work, although I've significantly changed a good deal of it as well. Lindelea has done so marvelous word pictures in it, and the one you've indicated has to be one of the best.

So glad you agree with Esmeralda. She has her younger cousin and former fosterling pegged, doesn't she? And love your invocation of Bilbo's comments here. It certainly fits!

To accept a grace ordinarily given only to Elves I think Frodo needs to interact with them about it; and so Glorfindel, while on his return from the Havens with news about the ship being built, finds Frodo and helps him understand how to better use the power of the gem he wears; and then Frodo and Galadriel discuss the choice and what it means and how it might affect him. The emptiness left within him in the wake of the Ring's destruction must have been terrifying to face at times.

Bilbo has already become synonymous with madness and eccentricity; Frodo was being gossiped about as being "cracked" even before the Party. Yet there are those, those whose evaluation truly means something, who know that Bilbo wasn't the least bit crazy--unless he was "crazy like a fox." And the same ones will recognize that Frodo is also intelligent and caring and will miss him terribly. Those who count know the real Frodo and Bilbo, and honor them as they deserve.

I had a kidney stone, and then a case of endometriosis that nearly cost me a kidney and did end up forcing me to have an emergency hysterectomy. Both times I was given morphine. I didn't particularly appreciate it either time, and hate what some painkillers did to me and some other meds that aren't supposed to have psychological effects but did anyway. But, then, I'm a good deal older than you are and so have had more chance for things to happen from time to time. Your own turn is coming, I'm sorry to say, but such is life.

Your Niquil story is hilarious.

I can do first aid, but tend to hyperventilate if I see hypodermics. I know--I'm pathetic.

InklingReviewed Chapter: 15 on 7/24/2005
Lovely, that last image of Frodo lying asleep on the hill. And sad, as Sam realizes that his light will soon be gone from the world. But the acceptance in this chapter seems to extend to Sam, too, with Rosie there to sustain him. A very gentle and peaceful chapter.

Author Reply: Yes, the acceptance is made by both Frodo and Sam, I think. Am glad you liked it so.

LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 15 on 4/12/2005
Lovely "light" imagery, and conversations with Elves...

Author Reply: I'm so glad you like it, Lindelea. Give my love to the little Hobbits, and thank them again for the tea set! I love it! It's going on top of the bedroom bookshelf with most of the dolls in my collection.

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 15 on 4/10/2005
Oh how painfully sweet! And how appropriate that it is Glorfindel and Galadriel who seek to comfort him!

I love Galadriel's metephor of the bowl, and the way in which she guided Frodo to understanding of what that meant, that he could, once more be filled, if he were cleansed, and that the cleansing would better take place in the West. Just beautiful!

I can see we are nearing the end; this has been another masterful story, powerful and painful and full of love and beauty.

Author Reply: Thank you, Dreamflower, for the gentle review. Yes, it would be better to be cleansed and refilled there in the West. And I felt these two would be the best to offer him guidance at this time.

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 15 on 4/10/2005
Frodo's encounters with Glorfindel and Galadriel are so beautiful. And this reminds me of the passage from ROTK where "the Elves delighted to honour them"...

“True honor is earned, never simply bestowed on a whim. We of the Firstborn ratified the recognition of that honor"

Author Reply: Both Glorfindel and Galadriel seek to convey he is worthy, no matter what he himself feels. The greatest often doubt they are worthy of the honors given them.

I'd not tied the line there from The Grey Havens to this before--again, you have managed to add more depth to what I'd tried to express. Thank you.

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