Comments | bunn: Zooming around invisible becoming increasingly infuriated

bunn

Zooming around invisible becoming increasingly infuriated

Feb 12, 2017 21:10

My Fëanor story I wittered about previously has now morphed from just being the tale of Dead Fëanor zooming around invisible becoming increasingly infuriated, through How to Fill up 42 Years of War of Wrath, through to: Hey, while I'm at it, I could try to answer my various questions about the latter end of the Silmarillion, specifically:
( Read more... )

writing, noldor, tolkien

Comments 21

hhimring February 12 2017, 21:30:03 UTC

Wow! That's a lot of questions and the Silm fandom has been trying to answer some of these for quite a while...
I've already mentally pre-bookmarked your fic for when you start posting it (although it sounds like it might take a while to catch up with if it's 65k and growing). Including Zooming Feanor, of course!

bunn February 12 2017, 21:46:03 UTC

I suspect that this is the kind of thing where there are a million possible answers, and we all have a slightly different subset of answers that we are prepared to entertain at all. Because it is all Really Important Damnit, and Other People Are Wrong. :-D

I really like your Maedhros characterisation, as you know, but it makes Question 1) even harder to answer for me, at least in a way that I find entirely and fully convincing.

And for me, the idea of a redemption for Feanor is all bound up in Question 1 and Question 1 requires at least Question 3 and probably also Question 2.

It is ridiculously long. I would certainly think twice about reading something that long, unless from an author who I felt very confident I'd want to spend that long with...

I have wondered about breaking it up, but it's all a bit interwoven to untangle.

Hphm. At least I'm enjoying writing it!

hhimring February 13 2017, 08:10:09 UTC

Oh, I wasn't surprised you want your own answers--just that you're trying to answer all those at once. But as you know I'm a very bitty writer myself.
Thank you for your comment about my characterization of Maedhros. I'm aware that it's a very personal response. In fact, I think "Why Maedhros" might not really be the same question for everyone who asks it, even although it may sound the same--it seems to depend very much on where you're coming from.
(I haven't tried to redeem Feanor--so far, I barely even dare to write him.)

bunn February 13 2017, 08:54:47 UTC

Yes, I suppose you are right about views of Maedhros. I'm sure there are people who assume he's just murderous through and through, and that arguing with Feanor at Losgar and forswearing the oath and having actual friends and restraining his brothers were minor glitches or political manoevers and Elros and Elrond have just risen above a bad start.

Obviously those people are Just Wrong. :-D

As for Feanor: I find the parallels with Morgoth and Sauron fascinating. Tolkien, you have THREE LUCIFERS! Is that not a tad excessive??

But the third is not like the first two, because he loves his dad and has a family, and is cut off before he can fall very far (at least if you compare him to Morgoth or Sauron he does not fall so far. He should take the entire blame for Alqualonde, though.)

And also in the background there is Finrod and this idea that the Elves are an Unfallen race, unlike men, which strongly suggests to me that Feanor *should* be redeemable.

There's a long tradition of sympathetic Lucifer to raid!

timetiger February 12 2017, 21:50:32 UTC

Although I am not steeped in this lore, I'd like to say I'm terrifically impressed by 65,000 words.

I'm also relieved to find out it isn't you who's zooming around invisible and becoming increasingly frustrated!

bunn February 12 2017, 22:01:36 UTC

I know there are plenty of people who write that much without thinking about it, but I am emphatically not one of them :-D

I am filled with a feeling of LOOK AT ALL THE WORDS. WHERE DID THEY COME FROM???

timetiger February 12 2017, 22:02:23 UTC

:o)

anna_wing February 13 2017, 09:17:18 UTC

Oh yes. I started a little bit of fluff about Melkor being turned into a cat, and mission creep had pretty much set in by the end of the third chapter.

Thread 6

topum February 13 2017, 02:23:11 UTC

I understand very little in this post but I can very much agree with the last sentence because of it ).

bunn February 13 2017, 09:02:14 UTC

:-P

It would be an awful dull world if nobody was odd!

At the moment it is quite nice to escape from the news into another world for a short while, even if apocalyptic things are also happening there, at least there are no orange men with tiny hands being peed on.

anna_wing February 13 2017, 04:22:36 UTC

I've decided to let Arrogantemu do Feanor-redemption. Your questions are very good ones. The answers that I more or less settled on for my own fics are as follows ( ... )

king_pellinor February 13 2017, 07:59:18 UTC

5 and 6 seem connected. Vanyar see a lot of orcs coming. Vanyar don't really like to get their hands dirty. Vanyar have access to enormous amounts of power. Vanyar sink the lands around orc host to eliminate the problem at no emotional cost (no, *I* didn't kill them, the big waves and newly-arrived 500-foot-deep sea killed them. *My* hands are clean. 500-foot-deep seas are good for cleaning hands...).

After all, who would want that particular bit of land? Quite apart from it being mere Beleriand rather than a real place like Aman, it's all muddy and messy instead of having beautiful jewelled roads and carefully tended meads and so on. Ugh. Done the place a favour.

bunn February 13 2017, 20:57:38 UTC

... I think they are connected. Hmmm

king_pellinor February 14 2017, 07:57:15 UTC

It also explains the dismay caused by the unleashing of Black Ancalagon and his cohorts. If your standard operating procedure is to flood the ground around enemy hosts before having a celebratory cup of tea, the appearance of flying enemies has got to be a bit disconcerting.

Bilwe: "Look! An enemy host"
Bobiel: *Yawn* "OK, break out the usual spells. Now, are we out of camomile again...?"
Bilwe: "They've flown right over the flood! They're nearly here!"
Bobiel: "Er, what? Oh. Er. Actual fighting. Damn, this is a teaspoon not a sword. Which end do you hold again? Where did I leave my armour...?"
BOTH: "Earendil! Earennnnndilllllll!!!!"

Thread 7

sally_maria February 13 2017, 12:00:09 UTC

I suspect it's not helpful at all to say that I would happily read thousands of words of your Dead Fëanor frivolously bantering with Gandalf?

When it comes to question 1, I suspect at least some of your answer is going to depend on just how binding you see the Oath as being - does it just have moral force, or is it actually compelling them in some way.

bunn February 13 2017, 12:18:05 UTC

I didn't even invite Gandalf! I only invited Galadriel. She went and brought friends and family!

(and for some reason now I can hear Movie Pippin: Don't talk to it! Don't encourage it! Alas, Dead Fëanor doesn't need much encouragement... )

I'm going with the Oath being powerful, semi-sentient, and bound up with Dead Fëanor. It's the only way I can make sense of the whole forswearing, torment, attack thing, let alone the very peculiar 'no you can't - yes you can' behaviour of Eonwë.