Story: A Time to Heal

[clotho123]

Title: A Time to Heal

Rating: G

Characters:  Gil-galad, Celebrimbor, briefer appearances by Elrond and Cirdan

Summary: At the begining of the Second Age Gil-galad must decide what to do about the surviving Feanorian followers.  Can the Noldor be reconclied?

Note:  This story follows the HOME12 version of Gil-galad's origins.

A Time to Heal

“Fëanorians

Comments

[tehta]

I enjoyed this a great deal, just as I enjoyed your other Celebrimbor and Ereinion piece. I especially like the dignified language and the convincing and sustained G-g POV. And kudos to you for choosing an interesting yet infrequently explored moment.

Anyway, RL is killer now so I am afraid I cannot offer detailed feedback, but I have friended you and look forward to getting to know you and your stories better.

[clotho123]

Thank you for that. The start of the Second Age must have been a difficult timefor the elves I believe, so I'm glad you think this worked.

And I've been enjoying your Gondolin stories a good deal!

[tehta]

Oh, I am glad to hear that!

I would be happy to give you more detailed feedback (maybe including concrit, if you're the type?) once my RL calms down a bit.

And I knew I recognized your name! I have read some of your Hornblower stuff too, although I must confess I cannot remember which of the many stories I found during my recent Hornblower reading orgy were yours. I'll have to look again.

[clotho123]

Quite likely the messed up ones (as in angst, not as in bad writing I hope). Hornblower was my original writing obsession and I somehow developed a spilt personality. If you've encountered any stories under the name Nereus that's me too.

For some reason it takes quite a lot to get me interested in pre-fall Gondolin stories, but your characterisation is so delightful it sucked me in from the start.

Sympathies on the RL issues!

[dawn_felagund]

I could echo all that Tehta has said! I wholly agree that you do a marvelous job of writing convincing dialogue, which I know is a fine line to walk, to make characters speak with dignity without being pompous or provoking giggles from readers. I also must applaud you for taking on this infrequently written scene and bringing a lot of ends together. The story is not long, but there is a lot going on, and I found myself riveted within a few paragraphs. It seems a wonderful connector between the big events of the Second and Third Ages, bringing in Third Age characters along those better-known from the First and Second

[clotho123]

And thank you again. Tolkien dialogue *is* hard I find, its difficult to sound natural without being anachronistically modern.

Perhaps my favorite scene, though, was between Cirdan and Gil-Galad, where it becomes quite obvious that Gil-Galad does not think he has the wisdom to make the decision that must be made

The idea of Gil-galad as the unexpected king by default is one that really seems to have lodged in my mind (which is one reason I write him as Orodreth's son, although of course he would still be inexperienced as Fingon's) so I'm glad you liked it. At this point he certainly feels he's got a lot to live up to!

Elrond is probably the one character who my idea of was strongly influenced by the film version - although of course he's a lot younger here. Although he's only got a small part here I like young Elrond quite a lot myself.

[aramel_calawen]

For some reason, I liked young Elrond a lot here. I was quite surprised at the mention of Green-elves allied with the Feanorians (was there canonical basis for this?), since my impression was that the Noldor mostly held aloof from the Sindar. Fingolfin's folk certainly seemed to have an idea of Noldorin superiority, as well as Caranthir. Or maybe the lords the Green-elves joined (Maedhros? Maglor? The twins?) simply didn't care.

I am working a Laiquendi-Noldorin political relationship into my own story, but only because for some reason the daughter of a Laiquende chieftain ran off and married Maglor. It would rock if there were canon basis for the Green-elves bring allied with the Feanorians.

[clotho123]

Thank you! I like young Elrond as well.

Yes, there's canon evidence for the part about the Green Elves. Could probably look it up if you needed, but my memory is that there's a reference in the Silmarillion to the twins and Caranthir having help from the Green Elves after the battle of Sudden Flame, and another to the Feanorian survivors mingling with the Green Elves after the Unnumbered Tears. I noticed it because it was unexpected. I think it was probably Amrod and Amras who hit it off with the Green Elves particularly, but that's just my guess.

There's also a rather obscure reference somewhere or other (one of the linguistic essays?) to all the Noldor Kingdoms having a lot of Sindar in them although of course that doesn't mean they got treated equally!

[erunyauve_e]

The two were no longer speaking as lord and suppliant, they had fallen back into the way of former times, when Gil-galad had turned often to the older cousin who had all but dragged him from the fall of Nargothrond and through the paths of the wild to Círdan’s haven. The kinsman he had clung to, in the shock of knowing all his closer kin were dead, to whom he had looked for advice - although Celebrimbor had never been eager to give it - and who had stunned him utterly by leaving Balar with the Fëanorians.

The derived relationship between Gil-galad and Celebrimbor completely fascinates me - obviously, they become much closer with Tolkien's decision to make Gil-galad the son of Orodreth. Celebrimbor would have been one of Gil-galad's few links to his childhood and family.

I like the idea that his mother would have ridden to battle with Orodreth, and I also liked your insight into Gil-galad's reunion with Elrond.

As others have remarked, the language and writing style is perfectly suited to the story. Very nicely done.