Tolkien Moments

Squint-eyed Southerner · Aug 21, 2023

Where was this?

Deimos · Aug 21, 2023

Maeglin said:
Sadly, however, when I went in, there was absolutely nothing hobbit-like or Tolkien-ish about it. Just a plain old souvenir / gift shop with all of your usual items. The name and painting on the storefront were very cool, though.

"Truth in Advertising".... honored more in the breach than the observance....

Radaghast · Aug 21, 2023

Maeglin said:
This is from last week, and the picture is not mine (I meant to get one of myself standing in front of it, but when I found the place I was out walking alone while the rest of the family was napping in our hotel room). Anyway...I was very excited when I found this place on our family vacation last week! Sadly, however, when I went in, there was absolutely nothing hobbit-like or Tolkien-ish about it. Just a plain old souvenir / gift shop with all of your usual items. The name and painting on the storefront were very cool, though.

Is it called that because they get a lot of returns?

Squint-eyed Southerner · Aug 21, 2023

Back in the early 70's, someone opened a restaurant called "Bilbo Baggins" near my university. It had a nice sign outside, with a painting of Bilbo, but the inside was like any generic restaurant, except IIRC they added "hobbit-associated" names to the usual burgers and things. It didn't last long.

PS: I see what you did there, Deimos. 😉
That would one expensive shop. 😄

LaurelinBearsFruit · Aug 22, 2023

Deimos said:
That IS inspiring ... how long (months? years?) did it take you from "monoculture" lawn to your little corner of the Shire?

Thanks very much! I spent the better part of six months working on it for at least an hour a day (and in many cases for upwards of four to six hours per day on weekends). It is easy enough if you work at it consistently, but my wallet surely suffered haha

Maeglin · Aug 22, 2023

Squint-eyed Southerner said:
Where was this?

Lake Placid, New York.

LaurelinBearsFruit · Aug 22, 2023

@Maeglin Oh cool, I hadnt noticed your post but that is a very inviting shop!

Olorgando · Aug 22, 2023

Deimos said:
"Truth in Advertising"

Isn't that just another definition of zero?

Deimos · Aug 22, 2023

Olorgando said:
Isn't that just another definition of zero?

When you put those words together, yep... big null.

Squint-eyed Southerner · Aug 22, 2023

I think that's an oxymoron. Like jumbo shrimp.

Deimos · Aug 22, 2023

Squint-eyed Southerner said:
I think that's an oxymoron. Like jumbo shrimp.

George Carlin

Radaghast · Sep 12, 2023

Squint-eyed Southerner · Sep 12, 2023

Jeopardy Daily Double.

Glorfindel Goldtress · Sep 12, 2023

Squint-eyed Southerner said:
Jeopardy Daily Double.
View attachment 24706

Is it Bag End? 😅

Squint-eyed Southerner · Sep 12, 2023

One episode had a whole category. A little embarrassing, though.

Glorfindel Goldtress · Sep 12, 2023

Squint-eyed Southerner said:
One episode had a whole category. A little embarrassing, though.

Whaaaaaaaaat? How do they not get Mount Doom?! Orodruin would be harder to say but still... AND Sting is Bilbo's sword! 🤦‍♀️

Squint-eyed Southerner · Sep 12, 2023

Several comments wondered how she could know mithril but not Mt. Doom.

Glorfindel Goldtress · Sep 12, 2023

Squint-eyed Southerner said:
Several comments wondered how she could know mithril but not Mt. Doom.

She said Mordor when that's a region not a peak... 😅

Radaghast · Sep 12, 2023

I remember that. So annoying.

mahalmar · Sep 13, 2023

Over the weekend I was taking a short vacation in the mountains. And walking through the almost total silence, beholding the beauty of far off peaks, cloud-enfurled, I suddenly was reminded of a passage from the Ainulindale:

And amid all the splendours of the World, its vast halls and spaces, and its wheeling fires, Ilúvatar chose a place for their habitation in the Deeps of Time and in the midst of the innumerable stars. And this habitation might seem a little thing to those who consider only the majesty of the Ainur, and not their terrible sharpness; as who should take the whole field of Arda for the foundation of a pillar and so raise it until the cone of its summit were more bitter than a needle; or who consider only the immeasurable vastness of the World, which still the Ainur are shaping, and not the minute precision to which they shape all things therein.

It was this line "the immeasurable vastness of the World, which still the Ainur are shaping" that suddenly emerged in my mind when gazing upon this close yet far mountain on who's sides we can see what once has been the ocean floor. And I was thinking about the work of the Ainur and how they built the Pelóri or how Melkor piled up the Erde Engrin. And it filled me with great awe and inspiration.

Do you sometimes think about the Ainur and their labours when outside? What is your favourite reference about their work? Big or small. Be it a mountain or the littlest of flowers. The shores of the rolling sea or the very spring of a creek. And anything in-between or beyond. I would be delighted if you'd share your vision of the Ainur's work with us 😊

Edit: Artworks of Ea are awesome, but I was mainly having real world places in mind that remind you of the works of the Ainur.

P.S. In lack of any other place I could think of, I decided, since it is concerning the Silmarillion, this is the best place to post it.
P.P.S. Mountains like those must have had a lasting impression on young Tolkien, and he surely had the likes in mind when shaping Middle-Earth.

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