The Fall of Númenor [Reading Challenge 2024]

The Fall of Númenor

by J. R. R. Tolkien, ed. by Brian Sibley
William Morrow, 2022
[ #23  Pixies and Dryads and Elves, oh my! : A high fantasy ]

I am backposting this review, as I finished the book only a few days before the end of 2024.

Let’s hope 2025 is a little better, eh?

To begin with, let me say I’d never read anything before of the LOTR background  material — that is, The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, etc. I’d assumed it was all way too dry, going by the few glimpses I had over the years. And I do remember when The Silmarillion was first published, way back in 1977. The seismic waves it caused in fantasy fandom led to more and more Tolkien ephemera being released over the years, with Christopher Tolkien acting as father’s curator. But I was never interested enough to dive into it.

However, when the first season of The Rings of Power was released on Netflix, (which I reviewed here) I was happy enough with it to buy The Fall of Númenor, which was released, perhaps, to coincide with and take a ride on the hoopla. However I still found it a little intimidating and wasn’t inspired to crack it open until 2024.

I was pleasantly surprised at how entertaining and readable it was. Like The Silmarillian, The Fall of Númenor is a compilation of material from Tolkien’s copious background writings, the worldbuilding you could say, arranged to show the origin and the end of his equivalent of Atlantis. For me, it enriched and added to the trilogy itself.

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World’s Oldest Ugly Christmas Sweater

Made in 1652 of felted wool and on display at the National Museum of Folklore in Gothenburg, Sweden.

NOT. (It’s AI.)

The next oldest is this child’s garment from 1740 which is in possession of the New York State Historical Society. NOT.

Worldbuilding Wednesday 12/25/24: Ghosts of Christmas Past

A blast from the past! Past years, that is, of random Christmas names for songs, scents, foods, and characters.

 

Randomgen Christmas names from years past

Species of Santa

German Christmas Cookies

Christmas Traditions Around the World

Christmas Cocktails

The Best of Twittersnips (Christmas)

Christmas Songs

Christmas Characters

Christmas Scents

Santa’s Elves

Santa’s Bad Elves

Angels

 

Passing Obsessions 12-24

The three out-of-this-world Wise Men from the Canadian TV special A Cosmic Christmas, 1977. Love that design!

This oddball Christmas special from the 1980s.

Many more oddball, lost, and forgotten Christmas specials from decades past.

All you ever wanted to know about old Christmas tree lights.

Let’s start drooling over the explosion of Betelgeuse when the supernova comes. It might be a new Star of Bethlehem!

Worldbuilding Wednesday 12/4/24: Tolkien’s Wizards

Olatos the Red, also known as “The Bean Counter.”
Lore states he was the administrator who kept all the other Wizards in line.

Since I just finished watching The Rings of Power on Amazon, and am also reading Tolkien’s compilation The Fall of Numenor, I’ve a mind to talk about Tolkien’s Wizards.

First off, there weren’t that many of them. There are only three as characters in the main trilogy: Gandalf the Grey, Saruman the White, and Radagast the Brown. In the appendices two Blue Wizards are mentioned who have gone into the far east of Middle Earth, but Tolkien explicitly states their deeds there are not known. In the Rings of Power series, which I’ll review later, it’s implied the Wizard of the Rhunic wastelands could be one. If so, it’s an interesting  theory.

Personally, I don’t think the Wizards would be corrupted so easily. They were not human beings but Maiar, a kind of demigod who worked in conjunction with Tolkien’s pantheon of greater gods. Of course, Morgoth went bad and stole the Silmaril, so who knows.

In Tolkien’s ephemera the Blue Wizards are given names: Pallando and Alatar. They, along with the other Wizards, are known also by other names in the languages Tolkien created. For this post though I’m using only the common or vernacular ones.

 

The Forgotten Wizards of Middle Earth

Albossar

Atnerom

Dharmram the Green

Esbror the Maiar

Hilotho

Ingrangtar

Malarest

Mudamther

 Olatos the Red

Osgreth

Pathendi

Rolamsar

Sardash the Violet

Tebrador

Unéran the Gold

Vesnandru

 

AI Art Adventures: Using –sref for a Unique Style

As a Midjourney beginner trying to generate pictures with a certain “look” one of the most useful stylistic tricks is the –sref function. The reference pic can’t be any old image though. The more distinct and stylized it is, the better. The simpler and clearer it is, the better. This is where real art education has value for the user, and a very broad schooling in graphic design.

In my post on creating imaginary Velazquez paintings I touched on this, as well as in my beginning post of the series, Fiddler on the Ref. In that latter I used one image to riff on a series of six different subjects. In this post I’m going to hone in on choosing and altering a suitable style reference image.

As an example I’ll use this one.

It was most likely a throwaway illustration from the 1950s or early 1960s, created and printed in haste. The artist hadn’t bothered to refine it. But that’s what gives it is charm, IMO. It’s cheap and looks cheap. It’s also of a medium that is not being used today — the quick two-color printing press job, one of the two colors being that sickly Pthalo green. Using that image, I will generate a series of pics that looks like they came from the interior pages of one of those cheap, pulpy hardback books that used to be sold at mass market stores in 1960. The ones that are yellowing today because of all the wood pulp they used.

But my pic has that pesky lettering in it, so I’ll just Photoshop it away.

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Two by Tolkien — Foreign Editions of The Hobbit

I recently came across two foreign editions of The Hobbit  I haven’t seen before.

First, The Little Gnome.

Cover art by Antonio Quadros

I guess the translator didn’t think the made-up word “hobbit” was understandable to Portuguese audiences?

That said, I like the cover design. It’s whimsical if misleading — hobbits had nothing to do with mushrooms, except for eating them — but it does correctly show the hairy feet, pipe-smoking, and curly hair. The overall design reminds me of the 1960s graphic artist Saul Bass.

This French edition, in contrast, shows a very grown-up looking Bilbo, a hirsute Gallic one by his hairy feet and movie-star face with its Brylcreem ‘do. I have the feeling that if he took his striped shirt off, he’d reveal a very hairy chest as well. He squats before his hobbit hole which is undersized for his height while Gandalf gives him, or perhaps that dragon, some side-eye. Gandalf too is different from the usual depiction. His pointed hat has a truncated top and his robe is more of a  cape worn over boots and trousers.  His staff appears as a walking stick.

Smaug and Rivertown are depicted accurately as in the book.

If you’re interested, here’s another French edition here and a German one.

Dragonfeast

H A P P Y    T H A N K S G I V I N G

 

Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/27/24: Haughty, Horrible, and Hilarious Hs

H, to me, is a letter with an old-fashioned vibe similar to E — a Victorian feel, honorable as well as haughty, but with touch of horror, like Charles Addams’ old New Yorker series of Addams family cartoons, the creepy family of which obviously came from old money. But H can also be hip and high, as well as hilarious and hefty. H can also have a happy, comforting feel: house, home, happiness.

Names beginning with H, however, tend to be fusty, archaic. Harold, Hortense, Herman, Hilary, Hazel, Henry, Hayley, Hilda, Helga — have Germanic or Medieval English connotations. Needless to say, many are currently back in the style. Some parents are intent on their kids sticking out.

Below, some H character names. As with the rest of this series, these are for fantasy..

 

Character names beginning with H

Male

Habtur

Hanbolt

Halnant

Hanyas

Harach

Hardua

Hejiah

Hirgam

Hithras

Hotham

Hverus

Hyden

 Female

Halverina

Hamraia

Hanafle

Harysne

Hassla

Hazyra

Hesper

Hilfleida

Hiltra

Hilvina

Hrysha

Hylekka

 Surnames

Haach

Hallanocht

Hangemoon

Hasloom

Hatchleest

Hauphilter

Heldenzar

Hessfields

Hogenbraise

Houndwhess

Huskaskype

Husulram

Passing Obsessions 11-24

Former Korean actor now lives inside an amusement park he built himself. Sounds like an ideal life, myself!

The Rhunic language created for The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime (it’s a lot like Hungarian).

Author Diana Paxson pulled into the child sexual abuse reckoning taking place in the SCA, Berkeley, and Marion Zimmer Bradley writing circle.

How to make pita breads that are puffed up n’ proud.

3 cups flour
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

The flour can be regular flour or bread flour. It can also be a mix of 1 cup whole wheat flour to two cups white flour. Bread flour gives a more elastic dough.

First, you make the “starter.” Put the warm water in a bowl with the yeast and sugar and stir around until mixed. Add 1/2 cup of the flour and mix again. Let sit until it is foamy and bubbly, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile in a larger bowl, mix the rest of the flour with the salt (at this point you can also add some herb mix or other add-ins if you want.) Pour the foamy, yeasty mixture in and blend and knead with your hands. The ideal texture of the bread should be moist and firm like a baby’s bottom. If too dry, add a little water. If too wet, sprinkle some flour in. When the texture is ideal, cover with a towel or a pot lid and let rise in a warm place until double in size.

Meanwhile heat the oven to 400 degrees.  On the bottom rack put in some metal baking pans or cast iron pans that the breads will cook on. It’s important that they be the same temperature as the oven.

When dough is doubled, pinch off little pieces that are the size of a bath bomb (about large enough to fit in your palm.)  Roll out on a silicon baking sheet on which flour has been sprinkled. You want to get a roughly circular shape that is thin as possible. It doesn’t need to be perfect — I try for a diameter of 6 or 7 inches. Put the bread in the oven right on the hot baking pan. When it has solidified (a minute or two) use tongs to place it on the top rack where it will continue to bake and puff up. The more it cooks here, the crispier it gets. Before it gets too brown, remove it with tongs and let it cool on a towel.

You will be opening and closing the oven all the time to put in new breads, move them, and take them out. That’s OK. You will wind up with 16 – 20 breads depending on how much you pinch at the beginning.

These are guaranteed to puff.