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Stirring Rings  by Larner 315 Review(s)
Kitt OtterReviewed Chapter: 3 on 12/8/2013
I like how you portray Osse and Uinen -- he so restless and dangerous, she so gentle and patient. A pity that their wisdom did not stick to Curumo!
Very interesting about the functions of the staffs. Manwe is quite wise (but that is to be expected!)


Author Reply: Oh, heavens--I missed these two comments! I had pondered just why the breaking of Saruman's staff was so meaningful, or why he'd made the comment that Gandalf must wish to take possession of the staff of each of the five wizards, and finally figured out that each staff was unique to each Wizard, and thus must hold part of their power and memories from the time they'd been merely Maiar in the Undying Lands. I tried to stay true to what we have been told of the natures of Osse and Uinen, so I'm so glad you like how I portrayed them. And you are right--Curumo would have done far better to listen to their advice!
Thanks so for the comments--this last chapter took too, too long to finish!

Kitt OtterReviewed Chapter: 1 on 12/3/2013
Taking a pause here to say that I am really enjoying this. Such a wide cast of characters! And all so vividly depicted! How like Finrod to set his case before the Valar - and not forgetting his sister. And how inevitable it looks (for us with hindsight) for Curumo to become Saruman of Many Colors!

Author Reply: Again, thanks for the comments. I don't know how long it will take me to catch up to the ending to the story. Actually, the last few chapters have been written truly for years--but getting through the intervening chapters takes a LONG time, for some reason I just don't fully understand.

Finrod is a character I'd not paid a good deal of attention to before Fiondil began posting here on SoA, so I'm glad that you find him well portrayed here, as I felt at the time I wrote this that he was almost an incidental character.

And I finally have another chapter posted! I wish it didn't take so long to get these chapters written!

LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 36 on 5/26/2013
Whew. Chilling. Powerfully written. Amazing job.

Author Reply: Oh, thank you so, Lindelea! Sauron did his best to destroy the chance for happiness and self-fulfillment for anyone else however he could. There is evidence he practiced germ warfare, and that he abducted and either abused or killed countless people for his own purposes. How much Gandalf must have learned about him over the fifteen hundred or so years he dwelt in Middle Earth in the form of a mortal.

SunnyReviewed Chapter: 36 on 5/24/2013
I'd guess even an Evil Overlord(tm) would have to be logical. And if Sauron is working to improve on the Orcs, it would make sense to get the very best "breeding stock" for this purpose. And he also wouldn't be averse to the way abducting the best would weaken his opponents as well.
And it would also put Celebrķan's capture into perspective - that event would come up quite soon now, I think.

Author Reply: Ah--you have it indeed! Weaken those most likely to oppose his program by coopting their most promising and turning them away from self-knowledge and integrity to unquestioning obedience. And, yes, we are approaching that event, along with the battle of the Celebrant.

ExcelsisReviewed Chapter: 35 on 3/19/2013
Have you read the works of Edith Nesbit? I myself was very charmed by The Railway Children (not fantasy, I know, but very touching and highly recommended), and when I was a small child I read The Ship That Flew by Hilda Lewis.

My my! What discussion material we have.

ExcelsisReviewed Chapter: 35 on 3/19/2013
Tolkien's love of nature, is of course, inescapable. I wonder what his attitude towards the Industrial Revolution was. From what I gathered from his letters, he seemed to have loved the sime he spent in a small hamlet in Sarehole.

ExcelsisReviewed Chapter: 35 on 3/19/2013
Good Heavens! I fear I made a few spelling miatakes like "world", not "word" and sculpture has been spelled in an interesting but incorrect way. It's too bad that my computer doesn't have spell-check.

On the whole, I find Storis of Arda to be a good site because there really is quality control and management. I have visited fanfiction.net before, and often what you get there is very silly.

ExcelsisReviewed Chapter: 35 on 3/19/2013
I have also always found the failure of the White Council (even including Saruman's intereference) to investigate and to act when they had hundreds of years to do so to be somewhat vexing. Even if the Necromancer had turned out to be a lesser servant of evil, one less Necromancer in the world makes the word a better place.

ExcelsisReviewed Chapter: 35 on 3/19/2013
If you like history, especially cultural history, I would also recommend From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun. A man with wonderfully deep knowledge and a rather engaging style. He chronicles Western cultural history from the Renaissance to the present.

As for my own musical tastes, I find Bach to be supreme whereas in painting, I most admire Raphael and i scukpture, Micheangelo.

ExcelsisReviewed Chapter: 35 on 3/19/2013
Truly, you have travelled far and wide in the realm of fantasy literature. I used to love the Athurian cycles when I was a child, who, like many others, admired the virtuous knights of the Round Table and the little paradise on Earth created in Camelot.

Now however, I find that the this Matter of Britain is too tragic. All the characters in the end (unless I am very much mistaken) meet a tragic fate. I never understood why Merlin continued to teach Nimue his secrets even though he was thoroughly possessed of the foreknowledge that Nimue would betray him. Curses and witchcraft are omnipresent, while the goodness of God seems to be distant. Do you have a favourite character? Mine would be Sir Galahad, who was the purest of them all. Do you have a favourite story? Mine would be the rescue of the lady by Sir Gareth and the Quest for the Holy Grail.

If Arthur is tragedy, then Robin Hood can I am sure be considered as comedy.

I find that the Chronicles of Narnia is a sweet and very allegorical story, more for children than Tolkien, some of whose scenes can be very dark. Tolkien portrays both absolute or near absolute goodness in the forms of Elves (I grant that a few of them were more susceptible to evil than their peers, but on the whole, the purity of their hearts is without parallel in Middle-earth) as well as absolute evil.

I have read Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy and found it to be quite philosophical in vein, but though I enjoyed it, I do not consider it to be the very best in the field. I read L'Engle (A Wrinkle in Time) as a very small child, so sadly did not appreciate much of it.

May I presume that your favourite character in The Lord of the Rings is Aragorn?

So you are also interested in history and archaelogy and brain mapping and poetry? I used to be quite a history enthusiast, and even now, my family tells me that my understanding of it is vast. I know a lot more about Western history, however, than about Oriental history, mainly because I have always found that tackling the story of China is very difficult. One has to go through 9 major dynasties as well as a myriad of smaller periods.

I used to study The Second World War in partucular, and must regret that Britain and France made enough major mistakes during the 1930s to allow for German victory in 1940.

I am also very interested (I think I'm overusing this word) in neuroscience. The brain is the most fascinating and complex piece of matter in the universe, and if we can understand it, then humanity would be able to realise its true potential.

Have you travelled much for archealogical purposes? I have visited the Louvre and the British Museum (Elgin marbles) as well as many Italian museums but have never been on-site, though I wish to go to Greece one day.

What style of poetry do you like? Just to list one example, there is a passage attributed by George Eliot to Alfred de Musset which is strikingly beautiful.

Nous causames longtemps; elle etait simple et bonne.
Ne sachant pas le mal, elle faisait le bien;
Des richesses du coeur elle me fit l'aumone,
Et tout en ecoutant comme le coeur se donne,
Sans oser y penser je lui donnai le mien;
Elle emporta ma vie, et n'en sut jamais rien.

Which means:


"We talked for a long time; she was simple and kind.
Knowing no evil, she did only good:
She gave me alms from the riches of her heart,
And listening intently as she poured out her heart,
Scarcely daring to think, I gave her mine;
Thus she carried off my life, and never even knew it."

I also loved some passages in Paradise Lost, the most poignant scene for me being the departure of Adam and Eve and their vow to support each other in the wilderness. And of course, what plays do you like?

Since you like poetry, do you like novels as well? If you do, then I would seriously recommend Middlemarch, by George Eliot, which I believe to be of the greatest novels ever writtn. Virginia Woolf described it as one of the few novels written for grown-ups.

And what about music and painting?

Since we have much time to discuss, I shall end this rather long message here. Hope to hear from you soon!

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