Middle Earth Ranger Forum

(* This was not done out of greed or jealousy, although at no time in
Middle-earth was there great store of this food; but because the Eldar
had been commanded to keep this gift in their own power, and not to
make it common to the dwellers in mortal lands. For it is said that, if
mortals eat often of this bread, they become weary of their mortality,
desiring to abide among the Elves, and longing for the fields of Aman,
to which they cannot come.)

I wonder if this, in part, was the reason for Frodo's "We set out to save the Shire sam, and we did...but not for me" thing. He and Sam both spent a fair amount of time living on lembas, but not long enough for Sam to feel a need to leave. Frodo, though, was also carrying the weight of the ring that whole time, and in his weakened state I suppose he would have been far more susceptible to the effects of a magical waybread, and so felt a tug to leave the grey havens.

No lembas? Greg, you've crushed the dreams of childhood-me trekking in the backyard with a painted magic stick and colored hood.

Seriously, that does make a lot of sense. I'd always thought it was the weight of the Ring and injuries of the journey that broke Frodo's ability to remain in Middle Earth.. but I can't imagine the taste of Aman made it any easier.

... shades of opiates and war fatigue for that matter. *shudder*

If you're portraying an elf (Magic stick?), then Lembas is fair game, fyi... *chuckle*

Elleth wrote:No lembas? Greg, you've crushed the dreams of childhood-me trekking in the backyard with a painted magic stick and colored hood.

Seriously, that does make a lot of sense. I'd always thought it was the weight of the Ring and injuries of the journey that broke Frodo's ability to remain in Middle Earth.. but I can't imagine the taste of Aman made it any easier.

... shades of opiates and war fatigue for that matter. *shudder*

After reading the passage Greg posted, I immediately wondered if that could have been a large contributing factor to Frodo's desire to sail West, but when you put it like that... yikes... that's pretty dark, when you think about it. Excellent point though.

The man deeply understood tragedy. One of the reasons his work endures while his imitators so quickly fade with each year's New Shiny.

Also.. hunh. It just struck me how this ties in with old British Isles stories of Faerie, and how if mortals find their way into faery realms under the hill, they must never partake of eat or drink - lest they never be able to return. A faded memory of what once was, turned into bedtime stories.

Very nice resonance.

Beautiful, and well said, Elleth!

Ken

Just now discovering this most excellent thread!

You know, when old professor Tolkien chose the word "cordial" it was no doubt an archaic usage that he had in mind (as usual!).

Many of what we think of now as liqueurs had started out as medicines (such as chartreuse).

I looked it up in Wikipedia. The word cordial implies that the medicine was supposed to be good for the heart. A magic cordial was also mentioned in Chronicles of Narnia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordial_(medicine)
http://www.historicfood.com/rosolio.htm

For my part, I don't know of any herb in an alcoholic tincture that I would swear upon to actually revive my spirits. (Maybe Red Bull on the other hand...)

Necropost number two.

It's frighteningly frustrating to construct something you've made, in function, TWICE before, but it is unbelievably satisfying to feel that you've finally done it right. It sits on the same belt as my seax, between the knife's two anchor points. Both pieces would have to move for either of them to go anywhere. Solid.



Yes, I copied Elleth's. Well, mostly. The width is the same, but the side panels shown in her write up and pattern in a past issue of Edge of the Wild were much narrower, and I had need of more space to contain what I felt was an adequate amount of way bread and to handle the width of my new cordial bottle. As it stands, though, it is functionally the same. I have long prided myself in being original, but with the direction we're going with so much of our functional kit I felt that some unity, particularly with the single most well-described and documented piece of Dunedain kit, was appropriate (and even desirable). Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, which simply goes to show that Elleth designed a fantastic piece of gear.

Contents to follow.

Oh that *is* cool! I can't wait to see it open!
I kind of like how we're starting to drift in similar directions as we sort things out with use. Makes everything seem more... culturally cohesive I guess is the words I'm looking for.

Also... new cordial bottle? what what?

Culturally cohesive. Yes. This.

As for the bottle, not as exciting as it sounds. I bought some hand-blown touristy "sand art" bottles while visiting family in CA. I'm in the process of the removing the threads and carving some corks. They look pretty decent. Plain, but wavy/imperfect, with some bubbles. Still too fat for your wallet, but they'll work just fine for this.

The wallet design really makes sense, though. It's a flattened portmanteau. Genius.

I love it! Looks great! I may have to spend some time making something like this for myself as well. I do like the concept of "cultural cohesion."