thoughtfulfoxllama

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

Yeah, I’d watch Muppets Lord of the Rings

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

Momma cat introduces her new baby born to human baby.

(Source)

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

So here's one of the coolest things that has happened to me as a Tolkien nut and an amateur medievalist. It's also impacted my view of the way Tolkien writes women. Here's Carl Stephenson in MEDIEVAL FEUDALISM, explaining the roots of the ceremony of knighthood: "In the second century after Christ the Roman historian Tacitus wrote an essay which he called Germania, and which has remained justly famous. He declares that the Germans, though divided into numerous tribes, constitute a single people characterised by common traits and a common mode of life. The typical German is a warrior. [...] Except when armed, they perform no business, either private or public. But it is not their custom that any one should assume arms without the formal approval of the tribe. Before the assembly the youth receives a shield and spear from his father, some other relative, or one of the chief men, and this gift corresponds to the toga virilis among the Romans--making him a citizen rather than a member of a household" (pp 2-3). Got it?

Remember how Tolkien was a medievalist who based his Rohirrim on Anglo-Saxon England, which came from those Germanic tribes Tacitus was talking about? Stephenson argues that the customs described by Tacitus continued into the early middle ages eventually giving rise to the medieval feudal system. One of these customs was the gift of arms, which transformed into the ceremony of knighthood: "Tacitus, it will be remembered, describes the ancient German custom by which a youth was presented with a shield and a spear to mark his attainment of man's estate. What seems to the be same ceremony reappears under the Carolingians. In 791, we are told, Charlemagne caused Prince Louis to be girded with a sword in celebration of his adolescence; and forty-seven years later Louis in turn decorated his fifteen-year-old son Charles "with the arms of manhood, i.e., a sword." Here, obviously, we may see the origin of the later adoubement, which long remained a formal investiture with arms, or with some one of them as a symbol. Thus the Bayeux Tapestry represents the knighting of Earl Harold by William of Normandy under the legend: Hic Willelmus dedit Haroldo arma (Here William gave arms to Harold). [...] Scores of other examples are to be found in the French chronicles and chansons de geste, which, despite much variation of detail, agree on the essentials. And whatever the derivation of the words, the English expression "dubbing to knighthood" must have been closely related to the French adoubement" (pp 47-48.)

In its simplest form, according to Stephenson, the ceremony of knighthood included "at most the presentation of a sword, a few words of admonition, and the accolade." OK. So what does this have to do with Tolkien and his women? AHAHAHAHA I AM SO GLAD YOU ASKED. First of all, let's agree that Tolkien, a medievalist, undoubtedly was aware of all the above. Second, turn with me in your copy of The Lord of the Rings to chapter 6 of The Two Towers, "The King of the Golden Hall", when Theoden and his councillors agree that Eowyn should lead the people while the men are away at war. (This, of course, was something that medieval noblewomen regularly did: one small example is an 1178 letter from a Hospitaller knight serving in the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem which records that before marching out to the battle of Montgisard, "We put the defence of the Tower of David and the whole city in the hands of our women".) But in The Lord of the Rings, there's a little ceremony.

"'Let her be as lord to the Eorlingas, while we are gone.' 'It shall be so,' said Theoden. 'Let the heralds announce to the folk that the Lady Eowyn will lead them!' Then the king sat upon a seat before his doors and Eowyn knelt before him and received from him a sword and a fair corselet."

I YELLED when I realised what I was reading right there. You see, the king doesn't just have the heralds announce that Eowyn is in charge. He gives her weapons.

Theoden makes Eowyn a knight of the Riddermark.

Not only that, but I think this is a huge deal for several reasons. That is, Tolkien knew what he was doing here.

From my reading in medieval history, I'm aware of women choosing to fight and bear arms, as well as becoming military leaders while the men are away at some war or as prisoners. What I haven't seen is women actually receiving knighthood. Anyone could fight as a knight if they could afford the (very pricy) horse and armour, and anyone could lead a nation as long as they were accepted by the leaders. But you just don't see women getting knighted like this.

Tolkien therefore chose to write a medieval-coded society, Rohan, where women arguably had greater equality with men than they did in actual medieval societies.

I think that should tell us something about who Tolkien was as a person and how he viewed women - perhaps he didn't write them with equal parity to men (there are undeniably more prominent male characters in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, at least, than female) but compared to the medieval societies that were his life's work, and arguably even compared to the society he lived in, he was remarkably egalitarian.

I think it should also tell us something about the craft of writing fantasy.

No, you don't have to include gut wrenching misogyny and violence against women in order to write "realistic" medieval-inspired fantasy.

Tolkien's fantasy worlds are DEEPLY informed by medieval history to an extent most laypeople will never fully appreciate. The attitudes, the language, the ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS use of medieval military tactics...heck, even just the way that people travel long distances on foot...all of it is brilliantly medieval.

The fact that Theoden bestows arms on Eowyn is just one tiny detail that is deeply rooted in medieval history. Even though he's giving those arms to a woman in a fantasy land full of elves and hobbits and wizards, it's still a wonderfully historically accurate detail.

Of course, I've ranted before about how misogyny and sexism wasn't actually as bad in medieval times as a lot of people today think. But from the way SOME fantasy authors talk, you'd think that historical accuracy will disappear in a puff of smoke if every woman in the dragon-infested fantasy land isn't being traumatised on the regular.

Tolkien did better. Be like Tolkien.

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

if i had to carry the ring to morder i would've put it in a bottle and then anytime it started chanting or misbehaving i would just shake it around until it stopped meanwhile somewhere in barad dur sauron keeps getting a splitting headache and can't figure out why

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

So, apparently Home Depot has a sword you can purchase on their website. And the reviews? Well….

I honestly can’t stop laughing.

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

You know what just occurred to me?

When the United States switched its copyright duration from the older first-publication formula to the newer life-of-the-author formula, it elected not to make the change retroactive, so there are effectively two copyright regimes in place: one for works published in 1976 and earlier, which use the first-publication formula, and one for works published in 1977 and later, which use the life-of-the-author formula.

This means that, barring any authorship fuckery, The Silmarillion, which was published in 1977, and thus uses the "life of the author plus 70 years" formula, will enter the US public domain in 2044.

However, The Lord of the Rings, which was published in 1954, and thus uses the "date of first publication plus 95 years" formula, will enter the US public domain in... 2050.

In the United States and only in the United States, there will be a period of six years during which The Silmarillion is public domain, but The Lord of the Rings is not.

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

I love social media

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

Trains love physical media and hate your streaming, that's why the wifi is always broken, they want you to bring a portable DVD player or a Walkman or a cd player or something for the media you consume to be owned by you, it's an act of love

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

The moment where he calculates.

(Source)

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

I recently had surgery, and at the time I came home, I had both my cat and one of my grandma's cats staying with me.

- Within hours of surgery, I wake up from a nap to my cat gently sniffing at my incisions with great alarm.

- I was not allowed to shower the first day after surgery, and the cats, seeing that The Large Cat is not observing its cleaning ritual, decided I must be gravely disabled and compensated by licking all the exposed skin on my arms, face, and legs.

- I currently have to sleep with a pillow over my abdomen because my cat insists on climbing on top of me and covering my incisions with her body while I sleep (which is very sweet but not exactly comfortable without the pillow). She also lays across me facing my bedroom door, presumably on guard for attackers who may try to harm me while I'm sleeping and injured.

That's love. 🐈‍⬛🐈❤️

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

this is by far my favorite safety/warning sign btw. they really went off with this one

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

“Nobody’s going to want to sit on high-speed rail for fifteen hours to get from New York City to LA.”

Me. I will sit on high-speed rail for fifteen hours. I’ll sit on it for days. I’ll write and read and nap and eat and then do it all over again. I’ll stare out the windows and see America from ground level and not have to drive. I’ll see the Rockies and the deserts and cornfields and the Mississippi River and your house and yours and yours too. I’ll make up stories in my head about the small towns I see as we go along. I’ll see the states I’ve yet to see because driving or flying there is a fucking slog and expensive to boot. I’ll enjoy the ride as much as the destination. And then I’ll do it all over again to come the fuck home.

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

My wife is doing her Student Teaching, and she's at my old High School

The other night, we were talking about After-School Activities when we have kids. I was forced out of so many things (Gardening Club, Debate Team, the Spring Play, ECT) because my grandmother didn't want to bother driving so far, and refused to let me ride the public bus (school bus didn't go to our place). I don't want that for my kids, so we agreed they'd do whatever activities they want (and since I'm going to be a teacher, I just might sponsor a club myself)

But this led her to ask why I went there. It wasn't the school I was assigned to, but I got in on a Magnet Program. That was the least of the reasons for going though

I'm Neurodivergent. I'm not diagnosed with Autism yet, but I got my ADHD Diagnosis on my Mission. But, because my family was adamant that I couldn't possibly be ND, I dealt with issues. Namely, Anger Outbursts. This, combined with my horrible social skills led to me being bullied

But I joined the Church when I was 13. I was a different person. I felt supported for the first time in my life, I had actual friends, and people who cared. But that wasn't enough. I realized that if I was going to create a lasting change, I needed to change who I was surrounded by, to create a new environment

Now, my High School kinda sucked, but I loved it there, and wouldn't change a moment of it. But I was a new person, and apparently, I was a person people actually liked. I had friends in Seminary, and at School. For the first time in a while, I didn't look forward to school just to escape my home life, but to see people I actually enjoyed being around, and who enjoyed being around me (and not just to use me, like some people in Elementary & Middle School). And I was just as flipping weird as I am now (if not more weird, because I've been relatively low-key since my Mission), but so were they. If I started my Conlang (included my weird Deseret Alphabet symbolism), I know someone would have chalk so we could write it all over the sidewalks in the Quad

So yeah. I went to my High School because I was re-inventing myself, as someone I wanted to be. And I actually had people who liked me

#vent post #high school #storytime

[thoughtfulfoxllama]