Ah poor Thingol! I always thought it was so unfair that people seem to think he was being unreasonable and mean when he failed to be thrilled that his daughter wanted to marry a ragged, destitute, cursed human being. And everyone forgets that he loved his daughter and has been busy making her and everyone around him happy for millenia.

Nicely honest take on the Elven reaction to humanity's unique issues - mankind's strange fragility and immediacy would be odd to a People who can wait 400 years to get married.

The dream was brilliant. I never even noticed that line about Thingol's dreams (and wow, it does explain things) and I'm impressed by what you did with it. This makes so much sense. I always felt sorry for Thingol, but I could never quite get my head around him . . . thank you.

"If he had slammed his goblet down on the table, it was only to disguise the trembling of his hand. The flame of his eyes had been dimmed with fear for days after."

*winces* This physically hurts.

I love the image of the birds gathering around Daeron. An interesting twist, that he actually thought he had a chance, and it makes sense. And this line:

"all of Doriath put on beauty like a maiden adorning herself with jewels for her lover."

This is gorgeous, as usual. I'm at a loss for words, really.

Cyool. That dream in the beginning, though, that was freaky. I don't think Beren would ever have done that to Lúthien (accent mark over the u: alt+0250 on the number pad), but in a way, he did kill her. She was dead to Elu Thingol, in any case. Very nice story.

Ah! You bring such life to Melian's touch in the great halls of Elu from your first paragraph - "...Tapestries of bright scenes flickered on the walls - Valar and Maia in youthful joy, dancing to honour the Lamps; the sapling Tree..."

"...The bare earth put forth Niphredil where she walked, in sheer delight at her passing. And he... his chest ached at the thought that anything might harm her. If she fell and grazed her knee, she would be up and dancing again long ere her father could persuade himself to stop raging at the world. How dare it! His little girl. His Luthien. He would go to his grave before he would see her hurt..."

Now this one starts out with a wonderous picture I thank you for helping to create in my mind and show's Thingol's fatherly love with such fierce delight! This softer side of the proud and commanding King of Doriath is a kind and sincere portrayal, I think. With foolish words (yes, even from an Elf, I daresay), he nearly pushed her to the brink of not every forgiving him for his demands upon Beren.

Oy! "...Her slim hand came to rest on his back, gentling the knotted muscles. "If it is a true dream it will come many times. If it comes but once, then it is a phantom thing of no account, which you should not let yourself be troubled with. Go back to sleep and see..." And this is exactly why Melian is a Maia! In this specific line, you capture her ethereal wisdom perfectly. Well done.

"...Indeed it is said Caranthir Feanorion lies on a bed of gold like a dragon..." LOL! Maybe it should say he lies on his bed of riches with only the company of his nasty attitude - not the best "people person," old Caranthir, is he? ;-)

"How fare the people of Haleth?" How I have searched for stories even referencing Haleth - and her it comes upon me unbidden! There are so few! I found Celeborn's words and musings on the Folk of Haleth, Elu's reactions as well as those reactions of the scout and Celeborn himself rather insightful and thought-provoking.

The permice you stated in your notes is reasonable - I like the way you have explained it in this story.

Ah, Marnie... That was gorgeous, simply gorgeous. Element of, er... tragic fate in it, but beautiful nonetheless.

I've exhausted my praise vocab on your characterization of Celeborn (who I never fail to enjoy thoroughly) and move on to reactions to the other two.

It is always surprising how you can make these two normally (fanonically) unsympathetic characters so sympathetic to the reader.

I love how you rationalize Elu's actions; it meshes with his reactions to Haleth's people, men in general, and (most obviously) to Beren. I imagine if I was a parent, and had that dream, I'd do anything in the world to keep my child away from those sort of people.

Daeron is so beautiful. Completely fallen for Luthien, and looking at it from that angle (she danced for him in the forest, to his music), it makes sense that he would make such a conclusion.

Very nicely done, Marnie!

~E. Meril

PS- Is it all meant to be in bold?

You have a real gift for words, for making a scene come to life, for creating believable characters.

I'm interested to see where you will take this story.

I loved this story!

There are far too few which portray Thingol as not being a greedy, bad father, and that has to change!

Oh...poor Daeron. I wonder if Luthien knew she was being cruel...I mean, I know she had to follow her heart in the end, but it seems like she was leading Daeron on for a while too...

Hi Marnie! I loved this story. As always, brilliantly written! But wait, isn't this part of Oak & Willow? At least that's what it seemed to be at SoA. Cheers!