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Good Neighbors  by daw the minstrel 241 Review(s)
thechevinReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/30/2004
I was so pleased to see a new story and get involved once more in the lives of Thranduil and his sons
There are already several distinct strands being made I think and I look forward to some Eilian and Thranduil moments as well as Ithilden and Alfirin and Turgon is there with his knowledge or at least what he sees as knowledge I think Ithilden is right about Legolas' friendship with this elfling
I loved Legolas's noticing the tensions between his father and brother and his frustration with Ithilden and Alfirin seemed right on the button you could almost see him hopping up and down with a scowl on his face at their foolishness
a lovely start

Author Reply: First chapters are hard to write (as you probably know) because you have to kind of set the stage and you don't have the momentum of the story yet. So some of those strands are going to be stronger than others, and I have a surprise planned for the next chapter. :-)

Legolas is perceptive and sensitive. And he's getting old enough to learn to keep his mouth shut about what he notices!

I'm glad you enjoyed it, thechevin.

LeraReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/30/2004
I'm happy as always to see you've started a new story. I like this age. Good times. I thought it was sweet to see Legolas relishing time with Thranduil and I thought it was cool to see them doing such an Elfly father-son thing. Although of course my Dad cleans guns with me so it could be a father-daughter thing too.
Speaking of girls, do you think the Elves ever had female warriors? I'm kind of leaning toward no. I thought it was interesting that the elleth took separate archery classes. I fence and my class is pretty male dominated. I'm trying to picture one of your masters(think Maldor) teaching a class of all girls. lol. I'm imagining me and my friends in his class. "What do you mean we can't talk? We're only stretching! We have not seen each other all week!" and then there's the great line: "Did you just call me fat? He just called me FAT!" I'm really not sure why my fencing instructor likes me. He seems to have solved the problem by immediately placing me in the drill line where he wants me-far away from Maggie and Kelly. lol. Good times.

Hope to see an update soon! Have a good week!

Author Reply: I was trying to think of things that Thranduil and Legolas could be doing together while conversations were going on. Usually, I have the talk happen at meals, but the arrow making also fits in with the age of the boys here, I think. They're gradually realizing what their future is going to be like.

Hm, female warriors. My answer is I don't know. I went with "no" because Tolkien doesn't show any among the elves (although you could certainly argue that Galadriel used a sword). But I'm open to the possibility that there are some. I can certainly accept stories in which they appear as canonical.

You're making me laugh with your fencing class stories. If Ithilden has any sense at all, he keeps Maldor far away from the younger students and lets him work only with novices, who are training to become warriors.

Elena TirielReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/29/2004
Oh, wonderful! I can't tell you how great it is to have a Daw story to look forward to... otherwise, I might not be able to survive the next few days of absolute insanity before my country's presidential election!

You know, you have a real gift: I normally have no interest whatsoever in weapons, but you got me all fascinated by arrows without my even realizing that they're something I don't care about... tricksy author!

Hope your conference goes well for you, and that you find inspiration to work on the next chapter soon...

- Barbara

Author Reply: My conference was in Boston and I wasn't supposed to fly out until early afternoon because there were Saturday morning sessions, but there was going to be a parade for the Red Sox and they were expecting 3 to 5 million people. The street in front of my hotel was going to be closed. Anyway, the upshot is that I fled town at 7am, caught an earlier flight and got home already. So maybe I can write some more tomorrow after I do laundry and recover from traveling.

I am normally not interested in arrows either but when I looked this stuff up, I kind of got into it, so readers got to see it too. :-)

I will be deeply grateful when the election is over. I like in Iowa and it's still up for grabs and if I get one more phone call or see one more political ad, I will go mad.

AliceReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/29/2004
Yay, a new story! And it has men in it. I always enjoy looking at men from the elvish perspective and vice versa. I sometimes wonder what'd Thranduil would think of us today. Hopefully he wouldn't be too disgusted. I doubt he'd be impressed though. Stupid Valinor, calling the elves home.

So, off to a nice intriguing start. I look forward to seeing what's up with Turgon and the arrow thing. Also what exactly that trade sabatoge is about. So please update soon!

I'm enjoying little bits as usual. Like Ithilden and Alfirin making painfully slow, shy progress. Legolas is such a nice brother not to tease Ithilden about this later in life. I so would. But I'm not as nice as these brothers are. I think it's the age difference. Both Eilian and Ithilden are past the age where they lose their cool and scream and again, they'd feel horrible about screaming at little Legolas. However, me and my brother feel no such qualms even though we get along pretty well most of the time.

I giggled over the line about maidens learning archery seperately because I'm in an all girl class right now and we're horrible to the male teacher. Hopefully the elleth are nicer to Pentellion than we are and don't act like my all female PE class did which is " You want us to excercise? That's so CUTE! He thinks we're actually going to get sweaty and stuff." (Snicker) I have this image of Maldor teaching teenage elleth and them doing what my all female spanish class does which is refuse to take him seriously do their own thing and him losing his temper and making one of them cry and then getting all flustered. LOL. I'm having way too much fun with the idea of the training masters teaching an all girls class, because girls aren't that bad. We're just different from the motivated, I must prove I'm better than you, boys. Ok, I'm done giggling now. Maybe. (giggle)

Again, I look forward to the next chapter. The thought of Eilian and Thranduil helping Legolas make arrows is really sweet by the way. Gotta love family time.

Author Reply: I'm interested in Thranduil's attitude toward men. I think he came to friendship with them only gradually. In The Hobbit, the men say he's their friend. I don't think he's hostile to them, but I do think he sees them as a really mixed bag, so that he has to figure out each one as he goes along.

I also think that you're right that the big age differences between elves siblings must make a difference in their relationship. And Ithilden marries Alfirin when Legolas is around the equivalent of 16, so things have straightened out between them by the time Legolas is old enough to see clearly what's going on.

You're making me laugh about the maidens being mean to Penntalion. That would be funny! Maldor though doesn't even teach the boys. He works only with the novices. There are some limits!

French PonyReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/29/2004
Where did Eilian get the peacock feathers? Those are real exotics. Eilian really loves Legolas to give him something so pretty and so exotic. But only the tip would be really good for arrow fletching, so you'd need a couple of feathers per arrow. Maybe Eilian has enough to make one special arrow that will save the life of some very lucky Thranduilion later on.

I bet Penntalion really likes teaching Legolas. I can just imagine all the other little boys being so easily distracted and Legolas being the only one really fascinated by arrows. And I bet that learning to shoot with different kinds of arrows will come in really handy when Legolas is off to war and having to shoot with arrows that he can pick up off of dead enemies.

Good old Turgon, a font of information. He was probably the one who told Legolas that Orcs eat people. I wonder if the fact that he has no warriors in his family is part of his problems. Most of the Elves seem to have warriors in the family, and it seems to be an occupation with some prestige attached to it. Maybe Turgon gets overexcited and overcompensates? His little tidbit of information and Ithilden's reaction to it makes me think of a great parental guilt trip that could come crashing down about Sinnarn's head and shoulders when he's about the age Legolas is now:

Sinnarn: Aww, Ada, I don't wanna tidy my room/set the table/do the yardwork!
Ithilden: Listen, kid, if you were a Man, you'd be in the Army by now and really have to work!

But first Ithilden has to get over the awkward stage with Alfirin. And Legolas and Tonduil have to get over the awkward bit of trying to deal with the idea that they might become related in the foreseeable future.

The Elves are getting ripped off in trade. . . this will not a happy Thranduil make. And if Thranduil ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

Author Reply: I don't know where Eilian got the feathers, but I will tell you that Chaucer talks about arrows fletched with peacock feathers.

I agree about Penntalion. Legolas is serious and smart about this kind of stuff.

You made me laugh about Sinnarn. One of my uncles used to tell his kids that a stretch in the army would do them good!


ManderlyReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/29/2004
What a wonderful surprise to see a new story from you! And with a young Legolas too! Thank you!

That was quite an interesting lesson on arrows. I had thought the difference would be in the type of bow rather than the arrows. Shows how much I know about archery! I must echo Turgon's ignorance - an arrow is an arrow.

So the Men are at it again, or is it Man? I always find it interesting to see Men from the elves' POV. Thranduil is not pleased already, and it's only the first chapter. And Legolas is like a sponge, absorbing every bit of news that he can snatch. Really looking forward to see how this story unfolds.

Author Reply: I had fun looking up stuff about arrows and kind of got carried away, so I'm glad you like it. It seems to me that guys would be enamored by pretty arrows, even guy elves.

I'm interested in Thranduil's reactions to men. By the time of The Hobbit, the men of Esgaroth say that he's their friend, but I'm trying to move him in that direction gradually. He has things to learn just as Legolas does.

Jay of LasgalenReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/29/2004
I see the potential for lots of conflict here - between the elves and men, between Thranduil and Eilian (again!), between Legolas's friendship with Turgon and his family - in short, another story by Daw!

This is an interesting start.


Jay

Author Reply: I tried to build lots of possible conflicts into this chapter to give myself some scope. :-) We'll have to see how it goes. I'm out of town at a conference at the moment, so it may be a few days.

esamenReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/29/2004
Yay! an new story from Daw!

Legolas contemplated that idea, and then abruptly thought about the narrow bodkin arrow tip that Penntalion had said would pierce armor.

Hmm! Where are we going with THIS tale? I like it very much already. And I enjoyed the arrow lesson. Wonderful stuff. Can't wait for more! Thank you!



Author Reply: I looked up arrow making on the web and then got interested in it so I kind of overdid it. So I'm glad you liked it.

BodkinReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/29/2004
What a good start. It's great to see Legolas on the cusp of adolescence - still quite cute but beginning to ask questions as well as learning the value of keeping those observations to himself.

And Turgon! There is no doubt but that he is the type of child who would cause you to throw a big farewell party if his parents decided to move. I'm surprised Thranduil didn't invent an assisted passage scheme especially for him to persuade his family to emigrate to the West.

Legolas's skill with the bow is already well developed - he had already thought about a lot of the variations caused by different arrows. He's just the kind of young person who can do all the stuff about trigonometry and trajectories and things, until he learns it's called maths. I loved his delight at making arrows with his adar and his being torn about the chance of working with Eilian too. (And Eilian is hurt again! I'm not surprised Legolas has seen enough wounds. Shame he's got another few thousand to a) see and b) endure.)

I have to admit to some confusion about your summary though - am I being totally thick?

By the way - Ithilden and Alfirin: yes!! They can stand and look at each other now! And - and they can manage hello and goodbye! I should think they drive Tonduil and Legolas potty.

Author Reply: I love writing about Legolas at this age, as the innocence of childhood fades and he begins to become aware of life's complications. And yet he can't quite let his childish feelings go yet. Thranduil had better enjoy every minute with him that he can.

LOL about Turgon. The poor kid. As you were writing about Valinor, I was thinking about what it would be like for Legolas to meet him there. Also LOL about Ithilden and Alfirin. They make such slow progress.

Legolas is so serious about archery. I associate it with the death of his mother.

Are you talking about that "editor" think in the summary? I'm at a business communication conference in Boston right now and have editing on the brain!

sofiaReviewed Chapter: 1 on 10/29/2004
great start to another story. I think that the lone man was one of the men from the east.
-sofia

Author Reply: Thank you, Sofia. The lone man and the men from the east both seem to be problems, don't they? :-)

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