i want you to know that while you are no doubt very tired of this story, and that your talent has far outstripped what it was when you wrote it, it is still one of my all-time favorites and I always find myself coming back to it every few years. More than I do some books, even. 3

this story was truly, truly amazing and well wrought! kudos.

i know you wrote this nigh on ten years ago, and don't seem to be publishing in the LOTR fandom much anymore, but i was wondering if you would ever write more about the future of hethlin and prince imrahil and/or prince elrohir (if indeed either of those couples have one)?

you gave us a great ending to "captain my captain" and the story arc between heth and faramir, but i would be a very ecstatic fangirl if you ever decided to update "the silver swan." :)

I am so enjoying your stories that here it is nearly 4:30 am and I really do not want to stop lol Your original character Heth is one of the most compelling and interesting characters I have ever read. Thanks so much for fitting in some Lothiriel and Eomer as they are my fave fanfic couple to read about. :) Your poll was many years ago but my vote for who Heth nests with is 100% for Elrohir and that he would choose a mortal life with her.

I am re-reading "Captain My Captain" (one of my all-time favorite poems, incidentally) and just had to comment on how much I adore this line:

"I feel as if I've come in at the end of a really good story, having missed all the exciting parts that came before," I said softly, and he sighed in agreement.

Such a gorgeous bit of dramatic irony. :) I really love the character you've created in Hethlin.

This was a beutiful, wounderfly well done piece. The story fit together and all the caricter seemed very real with complex persinalitys and feeling of there own.

There were times when reading this that I wanted to throw my touch across the room in frustration or curl up and cry. You do a very good job letting emotion into your writing and letting us see thing from multipul points of view.

Hethlin is an exilent oc that seems real enough to be one of tolkiens works and is most definetlt NOT a Mary sue. Well done! You can really feel for her as she descovers the world and who she really is. She makes some mistakes and learns to live for herself, overcoming all her hardships... Some times I could throttle her! Although I can't blame her! Me myself would probably just go up to faramir myself, slap him across the face and force him to marry me!

The whole thing with was the house of the eagle was amazing. You created a whole culture with there own values and way of life without making it to unbelivibal and having seem vert tolkien-esk. All of you oc eagles are funny and serious at the same time.

The relationships you've created in this story are very complex and deep, leaving you rooting for multiple charicters to end up with hethlin in the end. You have beutifully portrayed imrahil and faramir so once again bravo!

Imrahil is a wounderful father figure to faramir that I've always wanted to read more about, but the world of fanfiction is very limited. You've done what alot of people try at and fail; developing a charicter beliveibly that wasn't very much used by Tolkien. The wise things you make him say are so real that you actually feel like your in middle earth, along whith the other wondurfully deep things your charicters say

I very much liked the letter sequence bettwen hethlin and faramir, even thought it's not romantic or (I think) ment to be portrayed that way, you still get a dear jhon type feel

as I have said before some of you lines are amazing, and among some of the funny ones are these;

The Steward of Gondor then looked up at me unrepentently out of his black eye, and I suddenly realized that even though I had spent four years in the company of two hundred men, and had thought that I knew all there was to know about masculine nature, there were still going to be times when I did not understand men any better than my more sheltered sisters. This was immediately confirmed by his next remark.

"What happened to YOUR face?" he asked.

She should like books and clothes and horses, since you like those things. And have a strong stomach so you can take her to sea."

"Valar, Hethlin, I might as well put a wig over a mirror and marry that!" I glowered at him.

Cease Lorend, or I'll break your other leg."

Lorend came in, and paused in the doorway. He looked at Faramir for a moment, and raised his eyebrows, then looked at me. He held his hand out.

"All right. Give it to me."

"Give you what?" I asked somewhat sourly.

"Give me the bloody errand that's going to take me halfway to Ithilien, so you can talk to him about what's bothering him, without me listening in."

"I do no such thing."

"You certainly do. So does he. All the time. The more your personal lives get messed up, the more saddle sores poor Lorend gets on his-"

"-Lorend," Faramir broke in, "Be so kind as to go down to the kitchen and have them fix some willowbark with honey in it for me. Very strong. And then, by all means, take the morning off. I'll see you again the second hour past noon."

"Well, I must say, this is an improvement! I thought I saw a pattern developing there for a while that I didn't quite like, but-"

"Lorend. Now." It was his Captain's voice, and Lorend moved. I had to chuckle a little.

But what I think was one of the best lines in the whole thing was this:

But you were going to be the Prince!" He looked a bit wistful for a moment.

"Ah, but if I'd been a player, I could have been the Prince and everyone else besides." We had come up to the horse litter, and I stood ready to give him an arm if he needed it. Arwen dismounted, ready to assist as well.

The ending of the story is wonderful and you can expect to hear from me on your sequels (although I am sorry for going on this long and I know I have multiple spelling and grammer mistakes in this review) yours with much gratituded, Rachel

Wow. That was AH-MAZE-ING! Just whoa! Wow. Unbelievable. I am in love with the skill of your writing. In love with it. You should write a book, or maybe you already have... Ah, well. But it makes me sad that I don't know who she chose in the end, or how things worked out with Elrohir (did you know that I never really showed an interest in him until this story? It was always Elladan for me. But now...). But it was still amazing and it consumed me for days when I should have been working on my band camp music or my summer homework, but I just couldn't because I NEEDED to finish reading your story.

Truly, it was brilliant and beautiful and funny and sweet and just all around amazing. I can't wait to read more about Hethlin and all the other characters. Truly amazing. I loved every word of it. You are a very gifted writer.

I am more than glad to have found this story. It was an emotional rollercoaster in the best sense and I took great pleasure in getting to know your Hethlin. I admired her so greatly because her character qualities gave her such an inner beauty (as you made Elrohir say at some point - I loved that scene btw ), which I hope to achieve at some point in my life.

I hope I'm not being to forward in trying to compliment you, when I say, that I believe that you must be a very special person to have given so much depth to a fictional charcter.

I will remeber this for a very long time, so thanks for writing it :)

After I have submitted this review, I will explore what other stories you have in store ;)

Generally liked the story upto now, but the main character is a little to "marry sueish" - being the only woman in her company, the saviour of Faramir, surviving a tragic (No emotional scars from having your family murdered and taken away from you, even the strongest of characters would be vengeful or mourn) past whilst having an enormous amount of willpower (more so then her superiors, perhaps) - making friends easily, not having someone she doesn't like in the story. (I could mention countless other things, but I think you get the general idea)

Too perfect, yet a good try at an OC char. :)

I'm having such a good time reading your story that haven't taken a break to write a review. This is good, very, very good. Thanks for writing this.

OH MY GOD. I'm not usually interested in OCs, but I have fallen veryvery hard for Heth. She has so many facets to her! This story was impossibly lovely and is absolutely one of the best LotR fanfictions I've ever come across. It was an utter pleasure to read and I wanted to thank you for sharing it with us!

I really enjoyed the complexity and depth that was given to this story, but I must admit to being a little irritated with how perfect the main OC character seems to be.

She is related to the same group as Aragorn, she speaks to Eagles, is one of the youngest Captains and one of the best archers, and she continually knows better the minds of the main characters than they themselves do. She has been given, fourteen chapters in, no real faults.

I like reading about the people who are affected by the ring, but Hethlin doesn't seem believable to me. Everything she does, everything she is, is perfect (even when that perfection seems to be made to the detriment of other, established characters). I really liked your style, but I'm afraid I couldn't finish this.

This is my favorite chapter of the story. "The Captain Look," indeed! That is the perfect line! I laugh every time I reread this, and again when Heth finds out that he's the King. Her reaction is priceless. Absolutely priceless. Thanks for this amazing series!

Wow! this was an amazing tale. I can't believe that I never found it before in the four years I've been reading LOTR fanfiction.

Everything is roiling through my head right now as my mind tries to digest the final chapter of such a long fic, but I can say that there are so many lovely, exhilarating, exiting and vivid images in my mind from this tale. A few of the many include Heth's "fledging" with the Windlady; her sparring match with Eowyn, her encounter with the Witch King, and her interactions with Elrohir throughout.

I'm adding this to my favorites, and to my "re-read soon!" list!

Well done!

Was indulging in a reread of some favorite Imrahil/Hethlin scenes ("dithering" myself rather than getting back to my chores), when this jumped out at me:

Imrahil says: "I can only think of one occasion when I have seen you do something that could be called dithering, Hethlin."

What occasion is he talking about? If I've ever known, I've forgotten...

Over six years old and this is STILL a great story!

I did feel sorry for Eowyn, left behind in the House with naught but the hobbit Meriadoc for company. Merry was her friend, and a sweet soul,

many times i have read this story and enjoy it every time, but this time it occurs-shouldn't merry be on the way to cormallen?