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noWizardme
Half-elven
Apr 27 2017, 4:06pm
Post #1 of 4
(1547 views)
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**Founders day game - summarise a book chapter in short-form verse
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Pick any reasonably short poetry form you like. Here are two examples (both from LOTR as it happens, but pick any work you prefer):
LOTR, A Long-expected party (Limerick)
Old Bilbo is having a Party
Makes jests, and then leaves the Shire smartly
But to give up his Ring
Proves a difficult thing
So the rest of the book's not so hearty.
Or,
LOTR, Three's Company (haiku)
Such Autumn Country
But those sniffing Black Riders
Get Frodo alarmed
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Where's that old read-through discussion?
A wonderful list of links to previous chapters in the 2014-2016 LOTR read-through (and to previous read-throughs) is curated by our very own 'squire' here http://users.bestweb.net/...-SixthDiscussion.htm
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noWizardme
Half-elven
Apr 28 2017, 11:03am
Post #3 of 4
(1502 views)
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Good stuff - thanks for playing! //
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~~~~~~
Where's that old read-through discussion?
A wonderful list of links to previous chapters in the 2014-2016 LOTR read-through (and to previous read-throughs) is curated by our very own 'squire' here http://users.bestweb.net/...-SixthDiscussion.htm
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noWizardme
Half-elven
Apr 28 2017, 11:24am
Post #4 of 4
(1504 views)
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A Conspiracy Unmasked (in 'heroic' or 'elegiac' quatrain)
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To go alone is not yet Frodo's doom,
And leaving friends was his most dreaded pain
But all will suffer hardships in that room
Both those that go, and 'Fatty' who remains.
Phew - I don't think I've tried a quatrain before! I think I've got the form right (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatrain for da rulz) so I can truly claim its a quatrain, though not necessarily a good one 
As often with creative things, the process was worth it anyway - I fond myself thinking that this chapter is deceptively jolly. We get a break from the pursuit by Black Riders, bathtime, songs, banter and mushrooms. And Tolkien sets up a credible way for Frodo to get out of the Shire immediately (someone has already done the packing). But Frodo's dodging the pain of parting with his friends has a flip side: involving them in his dangers, even if they can only intellectualise those dangers now, rather than feel or understand them. On the 'don't know what you're letting yourself in for' side of things, it's also easy to miss that Mr Bolger doesn't have an easy time - nearly nabbed by the Riders, and finally dug out of Sharkey's concentration camp in a poor physical condition, but unbeaten. All that's far away from the decisions the characters make in this chapter, of course.
I wonder whether there was also a resonance for Tolkien's generation that we are now losing with the passage of time. Young men volunteered in droves early in Word War I, and often signed up with their friends, workmates or relatives. Like our hobbits they probably had a determination to face dangers they could barely imagine. The 'pals regiment' system of course also had a flip side: perhaps it helped quickly fulfil the recruitment quotas, but it also determined who you would see suffering and dying alongside you. It also bereaved whole streets, neighbourhoods and workplaces, when those units had been fed into the meat grinder of a world war one offensive.
So the somewhat sad heroic/elagic feel of this form seems appropriate to this chapter, come to think of it, and trying to write it has led me to some interesting thoughts about the events at Crickhollow.
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Where's that old read-through discussion?
A wonderful list of links to previous chapters in the 2014-2016 LOTR read-through (and to previous read-throughs) is curated by our very own 'squire' here http://users.bestweb.net/...-SixthDiscussion.htm
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