I know he's going to die--he knows he's going to die--and yet it still hurts every single time. I do so love Halbarad. (http://aliana1.livejournal.com/73146.html) Oh, the ache.
What a wonderful, economical use of the all the prompts! I love the evocation of metal and blades--they bookend the story really well. The evocation of Halbarad's childhood, and his friendship with Aragorn, is so relatively brief, and yet very effective: And so it goes – their long years on the watch slide by as on the edge of a blade, which cuts into flesh, theirs and others’, ‘til at last there comes a door, and a vision: of the oath-bound dead, and he standing among them on the other side.
I also love the way you play around with the idea of roles; of how Halbarad and Aragorn choose to embrace their respective roles, and, are in some ways constrained by them, but that, at the end, they both manage to go beyond those roles, anyway.
It’s been a long slide down the blade, but it’s cold at the quick end of steel. Time to step beyond that door in truth.
What an ending. Sort of blew me away. I absolutely love how you can do death, even the death of loved ones, without the slightest trace of sentimentality or maudlin-ness. Makes it all the more powerful. Thanks very much for this, Dwim!
P.S. I AM SQUINTING VERY HARD AND IT'S YOUR FAULT. P.P.S. Now I am going to go listen to Adele and cry.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-03-03 04:52 am (UTC)What a wonderful, economical use of the all the prompts! I love the evocation of metal and blades--they bookend the story really well. The evocation of Halbarad's childhood, and his friendship with Aragorn, is so relatively brief, and yet very effective: And so it goes – their long years on the watch slide by as on the edge of a blade, which cuts into flesh, theirs and others’, ‘til at last there comes a door, and a vision: of the oath-bound dead, and he standing among them on the other side.
I also love the way you play around with the idea of roles; of how Halbarad and Aragorn choose to embrace their respective roles, and, are in some ways constrained by them, but that, at the end, they both manage to go beyond those roles, anyway.
It’s been a long slide down the blade, but it’s cold at the quick end of steel. Time to step beyond that door in truth.
What an ending. Sort of blew me away. I absolutely love how you can do death, even the death of loved ones, without the slightest trace of sentimentality or maudlin-ness. Makes it all the more powerful. Thanks very much for this, Dwim!
P.S. I AM SQUINTING VERY HARD AND IT'S YOUR FAULT.
P.P.S. Now I am going to go listen to Adele and cry.