Podfic: Firimar

[altariel]

I'm on a roll. Firimar is a story by ithilwen based on The Silmarillion. It features Finrod Felagund, and it asks: Do the Elves in Aman ever look back at Middle Earth?

This is a gorgeous story, I hope I've done it justice. It is, I think, unique in being a Tolkien story that is also unambiguously science fiction. Thank you, ithilwen, for permission to record!

Download from Megaupload here (6:50mins; 6.26mb; archive link to follow).

Comments

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Go you! This is great news. Thanks for the heads up!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I hope you enjoy it!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

What is a podfic? Sorry for being an idiot, but I haven't been much around for the last fortnight and before, and anyway, when I get a moment to look up LJ, I have mostly not the faintest idea what you folks are talking about. As if in my absence the entire English language (or the current cultural environment) had been changed completely into a direction I cannot even fathom... :(

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I didn't know what podfic was until a few months ago either :-) Basically, a 'podfic' is an audio recording of fanfic. (The word is a combination of podcast and 'fanfic'.)

So the link in this post is to a recording of me reading out Ithilwen's story Firimar :-)

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Whee! Look at you go!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

This is so much damn fun, it can't possibly be legal.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

Something else for the new regime! Making all fun legal. Or illegal, depending on whether that will make it more fun.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Making laws illegal!

[scottpearson.livejournal.com]

Wow! This is a fabulous story. So evocative of Middle Earth, and then the ending, both a juxtaposition of reality versus fantasy and a workable extrapolation within Tolkien's cosmology . . . the closing really gave me a shiver down my spine.

Well done! And, obviously, a big shout out to http://ithilwen.livejournal.com/profile!

[scottpearson.livejournal.com]

That was supposed to be ithilwen, not a profile link, but I'm new to this and don't know what I'm doing!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

:-D Can you edit comments? I have that option at the bottom of comments, but I don't know if that's only a feature of paid accounts.

[scottpearson.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's only paid accounts, because I don't have it. There is an option to delete, which I tried so that I could post what I had intended to, but the delete wouldn't work. It's worked before when I've screwed up. Oh, well.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Isn't it an awesome story? Ithilwen also wrote one of the best retellings of a folk tale within Tolkien's world that I've seen: Of Leaves of Gold and Petals Red. And a beautiful juxtaposition of Tolkien's life and his work in Chance's Strange Arithmetic.

I'm glad you enjoyed the recording! Purely from a technical POV: did it sound OK? Was it too quiet? I'm not sure I've got the amplification right yet.

[scottpearson.livejournal.com]

I'll have to check out those other stories.

I thought the sound was fine. I'm going to play it for my daughter sometime, too. I'll need to explain it a bit to her, because she doesn't know about the whole changing of the world thing, but from the films she understands that the elves somehow leave Middle Earth.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the sound check, glad it was OK.

I hope your daughter enjoys it too. Has she tried the book itself yet, or is she lucky enough to still have that to come?

[scottpearson.livejournal.com]

She's a lucky one. She's read The Hobbit but still has LOTR in her future.

[edge-of-ruin.livejournal.com]

Oh lovely! Thank you!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed! greylin has just posted A Kind of Valediction at tolkien_podfic too.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

So the Tolkien podficcing has begun! I guess I'm going to need to learn all about podcasting now, so I can listen to all these new podcasts.

Thanks for recording my story - I'm sure you've done it far more justice than it deserves.

[scottpearson.livejournal.com]

I loved the story, as mentioned in my post above. Just a great idea, bringing Tolkien's ideas forward in time, yet still capturing that elvish atmosphere. Well done.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked my little fic. Somehow it just seemed right that Finrod Felagund would still take an interest in Men's goings-on even in Aman - and that he'd enjoy the Moon landings.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The downloaded files should play fine in Windows Media Player, Real Player, etc. etc.

It's a particularly beautiful story and it was a pleasure to revisit it.

[ithilwen.livejournal.com]

I think I'll download a few podfics tomorrow at work; listening to them would be a nice way to pass the time while signing out cases. Heaven knows I could use a bit of distraction right now!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It's extremely relaxing. More going up daily at Jinjurly's audio archive and amplificathon. There aren't many Tolkien stories there yet, but I've been listening across fandoms: I listened to a really nice Law and Order: Criminal Intent story the other day. Hope they make a good distraction!