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Fragments of a love story  by Nesta 5 Review(s)
SilmarienReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/25/2009
"Fíriel was most often to be found sitting in the deep embrasure of one of our south-facing windows, gazing wistfully into the distance, with Father’s house dogs at her feet radiating sympathetic gloom as only dogs can."

LOL. Only too true of dogs.

Author Reply: Yes, my dog's like that. When I'm ill, which mercifully happens seldom, he lies on the bed and looks patient and melancholy. It's very consoling!

RugiReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/24/2009
I really love this story. It has the aura of melancholy and sacrifice that was all over the original books. This chapter really made me consider issues of marriage for individuals, particularly women, of status. Their position in life demands sacrifices of self which are quite unique. I thought it was interesting that you mentioned Lothiriel. I always wondered what life might have been like for her, whether she would be happy, married into Rohan and taken away from the ocean and everyone she knew - that's the unfortunate destiny of most princesses - some find happiness and some don't. It reminded me of Medea's speech in the Euripides play about the fate of women to go alone to foreign lands (not that I think either Lothiriel or Firiel would end up like her). I enjoyed the interaction between the children - Turin's uncomfortable truths made me think that Faramir might have been a difficult child, in some ways, as well. Turin speaks in part because he lacks sufficient compassion, which Faramir certainly has in abundance, but I think they both would have slipped up with unfortunate truths that others did not wish to hear or face.

I thought in some ways that Firiel also was rightly forced to confront the unsustainable, if beautiful, relationship she had with her father. She would eventually have to grow up and leave - change comes inevitably (even through the death of one of the parties). Part of me thinks that if Eldarion hadn't made an appearance, something else would have forced the issue. Better to create the future than stay permanently in the past.

Author Reply: Even nowadays members of royal families can't always marry where they wish - wasn't it in Norway they had quite a big scandal when the heir to the throne recently married a woman with a Past, not to mention a toddler? And when they do marry 'suitably', like Charles and Diana, it doesn't necessarily work out. There are lots of 'happy Lothiriel' stories aruond, but yes, I do wonder. Luckily, unhappy princesses don't always chop up their fathers-in-law and boil them, as Medea did if I remember rightly.

I'm sure Faramir was a difficult child in some ways, particularly for his father. This certainly seems to come out in their relationship in RoTK, when Denethor virtually says that Faramir has made a habit of defying him. That's what happens when two very strong personalities clash in the same family; in RoTK Denethor holds all the cards and uses them ruthlessly. I've got a story on ff.net in which I try to show Faramir taking a wiser approach to his own difficult son.

Fíriel would certainly have had to leave Ithilien in the end, and Faramir must have known that from the beginning, though that doesn't make the final parting any easier - as Elrond found. If Elrond didn't exactly hang on to Arwen, he didn't make it easy for her to leave him, either; but the cirumstances were different, of course.


LarnerReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/24/2009
And so love is kindled in the heart of the King's son, is it? Interesting!

Author Reply: Ah yes, he's not immune!

Linda HoylandReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/22/2009
I always think too that Eldarion ought to marry Faramir's daughter,it is so fitting that the Kings and Stewards should be united.You make Ithilien sound a beautiful place.

Author Reply: Ithilien has to be beautiful, hasn't it? I'd love to live there. In fact I would cheerfully scrub floors in Emyn Arnen if I knew Faramir walked on them occasionally. I'm a very bad case, I'm afraid!

daw the minstrelReviewed Chapter: 3 on 3/22/2009
You're so brave to suggest that Lothiriel was unhappy! So brave to suggest that any of the canon romances ended in an unhappy marriage. And yet, that seems real.

Author Reply: A lot of Eomer fans would object to this, I know. I just get the feeling - on no strong evidence, I admit - that the poor girl was pressured into the marriage by her father, who was thick as thieves with Eomer.

Eowyn and Faramir's marriage could be seen as equally suitable, but I can't see Eowyn being pressured into marrying him if she didn't want to. Nor would Faramir go along with it, of course.

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