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swordwhale
Dor-Lomin
Jan 21 2010, 4:54am
Post #1 of 7
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 Though the marshes in LOTR seemed to be a place of dread, I have found marshes to be fascinating places teeming with life. They are the nurseries for much of what ends up in the sea. They have more nutrients per square meter than rich farmland. Though Tolkien didn't mention them, I think there would have been marsh Elves (they would have certainly invented Middle Earth's first insect repellant to combat the several dozen kinds of mosquitoes and blood sucking flies... or perhaps, they would simply exist in harmony with them). This was sketched in my favorite salt marsh: Assateague Island, VA, USA, east coast, in the spring. I have heard the cries of the gulls in the dark, heard the thunder of wild pony hooves through the sand as I lay in my tent, seen stingrays the size of refrigerator doors, seahorses, sea cucumbers, and the water flashing with bright green bioluminescence. I painted the background in watercolor, and the Elf and his resurrected buried treasure in watercolor and acrylic, on vellum bristol paper.
Go outside and play...
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geadin
Lindon
Jan 22 2010, 12:48pm
Post #2 of 7
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I think you really caught the spirit of the dead marshes. It is ironic that is is a nursery for some living things. Do you have anything related to the Valar(including Melkor)?
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swordwhale
Dor-Lomin
Jan 22 2010, 6:04pm
Post #3 of 7
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The Elves seem to be my archetype. I've wrangled, strongarmed, shanghaied various stout bearded buddies into posing for random dwarves (my honorary Big Brother mainly), but I don't have quite the same feel for them (though the folk I am surrounded by, here in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, are quite Dwarvish and Hobbitish). I haven't really done any Valar, though they would be rather Elvish, I'd think. The Dark Lord of Doom types thoroughly elude me. While I admire anyone who can do really great horror or evil creepy stuff, I can't; it's like, it makes it too real.
Writing it is something else again. Mwaaaahaaa haaaaaa! 
Go outside and play...
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Puddum
Lindon
Jan 22 2010, 7:28pm
Post #4 of 7
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This is beautiful-- one question, though: what exactly is the elf pulling (or magicking?) out of the water? It's a little hard to tell because of the image's size.
I like the idea of marsh elves, though. And just different kind of sub-races, in general. Middle Earth is only one part of Arda; there must be so many other interesting peoples that Tolkien never went into detail about.
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swordwhale
Dor-Lomin
Jan 24 2010, 6:51pm
Post #5 of 7
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AH yeah... I need to post a larger pic of that on my site. If I can find one; the piece got sold years ago.
That is a totally wrong period, rather greebly (ornate) sword from the Dark Ages of my fantasy knowledge before I played around much with the SCA and the Longship Company (www.longshipco.org). I think it may have been lost in the marsh by a time travelling Rennaissance Faire goer... The Elf has a bit of the 80's hair thing going too. I've since learned to do classic hair.
I seem to remember Tolkien saying something, in one of his letters, maybe, that he had left enough empty space in his world to be filled in by other hands wielding brush or pen.
I live in the mirky woods of Pennsylvania (farmers, and in the fall everyone taks to the woods with guns) but just south lies the vast expanse of the Chesapeake Bay (largest estuary in North America)(I think). That would be prime marsh Elf habitat. In the past, several Native Tribes did basic farming and hunted and fished its shores (Captain John Smith, as in that Pocahontas guy, found oysters the size of a man's hand), more recent watermen have done pretty much the same with bigger boats and more technology. It's still possible to get lost there, to get caught in a sudden fierce squall, to see the sharp fins of cownosed rays surfacing right by your paddle, to see armies of horseshoe crabs trundling ashore to lay their eggs, and clouds of sandpipers descending to eat them... to see the dance of white sails on the horizon.
Go outside and play...
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Puddum
Lindon
Jan 24 2010, 9:34pm
Post #6 of 7
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Have you ever seen the film "The New World"? It was a very visual recent film about the story of Pocahontas and John Smith shot on location at the Chickahominy River, and though I don't think that's quite the region you're talking about, your description makes me think of it. It was very gorgeous and lush to look at.
Meanwhile I ought to read Tolkien's letters one of these days. I keep finding references to them and there seems to be a wealth of new information and fascinating insights within.
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swordwhale
Dor-Lomin
Jan 25 2010, 7:25pm
Post #7 of 7
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That was filmed just south of here, in about the middle of the west dies of the Bay (we're on the Susquehanna, which flows down into the Bay, actually, the Bay is the drowned feet of the Susquehanna).
The tidewater region (the Bay and its shores, and its rivers) is one big ecosystem, the watershed itself actually extends up into New York state, and encompasses half of PA. there's a cool book called Life in the Cheapeake Bay by Alica Jane Lippson (http://www.amazon.com/...ippson/dp/0801883385).
The three ships that brought the colonists to Jamestown (Susan Constant, Godspeed, Discovery) are on the VA quarter and have been reproduced several times as floating museums. I was on Godspeed (not sure if it wa THE one in the film or the one they built after) and I've seen Mom and Pop RVs bigger than that, goin' down the highway. I can't believe our ancestors travelled across the North Atlantic in those things.
A couple of years ago, www.sultanaprojects.org recreated John Smith's small "shallop" and sailed/rowed it around the edges of the bay. (My T-shirt says: "1 boat, 8 oars, 12 explorers, 1500 miles"...about the length of the Iditarod. The shirt doesn't mention that there were five young women and seven young guys and one portabucket in the bow... A crewwoman mentioned that after a day or two nobody cared about the toilet facitlities; they had an expedition to do. It took them about 121 days, they made several public educational stops along the way. Now their route is The Captain John Smith National Historic Water Trail. Gradually they are adding interpretive buoys (accessible from your cell in your boat, or from the dry safety of your computer desk, online). I've paddled aprts of it; the Bay is in deep trouble, but there are lots of people who care, and are working to restore it.
The Powhatans still exist; I bought a t-shirt from a woman who is descended from them, at Sail VA/Harborfest in Norfolk in 2007. (also saw various versions/ages of Pocahontas). If you want to learn about someone's culture, best to go to the people themselves, their works/art/writings. An outsider never quite gets the story from the same viewpoint.
Tolkien's letters are really pretty cool; a sort of autobiography without the self-conciousness of an autobiography, as he had no idea anyone else would be reading them but the person he was writing to. They're quite charming.
Go outside and play...
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