Reviews (840)

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Was it that Boromir wanted to go through Rohan? I can't quite remember at the moment. We are so spoiled with our instant communications these days. It's hard to imagine a time when news travelled slowly – if it travelled at all! They couldn't know if the Rohirrim had fallen – and, actually, if the Company had passed through Rohan while Saruman still controlled Théoden, things might have gone very badly. After all, Théoden was not released from Saruman's spell until after Gandalf had died and been sent back, long after the decision to climb Caradhras or pass through Moria was made. And ultimately, listening to Boromir would have led to disaster, for he wanted the Ring to go to Minas Tirith. (I still think Gandalf ought to have whistled up Gwaihir, long before the Dark Lord mounted the Nazgûl on winged steeds, and simply sent the Ring to Mt Doom via airmail. But then the story would have been a whole lot shorter, and we wouldn't have all this glorious fanfic to read!)

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...at least I haven't stumbled across a Shire version of "This is the Song that Never Ends..." LOL! (Of course, if there were such a thing, trust Pippin to know it. Or even to make it up himself!)

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I'm not sure Gandalf told Frodo to wait till September? If I'm remembering right, he said to leave no later than September, and Frodo was the one who kept procrastinating until he'd run out of days on the calendar. But I am badly in need of a nap, so speculation is rather beyond me at the moment. I'm not sure about symbolic times of year, except that I seem to remember hearing at one time that he set the date for the destruction of the Ring (or was it the Battle of the Pelannor?) to coincide with some particular time frame from history or mythology or something like that. But with this groggy brain, I can't seem to dredge up any more details than that. Might he have had some underlying motive for having them set out on December 25? I have no idea. I only know that March was significant somehow, even though I don't remember why. Contrariwise, in my "Ferdi and Farry Go to Gondor" story, I have allowed myself some leeway in terms of timing, and so the New Company set off from Bree in midsummer and are likely to come to Caradhras well before autumn arrives, seemingly an ideal time for traversing mountain paths. I'm sure young Faramir would have liked to follow the same timeline as the original Fellowship in his quest for authenticity, but thankfully, the adults in the room put their collective feet down and set a different schedule than the one he proposed. I am definitely rambling now, so I'm going to leave off answering reviews (or even reading fanfic and then writing reviews), and take a nap. Cheers!

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I have to say that Tolkien's descriptions of weather, for the most part, seem familiar, especially since we have gone camping in miserable rain as often as in pleasant weather. Weather happens, so to speak. Recently, however, I did read (or maybe I heard a recorded interview?) that one of the scenes he wrote about travelling in the mountains (I don't remember if it was in The Hobbit or LOTR) was based on his own experience of (I think) thunder and falling rocks and such while travelling through mountainous country. So in that case, the unnatural weather he described (wasn't there something in The Hobbit about giants battling? and Caradhras had something about fell voices on the air, I think) was taken from reality.

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JRRT called Boromir a noble Man, if I'm remembering right. I wonder if Faramir was able to resist the call of the Ring in part because Boromir was their father's favourite? Did the stress of growing up with that knowledge somehow harden the younger brother? (By "harden", I'm talking about refining like steel under the force of forge and hammer.) Thanks! I have a great deal of respect for Boromir, in part because of some solidly-written fanfic I remember reading.

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Thank you for your thoughtful reviews! I just saw them as I was stumbling off to bed. Will come back tomorrow to read/say more. (((hugs)))

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This observation makes me smile. Thanks for sharing your insight!

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Oh that awful thing called foreshadowing! Perhaps it ought to be outlawed...

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Bill has a big heart, for sure! And being a pony, I think he relates well to hobbits as opposed to taller people.

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Bill is not quite as comfortable around Men as he is around his Hobbits. That could make him more tentative. (On a personal note, I had trouble telling the difference between Aragorn and Boromir when I first saw FOTR in the theater. I don't know why they looked so indistinguishable to me at first, but they did. I could instantly distinguish one hobbit from another, and of course Gandalf and Legolas and Gimli are completely different from each other and the rest of the Fellowship. But the two Men? They looked alike to me for the longest time.)

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Oh, good, I appreciate hearing that. Thanks!

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Poor Bill. And yet, horses have been known to run back into burning buildings. Maybe in the same way, going with them carries with it a level of familiarity that's more attractive to him than staying behind. Thanks!

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I have read at least one fanfic (maybe two?) that had Asfaloth acting insufferably superior. And I have seen horses in real life establishing and enforcing a pecking order when they're in a field. Still, it makes sense to me that Glorfindel (who is written as kind, gracious, courageous, practical, and a host of other positive qualities) would rub off on his horse, or else he'd choose a horse with a similar outlook. Asfaloth has nothing to prove, and so he can afford to be kind and gracious to poor Bill. Since his Rider is one of the few who can ride openly against the Nazgûl, Asfaloth also has a pretty good idea of what Bill has been up against, and so there's no need for Bill to prove himself – the pony already has done that, all things considered. Thanks for reading and pausing to share your thoughts!

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Ah, Pippin. Gotta love that hobbit...

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I'm glad to hear that! I have known ponies with a sense of humour, and I think Bill could be one of them.

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LOL, and Merry's name will keep changing with his moods. Bill's names for people will hopefully show that he's closest to the hobbits out of everyone he meets, which makes sense to me, at least. Thanks for coming along on the journey! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

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Interestingly, Frodo is always Master in Bill's thoughts, and Sam is always "my Sam", but Merry's name confuses him because the hobbit is definitely *not* merry much of the time. Pippin must make quite an impression on the pony, I think. Thanks for reading and pausing to leave a good word.

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It was so much fun to build on what was in the original text! (Thanks!)

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I love hearing people appreciate Merry! (My favourite hobbit...) Thanks!

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Hmm, then it would make sense for a Hobbit first-footer to be either tall (for a hobbit) and dark, or short and fair? (Actually, Ferdibrand Took as I write him is dark-haired and tall for a hobbit, which sort of fits with his first-footing story. LOL!)

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When I heard about first-footing, it sounded so hobbity to me... I must admit to borrowing freely from and blending together various Celtic customs and turns of phrase in shaping Shire life. (Hopefully the blend is pleasant and not jarring!)

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Someone close to me recently suffered a severe case of hypothermia while hiking, and I sent them the link to this chapter to read in hospital. They were quite amused and said, 'Yup. Pretty much.' Thanks for dropping a note! I can certainly empathize with the whole miserable business of falling in water and being cold and wet while travelling between places of shelter.

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Looking back at the chapter, I think Bill was smelling a swamp or bog, and it reminded him of the Midgewater Marshes. And, yeah, one might wonder about Aragorn and his familiarity with travel in this area, considering how much backtracking they seemed to have done – and not all that far from Rivendell! "The paths were little known to anyone except to the people of Rivendell" the text says. And Aragorn lived a fair number of years in Rivendell, so did he never explore these paths? Inquiring minds would like to know. One part of JRRT's admittedly brief (two paragraphs!) description of the first fortnight of walking includes this sentence: Paths were few and winding, and led them often only to the edge of some sheer fall, or down into treacherous swamps.

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I hope it works! There is so little description, and yet they were travelling miles and miles through pretty rough country! I'm sure it wasn't just monotonous put-one-foot-in-front-of-the-other trudging along for the whole time! (Of course, I've read so many gapfillers over the years, it's equally improbable that so many things happened along the way – but certainly fun to read!) I anticipated the same problem with the continuation, Bill's journey back to Bree. So I'll just have to see how well it sits with the reader when I finally start posting chapters. Hopefully, it won't stretch people's incredulity too much. Thanks for reading and taking the time to share your thoughts!