Month: April 2016

Speaking of useless majors, I have a medieval art history degree. I overflow with trivia when I visit cathedrals, but this knowledge has earned me exactly $0. Creative writing was my other passion in college. I wonder what would have happened if I’d run with it. How much do you feel your writing improved? Did classes make the process quicker or less exhausting? Is it still a strange game of typing 20 pages one day, then stating for hours at a single sentence the next?

OMG see, I almost convinced myself to major in history, just out of love of the subject matter, but I thought CW would be a more “practical” degree… this was after I tried and failed to pursue German Studies as a major. (art wasn’t an option at my college. unless you really, really liked pottery.) 

…Ah, “how much did I improve”. The million dollar question. 

NOT THAT MUCH and LOTS, simultaneously, is the unfortunate answer. 

There was exactly -one- class that I took that actually put me through the ringers and made me improve my prose, and it was only a month long. It was my script writing class, and it was the first and only time a teacher looked me in the eye and was like “this is shit”. And I was like “>:OOOOO !!!!” and then I learned what it’s like to actually write and edit like you’re trying to sell something. The teacher (Miguel Tejada-Flores, for the record) was a hardened, salty sailor of the Summer Movie Blockbuster seas. He had no fucks to give about flowery prose or high concepts.  It was absolutely good medicine.

Many of my classes were very supportive and cuddly and made you feel ~*special*~ and ~*unique*~, which is all fine and good, but when it came time to crank out a 200 page thesis? None of us had shit to work with because literally NONE of the classes we took were about actually -producing work on a deadline- or -FINISHING ANYTHING-. But what they did give me was a wealth of one-on-one time with professors who actually cared about me, recommended the right books for me to read, and gave me a much needed hand up when I was drowning in self-doubt and navel gazing (I owe Prof Anna Keesey my life, and my confidence in my own weirdness.). And any class that has you reading, writing consistently, sharing your work, and editing, will do a body good. 

The other thing that genuinely helped my writing was taking some 301 level classes on Romantic and Victorian poetry (with the most excellent Prof Katherine Kernberger). It was…not flowery. We got to analyze meter and historical contexts and etymology. (*sweet sigh* my jam…)

…My thesis was a hot pile of steaming garbage, btw. The fact that they let me graduate is testament to how few shits the college actually gave about english majors. (fun fact: it wasn’t until graduation day when I watched the endless stream of nursing and business students get their diplomas that I realized my college wasn’t the liberal artsy haven they had advertised themselves as).

So, my answer here, if you’re pursuing taking classes for CW, is forget majoring in it, and just find yourself the –right– class/es. 

Deliberately pick something that will challenge you, not the thing that sounds like what you’re doing already. Skip all the “fantasy writing workshops” and go for something that will make you grit your teeth and swear, like screenwriting or technical writing or something you have to actually produce to a deadline, hear read aloud by others, that has word limits, that has to convince someone to give you money. It’s like an full-body cleanse for the creatively constipated soul. It makes you WAY less precious about your writing, and it will help with laboring over a single sentence for five hours, because you stop looking at each sentence like a ~*special beautiful snowflake from your inner soul*~, and start thinking about them as tools to communicate, to further a narrative. 

And I have to say, you’re already a MUCH better writer than I was in college. You communicate ideas with precision, where I tended to waft around in the nebulous aether of my own vocabulary. I still waft, on occasion. You may have noticed. 

In the spirit of Munday…

Once you get this, share 5 random facts about yourself, then, pass this on to 10 of your followers.

REPOST. DON’T REBLOG.

Tagged by: @maire-annatari​

  1. My grandfather was part of the Assyrian diaspora and I didn’t know he existed until I was in my late teens. Granpa Lester was who I knew as my granpa for most of my life, and my dad didn’t tell me he wasn’t biologically related until MUCH later. I have very little information about my biological grandfather, just a general timeline and a last name. My dad got all the good genes for olive skin that doesn’t fry to a crisp in the sun, and left me NONE of them. 
  2. The first and only serious art contest I have won was for the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Calgary, Alberta. I was 10. I drew an ornithomimus fighting with a cassowary. That was also the only time I’ve been to Canada. 
  3. Vienna and Prague are tied for my favorite cities in the world. 
  4. I have a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. My diploma is currently being used to shield my ink collection from sunlight and dust. It’s pretty good at that, so I can’t say it’s entirely worthless. 
  5. I’m an only child, not only in my family, but for all branches of the family until you get to like twice-removed cousins. I have been the one to say the four questions every Passover since I could read. THERE WILL NEVER BE A YOUNGER PERSON IN THE FAMILY TO PASS THIS TORCH TO, THIS IS MY BURDEN. 

I tag: @masteroftheseas @heraldofmelkor @curufinwefeanaro @doegred @ashandbrine

lucifers-cuvette:

misbehavingmaiar:

“…Similarly farthing has been used for the
four divisions of the Shire, because the Hobbit word tharni was
an old word for ‘quarter’ seldom used in ordinary language,
where the word for ‘quarter’ was tharantin ‘fourth part’. In
Gondor tharni was used for a silver coin, the fourth part of the
castar (in Noldorin the canath or fourth part of the mirian).(20)”

The Peoples of Middle Earth, II. The Appendix on Languages, JRRT, ed. C.T.

This, aside from mentions of gold pieces and “silver pennies”, is the only passage I can find concerning currency in Middle Earth. Not much to work with, but suggestive of a long-reaching history nonetheless– like so many things Tolkien. 

A few more tidbits (confirming the silver and gold currency as well as other stuff), relating to Elvish culture (possibly).  From the erstwhile Darth Fingon’s excellent Linguistic Foolery series on the Silmarillion Writers’ Guild (Everyday Elves and What They Do):

Now that we have people to make all the things the Elves need in
their daily lives, we need to find somebody to sell the goods.  Luckily,
the Qenya Lexicon provides words for pedlar (sic) and huckster.  Just in case
you thought all Elves were honest traders.  Other attested words
include barter, bargain, and words for silver and gold coins.

Cf. the Qenya Lexicon, Parma Eldalamberon 12:

kulusta (n.) – gold coin

telpilin (n.) – silver coin

vaktelear (n.) – merchant

qapa- (v.) to swap or barter; to bargain

qapta (n.) good deal

Granted, these are derived from the earlier Qenya, but the evolution of the conlang gives us a modicum of insight into Tolkien’s thoughts on Elvish culture. IMO, for fannish purposes, one can run with it (and I have).

*clappity* MORE TIDBITS! TIDBITS FOR THE TIDBIT THRONE!

Every time I think I’ve successfully stripped the legendarium for parts, it turns out some giant swath of material has escaped my grasp! (…the existence of the Parma Eldalamberon confronts me with the terrifying question:  how much money would I be willing to spend to have a table-top dictionary of obscure Quenya words? hmmmm…) 

The coin words are particularly useful because it gives me a pattern to follow. I’d kludged together my own words for “gold coin”, “silver coin”, etc by just making the noun for the metals plural (i.e. “silvers”, “coppers”, etc.), and I was using “malta” for gold rather than “kulu”, the earlier form. 

Excellent! TO THE REVISIONING! >:D 

Thank you ever and again Prof Pandë, for pulling magical gifts out of your eldritch hat. 

Dear DS, might I beg your assistance? I am designing a set of coins for Beleriand with inscriptions in the appropriate languages. I’ve done my best with using your Neo Khuzdul tools, and if you are willing to red-pencil me, I’d be very grateful! Especially as I can’t find a working Cirth transcriber. The phrases are essentially “Coin from Tumunzahar/Gabigathol, property of the Firebeards/Broadbeams” or “Izizaz Tumunzahar/Gabigathol Urstarâgu/Fantnuhûb”, and “Mahal Maharuma”, “Mahal be praised”.

thedwarrowscholar:

Hello there! Well met!  No need to beg for assistance, happy to aid when I can.

I would translate these lines as: 

“Iziz Tumunzaharul ra Gabilgatholul.”

“Gunrû ‘Urstarâg ra Fantnuhûb.”

“Mahal maharuma.”

“Iziz” – I’m using the nominative form here as I’ve added “-ul” to both place names. The -ul form is used here because we want to indicate descriptive origins (like: “from the iron” (“Zirnul”) – indicating origins of an element.   There are other options, using the constructive for instance, but I believe this would fit best.

Incidentally, the “-az”-form I no longer included in the current Neo-Khuzdul grammar, what I referred to in the documentation as “Classical Khuzdul” (CK). It however would still be present in the “Blue Mountains Khuzdul” (BMK). And seeing that we are talking about just these halls, it is indeed still a valid option for your translation (if you want to give it that local touch). In that case, this part of your translation would be perfectly fine.

Usage of “ra” instead of “/”:  I used “ra” (meaning “and”), as I do not believe the “/”-sign would be present in Khuzdul runic writing. Note though that “ra” does have its own rune, which you could use (if you are writing this in runes of course). More on that HERE.

I also translated “property of” literally to “Gunrû” (using the construct form), which means the clan names would not need to be modified to include a possessive genitive marker. 

The last line “Mahal be praised”, is translated perfectly.  One could be tempted to use the passive imperative (”maihrim” here, but seeing we are not “commanding” Mahal to be praised, but merely suggesting others should praise him, your choice of the passive subjunctive is absolutely spot on!  “Mahal Maharuma”, literally meaning “Mahal, let him be praised”  fits perfectly.

Please do show me those coins when you are done, I would love to see them.

Ever at your service,

The Dwarrow Scholar

I am swooning. You’ve swooned me. I am disproportionately gleeful to have conjugated a verb correctly. This is an excellent night. 

The “/” sign I blame on tumblr’s character limit and my own hubris… I’d meant to have two separate sentences whose only differences were the proper nouns; “Coin from Tumunzahar property of the Firebeards” and “Coin from Gabilgathol property of the Broadbeams”.   My theory is that each hall has their own mint, and would wish to differentiate their own coins from their neighbor’s, even if the value was the same. 

Would the same construction apply? Making it “Izizaz Tumuzaharul gunrû ‘Urstârag”  and “Izizaz Gabilgatholul gunrû Fantnuhûb”, respectively? 

…And if I can sneak in a separate topic: I’ve done my best to coin (hah) some words for “electrum” and “nickel”, but I’m at a loss as to how to shorten them into the terms for coinage such as “Kibil” –> “Kabl” or “Mikil” –> “Makl”. 
For electrum, I compounded words for “containing gold and silver” with the same ending as the other coins, and got “Barkadzurl”, (or “Zurl” but I am less confident that would be recognizable on its own). For nickel I tried “yellow-tin” or “tahfazimil”, and shortened it to “tahfl”. Again, I am not confident that holds together. 

Thank you so much for lending me your expertise and time, and for the truly epic undertaking that is your Neo Khuzdul lexicon. 🙂 Hobnobbing with you linguists is the coolest part of being a Tolkien fan. 
It will be my pleasure to show off the coin designs when they’re done! I’ll be sure to tag you in it and give all due credit for the translation assist. 

Mukhuh turgizu turug usgin. ❤

image

awildellethappears:

contemporaryelfinchild:

allonsymiddleearth:

Lord of the Rings is so complicated because we don’t just have canon vs not canon we have

  • was-in-the-trilogy book canon
  • contradicting from a different book canon
  • movie-verse canon
  • Tolkien mentioned it in a letter once canon
  • Christopher Tolkien speculated canon
  • fanon
  • wikipedia accepts it as canon even though it’s not 100% sure canon

like how are you even supposed to keep track of all that

Don’t forget

  • Tolkien changed his mind but you’re not sure which version you like better canon
  • Early ‘mythology for England’ canon
  • Tolkien implied it in a letter once canon
  • Fan movie canon
  • Tolkien never actually made up his mind so choose a headcanon

Also worth noting: 

  • Christopher Tolkien changed his mind canon
  • Omissions even from the HoMe that are only found in obscure linguistic journals or tertiary literature canon
  • Changing language concepts canon
  • Minor works canon

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