AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTORY NOTES
My story The Field of Cormallen forms a prologue to All That I Had. It is not necessary to have read it first, although there are a few references to it in the following chapters. In a nutshell, Frodo finds it hard to accept all the praise he receives on Cormallen Field. He turns to Sam, and they become lovers. I wrote it, wishing to explore the question, if Frodo and Sam had a sexual relationship, when was it most likely to have started? Having written The Field of Cormallen, I was left with the “Rosie question” and decided to explore further.
I have tried not to let the films influence me; All That I Had is based on the book The Lord of the Rings and its Appendices, and also on the Epilogue in History of Middle-earth volume 9: Sauron Defeated. The main exception is Frodo’s vision of Galadriel in Chapter 27: New Beginnings which has the precedent of film Frodo’s vision in Shelob’s lair.
I make no pretence of having researched to the nth degree, and my knowledge of Tolkien’s Letters, for example, is scanty at best. Where I have been taken to task for errors relating to knowledge contained in Tolkien’s letters, I will indicate as much in the chapter notes, but I do not see any good reason to alter the story. If there are any glaring errors, I am more than happy to correct them. Some were spotted before I posted All That I Had (all praise to betas), and I had mistakenly given Aragorn credit for naming Frodo and Sam Bronwe athan Harthad and Harthad Uluithiad respectively, when it was in fact Gandalf. Thank you to Illyria for pointing that one out.
Before I go any further, I had better come clean about Frodo. All That I Had would never have been written without the films, the fandom, and above all Elijah Wood’s portrayal of Frodo. However, finding Peter Jackson’s interpretation of Frodo at odds with my own, I have return to my Frodo of the book. Nowhere will you find mention of raven locks or blue eyes in this story, because my Frodo has light brown hair and hazel eyes. I have refrained from any mention of hair or eye colour, reasoning that many readers would find this distracting. You are free to imagine him anyway that suits your fancy. Sam, of course, has brown hair and eyes in the book, and so there is no conflict; Sean Astin’s Sam looks similar to my book Sam - the main differences being that my Sam is stocky, but not fat, and does not have an Irish accent. Hobbits in All That I Had do not have large feet, but small ones to allow them to “disappear quietly and quickly” (The Hobbit, chapter 1: An Unexpected Party). In The Fellowship of the Ring, A Long Expected Party, large feet are a matter for comment: “His name, of course, was Proudfoot, and well merited; his feet were large, exceptionally furry, and both were on the table.” In addition, “He ran quickly... for he had seen footprints that went that way, branching off from the others, the marks of small unshod feet.” (The Two Towers, The Riders of Rohan).
Throughout the story, I have interwoven text from The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien, as well as from Sauron Defeated(History of Middle Earth Volume 9). I have no intention of claiming his words as my own. Many of you will recognise them as old friends, but I will acknowledge their use in each chapter’s notes. If I have inadvertently overlooked a passage, please let me know.
The Elvish: The Elvish phrases in Quenya, used in this story, were all obtained from a web site. I was well aware, while using this source, that I had no idea of the level of knowledge that I was tapping into. However, it was necessary to start somewhere. My readers have been very kind in not taking me to task over the Sindarin. Way back, when I started writing this story, I was given the two phrases “nîn meleth” and “meleth anim” to both mean “My love.” I realised, part way through, that “Meleth nîn” was probably a more accurate translation, but decided against going back and changing Sam’s dialogue. I reasoned that Sam just got it wrong, and Frodo found this very endearing, so he kept quiet. I can find very little support for “Meleth anim” - “anim” means “myself” but in this story it has been used to mean “of mine, of my own.” I have no idea if this is correct, but I have seen it in other fiction, particularly vignettes in the Frodo’s Harem story archive. “Amin” (sic) also appears on the Grey Company’s site as meaning “I, my or mine.” In Lord of the Rings, “anim” appears in Appendix A, meaning “myself” or “for myself.”
An on-line Sindarin dictionary has this to say about nîn:
nîn adj. my The acute accent in nin is probably an error for a slanted macron in the manuscript. The other attested personal adjectives all have a circumflex accent. If the acute accent is confirmed, then this word would probably be enclitic.
I think this means I should use a little hat over the i.
For the Quenya used in the later chapters, I have used this source* which includes the translation for the following phrase: “Go not to the Grey Company for Elvish, for they will say both yes and sheep.” Quenya wars! I have decided to use this site, because the phrases sound better and feel more genuine. In the end, like Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass, I have decided that words can mean whatever I want them to mean. Impenetrability! That’s what I say! If you don’t like the Quenya, or think that Frodo is actually saying, “You have the face of a hippopotamus,” I suggest you nominate me for Best Rape of the Elvish Language in the Golden Mushroom Awards.
* This site seems to have turned into a failed link, so I will give the translations for all phrases used, at the end. Most are explained, sooner ot later, in the text of the story.
The months: I have been asked why I use the hobbits’ names for the months, when Tolkien did not, and the reason, quite simply, was that I felt I was writing for an audience who were all Tolkien fans. Tolkien did not have this luxury when the book was published for the first time, and so wisely stuck to the English names. The Shire months are:
Afteryule - January
Solmath - February
Rethe - March
Astron - April
Thrimidge -May
Forelithe - June
Afterlithe - July
Wedmath - August
Halimath - September
Winterfilth - October
Blotmath - November
Foreyule - December.
I have introduced the contraction “Win’filth” for Winterfilth, and when I did so I could have sworn that there was a precedent for this in the book. However, when I came to look for the reference, I found that I appear to have imagined the whole thing. Since it seems a very likely contraction, I have left it in.
The Lithedays (mid summer) and Yuledays (mid winter) were outside of these months. For more information see Appendix D of The Lord of the Rings.
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank my beta readers for the amazing amount of time, effort and patience they have put into this story. It is the richer for their generous help. My beta readers have been split into content betas and grammar betas, but the distinction has often been blurred. A special “thank you” goes to Maeglian for seeing this through from beginning to end. She’s a star! Thank you to Hewene for beta work on chapters 1-26, and for constantly telling me to “show, not tell.” Thank you to Shadow for stepping in for the subsequent chapters. Thank you to Ghyste, both for her help on matters Elvish, and for feedback on the Tol Eressëan chapters; and to Pearl and Chica Chubb for being a test audience for chapter 15. Thank you to Bridget Chubb for input on chapters 1-3, and Laurelindorinan for chapters 35-37.
Thank you, Peachy, for screening out my spelling errors, and last, but not least, a huge thank you to Aliena. I have learnt a vast amount while writing this story, not least, how little grammar I knew. Aliena’s has been some of the most intensive work on this story since chapter 13, while I constantly harassed her with self-imposed deadlines. She also spotted several bloopers, including the fact that I had misread across the lines at the Elvish site, and actually Frodo was saying “You are a mighty warrior” instead of “You are beautiful”...
I would also like to thank you, the readers, for your enthusiasm and feedback. You kept me going. I haven’t pleased everyone all the time - that would be impossible - so I have followed Tesel's advice and pleased myself.
Thank you to Mirabella, Willow-wode and Teasel for their excellent stories that inspired me to attempt this tale.