Author Notes
Not just Marnie (7/1): Sorry Celeborn was so helpless this chapter; Fëanor was taking no chances with him. He'll get his own sections later on in the story; it makes sense from here on out to have him and Artanis swap as viewpoint characters.
Marnie (5/28): There's no war like civil war. Hope you're feeling better. Happy belated birthday, by the way. I figured that the characters in any good story should evolve a bit, which is why I insist on starting with an unsympathetic Huan. Fëanor's a great villain for me. I've never had such an easy time writing a character this malevolent: so evil he just paralyzes or corrupts everyone around him.
Itarille (5/26): I'm not sure that "nice" is a word to use about the Kinslaying, but you are clearly made of sterner stuff than I am! Glad you're enjoying it.
Nevdoiel (5/25): ???!
Melkor (5/24): Hopefully, the action remains fierce enough. I'll try and keep up the pace.
(5/24): It seems that ending mid-Kinslaying was unavoidable. Oh well, at least the story is writing itself at this point.
Itarille (5/19): Thanks! I'm glad that Ossë stood out. Politics with a hereditary aristocracy with magical abilities is bound to be a little weird and certainly personality-driven, so I'm trying to keep that side of the story as up-front as possible.
Marnie (5/19): Glad someone else enjoys poor nerdish Celebrimbor. Too bad about the appalling macho influence of his family though. The Noldor (and Calaquendi in general) are a really weird mix of dangerous and vulnerable at this stage.
(5/19): Apologies for the short and belated chapter, but ending the next one mid-Kinslaying might be problematic. Still no Celeborn (except on paper), so I guess I'll have to give him parts of the next chapters. I've also done some edits on chapter 7; sorry about that. Had at least one ugly typo to deal with.
Melkor (5/14): Thanks for the encouragement. I'm a little frustrated with Celeborn for getting himself exiled, as it makes writing the relationship that much more difficult.
Marnie (5/5): The system just cares if I add a new chapter, and I can't title it until the end. I think the first chapter of the next story will be author notes, but this one has about three chapters left, I think. I'm trying to give people fair warning about Fingon before it gets ugly (next chapter). I'll be very sad if you give up on Unforsaken; it's great fun so far. I suppose the main idea is for you to enjoy yourself; hopefully that is what you're doing. Guess I'd better go review some more to encourage you. There will be more Galathil, much more. You should write more of Unforsaken because I'm afraid my version only gets darker from here on out. I'm not on any but professional and local mailing lists and don't know much about the fanfic ones.
Itarille (4/23): Hopefully Olorin's strange friend is entertaining for you as well. Thanks for the encouragement.
Marnie (4/23): Thanks for getting me some readers. I finally donated some money to ff.net, so they're keeping track of the numbers; about 350 hits in the last week or so! About 150 people read chapter one, but only a third that number read chapter two, so the story seems to be hard to get into. Happily, I am writing for my own amusement! Readers may prefer something simpler, and I'm assuming that everyone remembers the whole cast of the Silmarillion.
Marnie (4/21): Sorry about the long delay, but my life is in a bit of flux right now. I need to better understand the way ff.net handles updates; my mistakes probably interfered with notification. If you want to reformat "The Treadmill" for your site, go for it. Alternatively, I can reformat my existing Word files into rich text and thus into fairly clean HTML and e- mail it to you. I'm writing to preserve my own sanity, but I appreciate that you're making it available for other people's enjoyment. Olorin is another character who seems to be writing himself. Sorry I haven't been reviewing regularly; thanks to you and the others, I now realize how helpful a good review is.
Feather (3/29): I found Celebrimbor a disturbingly sympathetic young nerd as soon as I started writing him. I'm amazed the way the characters suddenly start defining themselves when I write. As a reader, I'd always imagined Celebrimbor to be a square-jawed, forceful handsome fellow, as he's often written in fanfiction. Then when I began to write the first chapter, he turned out to be shy, insecure, and not at all athletic. It was a bit sad because I then started to like him so much more and we all know that his story is an unhappy one. I had assumed that Finarfin was shy and quiet but he turned out to be terribly manipulative and ironic. I fear the second Finarfin will make a somewhat more effective king. Wish I could get Eärwen some more screen time. Thanks for the compliments. Hope I can live up to them!
Marnie (1/8): As for Celebrimbor trying to attract Artanis' attention, I think that's what blowing up the dam was about. These kids are young, about 16 in human terms, and part of a culture that wants to keep them children as long as possible.
Itarille (1/7): Thanks! I'm glad to hear from readers that the plot is okay since I feel it's a little slow.
Marnie (12/6): I couldn't get around the fact that building and crewing a ship require a lot of people, many of them experienced, and it gets him into so much more trouble. Celebrimbor is headed for a lot worse than just trouble. You are welcome to put this storyon your website, especially as I've finally corrected a few older typos.
stearchica (12/6): Finarfin's been surprisingly fun. Wish I could do more with Eärwen. As for the names, see the note at the start of chapter 1. Stories with the original Quenya names, if the cast is large, are hard to read.
Itarille (12/4): Took a while to sort out the outline (the original chapter 5 was pretty dumb), but I fear that the Kinslaying will just about write itself. I'm struggling with the love triangle, but there the characters are struggling back. I'll see what I can do next chapter.
Itarille (12/2): Much thanks! The great thing about Celeborn as a Teleri of Aman is that I can then use him as a foil for the young Artanis and Celebrimbor in what seemed to me to be interesting days.
Marnie (12/2): Don't give up on your Alqualondë story! You're actually tackling identity issues and the sort of issues that are tough to combine with plot! But you've done it before and I'm sure that you can do it again! I guess I'd better go review it like a responsible net.citizen...
(12/2) Must go off traveling and abandon you all for a while, but I'm running out of outline and had better refresh that if I'm going to write any further.
Marnie (12/1): I'm afraid I've made up a lot of the politics. Tolkien was having so much fun with the language that he didn't get a chance to flesh them out. I'm just trying to identify and follow up on his major themes, and this part of the story seems to be about how the Elves divide and conquer themselves for Morgoth. As for Celeborn: you know him too well, I fear. Your story actually galvanized me to haul my outline out of a file cabinet it's been sitting in for three years. Many thanks for the kind words about the pace; I was worried that it was a little too slow.
Erunyauve (11/23): About Galadriel being silent about the Kinslaying in front of Melian, I doubt it was just to protect the sons of Fëanor. Fingon was also guilty, and he was very popular with all of the Noldor. The political fallout for telling Thingol about the Kinslaying could have been a lot worse than it ended up (just the banning of Quenya and probably the major reason Thingol never offered the Noldor significant resources against Morgoth), and Galadriel would have to be crazy to be the obvious architect of that disaster. In my version, it gets more complicated still. Something I want to work into this story, but it's still a long way to the Kinslaying and further yet to Doriath.
I was very intrigued by Tolkien's later insistence (a bit shrill at times) that Celeborn was a prince of Alqualondë. It later grew into the story of Galadriel leaving Middle Earth separately from Fëanor; but it predated that story. In fact, that's the version of canon I'm working on, the "philological essay" described on pp. 229-231 of Unfinished Tales (hardcover) that Christopher Tolkien implied could not be done (getting Galadriel and Celeborn to Middle Earth separately).
I can't make Olwë too nice; if he were a responsible kinsman, he'd make sure Celeborn was never driven to leave Aman. Can't have that! Even Finarfin seems to have a turn for vicious gossip; but it comes in awfully handy for purposes of exposition.
(11/20) Sorry, Marnie, I had to steal your idea of making Galadhon Olwë's nephew; it just made too much sense in light of the Noldorin taboo on first cousins marrying.
U2LoVeR (11/16): Thanks for the encouragement!
Erunyauve (11/13): Thanks for your comments. I'll have to read a few of your stories once I get some time: they look diverse and interesting. It's not politic for Olòrin to experiment with human form yet.