Stories of Arda Home Page
About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

Runaway  by Lindelea 2 Review(s)
Nienor NinielReviewed Chapter: 35 on 9/23/2006
Ooh, I liked that one very much! The set-up was great, and you really had me thinking they would see the punishment through.

The new view on Ferdi's and Pippin's relationship was interesting: that Ferdi hasn't always been fair either. And I like how Faramir is developing.

Greetings, Nienor

Author Reply: Glad you liked it! Some readers loved this stories, and others have told me they hated it. Haven't seen any lukewarm responses. Much of the credit for this story goes to Jodancingtree, for she rescued it from the rubbish heap and breathed new life into it when I'd given it up.

Glad you like seeing Farry's development! He's been an interesting character to imagine, even though I haven't got much past his first year of marriage in my imagining.

FantasyFanReviewed Chapter: 35 on 3/2/2004
Somehow I managed to miss the previous chapter entirely. Farry is absolutely adorable there. Just the right mix of earnestness and vulnerability and inner strength. I know now he'll be a wonderful hobbit when he grows up, and a worthy sucessor to Pippin. Especially as Pippin will keep his promise, and not lose him again.

I think I'm missing the point in the last chapter. Did Pip and Ferdi just have to get out of the Smials? Their conversation, although it requires privacy, doesn't require salted nuts and cheese cubes (great description of hobbity nibbles, by the way). Ferdi has told Pip he's staying, and if Pippin knows anything he should be sure of Ferdi when he gives his word. I suppose it's a measure of how shook up he's been about everything that's happened that he has to hear it again. But why go to the Spotted Duck to complain about their wives, especially if they are so concerned about being recognized? It doesn't look like they are trying to overhear the talk outside the Smials, though from what the inkeeper and barmaid say, it seems the hobbits there still respect the Thain and look to him for their concerns.

Trust is not an easy thing to rebuild, but I think the Hobbits have it over us in the sincerity of their feelings. It is easier for them to forgive and move on when malice is so foreign and the joys of each day are to be savored. The next story in the chronology is 'Rope', and I don't see mistrust between Pip and Ferdi and the escort by then.

Congratulations to you and Jo for finally finishing this story!

Author Reply: Of course they just had to get out of the Smials. *grin* Imagine being a Took, with people sitting on you to keep you in bed... a bed that will swallow you alive if you stay there another hour. Your wife, thinking you're asleep, takes herself off to late supper--you hear her talking softly in the hallway with another hobbit mum. You carefully arrange a bolster or two in the bed to make it appear that you're still there, listen for an opportune moment when the servants are occupied or gone, muffle yourself in a cloak and creep out... only to encounter another escapee. So off you go together to commiserate.


Author Reply: p.s. Thanks for the review and the congratulations! I truly would have abandoned this story as unworkable had Jo not stepped in. As it was, she reworked the middle and made it possible for me to write the finishing chapters. Whew.

Return to Chapter List