Title: Quenta Narquelion
Author: bunn
Rating: T
Genre: Action/Drama
Pairing: None (Canon pairings from Silmarillion but none are really explored)
Fandom: Silmarillion
Status: Complete (119524 words)
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12702726/chapters/28966347

Summary:
"...[Fëanor] died; but he had neither burial nor tomb, for so fiery was his spirit that as it sped his body fell to ash, and was borne away like smoke; and his likeness has never again appeared in Arda, neither has his spirit left the halls of Mandos."

What if his spirit has never left the halls of Mandos because it never went there in the first place?
Fëanor, dead, watches the First Age unfold, and his children endure. A detailed account of Maedhros and Maglor's time on the Eastern Front of the War of Wrath, with Elrond and Elros growing up.


My opinion:
The story follows the Silmarillion canon pretty closely as far as I can tell and you basically get Feanor's view of the First Age, starting with Feanor's death. Sometimes it switches to Maedhros, Maglor, Elrond and a few others but the majority is Feanor.
I read the Silmarillion when I was young and I was always intrigued by the House of Feanor, so great and yet they fall so deep. I was kind of missing their personal view and reasoning and this story really manages to capture that in my opinion. You see their journey from the prideful Noldor princes to the broken men that kill to steal the Silmarillions from Eonwe's camp. I think the characterization fits really well and it really shows the malice and might of Morgoth on a personal level that I had only gotten in "The Children of Hurin" before.

(This is my first review and I tried to follow the review board rules but please let me know if I made a mistake and I'll edit it.)

 

Okay, I've just read two chapters but now for some reason Ao3 is no longer loading for me.

Thoughts so far: This has a good feel to it. There are nods to bits of the wider LotR world which are often overlooked, subtle details from the appendices of canon. Characters have a sense of vain pride about them which fits very well. I can believe that these elves stand on a different plane to mortal men, something sorely lacking in almost every LotR fanfic. I loved the Sauron interaction in Chapter One.

I'm not too familiar with The Silmarillion, and this is from a different perspective, so I'm neither worried about it being a canon rehash nor going to be put off if it strays into more AU fanfic territory. My sole concern at this point is that the premise of Feanor-as-ghost means that he'll be a spectator and not a player for the entire story.

This could be shaping up to be the most elegant imagining of "X character reads the books".

Provisional 4/5

Edit: Feanor barely exists in the narrative, thus eliminating the sole original element to this. Events are summarised in the background, rather than happening on-screen.The writing is technically proficient, more or less, but isn't being used to accomplish anything. At chapter 7 now, and I've lost interest.

Rating revised down to barely 3/5

 

Read this ages ago so I will review based on memory. I will echo the 4/5. I liked it. It was a fic that focuses on a rare angle of LOTR. On the whole it was mostly realistic too. I'm not quite sure the elven resurrection works quite how this fic or portrayed it... but... overlooking that I had a lot of fun with it. The elron portrayal was perhaps the part I best liked.

As I recall there was a very clear divide in the story between the first three ages where you are essentially watching events unfold historically from an interesting side perspective. The story is essentially "Feanor's opinion of events" mixed with a little "hidden behind the surface depth the books couldnt get into."

The second half of it is more original plot driven and focuses on what happens after all the elves leave middle earth. And is more original.