Comments on Far From The World We Know

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.

I'm amazed how much you've got going on in this short piece. The consideration you've given to the practicalities of their particular situation is brilliant - Elwing's birdlike shriek, Eärendil's frozen tongue, the calming and warming influence they exert on each other. The way in which she needs to return to being human, and in which he needs to find his way back into the world of speech. Following their exchange (and change) was quite exhilarating, and I suspect this fic is going to reverberate with me for quite a while.

Thank you!

I actually managed to leave out a line that had seemed important before I started writing. Now I wonder whether I should take that as a sign that it wasn't such a good idea after all or whether I was just too out of it, at the time of writing.

"As she un-birds, he un-stars."

<<stares dubiously at line>>

Maybe I'll put in the summary or the notes.

I love the way you make her a flapping cawing gull, and earendil like his ship's rigging- really effective imagery.  I never liked Elwing so have no sympathy for her but the strangeness of their story is brought sharply into focus here- like a folktale. I like the way you point out that it is never resolved though and that hanging ending gives it a poignancy I don't find in Tolkien.



Thank you, ziggy! Good to hear the imagery works for you.

Whether one likes Elwing or not, her story starts with displacement and the loss of her parents and siblings and ends by taking her even farther away--a strange story, as you say.

I think Tolkien wants it to be a happy end, but it seems to me that he only achieves that by looking at it and describing it from a distance.