A Walk to Rivendell

How's this for a New Year's Resolution that has actually lasted?

Don't believe me? Will you believe me when I say it is Lord of the Rings related?

Yes, I am such a geek that turning exercise/P.E. into a Lord of the Rings adventure suddenly makes it much more exciting.:)

A group of my online friends from the Fairytale Fourm and I are Walking to Rivendell. Please see our blog, HERE. (And I'm rather proud of the background I made for it...)

We keep track of the miles we exercise (see the explanation post on the blog, it explains it all) and plot our journey from the Shire to Rivendell, following the path of Frodo and the other Hobbits. We chart out our miles on a map of Middle-Earth. The journey is 500 miles.

You heard that right! 500 miles! I'm getting close to 100 miles now :)

The idea is to have a goal of at least ten miles a week, and our Fellowship writes a story on the blog in keeping with that. However, no one has been posting and I got tired of being the only one to do so... Even if no one posts on the blog, I am still going to travel all the way to Rivendell.

I printed out the map and charts (see the blog's explanation page, again). Every now and then I pull out The Fellowship of the Ring, find the place where I am, and read that bit. The "three days passed in dreary wetness" bits are not fun, but the bits about Tom Bombadil or Bree are hilarious. :)

The Lord of the Rings Musical

No, you heard me right. There is a Lord of the Rings Musical.

It played in London and Toronto, though there is talk of a world tour someday. Some of the music is very catchy, although only loosely based on Tolkien's poems. I don't know how changed the plotline is; some of the costumes do look a little strange. Here is the website: The Lord of the Rings Onstage


This is called The Cat and the Moon. It is a very fun song, but doesn't follow Tolkien's genius-ly silly poem. A longer version, with lyrics and better sound is RIGHT HERE. (It won't embed)

HERE is an interesting version of The Road Goes Ever On. It doesn't follow the poem, and is much different than the movie's approach, but still quite pretty. :) More videos can be found by searching "The Lord of the Rings Musical" in YouTube.

Born of Hope

Do you remember the Lord of the Rings fanfilm The Hunt for Gollum that I mentioned? There is a new film out by the same people.

I have found another Lord of the Rings fanfilm! It is called Born of Hope (see the movie, and the website, HERE). 

It is the story of Aragorn's parents. The story is not told in Tolkien canon (aside from a reference to the gravestone of Aragorn's mother).

I don't have time for a proper review, but I enjoyed this video very much. If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, you must watch it.

Nick's LotR Stories

Today, my brother Nick handed me his notebook. "I wrote some stories," he told me.

Nick is nine years old, has read the Lord of the Rings "trilogy" two times, finished the Silmarillion, and is currently reading either Tales of Belerind or Unfinished Tales (all stories by Tolkien about the Lord of the Rings universe and history).

His stories may not make sense unless you have read both the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion. He has also written some other short stories... three pages detailing the conversations we held in a long car ride, several stories that began "There once was a family of eight. They had six kids, Shaylynn, Ben, etc.", and even one about him turning into a Jedi and saving Middle Earth from Galabatorix. :) Here are his two stories, complete with the original spelling!
Part One- Frodo
By Nick
 Once upon a time after the ring was distroyed and Frodo left Middle Earth Frodo went to Valinor to the Valar. Frodo was honored in Valinor. Maybe he saw Melkor a valar who is bad and called Morgoth. He got to be in secret councils and the Valar gave him a fake one ring. At first Frodo thout it was real but he figured out it was fake. He lived to be 100 and 20.
Part Two- Sam
Sam Frodo's faithful servant had 20 children. He was famase. Sam finished Bilbo and Frodo's book. he missed Frodo: When Sam was 90 years old He went to Valinor He was excited to see Frodo. The Valar prepared a feast for him. Sam lived to be 100 and 15.
The End

He told me that his stories aren't the way it happened in the books but since they never exactly say what happens in the books he thought he would write a story about it. I for one cannot figure out why Morgoth would be in Valinor.

Want to learn Elvish?

Well, I don't know the language, but I can write English in Tengwar (Elvish letters)! (JRR Tolkien made an entire Elvish language, did you know?) I taught myself, peicing together snippets I found in various places. Most likely I have it all wrong, but... it looks impressive! These are the pages from my notebooks where I wrote notes on it. The first page shows first the Elvish letter, then the symbol that I think symoblizes the sound, then an example of how that sound is used in a word, then the name of the Elvish letter. It has only consonants on it.

The second page has more notes, and the vowels. I am still confused on those, but I use the symbols that say "typically these" by it, and I do not do the "y", as I write more phonetically.

Page three has more notes, esp. explaining that English can be written in Tengwar phonetically (based on sounds, like shorthand) and letter-by-letter (which is generally more confusing to write but easier to read).

These are two visual aids I made, to help you see how the letters fit together. The top one is Sindarin mode (which I use the most) and the bottom is Quenya. You cut out the peices, and arrange them into words. It helps you see how the vowels and consonants fit together.

A Well-Loved Book

Funny

More pictures to come

More snow pictures to come.
Later.
Sorry.

Well, since this post would be otherwise boring, here are a few things for you to enjoy!

Riddle

"This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down."


Highlight to see answer
"Time! Time!"
This riddle is from Lord of the Rings, well, actually, its from the Hobbit