Saudade

by IronGnome

When Thorin Oakenshield meets the mysterious elf Tauriel, it's understandable that they hold a sense of hostility towards one another. But when they're both united in a common goal, an expected relationship flourishes and through a mutual understanding they realise that they need one another to survive and ultimately succeed.

1. Introduction and preface

So, some original writing for the recently released film adaptation of the classic fantasy novel, The Hobbit, that will be done in the form of a dual author and perspective fanfic. Somewhat unorthodox in nature, my partner and have both been inspired to try and capture our own creativity and imaginations into writing a story based off the world of JRR Tolkien. With a dual fic, the plan to begin at least is alternate chapters of each characters perspective.

Though we're both film enthusiasts, we unfortunately can't say the same for being well versed with the books. I myself have only read the Hobbit, and that was a few years ago. So for the most part we're basing our story in a somewhat Alternative Universe/non-canon timeline. I guess you could describe it as our take on filling in the blanks, and to do that, we draw off both the book lore and the film events. Basically, the internet and our memory of the cinema screen, as well as our own creativity and imagination.

This universe is massive. There are locations and concepts and volumes of history we can't crack in the short space of time we've been looking into it. For more enthusiastic fans or purists of the world, I'd kindly ask you to suspend your disbelief and grant us a little creative freedom. We don't know everything, and though we aren't just writing it completely blind, it's likely we miss a lot. With that in mind, we write because we enjoy it, and in turn, we hope you enjoy the story as much as we do researching, crafting and penning it. Of course, opinions and criticisms (if worded in a constructive manner) are more than welcome. So by all means, whether it's praise or improvements, let us know.

It's also necessary to state, and I'm sure you'll all be aware, that have lives outside of this fic which sometimes get incredibly busy, so I'd ask you to give us a little time at points to get updates together and post them. We both take pride and care with our writing, and I know we'd rather give readers something of quality as opposed to poorly written chapters just because we feel pressured to get something done.

With that, all I can say is thank you for taking an interest, and hopefully we live up to any great expectations.

And as a preface to the fic:

Saudade is a unique Portuguese word that has no immediate translation in English. Saudade describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. It often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing will never return. It's related to the feelings of longing, yearning. A stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing.

Saudade was once described as "the love that remains" after someone is gone. Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now triggers the senses and makes one live again. It can be described as emptiness, like someone (e.g., one's children, parents, sibling, grandparents, friends, pets) or something (e.g., places, things one used to do in childhood, or other activities performed in the past) should be there in a particular moment is missing, and the individual feels this absence. In Portuguese, 'tenho saudades tuas', translates as 'I have saudade of you' meaning 'I miss you', but carries a much stronger tone. In fact, one can have 'saudade' of someone whom one is with, but have some feeling of loss towards the past or the future.