A. L. Milton - Shards of Time - Gondorim, Haradrim - Her inquiry into the matter of Eowyn's desertion is lethally, hypnotically stylish.
Yours were the days of heroes and fighting men; but your world has changed, and new days are at hand: those of politicians and treaty-makers and scriveners. Now you can rest deservedly in glory, but you must let us make our peace. And the peace we make may not be the peace you fought for.
Alawa - An Elegy for Elfhild - Dúnedain, Rohirrim - Tolkien fandom has more than its fair share of fine poets. Alawa uses Anglo-Saxon rhythms to capture the rough grace of the Dúnedain and the Rohirrim.
Softly then she stroked their noses,
ran her hand over rump and wither,
keen were they to carry her.
Wildly we galloped in golden mist-shroud
wind whipped hair as horses ran
free over fields followed the river
spring’s melt-water milk between willows.
We rode reckless over rolling grassland,
our voices soaring with sun’s rising
sang only the beauty of simbelmynë,
forgot that it faced forever westward.
Altariel - A Game of Chess - Gondorim - Brave, elegant and intimate stories about Faramir. Altariel's a master of the political psychodrama and the pithy vignette, but smart romance makes good pimping material, so I've linked to the Faramir/Eowyn saga—one of the best the fandom can offer.
He barely hears the Warden, but the woman's voice catches his attention, and he listens with rising impatience to her list of complaints. A courteous response is necessary to the sister of the King of Rohan, and he produces one, if a little archly. And then he looks at her, and it is as if he is staring into a mirror, or has pressed his palm against a piece of broken glass.
Anglachel - Hands of the King - Hobbits, Gondorim - Dark, but matter-of-fact. Crammed with politics and economics and warfare, but intensely personal. Beautiful realization of Finduilas.
'What is it you want, Thorongil?'
'To serve.'
'To serve whom?'
'Gondor.' Denethor shook his head slightly.
'No, Thorongil, you must serve a master. Or be
one.'
Anna Wing - Before Thangorodrim: The Last Fall of Himring Hill - Eldar, Adan - You want obscure, nerdy gapfillers? Come to Tolkien fandom. We are unbeatable. Anna's writing is clean and intelligent, with gorgeous character voices, especially the way she differentiates between the Elves who went adventuring and the Elves who stayed home.
Vanamirë said almost at the same moment, "If you
will forsake your allegiance to the Darkness, and ask the pardon of the Valar..."
"Pardon?" The woman bristled.
"For what? From who? Who is Valar? God also one? Like Great King
the same? Where got difference?"
In the appalled silence that followed,
Maedhros laughed again.
Avon - Colours of the Forest - Sindar - Simple, delicate, painted bright.
"The forest is brown;
Deer brown,
Fileg brown-"
CRASH! NO!
"Rough bark brown;
The forest is brown."
Chathol-linn - How Legolas Proved His Bowmanship - Sindar - I love this. Step by step, we learn what goes into the construction of a bow and arrow, and follow young Legolas as he learns to shoot. It's well-conceived, unaffected, and totally fascinating.
"This is called a single bow. See how it is made of just one material?" said the Bowmaster. "It is easier to make but not as strong as the joined bow. Now look at the bow I use today. It is a joined bow, made of wood and horn, and a secret material. We will make a joined bow later."
Chelsea Nolan - The Rooster Man of Gondor - Gondorim - If you ever need one short story to explain why people read and write fanfiction, this is a good candidate. It's my favourite kind: one that takes some small, forgotten stone in the wall, chips away at the mortar and releases an unexpected flood of light from behind.
"Gondor is being evacuated! Grab your things and go!" The
irate man slammed the door in his face.
"But I don't have anything," Rooster
Man spoke to the dark wood door. "Just the sun, and the sky...and the rooftops,
I suppose. How do I pack them?"
Dwimordene - Star and Stone - Dúnedain, Gondorim - Complicated, satisfying storylines and bullseye characterization. Best Aragorn writer out there. Especial favourites include "Star and Stone", "Speaking of Love...", and "Dynasty." Dwim gives great friendship and understated romance and, sometimes, utterly maddeningly smouldering unrequited slash. "Star and Stone" (WIP), falls into the last category: Denethor vs. Thorongil.
"The homeward leagues so heavy lie upon the lonely heart.
Never shall they lightened be, nor know I of levity
Who 'twixt Thengel's hall and Minas Tirith miles mark.
Westfold sings loud and leal, strives 'gainst longing's open field
That in my flesh and in my bone speaks to me of Gondor's stone.
Yet although he pays me court of kings I cannot yield."
Earthspot - Who Knackered Aragorn's Catamite? - Istari, Orcs, Gondorim, etc. - A highly stylized Fourth Age murder mystery. Severe beverage warning in effect. Weirder even than the title suggests.
"How’s your sense of direction?"
"Not very good underground,"
admitted Goldberry. "I’m not used to being in the middle of a volcano.
I’m a woodland person, me."
"Well I’m not too bad,"
I said. "A wizard should know which way is North at any moment of the day,
over hill or under hill. I got through that part of the training at least."
"Why is that going to help us find
the rubbish chute?"
"Because whenever orcs build a
rubbish chute, they always make it point due West."
"Why?"
"Pure spite. The Elves point their
rubbish chutes East."
Erin Rua - Aglarond - Sindar, Dwarves, Rohirrim - Fine prose and fair poetry. The descriptions in "Aglarond" (Legolas and Gimli revisit the caves) are rich like an oil painting. I'm also fond of her wind-blown Rohan stories.
"I will be seasick."
"Nay, you shall
not."
"I will be swallowed
up in a great wave and eaten by sea serpents."
"Not if you stay
in the boat."
Fileg - Breathe - Gondorim - It's perfectly possible to be an excellent prose stylist without being a poet. The prosaist is careful and clever, but the poet is in love with every last word, and knows why she chose it above all others. It's a difference between knowing words and living them, perhaps. What I'm trying to say is, Fileg's a poet.
In the boat lay the Blade of Gondor, and he was broken.
Firerose - Missing - Gondorim, Istari - This eerie novella slots right into the cracks in the canon. Firerose makes a terribly plausible portrait of the House of Mardil, slowly unveiled by a Faramir in need of TLC. Marvelous Aragorn and Lothiriel cameos. Check out her Angel fiction, also.
I woke shivering, sweat-soaked linen clutched in my fingers chill against my skin. Background turns to foreground, shadow to bright sun. Retched, straining for the basin beneath the bed, eyes squeezed tight shut. The world turns about its axis while I am still. No more need I seek for pages missing, meanings hidden—the pieces of this puzzle lay in my memory, in my very blood.
Forodwaith - Thread of Fate - Sindar - Here be gapfillers rich with intriguing local colour and custom. A writer after my own heart, Forodwaith gives Arwen space to speak.
When she was ready to begin her work at last, Arwen set up her loom in a secluded grove far from her father’s House, using the simple looms of Lórien as her model. The lowest bough of a great beech was the beam, and two straight saplings, carefully trimmed and smoothed, served as heddles. The warp was pulled taut by clay weights that she had shaped and fired long ago as a child.
Isabeau - Repairs - Gondorim, Rohirrim - Isabeau is best known for "Captain, My Captain," a massive epic starring an OFC whose Mary-Sue status is hotly debated by her fans and foes. I'm more interested in her short stories and collaborations, which are funny, sexy and cleanly written. "Repairs" is more or less the Gimli vignette. Don't miss "This Too Shall Pass."
"I shall prepare a stomach tonic at once, my lord. Hopefully, his trouble
will pass soon."
"I am relying upon it," murmured the
Nazgul.
Kielle - Grey and Pale Gold - Rohirrim - Smart, lusty, vivid snapshots of Rohan and its denizens. Also some wonderful comedy.
Sorry, Sam ol' buddy, but I'm outta here an' not a moment too soon. I ain't just talkin' about the horrible fishy stink blowing offa that-there lake, neither. If that girl-shaped-thing got all touchy-feely "I can talk to equines" with me one more time, I was gonna bite her fingers off.
Marnie - Oak and Willow - Noldor, Sindar, Rohirrim - Long, plotty gapfillers painted in lucid greens and silvers. This one's Galadhriel and Celeborn's courtship story. Marnie's Elves have their cheekbones at the right angle.
The fitted cuff of his undertunic was a pale blue-grey silk, stitched with silver embroidery, and the overtunic was of charcoal velvet, woven in a diamond pattern that shimmered slightly each time he moved. This dullness is not a lack of art, she realized, Not because they are backwards and have no delight in colour, but because... In the dimness of night the colours the Noldor valued so highly would be stripped away, but these Sindar clothes of many shades and textures would become a delight of half-seen richness; a tease and suggestion of beauty, like a half heard melody that enchants because it cannot be grasped. Because their taste has been formed in millennia of darkness.
Mouse - If Women Had Ruled Middle-earth - Eldar - Snort. In a sea of parodies, here is a stand-out.
Arwen looked worriedly at her mother. "Father just wasn't the
poetic type," she attempted to reason with her.
Idril Celebrindal sniffed.
"And really Celebrian, being named after your feet isn't that much of a
thrill."
Nessime - Every Good and Perfect Gift - Númenoreans, Rohirrim - I am a Finrod fangirl; I love the way he watches over this story.
There in her hands was a slender book. Bound in soft green leather,
the front was embossed with the symbols of a harp and a flaming torch.
"This
is his device," she said, a note of wonder in her voice.
Philosopher at Large - A Boy, A Girl, & A Dog - Edain, Eldar, Maiar, Valar - Hands down, the most unapologetic brainfood I have ever found in fanfic, awash with wit, deep thinking and piercing beauty. The notorious "Leithian Script Project" is Beren and Luthien in the vernacular, interspersed with blank verse commentary à la Derek Jacobi in Henry V. It's funny, saturated with anthropological oddments and snobby literary allusions, and brilliantly illuminates JRRT's entire oeuvre. Not for canon newbies.
Then after listening to the debate cycle round twelve or fourteen times, he comes up and says, "Why don't you put your talk to the test and prove that you could have done it better?" Not in those exact words, of course, but you get the picture. And they all shut up for a bit, until they started jeering at him about how it wasn't feasible, and he said, "Well, perhaps not for you, by yourselves," and they said, "What, you could?" and he said nothing, and manifested a quarter-size copy of Glaurung in the middle of the hall. And some lava for him to play in.
Teanna - Legolas Shall Be for the Elves - Eldar, Hobbits - Very nice, woodsy characterizations of Merry, Pip, Legolas and a couple of familiar Elveses. She's over-fond of similies, but any flaws are balanced by laughs and real care for her subjects.
The waking, guarding part of his mind was suddenly aware of a missle
aimed at his head. His hand flicked out, like a hawk's talons, and caught it.
Dreams went out like
a blown candle. He blinked at the object in his hand; a light metal disk, some
three hands across and a few fingers deep, twined with the elegant branching
vines typical of Imladris art.
He looked up from
it into the wide eyes of Merry and Pippin. They looked exactly like deer who
have just noticed the panther about to spring. He stared back at the object
in his hand, "This appears to be..." he looked up at the Hobbits,
"a pie plate, from Master Elrond's kitchens."
Teasel - On Gorgoroth Plain - Kelvar, Hobbits - The simplest idea makes the most memorable story.
"Frodo," says the two-legs. His voice is the cry of some small creature as it lies in a wolf's jaws, waiting for them to close. "Please."
Thevina Finduilas - Simple Gifts - Rohirrim, Gondorim, Eldar, Dwarves - Femslash! Sun-soaked Finduilas/OC femslash! Thevina isn't afraid of OFCs, and she's one of the few writers with whom I trust them.
She leaned back into the chair, beginning a gently rocking motion that reminded her of being in the ocean, lying on her back, gently held up by the waves. As Faramir nursed, she looked up at the stars in the sky, their bright glittering beginning to fade with the eminent approach of dawn, then closed her eyes.
Tyellas - One Ring to Bind Them - Eldar, Maiar - Ansereg—iron and blood—is Tyellas' constructed word for Elvish BDSM. Canonical? Er. But don't assume Tyellas doesn't know her canon; she wrote the definitive research paper on Elvish sexuality. Her prose is up to its task, the smut smutty, but I'm reccing this for the concepts underlying her writing. The Annatar/Celebrimbor novella is downright inspired, a fandom milestone.
Sauron opened his eyes.
Vulgarweed - The Ring and the Crown - Edain, Maiar - Superbly disturbing and disturbingly superb.
But this is the truth: the sons of Men live for ever striving with Death upon a field of honour in which no honour is possible, and They watch us like mighty lords entertained by the blood-sport between slaves. They would never stoop so low as to feast and take pleasure amid our flesh and bones, instead they grow bright upon the wreckage of our souls.
Wild Iris - The Dead City - Eldar - I like her beautiful, bare laments best, but there's no faulting her prose.
O, my brother,
pity our father,
who lit the ships
as though they were white candles
placed around his bed
against the dark
Zimraphel - Finding Courage - Noldor, Númenoreans - Elegant retellings from The Silmarillion and The Akallabêth. "Across Dark Waters" is a cunning reworking of a well-known legend.
He had had a body once, a true hröa, not this bent and pale form with which he pulled the oars of Námo’s barge. It had been strong and beautiful, as the hröar of the Firstborn were. Have you ever seen an ugly Elda? he thought, and laughed.
Updated August 15, 2007
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