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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C96qbHZNfrE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa4Mo8RFsX8
The Hero's Journey is well documented, but the villain's dilemma tends to be as crooked and peculiar as his twisted black mustache. Jay Ward had some interesting takes on the melodramatic backstory of the familiar style of foe.
Robert Louis Stevenson: His
Best Pacific Writings Paperback – January 1, 2003
by Roger
Robinson (Author), Robert
Louis Stevenson (Author)
Robert Louis Stevenson,
author of "Treasure Island" and "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde",
traveled and lived in the Pacific from 1888 until his death in Samoa in 1894.
He wrote fiction, history, travel journals, poetry and prayers about these Pacific
experiences. All were popular when first published, but some of these writings
are now little known. This attractive edition of the best of these writings
coincides perfectly with the upsurge of interest in the Pacific and writings
sympathetic to indigenous cultures. - Amazon.
The Dark Is Rising Sequence (5V.in
1V Paperback) – January 1, 1984
by Susan
Cooper (Author)
This spellbinding volume
brings together the five novels from Susan Cooper's classic fantasy sequence:
"Over Sea", "Under Stone"; "The Dark is Rising";
"Greenwitch"; "The Grey King"; and "Silver on the
Tree". Here Barney, Jane and Simon discover an ancient map in Cornwall;
the mysterious Merriman reveals his secret purpose; and Will Stanton realizes
that he is not just an ordinary boy but has a far greater role in fulfilling
his destiny. Creating a magical world where the everyday mingles with the
supernatural, "The Dark is Rising Sequence" weaves a story of secret
codes, strange prophecies, the legend of King Arthur and a centuries-old
conflict between the power of good and the forces of evil. - Amazon
It would be hard to calculate just how much this series was influential on me from when I was 11 years-old to the end of middle school. I discovered it only a little after I read The Hobbit, and it seemed to fit right in with stuff like Bedknobs and Broomsticks, but more contemporary (at the time) and more ... well, cosmic. This nostalgia might help explain why I bought this well-bound Puffin edition, even though I already have a creaky hard cover edition. That, and it was only 50 cents.
Aragorn enters the Houses of
Healing and the others follow. Inside they see Citadel guards, one tall and one
short, and the short one is actually Pippin, who greats Aragorn with wonder and
delight, calling him Strider, much to the consternation of Prince Imrahil. Is
this how we greet our kings?
Aragorn laughs and tells
Pippin they have no time to catch up just yet. But if ever his house is established,
it will be called Strider. ‘But in the high tongue it will not sound so ill,
and Telcontar I will be, and all the heirs of my body.’
As they walk along Gandalf
tells him of the deeds of Eowyn and Merry. He knows because they spoke a lot in
their dreaming before they sank down into silence. ‘Also it is given to me to
see many things far off.’
Aragorn examines Faramir,
Eowyn, and Merry and looks grave and weary. Eomer, seeing how tired he is, asks
if he will not eat something and rest a while, but Aragorn says there is no
time, and least of all for Faramir. He calls for Ioreth and asks if they have
much store of herbs, and the old lady answers in a long complaint about how
hard it is to get proper supplies, what with the war and all, but they do their
best. Aragorn asks her very shortly if they have any athelas. She doesn’t
know of anything by that name, but she could ask the herb-master.
He says it is sometimes
called kingsfoil by the country folk, and Ioreth says, well no, we have
none of that, she knows. She never heard it was good for anything. She once
asked her sisters in Lossarnach why it’s called kingsfoil; if she were a king
she’d have better plants in her garden. But it does smell wholesome when ‘bruised.’
Aragorn tells her then run
as quick as her tongue and find some kingsfoil somewhere in the City, if any is
to be had, as she loves the Lord Faramir.
‘And if not,’ said Gandalf, ‘I
will ride to Lossarnach with Ioreth behind me, and she shall take me to the
woods, but not to her sisters. And Shadowfax shall show her the meaning of
haste.’
Bits and Bobs
Pippin says that somehow he
knew it was Strider in the black fleet though everyone was shouting ‘corsairs!’
How he could have even suspected such a thing is never explained. He has not
seen Aragorn since Gandalf took the hobbit to Gondor. A feeling, a lifting of
heart?
Athelas is Sindarin (athae
+ lass); ‘leaves of the Kings.’ There is now a healthcare technology
company that goes by the name.
In the Peter Jackson movies
Sam calls kingsfoil a weed, though (gardener though he is) I wonder if he ever
saw it in the cultivated Shire. It was said to grow wild in areas where the
Dunedain had lived, and even then was hard to find. I wonder if Sam had ever
wandered abroad much, even in the lands surrounding the Shire. But that was the
movie, and they needed explication.
Ioreth fits the trope of the
gabby old lady who, when asked a question, will rattle on in a discursive
manner with whatever enters her head until she comes in a roundabout way to the
answer one is looking for. I would say this is a stereotype if my own mother
and my niece did not fit the trope to a T. You always have to have the
explanatory story before the answer.
This is a pretty short snip, but I have a long day ahead.
