I love how you've captured hobbits in these little vignettes. I love how food connects them and the passage of time. I love how Merry and Pippin now always share their food, I love Sam's single mindedness, and I love Frodo's realization. This is so sensitively written, so beautifully nuanced.

This hurt to read. I'm serious, I actually have an ache in my chest, and that is well. You captured the pain and fear and goodbyes very well, and I hurt for them all. I really enjoyed this story. I hope you don't mind, but with your permission I would like to add this story to my Shire Cooking community. Thank you for writing it and for the recipe.

Very good story and very original. I like how you have food bring up memories for each of the four hobbits.

Okay, this one did make me cry.

You know these characters so well and love them and it shows in your writing of them. I could clearly see each of the events you described happening to them. I especially liked the idea of Merry dividing his share of bread and giving it to Pippin. What a bond they have.

The summer pudding sounds wonderful, and I loved you way you wrote the recipe. "Wonky halves and triangles," I love it. :)

I'm definitely listing you as one of my favorite authors here.

Wow, what a great short story! Thank you!

This is a beautiful story.I loved it.

This looks like a pretty good desert, although I'm not sure I could resist using something sweeter than bread. The story was excellent as well. I've always been kind of annoyed that the movie skipped what the shire and the hobbits had been going through while Frodo and the others were away, and what they had to do to fix things.

Brilliant! This is what I read fanfiction for.

I'm hungry now!
In addition, you respect the character of the hobbits people, that's great.
Je suis affamée maintenant!
En plus, tu respectes le caractère du peuple des hobbits, c'est bien!

Dear Eildon Rhymer: This was a delightful and intricately-crafted story! You fulfilled all the prompts brilliantly. The plot was very good, the accounts and especially the descriptions very well crafted. You have me craving summer fruits now! The characterization was equally excellent. Everyone was very much in-character, and I was intrigued by your take on Pippin-that he sometimes acts carefree and like a "fool of a Took" to at least some extent because his friends expect it of him, or at least he believes they do. The thought of Sam and Frodo each both trying to protect the other was touching and completely believable, as was Sam's sadness at the destruction of the raspberries-his Gaffer's raspberries, at that. Poor Merry's isolation when fighting alongside the Rohirrim, and the appreciation of both fellowship and food that it gave him, was also very compatible with the story's theme. The part about the blackberries being blighted by the path of the Black Rider was a superb touch. Folklore has its uses! Thank you for writing and posting this story. Sincerely, Darkover

A new story from you is always a treat, and this is such a bittersweet one. I particularly liked the notion that one got upset over the small things like the blackbird's song because the big things were too enormous. The idea of sharing bread as an act of fellowship was very resonant.

And as an aside, summer pudding is my favourite pudding.

How sad, but in such a hopeful and joyful way.

I like fanfictions with recipes at the end! Aside from that, I think this is a lovely way of showing how simple foods can bring back memories.
A very well done,
Elrond's Circlet