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Another Moment of your Time  by Larner 4 Review(s)
AndreaReviewed Chapter: 15 on 8/20/2010
First of all, I found it very clever of Frodo to come up with so many counter-examples of hobbits who were among the gentry, but still working.

Aunt Dora is not a second Lobelia. She only was afraid that something improper might happen at the party.

But Frodo convinced her that she had to change her perspective. And by doing so she remembered the old stories.

“The old Kings—they had Stewards, didn’t they?” she murmured to herself as she walked home again. “And they were even considered lords of the realm, if I recall correctly.”

Lords of the realm! That should be proper enough, even for Aunt Dora!
I just like her!

Author Reply: Oh, I agree. With so many relatives throughout the Shire, its inevitable many were working folk and some even worked as servants. And, yes, the idea of a Steward being a lord of the realm would appeal to the romantic side of about anyone! Heh! And I'm certain that Dora had a romantic side!

Thanks so, Andrea!

TariReviewed Chapter: 15 on 8/20/2010
Good for Frodo. Dora was beginning to sound a bit like Lobelia and we don't need another one like her. Fortunately, after thinking about what he said, she understood.

Author Reply: I suppose in a way Dora could sound much like Lobelia, except from Lobelia it's more a control issue and a bid to be and remain better than others. But Dora is so tied to decorum, she merely requires reminding that there is nothing dishonorable in serving as the steward for the feast--then it's all right, and she can be reminded that in the old stories the great lords did have stewards who had status but a bit less high than their overlords. This helped her accept that for the Party, at least, it was only right and proper that Sam remain by the Masters and even take part in the family supper. And it appealed to her hidden romantic side as well! Heh!

So glad you appreciated Frodo's arguments. I doubt he cared quite as much for propriety as did his aunt, or at least not as much for possible distinctions between gentry and working Hobbits. Dreamflower and I both tend to lean to the idea that the folk in Brandy Hall tended to be far less rigid in their attitudes toward "the help" than did many in the more settled and older regions of the Shire.

harrowcatReviewed Chapter: 15 on 8/19/2010
I love Fiondil's review of this Larner but I think that, had Dora lived to see the days of the King she would have coped quite well with the court etiquette. After all, even Sam approved of the many words and bows that accompanied Faramir granting Frodo the freedom of the lands of Gondor. Wouldn't it have been great fun if she could have met your Master of Protocol for Gondor!

Author Reply: I think her basic Hobbit sense and her sense of decorum would have been in conflict again had she met Master Galador! Heh! I so love writing Dora from time to time!

FiondilReviewed Chapter: 15 on 8/18/2010
I really have to hand it to you, Larner. I don't think anyone else has such an amazing handle on Hobbit families and genealogies. You must have memorized all of Appendix C. *LOL*

Poor Aunt Dora. Such a stickler for propriety and with no real understanding of the true meaning of service and loyalty. I think had she lived to see the Ring War and its aftermath she would have been appalled to learn that there really was a Gondor and that the King used to be a scruffy-looking Ranger who darned his own socks. *LOL* She would never have been able to get her mind around that one.

Author Reply: It must have been quite a struggle for a decent Hobbit to learn all the relevant family trees, but I suspect that Frodo learned a good deal from years in Buckland and then with Bilbo. And it does appear that he was related to half the Shire, doesn't he?

As for Dora's possible reactions to the news that there WAS a King Returned after all, and his former role as a protector of the Shire and other lands of the north--I don't know how she'd have taken it all in! Heh! And, indeed the realization that he'd had to learn to darn his own socks would have been an affront to her sense of propriety, but also have impressed her on the practical side of his education, don't you think?

Thanks so much, Fiondil!

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