Reviews (77)

Author's reply

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Nargothrond West... I'm away for a few days - I shall let a lack of access to the internet focus my mind on what story to pursue next. A Noldor/Vanyar perspective on the New Realms would be interesting. I need to know Amarie better. (I haven't even thought about whether she and Finrod have children...)

Author's reply

Thank you! It's lovely to hear from you at any time - and fingers crossed that you are not so busy that Deific Flame isn't somewhere on your to do list! I just can't see elves being able to cope with a Blessed Realm that was a marshmallow environment of smiling drones. And given the stresses and challenges of pre-Flight of the Noldor Aman, it must have remained a place to grow and develop. And, once he realised that, I think Celeborn was much more likely to heal and become happy there. He needed work - and to be needed: to have a role. (I do think going from superior life form, compared to Men, Dwarves and Hobbits, to the least powerful and youngest group, commpared to Valar and Maiar, must have come as a tremendous culture shock to those who sailed. An interesting addition to the whole trials of transition!) And C and G's relationship - they must have known each other so well. Strengths and weaknesses, fears and loves - and they were equals, able to say anything to each other and know it would be understood. I reckon they really enjoyed teasing each other and saying things that no-one else could. People change. Change and grow and become someone else - and I think this is one of the difficulties with the fear of unhoused elves returning to new bodies. How would they understand their new role in a world where their responsibilities had been taken up and borne by others over whole ages? Elu's kingdom had fallen and others grown to power and tumbled to dust - and Celeborn had stood beside other kings and ruled his own lands and seen the power of the elves fade. He would always be Elu's kin - but how could Elu step back into ruling a people he no longer understood while Celeborn accepted his commands? Hard enough for Finrod to come back and be the king's son rather than the king. I think he might have coped better than many - he seems a very open and curious elf. Which is why I think he would be suited to leading the more adventurous of the Noldor on a quest to live a different type of life. Plus he is a charmer, and that would help him build bridges between the different kindreds. Bordain sees himself as very simple - but sometimes the ability to draw a straight line between two points is beyond most people. Time is another one of those things that just gets to you when you are thinking about about Middle-earth - and relative time, too. Galadriel and Celeborn are free now - of Dooms and Rings and Nazgul and Dark Lords and such - and they have an absorbing task ahead of them and the time to do it. Galadriel will be lighter in spirit, I think. More inclined to laugh. And together they can look forward. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks again.

Author's reply

Thank you, elliska - I'm pleased you enjoyed it. Celeborn needed to feel that there was a reason for him to heal, I think. He's not one to sit back and watch the grass grow. Not indefinitely, anyway. And a happy, healed Celeborn together with a happy, healed Galadriel is a hot combination! It took so long to get round to finishing this that I rather lost the feel for it - but then it came back with the chapter before this. I was very pleased, too, as I really didn't want it to linger unfinished any longer!

Author's reply

I do like a good relationship between Galadriel and Celeborn! After all, why would they have stayed together for over two ages if they didn't care for each other? And after 6000 years and more, they really ought to understand each other pretty well. Elrond and Celebrian haven't been together so long - a mere 3500 years - but I think Celebrian is very empathetic and Elrond is very caring, so they make an excellent partnership. The twins have found their feet in the Blessed Realm - I think they were very worn when they arrived, but they have found a purpose. Not unlike their grandfather, really. And Finrod is undoubtedly a charmer. As is Finarfin, I think, although he agreed to keep out of this story to keep the cast numbers down. Finrod is naturally curious and interested in people - he would make a good leader of a group of Noldor who wanted to be the pioneers of a new way of life. Thank you - I am glad you have enjoyed the story!

Author's reply

Thank you! I do think that Galadriel and Celeborn must have been a very close couple - after all, you can't be married for more than two ages and still be together if you don't understand each other extremely well! And Galadriel wouldn't have been happy with a wimp. Celeborn would have to know when to listen to her - but be able and willing to put his foot down and command her in return. Galadriel was made more remote by the ring, I think. Which was probably one of the things Celeborn so resented about it. It detached her from the world and damped her warmth, but she has been in the Blessed Realm for 500 years and more and she has healed - and she is very happy to have Celeborn with her. She must have doubted at times that he would sail. He is the sort of person who would leave it until the very last minute and I think she would have feared that it would be too late. A lot of the Elves of Valinor can be very difficult and I cannot see them living in perfect, harp-playing harmony until the world is remade. Apart from anything else, I get to thinking about things like food, drink, accommodation, clothing, drainage, transport - markets for all that stuff they like making and so on and on and on. They must have had a complex society with people fulfilling all the roles you can imagine in a largely non-industrial society - and that means complex politics and social systems as well. I'm very flattered that you enjoy reading my Elves! Thank you.

Author's reply

I think elves are always keen to see what is behind the next tree or over the next horizon. They are so long lived - immortal, even! - that however slowly they take the pace, there must come a time when they just want to get up and go somewhere else. Especially among the Sindar and Silvan - like tree seed scattering and new forests growing. Finrod has the curiosity to want to see more, do more, know more. He was so interested in Men - I can see him wanting to explore - but he's loyal, too and he wouldn't want to distress Amarie. Not again. But this is different - and she is more than happy to join him on this venture! Thank you. I'm glad you liked this - it's taken over a year to get to the end of this one... but what is time to an elf!

Author's reply

Galadriel knows from experience what Celeborn is suffering - I think she's suffered on both sides of the pond, really. First from being exiled - might have been her choice, but I don't expect that was much consolation in the middle of some very dark nights - and later from the effects of ring-bearing. And, when she reached Aman, I'll bet she had the horrible realisation that it wasn't home any more - and that she'd much rather be east of the sea with Celeborn. Except that she was brittle and worn down and needed - well, just what she offered Celeborn really. Only he was able to benefit from her love and support and understanding. He didn't want it to be home - but came to realise that cutting off his nose to spite his face wouldn't work. And it crept up on him while he was busy and not thinking about himself! He has his own trees now - and a people who need his care and a world to explore. Goerfer doesn't bother much with introspection and Bordain is content to be, but between the pair of them, they make good foils for Celeborn and offer him a different perspective. Thank you, Perelleth. I'm glad you liked it!

Author's reply

Thank you. Celeborn needed to accept that he could be at home, I think. Realise that life goes on - and that he is needed just as much west of the sea as he was in the ruins of Doriath. There does seem to be an element throughout Tolkien of the female role being one of sacrifice and endurance. Galadriel generally gets the better end of the deal because Tolkien seems to have fallen rather for her glamour, but even in her case, she has to lose some - or even most - of what she most cares for. And her true victory is in submitting - and rejecting the offer of power. Yet she did have Celebrian and Arwen in the first place: you're right. Elrond's line was not as fortunate - although at least Dior got to grow up with his parents. Poor Elwing - and who knows about Nimloth's childhood! The twins are still running the rearguard - but I think there would have been a lot of back and forth over a long time, both for political and kinship reasons. Goerfer is satisfied - and Losgael is a happy great-grandmother. Bordain will, I think, disappear into the trees, wandering back when it suits him. I reckon Orome will keep an eye on him, though. I was taken with wondering about the Valar and their relationship with the elves. Manwe seems to have taken the Vanyar as his special group; Ulmo, of course, guided the Teleri and the Falathrim part of those left behind; Aule seemed to be more prone to error in his dealings with the Noldor (and in creating the Dwarves)... and then there are the other Valar. Orome is a natural for Wood-elves - and I can see him just forgetting about them for a few ages. All people are Namo's - under certain circumstances. Then I was listing the rest - and thinking that the male Valar seem to have gone more for the 'my people' thought, but what about the Valier? Who would see the Sindar as a special responsibility? Or were the Sindar as they were because they weren't adopted as a special people? ... I didn't come to any particular answer, mind. Celeborn needed a living world - he was afraid of stagnating and now he knows he's going to be kept just as busy - except when it comes to slaying the minions of the Dark Lord - he will settle down. And I think his relationship with Galadriel will be even better now she has recovered from the strains of ring-bearing. This may be the first time they have been able to build a home together equally, in the knowledge that what they build will last. Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Author's reply

Thank you. I do think that a touch can be more erotic than several pages of overly descriptive - er - intimate contact. Leaves more to the imagination. E/C, G/C and, come to that, Finrod and Amarie, have spent long enough apart to appreciate the closeness that comes with reunion. Yet they have the freedom to wander now as well - no nasties coming out from the trees - and come back to each other because they choose to be together. Elflings splashing in water - makes a great image! I love seeing elves playing between their moments of philosophising!

Author's reply

Celeborn would have needed a good deal of healing, I think, once he arrived in the West. First, because he didn't want to be there, but also because he had been fighting for Middle-earth since well before the sun rose. It will have taken some time for him to accept that it was all a piece of the same cloth - and that he was needed in Valinor just as he was east of the sea. He will always know that Arda is his home - but he had found a role in a place where he thought he would be an exile. Thank you!

Author's reply

Thank you, Larner. I think Celeborn was astonished and not altogether delighted to have Orome turn up here - but Bordain has stars in his eyes. They are all on the point of finding the forest they sought through all the long years.

Author's reply

Scholarly papers - isn't that just the way, though? People analysing activities carried out by those who just live them - and coming up with amazing statistics like 'poverty affects life expectancy'. The twins are more grown up and far wiser than they generally bother to display - they can do all the lordly stuff, they just don't see why they should. Especially since they're surrounded by so many who do it so naturally. They've freed Celeborn - now their next task is to send Elrond off to see his new home. And, perhaps, work on their great-grandfather. While having as much fun as possible doing it! Thank you.

Author's reply

I do find that, as you start thinking about the logistics of carrying out any act - other, perhaps, than warrior riding off to face orc patrol - you get enmeshed in how complicated it must be to organise anything in a world where you have forever to do it. It's bad enough for mortals! Bring together political and social implications - and moral justice - and population expansion - and factor in the will of the Powers, and it's all a giant bouillabaisse. This is one very powerful forest - anything that can make Celeborn take a step back must be special. The call to go West - maybe it just needed the right people at the right time, or maybe it just needed the right Vala to notice (I don't think the passage of time can mean anything much to the Valar. Great Journey to 500 or so years into the Fourth Age - it's nothing to them.) I don't think Orome has any real intention of hanging around to be admired, but he just wants to finish what he started. This story has been going about a year now - and it is turning out rather different to the way it started. I've tried re-reading the whole thing to see if it gels, and concluded that it probably doesn't altogether. But if I want to finish it - and I do - I've got to go with the current thread. Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Author's reply

Well - Glorfindel wouldn't want to get bored, would he? He's an elf who likes to have a purpose! And, while some were drawn West on the Great Journey, others weren't - and some never felt the sea-longing. - I think there must have been a different level of call, depending on all sorts of factors. Perhaps some were meant to remain... And it does, clearly, compare to the appeal of a television showing a major sporting event - that's probably why the female members of the party weren't quite so affected. They still had to make the food and look after the kids and answer the phone. Multi-tasking. Even female elves are not immune. Bordain has rather taken over here. He was no more than a passing character - but he has just caught my imagination so - one of the first, from the very beginning. Maybe the call to them required the right people together at the right time. Maybe Bordain is a catalyst - things can happen in his presence. Maybe he drew Orome's attention and made him think that the time was right. I can't imagine that the Valar perceive time even in the same way that elves do - it could be they scarcely notice the time that has passed. The physical presence of the Valar must have been pretty overwhelming (especially, perhaps, to those who had come to think of themselves as the superior life form of Middle-earth!) Galadriel had to take it better - she has probably encountered Valar before, while Losgael is unlikely to have met them. Yes, a nice cuppa will have settled her down! The twins can do all the ruling malarkey - but they are familiar enough with it all that they are happy to try to manoeuvre their way around the worst of it. And impatient enough not to let it evolve. And I can't think of a society that would have needed more the possibility of opening up the West. I reckon you would have got some very very stressed elves if more kept growing up into an inflexible society. Riding with the Huntsman must have been quite a scary experience - but awe-inspiring! And, after all, Celegorm rode with him - and was on companionable terms. And Bordain - who doesn't, I think, even realise the power that being one of the first conveys on him - it a good candidate for spending time in the company of this particular Vala. And maybe each is drawn to a different part of the forest (which would be a sensible way to avoid competition.) Galadriel and Celeborn seemed to recognise that Glorfindel's choice was a perfect place for Elrond and Celebrian - maybe Laerwen knew that her 'place' was right for her. (It's north of where E and C settle, incidentally.) The mallorn nuts - I think there are no mallorns there now. Orome recognised the significance of the trees to Galadriel and presented her with the nuts so that she can cultivate them among the trees already there. And I think destiny and the Valar might have other things in mind for Bordain - maybe further west still. But I don't know. This doesn't seem to want to end - each new bit just leaves trails that want to be followed - so I'm sure there will be at least one more part. I'm just hoping an ending presents itself there! Elwe and Melian... Yes... Too big a problem for me, I think! Thank you for reading - I'm pleased you like it enought to want more!

Author's reply

Oh yes, Goerfer and Losgael are drawn West - and they're drawn quite closely into Galadriel and Celeborn's circles, too. Despite Losgael's doubts! Galadriel has identified her as an interesting and strong-minded female - and Goerfer is, of course, kin. Bordain just leapt off the paper at me - he tried to hide in the shadows, but he was just too special. And ever since he said he had seen Nahar in the forests where the elves came to be, I felt he simply had to ride with Orome. The immortality of elves does make development difficult - why would you need new jewelsmiths when the old ones' work just keeps on getting better and better? It must make it very difficult for those who are several thousand years old and tremendously skilled - who are still looked on as apprentices. And what is there for Finrod to do? He will never (hopefully) have to inherit Finarfin's role. The younger elves must have felt a desire to develop a purpose of their own. I did think of cubing the paperwork! Squaring it didn't sound enough - every time you add a layer of bureaucracy another forest has to fall to the pulping mills! But Elladan and Elrohir will do their best to keep the paper-shuffling to a minimum. Thank you for reading.

Author's reply

The Undying Lands did produce Feanor! Elves aren't designed, I think, to sit in peaceful contemplation of perfection - (except, perhaps, the Vanyar) - they want to improve on it. Galadriel has had a long time to learn how to organise people. And a lot of them have been people who are not too keen on her Noldor-ness. She can do subtle.

Author's reply

Where there are people, there is a need for planners. Just as, where there are people, there is a need for intermediaries and organisers. And we wouldn't want elves to get bored in the Undying Lands. Would we?

Author's reply

The Silvan, I think, are not particularly keen on rulers - but they do see the advantage of having someone with a voice in the halls of the powerful. And the Sindar remember Elu. And then, the number of those returning from Namo's Halls in increasing and they need space and someone to ensure that their freedoms remain. Celeborn represents that - and he is one born to serve his people. Nothing is more likely to help ground him in this alien forest.

Author's reply

At the end of her time in Middle-earth, Galadriel was worn very thin and finding it difficult to endure. I see Celeborn sending her ahead as much as her choosing to leave him behind. But, by the time he sailed, Celeborn was suffering the same kind of erosion - and Galadriel knows what he needs to help him heal.

Author's reply

I do like Celeborn and Galadriel - their relationship must have been so strong. And they would never have lasted the ages without a powerful understanding of each other... which includes being able to play!

Author's reply

I did think I could get them there and just leave them to get on with building their new haven ... but the end just didn't feel end-y enough. And there's a bit more that clearly needed to be another chapter. But, on the other hand, I really don't want this rambling on indefinitely! Bordain introduced the idea of Orome earlier when he was talking about the days before the Great Journey - and I couldn't help but feel that he would both appreciate and be poleaxed by the arrival of the Vala. I'm glad you thought he was impressive. It must take a lot to impress an elf! Those from the days of the Two Trees would be a bit more accustomed to the presence of the Valar, I think, but even then... Bordain and Glorfindel do have something in common, I think - both very ancient and powerful - although I think Glorfindel is more aware of his power than Bordain. Thank you - I'm glad you're enjoying it ... to the extent of wanting more, too!

Author's reply

The notorious male inability to multi-task? I don't know that I've come up with a convincing reason. Galadriel's Noldor/Vanyar blook might make her a little less susceptible to the call of the forest - but that wouldn't account for Losgael. Maybe worry lessens the effect. And having spent longer west of the mountains in the case of the so-far-only-mentioned Haldir. A new effect, not previously identified: forest-longing! Author Reply: Galadriel's Noldor/Vanyar blook Blood. I meant blood. I don't know that her blook would have any effect on anything.

Author's reply

Orome was mentioned when Bordain was first introduced to Galadriel's horse. (Who would have thought the horses would take on such a defining role? Not me! Not at first, anyway.) Guessing is fun. I'm glad to keep enough mystery to make you guess! I always think I'm being terribly obvious! Thank you for reading and commenting.