Visiting Imladris....

[fajrdrako]

I arrived in Rivendell today.

Those of you who've been reading my LJ know that I started the "Walking to Rivendell" project as Shieldmaiden in the Eowyn challenge, and have been participating (occasionally) in a discussion about this on the Weight Watcher's Challenge Board. You can go and look at my assembled shields under the name of fajrdrako in the trophy hall at Milestone Celebrations.

For those uninitiated in Tolkien lore, this is a reconstruction of the journey the Hobbits in The Lord of the Rings took on foot in the first half of the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring (and the first movie too) to go from their home in The Shire to the Elvish haven of Rivendell, where the elven-prince Lord Elrond lived. It's a distance of 458 miles.

I started counting the miles I walked on March 17. Today I arrived in Rivendell at the 458-mile mark.

As I mentioned before, I want to go on to Minas Tirith now, but I wasn't sure how far it is, and I asked my various Tolkien-reading friends. One of them (who lives in Malta) actually came up with the information for me - bless her heart; I owe her big-time.

She has been reading Unfinished Tales and calculated two routes: Route One follows the ancient Numeorean roads linking Gondor and Arnor (508 leagues). Route Two is shorter but perilous, thorough the Misty Mountains and the Vales of Anduin. This route is 300 leagues, "Orcs permitting", my friend adds.

She then translated the Numenorean measurements of the lar and its equivalency to the league, as noted in the footnotes to Tolkien's story "The Disaster at the Gladden Fields". This story happens to be a favourite of mine: it's about the fate of Isildur. A league, she computes, is about three miles.

So: allowing for some fudging for approximations, and not counting elevation and other obstacles, I have a choice between the old Numeorean route at 1,524 miles, and the more perlious route that is shorter - the one Isildur took - at 900 miles.

I think I'll take the long route. I'm in no hurry to get to Minas Tirith and I like the idea of walking the old Numenorean road, which is bound to have beautiful old ruins. It it took my four months to get to Rivendell, I can still be in Minas Tirith within a year. Maybe. This may be overly optimisted, since I can't count on walking a lot through the Canadian winter. On the other hand - if I count miles done on a treadmill at the fitness club - I just might be able to do it.

Shall we see if I succeed?

Comments

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! And by all means, take the longer route. As for counting the miles you do on the treadmill (or the stair-climber, if you should decide to pretend that the path is steeply uphill that day!), by all means, take your pedometer with you and count them. It will not in the least be cheating; rather, it will be realistic: imagine a walk of that many miles -- not all of it could possibly be interesting or easy, eh? Anyway, you can maybe bring the books with you to the fitness club, and read about it as you walk it on the treadmill!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I have lost my pedometer. When I find a way I can do it within budget, I want to go to Mountain Equipment Co-op and buy one they have - a mechanical one that straps on the wrist like a watch. At the moment the 'disposable money' fund in my budget is all aimed at DVDs coming out this fall: "Firefly", "Smallville" season 1, "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" in two versions - and I suspect I'll be getting "Pirates of the Caribbean" at the first opportunity!

Reading "The Lord of the Rings" while walking to Minas Tirith sounds like a real hoot. I'll have to do that! And I could read the rest of "Unfinished Tales" and the other Tolkien writings I haven't got to yet. I think there is even a new Tolkien biography that I haven't read.

[raggedrose.livejournal.com]

LOL--as if you wouldn't manage to do it... You're going to walk anyway, might as well take a good fantasy along to exercise your mind as well.

Would you laugh if I told you I pretend I'm a messenger bringing news of the invaders from Connaught to the Ford when I go trail running in the park? There's even a ford to run to there.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You're going to walk anyway, might as well take a good fantasy along to exercise your mind as well.

Well, exactly! So I might as well make it a good, substantial fantasy that I know will stick with me (and the charm will not fade) and enjoy every minute. There's some pride involved too: a Shieldmaiden of Gondor does not abandon her task.

Your fantasy is wonderful too. Makes me think both of Paul Revere and of "How They Brought the News from Ghent to Aix" by Browning - though I suppose both those occasions involved horses.

I wonder how many other people use good fantasies to exercise? It's not something I see written up in the women's magazines, but it clearly works - at least for some of us.

Do I ever!

[star-maple.livejournal.com]

(Just went scrolling through your journal to find the link to the Shieldmaiden page-- gonna start adding my stairmaster/elliptical trainer miles to it-- and thought I'd comment)

Being the laziest person in the universe it is an absolute necessity for me to have an active fantasy life at the gym. Sometimes I'm training for battle. Sometimes I'm in a race. Other times it's just pretending there's a really hot guy next to me. I used to go running in this really cool forest and I used to pretend I was one of Robin Hood's Merry (wo)Men chasing after some baddies who had invaded our forest.

In order to get myself out the door I have to tell myself this little story about how, because I am working out and getting buff, one day someone will notice me and put me in a movie or [insert your favorite celebrity here] will ask me out the next time he's shooting something in town.

But yeah... I construct very elaborate fantasies for why I am at the gym and what I am doing there. Hmm... one of us should totally write a essay/article on this...

Re: Do I ever!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Did you find the Shieldmaiden URL?

Yeah, Bruce Wayne certainly gets me through some of the more difficult moments with the weights. Sometimes it's just a matter of knowing that characters I admire would do this, so I can do this!

AN article on this would be cool.