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The Return  by Morwen Tindomerel 8 Review(s)
DreamflowerReviewed Chapter: 33 on 8/13/2006
You have no idea how thrilled I am to find this story right here on SoA!

A few years ago, right after I started reading LotR fanfic, and before I really knew much about archives or how they worked, I stumbled on this wonderful "Boromir lives" AU. I really loved it, and wanted to re-read it, but--I couldn't find it again, I couldn't remember which archive, nor the name of the fic, nor the name of the Author.

The other day, I decided to randomly skim some of the older stories here at SoA, starting near the "back". Imagine my surprise on not only finding the story, but that it was by an author I was somewhat familiar with! I never knew it was here, right in my "back yard" so to speak!

And it was just as good the second time around! So here's a belated thank you for this delightful AU!

If you find out, let me knowReviewed Chapter: 29 on 10/29/2003
Are you forgetting Faramir Took? Or have I just guessed the time period of this story wrong?

Oh, and now that I've been reading this story, I want you to write a sequel to "King's Folk" even more. I'm intrigued by Beomann, and I want to see how you have him develop between into the man he is in this story from the boy he was in that one.

Author Reply: Faramir Took is only ten years old at the time of 'The Return', (yr. 20 FO).

Hurrah! Somebody noticed Beomann Butterbur, middle aged Sheriff of Bree, is the same person as the young Ranger-to-be in King's Folk! I wondered if anybody would make the connection.

????Reviewed Chapter: 25 on 10/29/2003
"I would like to thank my technical adivsor, Edward the Black Prince of Wales, for Aragorn's battle plan which is based on his Battle of Poictiers. Except for the giants of course.

Come to think of it, I should also give credit (?) to King John II of France for the tactics used by the Hill Men."

This is way I've been liking your stories - you seem to pull in bits and pieces of everthing (from book canon, to movie verse, to the HoME, to real history) and meld it with your own inventions in a way that shows thought. Some authors try and fail miserably, but you're doing a marvelous job! Keep up the excellent work in your future stories.

?????Reviewed Chapter: 19 on 10/29/2003
Hmm, Turambar? Like "Master of Doom?" Don't you think that's a little presumptuous? It certainly was for Turin!

Author Reply: Not in this case. Turamarth is named not for Turin but for his son Urin who did indeed 'master doom' through the power of the Gift of Men.

Warning!! AU:

As those who've read the Histories of Middle Earth
will know in the earlier drafts Turin's story is given
an odd ending in which he becomes a redeemer figure
who will return from Death at the End and, with his
Black Sword, end Morgoth's evil forever. Needless to
say this makes very little sense as Turin was
Morgoth's dupe and tool throughout his life which he
ended himself in a fit of despair, (mortal sin
according to Catholic doctrine). Thus my invention of
Urin, son of Turin and Nienor, and doubly doomed both
by the curse of Morgoth and by his incestuous
begetting.

Urin was but two months old when his parents killed
themselves. Mablung, Thingol's captain, took the
infant, the Dragonhelm of Hador and the shards of the
Black Sword back to Doriath where Hurin found him.

He consented to stay in Menegroth with his grandchild
but just a few years later Thingol was slain and his
realm laid in ruins by the Dwarves of Nogrod. Hurin
blamed himself and the curse of Morgoth that lay on
him and his kin so he took his grandson to live away
from Men and Elves on the banks of the Teiglin near
the Stone of the Hapless where the rest of their
family was buried.

He died when Urin was fourteen. Left alone the boy
decided to go to the only kin he knew, Tuor and Idril
hundreds of leagues away at the mouth of the Sirion.
He stayed with them for five years, helping raise his
younger cousins Earendil and Elwing, but when he was
nineteen Elwing showed him the Silmaril and it burned
his hand when he touched it.

He knew this for a sign he was unclean and accursed
and despairing resolved to carry the curse back to its
source, to challenge Morgoth as Fingolfin had - and
die. He had the Black Sword of his father reforged and
started North but stopped at the Stone of the Hapless
to bid his family farewell and as he knelt there it
suddenly came to him that his despair was from Morgoth
and by acting on it he was doing his will.

It was then he spoke the words long remembered:
"Great is the power of Morgoth, yet I am the master of
my own hands, my own mind, my own deeds. And I
choose not to be his thrall." And spent the rest of his life
acting on them.

Morgoth's curse worked by using the passions of its
victims against them; Morwen's stubborn pride, Turin's
impulsiveness and hot temper; Hurin's grief and anger
over the hard fates of his kin. Urin mastered it by
mastering his despair. By finding hope and holding
hard to it in the face of all obstacles and all
temptations to give in.

He learned also to control the hot temper and
impulsiveness he'd inherited from his father Turin. To
consider his actions and their consequences carefully
and never to act out of anger. Turin killed a number
of people he shouldn't have; Beleg, Brandir, himself.
His son spared some he had good reason to kill, even
at the last Morgoth himself.

Urin rescued his young relatives, Elros and Elrond
from Maglor after the fall of the Havens and took them
to live with the Mortal survivors in the fens of Lisgardh
at the mouth of the Sirion. As the senior living
descendant of the three Fathers of the Edain he led
the remaining Men of Beleriand in their guerilla war
against Morgoth, allied with the remaining Sindar and
Laiquendi.

In Urin the Maiar commanding the Host of the Valar,
and their Masters, saw for the first time the power of
the Gift of Men and finally realized the Second
Children were not just a feeble and rather unecessary
imitation of the Elves but the only hope for the final
Healing of Arda Marred.

Urin and his Men fought beside the Maiar, Vanyar
and Noldor of Aman in the War of Wrath and, as Gandalf
says, it was Urin who tracked Morgoth to his final
hiding place dispite all the Vala, once the mightiest
being in Arda, could do to stop him. But Urin didn't
strike Morgoth down, though he might have. Because, he
said, he'd never yet slain any creature who cried for
mercy and would not start now.

And its a good thing Urin did hold his hand for if
he hadn't Morgoth, disembodied, might have succeeded
in escaping and hiding himself, as Sauron and others
of his fallen Maiar did, but trapped in physical form
he was taken prisoner and banished to the Void beyond
the Walls of Night.

Elros married Urin's firstborn daughter, Finduilas, usually know
as Indil (which means Lily). Two of his sons went
to Numenor where the elder became Lord of Hyarnumen. But
Urin himself remained in Middle Earth crossing over the Ered Luin
with his wife and remaining children to spend the rest
of his life, lengthened far beyond the normal span, in Eriador.

He settled at the foot of the Weather Hills and his
descendants were Princes of the Midlands, largest of
the little principalities and lordships that made up
Old Arthedain.

Thousands of years later the Numenorean and
Eriadoran lines were reunited when the last heiress of
Hyarnumen fled Numenor with the Dragonhelm after the
execution of her father and brother and married her
distant kinsman the Prince of the Midlands, who had
inherited the Black Sword. The House of Turin,
descended from them both, intermarried with the House
of the Kings and Urin's current heir is Turamarth King
of Rhudaur.

ImrahoilReviewed Chapter: 33 on 10/20/2003
Wonderful, you're here at last. I've just reread "The return" for the umpteenth time - except chapter 25, where is it? - and enjoyed it as much as ever. I hope you're going to post your other stories as well and, ahem, please don't forget to update "Coming back to life" and "The last homely house", soon?

Author Reply: Oops! I entered 25 but forgot to publish it - fixed it now, sorry about that.

ElemmireReviewed Chapter: 24 on 10/19/2003
Eeep! Where's chapter 25?


;),
Elemmire

MirielReviewed Chapter: 3 on 10/16/2003
Well, that answers several of my questions.

Good reasoning. I was wondering what logical reason they could use to send him back. THat works.

Evil in the forest...wonder what it is?

Good job. Please, update soon. Cheers!

MirielReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/16/2003
*Jumps Back* Whoa! That was a shocker! How in Middle-Earth....

I liked Merry's message to Pippin. Very short, sweet, and to the point.

Wow, I'm really interested in seeing how this plays out. I mean, Boromir? How on earth...I can see it now...like one of those bloopers...they;re sending him over the falls--No! Guys, wait! I'm not dead! Augh!

What's going on with the old forest? I'm going to go read the next chapter now...

Cheers!

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