The Tolkien Coming of Age Club 2

[piosenniel]

Grunge, I'm not sure - but here's some power metal from Germany:

Nightfall in Middle-earth from Blind Guardian

Silmarillion based

Tracks:

War of Wrath
Into the Storm
Lammoth
Nightfall
Minstrel
Curse of Feanor
Captured
Blood Tears
Mirror Mirror
Face the Truth
Noldor (Dead Winter Reigns)
Battle of Sudden Flame
Time Stands Still (At the Iron Hill)
Dark Elf
Thorn
Eldar
Nom the Wise
When Sorrow Sang
Out on the Water
Steadfast
Dark Passage
Final Chapter (Thus Ends...)

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Also for Middle Earth prog see Glass Hammer. I don't own any of their music, but it does sound promising.

For all you folks like me who hadn't realized it, there is a thread for music reviews out there. So I have subscribed to it and will refrain from too much info here. In the meantime let me by you a cup of coffee Ealasaide!

Music Review Thread

[Ealasaide]

Cool! Thanks, Pio & Hilde -- I will check them out. Grunge, power metal, alternative, industrial/punk... all works for me!

Also, sorry, Hilde! I hope you didn't take any offense at my comments. I seem to be trying to set some kind of record for crassness lately. Don't know what gets into me sometimes....

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Not at all Ealasaide, and I do not think that you've been at all crass. (But you may want to stop burning the midnight oil for the RPG's, else you might just drool on your keyboard and short it out! Or at least have a face like a waffle for awhile .) Please do accept my appologies in advance, I'm waxing quite silly and off topic just now! Time to go home I suppose.

[Ealasaide]

In the meantime let me buy you a cup of coffee Ealasaide!

Thanks, Hilde, but I think I had better pass. At 6+ cups a day of black coffee, I'm already a little twitchy, eh? Could have something to do with all that RPG midnight oil burning, too. If I had any more coffee I think I'd give up sleeping entirely.

Hey! Why don't you continue with the music reviews after all? It was very helpful in solving my insomnia problems!

[Ealasaide]

Not that this has any relevance to anything... I just thought it was kind of fun: I just found out that one of my family names on my father's side is "Greenleaf". Unfortunately, no relation to Legolas!

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

...and who but my lady Greenleaves...

[Ealasaide]

Haha! You're too punny!

[mark12_30]

I have gotten adventurous (reckless??) in buying CDs. I purchased three LOTR-related: Stephen Oliver's BBC adaptations, Bilbo's Great Adventure and The Alan Horvath Rings Project (as yet unopened, she mutters with a blush.) I have yet to review them but I do plan to...

Balanced against those are the three U2 cd's I just bought (also as yet unwrapped.)

Could somebody knowledgable do a thorough review of those Glass Hammer albums? ...please?

I've also finished Kocher's biography of Tolkien. I need to write up that review review too...

Anybody have a poster of the really old map that had the psychedelic emu mural wrapped AROUND the map? I've never seen it online, scanned, mentioned... it was my first ME map, and I'm waxing nostalgic and would like to see it again. "What's become of my old Map, Frodo... the one I gave you?" "I lost it, Uncle...." "...pity..."

[mark12_30]

In Mirkwood Forest there dwelt a sprite
Ealasaide whom they called lady Greenleaves
And ages spent she in moonlight bright
Lingering under leaves of linden trees

No darkness withstood her gaze
Nor could shadow remain where her footsteps passed
Near her birds sang and fawns did graze
And the stag bowed and followed on silvered grass

(cut
Once Prince Greenleaf had been all her joy
Although long ago he sailed away
But silvered light fell on Greenwood fair
While yet Ealasaide lingered and tarried there

(replace with
Once Prince Greenleaf had been her delight
Deep was their joy while he tarried there
But he sailed long since from haven bright
While yet Ealasaide lingered in Greenwood fair

The seasons swept, and the ages changed
The dominion of men had arrived at last
But deep within the forest grey
Ealasaide lingered long on the silvered grass

She walks there still, so the harpers say
The black butterflies are the lament she sings
And deep within the forest grey
Is the shimmering silver her moonlight brings

Still near her the white stag stays
Though he leaps no more since his age is past
Birds sing and fawns softly graze
While her tears fall like dew on the silvered grass

[Ealasaide]

Ealasaide bends in a deep curtsy, her skirts sweeping the floor.

"That's lovely!" she says when she finally finds her voice. "Thank you, Mark-Helen! You leave me breathless...and quite nearly speechless. I'm deeply honored."

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

That was marvelous Helen! How very nice of you!



Also, I guess I had better send for a Glass Hammer Album to review. Unfortunately, one of the songs on the sampler reminded me quite a bit of Monty Python and the Holy Grail's "Brave Sir Robin" song. Ah well, there is another to try first!

[mark12_30]

Helen waves and smiles. "Glad I am that you found it fair, " she says, "although I am yet tempted to fuss at the third stanza a bit. I lost the rhyming scheme there..."

She wanders off humming Green(s)leaves, and re-thinking

Once Prince Greenleaf had been her delight
But he sailed long since from haven bright
But silvered light fell on Greenwood fair
While yet Ealasaide lingered and tarried there

Frowns. "No, that's AABB, not ABAB. Drat."

Tries again:

Once Prince Greenleaf had been her delight
Deep was their joy while he tarried there
But he sailed long since from haven bright
While yet Ealasaide lingered in Greenwood fair

She nodded, and sighed with satisfaction. "Shall I edit the original post? Yes, I think so..."

[Ealasaide]

Hey! Anybody have some music they want to review? hee-hee...

I seem to have pretty effectively killed the thread when all I was trying to do was poke a little fun. Sorry!

In the meantime, until someone joins me again, I guess I shall sit here all alone upon the ground and tell sad tales of the deaths of kings to none but mine own ears... (My apologies to another fine old codger, William Shakespeare. )

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Oh how nice, a story! What age would this king be living, or rather dying in?

[mark12_30]

Ealasaide, do not fret that you have "killed " this thread. It has an undulating, pulsating life of its own, Blossoming, fading, going dormant, and then emerging again... rather like a daffodil on a shorter schedule.

And I did review some music... it's on the music review thread, which was more or less birthed out of this thread (and its predecessor...) "The Hobbitons" CD recently arrived, so look for a review on that over the next week or so.

*sits crosslegged, wraps cloak about self, and settles in for story about long-dead king*

[Ealasaide]

Uh... you mean now I actually have to tell a sad story of the deaths of kings?

Okay...wait... give me a second...

I'll be back.

[Ealasaide]

Ealasaide sidles back into the picture, one tiptoe at a time, looking a bit red-faced...

Uh, sorry, haven't got any "sad tales of the deaths of kings." At least nothing to compare with Isildur or Théoden, or even Richard III, for that matter. What I've got plays more like a tragic folk ballad. Or War & Peace, if you take length into consideration. I tend to be a bit long-winded once I get my teeth into a story.

If you're up for it, let me know!

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

I tend to be a bit long-winded once I get my teeth into a story.

Spoken like a true old fogey! Let me pull up my rocking chair and you can e-mail me the whole thing. Who we gonna hear about Auntie Ealasaide? And are those your own teeth sunk in the story?

[Ealasaide]

And are those your own teeth sunk in the story?

Why, yes, they are! I'd been wondering where they'd gotten off to...

[mark12_30]

Ealasaide, if you have a ballad to sing, why not pop in-character into the Seventh Star and sing it there? (If it'll fit into one post, that is.) Songs are welcome at the Inn!

[Ealasaide]

Ooh! What a good suggestion. Thanks, Mark/Helen! I have a character who needs to put in an appearance in the Star, anyway... a certain Lady Isabel...so I will certainly give it some thought.

Also - my compliments on the White Tree. What a great new addition to the selction of icons!

[mark12_30]

Aside from checking the Downs, what habits do you have that remind you of (or come from) Middle-Earth? They can be seasonal.

For instance, over the past several weeks, I have gone every day to my beech trees to watch "spring unfold the beechen leaf."

"What are you taking pictures of?" was normally answered by the song (Tolkien Ensemble version).

[Snowdog]

Aside from checking the Downs, what habits do you have that remind you of (or come from) Middle-Earth? They can be seasonal.

In the winter when I go out to the car to dig out of the snow before heading to work I think of the Fellowship trying to cross the Misty Mountains, or King Arvedui and his men freezing up in the Forochel area....

[Ealasaide]

Hmmm... the thing I do that reminds me the most of Middle Earth is the long walks I take in the woods with my dog (coyote/border collie mix.) In the park we go to, there are many long, winding trails. The really interesting part is that periodically, we come across the "ruins" of old stone gateways at one bend in the trail or another. I always think of Tolkein when I come across those. Unfortunately, lately, the Park Service has been systematically ripping them all out. Soon they will all be gone.

Besides the walks, I also make sterling silver jewelry based on chain mail.

As for pictures, I tend to shoot mostly landscapes and close-ups of flowers and tree roots & the like, but sometimes I will also do interesting windows or doorways. I seldom take pictures of people (unless I get hired to shoot a special event for someone.) When I have film to burn at the end of a roll, I also take a lot of pictures of my dog and cat.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

My Middle-earth moments are closely connected with nature; when I walk, I try to be consciously aware of what’s around me, experiencing it with as many senses as possible. It’s easiest to do that in Spring, I think, after the bareness of winter makes everything look “fresh and poignant”, as Lothlórien did to Frodo when he entered that land.

I’m acutely aware of flowers, both wild and in gardens. Sometimes tiny blossoms are so wonderfully detailed that I marvel over them. (Beside one of my favorite paths, I saw some little yellow, star-shaped wildflowers that I dubbed “elanor”.) I stick my nose in every lilac bush and kneel down to sniff the scent of lilies-of-the-valley. And above all, I touch trees, hedges, and bushes. No, I’m not a tree-hugger, but I love feeling the softness of new leaves and fresh evergreen tips! A friend once told me that she could recognize me from a long distance because I always have my arm stretched out when I walk past anything green in the spring.

The feeling of wonder is what I connect with Middle-earth.

[Child of the 7th Age]

My own experiences are somewhat different. I can think of three Middle-earth moments, two of which are not strictly nature related.

The first one is cyclical but on a weekly rather than a seasonal basis. Every Friday evening and Saturday, my family and I live a life far removed from the 21st century. We do without TVs, cars, radios, CD players, and for the most part even computers. (OK, I do "cheat" on that last one occasionally. ) We walk to each other's houses (up to about a mile or so) and sit around the table at dinner and lunch, eating heaps of food and talking. It's a rare Saturday that we don't have one or more guests. It's not always so idyllic. Sometimes when we walk, a thunderstorm blows in and everyone gets drenched.

We do this for religious reasons that have nothing to do with Middle-earth, but strangely enough it always reminds me of living in the Shire. Very people centered and relaxing. It's as if time slows down. It's race, race, race all week and then a day to sniff the flowers, read a book, or even take a nap.

My second Middle-earth moment is when I sit with my kids and read to them. (Actually, sometimes I have them read to me, since it beats the prepackaged audio books on CD.) Even though I have a teen and pre-teen, we still do this sometimes, especially in the summer. I always feel like Bilbo telling stories to young Sam or Frodo.

As far as nature goes, Houston is not inspiring. No lovely woods or anything like that. But the ocean is just an hour away in Galveston which is a sleepy city, whose prime is long past. I always think of fading Elves when I go there! But the greatest lure is the beach and to listen to the surf. Shades of Sam Gamgee at the end of the unpublished epilogue, or even the shores of Tol Eressea. The ocean just goes on and on....

[piosenniel]

. . . And as the Captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent: for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed; and then a hush fell.

~ RotK; “The Field of Cormallen”

In the wee hours of the night, 2 a.m., after work and looking north, not south from my back yard, while the dog does his business – there is the giant smoke stack of the paper/plywood mill that looms in the near distance above my tall wooden fence. At its top is a blinking light to warn off low flying aircraft, and from its mouth belches a continuous massive pillar of steam and smoke. Ominous and threatening it appears as it emerges; but the top streamer is fragmented in the night breezes.

An army of frogs, inhabitants of our small pond, is loud in the darkness . . . hushing immediately at the arrival of myself and dog.

[mark12_30]

Brrrr, Pio. I am spoiled! I look up in my sky and see oak and beech branches, and stars beyond them...

I just bought three albums from CdBaby by an indie band called Hobbit :
All for the One
Two Feet Tall
Rockin' the Shire.

The review compared them to Yes and Foreigner, if I recall. THe cartoon Bilbo graces the cover of Two Feet Tall. They are still in their shrink-wrap.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Did someone mention Yes?

Seriously, I have been trying to think of some Tolkien moments, but they have been rather far and few between this year, even in my rural surroundings. (Unless working with an orc counts. Then I have intense Tolkien moments all to often! Not a very uplifting revelation, is it?)

[mark12_30]

I finally put "All for the ONe" in for a spin. I like it.

Hilda, think of a combination of Yes, Kansas, Journey and Survivor-- sort of-- and you have "Hobbit". They don't quite have the virtuosity of Yes (No Roundabout here) but they aren't shabby. And they do have fun lyrics. A few too many drug references for me... but there it is. Fun album.

Tolkien moments:

Yesterday I spent about fifteen minutes chatting with a whitetail doe. I got within ten feet of her but no closer. She is completely fearless. I wonder if I brought her an apple if she'd take it out of my hand... maybe not, but it's a tempting thought. So-- just call me Radagast for a day.

Fortunately she is a long way from my hostas!

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Greetings all you coots! I have resisted this thread for too long…

First, my credentials. I have been reading LotR about once a year, every year, for the last 21 years. I took a course at university in which we spent six weeks on LotR; I have published an article about it myself. I have taught a non-credit university level course about LotR. But most importantly, I own the DVDs of the movies.

Second, my Middle-Earth moment. I am a new father. One night, not long after the birth of my beautiful boy, I came home from work very late, exhausted and terribly upset by a profound professional set back. As I walked down the street to my home, I saw the lights in the windows, and when I came in, my wife was there, and I sat down and she put my son on my lap and I said – and, as Eru is my witness, I was entirely unconscious of the echo until afterward – “Well, I’m back.”

And you know what – for all the times I’d read that book, and for all the work I’ve done with it, I never really got it until that moment.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Welcome Mr. Hedgethistle, and what a beautiful Tolkien moment, congratulations! (Now that is uplifting...)

And Helen, I have found samples of Hobbit and have listened. The singer reminds me a bit of Jon Anderson, but I think that I would be hesitant to buy this one. Thanks for the insight.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

How wonderful, Fordim! Wow, what impressive credentials precede that very personal experience! You are very welcome here - with a new baby at home, you'll appreciate our comfortable rocking chairs, I'm sure.

I've enjoyed your contributions on other threads and am glad you've now joined us here!

[Ealasaide]

Welcome, Fordim! My, what impressive credentials, indeed! And that is a beautiful moment as well. Very life affirming.

I'm curious what your LotR article was about! My BA is in English Lit/Literary Criticism, so that does interest me. (Never got my Master's as the main Prof I planned to study with died unexpectedly. I kind of lost my inspiration after that.)

Another thing I used to do that made me think of Tolkein is study Kendo, which is the art of samurai swordsmanship. I was doing really well with it until my Sensei had a nervous breakdown and had to go away. After that I wasn't able to find another instructor who was quite as good, then I moved, etc, etc. It is something I would like to take up again someday.

[Raefindel]

My, but how all your Guru's have abandoned you, Ealasaide!

Hullo, Fordim Hedgethistle! It's nice to have you here. Congratulations on your new son. You didn't happen to name him after one of Sam's sons, now, did you?

[Ealasaide]

My, but how all your Guru's have abandoned you, Ealasaide!

Yes, it's really kind of depressing. Fortunately, those are the only two that I lost in such unhappy ways. It's funny that they should both happen to come up in the same post, though! I didn't notice that when I wrote it.

[Hilde Bracegirdle]

Yes, I was going to say I noticed a pattern there Ealasaide !

Raefindel! Glad to hear from you!

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Greetings Ealasaide and all.

Hmmm. . .I'm not sure I want to cite my Tolkien article for you; from the looks of things, people from whom you choose to learn do not fare well. . .

Sorry, just a feeble attempt at humour.

The real reason I shall not cite my article here is twofold: one, I kind of like my BD Anonymity, and, two, the paper appeared several years ago and then sank into a much deserved oblivion. The only real contribution it made is that it was among the first of the 'new' generation of work on Tolkien (post 1970s) that attempted to deal with the real importance of the female characters in LotR. I got it all wrong, but at least I can say I was there at the beginning of the critical re-evaluation of this aspect of his work

[Ealasaide]

Fordim - fair enough! I like my BD anonymity as well, so I can appreciate your stance.

Now...a word in my defense! Contrary to how it may appear, I had nothing to do with the sad ending of aforementioned Gurus. It was purely coincidental. Many of my former teachers are still living and are in at least partial command of their faculties (no pun intended! ).

...although now you guys are starting to make me paranoid...
Maybe the wind I blow around on is an ill one.... yikes!