Comments on Halls of Mercy

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This was very atmospheric! Especially with Olwë and Finarfin. And the images you conjure in the minds eye are beautiful! I especially love Finarfin and Olwë’s meetings. And the jewelled shores! what a feast! It was a very interesting to read.

 

Really interesting thoughts about Nienna and Finarfin as her acolyte!

I liked your approach to the different female characters, canonical and OC, there is quite a breadth here. Neat how you are upending some common fannish assumptions, too.

Olwe is lovely here. I am glad that there is a kind of happy ending for those two.

Thank you so much for your kind comment, it made my day!

This fic started because there was a lot more Finarfin in my previous fic that I took out in order to focus more on the OCs. Finarfin has shown up in minor roles in a few fics of mine and he always comes across as very sad. Looking at him from the perspective of Everyman characters it seemed like the most important thing he did by returning was save the lives of his returnees, none of whose names we know in canon, but all of whom have stories that matter from their own perspectives and those who love them. So, he saved the lives of people he didn't know or barely knew and in the process signed himself up for a lifetime of grief, regret, and probably some guilt and shame both for leaving his children and for not staying to begin with. What sort of person would do that? That is what made me think of Nienna, lady of compassion and grief. Finarfin is the fairytale trope of the third brother who doesn't have the virtues of his two older brothers but has a secret other virtue that people don't notice until it makes him king. For Finarfin I think it was the courage to face his grief and regret, which is a completely different kind of courage than what his brothers have, plus enough compassion to be willing to do this for people he barely knows.

Meanwhile there's this whole gender piece with Finarfin's return, that almost all the named characters who remain in Tirion are women, and by returning Finarfin threw his lot in with his mother and sisters in law, etc. But the remainers had ruled themselves until Finarfin returned, they would probably have some feelings about the Valar putting someone in charge who hadn't had enough loyalty to the Valar to stay to begin with.  I've only been back from Mandos for a short time so I'm not completely sure which fannish assumptions I went against, but I'm glad I could come up with something original.