AMC--Chapter Forty-Eight

[dawn_felagund]

I am posting a day early because Bobby and I are driving up north to Hershey tonight to see Stars on Ice, and I am off from work tomorrow. And I know myself. I will not wake up until ten (maybe eleven); Bobby and I will go out to lunch; we will find ways to distract ourselves for a couple of hours. By the time I find my way onto the computer, you

Comments

[frenchpony]

Nelyo's perspective on things is intriguing here. There definitely seems to be a distance between him and the rest of his family, especially now that he sees Tyelko taking on the elder-brother role and Macalaurë being secretive about his costume (more on the costumes later). I'm also interested in the increasing shade of contempt that comes into the writing whenever it's Nelyo thinking about Nerdanel. In fact, all the boys seem to be increasingly looking down on her. This probably explains why they stayed with Fëanor when Nerdanel split with him, but it's an intriguing thing to see it grow in them.

I wonder if Fëanor's guest might be one of the Valar, come to tell him tales about what Nolofinwë might be up to in his spare time. . .

I also enjoyed reading about the New Year festival. I'm guessing, from the nature of it, that you're setting the New Year around the winter solstice? What you describe seems very much like a midwinter celebration. If you haven't already read it, I heartily recommend that you find and read Jack Santino's All Around The Year. If you like thinking about festivals and celebrations and the things that people do for them, you should definitely look at what Santino has to say.

There's so much symbolism behind masking -- reversal, taking on the identity of another being, acting outside the norms of everyday life. It must be convenient for the tradition to have begun within living memory, when the people doing it were conscious enough of their motivations to record them for scholars like Nelyo to interpret later on. I also liked seeing how the three cultures altered the celebration once they arrived in Valinor. The Vanyar do away with it completely, the Teleri and the Noldor both seem to have refined and tamed the actions but retained the symbolism to a certain degree. I wonder, though, if another culture -- the Avari, perhaps, or the Sindar, back in Middle-earth -- might have kept the forms, the masks and the dancing, but changed the meaning behind those forms.

[dawn_felagund]

I wonder if Fëanor's guest might be one of the Valar, come to tell him tales about what Nolofinwë might be up to in his spare time. . .

Heh heh...I do love the hypotheses that come up whenever AMC provides enough plot to create a little mystery! ;)

The "secret guest" will be revealed soon enough. Until then.... *mum*

I also enjoyed reading about the New Year festival. I'm guessing, from the nature of it, that you're setting the New Year around the winter solstice?

Yes, although would there have been an actual solstice then? This whole world of non-existent sun is hard to work in.

I enjoyed writing about this festival a good deal and the cultural response of the three kindreds. Thanks for the reading rec; I will certainly check that out! Especially since I'm in the midst of world-building for my original stories in the Midhavens and looking for ideas for festivals and myths and strange cultural norms...whatever I can find! My imagination only goes so far.

I wonder about the Avari/Sindar too. Of course, I've started answering this already in my mind, since the Noldor will eventually encounter them. But the danger is still real to them, whereas it has become only symbolic for the Eldar.