A Ponderous Tome by oshun

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Fanwork Notes

    

 

old-book-smell_5

Fanwork Information

Summary:

A short character study of a youthful Elrond and a reflection on an aspect of his relationship with Maedhros and Maglor; in response to Day 26 of the B2MeM challenge. The prompt is: “a teacher who played a key role . . . . write a character who educated his people in some way.”

MEFA 2009,  Third Place - First Age and Prior:
Featuring Maedhros or Maglor
Tree and Flower Awards 2013, First Place
Favorite Characerization of Elrond

Major Characters: Elrond, Elros, Maedhros, Maglor

Major Relationships:

Genre: General

Challenges: Ankle Biters, B2MeM 2009

Rating: General

Warnings:

This fanwork belongs to the series

Maitimo and Findekáno
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 1, 082
Posted on 26 March 2009 Updated on 26 March 2009

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

A Ponderous Tome

Comments

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Oh, this is a wonderful story! I love how it isn't Elros that gets in trouble for not paying attention, as most stories I've read have the twins in the opposing roles. It's especially ironic because of Elrond's later role as a loremaster.

Don’t judge a scholar by his turgid prose. And stop being an arrogant, inconsiderate ass with Macalaurë.”

Favorite line of the piece!

Thank you. I am so glad you enjoyed it; I had my own logic behind seeing Elrond as the more easily distractable. From teaching school, having kids of my own, and coming from a huge family, my observation has been that the extremely bright kids, who had the most success academically later were often the ones who were most easily bored early on.

I enjoyed reading this. I liked the glimpse into young Elrond's life. You dialogue was a lot of fun, and very clever. I liked seeing Elrond and Elros together as children, and the last lines of this were brilliant. This was very well written and enjoyable to read, a great interpretation of the prompt I think. :-)

Thank you so much for reading and commenting. I’m very happy it worked for you and especially that you liked the dialogue. I love to write dialogue. I also love these characters together; like to imagine what their interactions were like. Elrond and Elros turned out to well for me to think that was pure luck and had nothing to do with their caretakers.

I've read this twice and could not get enough of it.  I enjoyed how you fleshed out Elrond's character here and his interaction with the brothers.  I would like to think that Elrond being "as kind as summer" much later in life was also derived in part (even a little bit) from the "fell Fëanorians".  The twins would have or must have gotten something from spending time with them.

It is also fun to see Elrond in a new, more mischievous light. My favorite was the line: "...do not judge a scholar by his turgid prose, and stop being an arrogant, inconsiderate ass with Macalaurë."

I liked your Maedhros here as well and it just struck me that he would have made a good father if he had kids (and maybe "partly-raising" six younger brothers did the trick). 

Elrond the teenager, bored with dry prose and stale history - oh, I'll buy it, it's so very teenage (IIRC).

His shame when he realizes that real people wrote the dry books; that his teacher makes sacrifices so that Elrond may gain the advantage of a good education - this part of your story really touched me and also seemed very much in character. Perhaps this is where Elrond begins to grow up, become the 'kind as summer' loremaster.

And the way he regards Maedhros... there's more than a little hero worship here, which also makes perfect sense.  *g*

 

This is really nice :) I like your neat characterisation and portrayal of young Elrond. Who would have thought a great lord like him could have been so petulant in his youth? Your suggestion of what Maedhros may have done in Tirion was interesting, too. I'd never really thought about it before :)

Thank you so much. I really appreciate the comments. I think Elrond was a survivor, so he must have a strong personality. I think Maedhros and Maglor also must have taken good care for the two of them, because they turned out all right. Actually, case of fostering that amount almost to hostages in a political sense in our own world during the Middle-ages was not uncommon and the bonds that were formed often ended in promoting life-long attachments. So I've never seen the so-called kidnapping of those two youngsters as a horrible fate.

Thank you so much. That means a lot to me that you like Elrond here. I actually fell in love with Elrond before I even knew his life story--way back when I first read Lord of the Rings. I hope I can write more of him. I also have a fondness for Elrond and Maedhros having a different and oft times more contradictory relationship than that of Maglor and Elrond. But basically in my verse, Elrond admires Maedhros and sees a lot in him that even Maedhros doesn't realize is showing.

Lovely story. Great characterization of Elrond and I love his interaction with Maedhros. For all their faults Maglor and Maedhros must have been good with children--they had so much experience at home. Elrond and Elros certainly did not have good parents--likely credit should go to their foster father's for how the twins turned out!

Thank you so much. I am so happy you enjoyed the story. I really agree with you about Maedhros, Maglor, and the children. I grew up in a family of seven siblings and hoards of cousins and was somewhat shocked to find that in the wider world, it had pretty much made me an expert at how to care for them and keep them happy, not to mention having a very high personal tolerance for the little creatures.