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| The Acceptable Sacrifice by Larner | 17 Review(s) |
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| harrowcat | Reviewed Chapter: 100 on 3/12/2006 |
| *sniff, sniff, sniff* Oh this is just so perfect Larner. Every word and every phrase is special and you bring us back to the title so wonderfully well. “He loved the Shire, he did,” Sam said. “He loved every inch in it, and every soul as it contains. He considered it an acceptable sacrifice, I suppose.” Are you learning once more how to live fully? At last! Eglerio, Frodo--eglerio! Ah--yes, tall brother. I’m learning at last--the greatest Sacrifice of all is to live to the delight of Eru. And once more Frodo felt as if a warm hand had been laid on his shoulder, and he felt compassed around with Light and Love. Yes, Frodo--this sacrifice indeed is acceptable. Can't wait for the notes to accompany this. Author Reply: Sometimes it seems easier to die, I think, than to push on and live as well as we can under the circumstances. Watching oneself die by inches, my late husband could have told you, is an extremely painful process as you find the integrity of the body waning and you find you can't do what you did just yesterday, even. To have the relief sufficient to allow one to live and find enjoyment again would be a tremendous gift for Frodo, I think. In one of his letters Tolkien indicated that the rescue of Frodo and Sam was a grace, a reward for doing what they had to to save Middle Earth and for their willingness to sacrifice themselves to see it done. However, it must have seemed a remarkably mixed blessing to Frodo particularly. He has a shoulder wound he knows can't be healed in Middle Earth; he's now sick and in delicate health, and each time he has a setback it takes longer and longer to recover, until he finally realizes he is now dying. He's doing all he can, out of pride, compassion, an extremely over-developed sense of duty and responsibility, and guilt, to see things set right as he can, first within the Shire and then within his own family; he's feeling increasingly drained emotionally as time passes; he's no longer able to do much creatively save to write, draw, and tell his stories; and he must have wondered more than once "Why do I have to suffer like this?" He'd done his best and paid his dues, but he's not able to appreciate even being alive properly so much of the time. And so he finds himself looking forward to dying. To find himself recovering in the Blessed Lands must have been such a welcome surprise. Author's notes tomorrow, I hope. | |
| Queen Galadriel...again | Reviewed Chapter: 100 on 3/12/2006 |
| I had meant to add that I was looking forward to the ANs as well; from "For Eyes..." (especially) and "Ties of Family" and your others I can say that they're as well worth reading and considering as the stories themselves. And it so happens that I'm dealing with a character who is dying in an original fantasy, and other things that run vaguely along the lines of Frodo's situation-and not exactly finding it easy-so of course I cling to whatever information I can get, as I've never seen such things. This is probably a really stupid question, but it's been in the back of my mind for months and won't be ignored any longer. Where do you get "nuzgul?" I should probably know, but I don't, and you give them such very interesting descriptions :) that I really must know. God bless, Galadriel Author Reply: I suspect the author's notes will be published tomorrow--got them well on the way and stopped and started over, for they were too bogged down with details that have little to do with the story and more that have to do with real life at the moment. In my personal stories I've followed a goodly number of my characters through their lives to their deaths, many of which have been frightfully melodramatic, I fear; experience with the real thing actually showed that for the most part I wasn't too far off the mark, although no real person dying is as saintly as a fictional character, I fear. "Nuzgul" is a Henneth-Annun convention to indicate the mythical creature that sparks our imagination to get a major story going, as a plot-bunny is one that tends to spark lighter stuff and short stories and so on. On the Henneth Annun site you can "adopt" nuzguls and oliphaunts as story ideas, oliphaunts apparently being challenge ideas that are just too good to let die after the challenge period is over. So glad you appreciate my Author's Notes, my lady. | |
| Queen Galadriel | Reviewed Chapter: 100 on 3/11/2006 |
| I'm speechless. What a beautiful end to this amazing story, Larner! I like how you show more of the spiritual side throughout, and I'm so glad that both Frodo and Sam could know and recognise that the sacrifice was acceptable in the end. The letters were beautiful, and the last two scenes had me in tears. It seems so long ago that I first found this story, just ten chapters at the time, and now it's ten times that length! Hearty congratulations on following it through and making it into such a beautiful, meaningful story, well worth the reading and rereading. Sometime I'll go back and read it over from the start. I was just thinking the other day how much I've learned from your stories, and not just of writing itself; more than anything else I've learned to look more deeply at character and nature before making a judgment of the person, and that has helped me in forming my own characters. Thank you for this, and for a wonderful read. God bless, Galadriel Author Reply: Like "The King's Commission" this story took on a life of its own and insisted on going on and on until I'd combined two nuzguls and managed to follow Frodo all the way past the Havens. Am so glad the letters and the final two scenes were so moving for you. And I'm honored you find this story and my writing both inspirational and instructive. I am indeed honored. The author's notes should be posted in the next few days. Hope you find them of interest also. | |
| French Pony | Reviewed Chapter: 100 on 3/11/2006 |
| A whole hundred chapters! Congratulations! This is a great milestone you've achieved, and the more so since the story has just completely held my interest right from the very beginning. The letters really are your tour de force here -- each one is written in a very different voice -- Frodo, Sam, and Elrond's letters in particular seem to capture their characters very well. This has been fabulous work. Mazel tov. Author Reply: I'd certainly never envisioned when I started this story would go on like this. Thanks for the congratulations. And that it has held your interest so from the beginning on is very gratifying. Thank you so much for the compliments. Am so glad you feel I managed to make the letters fit the individuals, and particularly that of Elrond. It took some work to feel I was capturing him. Just the Author's Notes left to post. A lot of stuff on PTSD and recovering from the conditions of each, I fear. Thank you so much for following it so faithfully and all of your feedback. | |
| Ami | Reviewed Chapter: 100 on 3/11/2006 |
| A beautiful and poignant ending for a stunning story. “He loved the Shire, he did,” Sam said. “He loved every inch in it, and every soul as it contains. He considered it an acceptable sacrifice, I suppose.” Thank-you for this story. I look forward to your future works. Author Reply: So very glad you appreciated this story, Ami. For Frodo, to do what he did for the Shire must have been seen as the least he could do for his native land. Have a couple nuzguls working at me at the moment, and one plotbunny running around, digging holes in the driveway. Need to get them corraled soon, I guess. | |
| Linda Hoyland | Reviewed Chapter: 100 on 3/11/2006 |
| I'm glad Frodo is safely on his way now. The letters wetre very moving,I wish Aragorn could have seen them one last time and hope he will see the remaining hobbits. Tolkien in his unpublisged epilogoe,tells Elanor that Aragorn saw her when she was too young to remember,so I hope that is now. Author Reply: Well, you know that in "The Ties of Family" I have Aragorn coming north to a conference in Rivendell and meeting the people of the Shire at the Bridge, as well as the family having gone to Minas Anor for the unveiling of the memorial, although at five or six it's questionable how much Elanor might have remembered of the King or the visits. I have coherent memories back to age three, and some fragmented ones when I was smaller; my husband's tended to be very fragmented before age eight. Then in "For Eyes to See as Can" Aragorn does meet with Sam, Merry, and Pippin a few days after the reading of the will on the road to Bree, with him sending an Elf to Brandy Hall to call them out to tell him of Frodo's leaving. Am glad the letters moved you, too. | |
| shirebound | Reviewed Chapter: 100 on 3/11/2006 |
| Oh Larner, how beautiful and poignant and heartbreaking and lovely, all at once. The letters... Aragorn's farewell at the Havens... that final scene... What a stunning story. Author Reply: I am honored, Shirebound--truly honored. Thank you. | |