What's the story behind your avatar and forum name?

[Melko Belcha]

Avatar is my bands logo from first cd, and my tattoo. Name is from Book of Lost Tales part II.

 

[Barliman Butterbur]

What has made you choose THIS avatar? How did you come to the idea of chosing this particular picture? What does it show/express...? And why do you change it from time to time (IF you do)? And your TTF-name? How did you chose it? Does it have a meaning?

Originally I was worried about being refused a name of my choice because someone else had it. So I chose a name that I was pretty sure no one would choose: Lotho Pimple! I started out life on TTF as Lotho Pimple, and used an avatar that was a picture of one of the first dust jackets of LOTR. That went on for a number of months. Then I discovered that one of my very favorite characters — Barliman Butterbur — had been used by no one!

The history is this: When my kids were growing up back in the 60s, we were enamored of Tolkien. Mainly, I'd read The Hobbit and LOTR to the three of them (when they were old enough), and doing all the voices, taking all the parts. Great fun! Eventually it got to the point where we attended Tolkien events in public parks, etc., wearing costumes, having mathom exchanges, and bringing decorated cakes, and so forth.

One night we had a big "hobbit costume party" at home, and as the "proprietor" of the party, I dressed up as Barliman Butterbur. We had all the food that was mentioned at Bilbo's party. I even wore an apron that said,

Barliman Butterbur​

Worthy Keeper​

And I've had a fondness for him ever since! I love the idea of being the proprietor of a pub! So when the movies came out, and when I found (to my astonishment!) that the name was unused on TTF, I made an avatar of David Waverley's face (as Barliman), and got Mike B to change my username.

Recently I got the bug to have an animated gif. Having Photoshop, I intended to teach myself how to make one, so I downloaded images from the internet of a picture of the sign of the Prancing Pony, a headshot of "Barliman," plus the main food items: beer, bread, cheese, and apples! (I notice that apples appear quite frequently in the PJ movies, almost a gastronomic icon! And let us not forget the apple that "left Sam's hand," striking Bill Ferny square on the nose ["Waste of a good apple," said Sam].)

But the task daunted me, and I was impatient, so I paid a buddy of mine, a Photoshop ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) to make the avatar you now see.

So that's the story behind my username and avatar.

Barley

 

[Valandil]

When I registered on my first Tolkien MB I chose the username 'Valandil' because of how enamored I am of the 'northern line' of Kings. I have carried it across to a couple other boards. I was too late to get 'Aragorn' or 'Elendil' without adding a number to it... and this name was a bit more obscure, so therefore a bit more unique to myself.

Just uploaded this avatar - and this is the only site where I use this one. You probably recognize it as 'Prince Valiant'... and, since 'Valiant' sounds somewhat like 'Valandil', and because Valandil came to the throne at a rather young age - I thought it would be fun to use. PLUS... for some reason I've always pictured the northern kings looking something like Prince Valiant in their youth... tall, slim, dark hair cut straight across a bit above the shoulders...

For you unfamiliar with 'Prince Valiant' - it's a long-running comic strip here in the USA, begun in the 1930's by a man named Hal Foster. Valiant is a knight in King Arthur's court and is the son of the 'King of Thule' - a portion of modern Norway. When the strip started his father was in exile in England, but later Valiant helped re-establish him back in Thule!

 

[Ol'gaffer]

When I first came here (for the movies I might add.) I wanted a different nickname from all the others. I figured that Ol'gaffer would be appropriate as I'm neither or old or have any of the qualities of a gafferesque person.

My Avatar has changed on more than one occasion, but now it seems to have stopped and become the Vampire Hunter D picture that is there currently. It's from one of my favorite anime films.

 

[Talierin]

Umm, I've prolly posted this somewheres on this thread before, but oh well...

Talierin is a name I made up for a very ancient and very bad story I wrote, I ditched the story, but I liked the name, started using it on here, and now it's my net name everywhere... it has absolutely nothing to do with Taliesin, as some people have assumed. It's prononced Talee-eRIN, or Tal-leer-rin, however you wish.

As for the avatar, I'd forgotten what it was until I posted in another thread just now... I like calvin and hobbes. But I think I'll go change it now.

 

[Aragorn21]

Betcha can't guess what my name's from.


My avatar is ther because i think fire is kewl.

 

[Aulë]

If you can't figure out the origin of my name or avatar, I suggest you go have a CAT scan!

Betcha can't guess what my name's from.


My avatar is ther because i think fire is kewl.

But where does the 21 come from?
I thought you were going to change it to just "Aragorn"? What happened to that idea.

 

[Aragorn21]

But where does the 21 come from?
I thought you were going to change it to just "Aragorn"? What happened to that idea.

ah, 21 is my favorite number. And I did ask Beorn, he just never got to it.

 

[Aglarthalion]

My username is just a random name I made up from the language dictionaries in the Silmarillion... as for my avatar, it's Jimmy Page, the greatest guitarist of all time. Ahem.

 

[e.Blackstar]

When I first got on the forum I was Feanor chica for lack of a better name, but I changed it to Gilfea because that's my actual elvish name. I ended up changing it to Treyar because that is my most-used interent screenname and also a character from one of my stories. And, me being indecisive, I just recently changed it to e.Blackstar, because that is my for-sure for-real psudeonym (or however you spell it) and it shall remain as e.Blackstar, I promise.

My current avatar is a smiley face that I found on bookloaf.net and I think it is very cool because I used to ride around on a stick horse like that singing "Waltzing Matilda" (because I was a dweeb and it was the only song I knew with a horse in it) and and even now I am a huge fan of the ever-present "Let's Pretend!"


And my siggy is just a link to my livejournal and one of my favorite tips from the 152 Things I would do if I was an Evil Overlord.

 

[Beleg]

Beleg's an elf. Mate of Turin. Wanted to pick a name from Silmarillion, it was the first one to come to my mind.

I don't have a siggy or an avatar.

 

[Starbrow]

Starbrow is from Tolkien's short story "Smith of Wootton Major," one of my favorites. Smith is a human that is allowed to visit Faery at times and is called by the elves Starbrow. I like the elves better than humans and Starbrow seemed like a good name for a human who wanted to be an elf. By the way, although Starbrow is a male in the story, I'm a woman.

As for my avatar, Aragorn is my favorite character in LOTR and I like the more distant viewpoint.

Oh, and my signature contains my favorite bible verse.

 

[greypilgrim]

My avatar is one of my favorite clips from the films, Gandalf and Bilbo smoking in the Shire...and my siggy is my most favorite funny part of the hobbit.

 

[lossenandunewen]

i dunno why i chose this name.. It's a long and elegant name. As for my avatar... well it's me. what else can i say. Skunkington is the s/n i use for most message boards.

 

[Corvis]

Corvis is a name I usually like to use for a character when I'm writing a story. Also my picture of Tolkien is the same one from the back of by LOTR books. Their from the 1970's and I love them.

 

[Hammersmith]

Chymera was a three headed monster in Greek myth killed by Belthron... Belethron... that's wrong... He was the one who rode Pegasus the winged horse who came from Medusa's neck...

anyway, the beast had a lion, goat, and I want to say dragon head... but dragon is wrong... snake maybe.

The Chimaera (most common latin spelling, but not the only one) had the head and forelegs of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent.

Can anyone remember what the killer virus in the book Rainbow 6 was? I've been torturing myself all night over it ever since we brought up Chymera... Was it Hydra? No, it couldn't have been... sigh!

Siva, named after the Hindu goddess "The Destroyer". It was a mutated version of the ebola virus, encased in a sort of microcasing that gave it increased survival time, allowing it to travel airborne.

My forum name is my birthplace, and it's also a really cool word. My avatar is the cover of Dream Theater's CD single, "Lie", and is one of the most beautiful CD artwork designs I've seen. My sig is from Bob Dylan's song Desolation Row, which contains some of my favourite lyrics ever penned.

 

[HLGStrider]

I have twice been corrected on my monster description, but I am sticking to it! My childhood copy of "Greek Myths" has a picture of it with three heads just like I describe and I think it is much prettier that way. Humph. . .

 

[Hammersmith]

I have twice been corrected on my monster description, but I am sticking to it! My childhood copy of "Greek Myths" has a picture of it with three heads just like I describe and I think it is much prettier that way. Humph.

Oh, rather. Maybe this Chimaera bod has three lion heads? I've never read the original Greek of whatever source he's from, so I'd be willing to concede the point. Pretty old three headed goatbeasts work for me; the myth's probably so polluted by Roman writers and French Romanticists that I'd be wholly unsurprised if the Chimaera was a four fingered sparrow.

 

[Durin's Bane]

Btw. it's Belerophon (maybe spelled differently).

The 3-headed beast is the Hydra killed by Hercules (and every time you cut one of it's heads two new would spring out), and it's not goat-bodied. And actually roman writers simply copied greek myths but spelled the names wrong.

 

[HLGStrider]

Nah, this was a three headed thing killed by Belerephon. He had a spear tipped with lead and when he flew over the creature the fiery breath melted the spear tip. The lead trickled down the goat-head's throat, formed a lump in his stomach, and poisoned him/it/whatever.