Death! Death! Death!

[fajrdrako]

I got this quiz from kikibug13, To which race of Middle Earth do you belong? I didn't quite get the result I expected. I was angling for Gondorian. This would be second best - and they quote my favourite passage of Tolkieneque Anglo-Saxon poetry.

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?

Rohirrim
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This gets me thinking of The Wanderer, which is my favourite bit of Anglo-Saxon poetry, and the only one I have memorized in the original (in part) from an old Caedmon record that was in the public library when I was a teen:

Hwær cwom mearg? Hwær cwom mago?
Hwær cwom maþþumgyfa?
Hwær cwom symbla gesetu?

I had a translation that rendered this as¹:

Where is the horse now? Where the hero?
Where the treasure-giving prince?
...How that time has all passed away,
grown dark beneath night's helmet,
as though it never were.

- which I like a little better than the subsequent translations I have found, though I suppose it's a little looser than most. This source by Truesdell gives it as:

Where went the steed?
Where went the rider?
Where went the giver of treasure?...

I love it: the whole romance of the Anglo-Saxon world, where princes gave rings to warrior-heroes.

Yeah, I guess the Rohirrim might be the right place for me. Even if I was sort of dreaming of a Gondorian library of leather-bound books, with Romanesque arches overlooking a splendid vista...

¹ I wish I knew the translator's name, or could find that one again. I don't remember the rest of it.

Comments

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

You know, that poem keeps popping up all over my f-list. Mostly to do with Jack...

And apparently, I am an Ent, which amuses me greatly :)

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

I'm a hobbit. Yeek.

Not surprised at this…

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?

Elvish
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[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Numenorean. Is that even good or bad? Other than being, apparently, common.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

that poem keeps popping up all over my f-list. Mostly to do with Jack...


Well, all good things should be in reference to Jack, one way or another. Seems right to me!

An Ent - ! Woo, you must be long-winded. But the longevity is nice.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Nothing wrong with being a Hobbit, of course, but... Do you smoke? Do you dance? Do you write comic songs? Do you have hairy feet?

Re: Not surprised at this…

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

H, so very elegant!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Nothing common about being Numenorean! It's wonderful! Aragorn, best hero ever, was of Numenorean descent, which is why he lived so long. (Sort of like being an Immortal, but he didn't need to be beheaded to die in the end.) I'd like to be Numenorean. I aspires to Numenoreanism but got rerouted to the horsey folk.

Mind you, the Numenoreans did get drowned in a great flood for their sins, most of them, but that's a detail...

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

I happen to like sins. So it all works out in the end.

And I meant common because it's the highest %.

Hmm, I don't have a "sin" icon. Bad me. I'll use a blasphemy one instead. Although it's just a brb macro icon.

Re: Not surprised at this…

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I think it was the love of poetry and the sense of superiority that clinched it.
I have the ears, anyway, naturally. (They're a slightly odd shape at the top. Ever so slightly… angular.)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I think most of you already know I'm long winded :) Never use one word where three will do just as well. Preferably long ones.

I'm not sure I've ever been described as cautious before...I think I must have ticked the wrong boxes!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I think I got Numenorean last time I did this or a similar quiz. Fun, anyway!

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

Used to smoke. Only dance on my bicycle. I can SING comic songs, and tootle an accompaniment to others on my ocarinas, but I'm no lyricist.

Hairy feet? Nawp. Bikie's feet, long and narrow and mostly hairfree. Might make a Fallowhide out of me.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I suspect you are a Took. You know, just different enough to be suspicious and given to unexpected and outrageous behaviour.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There's something seductive about being an Elf - intelligent, artistic, beautiful, long-lived, wise. (Well, depending on the Elf. Maybe I should strike out the 'wise' bit. Not all Elves are created equally.) But ultimately I don't trust the Elves; they aren't fully committed to Middle-Earth, and they sometimes just fade away and die when circumstances are adverse.

Numenoreans are strong and human. I'd rather be Numenorean, even if they aren't as beautiful or magically skilled.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Never use one word where three will do just as well.

Good things come in threes. Now, I never thought of you as verbose... or concise either. You use just the right number of words. Enough to reach the end of the sentence.

As for cautious... hmm. I think that would make me feel challenged to write something totally outrageous, just to prove I wasn't.

Re: Not surprised at this…

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Elvish? Vulcan? Sidhe?

Numenoreans has a sense of superiority too. Arrogant bastards. That's why I love them.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Makes me think of the Terry Pratchett character who has both legs longer than the other...there are special shoes for it :)

My betas have already got me working about 100 miles away from my comfort zone, which is scary but fun. I think. Assuming the results are worth it. *worries* I guess I'll see when I post! That's quite uncautious enough for me at the moment.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Laughed out loud at your icon. I think blasphemy might have been the sin of the Numeoreans, or idolatry - I think they were worshipping Melkor, or at least hanging out with him. He probably held good parties.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

the Terry Pratchett character who has both legs longer than the other...there are special shoes for it

This makes me try to imagine a Discworld shoe store - that way madness lies.

My betas have already got me working about 100 miles away from my comfort zone

Excellent! I can hardly wait!

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

Which of the three races of Hobbits are the Took clan? I forget. (There's Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallowhides.)

[sparklebutch.livejournal.com]

Something a bit childish about monotheism; "there can be only one" never made sense to me ;)

Re: Not surprised at this…

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I worry more about people with inferiority complexes. They generally have chips on their shoulders.

Vulcan? Well, some people find my prioritising of reason over emotion difficult. My mother accused me of being as "hard as nails" because her mother's death didn't affect me much. (The fact that I had never had a proper adult-level conversation with that particular grandmother was a factor: she was just there when I was a kid, and would talk to my mother and aunts, not to me.) I don't think I've ever really forgiven her for it, although frankly, I think it's more of a compliment for a woman to be considered "hard" than to be dismissed as one of these soppy wilting violet types.

I'm suspicious of sentimentality and appeals to emotion over logic. (It's frankly dangerous, whether in personal relationships or political terms.)

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Indeed! It's pretty boring, too, when you could have a whole groovy pantheon.

Re: Not surprised at this…

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes - you strike me as very Vulcan in your thinking, very logical. And that's a good thing. You are as you are. Nobody is the way other people want or expect them to be - and why should they be?

I don't think one temperament is better than another. It's just a matter of what we make of what we are.