Stories of Arda Home Page
About Us News Resources Login Become a member Help Search
swiss replica watches replica watches uk Replica Rolex DateJust Watches

Stirring Rings  by Larner 315 Review(s)
abbott411Reviewed Chapter: 4 on 4/23/2021
Very beautiful when Manwe comes across Olorin finally!

mystarlightReviewed Chapter: 39 on 10/13/2019
Are you going to update this story? I really love it and the status is not complete.

AranadhelReviewed Chapter: 39 on 8/8/2019
Suilaid Larner,

I love this story.

Will there be updates?

mystarlightReviewed Chapter: 39 on 4/10/2019
Breathtaking story thank you for sharing.

PSWReviewed Chapter: 9 on 12/18/2016
Well, that's sad... 😢

But, I've been fascinated to think of a time when Hobbits lived in other areas, and were known by many different folk, and traded and dealt with other races -- yet still managed to live in hidden little villages, where only the most observant would find them. Very interesting...

I'm very much enjoying this, thanks as always for writing!

PSWReviewed Chapter: 5 on 12/17/2016
You've got to be kidding me, dude (to use our own vernacular ;-). If you can't keep your own raging ego in check, at least keep your mouth closed and don't *cause* the damage yourself.

This story is very intriguing so far. Thanks for writing!

Author Reply: Oh, yes, he can't yet see beyond his own interests. And thanks for responding!

PSWReviewed Chapter: 3 on 12/17/2016
Very interesting, the idea that those who made the choice to turn away eventually don't even remember they made that choice, or that they were ever anything else. Interesting and sad.

I really liked the whole conversation w Osse and Uinen -- it's not something you usually see, and they do have a unique perspective to offer...

Author Reply: Tolkien himself intimated that this was true. Those who became Balrogs in time were lost in their assumed nature and could not return to what they'd been originally.

I've seen a few stories in which Osse and Uinen figured, and I love working them in when I can.

Thanks so very much!

PSWReviewed Chapter: 2 on 12/16/2016
Well...right. Good old Curumo doesn't fill me with a great deal of confidence even right from the beginning. Can't be all that surprised that this went wrong...

Author Reply: I suspect that Curumo/Saruman/Curunir carried the seeds of his own downfall from the first, don't you? Heh! Thanks so much for the comments!

PSWReviewed Chapter: Prologue on 12/16/2016
Nice chapter...very interesting look at Maglor. This feels like a very legitimate description of how he may have spent his time over the years....

Author Reply: I would think he had had plenty of time to ponder his own family's questionable actions and the results of them, and would now wish to see Sauron follow his Master. Thanks so, PSW.

ImrahilReviewed Chapter: 22 on 8/27/2016
I won't say much on this chapter, as the Kingship Succession of TA 1945 is hotly debated elsewhere. For my part, I feel the Dunedain of Gondor made the only reasonable choice available to them. A stranger who had never set foot in Gondor could never be accepted as King, not when he had done nothing to aid Gondor in its hour of need and when other more suitable candidates remained, Aragon was crowned due to his great deeds in aiding Gondor and that there were no other Royals to oppose him.

Earnil received the Crown with the approval of all the Dunedain in Gondor, but your portrayal of his reluctance seems unfounded.

"The crown was claimed by Eärnil, the victorious captain; and it was granted to him with the approval of all the Dúnedain"

Earnil claimed the crown. That much is obvious. The victorious captain wanted to be King and took the crown with both hands. You don't go very deep into Earnil's character and the reader doesn't understand this proud Lord of the Dunedain would want to serve a stranger rather than rule himself. After all, it's Earnil who saves Gondor and corrects the failure of Onodher. Arvedui does nothing to really help Gondor in its hour of need. It is no wonder that Pelendur and the Council denied him, your interjection of Pelendur's unfounded personal jealousy notwithstanding. I had not intended to address that, but your addition of personal jealousy to Pelendur's motivations seems to stand out from Tolkien's legendarium. That is not a theme that the Professor included very often.

Author Reply: We know that Ondoher's daughter Firiel married Arvedui, heir to the King of Arnor. It is most likely that Gandalf helped to broker that marriage, and that he would serve to ferry correspondence between the two royal houses between daughter and her family by birth. I am certain that in the years of Ondoher's reign Gandalf was a frequent visitor to Gondor, particularly as it was predicted that should the lineage of Ondoher fail within Gondor, it was to the advantage of both lands that the King of Arnor should claim both crowns.

Once Ondoher and his two sons were gone, the prediction became stronger and more defined--if Arvedui should be successful in making his claim on Gondor's throne as well as that of Arnor, then both lands would survive and bloom. What of this prediction made by Malbeth was known or accepted within the southern kingdom we don't know, but Gandalf did know of it and would undoubtedly have supported Arvedui's claim, particularly if it also included that Arvedui would work alongside his wife, who was the remaining child of Ondoher, and as their son would have a legitimate claim to the throne as Ondoher's grandson.

I chose to look at Earnil as an honorable man who would possibly recognize that perhaps it was time to change the law in Gondor to accept the claims of a daughter as had been allowed in time in Numenor. And I am sorry that you don't like my characterization of Pelendur; but as it is plain in the Master's writing that it was Pelendur's own decision not to recognize the claim of Arvedui and Firiel, I simply see a degree of misogyny and jealousy in his nature. I do not see that jealousy as being unfounded, particularly if he'd hoped to marry Firiel himself. But certainly once it was accepted within Gondor that Arvedui's claim on behalf of his marriage to Ondoher's daughter was being dismissed. Earnil was the only acceptable claimant left and he'd have accepted the Winged Crown as his due.

Nor do I believe that Arnor didn't offer what help it could send, but that in its straitened condition it could do little but to send a small force to Ondoher's assistance, as I indicated in the text of my story in its last chapter and as happened with the Grey Company when it joined Aragorn for the final battles with Mordor. Also, it is most likely that Arvedui HAD set foot within Gondor, as the marriage was most likely held in Firiel's father's court.

As for jealousy not being one Tolkien included very often--well, the fact is that as a motivation it is part of his writings both within and without LOTR. Gondolin fell in large part due to jealousy shown by Turgon's nephew when Idril married Tuor, a "mere" man; Erendis was jealous of her husband's love of the Sea; Grima was willing to sell his honor for the chance to take Eowyn as his own; the jealousy known by the Sackville-Bagginses of Bilbo and Frodo led in the end to the Time of Troubles with Lotho making himself dictator to the Shire. Here I must disagree with you that Pelendur ought not to have been seen as possibly jealous. I don't think he wished to be King himself; but he could very likely have hated any other who married the woman he very well might have wished to claim as his own wife.

Author Reply: I wished to add this:

On FF.n someone identifying him/herself as "Pelendur" wrote much the same as you have of how Pelendur the Steward of Gondor was well within his rights to dismiss the claim of Arvedui. I don't know that you wrote those comments as "Pelendur," but at least you and "Pelendur" are most likely known to one another and are part of a group given to much discussion of this period of time. Yes, from the point of view of Pelendur himself he was right to favor Earnil, a Gondorian of royal extraction. But, from the point of view of the whole history of the remains of the former realm ruled jointly by Elendil and his two sons, his was probably not the right one, particularly as prophecies indicated both lands would suffer if Arvedui's claim as not accepted. Well, it wasn't, and within two generations Gondor was a kingdom with no king and Arnor was left with a king who denied himself his proper title as he had no viable kingdom left to rule; and it was another thousand years before Aragorn rose to reunite the realm of his ancestors and to rule both as Elessar.

First Page | Previous Page | Next Page | Last Page

Return to Chapter List