A Game of Risk by Lyra

Fanwork Information

Summary:

Isildur said no word, but went out by night and did a deed for which he was afterwards renowned.

Isildur discovers that heroic deeds are not nearly as simple as the poets make it sound.

Major Characters: Isildur

Major Relationships:

Artwork Type: No artwork type listed

Genre: Drama, Suspense

Challenges: Akallabêth in August

Rating: Teens

Warnings: Violence (Moderate)
Chapters: 1 Word Count: 4, 666
Posted on 19 August 2009 Updated on 19 August 2009

This fanwork is complete.

Table of Contents

A Game of Risk

Comments

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This was awesome! What an exciting story! I loved everything about it--Isildur's characterization and his exhilaration in the hunt rings particularly true--but I would like to especially comment on two thingd: 1) I had never given thought to distance before, and seeing now what this whole operation must have taken has brought a new appreciation and awe to me; 2) This may not have been what you intended, but your descriptions of the statues brought to mind the decline of greek civilization as reflected in their art, but also roman imitation of greek art which was, though to all purposes, still magnificent, did not quite measure up to classical standards, and I thought that worked in so many levels for this particular time period. All in all, I just loved this storyand am adding it to my favorites :-)

Wee, thank you so much!

The distance between Armenelos and Rómenna is not actually all that bad - a day's brisk journey for a good walker, and a relaxed day's ride with a good horse -but Isildur is not currently up to a hard walk or a swift ride, especially as he can only move under cover of darkness, so I supposed it'd take him a bit longer.

Concerning the statues, the decline of Ancient Greek art (or "decadentisation" as my mom calls it) was exactly what I had in mind, so I'm exstatic that you picked up on that!

 

This is a really gripping account!  The opening is very striking and I love the amount of detail you include; it makes everything seem very realistic.  All the way through I was very conscious of the risks, both in the short term (getting run through by a guard) and possibly in the long term (being captured, implications for the family).  The transition from imagined dangers, as Isildur approached the tree, to very real dangers, as the guards became aware of him, was excellent.  Thank you!

Thank you so much!

I have to admit that I was at first rather unhappy with this story because it felt so utterly un-original, like a mere re-telling of the respective paragraph in the <i>Silmarillion</i> rather than something new. I'd actually meant to write a rather more controversial story, but that somehow didn't want to get written, so in the end I wrote this instead, and while I thought it was an ok-ish story, I wasn't happy with it at all. Of course, now I've been working on the controversial bit for a week, and it's turning out rather unsatisfying, so I'm glad I have this here written. And if I ever manage to get the other story written after all, I can always add it as a kind of sequel to this...