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squire
Half-elven
Oct 22 2012, 8:48pm
Views: 1593
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It's left a little unclear just what she is washing, or how, or where
[In reply to]
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"This is Goldberry's washing-day" suggests that like any housewife she washes up once a week. But she is heard singing outside, "above" the hobbits in a one-story house, singing with words that seem to be coming down on them with the rain, so that her song and the rain are one. Nor is there any sign of her about the house, although Tom can be heard noisily doing his chores. So she may not have brought the rain - she is no weather-master if her husband is not - but whatever she is doing, she's not doing her "washing" in any conventional sense. I'm not surprised by, nor do I disagree with, any suggestion that in this scene Goldberry has somehow become incorporated into the rain. By this reading she is "washing" and "autumn-cleaning" the landscape of Tom's country itself, not just the house-linens and the flagstone floors. Such understated and unclear magic is, to me, perfectly appropriate for the wife of Tom Bombadil - a wife who, it is said, is the "daughter of the river."
squire online: RR Discussions: The Valaquenta, A Shortcut to Mushrooms, and Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit Lights! Action! Discuss on the Movie board!: 'A Journey in the Dark'. and 'Designing The Two Towers'. Footeramas: The 3rd (and NOW the 4th too!) TORn Reading Room LotR Discussion; and "Tolkien would have LOVED it!" squiretalk introduces the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: A Reader's Diary = Forum has no new posts. Forum needs no new posts.
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Goldberry and similar historic examples
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Eruonen
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Oct 22 2012, 3:58pm
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Sorry, I didn't recognize that quote -
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geordie
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Oct 22 2012, 5:14pm
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The source is non-canonical but the spirit seems accurate
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Eruonen
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Oct 22 2012, 6:40pm
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Does Nimrodel count as a water spirit also?
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squire
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Oct 22 2012, 7:34pm
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Oh, come now - 'rape scene'?
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geordie
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Oct 22 2012, 8:13pm
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You are right
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squire
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Oct 22 2012, 8:35pm
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Well,
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geordie
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Oct 22 2012, 8:43pm
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I think you protect too much...
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Eruonen
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Oct 22 2012, 8:43pm
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The elves had some water power as illustrated
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Eruonen
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Oct 22 2012, 9:49pm
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Identity of figure and forms...
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Evernight
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Oct 25 2012, 1:29am
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I may be in a minority here -
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geordie
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Oct 22 2012, 8:00pm
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A minority of two
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Voronwë_the_Faithful
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Oct 22 2012, 8:10pm
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Thanks!
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geordie
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Oct 22 2012, 9:22pm
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Possible but his line by Tolkien is odd -
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Eruonen
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Oct 22 2012, 8:21pm
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Ah, no - at least, I don't think so -
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geordie
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Oct 22 2012, 8:40pm
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How do we interpret "represents the actual seasonal changes"
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Eruonen
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Oct 22 2012, 9:15pm
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It's left a little unclear just what she is washing, or how, or where
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squire
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Oct 22 2012, 8:48pm
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I wonder if Tolkien took some influences
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Elenorflower
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Oct 22 2012, 9:31pm
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