Chapter 17
At last! I give you Chapter Seventeen, in which we meet more of the Thain’s family and Pippin sets himself to tackle both his children and the Wide World with regard to his future. I have no reasonable excuses for the long delay in creating it; it just took forever to write! It’s here: http://entropyhouse.com/elanor/secretgate.html
Actually, part of it is the fault of the grandchildren, which, of course, is really my fault. If you are foolish enough to give someone four children, why then those children will have children, and before you know it, you’re up to your ears in little folk-and then you have to figure out what to do with them all! I assure you, they are all lovely little hobbits, but they’re a bit overwhelming when they’re all sitting around the dining room table, looking at you with bemused expressions, waiting for you to tell them who they are!
NAMES: A word about names this time. Some of them are self-explanatory, but others deserve a note or two:
Perhael - Pippin’s oldest grandson’s name comes from The Epilogue, wherein King Elessar, in a letter to Sam, addresses him in Elvish as “Perhael”, which he explains means “Samwise.” He goes on to say that he should more properly use the name “Lanhael” which means “Plainwise”-but “Perhael” suited my purposes better. It contains the first three letters of the Thain’s name-“Peregrin”-and as Perhael Took is the son of Faramir Took and Goldilocks Gamgee, his name then very efficiently honors both of his legendary grandfathers. I expect he was called “Per” at Great Smials, where the Thain’s grandchildren (as they demonstrated to me) called their grandfather “Grand-Per.”
Glorfinniel - Also in the Epilogue we learn that the Elvish translation of “Goldilocks” is “Glorfinniel.” I love this name-I think it’s very pretty-though my former editor notes slyly that it brings to mind certain accessories to window dressing. K Ignoring this, I will note further that shortened, the diminutive “Glory” could pass as a flower name as well (as in Morning Glory).
In dreaming up Gardner, it occurred to me that his name could be shortened off to Gard, which would suggest (phonetically, at least) that like his Grandfather Sam, he was of a protective nature and stood an ever-ready advocate for hobbits in need.
The other children have names that are derived from the family trees, with the exception of Laury’s twins, who are, like herself, given rather starry names out of legend-Elwing (S: “star-spray”) harking to the wife of Earendil and the mother of Elrond and Elros, and Elenna (Q: “starwards”) referring to the island on which the kingdom of Numenor was founded.
GOSSIP: Apologies to the Proudfoots if I have spilled too many secrets here; Amethyst and Wil were a little thread of back-story I had devised for my own amusement that just kept growing and weaving until it became the tale that Pippin tells of Sancho and his sons. I’ve no idea if there’s canon that overwrites it, but I was focused on making the good but none-too-affluent Wil a proper son-in-law for Pippin!
SHIRE POST (http://www.shirepost.com/index2.html): I am sure all of you are aware of this whimsical website, which is the source of the shilling Quickpost stamp in use in this chapter. I don’t hold with everything at Shire Post, but I bow to their authority (lacking the Professor himself) with regard to these particular matters. I actually own three coins from Shire Post-a “Shayre” silver penny and a copper three-pence piece, and “The Foal of Rohan” a copper oblong which is stamped with the image of a running horse. These I got as a gift from my nephew who, it turns out, is acquainted with the Founder of Shire Post, and who, when he learned his Auntie was a total LOTR geek, generously passed them on! Whether or not there are presumed to be postboxes in the Shire, I have set them in place at the many-tenanted Great Smials and Brandy Hall as it seemed easier for the post messenger than tramping through the tunnels knocking on doors!
MEFA: Thanks to all of you who reviewed “A Secret Gate” at MEFA-I much appreciated the reviews and quite treasure my little First Place Incomplete banner, which you should be able to see here: http://entropyhouse.com/elanor/elanor1.html
I’ve never had a banner before, and I find it quite lovely. My other story, “Left Behind,” made the final cut of five stories in contention for the Best Fan Fiction of 2004 at ORC (OneRing.net), but they did not have a nomination banner, more’s the pity!
MEA CULPA: Thanks to Imhiriel, who hails from Germany and who, while reading for MEFA, discovered a mistake in canon I made TWICE (in chapters 13 and 16) wherein I included Faramir of Gondor on the list of Merry’s friends who had already died. Imhiriel, who is exceedingly fond of Faramir, cites Appendix A (iii) in which it clearly states that Faramir lived to F.A. 82, nearly twenty years after the time of my story! (It’s one of those “grey” pages that have nothing to do with hobbits and sometimes make you sleepy-I had slothfully gone only to the Tale of Years and seeing no death-date for Faramir, assumed I could do as I wished with him. Pride goeth…be forewarned!) What I will do to amend this is go back when Book I (The Shire) is done (in four or five chapters) and quietly excise Faramir from the lists. Thankfully, I had not enlarged upon his “death” so I will just sneakily remove him and say, “What? What? No, I don’t THINK I ever said Faramir was dead….” and airily bring him back to life in Book Two, wherein Merry was set to visit Eowyn in any case….
Also in the wake of MEFA, I was brought up short (and rightfully so) by a British reviewer who rather archly pointed out that my use of English spellings was woefully inconsistent, if not to say ignorant in the extreme. She was right. I have rather whimsically been using spellings like “colour” and “valour” and such to give a nod to the English antecedents of my fan-fiction, but these don’t even qualify as a tip of the iceberg when it comes to the vast differences between the languages known as “English” and “American.” I did not think this through in the beginning, and a bit of exploration online has convinced me that the only way I could possibly do this properly would be to invest in a British spell and grammar checker. My Word program says I can set up a new document with UK formatting, and I’m going to try it, but in the meantime, to any British reader who may be annoyed, my sincere apologies! Here is but one of the interesting places you can go online to begin to get a feel for the immensity of this:
http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/tables/spellcat.php
If you wander around on the Jeremy site you will discover many fascinating things!
PICTURES: My British illustrator, Rachel, has given birth to a little son, Rowan Archer, this past month and has been very busy, as you can imagine, with him and his brother Sam. The picture Pippin&Pink, which you will find embedded in the story, was done before Rowan arrived and before Rachel couldn’t see over her tummy anymore to paint. She is looking over the text now to see what else might capture her fancy; if any more pictures arrive, I will post an update.
Hope everyone had a splendid Yule. I thank you all for taking the time to stick with this Neverending Story!
Actually, part of it is the fault of the grandchildren, which, of course, is really my fault. If you are foolish enough to give someone four children, why then those children will have children, and before you know it, you’re up to your ears in little folk-and then you have to figure out what to do with them all! I assure you, they are all lovely little hobbits, but they’re a bit overwhelming when they’re all sitting around the dining room table, looking at you with bemused expressions, waiting for you to tell them who they are!
NAMES: A word about names this time. Some of them are self-explanatory, but others deserve a note or two:
Perhael - Pippin’s oldest grandson’s name comes from The Epilogue, wherein King Elessar, in a letter to Sam, addresses him in Elvish as “Perhael”, which he explains means “Samwise.” He goes on to say that he should more properly use the name “Lanhael” which means “Plainwise”-but “Perhael” suited my purposes better. It contains the first three letters of the Thain’s name-“Peregrin”-and as Perhael Took is the son of Faramir Took and Goldilocks Gamgee, his name then very efficiently honors both of his legendary grandfathers. I expect he was called “Per” at Great Smials, where the Thain’s grandchildren (as they demonstrated to me) called their grandfather “Grand-Per.”
Glorfinniel - Also in the Epilogue we learn that the Elvish translation of “Goldilocks” is “Glorfinniel.” I love this name-I think it’s very pretty-though my former editor notes slyly that it brings to mind certain accessories to window dressing. K Ignoring this, I will note further that shortened, the diminutive “Glory” could pass as a flower name as well (as in Morning Glory).
In dreaming up Gardner, it occurred to me that his name could be shortened off to Gard, which would suggest (phonetically, at least) that like his Grandfather Sam, he was of a protective nature and stood an ever-ready advocate for hobbits in need.
The other children have names that are derived from the family trees, with the exception of Laury’s twins, who are, like herself, given rather starry names out of legend-Elwing (S: “star-spray”) harking to the wife of Earendil and the mother of Elrond and Elros, and Elenna (Q: “starwards”) referring to the island on which the kingdom of Numenor was founded.
GOSSIP: Apologies to the Proudfoots if I have spilled too many secrets here; Amethyst and Wil were a little thread of back-story I had devised for my own amusement that just kept growing and weaving until it became the tale that Pippin tells of Sancho and his sons. I’ve no idea if there’s canon that overwrites it, but I was focused on making the good but none-too-affluent Wil a proper son-in-law for Pippin!
SHIRE POST (http://www.shirepost.com/index2.html): I am sure all of you are aware of this whimsical website, which is the source of the shilling Quickpost stamp in use in this chapter. I don’t hold with everything at Shire Post, but I bow to their authority (lacking the Professor himself) with regard to these particular matters. I actually own three coins from Shire Post-a “Shayre” silver penny and a copper three-pence piece, and “The Foal of Rohan” a copper oblong which is stamped with the image of a running horse. These I got as a gift from my nephew who, it turns out, is acquainted with the Founder of Shire Post, and who, when he learned his Auntie was a total LOTR geek, generously passed them on! Whether or not there are presumed to be postboxes in the Shire, I have set them in place at the many-tenanted Great Smials and Brandy Hall as it seemed easier for the post messenger than tramping through the tunnels knocking on doors!
MEFA: Thanks to all of you who reviewed “A Secret Gate” at MEFA-I much appreciated the reviews and quite treasure my little First Place Incomplete banner, which you should be able to see here: http://entropyhouse.com/elanor/elanor1.html
I’ve never had a banner before, and I find it quite lovely. My other story, “Left Behind,” made the final cut of five stories in contention for the Best Fan Fiction of 2004 at ORC (OneRing.net), but they did not have a nomination banner, more’s the pity!
MEA CULPA: Thanks to Imhiriel, who hails from Germany and who, while reading for MEFA, discovered a mistake in canon I made TWICE (in chapters 13 and 16) wherein I included Faramir of Gondor on the list of Merry’s friends who had already died. Imhiriel, who is exceedingly fond of Faramir, cites Appendix A (iii) in which it clearly states that Faramir lived to F.A. 82, nearly twenty years after the time of my story! (It’s one of those “grey” pages that have nothing to do with hobbits and sometimes make you sleepy-I had slothfully gone only to the Tale of Years and seeing no death-date for Faramir, assumed I could do as I wished with him. Pride goeth…be forewarned!) What I will do to amend this is go back when Book I (The Shire) is done (in four or five chapters) and quietly excise Faramir from the lists. Thankfully, I had not enlarged upon his “death” so I will just sneakily remove him and say, “What? What? No, I don’t THINK I ever said Faramir was dead….” and airily bring him back to life in Book Two, wherein Merry was set to visit Eowyn in any case….
Also in the wake of MEFA, I was brought up short (and rightfully so) by a British reviewer who rather archly pointed out that my use of English spellings was woefully inconsistent, if not to say ignorant in the extreme. She was right. I have rather whimsically been using spellings like “colour” and “valour” and such to give a nod to the English antecedents of my fan-fiction, but these don’t even qualify as a tip of the iceberg when it comes to the vast differences between the languages known as “English” and “American.” I did not think this through in the beginning, and a bit of exploration online has convinced me that the only way I could possibly do this properly would be to invest in a British spell and grammar checker. My Word program says I can set up a new document with UK formatting, and I’m going to try it, but in the meantime, to any British reader who may be annoyed, my sincere apologies! Here is but one of the interesting places you can go online to begin to get a feel for the immensity of this:
http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/tables/spellcat.php
If you wander around on the Jeremy site you will discover many fascinating things!
PICTURES: My British illustrator, Rachel, has given birth to a little son, Rowan Archer, this past month and has been very busy, as you can imagine, with him and his brother Sam. The picture Pippin&Pink, which you will find embedded in the story, was done before Rowan arrived and before Rachel couldn’t see over her tummy anymore to paint. She is looking over the text now to see what else might capture her fancy; if any more pictures arrive, I will post an update.
Hope everyone had a splendid Yule. I thank you all for taking the time to stick with this Neverending Story!