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Another Moment of your Time  by Larner 508 Review(s)
LindeleaReviewed Chapter: 98 on 4/17/2023
Happiest of birthday wishes!

This story was beautifully done, as always. I so love the little details that bring the scene to life, like the green blanket with the dragonfly. Frodo was so understanding and compassionate, and he managed to offer so much comfort despite his own failing frame. This made wonderful comfort reading, yet the ending was both a shock of cold water and painfully poignant.

I loved Frodo's wondering what Sam would think, and then Sam's actual reaction! Lovely!

I hope that you came safely and uneventfully to your door once more. That birthday cake was a rare treat!

Author Reply: Thanks so much for your insightful comments, Lindelea. The dragonfly blanket reappears at odd moments in my tales, and I so want it to have been passed on, down through Sam and Rosie's brood.

Sam knows both his wife and his brother of the heart so well I'm certain he would see the situation as Frodo did, rejoicing that Rosie whn exhausted would ascribe the help and comfort she received as being from him, and that Frodo was willing to foresee what Sam would have done had he been home at that minute.

As for the ending, how the realization he would probably leave Middle Earth must have haunted him if (when) Sam might have spoken of a future Frodo himself suspected (knew) would not happen.

Yes, an uneventful return trip, and back to work on Tuesday. The solar system got its finishing touches today, and we await the replacement of a single panel and the final inspection prior to the switch being turned on, at which time PUD starts buying power from me for a change. Thanks for sharing the cake with me!

Galadriel GardnerReviewed Chapter: 98 on 4/15/2023
First, a happy, happy birthday, and many more! May God bless you in the coming year.

This is so sweet! It’s endearing that Frodo has learned to recognize Elanor’s different cries as well as her parents have. I chuckled over poor tired Rose mistaking him for Sam.

Love the way Frodo speaks to Elanor like a person who is perfectly capable of understanding what he says, as she undoubtedly is. The reunion at the end is sweet and a little sad, because indeed he won’t be there always. But I do believe he loved her always, her of all the thirteen children, as the one he was able to know.

I love the detail in this story, as in all of yours, but especially the blanket made for infant Frodo and now passed on to Elanor, the nearest to a daughter he will ever have.

Author Reply: In one ficlet I wrote Frodo is given his mother's hope chest. She'd filled it with items intended for each child she conceived, most of which hadn't graced the child originally intended to receive it. Now Frodo gives it to Rosie and Sam that their children might fulfill the hope worked into each gown, cap, blanket, quilt, and garment. I suspect each and every item was well loved and worn.

Of course he speaks rationally to his niece, and she understands the love he gives her in each syllable.

shireboundReviewed Chapter: 98 on 4/13/2023
What a precious and unexpected experience for Frodo, to care for a baby and be part of a loving family... for as long as possible.

Author Reply: Yes, for what time is left to him, here in the Shire. How he must have loved the Shire and the family it gifted him with!

Galadriel GardnerReviewed Chapter: 1 on 1/26/2023
Yes, the time for truth indeed, and past it for some of these thick-headed ones. That’s how it is, though. Every generation, among Hobbits or humans, has its hangers-on that are resistant to a way of seeing things different from what they’ve always known.

I love the weaving of gentle humor throughout this serious story. The mushroom story had me laughing, as did Merry and Pippin’s banter. Apparently the Thain hasn’t outgrown the sheer cheek to take something without permission, but what a good decision it was! Writing all over it… well, he’s very good, so I’m sure Sam didn’t mind in the end! Now I must go and read the full text of this song!

Author Reply: Oh, but I missed this comment, and I apologize! I suspect that Pippin never gave over his love of mischief, and this time he was right--in his way.

Thanks so!

KittyReviewed Chapter: 97 on 8/5/2022
Always nice to see Pando and Cyclamen again :-)

Turin's story certainly was depressing. Never really got properly through the Silmarillion, to be honest. Too much gloom and doom.

Frodo's conclusion surprised me, too. I remember Artanis, but am not sure if I forgot Altariel and Nerwen, or if I never knew these names. Anyway, it's nice that Sam stumbled over this particular book.

Author Reply: Gads, so many stories you reviewed that I'd missed!

I wish that Frodo had married, as I'm certain he would have been a most devoted Dad. I like to see him with children about him, I find.

Names in the Undying Lands are confusing, as the individual starts out with at least two, one from Dad and one from Mom. Then other nicknames get added as time goes on that often become the "official" names for the individual. I'd be rather insulted to be dubbed "Mannish Woman" by my mother, I think. I don't reread the Sil much, and sometimes I have to go back to the Encyclopedia to remind myself of what parts of it means.

Thanks so.

KittyReviewed Chapter: 96 on 8/5/2022
That Ultimo is quite a piece of work, isn't he? But he certainly tried to cheat the wrong person out of his shares. Should have remembered who Frodo is related to - and that Merry and Pippin went with him. At least now he's properly educated, if he wants to or not.

Anyway, it's obvious how Frodo takes way too much in stride when it goes against himself, but gets really angry when any attacks are turned against people he loves, like Aragorn. I really hope the other Travellers will keep an eye on that hobbit; I don't trust him at all. And I can't blame Frodo for wanting to curse him, because I wanted to have him slapped down hard for his insolence. Glad Merry and Pippin were there, he'd not dare to do anything stupid with them around.

Sounds like Ultimo thinks he can get his claws into Frodo's shares and maybe more when he passes, or is related to someone who is? He was way too happy that Frodo is not supposed to have an heir.



Author Reply: There were some who refused to acknowledge Bilbo after his adventure, and I wouldn't be surprised if some who blamed Frodo for Lotho's transgressions tried the same with Frodo. Not that Frodo could foresee what Lotho would do, of course. Nor was Frodo aware of Saruman's awareness of the Shire and his corrupt association with Lotho. Ultimately does not appreciate how lucky he was that the Ring is gone.

Thanks so!

KittyReviewed Chapter: 95 on 8/5/2022
If Frodo had really healed and stayed in Middle-earth, I wonder how many years he'd have argued with Sam and Rosie about calling him 'Master'. He's not the only stubborn Hobbit, after all.

That dream was rather prophetic, wasn't it? We know it came true, after all. Interesting he did have it such a long time in advance. It might have influenced his final decision, too, who knows?

Author Reply: Too true, Kitty. Thanks!

KittyReviewed Chapter: 94 on 8/5/2022
Such a sweet story! I love how Frodo helped from so far away to bring this little family to safety.

Author Reply: I enjoyed writing this story. So glad you enjoyed it, Kitty.

periannoreReviewed Chapter: 96 on 5/9/2022
Wow, Pippin has really grown up and he has certainly earned that maturity.
Sam's sensitivity to what haunts Frodo and his open, affectionate support is golden.
You have treated the aftereffects of Frodo's quest in such a way as to show its implications in practical, believable terms. Dear, Wise Frodo has devised a caring use for his shares Aragorn is sure to appreciate.
As always your story enhances my visions of Middle Earth infusing it with reality I know isn't true but love to believe in my imagination and heart. However I still pick and choose what to make permanent in my personal M.E. and mean hobbits like Ultimo aren't welcome.
what's with Ultimo's hatred of Frodo? I miss points more often than I like to admit but why would he hate Frodo? Is it just that he wants to keep Frodo's shares for himself?
Please keep writing.

Author Reply: Not all Hobbits were inherently nice, unfortunately. Bilbo's cousin Otho Sackville-Baggins, his wife Lobelia Bracegirdle, and their son Lotho are cases in point. Otho's father Longo married the heiress to the family head for the Sackville clan, and by joining her family name to his own he joined her as family heads to the Sackvilles. Otho had expected that as Bilbo's closest male relative he would inherit Bilbo's roles as Master of Bag End and the Hill as well as becoming family head to the Bagginses, making him the first Hobbit to head two clans at the same time. Otho was unnaturally ambitious for a Hobbit, Lobelia is generally disliked and a petty thief, and Lotho is a lout who wants to be the boss of all. They appear briefly in the movies, Lobelia calling through the door, and her and Otho striding aggressively into the Party Field while Bilbo and Frodo hide behind a tent. In The Hobbit and LOTR they play far larger roles in the books, with Lotho and Lobelia (Otho had died by the time Frodo left the Shire) buying Bag End from Frodo and Lotho subsequently bringing in a small army of Mannish thugs to make himself the tyrant of the Shire. The thugs were loaned to Lotho by Saruman, by the way.

I suspect that there were some Hobbits who blamed Frodo for the Time of Troubles, as the period of Lotho's terrible rule was called, and that Ultimo was one of these. It was this that motivated him to pretend that Frodo wasn't himself rather than greed for Frodo's tobacco shares. Bilbo faced a period when several people within the Shire refused to admit he was himself, particularly when he found himself having to demand the return of items from Bag End Uncle Longo, Otho, and Lobelia had auctioned off after Longo had Bilbo declared dead as he'd been gone for a year and a day.

I write more slowly than I once did, but then I'm growing older and have too many calls on my time and energy. Am contemplating retiring, but I have a floor to install first.

Thanks again for your response to this story, and I hope you like the one I just posted.
Yes, Pippin has grown a great deal during the time they were gone--and the presence of those swords intimidated Ultimo to stop the pretense.

periannoreReviewed Chapter: 97 on 5/7/2022
From the title I worried this would be a lackluster fic but since Frodo was in it and living in the shire I had hope. It turns out I had the pleasure of spending some peaceful, quality time with Frodo, Sam and the children.
The little history lesson went down pleasantly and given the conclusion the title couldn't have been more apt. I welcomed the bits which gave my imagination new fodder for my continuing daydreams about Frodo and the Fellowship. For example: "I had to ask Master Erestor, as keeps Lord Elrond’s library for him, to help make it out." I'm imagining scenarios involving Elrond giving Erestor time off to satisfy Sam's boundless interest in books of tales in Elvish, and maybe to help Merry with the maps.
“You did this picture?” He nodded,... “Bilbo seemed to think it was close enough to how he remembered Smaug being, there in the treasury in the Lonely Mountain. I hope I did Glaurang justice.” I like the idea that Frodo has an aptitude for drawing and can imagine so many ways to incorporate it in my musings about him.
Last before this review becomes longer than your story I loved what you didn't say. As young as they are the children didn't beg for bites of tangerine. This showed their love for Frodo and their willingness to forego treats in respect for his need.
Thank you for packing so much in this little fic.


Author Reply: Pando and Cyclamen Proudfoot first came into my stories while I was writing "The King's Commission," many, many years ago. They return at odd moments, I find. I like to imagine that Frodo was very good with children, and that he'd hoped to form a family of his own in place of the happy family he lost when his parents died when he was only eleven. However, I suspect that once he became keeper of the Ring It interfered with those dreams.

I've always thought of him as being both artistic and a fantastic dancer before he went on his quest as well. After all, Frodo was in his way the epitome of the artistic nature of the Fallohides, the resourceful nature of the Stoors, and the steadfastness of the Harfoot part of his heritage. It was the Fallohides that the other clans looked to in order to deal with situations the Hobbits of the Anduin valley found themselves facing, as the Fallohides were most intelligent and intuitive and able to think outside of the box, and thus best able to find solutions.

I suspect that after this story draws to a close that Frodo will offer slices of the tangerines to the children, and they trust to his known generosity so that they don't have to beg.

Thanks for your in depth expression of appreciation for the story.

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