Discussion Discussion thread: The Broken Shield

[Sons of the Woodland King]

Opening up this discussion thread for anyone who might want to leave comments or ask questions regarding "The Broken Shield".

A few Author's Notes and Background Info regarding this story and my writing in general:

The majority of my Tolkien/Middle-earth fanfiction is uniformly anchored on what I call the "Sons of the Woodland King Alternate Universe", or "SotWK AU". This AU combines official Tolkien canon with my own original concepts, events, and characters. If you wish to point out that something "did not happen or exist in the books/adaptations", I am probably aware of that, and it was my conscious decision to make it so in my stories.

"The Broken Shield" is just one completed story among many I have planned or have in progress.

I am a Thranduil/Mirkwood/Silvan Elves-centered fanfiction writer. I have invested a lot of time developing a complete background history for Thranduil, since Professor Tolkien provided very few details about him, or about the Woodland Realm as a whole. It has been very fun for me to "fill in the blanks" and expand the Middle-earth lore in that way. I have also put in a lot of effort to knit my original ideas with canon, but it is by far not a perfect science.

The key features of this alternate universe is:

• Thranduil fell in love with and married a Noldor elleth named "Maereth" (not her given Quenyan name, in the same way "Galadriel" was actually Artanis), who became the Elvenqueen of the Woodland Realm.
• Maereth is a granddaughter of a Son of Feanor, and thus it caused a massive scandal when Thranduil announced to Oropher that he wished to marry her.
• Thranduil and Maereth had FIVE sons, with Legolas merely being the youngest of the brood.
• Half of these sons, including Maereth herself, were killed by the evil forces that darkened Mirkwood and the lands East, in separate events throughout the Third Age.
• Prior to the rise of Dol Goldur and the Darkening of Greenwood, Thranduil and his family ruled over a glorious and thriving kingdom, one who engaged with the other races and realms of Middle-earth. That was over 1,000 years of peace and prosperity for the Silvan Elves of Greenwood that was just never mentioned or discussed in canon history.

If there is anything else you care to know, ask about, or comment on, please feel free to post your thoughts here! Thank you for your interest in my humble offerings.

 

[Tyelkormo the Fair]

Loving it this far although I don't think I can finish it yet today...
Are your works posted elsewhere? I seem to have came across them before if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Ent]

Brief scan... 1st comment: I must make time to read this..! Thanks for the summary above. "More at 11" as newscasters used to say.

 

[Sons of the Woodland King]

Loving it this far although I don't think I can finish it yet today...
Are your works posted elsewhere? I seem to have came across them before if I'm not mistaken.

Thank you for your interest! Yes, my works are all posted in Ao3! I also goof off a lot on Tumblr when I really should be writing. 😂 We all need our outlets in this stressful world.

 

[Tyelkormo the Fair]

Btw ...you mentioned that maereth is Fëanor's granddaughter... who's her father?

 

[Fingon_Findekáno]

Well, I read the entire thing this afternoon, and I must say… it was well-worth the time it took to go through it! I didn’t want to stop because I was so engrossed in what was happening. It was very well-written, and I felt like I was watching a movie.

I love how you treated the characters, in their movements and reactions, and how they spoke and thought and had aspirations. The Dwarves felt like Dwarves, and the Elves felt like Elves, if that makes sense. You did a good job capturing the essence of each race. Frerin was a delightful Dwarf to meet, and I love his relationship with Thorin as his (Thorin’s) younger brother. Queen Maereth was also a wonderful character, and meeting her makes Thranduil’s grief over her loss that much stronger from the movies. It was also a nice touchpoint to see how she affected Frerin and Thorin, too.

Now, in all honesty, I am of the camp of people who (nobody shoot me) actually likes the Hobbit movies better than the book (for the most part. Not all changed/added details were great, but I digress), and Thorin was one of my favorite characters. I love how you portrayed him here, feeling like it was very faithful to who he was and how he would behave. I could easily imagine the Thorin from the movie being the one in the story here (and same goes for Balin, Dwalin, and Thranduil).

As for the plot, I thought it was well-thought out, and I liked how this all kind of wound up providing some backstory and context for the tension between Thorin and the Elvenking Thranduil in TH. There’s too much for me to go through point-by-point here, but suffice to say, I found it believable. It felt real. You did a superb job with blending your AU material with established information, and you managed to make the reader connect with the characters and feel for them. It’s very stirring and emotional, especially at the end there. I was getting a little misty-eyed just reading that. And your portrayal of what war looks like, and the toll it takes was spot-on, too.

Overall, bravo, I say! Thank you very much for finally sharing this masterpiece with us! I look forward to any other writings you may come up with.😊

Some folk we never forget, some kind we never forgive. Haven’t seen the back of us yet- we’ll fight as long as we live…

 

[Halasían]

Read the first post and quickly browsed through the rest. Good story that I will definitely get back to read in its entirety!
I do like the clear stating of the time period and the geological locations in the story. Seems a good balance of dialogue and narrative as well.

I too may have seen the title on AO3. Elora and I posted some of our collabs over there, and I look through the Tolkien stories semi-regularly.