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Droplets  by perelleth 7 Review(s)
LarnerReviewed Chapter: 6 on 3/28/2007
I very much doubt Dante is offended.

And certain types of dreams do bring back the grief all too easily. I'd be right beside her facing Lorien for THAT particular dream.

Author Reply: OH yes. She would make it clear that those dreams were not welcome. WHat could a Vala understand, anyway? :-) Thank you again, LArner, for taking the time of reviewing each piece!

elliskaReviewed Chapter: 6 on 11/22/2006
Wow, that is really powerful--a character we rarely see and her grief is well captured in this. How incredibly sad it must have been for her, truly. You showed that really well.

Author Reply: Thank-you elliska, you are a trooper!

This was a drabble in origin, one of the first I posted, and one day I had the image of Anairė illuminating manuscripts alone at night in her house of stone, trying to settle down her memories of a hapier time... Very sad, indeed.

RedheredhReviewed Chapter: 6 on 9/17/2006
A good small story about the lot of those left behind.

The dream was a very personal introduction to her internal life and an excellent bridge for appreciating her public one.

Most aspects of Anaire are admirable and actually familiar to anyone who knows someone in her situation. You give her dignity and courage in facing extreme emotional adversity. She is a heroine queen mother; proof against despair that others can depend upon.

I smiled at her memorizing her family in what could be seen as elaborate scrap-books. Although, it is a little sad, like other aspects of her daily struggle, that she must self-publish her own family's history in order for it to be justly remembered.

Her having a good cry and recognizing her limited powers to direct her heart - but determined to apply them all the same - was endearing.

A very nice portrait all way around.


Author Reply: Dreams have that power, I think, to bring back memories even when your conscious self knows something is wrong there and tries to break through the ideal dream world... and in the end the pain is doubled..but somehow also cleaned. Don't know.

I see her working in her tales for herself, kind of the medieval "books of hours," late at night, when duty is done and she can grieve privately, recording family anecdotes in exquisitely elaborated parchments for her own comfort and memory, and perhaps in the hopes that someday she might meet a descendant of those who departed, and could share the memories with them, something like family photo albums in illuminated parchments recording Fingon's first harp, Aredhel's puppy, Turgon's courtship, Idril's first tooth... rather than compiling "the true history of the flight of the Noldor" ;-)

Thank you very much!

EllieReviewed Chapter: 6 on 9/15/2006
This was beautifully done! The beginning was so hopeful and so filled with life and love and joy and familial bliss. I was sad that she had to wake up from the dream. She tries so hard to fill her days and her time, but nothing fills the hollow ache her family has left behind.

Wonderful story. Sad, but nice.

Author Reply: Thank-you, Ellie. Dreams can be comforting but then the longing is doubled, I feel. And still they had to go on. A sad lot indeed.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 6 on 9/15/2006
Poor Anaire. Even if time, to elves, is not the same. Doubly lost, her family. Lost in trailing Feanor east - even after his betrayal - and lost to Namo's Halls.

The vividness of the dreams must make things worse - to be reunited in mind and memory only and rouse to the lonely days.

I feel so bad for the mothers and wives in much of Tolkien. So many of them do not even merit a name and those that do are abandoned by husbands and sons and daughters. Keeping busy - holding the faith. I hope Finarfin returns to her. In time.

Author Reply: Yes, women were not much involved in the kind of things Tolkien "recorded", so they are generally a shadow behind the curtain...but still they had to go on and get up every day...

French PonyReviewed Chapter: 6 on 9/13/2006
And here I thought my birthday was over! Thank you so much for this. Nothing like an extended birthday, is there.

I like the choice of Anairė as subject here, particularly because I've been thinking about her recently. You can see her determination to keep a stiff upper lip. For her, getting up and doing something every day is a conscious choice, a decision to keep on living in spite of what she's lost. That shows tremendous courage and strength of will, appropriate characteristics for someone who married Fingolfin and had Aredhel.

Author Reply: You are welcome. Better late... :-) and I'm glad you liked it. And I“ll be looking forward to the result of you musings! ;-)

daw the minstrelReviewed Chapter: 6 on 9/13/2006
It's hard to imagine that kind of time sweep and what it means to creatures who live (and suffer) through it. I think it's also true that often in Tolkien the women are left to deal with loss and we don't know how they did it. Nice job.

Author Reply: Thank-you, Daw. They would busy themselves with "womanly things", Tolkien must have thought,:-)

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