Stories of Arda - Lord of the Rings Fan-Fiction Archive


	About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search

With Their Heads Full of Dreams by GamgeeFest	41 Review(s)
Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/9/2006
Oh, to meet Luthien! How wonderful! And then the Mariner himself! Poor Sam--going between the mundane, the heavenly, and the empty and back as he has. And yet it is a foreshadowing of what will come one day, and not necessarily a pleasant one. Yet Frodo carries him back.... Author Reply: It will be some time before Sam realizes that was Luthien, but the Mariner has been a subject of fascination for Sam since he was a faunt. If Sam ever really did meet him in waking life, he probably would pass out! Sam will take a similar route to this one day, though it will be far different than anything he could imagine. The heavenly will be strange and set apart, the empty will be devoid of everything but full of despair, the mundane will be a welcome reprieve. So long as he has Frodo with him, or know that Frodo is strong and whole, he can withstand all. Thanks for reading!

Dreamflower	Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/9/2006
I tried to review this last night, and the computer ate it. Let's see if I have more success this morning! This is great, GF! It's less of a dream than a prescient vision, and the symbolism is absolutely fascinating. I am assuming that the Elf maiden was Luthien? That would explain Earindil telling Sam that he would never see her again. "Remain or follow". This will be Sam's choice all his life: when Frodo leaves the Shire, when Frodo leaves Rivendell, when Frodo leaves the Fellowship at Amon Hen, when Sam thinks his master dead at Cirith Ungol, when Frodo leaves Middle-earth at the Grey Havens. And every time, Sam's choice will be difficult on the one hand, and simple on the other--difficult, because it means leaving behind everyone and everything else he loves and risking his very life, yet simple, because he will always be loyal to Frodo. And I love that the Eagle was Frodo. There are so many different things to read into that! This has to be the best so far of these dreams, and I am going to have to re-read it several times to get to all the layers of meaning here. Author Reply: Luthien it is, a most appropriate guide for Sam's dream quest. That choice will plague him all his life and has even now begun to make its presence known in more ordinary ways, such as the night before, when the Gaffer tried to make him choose between staying at home for dinner or going to eat with his masters. Well, Frodo is a Great Eagle because he and Sam talked about Frodo being a great eagle just before dinner. ;) Sam also associates the eagles with nobility and courage, two things he knows Frodo has in spades. That Frodo came for Sam is most significant - Sam knows that he can rely on Frodo no matter what.

Andrea	Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/9/2006
So, that Elven Lady was Luthien Tinuviel, right? A very interesting dream. Once again it started out as if it was real. I can very well imagine Sam and his friends looking for elves in the woods. “Shoulda brought rope,” he mutters to himself. That's Sam, indeed! And then the Elven Lady brings him to a place where all the heroes from great legends are assembled. And they bow to him! They seem to know already what Sam will do in the future, while he, of course, knows not. “You must choose, Samwise. Remain or follow,” the Mariner says. [...] his choice is between a known existence that is not his to live, or an unknown path that he may not survive. This is a different situation compared to the choices he will have to make in the future. But the essence is the same and very simple: Remain or follow! I also liked it that Sam was brought back by Frodo, as a great eagle. “If you can carry me, then I carry you. I’m not a weakling.” Right he is! Some people tend to forget this! Author Reply: Yes, that is Luthien. She too, like Sam, had a hard choice to make between her father and her love, and she followed her love into the very pit of darkness. While her tale was meant to foretell the Aragorn-Arwen story, it also applies to the friendship between Frodo and Sam in many ways. In the first chapter, Sam tells Frodo that he and his friends often go to the woods to look for elves. They also talk about Frodo becoming a bird. Funny how things will slip into your unconscious to come out in your dreams. Sam and rope! LOL Nothing really needs to be said about that. ;) Remain or follow will forever be the choices of Sam's life. Dreamflower lists all the major instances perfectly. Frodo is the strongest hobbit that Sam knows. Perhaps not the strongest physically, though Frodo is much sturdier than people give him credit for (after all, he hauled Sam up from the cliff in Eymn Muil!) and by far he is the strongest in character. Everything Sam knows about nobility and compassion, he learned from Frodo.

harrowcat	Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/9/2006
Oh yes this is so very Sam-ish. I, too, loved the references to rope. I just wonder whether anyone starts suffering with deja vue later in their journey. Author Reply: Even practical Sam can overlook things at times, and it always seems to be the rope. ;) Sam will likely recall this dream when Strider tells them about Luthien and Beren. He'll have some thinking to do when that happens, for then he'll realize this is more than just a dream. Thanks for the review!

Grey Wonderer	Reviewed Chapter: 5 on 4/9/2006
“Shoulda brought rope,” he mutters to himself. If Sam ever wrote a book about his own life, that should be the title! I loved this one. All the talk about how tall elves are so great. These dreams are turning out to be very revealing indeed! Excellent chapter! Author Reply: LOL, I can just see Sam writing "Shoulda Brought Rope: The Story of My Life" ^_^ For someone who comes from a family of ropers, he certainly never has any when he needs it! Thanks for the compliments!

Dreamflower	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 3/29/2006
At last! I finally got to read this start to finish without being interrupted! This is an amazing chapter--so much meat to it! A lot of depth and foreshadowing, as well as the references to some of your other stories. It is so like Frodo to dream of reading, isn't it? The images are haunting, and of course we know what they mean even if Frodo doesn't. This is really very well done! Author Reply: Reading and writing - that's our Frodo! He reads and writes so much throughout the day that it's starting to seep into his dreams. Almost too much meat to it! It was giving me such grief, until I figured out how to transfer the problems I was having onto Frodo. grins Bilbo book-ending the dream, much as he book ends Frodo's life in a way: when he came to live in Hobbiton and his true healing began there, and then after the Quest, going to Valinor to be healed again. The acorn/oak tree will be clarified in an upcoming chapter, so I won't say anything about that just yet. Sam, of course, is the key component to the dream: Sam brings Frodo out of his darkness before he can become too lost in it. His protection has literally been right under his nose this whole time, and he's just now beginning to understand that. Thanks so much for reading! So glad you were able to catch up!

Elf Friend	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 3/28/2006
This was great! But such a change from the other light-hearted, insane dreams! This really shows how burdened Frodo is, even if he tries to push those feelings away during the day. Love the interactions with Sam, those were really important for what comes later, especially during the Quest. Can't wait for Sam's dream! :) Author Reply: Each dream is different from the rest, according to who the dreamer is. There is always an undercurrent of melancholy about Frodo and that comes out in his dreams more often than not. Even if his waking self is perfectly content and happy, there will always be that loss that he experienced when his parents died. Sam always comes at just the right moment, when Frodo's most in danger of losing himself to the bad memories. Even in dreams, Sam is looking out for Frodo! I can't wait to find out what Sam dreams about myself. I'm hoping it'll be fun. :) Thanks for reading!

Larner	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 3/28/2006
And his protector is most likely right outside the window there, although in the end he had more protectors than he himself could protect back.... Lovely, sad dream. Author Reply: Yes, that's exaclty where his protector is, going about his job and interrupting Frodo's memories just when they get most dire. He's always had more protectors than he realized: his parents, his guardians, Bilbo, Merry, Pippin, Fatty and Folco. But they are family and family is supposed to protect and take care of each other, and so we often times take that bond for granted. Frodo never suspected to find such fierce loyalty in the gardener's son and so it means a great deal to him. One of these days, I'm going to have to give Frodo a happy dream. ^_^ Thanks for reading!

Andrea	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 3/28/2006
"What kind of stupid dream is this anyway?” LOL! That's not my thought, I'm only quoting ;-) Well, Frodo is the first one to realise that he's actually dreaming. Compared to the dreams of Bilbo and the Gaffer, this one seems realistic. It's a different sort of dream, which foreshadows coming events - like lots of Frodo's dreams may have been. The tragic loss of his parents is still present in his dreams, a haunting memory that mingles with other memories and even destroys them. But when he finally holds the "real" book of memoirs in hands it shows him that time did not stand still. Life has gone on for him since then. Not all memoirs are pleasant, but most. Bilbo goes away and gives Sam the task to hand that book to Frodo! Well, if that doesn't say everything! I wonder if after this dream Frodo knows who his protector is. Author Reply: LOL, I figured that of the four hobbits, Frodo would be the one to realize that he is indeed dreaming. He has had prophetic dreams before so he knows the signs! The loss of his parents, no matter how much he comes to accept it and put it behind him, will forever shape him. He simply needs to remember that their deaths were not the only thing that happened to him in his young life. It's often easier to remember the bad things that happen to us and forget the good; Frodo needed to realize that both cannot only happen at the same time but that the good in his life far outweighs the bad. It does say everything, doesn't it? Couldn't be clearer unless you put a big blinking neon sign over Sam's head that says "I'm you're protector!" grins Frodo will certainly be paying closer attention to Sam after this. He'll be content to suspect that it is Sam, and as the years go by, that suspicion will only grow stronger. He won't know for certain until the quest and Cirith Ungol. Thanks for reading!!

Grey Wonderer	Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 3/28/2006
All of that advice about the Journal was interesting and I love how this all comes back to Sam and past fictions. You are very clever at this dream business. Still enjoying this very much. Author Reply: Bilbo was kind enough to give me that little pointer and help organize my thoughts a bit, but Frodo was still being uncooperative. I really had no choice but to make it his problem that none of the memories were completing themselves and were constantly getting all jumbled up. grins I knew all along that I wanted it to end with Frodo beginning to comprehend that Sam is in fact his protector. Originally, I had him telling Sam that he knew, but that was simply too forward for this point in time. This way works much better, with Frodo simply suspecting the truth, and I also wanted to book end the dream with Bilbo giving Frodo some last minute advice. Thanks for the review! I'm glad you're enjoying the dreams!

First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page

Return to Chapter List