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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Feb 3 2019, 3:30pm
Post #1 of 46
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It's time for some BS!
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This is a Book Spoiler that describes the most famous establishment in Bree: The Prancing Pony... for a moment of Tolkien-zen. From At the Sign of the Prancing Pony: The Fellowship of the Ring ... "The hobbits rode on up a slope, passing a few detached houses, and drew up outside the inn.... ...Sam stared up at the inn with its three storeys and many windows... ...Even from the outside the inn looked a pleasant house to familiar eyes. It had a front on the Road, and two wings running back on land partly cut out of the lower slopes of the hill, so that at the rear the second-floor windows were level with the ground. There was a wide arch leading to a courtyard between the two wings... ...on the left under the arch there was a large doorway reached by a few broad steps. The door was open... ...light streamed out of it. Above the arch there was a lamp... ...beneath it swung a large signboard: a fat white pony reared up on its hind legs. Over the door was painted in white letters: THE PRANCING PONY by BARLIMAN BUTTERBUR. Many of the lower windows showed lights behind thick curtains....
... ...They led their ponies under the arch, and leaving them standing in the yard they climbed up the steps...
... '[Butterbur]...we've got a room or two in the north wing that were made special for hobbits, when this place was built. On the ground floor as they usually prefer; round windows and all as they like it.... ...This way now!'
... He led them a short way down a passage, and opened a door. 'Here is a nice little parlour!'
... ...They found themselves in a small and cosy room. There was a bit of bright fire burning on the hearth, and in front of it were some low and comfortable chairs. There was a round table, already spread with a white cloth, and on it was a large hand-bell...
... ...The company was in the big common-room of the inn... ...[Light] came chiefly from a blazing log-fire, for the three lamps hanging from the beams were dim, and half veiled in smoke."
We have been there and back again.
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Feb 4 2019, 11:24am
Post #2 of 46
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Here's a Book Spoiler about the description of Derndingle... for a moment of Tolkien-zen. From Treebeard: The Two Towers ..."'Where is Entmoot?' Pippin ventured to ask.
... 'Hoo, eh? Entmoot?' said Treebeard, turning round. 'It is not a place, it is a gathering of Ents… …We shall meet in the place where we have always met: Derndingle Men call it. It is away south from here. We must be there before noon...'
... …Treebeard turned a little away from the hills and plunged into the deep groves, where the trees were larger, taller, and thicker than any that the hobbits had ever seen before. For a while they felt faintly the sense of stifling which they had noticed when they first ventured into Fangorn, but it soon passed…
... …They had been going for a long while--Pippin had tried to keep count of the 'ent-strides' but had failed, getting lost at about three thousand… …they came at last to what looked like an impenetrable wall of dark evergreen trees, trees of a kind that the hobbits had never seen before: they branched out right from the roots, and were densely clad in dark glossy leaves like thornless holly, and they bore many stiff upright flower-spikes with large shining olive-coloured buds.
... Turning to the left and skirting this huge hedge Treebeard came in a few strides to a narrow entrance. Through it a worn path passed and dived suddenly down a long steep slope. The hobbits saw that they were descended into a great dingle, almost as round as a bowl, very wide and deep, crowned at the rim with the high dark evergreen hedge. It was smooth and grassclad inside, and there were no trees except three very tall and beautiful silver-birches that stood at the bottom of the bowl. Two other paths led down into the dingle: from the west and from the east… …onto the wide grassy floor of the dingle…."
We have been there and back again.
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(This post was edited by grammaboodawg on Feb 4 2019, 11:25am)
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CuriousG
Half-elven
Feb 4 2019, 2:48pm
Post #3 of 46
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"Trees, trees, trees! Where's my chainsaw?" (That would have been the last thing the Man ever said.) //
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Feb 5 2019, 2:21am
Post #5 of 46
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Or your visit here will be trunk-ated! //
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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Darkstone
Immortal
Feb 5 2019, 10:06am
Post #6 of 46
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And don't wonder if we're pecan on you. We are! //
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******************************************
Character is what we do on the internet when we think no one knows who we are.
(This post was edited by Darkstone on Feb 5 2019, 10:07am)
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Feb 5 2019, 11:42am
Post #8 of 46
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Let's look at some descriptions of places in Middle-earth. Here's a look at Isengard... for a moment of Tolkien-zen. From The Road to Isengard: The Two Towers
... "...the highway... ...was broad and hard, and well-tended... ...the long arm of the mountains rising on their left. They had passed into Nan Curunír, the Wizard's Vale. That was a sheltered valley open only to the South. Once it had been fair and green, and through it the Isen flowed, already deep and strong before it found the plains...
... ...After they had ridden for some miles, the highway became a wide street, paved with great flat stones, squared and laid with skill; no blade of grass was seen in any joint. Deep gutters, filled with trickling water, ran down on either side...
... ...Beneath the mountain's arm within the Wizard's Vale through years uncounted had stood that ancient place that Men called Isengard. Partly it was shaped in the making of the mountains, but mighty works the Men of Westernesse had wrought there of old; and Saruman had dwelt there long and had not been idle...
... ...A great ring-wall of stone, like towering cliffs, stood out from the shelter of the mountain-side, from which it ran and then returned again. One entrance only was there made in it, a great arch delved in the southern wall. Here through the black rock a long tunnel had been hewn, close at either end with might doors of iron. They were so wrought and poised upon their huge hinges, posts of steel driven into the living stone, that when unbarred they could be moved with a light thrust of the arms, noiselessly. One who passed in and came at length out of the echoing tunnel, beheld a plain, a great circle, somewhat hollowed like a vast shallow bowl: a mile it measured from rim to rim. Once it had been green and filled with avenues, and groves of fruitful trees, watered by streams that flowed from the mountains to a lake...
... ...To the centre all the roads... ...There stood a tower of marvellous shape. It was fashioned by the builders of old, who smoothed the Ring of Isengard, and yet it seemed a thing not made by the craft of Men, but riven from the bones of the earth in the ancient torment of the hills. A peak and isle of rock it was, black and gleaming hard: four mighty piers of many-sided stone were welded into one, but near the summit they opened into gaping horns, their pinnacles sharp as the points of spears, keen-edged as knives. Between them was a narrow space, and there upon a floor of polished stone, written with strange signs, a man might stand five hundred feet above the plain. This was Orthanc... ...the name of which had (by design or chance) a twofold meaning; for in the Elvish speech orthanc signifies Mount Fang, but in the language of the Mark of old the Cunning Mind.
... A strong place and wonderful was Isengard, and long it had been beautiful; and there great lords had dwelt, the wardens of Gondor upon the West, and wise men that watched the stars."
We have been there and back again.
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Feb 5 2019, 1:35pm
Post #9 of 46
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Feb 6 2019, 2:55pm
Post #12 of 46
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Here is the first of two Book Spoilers that look at the description of Tom Bombadil's house... for a moment of Tolkien-zen. From In the House of Tom Bombadil: The Fellowship of the Ring
...[As the Hobbits followed Bombadil from the River in the Old Forest] "It became difficult to follow the path, and they were very tired... ...Strange furtive noises ran among the bushes and reeds on either side of them; and if they looked up to the pale sky, they caught sight of queer gnarled and knobbly faces that gloomed dark against the twilight, and leered down at them from the high bank and the edges of the wood. They began to feel that all this country was unreal, and that they were stumbling through an ominous dream that led to no awakening.
... Just as they felt their feet slowing down to a standstill, they noticed that the ground was gently rising. The water began to murmur... ...the river flowed over a short fall. Then suddenly the trees came to an end and the mists were left behind. They stepped out from the Forest, and found a wide sweep of grass welling up before them. The river, now small and swift, was leaping merrily down to meet them...
... ...The grass under their feet was smooth and short, as if it had been mown or shaven. The eaves of the Forest behind were clipped, and trim as a hedge. The path was now plain before them, well-tended and bordered with stone. It wound up on to the top of a grassy knoll... ...and there, still high above them on a further slope, they saw the twinkling lights of a house. Down again the path went, and then up again, up a long smooth hillside of turf, towards the light. Suddenly a wide yellow beam flowed out brightly from a door that was opened. There was Tom Bombadil's house before them, up, down, under hill. Behind it a steep shoulder of the land lay grey and bare, and beyond that the dark shapes of the Barrow-downs stalked away into the eastern night..."
We have been there and back again.
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Feb 7 2019, 1:43pm
Post #13 of 46
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There was more to share about old Tom and Goldberry's home, so I'm going to stretch this into 3 posts! Here is the second of those three Book Spoilers that look at the description of Tom Bombadil's house... for a moment of Tolkien-zen. From In the House of Tom Bombadil: The Fellowship of the Ring
..."The four hobbits stepped over the wide stone threshold, and stood still, blinking. They were in a long low room, filled with the light of lamps swinging from the beams of the roof; and on the table of dark polished wood stood many candles, tall and yellow, burning brightly...
......The hobbits sat down gladly in low rush-seated chairs, while Goldberry busied herself about the table...
......Tom clapped his hands and cried: 'Tom, Tom! your guests are tired... ...Come now, my merry friends, and Tom will refresh you..." ... He opened the door, and they followed him down a short passage and round a sharp turn. They came to a low room with a sloping roof (a penthouse... ...built on to the north end of the house). Its walls were of clean stone, but they were mostly covered with green hanging mats and yellow curtains. The floor was flagged... ...strewn with fresh green rushes. There were four deep mattresses, each piled with white blankets, laid on the floor along one side. Against the opposite wall was a long bench laden with wide earthenware basins... ...beside it stood brown ewers filled with water, some cold, some steaming hot. There were soft green slippers set ready beside each bed...
......The guests were commanded to sit quiet, and were set in chairs, each with a footstool to his tired feet. There was a fire in the wide hearth before them... ...When everything was set in order, all the lights in the room were put out, except one lamp and a pair of candles at each end of the chimney-shelf...
......[Later, Tom] took down the lamp and blew it out, and grasping a candle in either hand he led them out of the room.
... Their mattresses and pillows were soft as down, and the blankets were of white wool. They had hardly laid themselves on the deep beds and drawn the light covers over them before they were asleep."
We have been there and back again.
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(This post was edited by grammaboodawg on Feb 7 2019, 1:50pm)
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CuriousG
Half-elven
Feb 7 2019, 2:01pm
Post #14 of 46
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There is a fairy-tale aura around Tom, Goldberry, and the house that makes me ask
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if he had 2 guests or 21 guests, would they have found 2 or 21 beds waiting for them?
There were four deep mattresses, each piled with white blankets, laid on the floor along one side.
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Feb 7 2019, 2:37pm
Post #15 of 46
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I'm a believer that Tom can appear in many forms and his home conforms to that... and that Goldberry moves through whatever is there. I think he came along to help the hobbits in their transition from their world in the Shire to the outside... to school them on the ways of the world while the rain kept them there as long as they needed to learn from him and be more armed for what they would face.
I think you've got it, and that his home would revert to whatever the situation demanded. I've wondered what it's like when Gandalf is there. Tom also knows Farmer Maggot... what are those meetings like?
Uh-oh... you've got my imagination running across the field again!
We have been there and back again.
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CuriousG
Half-elven
Feb 7 2019, 4:09pm
Post #16 of 46
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I think there's something shape-shifty about Bombadil, and the version Gandalf sees is very different from what hobbits see. Sort of like how Frodo saw Glorfindel revealed as a shining light when his own friends had grown dim--people in ME can exist in multiple dimensions at once, and without it going science-fictiony.
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Feb 7 2019, 5:10pm
Post #17 of 46
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is why, if their guests are Hobbits, they have slippers set out for them!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I desired dragons with a profound desire"
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Feb 7 2019, 11:21pm
Post #20 of 46
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well... why didn't Tom vanish when he put on the Ring?
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You just never know ;)
I noticed that, too... and I wondered more if any of the hobbits put them on? I think Tom likes to push buttons and expand thinking' so he probably got a good laugh out of his own little prank.
I think Pippin, fersher, would give them a try. Then probably the others... with Sam the most halting about it. Then... if so... did they keep wearing them?
It's probably something as simple as the room being set up for whomever (or whatever) may show up.
We have been there and back again.
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CuriousG
Half-elven
Feb 8 2019, 1:02am
Post #21 of 46
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And now I feel like a bad host. Clean sheets, yes. Slippers by the bed? Sorry. //
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Feb 8 2019, 11:53am
Post #22 of 46
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It's time for some yet even more BS!
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Here is the third of three Book Spoilers that look at the description of Tom Bombadil's house... for a moment of Tolkien-zen. From In the House of Tom Bombadil: The Fellowship of the Ring
..."They woke up, all four at once, in the morning light. Tom was moving about the room whistling like a starling. When he heard them stir he clapped his hands, and cried: 'Hey! Come merry dol! derry dol! My hearties!' He drew back the yellow curtains, and the hobbits saw that these had covered the windows, at either end of the room, one looking east and the other looking west...
... ...Frodo ran to the eastern window, and found himself looking into a kitchen-garden grey with dew. He had half expected to see turf right up to the walls... ...Actually his view was screened by a tall line of beams on poles; but above and far beyond them the grey top of the hill loomed up against the sunrise...
... ...Pippin looked out of the western window, down into a pool of mist. The Forest was hidden under a fog... ...There was a fold or channel where the mist was broken into many plumes and billows... ...the valley of the Withywindle. The stream ran down the hill on the left and vanished into the white shadows. Near at hand was a flower-garden and a clipped hedge silver-netted, and beyond that grey shaven grass...
... ...Tom could be heard about the house, clattering in the kitchen, and up and down the stairs, and singing here and there outside... ...The room looked westward over the mist-clouded valley, and the window was open. Water dripped down from the thatched eaves above...
... ...the house of Tom Bombadil nestled under the very shoulder of the dreaded [Barrow-downs] hills...
... ...After breakfast, which they again ate alone, they made ready to say farewell, as nearly heavy of heart as was possible on such a morning...
... ...They rode off along a path that wound away from behind the house, and went slanting up towards the north end of the hill-brow under which it sheltered."
We have been there and back again.
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CuriousG
Half-elven
Feb 8 2019, 3:02pm
Post #23 of 46
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There's something about Bombadil that reminds me of the Ent, Quickbeam
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Particularly how Quickbeam will laugh at anything. It seems to be the same "I'm close to Nature, and I laugh out of constant happiness" kind of zen:
All that day they walked about, in the woods with him, singing, and laughing; for Quickbeam often laughed. He laughed if the sun came out from behind a cloud, he laughed if they came upon a stream or spring: then he stooped and splashed his feet and head with water; he laughed sometimes at some sound or whisper in the trees.
It seems child-like to laugh if the sun comes out from behind a cloud, but there is nothing child-like about either person as a whole. Anyway, just an observation. Thanks for the BSpoilers!
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grammaboodawg
Immortal
Feb 9 2019, 12:22pm
Post #24 of 46
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During a visit in the House of Bombadil, we're off to stories of the Barrow-downs. Here's the first of two Book Spoilers that look at the description of the Barrow Downs... for a moment of Tolkien-zen. From In the House of Tom Bombadil: The Fellowship of the Ring
..."[The Hobbits] heard of the Great Barrows, and the green mounds, and the stone-rings upon the hills and in the hollows among the hills... ...There were fortresses on the heights. Kings of little kingdoms fought together, and the young Sun shone like fire on the red metal of their new and greedy swords. There was victory and defeat... ...towers fells, fortresses were burned, and flames went up into the sky. Gold was piled on the biers of dead kings and queens; and mounds covered them, and the stone doors were shut... ...grass grew over all.... ...soon the hills were empty again. A shadow came out of dark places far away, and the bones were stirred in the mounds. Barrow-wights walked in the hollow places with a clink of rings on cold fingers, and gold chains in the wind. Stone rings grinned out of the ground like broken teeth in the moonlight.
... The hobbits shuddered. Even in the Shire the rumour of the Barrow-wights of the Barrow-downs beyond the Forest had been heard. But it was not a tale that any hobbit liked to listen to, even by a comfortable fireside... ...These four now suddenly remembered what the joy of this house had driven from their minds: the house of Tom Bombadil nestled under the very shoulder of those dreaded hills. They lost the thread of his tale and shifted uneasily, looking aside at one another."
We have been there and back again.
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