Comments on This Distant Shore

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Glad to see you posting here. Also happy to see another story about a woman. My imagination was captured also by Pandemonium's version of Elendil's wife, but yours pursues different aspects, focusing as it does in the beginning on what was left behind/lost. Those Numenorean women, largely nameless in the texts, would have been formidable in my imagining of their story.

The Alkallabëth is not an area which I have studied carefully, so I hope you don't mind a question. I had it stuck in my mind that not all of the Faithful who left Numenor at the time of its destruction survived the great wave that eliminated it. I don't know if that is fanon or canon, but you say that "all our folk" arrived safely.

Liked the idea of splitting up children and those with special skills throughout the ships of the émigrés.



Thanx for reviewing this story, Oshun.  I think Elendil's wife would have been a strong character in anyone's fanfiction; I can't see Elendil marrying a nervous-nellie or a prima donna. 

I have no objection to your question; but I personally don't remember hearing anything about anyone on the Nine Ships being lost - I don't think Tolkien went into that much detail.  Also, I don't think I had Isilaire mention whether all the people who set out from Numenor in Elendil's half of the fleet survived; there might not yet have been a head count.  As for the five ships of Isildur and Anarion; Elendil said My sons, the Lords Isildur and Anárion, and I believe most of those aboard their five ships, have come through the storm alive.   He couldn't have known 100% whether every single person had survived; but by the conditions of the ships he saw in the palantir, and the amount of people he saw coming from the ships, he thought that most of them had lived.  I personally think a few of the sailors might have been lost in the waves - the nine ships went through big waves and constant storms at sea after they survived the wave that drowned Numenor....

 

What a wonderful way to debut here, Raksha!   Simply put, I love this story of thanksgiving!  I devoured the rich details which I have come to expect from you: the contrast of what Isilairë left behind and what she brought with her, the descriptions of their landing site, and most of all, her leadership and strength.  Those really shine here. 

Love the fact that she brought the pure strains of athelas, and the contrast of leaving her gowns and finery behind so that she could make sure items of need could be taken -- and also that the treasured grandson and his mother were on the ship. 

Her reactions -- and Elendil's -- when they learn that Isildur and Anárion and their people have survived are great, and I very much like the way you've portrayed Elendil and Isilairë's relationship: one can see their love and support for one another in just a few sentences.   Adroit use of the palantír, too!

I hope you will continue to write in the Second Age -- a very rich and largely unplumbed source -- and furthermore, that you'll also include OFCs.  I know many writers shy away from the species, but needlessly, I think.  It's obvious with the character of Isilairë (of whom my Isilmë heartlly approves) that in your hands, you can craft an excellent character.

 

 

 



Thanx much for reading and reviewing, Pandemonium, especially since your Isilme was an inspiration!  This was new territory for me, both the era and the gender of my protagonist.  Normally I would shy away from OFCs, but I wanted to explore what Elendil's lady, who had to be worried about their missing sons and yet have the responsibility of caring for at least some of the folk on the ship, would be doing after landfall.  And then I found Isilaire easier to write than I had feared. 

 The Second Age is definitely a rich and unmined source of fanfic; but the Fall of Numenor is rather depressing, isn't it; I mean they had everything and messed it all up, getting greedy and arrogant even before Ar-Pharazon The Stupid started listening to Sauron.  Someday I'd like to do an Elendil-and-Gil-galad friendship piece; but we'll see what the Muses send me.  And Elros Tar-Minyataur; there's someone who must have been a powerful and fascinating character.

I'm glad you saw the love in the relationship between Elendil and Isilaire; I meant it to be there, known and wordless between the two of them. 

Lovely and very appropriate for the season! I liked that it began somewhat despondent and swelled to such a happy ending. So much of Silmfic is depressing (I am to blame as well as any other in this), so it is nice to get a story with a happy ending every now and again.)

Isilairë's grief over animals and objects lost really resounded to me. I am that way as well. I nearly cried when one of my Golden Retrievers chewed up my favorite hair sticks last week. And if I lost said Golden Retrievers ... we won't even go there. :) But such honest emotion makes this story shine.



I really preferred to write this than even contemplating writing Miriel's frantic, futile climb up the Meneltarma.  Sheesh; all those people drowned.  Yes, much Silmfic is depressing. 

I would think that after the danger of storms and imminent death subsided, the survivors' minds would start thinking of all they had left behind.  Only Isilaire would try not to, because there's so much she has to take care of.  It must have been horrible to have to decide which dogs, cats, birds and horses could come; there probably wasn't much room the animals; maybe a few breeding pairs; and Tolkien said the Numenoreans cherished their horses. 

Thankfully, I don't live in an area where flooding would be much of a problem.  But to survive a disaster, and to see one's home destroyed so utterly, and then be tossed around in a storm for days; well, those Numenoreans had to be hardy people.  I couldn't imagine choosing between my dogs, if I had more than two (and they're spaniels); or leaving them. 

Anyway, thanx much, Dawn, for reviewing my first story posted here.