Fic: Heart of the Wood

[kenazfiction]

Title: Heart of the Wood
Author: Kenaz
Email: Kenazfiction@gmail.com
Beta: Ignoblebard. Remaining mistakes are my own.
Rating: R
Pairing: Beleg/Túrin
Warnings: None.
Request: Something bittersweet. Try to include horses, swift-flowing water and birdsong.

Comments

[lady_elina]

Oh, this is gorgeous beyond words. I'm speechless. I cannot quote my favourite parts, because it's all so perfect. I still haven't read Children of Húrin, but Túrin has always stood out to me as one of the most interesting characters in The Silmarillion, because he's more of an anti-hero than a hero, something Tolkien rarely wrote.

I loved the characterisations here: Túrin's short-sighted hubris that brings about his eventual downfall and Beleg's devotion which shatters my heart into a billion pieces. You more than did justice to them. The final part just... broke me. That Beleg would still want to keep his memories of Túrin after all that happened is painfully true and just so right for the character.

The piece is also beautifully structured and develops the tensions and conflicts throughout actions and words in a smoothly flowing way, as if the whole story is the song of the river mentioned in part IV. That idea, by the way, was a wonderful addition because it emphasizes how deep the connection between Middle-earth and its inhabitants is, and also shows that the connection between the earth and Elves is different from its connection to Men.

One tiny thing switched my beta sensibilities on in part V: Beleg howled. "I suppose you can afford to be chary with your favors, you who, it would seem, has lovers to pluck in every copse and corner! Well, what of me? Who do I have? Who would warm my bed or give me ease, one who is mere Edain among the Eldar, below notice or contempt!" Should the first sentence be 'Túrin howled'? Also, I believe 'Edain' is a plural form and the singular is 'Adan' (the word 'dúnadan' is derived from 'adan' and its plural is 'dúnedain'). These, however, are very trivial things.

Thank you for writing this piece that left me breathless and in tears.

[kenazfiction]

ACK! That is what happens when I continue to edit things after I get them back from my beta. *sigh* Ah, well... they're fixed now.

I'm so glad that you liked this piece... you know how much I admire your writing (and how BOWLED OVER I was and continue to be by my own SS gift), so it's a real treat to know I've gotten the thumbs up. And I really want everyone to love Beleg as much as I do. :D

It was so difficult to find anything redeeming about Túrin... it really was Greek tragedy, and his persistent pride made me want to bash his skull in more than once. But I figured that for Beleg to love him that deeply, he must have seen something in him that I am missing. This was the same struggle I had with my Charioteer fic-- how to take a generally unsympathetic character (Sandy, in that case-- in the book, he's a hystrionic, wrist-cutting, drama queen) and make them sympathetic.

I'm happy you picked up on the water bit... I actually had to rewrite my geography a little from my original draft because I wanted to make "their" stream a tributary of the Esgalduin (originally, it was a tributary of the Mindeb, which would have been closer) because the Esgalduin is where Turin chases Saeros to his death, and thus begins his descent toward his doom. But on the whole, beyond the obvious Greek Tragedy parallels, I think Children of Hurin-- which informed this piece to a far larger degree than the Lays or the Silmarillion-- is a bit of a treatise on the differences between Men and Elves. At least, that's what I took from it; I'm glad that this carries through in the story.

Thanks for your kind words!!