Sweet! I'm in Gondor!
 

I'm such a dork. I was looking out of my window today, staring at the clocktower on Main West, and it just struck me how being at Duke reminds me of Gondor.

Granted, Duke's gothic campus, including the Chapel tower, is more grey, rather than white. And strapping lads with giant swords can usually be seen only on Halloween. And, you know, this is just a college campus, swamped with harrassed/hungover/overwhelmed/over-dressed/under-dressed students, and god-like faculty.

But still. I've been thinking about it a lot, and I feel as though that Duke has that special atmosphere. At certain angles and in certain light, it really does remind me of parts of Tolkien's world. The Sarah P. Duke Gardens also have that feel, especially at twilight, when you're standing by some gnarly exotic tree, surrounded by fireflies...

Anyway, this is just to say that Tolkien afficionados should check Duke out, if they ever have the chance.

Oh, and I don't really do drugs that much anymore, in case you were wondering. :D I mean it, this place has that sumthin' sumthin'...

If anybody has been to Duke, and agrees/disagrees, I'd love to hear from you.

*kiss kiss*

Lush m'babe, you are no dork. There are just days (and months) where you focus on one thing and not another.

I've never done that.

I have (also, but honestly this time) never been to Duke. You could post a few landscape shots, eh? See if you can catch that sumthin sumthin on flim. Although I'm sure the fireflies would elude capture.

I get a similar feeling sometimes (read: only this very moment, and just because you mentioned it) when I walk around my campus. With such an imbalanced ratio of forested acres to pavement, I often feel as though the woods of Lorien have encroached upon northern Jersey. Especially in the fall, when the leaves take on a more mallornesque hue. They don't call my school "The Forest" for nothing. But yes, I understand what you mean completely - although that sumthin' sumthin' takes on a more dendrophilic slant here. ;)

i get that same feeling at the University of Washington library... Especially when you walk up to the main doorway, it looks almost like what Tolkien described as where we see Denethor most of the time in the book...

Maybe i can find a pic...

http://dsp.jpl.nasa.gov/members/paym...uw/reading.jpg Ok, this is the reading room... as you can see they're done some decoratings...

Ok, here it is! This is the Suzzalo Library... A very Awsome place! :rolleyes: (I don't sound like i live in there do i?)
http://dsp.jpl.nasa.gov/members/paym...suzzallo-s.gif
And of course, their awsome stairways!!! I love these things...
http://dsp.jpl.nasa.gov/members/paym...w/stairs-s.jpg

This is the Red Square... but, it's not exactly a "square"... They gave it that name to "spoof" it up i suppose...
http://dsp.jpl.nasa.gov/members/paym...edsquare-s.gif This picture reminds me most of when Gandalf and Pippin are traveling through the city...

Look! Another reason. Mountains! (That's Mt.Rainer in the background...)
http://dsp.jpl.nasa.gov/members/paym...ountain4-s.gif

Hope this gives a general excuse for my constant daydreaming...

~Ka~

Dear Lush,

An ivory tower by any other name ....

:D

Beebs

Omigod, Ka, thanks for the pictures! They're freaking gorgeous.

Here are a few of Duke.

The Chapel tower, of course, always very Gondorian to me:
http://blc.duke.edu/images/duke1.gif

The arches:
https://portfolio.oit.duke.edu/image/newarches.jpg

Very castle-like shot here:
http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~cmacleod/Images/Duke.jpg

The Duke Gardens. Actually this shot makes me think about Rivendell. Yep, I'm a dork.:
http://registrar.duke.edu/bulletins/...1-02/Cover.JPG

I think I'm going to steal Boyfriend's camera and take some more pictures. Just to prove that I'm not mad, no matter what Rimbaud says.

PS I have a feeling that Father Christmas has a wee bit "punishment" in store for bawdy Beth. Stay tuned.

Ka's stairway is definitely somewhere in Minas Tirith.

And the one with Mount Rainier in the background- I don't know where exactly in Middle Earth that pic would fit, but it's definitely somewhere in Tolkien's world.

The Chapel Tower also makes me think of Gondor, L.

Great pics, keep them coming.

I feel so... provincial now. I love Texas A&M, but even the best bits are nowhere near Middle-Earth. In 128 years, the university has managed to accumulate some pretty, um, disastrous architecture. The vast majority is vintage '60s and '70s utilitarian. *blech*

The two best bits are the Administration Building:
http://www.tamu.edu/campaign/images/Admin.jpg

And the Academic Building:
http://www.tamu.edu/buildings/images/smacademic.jpg

I suppose those columns are as close as we'll get to Gondor. But I defy you to find a bluer sky anywhere in Middle-Earth. :)

Climatically speaking, we're about 100 miles inland from Umbar, represented by the great city of Houston. Hot and humid - where else could we be?!

And surely the Century Tree belongs in the Shire. The pictures aren't the best. It's a huge - and old - live oak tree in front of the Academic Building. They're all over campus, but this is the biggest. It's a favorite site for proposals. ;) )

http://www.tamu.edu/00/tamu-images/t...entury-oak.jpg

http://netc2000.tamu.edu/tour/cenoksm.jpg

If it were darker it would also look like an outpost or some other structure in Mordor.

Ka, I always thought it was called 'Red Square' because of the red brick of course, but also because of the extreme socialists that protested there in the 60's - 70's. ;)

Last time I was in Suzzalo they had scaffolding out in front.

Cool pics of UW and Duke!

That Century Oak is awesome.

Can't you just imagine it in the Old Forest coming to life and trying to grab some hobbits?

No kidding! Espcially the way the boughs trail on the ground... just asking to snatch up an unwary undergrad.

Seriously, live oaks have an amazingly spreading and gnarly growth pattern. They don't get very tall, for the most part, and they're pretty scraggly and spiky looking when young. Hmm, I guess I don't like them much ... until they're at least 50 years old, that is. ;) But my favorites are the pecans. Lovely trees!

Feels so good to be back...
 

Hellooo? The tree that grabbed the Hobbits in the Old Forest was a willow tree, not an oak. Get your species right! ;)

That Century Oak tree makes me think of a mallorn more than it does a tree in the Old Forest. The trunk is so thick and the boughs so outreaching...you should build a flet in it.

Ah, but Old Man Willow wasn't the only tree to grasp at hobbits, according to Merry. And I doubt the entire Old Forest was composed of willows. :p

A mallorn? I never thought of that. It's certainly spreading enough to support a flet, although it has no main trunk. I mean, the way live oaks grow is to split into multiple branches about 10 (or fewer) feet from the ground; there's no leader left. The Century Tree has at least 5 main branches at that split. They almost rival the truck in size, and it's already enormous. It could support a very large-size flet, although not very far from the ground. The entire tree is no taller than 40 feet and probably closer to 30.

It would be awesome to actually build a flet in it! Barring the University's protests, though, I might be attacked by some cadets. Something tells me they wouldn't take kindly to defacing a landmark. ;) The Century Tree isn't just a big tree with a name. (Albeit an appropriate name - it's thought to have been planted in 1898.) The tradition is that if you walk under it with someone of the other gender, you're going to marry that person. For that reason, Corps cadets give it a wide berth on ordinary occasions. But on Saturdays, especially on game days, I've seen many proposals take place at that bench. And after the girl accepts, there's a saber arch for the couple! Very cool.

So the building of a flet in the Century Tree is fraught with dangers - physical and matrimonial. ;) Oh, I found another picture:

http://communications.tamu.edu/visit...ntury-tree.jpg

You don't need a flet to study in it!

Touche, Nuranar.

My boyfriend and I have taken a number of pretty (and relevant) pictures of Duke today, but apparently I can't post them here off my blog. Sad.

Nevertheless, I have found a number of other pictures for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.owdna.org/graphics/tour/S...ardens-JPG.jpg
The Rivendell-esque Duke Gardens, yet again.

http://www.weissmannsworld.com/agent...ukeGardens.jpg
More of Rivendell, if you ask me, again in the Duke Gardens.

http://registrar.duke.edu/bulletins/...s/ugcoverb.gif
The entrance to the Allen Building, home away from home to English majors (and soon to be pathetic starving artists) such as myself. Gondor? Rivendell? I think both, to an extent.

I'm such a loser.

I've been meaning to post on this thread for a loooong time...so I finally went digging!

The University of Wisconsin Humanities Building is surely straight out of Mordor. The outside of the building looks as if it were built to withstand hoards of angry rioters (or orcs). The rooms on the lower floors have these weird slanted roofs with triangular skylights (look closely!) Yuck!

People here often call it the "Inhumanities Building."