Comments

The Silmarillion Writers' Guild is more than just an archive--we are a community! If you enjoy a fanwork or enjoy a creator's work, please consider letting them know in a comment.

I was replying to a new review on this story and saw that I never replied to yours. Bad me! I do want to thank you for your kind words about this story; it\'s one of my older ones, so it\'s a challenge to thrust it out to the world again without taking a red pen to it first. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing ... belatedly! :)

Thank you, Olorime, for reading my story and taking the time to comment! :) Nerdanel and Feanor are two of my favorite characters, in part because, alone of most of the canon couples in Tolkien\'s writings, we get very telling glimpses of their relationship.

I know some put a lot of stock in the fanon that childbirth for Elves is all happiness and light. I don\'t buy that, and the weariness described in Laws and Customs provides interesting fodder for exploration too. Thanks again for reading and for your kind remarks! :)

I do think this is a NECESSARY story, written as it is from Nerdnale's perspective, from a woman's perspective because Tolkien is all about the male. But you have compassion for Feanor woven intrinsically into the weft of the tale, and in spite of his unreasonable demand, we are left with that question you ask, or rather Nerdanle asks, but I think it would still not have been enough. He would demand more and more and more, as he does of his sons until they are destroyed as Nerdanel is not - or rather she is not physically destroyed, but her mother's grief when she had the news that all her little ones are gone, must have destroyed her where Feanor himself did not directly. Its such a tragic tale.

I've always loved Nerdanel and writing from her point of view. I've recently taken to writing more often from the female perspective for precisely the reason that you say ... and Tolkien's women very often show enormous strength and courage, even if that is not recognized, except maybe in passing, in the original texts. As a wife myself, someone lucky to have married the love of my life, I find myself drawn to Nerdanel, since she is so much the same. I do not know that I would have her strength, and so she fascinates me.

Thank you again for the lovely review, Ziggy! :)

This is a really interesting story- Nerdanle has gradually been leeched of all her energy and now Feanaro asks her for yet another that will put her where his mother was- so is that sacrifice what he seeks? Does he wish for all he loves ot sacrifice htemselves fo rhim, because that is what the Oath does in effect.

Feanor has become almost mad, the brilliance of his genius seems to consumre him, the fire of his spirit devouring him from within so he is unable to contain it. It is a sad contrast to the genrous and affectionate love of Another Man's cage but even so, you alws hav eit lurking htere just beneath the surface, Nerdanel's weakness and weary exhaustion should evoke compassion in him, and devotion. But one such as he could never bear it for one he loves to not be able to keep up.