Comments on Into the Realms of Ulmo

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Very interesting interpretation. I liked the way it's written: the first part is frustrating (I imagine that's how Tour must have felt, with that voice urging him on who knows where and for what) then it's surreal and at the end I couldn't help thinking Tuor's fate was unfair (weird considering I think he was one of the few with a relatively happy ending). 

Hope you decide to fill in more story gaps ;)



Dear Alasse,

Thank you for your kind words! And I'm sorry I didn't respond earlier - I didn't realize I had to turn on a notification switch, and real life has been demanding attention.

I'm glad the style worked well for the story, and that it threw into question whether his fate was fair or happy. His story is so enigmatic to me, it seems it could go either way, and I have always been partial to the notion that NOBODY in his or her right mind actually wants to be a prophet. It's always hard, and usually comes with costs to go with the honor and glory and all that.

Silm nuzguls usually are less forthcoming for me, but we'll see if any new ones attach themselves to my ankles!

Thanks for your encouragement,

 

Dwim

This story shows impressively the irruption of the sacred and numinous into a human life. It also greatly helps to make sense of Tuor's behaviour and actions towards the end of the story, after the fall of Gondolin, in Nan-tathren and in Sirion.

I wonder how Tuor's relationship with Idril would be affected by his transformation into Ulmo's prophet. Of course, he hasn't even met her yet, although she has been briefly shown to him, but I had always imagined that it would be his human nature that would have been the main barrier between them that they had to overcome - now I see that it might not have been.



Dear Himring,

I'm glad the sudden overturning of daily life on the run worked - getting personally hauled across the continent by the power of Ulmo to do his bidding to a doomed city just seems like it ought to be unsettling and thoroughly life-changing in many ways.

Your question about the Idril-Tuor relationship is terrific. In all honesty, I don't have the faintest clue how that would work - I tend to get Silm nuzgul rarely, and they tend to be fairly focused creatures: one scene, one idea, and Idril is rather a closed book to me. But being married to a prophet... that seems like it could be a very difficult and unique three-way relationship. While I don't know that I've got anything to contribute to that discussion/fanfic possibility, I do hope someone else will take it up. That'd be fun to read.

Finally, many thanks for tipping me off to that review-alert setting. I'd not realized there was one, and real life has been productive lately, so I've not been back to explore the account settings since I first registered. Oops!

Take care,

Dwim

 

This is gorgeous, Dwim, one of the best pieces I have read of yours.  Utterly SILMish, but more, bigger and wider and making the reader feel a personal connection to Tuor and really feel his connection to the sea and to Ulmo.  This is sea-longing like few of Tolkien's characters will ever know.  Ulmo is one of the Valar most friendly to the Children, but he does mark Tuor, whether out of necessity or unconcern, it is hard to know, for all of the Man's life.  



Hi Raksha - Thanks! I'm glad the story worked for you, and seemed to fit well with the Silm. Tuor's a strange guy, and Tolkien's story, allegedly about him, manages somehow to keep him very quiet, imo. It was a challenge to try to find a way to access his POV, but I had a lot of fun once he opened up a bit and the connection to Ulmo became the central point of the story.

Dwim

Here via Himring’s rec/review repost.  I am having some difficulty articulating my affection for this story.  Firstly, it’s somewhat in the same vein as "Strange Fire," which was the first work of yours I read and which I loved.  Though the particulars are different, it’s got that same sense of vastly powerful entities using for their own ends the really quite painful reverence they inspire/instill in mortals.  Secondly, it’s terribly evocative.  I could easily imagine what the experiences under the water / on the beach / in the cave must have been like for Tuor and place myself in his (waterlogged) shoes.  Third, yes, it’s a reasonable interpretation of the text and an engaging gapfiller.  



Hi Huinare!

Why thank you, I'm so glad you liked this fic! I do like playing around with theology and religious life in M-e, and there are definitely some common themes, so I'm not surprised you're finding similarities between this and "Strange Fire." God is never safe in my book - God may be many, many things, but safe is not one of them, so getting caught up in divine plotting is not some kind of light-hearted venture for most of the characters I'll write. There should always be a challenge to the individual, even if that person really likes the relationship and is generally happy with it. As a gapfiller, it needed to make Tuor actually a character with a perspective in his own story, which was sort of weird, but then again, so was Tolkien's story! :-D

I'm also really glad the description worked: I found this story to be very visual and tactile, and to really begin with the sensory elements so I threw everything I had into trying to position the reader to experience the ocean with Tuor.