First of all, a big 'thank you' to all the reviewers. The feedback was a
pleasant surprise for me, especially when coming from writers I admire.
I always write assuming that the readers will invest a great deal of thought to the story (I hate offering chewed food), but as this isn't always the case with fanfiction, I decided to provide a commentary. Also, in order to reply to some reviewers' questions. :)
Writing an Aegnor and Andreth story isn't among my intentions (note that this story isn't focused on Aegnor, but on Andreth and Finrod, like the original), but happily another author is writing one, so don't despair!
The reason I strongly advise the possible readers to read first the original text by JRR Tolkien (apart that I believe it's a sacrilege to be spoiled beforehand against its dramatic power) is that otherwise they will perceive neither my effort to keep close to the narrative style, nor many references/obscurities, such as the game of you/thou (note that Andreth never calls Finrod "thou" except at the beginning when she thinks he's Aegnor and at the very end, unlike Finrod), or the reason Andreth calls Death a Punishment instead of simply Doom, or which words are Aegnor's and which ones are Finrod's in the message he delivers to her (did anyone guess?), or his "two kinds of pity" etc.
I'm surprised that nobody chastised me for using Quenya "Ambar-metta", something done only out of personal preference, but in any case my answer would be that even if Wise Andreth hadn't learnt the language of lore, though she had plenty of time and motive, she could still have known those two very important to her kindred and herself words from her discussions with Finrod. I constructed the Sindarin word "adanethil" from "adaneth" + "ndil/dil", dropping the 'n/d' for reasons of euphony –if you're fluent in Sindarin, please let me know if this is indeed correct. (Using 'mellon' was out of the question, for I wanted to preserve the game with Edennil.)
Andreth:
Perhaps someone could wonder why the extent of Andreth's suffering remains so vast, even after Finrod's revelations and explanations in Athrabeth. She learned that she hadn't been scorned, as she believed until then, so wasn't that enough to offer her consolation and dismiss her bitterness henceforth? First of all, yes, their discussion was enough, because note that now the center of her suffering has indeed shifted from feeling rejected to feeling abandoned!
When she was 48, she had said to Finrod: "For a year, one day, of the flame I would have given all: kin, youth, and hope itself". But Aegnor chose for both of them without her consent. Now she's 94 and as it happens with old people, the days flow into one another and she looks more backwards than forward: "my eyes dwell more in the past than in the present and I dream, rather than live, my days away". Only, she has nothing but a handful of memories to recall, every one counted for unnumbered times. Therefore, a different kind of bitterness arose, for (as Finrod revealed to her) Elves prefer their fair memories to which they can dwell, but Aegnor denied her even that comfort, elusive for mortals though it is.
Furthermore, she still doesn't believe that there will be anything beyond the End, so her suffering is even greater, unlike Aegnor and Finrod who look beyond Arda with estel.
Aegnor
The point wasn't to make Aegnor 'look bad', but it can't be helped that people whose answers differ towards a number of questions (like "The girl whom you love mutually and who belongs to a different race has an incurable disease. You have other obligations. Will you reveal your love to her, or will you leave her without any explanation and remain single for the rest of your life, convinced that you did everything for her own sake?", "Do you prefer to regret for something you have done or for something you have not done?") will also have a different look on Aegnor's choice and actions.
Finrod
I hope no reader mistook which kiss was from whom –in case you did, I'm sorry but Aegnor would never ask from his brother to deliver such a kiss as the second one. Finrod's kiss was neither sexual in nature (besides, she's too old for that), nor out of pity, but an expression of his love to a woman he loved dearly for what she was, to a woman he watched growing from splendid youth to bitter middle age and worn old age. Now he had to watch that beloved woman dying, while she still believed that Death would be the End, without any estel/trust/hope that there could possibly ever exist some future for her and her would-be-lover Aegnor. Yes, the love of those two was mutual, even if Aegnor had never spoken of it to her, but it was *Finrod* who kept visiting her and conversing with her. Didn't the poor lady deserve a kiss before she died, especially since the emotion in it made her find her estel at last?
What were Finrod's feelings during those final moments? Was there something more than "merely friendly" love for her? Did he realize at last that his brother was a fool for refusing both himself and the woman he loved the only certain time of happiness they would ever have, and how much did this affect afterwards his resolution to help Beren? I know that I'm probably asking a lot from the reader, when I'm expecting him to invest so much thought on the finale of my story as to ponder that it could be the missing link to the otherwise unexplained change from the Finrod of Athrabeth ("the least cruel fate that could befall [a marriage between the two kindred] would be that death should soon end it") to the Finrod of Leithian who sacrifices his life in order to help such a marriage to take place, a change that hints to a personal experience more than anything else, but I can always hope! :)
In any case, the love that existed in that single kiss from the Elven King to the lips of an old dying woman was too deep to not have been nurtured for many years. Andreth died in peace, but he stood in empty silence. In silence there is room for thinking and remembrance. Their finale is deliberately written in such a non-committal way as to let the reader decide for himself how he will answer the questions concerning Finrod, according to how comfortable the reader feels with different interpretations of canon. I am enough of an heretic as it is! :)
Thank you very much for reading! And for reviewing!
I always write assuming that the readers will invest a great deal of thought to the story (I hate offering chewed food), but as this isn't always the case with fanfiction, I decided to provide a commentary. Also, in order to reply to some reviewers' questions. :)
Writing an Aegnor and Andreth story isn't among my intentions (note that this story isn't focused on Aegnor, but on Andreth and Finrod, like the original), but happily another author is writing one, so don't despair!
The reason I strongly advise the possible readers to read first the original text by JRR Tolkien (apart that I believe it's a sacrilege to be spoiled beforehand against its dramatic power) is that otherwise they will perceive neither my effort to keep close to the narrative style, nor many references/obscurities, such as the game of you/thou (note that Andreth never calls Finrod "thou" except at the beginning when she thinks he's Aegnor and at the very end, unlike Finrod), or the reason Andreth calls Death a Punishment instead of simply Doom, or which words are Aegnor's and which ones are Finrod's in the message he delivers to her (did anyone guess?), or his "two kinds of pity" etc.
I'm surprised that nobody chastised me for using Quenya "Ambar-metta", something done only out of personal preference, but in any case my answer would be that even if Wise Andreth hadn't learnt the language of lore, though she had plenty of time and motive, she could still have known those two very important to her kindred and herself words from her discussions with Finrod. I constructed the Sindarin word "adanethil" from "adaneth" + "ndil/dil", dropping the 'n/d' for reasons of euphony –if you're fluent in Sindarin, please let me know if this is indeed correct. (Using 'mellon' was out of the question, for I wanted to preserve the game with Edennil.)
Andreth:
Perhaps someone could wonder why the extent of Andreth's suffering remains so vast, even after Finrod's revelations and explanations in Athrabeth. She learned that she hadn't been scorned, as she believed until then, so wasn't that enough to offer her consolation and dismiss her bitterness henceforth? First of all, yes, their discussion was enough, because note that now the center of her suffering has indeed shifted from feeling rejected to feeling abandoned!
When she was 48, she had said to Finrod: "For a year, one day, of the flame I would have given all: kin, youth, and hope itself". But Aegnor chose for both of them without her consent. Now she's 94 and as it happens with old people, the days flow into one another and she looks more backwards than forward: "my eyes dwell more in the past than in the present and I dream, rather than live, my days away". Only, she has nothing but a handful of memories to recall, every one counted for unnumbered times. Therefore, a different kind of bitterness arose, for (as Finrod revealed to her) Elves prefer their fair memories to which they can dwell, but Aegnor denied her even that comfort, elusive for mortals though it is.
Furthermore, she still doesn't believe that there will be anything beyond the End, so her suffering is even greater, unlike Aegnor and Finrod who look beyond Arda with estel.
Aegnor
The point wasn't to make Aegnor 'look bad', but it can't be helped that people whose answers differ towards a number of questions (like "The girl whom you love mutually and who belongs to a different race has an incurable disease. You have other obligations. Will you reveal your love to her, or will you leave her without any explanation and remain single for the rest of your life, convinced that you did everything for her own sake?", "Do you prefer to regret for something you have done or for something you have not done?") will also have a different look on Aegnor's choice and actions.
Finrod
I hope no reader mistook which kiss was from whom –in case you did, I'm sorry but Aegnor would never ask from his brother to deliver such a kiss as the second one. Finrod's kiss was neither sexual in nature (besides, she's too old for that), nor out of pity, but an expression of his love to a woman he loved dearly for what she was, to a woman he watched growing from splendid youth to bitter middle age and worn old age. Now he had to watch that beloved woman dying, while she still believed that Death would be the End, without any estel/trust/hope that there could possibly ever exist some future for her and her would-be-lover Aegnor. Yes, the love of those two was mutual, even if Aegnor had never spoken of it to her, but it was *Finrod* who kept visiting her and conversing with her. Didn't the poor lady deserve a kiss before she died, especially since the emotion in it made her find her estel at last?
What were Finrod's feelings during those final moments? Was there something more than "merely friendly" love for her? Did he realize at last that his brother was a fool for refusing both himself and the woman he loved the only certain time of happiness they would ever have, and how much did this affect afterwards his resolution to help Beren? I know that I'm probably asking a lot from the reader, when I'm expecting him to invest so much thought on the finale of my story as to ponder that it could be the missing link to the otherwise unexplained change from the Finrod of Athrabeth ("the least cruel fate that could befall [a marriage between the two kindred] would be that death should soon end it") to the Finrod of Leithian who sacrifices his life in order to help such a marriage to take place, a change that hints to a personal experience more than anything else, but I can always hope! :)
In any case, the love that existed in that single kiss from the Elven King to the lips of an old dying woman was too deep to not have been nurtured for many years. Andreth died in peace, but he stood in empty silence. In silence there is room for thinking and remembrance. Their finale is deliberately written in such a non-committal way as to let the reader decide for himself how he will answer the questions concerning Finrod, according to how comfortable the reader feels with different interpretations of canon. I am enough of an heretic as it is! :)
Thank you very much for reading! And for reviewing!