Happy Birthday to the Barrow-Downs!

[Mithadan]

On or about May 1, 2000, the Barrow-Downs forums first opened. In the (somewhat distant) past, we celebrated the occasion with a party, traditionally held in our now largely vacant role-playing forum. For those interested, here is a link to our first (technically second) birthday party. http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=5697

Several other iterations of our more or less annual parties can be found either in the role-playing forums or in this Announcements forum. For those interested in the history of the forums, see here. http://forum.barrowdowns.com/showthread.php?t=19548

Please feel free to post your birthday wishes here.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Happy Birthday to my favourite barrow (OK, the only barrow which I claim as a home)! Here's the last party we started two years ago: 21st birthday party

[Estelyn Telcontar]

And here's a link to An Unexpected Vir(tu)al Party three years ago.

[Bêthberry]

I would be more than pleased to receive some mathoms--in the form of new posts--for the birthday celebration this year.

I am currently re-reading LotR so I suppose that counts as a present for me.

[Formendacil]

Shouldn't a mathom be something that's already made the rounds of the village a couple times? At least it should be a post already posted!



Nothing like a pedantic point to rouse a sleeping Tolkien fan from slumber. This was, after all, the best thing about Rings of Power, and perhaps we glutted ourselves on so much correction of flatly wrong adaptation then.

Still, a Happy Birthday to the Deathly! This place will be hopping again when all of us millennials hit retirement, I promise!

[Snowdog]

Happy Birthday Barrow Downs. Maybe I'll dig out my T-Shirt and wear it for the occasion.

I haven't ever contributed much here over the years as I came and went and returned again, but I like the consistency of the place. I will admit I haven't really felt like getting into many discussions of late as they tend to take two forms... rabid gatekeeping by dissing on new media projects, or some in-depth multi paragraph citations on whether Tolkien for got to double-space after a period in letter #149 ...

I enjoyed a re-read of Children of Hurin, and watched Rings through one more time, and am working on my fanfics and such. I just can't seem to get the spoons together to bother discussing topics further.

Anyway, cheers to everyone still here!

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Shouldn't a mathom be something that's already made the rounds of the village a couple times? At least it should be a post already posted!



Nothing like a pedantic point to rouse a sleeping Tolkien fan from slumber. This was, after all, the best thing about Rings of Power, and perhaps we glutted ourselves on so much correction of flatly wrong adaptation then.

Still, a Happy Birthday to the Deathly! This place will be hopping again when all of us millennials hit retirement, I promise!

Not quite, not quite.

There is a Mathom-House in Michael Delving which appears to be given over to weapons from ages past. It in fact housed Bilbo's coat of mithril mail for some time, before Bilbo decided to give it to Frodo, mentioned in the Prologue and A Journey in the Dark. Perhaps this forum houses our old precious thoughts like a mathom-house.

Hammond and Scull in the Companion discuss Tolkien's ironic use of mathom, from the Old English word mathum, so Tolkien's use is a bit of a joke. Museums, of course, did not exist in Old English culture, not until the 18th and 19th centuries in fact, so this is another anachronism in LotR.

Bilbo apparently did not partake of the hobbit habit of regifting items.

This was only a small selection of the assembled presents. Bilbo's residence had got rather cluttered up with things in the course of his long life. It was a tendency of hobbit-holes to get cluttered up: for which the custom of giving so many birthday-presents was largely responsible. Not, of course, that the birthday-presents were always new; there were one or two old mathoms of forgotten uses that had circulated all around the district; but Bilbo had usually given new presents, and kept those that he received. "A Long-expected Party"

So there is nothing pedantically incorrect about suggesting new posts as mathoms for a birthday celebration, just following the habit of a very good hobbit.

[Oused1939]

@a small world cup
Happy Birthday, Barrow Downs! �� It's always nice to celebrate milestones, especially when it comes to a community like this one.