Ella Ndandô

Meta and scholarly blog for Tolkien thoughts and project updates. Please be kind to each other when interacting with posts and reblogs here—re-enactments of any and all Silmaril-related incidents are absolutely discouraged. This is a sideblog, so I follow from elsewhere.

[ndando-musings]

Tolkien Experience Podcast, #39

It was a true delight talking with Sarah on the Tolkien Experience Podcast this week.

…but I was flattered anyone was interested in my insights into online Tolkien fandom, something I’ve been in and out of—with varying degrees of activity—since I was a wee lass in about 2002! This was also the first time I’ve ever really had the opportunity to talk “aloud” about my personal and academic interests in Tolkien, so that was also an excellent experience for me. I have enjoyed this podcast as a listener for a few months now, and to be on the same podcast that many other fans and artists and scholars I respect have been on made me feel like an imposter was very special. The work TEP is doing in highlighting all the fascinating aspects of both fandom and scholarship--and the points at which they merge!--is such a wonderful thing...

You can listen to the episode embedded below or by choosing your favorite podcast service here!

https://youtu.be/e0yZUX0p4cY

In this episode, Sarah and I talked about how I got into Tolkien and my fixation on trauma exposure and tragedy; how fanfiction can act as a doorway to scholarship; and choices we can make in fandom to make it a healthy and welcoming place, especially with the upcoming Amazon series and a potential new influx of fans. My only real regret is that I didn’t talk more about…

Or gays. Wildly out of character for me, really.

Alas.

Anyway, please consider giving this episode a listen!  Also, I expect following the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, or giving them a review if you like it, is appreciated by the podcasters, too.

[phoenixrisesoncemore]

CFP for Anthology on Race, Racisms, and Tolkien

(Sharing from a Tolkien scholar friend and editor of this anthology. Please signal boost!)

————————

Editor: Robin Anne Reid

[email protected]

Proposal (500 words not counting Working Bibliography) &

Author Bio (150 words) deadline: January 10, 2022

Essay (6-7000 words) deadline: December 10, 2022

Topics include but are not limited to:

Anti-Semitism; Catholicism/Christianity & racism; Colonial Imperialism; Ecological Imperialism; Eugenics, Neo-fascist & White Supremacist Fans; Romantic Nationalism & Tolkien; Social Darwinism; and Whiteness. Work on the legendarium, translation, film adaptations, games, and fan creations (art, fiction, cosplay, especially racebending) is welcome.

Familiarity with Dimitra Fimi’s and Helen Young’s monographs is strongly recommended.

The following approaches are most relevant to the project: critical race, cultural history, intellectual history, intersectionality, fan studies, neocolonial, postcolonial, and reception theories.

If interested scholars would like a copy of a Working Bibliography on the topic or have questions about their proposal, feel free to email the editor at the address above.

More details below:

Keep reading

[ndando-musings]

Playing around with an idea. Hoping I’ll be able to advance it quickly enough for a decent proposal in Dec!

[dalpuri]

Favourite Tolkien quotes

I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which “Escape” is now so often used: a tone for which the uses of the word outside literary criticism gives no warrant at all. In what the misusers are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic. In real life it is difficult to blame it, unless it fails; in criticism it would seem to be the worse the better it succeeds. Evidently we are faced by a misuse of words, and also by a confusion of thought. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jail? - On Fairy Stories

[arofili]

THIS IS ALL WE GET ON LEGOLAS DFJSHDKFHDSKJFHD we knew all this already!! gandalf gets paragraphs explaining what he looks like but legolas gets NOTHING not even a hair color LMAO

[theangrypipetter]

Well, he 1.) called him a prince and 2.) maybe we can derive his age from the fact that he is being described as Sindarin.

[unnamedelement]

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh

I will go down on the multiethnic Legolas ship

[mirkwoodchangeling]

NoME is relatively low on the canon list, and also there’s a good chance that as one of the foremost Elven heroes of the Third Age, it might benefit certain historical perspectives for them to erase a Silvan background for Legolas? (Given the fact that most of Tolkien’s work favors Sindarin and Noldorin elves in terms of “highness” and “nobleness” which has some pretty clear colonial influences). So I’m dying on the Silvan Legolas hill.

[unnamedelement]

YES THAT MIRKWOOD CHANGELINg commentary YES

[unnamedelement]

Also, silvan elves and elvish. No big deal, I’m fine.

[ndando-musings]

[ndando-musings]

The TS Summer Seminar videos were posted on YouTube today and I have rewatched about four of them so far, including my own, and I just had the horrifying realization that I mispoke re: Celebrian during Q&As (a literal slip of the tongue, substituting one verb for another, but an important one) and it wasn’t, in fact, a nightmare I had after the talk, after all.  Alas, it is permanently documented on the internet. 

May I be known as the Celebrian ignoramus for years to come.

[osgilian]

Thinks about Elrond. Thinks about Elrond. Thinks ab

[hennethgalad]

Farewell to Eärendil

for Tolkien Gen Week. Day 1: Family

@tolkiengenweek

[ndando-musings]

Excited to be presenting on the impact of trauma and culture on interethnic elven relations today, at 11AM EST!

Currently listening to Cordeliah Logsdon’s presentation on reader response and transgender readings of Gondor. Super grateful to the Tolkien Society for organizing this event!

[ndando-musings]

I’ll take some time in the next few days to answer some of the questions I was not able to address during the talk! Thanks for engaging.

Also, it’s not too late to sign up. I’m currently listening to Sultana Raza talk about parallels between Indian and Hindu mythology and Tolkien’s writing. Very interesting!

[ndando-musings]

Excited to be presenting on the impact of trauma and culture on interethnic elven relations today, at 11AM EST!

Currently listening to Cordeliah Logsdon’s presentation on reader response and transgender readings of Gondor. Super grateful to the Tolkien Society for organizing this event!

[ndando-musings]

language thoughts

Since this blog is apparently where I have decided to dump all meta-related thoughts... Here are some thoughts regarding “Silvanizing” Sindarin words that came up on the SWG discord this morning. Sometimes when we write together, we share sentences at the end of the writing session, and that can create conversation.

Me:  [My shared sentence] is just meta because thats what i'm working on, but here is my sentence: “While there is conflicting information on Silvan language in the Third Age, Tolkien’s final writing on Silvan language in Mirkwood explains that Oropher and the few Sindarin refugees with him assimilated into Silvan culture, “adopting their language and taking names of Silvan form and style,” which we see explicitly in the name of Oropher’s grandson, Legolas, a “dialectical” or “silvanized” form of the more traditional Sindarin laegolas.” Other member: do they always do the ae->e in their accent? would Lego say "Medhros"??

Me:  As for what Legolas would say... IDK, it depends on which version of woodelf languages in the third age you latch onto, but...  There are only about 30 purely nandorin words "recorded" by tolkien, and only in one of those set of words does "ae" appear instead of a simple "a" or "e."  "dh" is also a Sindarin spelling whereas Nandorin uses simply "d", so in Silvan/Nandorin, it is safe to assume that words traditionally with "dh" in Sindarin would probably be Silvanized by dropping the H. 

 So I would conclude by saying it is entirely possible that a strictly Silvan-speaking wood-elf might pronounce/spell/whatever Maedhros as "Madros" or "Medros" instead. 

 But this is all just inference based on the few, like, clues we get from the nandorin words and silvan-dialectical sindarin words peppered about, really

Love the SWG discord, because I literally would never have been inspired to think about this on my own. Hm... Looking forward to exploring these ideas more another time. 

*throws vague thoughts into the tumblr void and wanders away*

[ndando-musings]

While not appropriate to include in my presentation on Saturday, this tiktok has been giving me life for the last 24 hours

[lesbiansforboromir]

Tolkien Society Summer Seminar 2021: Tolkien and Diversity

I am surprised I haven’t seen much about it on tumblr but on the 3rd and 4th of July the Tolkien Society will be hosting a free-to-attend Zoom Seminar featuring Tolkien Academics presenting their work on diversity within Tolkien!

There are sixteen speakers over the two days, but presentations I am PARTICULARLY excited about include;

Cordeliah Logsdon – Gondor in Transition: A Brief Introduction to Transgender Realities in The Lord of the Rings

Sultana Raza – Projecting Indian Myths, Culture and History onto Tolkien’s Worlds

Nicholas Birns – The Lossoth: Indigeneity, Identity, and Antiracism

Cami Agan – Hearkening to the Other: Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth

Sara Brown – The Invisible Other: Tolkien’s Dwarf-Women and the ‘Feminine Lack’

Sonali Chunodkar – Desire of the Ring: An Indian Academic’s Adventures in her Quest for the Perilous Realm

Martha Celis-Mendoza – Translation as a means of representation and diversity in Tolkien’s scholarship and fandom

Hope to see you in chat! Word of advice though, don’t look at twitter about this. Though Will Sherwood is going off in replies which is rather amusing I admit.

[lesbiansforboromir]

Here is the link to sign up and to look at the itinerary. In the reblogs so tumblr doesn’t block the post :D

[ndando-musings]

I will be presenting on July 3 with this paper: 

“The Burnt Hand Teaches Most About Fire”: Applying Traumatic Stress and Ecological Frameworks to Narratives of Displacement and Resettlement Across Cultures in Tolkien’s Middle-earth

Please join us and help show the Tolkien scholarship world that critically engaging with topics of diversity are important to fans and scholars alike!

[unnamedelement]

I am utterly exhausted by this seminar-related nonsense. An academic discussion of a text is no threat to one’s enjoyment of it–the presence of analyses you do not like does not hurt you. However, hateful words aimed at a seminar’s presenters (or at associated fans with marginalized identities) are rude, hurtful, and antithetical to the multitude examples of collaboration and tolerance across differences in the legendarium. Per Tolkien’s own Letters, all writing is about the integration of Story and Allegory, and allegories’ relevances change depending on “time and place” (Letters 109; 163). Stories, he implies, have “significance or applicability” to the reader and to the present world, and he says this in spite of his feelings on allegory (which he sees as being distinct from applicability) (Letter 215).

“[For stories to be successful,] there must be some relevance to the ‘human situation’ (of all periods).” - Letter 181

“That there is no allegory does not, of course, say there is no applicability. There always is. And since I have not made the struggle wholly unequivocal: sloth and stupidity among hobbits, pride and [illegible] among Elves, grudge and greed in Dwarf-hearts, and folly and wickedness among the 'Kings of Men’, and treachery and power-lust even among the 'Wizards’, there is I suppose applicability in my story to present times. But I should say, if asked, the tale is not really about Power and Dominion: that only sets the wheels going; it is about Death and the desire for deathlessness. Which is hardly more than to say it is a tale written by a Man!” - Letter 203

"As for 'message’: I have none really, if by that is meant the conscious purpose in writing The Lord of the Rings, of preaching, or of delivering myself of a vision of truth specially revealed to me!” - Letter 208

We were never necessarily meant to read his stories and each get the same thing out of it. That hardly ever happens in literature.  Live and let live. Think before you speak–speak with the intent to be understood, and listen with the intent to understand. Be kind–not even “kind as summer.” Only kind. (I am not trying to change minds with this. I am not trying to ask for sympathy. I am just tired.)

[unnamedelement]

Dear Magic 8 ball

Will I ever be able to stop caring about Nandorin assimilation and erasure? is that in my future?

no. no it is not.

their “SINDARIZING UNDER THE IMPACT OF BELERIANDIC CULTURE BEGAN”

Nimrodel, I’ve got your back, girl. The world did you wrong.

[unnamedelement]

This passage always kills me

“but she was one of the Silvan Elves, and regretted the incoming of the Elves from the West, who (as she said) brought wars and destroyed the peace of old. She would speak only the Silvan tongue, even after it had fallen into disuse among the folk of Lorien”

[unnamedelement]

So I can *barely* make heads or tales of any of the narrative around colonization/cultural nonsense in Lorien (in one version of the tale its just because they wanted to, in another its because Galadriel sensed evil over the mountains and wanted to be nearer to it–wtf–in a third its resettlement after the destruction of Eregion, ad nauseum, etc.)… But… Still, Galadriel/Celeborn are the ones who lead folks there/make initial contact with this egalitarian society, after which Amdir gets set up as King.  Its not until after Amroth dies that they return, and after a place has lost its cultural identity and language, it just seems a little late to decide one just wants to be a guardian

like yes, again, complicated– there’s evil shit happening and galadriel has a special ring, its mutually beneficial. but the parallels to, like, “external destablization followed by swooping savior” in the real world are just really uncomfortable. 

but ain’t nobody not been displaced in middle-earth, except for maybe the woodelves (and only maybe). So I suppose they just deserved a special serving of Sindarin/Noldorin rule and native language erasure instead.

[unnamedelement]

I’m fine, but every time I remember this line I just–

“it needed a rule of greater strength and wisdom than the Silvan folk possessed”

It’s like when someone makes an -ist joke and you just tilt your head and say, “Oh! Tell me what you mean by that”

what do you mean by wisdom, huh? what are you saying about your valar-given superiority, huh HUH?!

[unnamedelement]

wait, what hill will you die on, UE?

“lesser Silvan race”

[unnamedelement]

What hill will you die on, UE?

Oh, that’s right 

🌿WOOD-ELF ET AL. HILL🌿

Elsewhere in Middle-earth there was peace for many years; yet the lands were for the most part savage and desolate, save only where the people of Beleriand came. Many Elves dwelt there indeed, as they had dwelt through the countless years, wandering free in the wide lands far from the Sea; but they were Avari, to whom the deeds of Beleriand were but a rumour and Valinor only a distant name. And in the south and in the further east Men multiplied; and most of them turned to evil, for Sauron was at work. -Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age, Silmarillion

I swear to motherf*ckin god yall

[maglors-anion-gap]

thanks unnamedelement for posting this quote bc my copy of the silm is packed in a box somewhere. Man, this excerpt just has Everything in it… the obvious issues with calling things (and indirectly, people) savage, the assertion that a land is desolate even though people have lived there for centuries, that the noldor or sindar expats are responsible for creating the only things of value in the land …. sorry to add on but i saw this in conjunction with your post abt the linguistic sindarization of the avari and something snapped inside me. The preference here toward western-style land management, and the cultural implications of asserting that someone’s method of living and land stewardship is “uncivilized” (such a loaded word) is just, so Loud.

[unnamedelement]

Oh, please, feel free to add on! This is one of my absolutely uncontrollable knee jerk issues in the legendarium.

[unnamedelement]

omg i love elrond so much tho

“He was as noble and as fair in face as an elf lord, as strong as a warrior, as wise as a wizard, as venerable as a king of dwarves and as kind as summer.”

never getting over this, never getting over how this peredhel with such a family history of trauma–generation after generation–such a fraught childhood filled with loss and displacement–a man who lived through periods of peace and periods of outright war, who led and lost, led and loved etc etc–builds a stronghold, protects and defends it for so long and so well that it eventually becomes the last homely house (a haven for the lost and weary, a Sirion, a throwback to where he started). 

Will never get over that he lives so long and so well that he is eventually described by a strange and uncontainable hobbit as “kind as summer”

…….

brb crying forever