Small misc.stuff

[wiseheart]

I saw that phyloxena friended me. Taking a look at her user info, I realized with delight that I actually still can read Russian. I even understood the one or other word, although not much. But considering that the last time I had anything to do with the language was in 1978, it's still quite a deed.

I invited two of my students to G-mail. Since then, they send me silly e-mails every day. It's very funny, I enjoy it very much. One of them writes Charmed fanfic - alas, in Hungarian, or else I would rec her stuff, she's surprisingy good for a 13-year-old.

The Week of Hell is nearing its end. Yesterday, I spent 11 frigging hours at school, today 10.5, in seven of which I had lessons in one row. My brain feels like a dry sponge, and I'm positive that at least 20 per cent of my brain cells died in these two days.

Nonetheless, "The Young Knights" is making progress. I've started Chapter 8 today and have a concept up to Chapter 18 or so. Whether I'll manage to put together another advent calender this year or not is still uncertain. But I'm having fun with 18-year-old Boromir and his little brother, and Prince Théodred the Brave is just about to make his appearance, together with his future wife and Princess Idis, the Golden.

The Secret Sancta Kavfic is almost done, thank God. They've done the nasty, now I only need to tie up some lose threads and the story is finished. Who says that working under pressure is not efficient?

The Elfhelm fic got some nice reviews on SoA - I just love that archive, the readers are some of the comment-friendlier in the fandom. Too bad I can't post there any of my Boromir fic. Ah, well, we can't have everything.

Comments

[phyloxena.livejournal.com]

I couldn't read a world in any language in 1978. I'm impressed you can. Actually, I do sometimes post in English.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, it only shows you how old I am. I finished my first college in 1979 - and ten years' worth of Russian lessons have to be good for something, after all.

Not that much of it had remained, unfortunately. My last Russian teachers used to say: "You have a nice pronounciation. It's a pity you don't understand a word of your loverly reading." *g*

But I still can count till ten, I could recite for you the report to the teacher about who's missing from class, and I could sing two or three folk songs. Not much, after all that effort, eh?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

erm, I meant "lovely" reading, of course. I should use the spellchecker more frequently.

[phyloxena.livejournal.com]

You are Hungarian originally, right? Sometimes I feel guilty for all these people who had to learn Russian under -- well, tyranny. And sometimes I think there were much worse things than learning extra language.
I learned one of Lorka's poem by heart. Don't rememeber it anymore and didn't understand a world ever.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm Hungarian. Still living in Hungary, in fact. But I didn't have any problems with learning Russian - I still think it's a beautiful language (even though the grammar is murderous, if I remember correctly - six cases!), and I regret not having learned it properly.

But as a German teacher myself, it's been my experience that children in junior high refuse to learn foreign languages on principle - just because they have to learn them. Nowadays, kids can choose whoch language to learn (although it's mostly the parents who do the choosing), and they're just as reluctant to learn English or German as we were reluctant to learn Russian. It's the learning part that causes the problems, I think. *g*

[phyloxena.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, the SoA format woudn't allow lengthy discussion. I was not at all clear in my comments to the "Young Knights". I like Denethor and Stewards! About the mistakes of their forefathers -- I don't think it's just, but I think this world is set as such. Certain human, at least, Dunedain families are parallel to Elven individuals. Aragorn could be just a man, even a gifted Captain in MT, but he was also "Isildur reincarnaited" and responsible for the previous version's mistakes. Sorry, I digress.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Sorry I overreacted. I've run into so many evil!Boromir and jerk!Denethor comments that I tend to be a bit too defensive in the other extreme.

And don't worry about digressing - I'm willing and happy to discuss Tolkien and fanfiction in every forum available.

Thanks for your reviews. So very few people do still take the time to drop a poor, starved author a bone, all reviewers should be cherished.

[phyloxena.livejournal.com]

No evil!Boromir or jerk!Denethor. I do like them both, honestly. As I see it, they are both rather modern men, meaning they are rational or trying to be, and their loyalties and interests lie within their competence. In a "real world" as we know it, I'd rather prefer a Steward, a servant, to some supposedly supenatural monarch. However, the ME is different: it's inventor explicitly tells us there _are_ powers that seldom, very seldom speak to humans, there are forgotten artefacts beyond human comprehension, and "tales", as Bilbo put it, or conflicts really run deep in time and start with Valar and Eldar (hence "somebody elses's war" -- I guess if there were some evil, but natural dynasty in Mordor instead of immortal Sauron with his personal hatered to Numenorians, Stewards could have settled the conflict). That's why I compared Gandalf to a saint: I don't know the correct term, but I imagine one who is not yet recognized as such, but travels and talks and preaches and sows doubt and dissent by unproven tales. Gandalf calls for a crusade: Ecthelion is eager to listen to him for various reasons, and "Thorongil" is a rare human who has better acces to the old powers. Denethor is a natural sceptic and nobody bothered to tell him enough to convince him, nobody tried until Boromir was already dead. Faramir is a convert of a sort in this model -- maybe because he likes to read, like some Don Quixote, or because he serves in Ithilien and fells [evil] supernatural presence closer than others.
People also tend to write weak or neurotic!Faramir, wich I don't like at all.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting angle to see things - I've never thought of it. Personally, when I first read the Books, I completely bought all that destiny stuff from the Professor. For some reason, I can't do the same now, and my feelings about Denethor being wronged and mislead by the so-called "good" people.

But in any case, I very much agree with you about weak or neurotic!Faramir! A weak or neurotic person wouldn't have lasted a week in Ithilien.

[phyloxena.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I understood what you mean by destiny. I don't recall anything about Thorongil using his progeny to win hearts in Rohan in Gondor (unless you count his supposedly good elven education). I suppose, one may say Mithrandir meslead Denethor never telling him who T. was, but it's said D. have guessed anyway.

re. Faramir:
Not only in Ithilien, but all that Freudian musings about Aragorn as a father substitute. eek. Being literate, or compassionate, or even physically wounded within the story doesn't make one a wrek.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Re: destiny
I meant that the Professor seems to be so frigging certain that Aragorn has to win everything - including the crown - just because of his pedigree. I'm probably seeing this whole thing from a way too modern angle myself, at least now that I've gotten this old and morose and don't buy that sort of stuff anymore.

I absolutely agree with everything you wrote about Faramir above. Again, the way too modern angle. I guess it's hard for us to take things for face value the way the Professor did. For us, everything moves along the grey zones.

[phyloxena.livejournal.com]

I'm an idiot. "Progeny" was "pedigree".

And probably not yet mature enough to dislike Aragorn :) First, Elrosian line failed so many times -- in Numenor, in Gondor, in Arnor, in Umbar, in Isildur himself -- that Aragorn has only a hope. Arveleg's (if I'm not mistaken) claim was rejected by Stewards. And Tolkien wrote somewhere that Aragorn's heirs became ordinary tyrants.
Aragorn uses his trinkets only to impress immortal opponents who can remember this objects, everything else is his own experience and personality. And he didn't clime the crown in Ecthelion's time and kept the Stewards office afterwards.

Actually, all this higher race talk bothers me (from my modern angle), so I invented some AU-ish comforts:
1. What if Aragorn is not Isildur's hair, just Elrond's pawn? A talanted orfan led to believe his destiny?
2. What if Boromir didn't attack Frodo, and Aragorn ended up in Mordor with Frodo and Sam? Mithrandir can even retrieve them from the slopes of Orodruin, and Elrond probably could fix them and board on the grey ship.
3. Closer to the original story, Aragorn "is" Isildur, only he is never sure until he tries (as in Dunharrow).

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

No, you're not an idiot! English is a wicked, wicked language, that's all.

Arveleg's (if I'm not mistaken) claim was rejected by Stewards./i>

Arvedui, actually. And that despite the fact that he was married to Fíriel, King Ondoher of Gondor's daughter. But the Council didn't want a descendant of Isildur sitting on Anárion's throne, so they rejected him. At least that was the excuse - and we don't need to discuss what a stupid excuse it was, right? I think they just feared that Gondor would be neglected, had they accepted the King of Arthedain as their overlord. As there hasn't been a King of Arnor for quite some time.

As for your AUs - they are interesting. Each of them could make an intriguing story. Mabe you should offer your ideas on the plotbunny market - there is a comm called rabbindell, talk to the owner, perhaps she'll be willing to post them.

If you can stomach slash (I know not everyone can and I won't try to talk you into it if it's not your coup of tea), I do have an AU, posted to the Tolkien FanFiction Archive. It's titled "Seal On My Heart", it's a never-ending WIP, but one day it would have a drastically different outcome than the original.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Me = idiot, too. Forgot to close the tag properly, and the previous entry ended up all-italics. Meh.

[phyloxena.livejournal.com]

Thanks for clarification. Whatever the name or the reason, Aragorn could not have any certainty Gondor will accept him this time. Moreover, for him it's love story, which makes good story to tell, but uncomfortable historical engine.

Thanks again for plotbunny market suggestion. I'm afraid this stuff is dime a dozen. But I'll try -- if only to keep practicing this wicked, wicked language.

re: slash. Theoretically, I cannot stand it, and think it is almost always tactless and out of character. Practically, I like a good story, even if I scroll down anything more explicit than a kiss:) Sorry I can't recall now if Andrahar belongs to you or to Isabeau (there is some joined archive), but those were good.

What is WIP?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

WIP = Work In Progress

Andrahar belongs to Isabeau. His family, however, belongs almost entirely to me, and I was the one to work out some background stuff on the Haradric realm he originally comes from, including the fire-worshipping and stuff. You can find all that stuff in "Pawns and Symbols" and "The Face of the Enemy". The first one has some slash-y overtones, which is the reason why it isn't posted to SoA but is up in the TFF archive, I thinl. "The Face of the Enemy" is on SoA; it's the one that won me a Mithril Award.

[phyloxena.livejournal.com]

I have read "Pawns and Symbols" and "The Face of the Enemy", they actually were whose first Tolkien Fanfiction stories I discovered. Just didn't realize back when it was acceptable to leave comments. Your Harad is rather convincing. It's some Persian and some Khazar material, right?

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It's *always* acceptable to leave comments. That's what keeps us writers going. ;o))

Yes, Harad is very much Persian and Khazar material - well, Andrahar's home, Bakshir, is. I used Persian names, the fire-worshipping and the Parsi burial rites for them. I also used the Persian calendar for "The Face of the Enemy.

Khambaluk (another Haradric realm) is based on medieval India, Zipangui on the Mongol Empire of Dshingiz Khan, Li-ao is similar to medieval China and so on. I took out an historic map of the medieval realms of Middle-Asia and the Far East and tried to make up realms that would match truly existing ones.

[phyloxena.livejournal.com]

Or, I just thought, the duty for Faramir is little bit more abstract, than for Boromir. And the king is an abstraction.