Absolutely stunning. This is an exquisite fic, possibly one of the best Frodo/Sam post-quest fics I've ever read, and so close to my own feelings and thoughts about Frodo and Sam's relationship. You have such a wonderful and character-true take on Frodo, Sam and Rosie, and your imagery and prose are simply sublime.

Frodo's letter to Sam was heartbreaking and perfect...oh, just what we long to hear Frodo say to him! And now Sam knows and they only have one night left together...one night on the road. Can Sam bear it? Can **we** bear it? Oh dear oh dear.

How utterly beautiful.

Another beautifully written chapter. And I finally get the Sam-centric perspective that I wanted. :) Plus a return of the Ring-withdrawal that you described so accurately in previous chapters. And Sam's discovery of Frodo's feelings ... I can't wait to find out what happens next. Whether or not they end up together in Middle Earth (since I've always imagined them together over the Sea) is almost irrelevant to me at this point. It's been a wonderfully bittersweet journey if they don't, and fluffy-tastic, snuggly warmth if they do. Either way, I simultaneously dread and look forward to the end of what has been an utterly complelling read.

HE SAID IT! AI! Well, he didn't actually *say* it, but he wrote it - that's enough!

'Secretly he thought it was the most beautiful object of all, so pure and lovely it was. He remembered its pale, shimmering light, like a lonely star warmed by the company of a watcher. That was just like Mr. Frodo, rare and dear and eternal, and Sam's breath caught as the image grew in his mind. There's naught to describe it, for there's naught so beautiful. If hope were something as you could see, that's what it would look like.'

Frodo as hope. Blimey. That jumped out at me because it actually is just perfect. *Perfect*. I can't take that any further because perfect is just the word.

'Sam pressed a tender kiss to Frodo's neck. "May you life safe in the arms of love," he mumbled as sleep began to settle over him. "I love you, Mr. Frodo, whether or no."' - he says it! At the end, when he realises - 'How had he not known?' it's just yes! This scene in the bed not only works well because it's beautiful and so achingly tender, but because you as the reader see it! I mean, we knew Sam loved Frodo already (*grin*), but it's as though every part of him knows, every part of him will make him crawl into bed with Frodo and hold him, soothe him, and actually SAY that he loves him, except Sam. Sam himself has yet to wake up to what he instinctively knows. He's such a dunderhead! Which is, of course, (here it is again) - PERFECT.

*grabs him and hugs him*

...

*grabs you and hugs you*

I'm making no sense now, so I'm going to go with the vowel sounds that come out as I read.

Ai...oh e awo...ouch, aww, eekoo, afleebar, agh, argh AGH...whu...AI!...ohma...

...ohma...e!

I adore you. I adore this. Just bloody keep writing!

*waggles Frodo chain and grins*

xx

This gets better (and more heart-breaking) with every chapter. Eagerly awaiting more (as soon as humanly possible, or I shall certainly go mad)! (And yes indeed, Frodo/Sam IS canon! Duh. "I love him, whether or no."-TOLKIEN'S words, mind you!) ;)

Heidi, what happens next? I can't bear it!

Somewhere within this priceless, perfect, gem of a chapter, one phrase shines the brightest for me: "The task needed love." I think that's the most wonderful thing I've ever read.

I am so glad I've discovered this story! I read it all last night, straight through, for the first time but surely not the last, and I knew after the first chapter that it was going to become one of my favourites. After that, it just kept getting better.

It's a curious thing, when your read a lot of fanfiction, particularly when you read one pairing a lot, you end up reading the same situation and the same events over and over again, with slight alterations, like a kaleidoscope. So many agonising choices, so many delays, so many first-times, so many hesitant touches. Sometimes, it seems that the greatest insight you get is more to do with the limited number of synonyms in existence for some words and the striking similarity of vocabularies and metaphors in use, rather than anything to do with the characters, or even the plot.

So much greater the achievement when a story manages to step out of that, and be a whole unto itself rather than a jumble of bits, so that it reminds you of why you love the original even as it adds to and expands on it. The depth to this story is extraordinary. All your phrases and images seem fresh and striking, and whenever I have reflected on your language, it has been in the best possible way.

I am very impressed with your handling of Rosie - she remains just visible throughout, keeping out of the spotlight, yet she is very much there, and everything she feels is unerringly brought across, with just the right number of words. Often, in other stories, it seems to me that Rosie is nothing but a prop, a hollow extra, to provide a triangle in which something can be 'explored', whether it is the situation in the kitchen or the bedroom or the study that is being examined. But your Rosie, for all that she's in the shadows much of the time, is allowed to take up genuine space. I don't really like Rosie, not because she's 'in the way' or anything like that. But because there never seemed to be enough of her to like, but now I find that I both respect and pity her, somewhat against my will... She seems worth it here. She is not just a character, she *has* one.

At this stage, I can't work out whether it would be more satisfying for them to finally come together (oh, they so deserve it!) or for it to end, as it seems equally capable of doing, without resolution of that particular part of their relationship (the romantic in me feels there is no love like an unfulfilled love, and the way you have engaged the canon in this story has reawakened my love-hate for the uncompromising, heartbreaking sadness of its ending). Whichever way, I can't wait for you to update it!

Mia

this thing is killing me! Arent they ever gonna get eachother?Please, please let them have eachother in the end! Have a nice day, anyways )

Another absolutely and completely beautiful chapter. Delicately emotional without being excessively mushy. I would love to see more from Sam's perspective though. Looking forward to future chapters eagerly. :)

Oh.

I can't believe I've been missing this story for so long, because it's the best I've read on this website, ever. Your fic is, for me, what the last chapter of LOTR should have been; indeed, what it would have been had Tolkien carried the emotional and psychological implications in the characterization of the Frodo/Sam relationship that he set up throughout the rest of the novel to the logical fruition it deserved, rather than just brushing through the . Honestly, reading your work is just like reading LOTR all over again. If anything, it's better, because despite the fact that and your descriptions are similarly a bit slow, but majestic and profoundly moving, you haven't once left me bored, as Tolkien occasionally did; your writing completely enraptures the reader. You've captured everything: the emotions, the descriptions, the characters, the dialogue, and even Rosie, absolutely perfectly. Excellent piece of art, and I hope you never stop, leastaways not until Sam and Frodo are happily living together forever in Aman.

One qualm, though, on this last chapter: what the hell is up with the "well, I'm not entirely canon" A/N? Everything you've written is entirely within canon with the exception of Merry and Pippin's marriage, which itself could be considered canon if you take the view that the puritanical hobbits edited the last chapter of LOTR to make everyone heterosexual. Yeah, I'm pathetic, shut up.

For someone who isn't a strict F/S shipper, you still write it very well. Glad to know that you're not breaking up Merry and Pippin, though!

Heidi - This is magnificent considered simply as a piece of writing, but to do justice to the music of your prose (and oh, that music is sweet!) I'd have to quote almost every paragraph. What struck me most, even more than the artfulness of your language, was the power of your insight into Frodo's wrenching - but ultimately hopeful - experience.

I don't think I've ever read a story that captures so perfectly what Frodo's feelings must have been in those last few days in the Shire. In Tolkien we see Frodo at this stage primarily through the eyes of other characters. You take on the challenge of showing this experience from the inside, with all the agony and conflicting feelings it involves, while remaining true to Frodo's character. I agree completely with Oselle that you've succeeded brilliantly in this: you give a deeper insight than we get in Tolkien (pardon the heresy) to a character who is still recognizably Frodo.

The chapter is an amazing portrayal of someone who knows, or thinks that he knows, that he is about to lose everything, and that everything will go on without him (the wonderful paragraph beginning "For an instant he saw the future hurtle upon him" captures this feeling perfectly). Under the influence of a feeling that sounds like basic existential panic, Frodo keeps changing. He wants a party, but doesn't want to go; he is terrified that Sam will see his capacity to love as tainted (God, Heidi, that was brilliant), and yet he overcomes this terror in the face of Sam's needs; he genuinely wants to find peace over the sea, and yet he just as genuinely sees the possibility of "a greater hope to be had, one that could hold him for eternity."

Hold him in the Shire, with Sam? My inner romantic votes for that. And such an ending would make sense, given your last note on canon. When a slash relationship is added to Tolkien - or simply made explicit (*waves F/S IS CANON banner*) - it seems reasonable to assume that the outcome of Tolkien's story would change. . . maybe? Please? In a happy way?

Love came forth. . .

Ok this pretty much defines all there is to adore about Frodo and Sam, and LOTR in general.

Heidi I don't think you know, I just don't think you comprehend how MAGNIFICENT you are! This chapter is wholly PERFECTION, it is the sistine chapel of all chapters! Can anyone disagree? There was just this moment while reading when I knew, I just knew this was it-This was the moment something unbelievable was happening, it was here. . .

The wind cooled the damp patch on his neck where Sam's tears had fallen. Dignity, that simple and final strength of mortals, gentled him and bade him speak softly, self-assured but without defence. He could have begged Sam to show him an alternative, having faith that a wise hobbit was burrowed beneath the layers of his humbleness and simple talk. But now he found calm, where just moments earlier he had been fraught with the terror of his decision, and his calm lay in the immediacy of his compassion for Sam. For he saw that Sam was afraid, not knowing what would become of his master and anxious that he might diminish, and these fears mirrored his own. Frodo felt Sam's tears and remembered what called him to the sea: peace, and peace alone could take him there, for he must have faith in peace above all else. His own fears seemed distant in his need to ease Sam's.

You have made me fall in love with Frodo, and not some fragile, translucent shell of Frodo, but his true self!

Thank you Heidi, thankyou thankyou thankyou.

Oh god, Heidi. I'm at college. I should never read this at college. First I see your note at the beginning.

'Would you like to be the honourary owner of this story?' - I nearly squealed out loud; my friend looked at me funny and I had to show him what it was. I clapped my hands over my mouth and did a weird happy dance of wiggling my right leg instead.

I would just...I would be *honoured*. Thank you truly. This is... I NEVER expected that. It's one of the most wonderful things anyone has ever offered me. I am...I'm just so honoured. Something this beautiful...hoo.

Which leads me to this chapter. I think this is just one of the most...astounding so far. I can't think of the right word, really, but it sort of gives you the idea. You cannot know what you've done to me.

The paragraph from 'For an instant' is stunning. The images are just so close I could touch them. That is *the book*, and it's awful and amazing and poignant and perfect and aching. I was smiling as I read the beginning, but by the time I got Frodo circling the bark of the silver tree my smile slowly slipped and I relaised it ws going to be painful again. But in a good way.

...I think you're making me a masochist! *laughs*

So, Merry and Pippin, riding in. 'The bright flicker of emblems and the ringing of mail and the steady pounding of hooves snapped him suddenly from his thoughts, sounds which were forever a herald's cry for his cousins' approach.' This is sad because they are so changed but somehow funny and merry too. Again, the book. You don't just capture it, you ARE it.

- 'Hullo, cousin! We've come unannounced...'

*snort* Hee. Pippin.

- 'He would always be claimed by words and memories, forcing upon himself a grace he had not the strength to uphold forever' warrants an Ai!

And then 'Love came forth.'

*chokemoans*

The descriptions, the words - it's like breath, like feathers (there it is again!) floating down or leaves in the wind, red and gold and yellows and it's so *perfect* that it is autumn, and 'it's as if their colour became so brilliant in a last, desperate affirmation of the life they'll soon lose. He wanted to throw them upon the wind and let them be caught up forever, their scarlet and saffron hues never fading nor crumbling.' This is just the moment when I KNEW he was going to be leaving, because it was so tragic and I can't actually think of the word I mean.

But back to the Love paragraph. 'It was a shattering caress, burning intensely but short-lived like a falling star as his fingers swept down from Sam's brow and over his cheek...'

This is just... I was imagining them in the dark - the lighting of Lothlorien at night in the film, with the silver dappling their faces from the moon or shining from the trees or something, you know how I mean? And silver shining crystal or star dust or *something* being left as his fingers ghosted Sam' skin - and I *wanted* it to.

You are just incredible. I cried. Again.

I can't begin to describe how talented I think you are. You astound me. I used that before but it's just...you leave me speechless! (yes, irony, with the long reviews but you can see me not quite knowing what words to use. ;D) You make me want to write, to get my own somewhere near as transient and flickering and powerful as this. I can't use the punch in the stomach analogy anymore, but oh, still there. You are just...wow.

Honoured to have read it, and *honoured* to have got to know you, and HONOURED that you would even think of making me a tiny honourary (gah, words are melding into one another now) part of something this beautiful.

And sorry I got carried away again. *giggles*

Now write MORE!

xx

I agree with Shirebound...this is an incredibly written chapter. This, in particular, is wonderful:

"I think our book is not so important now as it shall be in the future, when all memory of the great danger has passed. So I leave it to you, for I am finished now and my part is over, but you will see the Shire through its best years ahead, and your part in them needs to be recorded. For me rest has been but a distant thought until now, and rest is what I have a mind to do. I am going to keep company with Bilbo, and hear more elven-songs than I can ever write down, and I believe I shall be happy." He smiled, honest and true, and added, "I shall have hope, Sam, hope enough to hold onto."

Frodo's canonical "voice" can be very hard to capture, and I think the above is pure "Frodo-voice," as Tolkien himself might have written it. Simply stunning.

As to whether I object to shorter but MORE FREQUENT updates...are you kidding! As long as you stick to that "more frequent" part! :)