untitled fluffy-ish animal fic, by Huinárë ["Sorry, Celebrimbor" Month]

[huinare]

Here is my entry to “We’re Sorry, Celebrimbor” Month, at the very last minute!

This is very rough, as I wanted to at least meet my own challenge on time*. Please feel free to nitpick. Some things I could use input on are listed following the story.

Note: late fanworks are welcome! I will do a final post tomorrow, and read the stories I’ve not

Comments

[hhimring]

I like the idea of Celebrimbor and Finduilas working together!

Nitpick: missing "to" in "attempts limp"

They would probably not be speaking Quenya--I suspect they obeyed Thingol's ban in Nargothrond and Finrod counted Sindar among his subjects. Finduilas's mother was probably a Sinda. I think neither Finduilas's nor Gwindor's name are Quenya, although I have no time to check things right now to make sure.

I'm not aware of any details on other dogs in the Legendarium besides Huan, but it's clearly said there were others. I think you're free to invent.

In the tradition of wonkily prophetic names, this one could perhaps be called "Brass-foot"--possibly with a footnote that this must really be a nickname she was given subsequently.

[huinare]

Thanks, for the comments and for catching that typo, Himring!

Yep, after doing a pretty rudimentary check of my own, it appears Gwindor is a Sindarin name and Finduilas is a bit more uncertain. I guess I can just leave the names as they are without getting all worried about it.

Wonkily prophetic names, haha, I'll have to consider that. Or perhaps the dog has golden or brassy-colored fur to begin with.

[bunn]

That's lovely!

I would suggest that the dog should be a large heavy one, maybe a mastiff-type or a wolfhound (maybe someone got it for Finduilas as protection, after the whole Celegorm/Luthien Incident, which you'd think would be a great advert for Dogs as Elf-maiden protection... )

Small dogs usually cope pretty well with amputation, but for large dogs it's much more difficult, I think a big dog would be more likely to need a prosthetic. I can't see any reason why Celebrimbor wouldnt' be able to make one.

Dog DNA is so plastic, after a few hundred years in Middle Earth even if they only started out with Huan and some sort of Sindar-hound they could easily have bred everything from bassets to chihuahuas...

[huinare]

Thank you!

(maybe someone got it for Finduilas as protection, after the whole Celegorm/Luthien Incident, which you'd think would be a great advert for Dogs as Elf-maiden protection... )

HAHAAA. I rather like that.

Thanks for the helpful dog comments. I'm now sort of picturing the dog as something like an Irish Dane.

[samtyr]

I really like this. The artificial leg is a great idea. :)

As for dogs in ME, I'm sure there must have been others besides Huan, all in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

If it's a really big dog, you might want to give it a size-related name. (In one of my fics, I gave Gil-galad's dog the name Roch because he was the size of small horse. :) Maybe the dog's name could be Ollie (for oliphaunt). I don't know how to really shorten mûmakil though.

[huinare]

Thank you. :)

I gave Gil-galad's dog the name Roch because he was the size of small horse.

Heheh!

I think Wombat's idea downthread about some sort of equivalent of "Lucky" might be funny for its irony...

[talullahred]

I love engineer!Celebrimbor and how relaxed his relationship with Finduilas is. The omen is just too funny. (Does that make me a bad person?) :D

[huinare]

Celebrimbor and Finduilas popped up in my mind as having a sort of sibling or cousin type relationship, and I decided to go with it, as I thought it'd be nice to see the younger generation not being all tense about the dramas of their forebears.

The omen is just too funny. (Does that make me a bad person?) :D

Hehe, nope. >:D

[curiouswombat]

I wrote a comment at lunchtime but then crashed - and coming back it looks as if My computer crashed before the comment got here, sadly!

So, basically I said I thought this was fun, I agreed with Hhhimring about the names, loved the idea of Elven steampunk, and thought the dog might have a name that proved ironic- like Lucky, or Swiftfoot!

[huinare]

Thanks! And thank you for doing a repeat comment after your first didn't take (blasted machines).

I really rather like the ironic angle for the name. Lucky would be straight up ironic, and Swiftfoot or something similar would be (at first) accurate and (later) ironic. *ponders*