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The Acceptable Sacrifice  by Larner 11 Review(s)
grumpyReviewed Chapter: 65 on 1/18/2006
What a lovely chapter. I am a bit behind, these people at work seem to think I like to work overtime. It is too bad the nightmares came back to Frodo. I did like his trying to tell about Strider, Rivendell and Bilbo. I always thought it would have been great if Bilbo would have seen Estel when he was little.
Well off to the next chapter.

Author Reply: I'd read a few descriptions of encounters between Hobbit and King-to-be, and finally did my own in "Fostering." I would have loved to have seen such an encounter also. And this would be one topic on which Frodo would have not had a great deal of problems in describing to others, I think. So glad you approve.

Linda HoylandReviewed Chapter: 65 on 1/14/2006
Poor Mina,that must have been a shock to her,though she should not have been there.I loved the idea of Frodo drawing Aragorn.

Author Reply: When we pretend to ourselves someone is close kin to us, we do tend to do odd things we ought not do. I'd written before that Frodo kept that picture in his pocket and later gave it to Narcissa; now we know how he came to draw it. But it would give him a good deal of pleasure to have it, I think.

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 65 on 1/13/2006
Mina sighed. “I’m not sure,” she said slowly, “I could bear it proper if I knew it all.”

You know, that's the main reason I started writing Frodo hurt/comfortcomfortcomfortcomfort stories in the first place. I just couldn't bear what he had gone through, and wanted him to get all the love, healing, attention, care, and happiness I could squeeze out of my imagination. It's so easy to love him, and want him to know joy, peace, and healing.


Author Reply: Mina wishes to give Frodo the mothering she's held for a son since her own died; and Frodo is in need of the eye that sees and cares anyway; the heart that accepts when it doesn't understand. And we all so much want him to know that comfort and acceptance.

Mina is feeling what you certainly feel for him, and for what so many on this site and elsewhere have wished for him as well.

Thanks, Shirebound. And thanks for the understanding.

KittyReviewed Chapter: 65 on 1/13/2006
I don't know ... on the one hand to have seen the scars may help Mina to understand Frodo a bit better, but on the other hand that was no proper behaviour and an intrusion in his privacy. I'm not sure what to think about it.

*sigh* So Frodo can see and understand why Isildur acted as he did, but he refuses to accept his own circumstances were not much different? It's truly hopeless.

Anyway, he made a wonderful and even for the other hobbits understandable tale of the long history of the half elven and Elros' descendants. Am glad he did draw the picture - it seems to do him some good to talk of Aragorn and even draw him. His confession to the others he saw Aragorn and Sam as brothers was touching! Maybe it helps them to accept that not all men are bad.

Author Reply: In projecting his own reactions onto Isildur and realizing that Isildur also had been taken by the Ring, he paves the way for his own eventual acceptance, so it's not fully hopeless. However, stubborn Baggins he is, he still has a difficult time applying his understanding for others to himself.

And Mina is, I think, shocked at her own actions; but as a motherly person who has been half imagining Frodo as her own lost son she's knowing the natural mother's shock at learning how the cruelty of the outer world has treated this younger Hobbit she has always known as considerate and basically gentle and caring; and I think Frodo needs to have a mother's mourning for the hurt he's known and the loss of innocence he's suffered. It will do him good in the long run, I think.

So far the only experience most of the Hobbits of the Shire have had has been excruciatingly nasty; they do need to know that this is not the rule but the exception, and that to counter all the Big Men they have a King such as Aragorn son of Arathorn. And Aragorn is one of his points of reassurance, and is healing just to hold in thought right now.

RadbooksReviewed Chapter: 65 on 1/12/2006
I can't decide if I'm glad that Mina saw his scars so that she has some understanding of Frodo's pain and suffering or appalled at the intrusion on his privacy. Perhaps a little of both. I suppose it will give her more compassion and help her understand why things play out the way they do in the next year or two with Frodo.

I really liked the part where Frodo was talking about how he met Strider and how he showed them Narsil. How Frodo knew the story of the broken sword and that made him trust Aragorn, etc. I just liked that scene in the kitchen with the young ones - it was him telling stories as he did so well. He ate the tart, but I was afraid that later he would lose it. :(

It's hard to say whether or not Bilbo and Aragorn met when he was a child. I've read some fanfics that are about them meeting and they are fun to read. But I'm reading Nilmandra's History Lesson III (I really enjoy all of her stories, wonderfully done) and I agree with her that if you truly want to keep someone hidden, you do not let them meet people that come wandering through or visiting etc. She had the twins take Estel off camping for the weeks the dwarves and Bilbo were there.



Author Reply: As I said above, I think Frodo needs the mourning Primula would have shown for him, whether he knows of it or not; but for someone who is intent on seeing in Frodo a surrogate for the son she has lost this looking in on him would be rationalized as just seeing to it he's all right, just as she would have done had it been Fenton in there rather than Frodo Baggins.

Telling his stories is now in many ways the means that is being used, partly by Frodo, and partly by the Powers, to help him begin integrating the truth he knows intellectually and that held in his heart, preparing him for his eventual spiritual as well as physical healing.

I also wonder whether or not Estel would have met Bilbo, but loved letting them meet in "Fostering" anyway.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 65 on 1/12/2006
Mina does tend to poke her nose in where she shouldn't. A touch too inquisitive - I would think Frodo would find it rather difficult to endure, even though it isn't done in a nasty way. And then she talks about it - and the only way to keep something quiet is never to let anyone know that the secret exists.

Good to tell some of the story - especially the parts about Strider and Rivendell - that'll leave Frodo with a better feeling than the dreams.



Author Reply: Mina is inquisitive, yes; but remember that "All things work to the good for those who love the Lord"--or, in this case, Iluvatar. Frodo would be devastated if he knew, and will be embarrassed when he finds out; but it will work to the good in spite of both.

For her to tell Mina--I think she needed to confess what she'd done; and eventually the realization of Frodo's actual sacrifice for the whole of Middle Earth will reach a wider audience. Most may not care a whit one way or the other; but most who came to care for Frodo pre- or post-Ring War will be better able to appreciate his heroism while shaking their heads over his own belittlement of himself.

And even the thought of Aragorn is healing for him as well as for their understanding of the outer world and their interactions with the world of Men in the future.

AndreaReviewed Chapter: 65 on 1/11/2006
“Oh, yes, I love him very much. It’s almost like he were my older brother, and Sam was our younger one--except sometimes Sam acts older than both of us.”

That's so very true!

I can imagine that there were always crowds when Frodo started telling a tale. The story of Aragorn, combined with that of Isildur and a part of Bilbo's story - brilliant! Of course, this is also a compliment for you :)

Author Reply: Aragorn the warrior and leader, Frodo the dreamer and mystic, Sam the eminently practical, and all of them scholars beyond the level of normal for their time and peoples. I think Sam's practicality would help ground the other two.

As for folks crowding to hear Frodo's stories--I've always see that as true.

And thanks so much for the compliment!

DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 65 on 1/10/2006
Dear Mina, so motherly and concerned for Frodo. Yes, she would wonder about the scars, and the nightmares, and the lack of appetite.

I enjoyed Frodo's telling of Aragorn's story. Really, a succinct telling of the whole history of the Silmarils and of Numenor, as well as of Isildur. Quite a lot of information to pack into just a few paragraphs.

Author Reply: Frodo brings out the caring in such folk as Mina, particularly as she's seeing him as a surrogate for her own Fenton; but she's recognizing now that what he's not telling is likely to be devastating. At least she's willing to accept that much--just having others accepting he was badly hurt is part of what Frodo needs to continue in his own healing.

And Frodo's beginning to help others recognize what he and Sam discussed in the books--that they are all part of the same ongoing story, from Beren losing his hand taking the Silmaril to Isildur being taken by the Ring to them wandering in the wilderness seeking the path to Its destruction to the folk of the Shire realizing they, too, are part of the same story as well.

harrowcatReviewed Chapter: 65 on 1/10/2006
Yes, took him a time but just talking about Aragorn is healing to Frodo and enlightening for everyone else.

I have read quite a bit about the Christian background to Tolkien's writing and coming from that faith tradition myself I suppose that I have just accepted and appreciated it; recognising themes and allusions but not really averting to them in deference to the great whole of the story. However, it wasn't until I read this chapter and the description of Aragorn's family history and early life that it really dawned on me how many comparisons can be made between Aragorn and Jesus. And there are other comparisons that can be made with other characters too. But, above all, it is all about our relationship with and to the Creator and that supersedes religion.

I think I need to think this through for myself a bit more as I am not sure I am sounding very clear but thanks for sparking the jolt of recognition.

Author Reply: Yes, there are comparisons between many of the characters and Jesus, but the fact remains none of these is Jesus, all being quite mortal and normally flawed and all. Each member of the Fellowship has already been tried in one way or another before the quest; and in the quest each is a normal individual thrust into extraordinary circumstances where much is asked of him. Boromir fails, then redeems himself, though he dies. Theoden resurges, and dies the hero's death deemed proper to his people, now certain he does indeed merit standing with honor among his ancestors. Several pass very close to death and are brought out of it by Aragorn; but he's earned his own power, authority, and reward by almost a century of severe toil and obedience already. And Frodo's own failure and Gollum's end up being used by the Creator to end the evil legacy left by Morgoth and those who chose to follow him.

And, in the end, each one who fought for the Free Peoples, and particularly those in the Fellowship, develops that clearer relationship with the Creator that you acknowledged.

AntaneReviewed Chapter: 65 on 1/10/2006
Now if Frodo would just think about what he said about Isilidur not being able to destroy the Ring because the Ring was too strong for him and realize that the same thing happened to him and it's not his fault or weakness that only he has that prevented him from destroying it.

Author Reply: Frodo needs to realize this for Isildur so that eventually he can accept it for himself as well. This is another step forward for him in the process of accepting he is not a failure but is fully worthy of the Creator's love.

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