Title: The Journey From Oidhche Shamhna
Author: Firstyear
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure/Drama
Chapters: 47
Words: 181,874
Updated: January 30, 2009
Published: October 22, 2008
Status: Complete
Library Category: General
Pairings: Rowena/OC, Salazar/OC, Helga/OC, Godric,OC
Summary: From the last summer solstice of their disappearing world,to the plains of Scotland, Four Founders of Hogwarts fight to save their traditions and life. Adventure, angst, action, romance, and humour. True to cannon, Godric/Slazar/Rowena/Helga
Link: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4610832/1/The_Journey_From_Oidhche_Shamhna

It's not often I put a story up for review. I would have put this in almost recommendable due to how I think most people won't like this, but I think this is more than good enough for the library.

Don't let the summary fool you. The founders are not paired with each other in a 4 way orgy, they are all paired off with various OCs. And I wouldn't look at the author's profile either. He's written 81 stories, mostly of random unexplored characters, but he seems to have a penchant for Hermione/Snape. Thankfully neither character are in this story.

First off, I guess I should say that this is a Founder's Era fic, if you didn't figure that out from the pairing. That's probably a turn off to most, as this is a straight up story, with no Harry and no time travel. The world building in this story is second to none. It's the best I've ever read. The grammar and spelling is up to the standards of some of DLP's best, and I don't say that lightly.

The characters are well written as well, and you may actually give a damn about some of the OCs. Rowena's tale is quite tragic, and although it fits with canon, it is also so much more. From the very first chapter the author takes huge risks, playing with our emotions expertly.

The author takes what little we know of the founders' era, and expands on, yet complies to, the canon in a surprisingly well detailed way.

Rowena Ravenclaw is one of my favorite characters, and even though I dislike what happened to her in the first chapter, it actually made me want to read more. It was a surprisingly brutal depiction of the era.

As for the setting itself. It's brilliant in my opinion. The author takes artistic license and sets the story during the time when the Romans are encroaching through England, which is probably earlier than most people would think to make the setting. But it's written well.

Also on a similar note. The story expounds upon the Roman inquisition. It shows the coming of the new era and the end of the old. The founders are the last of their era, and it is their duty to impart their old ways to new students, yet accept the new ways as well. This is shown quite a bit. The story shows how the wizards 'religion' (I think it's a derivative of Celtic polytheism)is slowly being destroy by the Roman's forcing their one God onto every one, and burning witches alive. It's hard to explain in so many words, but the beginning of the story shows this well enough.

But it is also much more than that. The story goes into detail about all the little nuances of old magical tradition, and if anyone knows my reading likes at all, they know I have a hard on for that kind of stuff. It's vaguely reminiscent of the kind of stuff you would read in 'Out of the Night' and similar stories.

So yeah, I give this story a 5/5, and I'm well aware that this won't be to most peoples taste. It's not really an action oriented story, but just an exploration of the Founder's early life, to the founding of Hogwarts, until their old age and the passing of the torch. It's a very character driven piece. And it's easily the best Founder's era story out there that I know of.


Checked by Minion, August 20, 2013

 

Oh, really?

Anyway, seems interesting so I will probably try to read it in a close future.

 

The grammar and spelling is superb, but I find the writing to be slightly dry. It probably isn't dry at all compared to non-action/adventure stories, but since I mostly read suspense/mystery/adventure fics...

Having just finished chapter 1, I was supremely surprised to read about Vortigern, Vortimer, and Hengest. If anyone has read The History of the Kings of Great Britain, those are actual historical figures and his depiction of Vortimer/Hengest is somewhat true to Geoffrey of Monmouth's narrative where (iirc) Vortigern is seduced by Hengist's daughter and "the spirit of the devil overtook him." Hengist uses that to his advantage to gain Vortigern's favor.

It is interesting to say the least that he is placing this canon fiction so close to the 'history' of that time. I'm also wondering if we will see Merlin and Arthur, since Vortigern was succeeded by Vortimer who was overthrown by Utherpendragon who was succeeded by Arthur.

Merlin actually appears much earlier when Vortigern searches for a man with no mortal father (if anyone has seen the film starring Sam Neil, that is relatively accurate but Merlin was a child at the time according to Geoffrey).

Not going to give a rating yet, but it certainly seems interesting and library worth so far.

 

Good find 'Anarchy'. The story is absolutely brilliant. Narration, grammar and pace of the story are perfect and the character development was top-notch.

I don't normally like to read material where our hero 'Harry' is absent, this is definitely library material.

4.5/5.