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Oliphants and String  by Agape4Gondor 4 Review(s)
FiondilReviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/4/2008
Now that the MEFAs are over and I can go back and read the stories I missed.... Valar, Agape! This is absolutely brill and just... chilling, is the only word for it. That you make Sméagol and Déagol youngsters makes it even more so, but then, how often do we read in the papers of children as young as eight or nine committing horrific crimes? The grandmother's heartbreak is very wrenching. I'm sure she anguished for years over her decision to banish "her precious". Good job!

Author Reply: So very sorry this thank you is so very late. With the snafu here yesterday, I thought I'd check my stories - and here was your very kind and very nice review.

Just yesterday in the news was a tale of three nine-year olds who were planning the murder of their teacher. Chilling indeed. Perhaps they have found 'the Ring?'

Again - many thanks for reviewing!

docmonReviewed Chapter: 1 on 7/16/2006
what a chilling picture of the corruption of smeagol. certainly brings out that pity that bilbo had for him centuries later. well done!

Author Reply: I have never even struggled with Gollum - I always hated him... and this little tribble started out (in my mind) as not being kind - something took over - perhaps it was pity?

Raksha The DemonReviewed Chapter: 1 on 7/13/2006
An original and excellent vignette!

As far as I know, few to no fanfiction authors have explored Gollum's background from the point of view of his grandmother. You do so in a particularly effective fashion; we can see her strength as a leader, her consciousness of her duty, warring with her love for her grandson.

The fact that Sméagol and Déagol were kids, not adults, makes the story all the sadder. I think that Sméagol would have chosen a dark road with or without the lure of the Ring, but perhaps he would not have gone so far as to murder if he had never seen the thing.

The grandmother's heartbreak is quiet but eloquent. And I love the use of "my precious" as her nickname for her beloved grandson; if Tolkien didn't come up with it (can't remember), he should have. (and if you came up with it, it's a stroke of fanfictional genius)

Author Reply: *giggles* in embarrassment - it was my own idea about 'my precious' - seemed almost poetic justice... or something - but I can claim no great genius - it was just a thought that came to me and I liked it.

As for his grandmother - wow - that always bothered me that she was the matriarch of her little group and she had to banish him. Incredibly horrid.

I didn't really want these two to be kids, but very close to that, perhaps somewhere around 12 - 13 - there was no age mentioned... and it just seemed right. Young enough to be playing with frogs and old enough to be torturing them. *shivers*

French PonyReviewed Chapter: 1 on 7/13/2006
An interesting take on the sad tale of Sméagol and Déagol. I like that it's from the perspective of the grandmother -- she must have been very important to Sméagol, since he remembered her rather fondly in the Hobbit, hundreds of years after her death, after the Ring had chewed up his mind. I also thought it was interesting that you chose to make the cousins so young at the time of the murder. I don't remember anything that says whether or not they were adults, and having them be children just makes the Ring seem all the scarier, that it could turn a child into a murderer like that.

Author Reply: French Pony! I love that you picked up on the importance of Smeagol's grandmother - Yes! the Hobbit moments with him were interlaced with her! Incredible tale for her also....

And as I replied above to Raksha's comment - there didn't seem to be any age mentioned when it came to the murder - I felt it important that it really be unusual and hideous that a young boy would do such a thing.

Thanks!!!!

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