Random thoughts on re-reading Fellowship of the Ring

[bunn]

1) I am henceforth basing all views on the movie and any other retellings on the existence of many alternative and 'corrected' re-copyings of the Red Book of Westmarch.  

2) I really like Tom Bombadil and Goldberry.  (Though I don't think they translate to movies)

4) I'd half-forgotten that Aragorn's effect on Black Riders etc - and Glorfindel's - and the wandering Noldor the hobbits meet in the Shire - isn't so much about hand to hand combat as about 'power'.   This explains why Aragorn can get away with wandering all over the place carrying a broken sword, but you can't help feeling that if he's got so much internal oomph he would stand out like a beacon if he'd actually made it to Mordor.  But maybe you can damp it down? This is a different kind of 'power' to the Jeremy Clarkson sort. I hope we are all clear on that...

5) Haldir seems surprisingly offish with Aragorn when they arrive in Lorien, given that  Aragorn seems to know Lorien well and you'd think Haldir would at least know him by sight.   

6) I wonder at what point it was that Legolas suddenly decided to be best buddies with Gimli. On the way into Lorien he's all 'plague on the stiff necks of Dwarves!' and then suddenly when they arrive at Caras Galadhon he starts taking Gimli everywhere with him to explore Lorien.   Is Legolas feeling a bit insecure in Lorien, which is frankly quite a bit more Noldorin and mysterious than his own place in Mirkwood, so he wants a Dwarf with him so he won't be the odd one out?  Is he so impressed by Galadriel being nice to Gimli that he changes his mind? Is he shocked by Haldir's blatant Dwarfism?   Is it the bonding of Northerners faced with the weird behaviour of Southerners?  Is it because everyone else in the Fellowship is hanging out in species groups (hobbits and Men) and poor Gimli is lonely because he's the only dwarf?

7) Legolas's gift from Galadriel of a bow strung with elf-hair ... cue inevitable wonderings about the tensile strength of elf-hair, and what else they use the stuff for...

8) I wonder if there is some odd etiquette going on there, that Gimli gets asked what present he wants and everyone else just has to take what they get given. Is there a gift-giving protocol specific to Dwarves?  Also, Gimli gets  three spare bow-strings! 

9) are the black swans they see *evil* swans?  For that matter, are the black squirrels of Mirkwood evil squirrels? How do you tell if a squirrel is evil? I wonder if they have shiny gold squirrels in Lorien...

Comments

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

There's a tradition of using women's hair as bowstrings in various old legends. Njal's Saga springs to mind, although in that case the lady involved refuses point blank to give her husband her hair after his bowstring snaps.

Of course there is the issue of usability of human hair as bowstrings...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

You know, when I read it I registered the bowstring as a single strand of hair, which seemed unfeasibly thin- but I just had a moment of doubt and checked, and it actually said 'string of elf-hair'.

Which I suppose could work if it was multiple strands carefully plaited or something. So Gimli only has enough to make a very thin bowstring!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I wonder if elves need to use a special shampoo if they intend to use their hair as a bowstring. I can imagine there being a whole range of specialised elven hair care products, depending on whether they want to produce an unearthly sparkly glow, or a sheen as dark as midnight, or hair sufficient to equip an army.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

The bowstring one would be called 'Twang'.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Aragorn and Jeremy Clarkson are very similar (and I'd never noticed this before):

Both northerners who settle in the south.
Both men of the people who aren't afraid to speak out against the establishment.
Both older than you think.
Both tall.
Both hang around with a bloke with girly hair and a short bloke.
Both travel a lot.
Both prone to melodramatic speech patterns.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I *knew* when I posted this that you would be rushing to use that icon...

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I want to see this TV programme now! Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli in Top Steed, having wacky fun while testing out the latest steeds.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Me too!

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

And me!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but you'd watch anything with Aragorn in! :-D

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

True!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

But who would be the Stig?

We need a character whose face is never seen... a character who likes to ride around on a particularly impressive steed... The Witch King of Angmar? "Some say that he is a minion of ultimate evil, and that he cannot be slain by any living man. All we know is that he's called... The Stig!"

[adaese.livejournal.com]

Question 6. You know the scene, just after they've reached Cerin Amroth, where Aragorn takes Legolas aside for "a quiet word", and shortly afterwards they come back, A looking much less angsty than he was five minutes earlier, and L sporting what had turned, by the time they reached Caras Galadhon, into a fine black eye? I think that might have had something to do with it.

Seriously - I suspect L managed to spend the first chunk of the journey just not getting to know G at all - not that difficult in a party of 9 - then comes the immense stress of getting through Moria (Gimli's first real chance to shine), then Haldir's blatant speciesism followed in quick order by Aragorn's better example, and Celeborn's only slightly more subtle speciesism. It was enough to break the ice, after which L makes a point of trying to get to know Gimli, and surprise! He's a lot more decent than all too many of the wood-elves.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

*chortle*

Perhaps on reflection, L was impressed with the way Gimli arrived in Lorien with an orc army on his heels but still fully prepared to fight his way with an axe through legions of Elves armed with bows. It is quite impressive.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I've always been intrigued by Aragorn's aura of power. Has he always had this ability? Did he have to learn it when he was a young man, which led to unforunate accidents when he forgot to switch it off and accidentally put a power-whammy on some unfortunate shopkeeper and his customers, causing a riot and far more free fondant fancies than he ever wanted? Can he use it as often as he likes, or is it like those D&D paladin powers that cause the minions of evil to flee in terror from your aura of righteousness... but only once a day?

[bunn.livejournal.com]

*fondant fancies* ??? Fondant fancies do not seem very Middle-Earth.

I guess they might have them in Laketown. It sometimes seems like they have *everything* in Laketown. Or, just possibly, Bree. Barliman Butterbur's cake-making cousin would sell them in paper bags to passing parties of Dwarves, who would get their beards all sticky eating them.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Or maybe some enterprising baker had just invented the very first fondant fancies, when Aragorn accidentally unleashed his power-whammy, causing the traumatised chap to hand them all over, and, shuddering, never to make them again. And thus was the secret of the fondant fancy forever lost to the world of men.

Either that, or they eat them in far-distant lands, where the cakes are strange.

far-distant lands, where the cakes are strange.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I think we've all had *that* experience. You just have to hope there won't be unexpected almond-paste.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Hrm, it's been a while since I've looked at the germane part of the book, but I remember being under the impression that Gimli was impressed with Galadriel, and Legolas was in turn impressed with that (and possibly with Galadriel's evident approval of Gimli).

Whatever the case, I dislike Dwarfism and it's one of the reasons I am not exceedingly fond of Elves in general. =D