Elegy for Númenor - Volume 1: Journey to Umbar by elfscribe

Dolgu as a lady-in-waiting! Oh my, no wonder he is pissed. (You say it so much better than I)

Mairon instinctively goes to the old cell of the elf who’s body he stole to hide the ring in his treasure nook. How crafty you are. I can see he is going to adopt, perhaps unwillingly, part of this elf’s personality.

The ring is eloquent. I’m sorry to see him go.

So glad you are continuing to write this! I am so enjoying it.

Even Sauron was not inherently evil. I feel sympathy for him here for a short while. But like many abusive evil beings he has not learned compassion from suffering but merely how to better inflict it on others. This was a hard chapter to read but it gave me insight. You have a brilliant imagination.

Sûla leaned forward with a smirk. “I could offer you the best time of your life.” He ran his tongue across his upper lip.

Tigôn nervously rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand, as if wiping away the very thought. “I, no, uh, I’m not like that, Sûla.”

“Not like what?” Sûla demanded in a low voice. “A zirâmîki? One who bends over for another’s pleasure? Not like me, you mean?”

Sula seems very good at both trying to entice and repel Tigon. It is a pleasure watching them become friends but even now the tension is evident.

 “It’ll be unlikely that I’ll bet them next time. You don’t want my breeches to fall off, do you?” Sûla laughed.

“No, indeed,” Tigôn said, but with a grin. He stood and offered Sûla a hand up.

Suddenly it became awkward between them, neither knowing whether they should embrace before calling it a night. Sûla coughed. “Sure you don’t want that kiss?”

“Oh, uh, no.” Tigôn wouldn’t look at him. “Well, good night then.”

Bet he does want that kiss. I find this pair very appealing and believable. If another ziramiki had befriended Sula I am not sure he would have felt the desire to kiss him so fierce that he had to use the freezing spell.

Enjoying the whole story! Thank you for sharing your talent.

Love is weakness it renders you vulnerable. Oh how terrible! Only Sauron or some such villain could think such a thing as love a detriment. The price is very high indeed. But Sula has little choice. I have read these chapters over and over and something new surfaces every time. I noticed for the first time that Annatar showed Sula a vivid vision of being with Tigon, then took it away. Sula felt the pain of loss yet again and very intensely. This is what makes me know he is in love. Then to top it off Annatar tells him he will not be able to have his hearts true desire and offers him a wicked empty substitute. I felt sorry for him in chapter nine. I understand the reason for his darkness, but I no longer feel much pity for him.

So very glad you have given us this story. Thank you for all of your hard work. It is very evident and most appreciated!

You are amazing!

This was such a treat on a Sunday morning. Each chapter pulls me in more deeply, and there is such intrigue and beauty and depth.

Sûla is so young and so needy, poor thing. Little wonder he can't help or resist being drawn deeper into Mairon's snares. But I am so fascinated by your Mairion, that I truly don't blame Sûla; Mairon plays every-one like a master.  He's terrifying really, but so sexy.

Please, please keep on, Elfscribe, I am absorbing this story like a sponge. It is wonderful!

The last thing I was going to do before bed was check your LJ to see what was going on. I saw this posted and read it at once. It was 3:00 a.m. before I finished reading and rereading. Then I woke up at 5:30 a.m. thinking about your chapter 29 and read it a third time. Poor Sula, he is so frightened. But who could blame him for rattling off everything that happened with Tigon. He is just a lonely young human who has only known abuse and oppression. Sula is facing the manipulative, controlling wrath and cold cruelty of a Maia, a demigod, and a bully. Yes Sauron is multifaceted, but you must forgive me for my loss of empathy for him. Evil certainly can be beautiful and he is and obviously a master of seduction. Sula was powerless to fight and had to succumb. He really is amazingly brave to ask Sauron to cure Tig of the dragon arm band’s bite. His love of Tigon is so evident.

As a matter of fact my heart leapt when Sula called Tig his beloved. It was so touching seeing the wall of self defense crumble a little.  To the best of my knowledge this is the first time Sula has mentioned or should I say thought the word love re Tigon.

Four weeks is such a long time. What kind of Damage can Mairon do in that amount of time? You are cliff hanging yet again. I hope you know you are killing me with suspense. If this was a finished book I’d stay up all night reading.

The one hope is Sauron seeing the brief vision of the cliff, gulls and eagle.

I adore your characters Sula and Tigon. I am hooked on them all!

The next chapter cannot post fast enough for me.

This chapter is a fine example of the overall irresistible appeal of your novel. I've said it to you already, it's got it all: fine writing, characters we've come to know and love (yes, even Annatar, though he's despicable), an exciting plot, and ** cough ** hotness ** cough ** with hints of the past tenderness we've seen between the two boys.

I didn't really expect you to throw this complication of the dragon armband to the mix, but it certainly makes a gripping tale, and adds to Annatar's means of manipulating our long-suffering hero.I'm so worried for him, torn between impossible choices. What a cruel conflict you've created for him!

I know the end of this book is near, but I'm hoping you are open to some sort of negotiation or bribe to prompt you to continue with this fantastic tale. For over a couple of years now I've been dying with anticipation for updates to Elegy even when I'm privileged to have a preview. I've loved each of them, and I'm really hoping that you will take longer than you expect to wrap this part up... :o)

Oh dear, that armband is even worse than just the spying device I thought it chiefly was! I suppose, Sauron being Sauron, he is actually telling the truth about its bite being lethal... That certainly put Sula fully back in his power--except Sula seems to have managed to keep that one final secret almost by accident.

I also notice that Sauron is still not quite as much in possession of himself as he would like to think he is...

And you really cannot be so cruel as to deny Volume 2 to us, you know!

I am reposting this review from your LJ :)

This was wonderful. :) I can see the way it is going for Sûla now, and that is unfortunate, but he's really boxed in, isn't he? Sauron is delightful (I am not sure I should feel that way, but I do) and Sûla delicious, and Tigon is such a foil now for Sauron, so innocent still, and wholesome and lovely. Well done! I cannot wait to read on.Hugs!

Caught like a fly in Sauron's web--and even his love for Tigon helps to push  Sula further in. I hope it will also continue to keep at least a small part of his heart free of Sauron. He seems to be more aware of his danger now, at least, but it may be too late for that to be much help.

I suppose that offer of revenge on his aunt was too hard to resist--but she was acting more out of fear than out of greed, surely? At least that is what she said. Perhaps it makes no difference to Sula at this point. Maybe experiencing the effects will curb his craving for revenge towards others.

I liked the details of Amandil's aching feet and the gull flying away with the ship's biscuit!

Hi, Elfscribe. I am copying pasting my reviews from LJ, and reading again

Oh, Elfscribe, what an incredible end to the first book. It had everything: politics, danger, wonderful descriptions, the lovely UST between Sûla and Tigôn

Sûla raised his head and their eyes met with a force that belied the distance between them.

Tigôn mouthed, “It was not a dream.”

“He’s a Maia, Ada,” Elendil replied. “We keep forgetting how powerful he is. I think he’s mumming weakness.”

“We are in trouble,” Amandil said, heavily.

There is a lot of epic in this chapter, like the prelude to a great piece of music, Elfscribe. The story is arcing out perfectly, to encompass Númenor, and Annatar weaving his toils over all of it.

Brava!! /

It really was a treat this wet and cold weekend to read it, and it was perfect as a last chapter. Everything about it was completely right. Thank-you for writing!

I've already told you how much I like this chapter!

I think the scene in which Amandil and Azgarad compile the evidence against Sula is both a great way of summarizing events so far to conclude this volume and whetting our appetite for what might come next.

Also that scene on the quay beween Annatar and the priests is extremely good--it ratchets up the tension another notch rather than winding things down, draws attention back to the more general political situation and foreshadows the gradual shift in Annatar's tactics that is to come.

That last conversation between Sula and Annatar reminds us of all Sula has already been through--and how little chance he has of getting away with anything directly under the eyes of Annatar. Oh dear. I hope the goings-on in his head help to distract Annatar from the feather question!

Congratulations on your tenth fandom birthday, Elfscribe. I did not know you had been in the fandom that long, but a few days ago I began reading this story again, so now seems a good day to review it.

I have been reading and wanting to carry it around with me, as I do my best-beloved books, because it is such a superbly engrossing novel. Your creation of characters is so masterful, as none of these are very much written about, so it is pretty much the same as writing OC's, apart from knowing certain points in their lives. You have 'built' all of them and certainly their personalities, from almost nothing, which is an incredible talent.

You know I love your Annatar, such an incredibly Machiavellian character who charms me to the bone, and honestly frightens me, but this time of reading, instead of thinking on how he charms and manipulates the king, I am thinking of how he also tempts and manipulates Sûla and Tigôn, your beautiful young men. Tigôn's position, as a nobleman's son is certainly better than Sûla's, but it strikes me as almost poetic and chilling that they both come to look on Annatar as a saviour, who can help when no-one else can. This is so clever of you, because Sauron is possibly the last person I would have thought of as any-one's 'last hope', and underlines how toxic any kind of society can be for people with little power. Annatar is in his element, even if forced to do things and suffer indignities, he knows his way around this. I can virtually see him playing this intricate chess game. You have really created a masterwork here on some many complex levels, with the characters instigating, reacting, enduring, suffering through the plot, and you move the plot with the characters, which is so important to me; they're not puppets to the plot.

And your OC's - I have said this before, but they are a remarkable pair, and honestly the best OC's I have read. In their different ways they are such sympathetic and endearing characters. They stay with me long after I read, and have become so real that in my headcanon, they are in the canon, just two of the many people who didn't get written into the Silm and UT. They have to have existed, because they've made their place in the histories.

I know you have hinted at Sûla's 'darkening', but knowing his life, and having read him in this story, I suspect I will never cease to be fond of him. “ ”

This was a wonderful story! I usually get discouraged at long fanfics, but this one was so well paced and intriguing that I just couldn't stop reading. Also, the portrayals of all characters were quite insightful and rich. If this wasn't fanfiction, I could easily see it being published as a short commercial novel. Is there a continuation?

I don't care if it's odd to pop a comment before reading, I just had to let you know that this is is next on my long-fic reading list! (And coincidentally very apt since the long-fic I'm currently reading is (currently) unfinished, just at the point of heading to Númenor.)

It's so good to see this wonderful fic posted here.