Comments

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This is a hefty piece of work! (I am nearly as out of my depth as Aule was about consider living bodies!) I don't know where to start. I enjoyed it very much. Aule's investment in the formation of the core of the earth and creation of its rocks, minerals, volcanoes, etc. is fascinating and straining my pitiful little mind which runs along the lines of imagining and creating character-driven fiction, all about people talking and interacting. And yet you are able to embody Aule with ambition, desire, curiosity, and appetite--all of those same impulses that I think so much about in my writing.

I like the use of the name Aa8;ūlēz. Has an authentic ring. Also like the encounter with Mairon and how Aule is comfortable with rocks but insecure with living organisms. The concepts are beautifully dealt with. Nice job.

I like my Ainur unearthly and not-human on principle, so thank you. Gods should always be a little bit terrifying. I had no idea how to pronounce Aule's Valarin name, but I found a sound sample pronunciation here: https://www.jrrvf.com/glaemscrafu/english/nomsvalarins.html

Oooh, excellent. You've done a fantastic job at depicting the alienness - and the limitations, a topic dear to my heart! - of the Ainur, especially of Aulë, and you've created an atmosphere that is at once primeval and beyond human comprehension, and yet readable for human readers. I'm intrigued by the idea that Aulë would have turned to some of his Maiar for help. It's a little ironic that he reprimanded Mairon for his (however horrific) experiments when we know that soon after, Eru Himself will have a word or two to say about the creation of the Dwarves...
I love how you dealt with the matter of their pre-Quenya names, BTW! There seems to be a little glitch, though; on my computer, at least, Aȝūlēz appears as Aa8;ūlēz (that is, with letters and numbers where the yogh should be), which makes the reading kind of awkward! Not sure whether other people have the same problem, and of course it has no bearing on the quality of your writing!

Wonderful! I love how Aulë, despite being a Vala, is still learning about Arda and about how he might create things within it.  (And the way that he thinks about things!) Your use of names is very deft, it really anchors the story in the time before the Valar had encountered the Children.