Reviews (198)

Author's reply

Truly a lose-lose situation. The woodcutters are good Men, caught in a bad situation... and Paladin's actions, even if they were defensive in nature, merely threw these good men into the path of a wicked master. Breeland is too far, and Lotho's Men have the only game in town. Um. something like that. (If I had been Paladin, and clearer-thinking on the matter and open-minded with regard to Big Folk, I'd have invited the woodcutters and family to take up residence safely within the bounds of Tookland...)

Author's reply

Poor Hilly... but how many Tooks can say they blackened the Thain's eye and got away with it, scot-free? Delirium--What an excuse! And they seem to have gone from questioning to assuming that Tolly's odd behaviour is due to his falling ill as well--which seems to me a reasonable premise. If he'd gone out for any other reason, he wouldn't have dropped his cloak in the freezing temperatures, one would think. (Unless he'd met up with ruffians and left his cloak as a sign, I guess. But Renilard hadn't seen any sign of ruffians, so that possibility hasn't been brought up, and won't be, most likely.) Yes, this flashback-event is early on, some time in October, I think. But there is a bit more to the story... (sure hope Tolly doesn't get too waterlogged, there in the tub! they're going to have to lift him out soon.) Thanks!

Author's reply

He's definitely right! I suppose a plant hunter might get into less trouble... unless, of course, one takes into consideration the fact that he's a Took. There's something about that family...

Author's reply

Well, our little ones quote all sorts of things, but then they've listened to storytelling and read-aloud since they were suckling babes. So it's possible for a little one to repeat something often heard. Of course, it would be something of an anomaly, in this particular case. In truth, Pippin doesn't reinstate the Thain's escort; actually it's Reginard, after Pippin (& Frodo & co.) disappears into the Old Forest. Regi figures odd things are happening and more and more rough Men are appearing in the Shire and maybe it's time to start protecting the Thain once more. (Especially, I s'pose, since with Pippin gone, he's next in line to be Thain, if anything happens to Pippin. Not a fate he wishes on himself.) So he ropes in the finest archers he knows--Hilly, Tolly, and Ferdi--and persuades Paladin to let them follow him around. It sort of happens in the early chapters of "Flames" though it isn't told in detail. So now you know the backstory! This chapter took place about the time Pippin was 25--when his father became Thain. I forget how old he is on the Quest, is it 28, or 29? I'd have to look it up but I am on my way to bed at the moment.

Author's reply

Paladin dismissing the escort hasn't been directly mentioned in earlier stories, no, though it's been implied. In "Flames" there was no escort at the very start, but Regi was riding out to recruit Ferdi for it, knowing that Ferdi fit all the characteristics (shooting, riding, being in good physical shape, as a hunter). At the beginning of that story, there were no well-muscled doorwards, nobody following Thain and his family around as became such a familiarity, later. But after Lotho brought his goons to the Great Smials, Regi thought it best to re-establish the escort, and somehow he talked Paladin round. And you're exactly right about the "why" and the timing of the dissolution--too many mouths to feed! (I like the woodcutter's family too. Not all Men are evil, to borrow a phrase from Gandalf. Tolly's delirium is going to have to inform the reader of the entire backstory... hope it's not asking too much of the fever!)

Author's reply

Thanks! Perhaps I ought to have credited it in author's notes... (bites nails) I figured everyone would know the reference, but perhaps someone might think I was claiming it for my own! So glad you don't mind being dragged along for the ride. He's going to be very wrinkled if he spends much more time in that bathtub, and there are more memories to be got through! What to do, what to do...

Author's reply

Another of Pippin's whimsies, which his relations (barely) tolerate. If someone is belated, he always has to mention short-cuts. Really, the fellow could be irritating sometimes, if he weren't so very charming.

Author's reply

...slip something into the barrels? Now why didn't I think of that? After all, you know what they say about Brandybucks! (Only, not in polite company.) You're right, it is about time that someone makes a leap of logic. Adds nicely to the angst, as well. But it'll have to happen in a future chapter, because it's not in the next one, just posted... We had a dog with a taste for brandy, once. She would not have been one to trust with a little barrel round her neck.

Author's reply

Might be something like an epidemic. A "catching" fever, worse when the immune system's been under a strain, like Woodruff's watching over her husband for three sleepless nights after a long stretch of shorting herself on rest, or like Tolly's stressful experience, chasing ruffians and watching the execution. A higher-than-proportionate number of the mustered hobbits may be affected as a result. I'd be worried about Pippin except that he was so recently in the presence of athelas. Thanks!

Author's reply

Hmmm. People seem to be falling ill all over the place. It's evidently a catching fever, and easier caught if one is exhausted by effort and events (like Woodruff, and Tolly, and Hilly). I think once Tolly is found they'll realise he was acting in a delirium, but for the moment they're going to be wallowing around with no clear direction. Too often true life is like that, too! (O to be an omniscient narrator... and not just in storytelling...)

Author's reply

Native to the Shire, what a concept! It would give the Edict a whole new meaning... except that the woodcutter and his family, like the other Men to be found in the Shire, are aliens and strangers. The King gave the Shire to hobbits, long ago, and I think that included some sort of provision (or Bucca or one who followed him) whereby Men could not own property in the Shire. Smacks a little of apartheid, perhaps, and yet Men have all the other territory in M-e, and are bigger and stronger, and more likely (at least the less noble ones) to take all the choicest bits, so perhaps some sort of protection is of value? Don't know, haven't really thought it out all the way. I know that Men and hobbits live amicably in Bree, but that's said to be something of an oddity. There must be some reason why JRRT set up his world that way, with only hobbits in the Shire, at least while there was a Shire.

Author's reply

Thanks! He has good memories of Men, as well as bad, and recent events have brought these to the fore.

Author's reply

I think your questions will find answers as the story proceeds. Tolly's never had the attitude toward Men that Ferdi exhibits. At least I don't think he has... This background is something of a surprise to me as well! ...though it logically fits with his having let two ruffians go, before "Runaway", and now we are learning "the rest of the story". I'm quite as interested as you are to see where the Muse is leading... (though, having written the outline, I have a good idea.) Y'know, I remember smelling something somewhere and being transported in my mind back to my grandmother's house, standing on the landing of her stairs, looking at some feather-grass in a large urn... Interesting how some memories are locked up in smells or sounds or textures. Thanks! Author Reply: (and as I mentioned to harrowcat, Thain Paladin would be unlikely to have Men working for him by the time of the Quest, I'd think, or at the latest by the time he argued with Lotho, as reported in the "Scouring of the Shire". At some point the woodcutters would have been sent packing.)

Author's reply

Ah, but dreams can be that way... mixing long-ago events with present happenings, and sometimes things that never happened at all. However, I can assure you that Tolly is at the moment dreaming of things that really did happen to him. Though I don't think Men were allowed to hold property in the Shire, it didn't seem such an unusual thing, the way it was written in LOTR, for Lotho to have hired Men to serve him. Wanderers were seen in the Shire before the Quest, for they were "increasing" as FOTR begins. Thus it is possible that Men might have been hired by hobbits, might even have rented homes or land in the Shire, though not been allowed to own property in the Shire, since it was hobbit-land. And so it is postulated in this story that the Thain owned forested property in the Woody End, and hired Mannish woodcutters. Thain Ferumbras, that is. Paladin may have allowed the woodcutters to remain, when he became Thain, right up to his argument with Lotho (and the troubles with Lotho's Men), or he might have turned them out of their home and sent them packing on his becoming Thain, out of a general distrust for Men on his part. The outline's not quite clear on that point, and the draft doesn't say, though it might have to be clarified as the story takes firmer shape. Does that help? *g*

Author's reply

It's a real wonder! Hilly, you'd think, or Mardi, though they're not hunters nor trackers, so I'm not sure what good they'd do. Not to mention they just got back from the muster and would be tired even if they hadn't celebrated with enthusiasm the previous evening. Tolly picked a bad time to lose himself. Good thing the farmer found him!

Author's reply

Too true. Those nasty fevers, they can be catching. And going back and forth between past and present seems to make the wait longer, I find. Still, Tolly's safe, in *both* past and present, and Meadowsweet will be finding out in one of these chapters, sometime. But I need to hit the pillow. I am scarcely making sense, even to myself.

Author's reply

*laughing* I went through *such* a list of platitudes, trying to pick the one that fit the chapter the best! I ought to have just consulted you! Thanks!

Author's reply

Well, in the other story Ted had it, and Woodruff came down with it next, and she's mentioned as being down with fever at the beginning of this story, at least I think she is... it's a fever, and it's going around, and the hobbits of the muster are perhaps a little more likely to come down with it, after riding/walking/tracking as long as they did in the bitter weather, when they were out chasing the ruffians who'd taken Farry captive. Thus I think the healers will realise that the fever's spreading, and they'll probably put a stop to gatherings for a bit, and have people eat in their apartments rather than crammed all together in the great room. I figure they'd realise that fevers are catching, somehow. At least, I hope that's plausible. *yawn* Need to hit the pillow!

Author's reply

Yes. What is it Humphrey Bogart said to the policeman in "Casablanca"?

Author's reply

You have your wish. I am not sure I could handle him literally wandering in his state... I've quite enough irons in the fire as it is, and lots of plot threads to tie down. No, he is safe in the farmer's bath, at least his body is, though those at home don't know about it quite yet, and the farmer still thinks Tolly is some farmer or hunter or townshobbit on his way home from the muster. Difficult, from the state of his muddy clothes, to determine just what sort of hobbit he is. Thanks!

Author's reply

You're good at guessing, and the Muse took one of your hints last night, as the outline was being polished, and incorporated it into the story, so you will get one of your wishes, if all goes well. Tolly's cocky, for certain, though not quite as spoilt as Hilly (who, being the petted youngest and quite indulged, is rather insufferable early on). And he will grow in wisdom, I think, with experience. Some of which, I hope, will be told here. Thanks!

Author's reply

Yes, he's nearly so confused as the author, who mistakenly put Mistress Lalia into the story. (She's out again. Forgot for a moment that Lalia died when Pippin was 12 or so, and this flashback goes back to when Pippin was 22, as was Hilly, and Tolly and Ferdi were 29.) Author Reply: And yikes! Reading it over I got a chance for young Tolly to engage in some of that magical thinking that afflicts young people, that "it could never happen to me" sort of thing. I hope there aren't other mistakes... I'm for bed. But thanks for dropping by and taking time to leave a note!

Author's reply

Thanks! And I'm so glad that Wren is fine, and being spoiled into the bargain. Sometimes angsty stories can be awfully hard on ponies.

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Well, "drunk as a Brandybuck" didn't become a byword by accident, after all. Tooks are indeed a hasty folk. You'd think they'd have learned by now. (Although, it seems as if Pippin *has* learned something or other.)