Drabble - Tower Hills, September 1482

[rabidsamfan]

That evening Sam stood in their garden listening to something only he could hear, and it seemed to Elanor that light shone out of him like hearthfirelight glinting through the cracks of a poorly repaired chimneystack. His sleep was brief, and broken by the nightmares he'd never had in her mother's arms. She sat by his side through the wee hours and held his hand in the shadowed room, hearing parts of the old story that she had never known. His hand felt as fragile to her touch as he did to her heart.

She knew he would not stay.




Timeline (fiction only, most recent version, includes AU) first previous next last

Comments

[shirebound]

That's beautiful. What a poignant moment between a father and his very perceptive daughter.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It was going to be a ficlet, but the rest didn't work, so I cut down to the core of it.

[elanor1013.livejournal.com]

What a beautiful image of Sam before he sails. I remember being both so sad and happy when I first read that Sam left Elanor to meet Frodo across the sea. Thanks for reminding me of that moment.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

You're welcome.

[allisona.livejournal.com]

"it seemed to Elanor that light shone out of him like hearthfirelight glinting through the cracks of a poorly repaired chimneystack"

I so like that description, Elanor's rustic insight into her father. Rather like Sam and others saw that same light in Frodo during the quest.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Rather like Sam and others saw that same light in Frodo...

Yes. That's the image I started with! I'm glad you liked it.

[elasg.livejournal.com]

Nicely done, RSF... I wonder if you have ever read Novia's Sunstar piece? It's got something of the feel of this - you might like it if you haven't already read it.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I haven't read it yet, although it's gone onto my list for after the move. I don't often read post-Gray Havens fics, and I kind of surprised myself by writing one...

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Beautiful. Very, very beautiful.

She sat by his side through the wee hours and held his hand in the shadowed room, hearing parts of the old story that she had never known. His hand felt as fragile to her touch as he did to her heart.

Sentences like these are a part of your virtuosity that always makes me hold my breath for a few seconds, when I read something new you have written.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. (I feel much the same way about your reviews!)

[illyria-novia.livejournal.com]

His sleep was brief, and broken by the nightmares he'd never had in her mother's arms.

*thud*

Gorgeous piece, this. *sighs*

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. (You didn't do yourself a damage, did you?)

[illyria-novia.livejournal.com]

No. Your drabble did that already. :)

[ethereal-hobbit.livejournal.com]

Wonderfully done, as always!

His hand felt as fragile to her touch as he did to her heart.

*sigh*

Such a poignant drabble... I love it!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[rosiegardener.livejournal.com]

sniff, heartwrenching - but it's a comforting thought that Elanor realized her Da was going to leave and why

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I think Elanor must have been a very special girl -- and I love the glimpse we get of her in HoME. This drabble probably wouldn't have happened without that.

[oliviaramirez]

This is sad and beautiful. What a comfort it must have been to Sam to have such an understanding daughter.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I think so too.

[pippinswolf.livejournal.com]

You are feeling vulnerable and this shows...this strikes me especially hard right now too, as my sister in law's mother is very near the end, and they had to decide that this time, they will not make her stay, but let her go.
Poor Elanor...I always wondered which would have been harder for her and the children; knowing their dad would likely die soon without their mother, or knowing that he was leaving them while he was still alive.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Very vulnerable. And I just spent a week being forcibly reminded of last summer, when I spent a week of nights with my mom after her bypass surgery. She was in the same hospital this time and everything.

I think it would be easier to let him go on the ships, actually -- particularly if Elanor had been with her mother when she died. At least across the sea he has a hope of a kind of healing for a little while.

[pippinswolf.livejournal.com]

Yes...true. But Elanor knew even when she was very young that her dad would go one day- at least in The Lost Tales...but you're the first person to suggest that part of the reason Sam went was because of losing Rosie.
Take care...I'mt thinking of you and your mom.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I doubt I'm the first... it seems implicit to me that losing Rose is the catalyst that sends Sam to the Gray Havens, if only by the timing we're given. She dies at midyear, and by the equinox, he's gone too. As much as he loves his children, they don't have the experience and the power to hold him together -- and the implication is that the Ring damages its bearers. Maybe in Sam it was only a tiny crack at first, but grief for Rose would make it grow. And in HoME, even when Elanor is sixteen he's already begun to hear the sound of waves. I don't think he has much choice except to go. And she has the harder choice of letting him go alone.

[pippinswolf.livejournal.com]

I should have clarified- you are the first in my personal experience to suggest that. Thank you for sharing that.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

LoL! Sorry, didn't mean to sound so pompous. It's funny, how I kind of expect the folks who beat me to LJ to know way more at least as much about Tolkien than as I do! I forget sometimes how much like a librarian I can sound!

And I was really touched by how you saw the connection between this and the whole situation with mom. She's better today. I talked to her and she said she managed to get halfway down the hall on her walker before she had to switch to a wheelchair. Since she couldn't put weight on the leg for more than a minute or two last week, this is really great.

[pippinswolf.livejournal.com]

(((YOU))))
So glad to hear Mom is doing better...I've prayed for her and for you.
One thing I love about LJ is that no one I've met here is a know it all. I've been on some fanclub boards that had some people who hadn't even cracked the books until they saw FOTR the movie were Tolkien experts a bare six months later. And I didn't think you sounded pompous at all. :-)
many hugs and warm thoughts

[danachan.livejournal.com]

Ah, how beautiful, sad and sweet and yes... a perfect moment before a father and his child and look at how things have changed now that Rosie is gone. Gah. I love it.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[elendiari22.livejournal.com]

Lovely!
:)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it.

[gentlehobbit.livejournal.com]

That evening Sam stood in their garden listening to something only he could hear...

This seemed to me to be the most poignant line of the whole drabble, bracketed by She knew he would not stay. What does Sam hear? The call of the Sea? The call of those who had gone before? The call of the memories of Frodo? Elanor doesn't know, but she knows enough.

Lovely.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

What's amazed me most about this drabble is that everyone seems to have a different favorite line. It's a nice feeling.

Thank you.

[luv2hobbits.livejournal.com]

aw.....

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. And I am now giggling madly over your icon...

[luv2hobbits.livejournal.com]

Thank you also!

Re: Tower Hills

[eykar.livejournal.com]

Quite perfect; as good a reconstruction of mental processes as "Pippin and Faramir." I think you did well to strip it to the core and not clutter it up trying to define matters better left to reader to wonder about.

I found the "poorly repaired chimney stack" line quite striking. One doesn't think of Sam that way during his "solid and whole" life in the Shire. He seems to be reverting to wide-eyed starveling now that he is leaving that life behind. Juxtaposing the image to "hearthfirelight" nicely invokes both sides of his dual nature, as he passes between them.

Greatly relieved about your mother.

Re: Tower Hills

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I think once Rose died the cracks started to show...

[periantari.livejournal.com]

:*) :tears: that was indeed very beautifully written :*)
The last line just came to be the gist of it and really summed up the drabble up really well:
She knew he would not stay.

Very nice job, rabidsamfan! :thumbsup:

(and i'm glad you're back...
hope your mom is ok and hope you had a nice birthday too =) (sorry i'm late hehe)

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

It was a pretty good birthday. Glad you liked the drabble. I fought with this one for quite a long time for me.

Mom is in the Transitional Care Unit -- otherwise known as rehab. She said she made it half way to the dining room with her walker at lunchtime, and was going to try to get farther for dinner. Since she couldn't stand to put any weight at all on that leg last week, this is a real accomplishment.

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

One of the many good things about going through your journal again to find your replies is finding things I somehow missed the first time. Such as this. I would have taken ten pages to say what you have in 100 words.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm glad you found it. This remains one of my personal favorites among my drabbles, for all sorts of reasons. It might make an interesting ten pages, in the right hands, but just think how much kleenex it would take to read through it!

Thanks!