Comments on Mereth Aderthad

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i think my level of appreciation for this work is best shown by how clueless i am about who all the characters are. i have no idea what happened (Idril made Celeborn dance with Galadriel) but i really enjoyed it in a 'film with no subtitles' way... i mean, i know the Silmarillion well, but this...



I'm fond of Mereth Aderthad fics and I like this one a lot and how you've structured it.

I really like following along from one point of view to the next! I especially enjoyed the meeting between Idril and Celeborn.

(It is sad to think of the lack of children among the Noldor and the reasons for it.)

It all ends on a rather muted note, but at least Celeborn and Galadriel are back together.



Thank you!

I wanted to capture how much was going on during the Mereth Aderthad, and that everyone had their own experience of it. Ending on a muted note was intentional, because I feel like while it was still a festive occasion, it was probably not quite as bright and carefree as the memory of it would come to appear as things got steadily worse for the elves.

Awesome! When I saw that we were already at the Mereth Aderthad just after the Helcaraxe, I was a bit shocked ("did we really plan it like that"), but you managed to cover so much material in this fic that it doesn't feel like anything is missing. From Fingolfin's retrospection and reasoning for the feast to Fingon's reservations (and surprise! I particularly enjoyed that bit!), to Turgon's and Aredhel's rather strong feelings (understandable in Turgon's case, mixed in Aredhel's), to little Idril's excitement and matchmaking attempts, to Celeborn and Galadriel and finally, to Finrod's heroic efforts, you really put it all into a coherent and very enjoyable story arc. I really liked what you did with Celeborn; in the books, I find him rather colourless (no pun intended), but you painted him as a headstrong but reasonable and immensely likeable young man deserving of Galadriel's love. It all ends on a reconciliatory note, as the Mereth Aderthad should.
In conclusion, very well done! Thank you so much for sharing.

Aw, thank you! The Mereth Aderthad did happen fairly quickly after the Helcaraxë, only twenty years later - and a fairly busy twenty years, I would think, between the rescue of Maedhros, him ceding kingship, and the Nolofinwions/Arafinwions trying to get established in Beleriand. I tried to capture as much as I could in what was meant to be a short story. My original plan was just the adult Nolofinwions, but then I couldn't resist little Idril, and since she was playing with Sindarin kids, Celeborn came wandering through... (I've always thought it was a shame we didn't get more about Celeborn in the books. He had to have been more than we see for Galadriel to have fallen in love with him.) 

This is wonderful! A feast of re-uniting with some sour grapes in it, just as there always would be, or there would be no "re" in the uniting.

I feel like you have weaved so many threads into this that I hardly know where to begin, but it really places this feast right in the middle of all those big events, and also points forward to others. I enjoyed Celegorm a lot - I've always had a soft spot for those completely underdeveloped characters, so I love seeing them get a moment in the spotlight. :D



Thank you!

Yes, there's always some sour grapes - with large families, it's pretty much inevitable that there's going to be at least one minor quarrel going on in the background at any given gathering.

I wanted to try to capture how the feast was different things to different people - and also sort of the calm before the storm that they'd look back on afterwards.

I should probably write more of the Galadriel-Celeborn strand of this at some point, and explain what it was they'd argued about...

(And I am terribly slow catching up on comments here on SWG, sorry!)

The alternating viewpoints and the different range of emotions covered made this a pleasure to read.

Such a fascinating contradiction built into the Silm: the ship-burning by Feanor and the march across the Grinding Ice seems unforgivable. But if the two sides of the Noldor split remain at total odds, in this strange land, and facing Morgoth, they're clearly in even greater danger. And then again, the pull of all their old ties of family and friendship.

Well-portrayed!

Was that a tiny joke in there about Dorwinion wine? Or maybe it's just a longstanding tradition among the Sindar not to tell where the good stuff comes from . . . 



Thank you!

The Noldor did put themselves into a bit of a bind with their in-fighting...

That was less a joke about Dorwinion wine than the Fëanorions being looked on with distrust by other elves, to the point that they can't always get straight answers to what should be simple questions. "Nice wine, where does it come from?" "South of here." (As Curufin thinks to himself 'we're about as far north as it gets without being in Mogoth's territory, everything is south of here!')

Sorry I'm so behind responding to comments!