Random Tolkien thought

[icepixie]

Today, on Obscure Questions I Pose Because That Was Always My Favorite Part of Studying Literature: Was Tolkien a John Masefield fan?

The MLA database is silent on the matter. Me, I'm going to go with "yes."

Back to your regularly-scheduled B5 commentary in a bit. I spent the past two days re-reading The Historian (which I just, oh, I love it, even if I do see what critics mean about the characters being a bit featureless--but vampires and history and working with primary sources and YES), so I've left other things by the wayside for a bit.

Comments

[icepixie]

I was totally thinking you were fluent in Anglo-Saxon--you sound so knowledgeable about it all. :) I took a semester-long course in it during my senior year of undergrad, more because I loved the prof than because I had a great interest in it, though it was fun. (The prof gave us tea each time class met. We provided cookies. Class was in this seminar room from the 1800s, all wood-paneled and with big windows, and it was basically the most awesome thing ever.) We found that reading things out loud really, really helped--once you get the basics of the vowels and consonants down, you're halfway to understanding much of what exists.

Although I do wonder sometimes if European gulls are perhaps slightly more musical than the ones on the NW coast of the US.

I spent my junior year on the southwestern coast of England. Although I have sadly never been to the PNW, I can say with authority that no, European gulls are not at all musical. And they are really incredibly obnoxious at six o'clock in the morning when you've forgotten to shut your window. (Plus, they mug you for your sandwiches.)

That's very cool that your family is so into boats! My mother's father was in the Navy, and she grew up in Florida and did some boating, but it definitely never rubbed off on me.

Canoes are untrustworthy little monsters sometimes.

Gaaaah. Although I think it was less the fault of the canoe in principle than it was the crappy canoe outfit that hosted our class trip--they just herded us into boats and shoved us into the river (running extremely high and fast due to excessive rain earlier in the week). Not only did they not tell us how to steer, but they didn't even tell us how far it was to the put-out point or which side to take when the river forked. But yes, my friend and I managed to tip our canoe not twenty-five feet from the put-in point, resulting in a long, cold trip down the river. Thankfully, the canoe outfit did provide life jackets, or I seriously and without hyperbole believe there's a good chance I would not be typing this today.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha. Unfortunately, no. Best friend and I made a rather weak attempt to teach ourselves (this was not as crazy as it sounds, as she is a linguistics major and we both have a solid grounding in linguistic theory and medieval history & lit), but it turns out that there we couldn't find actually accessible textbooks on the subject, so the best I can do is the recognition of some fairly basic words and a bit of guesswork and extrapolation. I still have a pile of old books around that I poke at sometimes, but I'm fairly lazy when it comes to language work, and when I do have time I figure my rapidly-rusting French is the more useful bit to keep up on.

Class was in this seminar room from the 1800s, all wood-paneled and with big windows, and it was basically the most awesome thing ever.

*Flails like a jealous flaily thing* Yes, that would pretty much exactly be the most awesome thing ever. That and the professor having tea for class. My university, not nearly so awesome as all that. Although to be fair, part of that might have something to do with my university's original campus being abandoned for newer buildings at the end of the 19th century (I believe, though I cannot confirm this on wiki, that the original campus was in the part of Seattle that got burned down around that time).

European gulls are not at all musical. And they are really incredibly obnoxious at six o'clock in the morning when you've forgotten to shut your window. (Plus, they mug you for your sandwiches.)

So yes, just like PNW gulls. I love them, but they really are rats with wings. They're just... aesthetically pleasing rats with wings. (I am reminded of going to Hawaii, and being astounded by all the gorgeous little white egrets that were everywhere. A friend very gently informed me that they were pretty much the Hawaiian equivalent of seagulls, and nothing special at all. But they were pretty, damn it.)

And a big EUUUUGHGHHH to the tipping story. Brrrr. I've (thank goodness) not yet managed to tip myself all the way overboard, and only ever got wet boating in Hawaii, where it didn't matter. The nice thing about sailboats and other big boats (most of my boating experience) is that they're much less inclined to tip. The worst you get usually is spray on the big boats, and that's not bad (except for glasses and hair). Hooray for life-jackets, anyway. o_O I can see how you would not be wanting to go out on the water again after something like that!

[icepixie]

I love that you tried to teach yourself Anglo-Saxon. :D I still have my old textbook--The Cambridge Old English Reader. I remember we also had a little red book that had a great dictionary in the back, but as I don't remember the title, that wouldn't be helpful to you. (I'm pretty sure I sold it back, or it would be here, so I'm guessing at the time I thought the Cambridge one was the better book.) I haven't looked at it since 2005, though, so I'm not sure how accessible it would be without a teacher.

Talking about it made me nostalgic, so I found a picture of the room. It's in an old house that dates from the 1850s--several classrooms and offices are housed in similar residences. We had several buildings burn down over the years as well, but we just rebuilt them, unlike your university. (I imagine part of that had to do with there being no other buildings in town to move to. Even now there are only 600 permanent residents in Gambier. The college is just about the only employer.)

they really are rats with wings

EXCELLENT description! Although they're kind of cute as well. Still, rats with wings, yes.

I can see how you would not be wanting to go out on the water again after something like that!

Heh, yeah, at least in anything smaller than, oh, a car ferry or the like.