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| Midwinter by Bodkin | 15 Review(s) |
|---|---|
| shirebound | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 12/23/2005 |
| What a fascinating series! Truly, everything (even snow) can only be experienced through the eyes and memory of those who perceive it. How lovely, and thank you for ending this with joy and love. Author Reply: Snow - (well, most things really) - can seem so different depending on what else is happening in your life. Some of these are rather bleak, but there are moments of joy and wonder. Thank you - I am glad you enjoyed these. | |
| meckinock | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 12/23/2005 |
| See, this is why review replies are so great. So they're all 315 words exactly? Another thing I saw in a review reply was the observation that we don't so much love winter as we love being protected from it. That's true, isn't it? Winter wouldn't be quite so fun if we didn't have a nice, warm house to retreat to when it gets awful outside. It's interesting to think about how snow can be both beautiful and brutal. I'm very glad you told us who the players were in the summary; otherwise I'd still be working it out! Brilliant work; using the experience of snow to draw together women from disparate races and ages. You really brought each of them to life; from Melian's other-wordliness to the hobbit's determined pragmatism. Of course my favorite was the last segment, with the banter between Aragorn and Arwen - the queen gone mad, LOL. Author Reply: I really enjoy reading reviews and replies! Why 315 you might ask - and the answer is 'duh'. (The first one was 315. And then the second was 319 - so I cut four words - and then the rest had to be as well.) I came up with a rationale, though! A guinea was one pound one shilling - or 105p. So that make them three guineas. OK. Stupid. And winter is great fun when you have warm clothes and hot food and comfortable shelter - but not so good if you are trying to survive. I was going to put the names at the top - but then the hobbit didn't have a name - and if had made one up it wouldn't have been a known character. Some of the segments were rather bleak - so I was pleased to have the fluffy elfling parts, and I was glad to see Arwen shed the controlled queen and dance in her petticoats in the snow. And I suspect Aragorn was, too! Thank you - I'm glad you liked them. They were fun. Although a little niggle has been telling me that a Rohan one would work nicely. | |
| Elflingimp | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 12/23/2005 |
| This wont be a long review, but that was lovely these stories are like Christmas presents I really love them Thanks Merry Christmas! Author Reply: Thank you! They jumped into my head as seasonal stories - I thoroughly enjoyed writing them and I am so pleased you liked them. Have a very Merry Christmas! | |
| perelleth | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 12/23/2005 |
| THis had the quietness of a snowed landscape, bodkin, the mute vignettes and the contemplative moods of these female characters... Great! Winter is a hard, unforgiving season, and it is surprising how deeply embedded this is in our western culture: the silence, the numbing cold, the dangers of freezing and the lack of food... I'm just come from a land with no seasons, where cold only happens on top of the highest mountains, where only the gods live, and I was missing the true sense of winter, so these vigenettes are particualrly welcome :-) Of course I loved the last one, even if I prefer warm climates, yet I can understand Arwen only too well. Seeing plump Santas sweating in their costumes is the best way of murdering christmas spirit! Melian was great too, (all are, indeed) and how she would understand the play of light and water in the apparently solid, colourless flakes... and how the snow reminded her of her earlier freedom from flesh... The rest show perfectly the harsh beauty of this hard season and the struggle for survival, be it Elves on the Helcaraxë or Edain in their trip West. Yet, underneath the cold, one can feel the solidarity, the sacrifice, the selflessness and all the good things that sustained them. Wonderful, Bodkin. If cold! ;-) Author Reply: Thank you, perelleth. People say they love winter - but I read somewhere that what they really enjoy is being protected from it. It is a hard time - and early spring, when food supplies run short can be even worse. I loved the idea of Arwen shedding her queen-persona and running outside bare-foot in her petticoats to dance in the snow. Echoes of Aragorn's first sight of her - and of Luthien. And Celebrian and (presumably) Legolas as elflings playing in the snow. But I was most moved myself by the plight of Noldor crossing the Helcaraxë - and Haleth seeking safety for her house - and the plight of the hobbits in the Fell Winter. I had to force myself to stop in the end! And I still wouldn't be surprised to find that the Rohirrim insist on an episode. And, just as an aside - they are all 315 words long! | |
| Dreamflower | Reviewed Chapter: 1 on 12/23/2005 |
| What a lovely set of little ficlets, ranging from angst to fluff and back again! I love the image of snow that ties them all together, showing all the different aspects of it. Very beautifully done! Author Reply: Thank you. I decided I had to post them in the end, because I kept looking for other female characters who could be out in the snow! (And I have to go and finish my wrapping.) I'm glad you liked them. (I thought about naming the hobbit - but I don't know much about hobbit history - and I didn't want to make her a chronologically impossible character.) | |