The Longest Night by Dawn Felagund

Fanwork Information

Summary:

In the depths of a bitter winter, Finrod Felagund receives an invitation from Bëor to attend a strange midwinter festival in honor of the longest night of the year. Written for the 2009 Yule Fic Exchange on Many Paths to Tread.

Major Characters: Bëor, Beren, Finrod Felagund

Major Relationships:

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Drama, General

Challenges: Gift of a Story

Rating: Teens

Warnings: Character Death, Mature Themes
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 3, 817
Posted on 7 January 2010 Updated on 7 January 2010

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

The Longest Night

Comments

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Dawn, this was a real pleasure to read.  Of course, you know I am a big fan of your prose and style (you, along with Darth and elfscribe, are among those writers for whom I sigh and say "I wish I could write like that!"), so I'll emphasize that it is the wonderful and strong characterizations here that stand out for me.  That and the way you treated two races of humans and their view of their fates captivated me and had me nodding vigorously in agreement. Finrod's voice is excellent -- authentic and distinct.  And I loved that touch of his runny nose in the cold air. :^)

Thank you, Pandemonium--that is a high compliment coming from one for whom I sigh and say, \"I wish I had her imagination ...\" ;) I ended up with this prompt quite by accident; the originally assigned writer couldn\'t complete it, and I was just about the only Silm writer left in the group and a mod at that, so it was inevitable. I had no intentions of writing anything for any challenge/event this holiday season, for obvious reasons, but the prompt really grabbed my attention once I started it. I\'m glad I took it, in the end. :)

I appreciate your underscore of humans because that was certainly (I\'m sure it doesn\'t surprise you to know this) one of the primary ideas that I wanted to express here: the shared humanity of both peoples. Hence Finrod\'s running nose. ;) It was fun, too, to have the ancient Elf disarmed by his circumstances and taught by a \"mere mortal,\" unlike the more popular tendency to have incompetent and child-like Edain gazing up in saucer-eyed rapture to the \"Elder Beings\" to instruct them.

Thanks, Steel! The festival was such fun to imagine and write. I didn\'t intend the kid to be Beren when I first started; I wrote the first section and then, realizing that I\'m no expert on the history of the Edain, put a timeline together for myself and realized that it would work; it was too good an opportunity to pass up! :)

I don't even know where to start - I meant to wait until I could come up with a poignant review, but I think I'll give up on that and just gush incoherently.

Loved your Finrod, loved your Beör, loved the interactions between Finrod and the mortals. The whole piece made my inner anthropologist happy. And the emotional aspects made me happy (because it's so human, and so believable) and wibbly at the same time.

In conclusion,  wonderful.

Thank you, Lyra! That is a high compliment from someone whom I admire for creating such believable cultures in her own writing. :) I\'m glad you liked Finrod too; he\'s so challenging for me because I generally start characterizations by working out from a character\'s flaws, and JRRT doesn\'t give me a whole lot to work with there! The Edain were challenging too since I don\'t often work with them and very much wanted to show them positively, even when compared to Finrod. Thank you again for the review--you have made my night! :)

With the previous compliments, it had all been said. And yet, I loved this piece and I thought you'd want to know it.

I loved Finrod and his simplicity. I loved him being true to his feelings and acting as a humble being and not a typical Noldorin king.

I was moved to tears by his ache at the sight of his friend aged to almost being unrecognized.

Thank you for a beautiful touching tale.

Thank you, Scarlet! I\'m rather fond of Finrod, which is probably pretty obvious. *ahem* ;) However, he\'s always been a challenging character for me to make believable (to myself), so I\'m glad that my early attempts here are resounding with people. I wanted to convey all of what you said you liked in your review, so you\'ve made me a very happy little writer! Thank you again for reading and for taking the time to tell me how you felt about the story.

This was fantastic! I love how Finrod was so uneasy at the idea of celebrating the longest night of the year, and how unoffended Beor was when he admitted his concerns. It implied that Beor was pretty savvy to the elves' preconceived notions about the edain.

I especially liked this description:

"Faces sprang from shadow, laughing, throwing back hoods and warming their hands, now tossing apples to one another across the golden river. For a moment, there was summer on those shores: light and laughter and feasts of plenty."

The part when Finrod breaks down when seeing Beor again (and his acknowledgement of how surprised the other edain were by it) was really powerful. I also liked the bit about Finrod's eyes and nose watering worse than Beren's, haha...for different reasons, of course! Portrayals of the elves where they're less perfect and more subject to mundane problems make me oddly happy.

The idea of Arafinwe wearing extra cloaks so his children could pretend he's Ingwe and practice their introduction's made me laugh. 

Eh, I just realized I somehow did this review in reverse chronological order...oops?

Anyway, I also wanted to tell you "good luck" on the paper and presentation you mentioned in your reply! I don't think there's a way to respond directly (I could just be oblivious...) but I hope the conference goes well. (My first instinct is to say "have fun" with your presentation, but I'm probably the only person who thinks oral presentations are "fun.") Take care!

(P.S. Hope this finds it's way to you in the midst of the "Great Notification Debacle of 2015" hehe. Sorry if you get this after the fact :D)

Thank you so much ... for everything! :D You've been so kind to me lately, and yes, I'm slicing and dicing the paper as we speak (well ... not *precisely* as we speak since I can't type in two places at once, but you know what I mean! :) so the encouragement is timely and very much appreciated.

When I think of Finrod meeting the Edain, I can't help but think how unpleasant a surprise mortality must have been. Certainly, Elves had experienced mortality among animals--presumably, they were sad when their loyal pets and horses died--but immortality being the norm for humans in their mind, to discover a people simultaneously so alike and so unlike them at the very cores of their natures must have been a painful surprise.

I am rather fond of imperfect Elves myself. I've made a ten-year fandom career off them even! :D

Also, I like giving presentations too. I'm a high school teacher, so I often say I perform in front of one of the world's most difficult audiences every day. Stuff like this is a cakewalk in comparison! The preparation is more worrisome than the actual talk, which I know I will have a great time with.

There is presently no way to reply to replies, so you're not oblivious. :) Threaded comments are on our wishlist and I'd love to see them in the new version of eFiction, if it ever sees light of day. If not, if I ever learn PHP well enough, it'd be something I'd place high on my to-do list to work on. And, as you can see, the Great Notification Debacle of 2015 has been solved! \0/ So thank you again for such a perfectly timed and lovely comment. You made my night!