tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61310447083096457192024-03-13T02:21:40.497+02:00Musings of a HedgepickleAjnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-75041685543156868962020-04-10T21:09:00.001+02:002020-04-10T21:19:47.232+02:00Bad FridayIt’s Day 15 of the Nationwide Lockdown implemented to reduce the spread of the coronovirus that causes COVID-19. And I’m not okay.<br />
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My flat is a mess, my kitchen is worse and I spent much of the night and this morning crying. I must have used up at least half of one of those valuable toilet rolls.<br />
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I have little reason to feel like this. I don’t have frustrated kids to worry about. My job is secure. We don’t start online lecturing for another week so I’ve had time to process and adjust mentally. I have a lovely spacious flat and the most beautiful green view. I have internet, electricity and running water.<br />
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But this Friday is overcast and the lockdown just got extended by 14 days (so there are another 21 to go). I’m separated from my family by a closed provincial border and I’m spending the Easter Weekend on my own for the first time in my life.<br />
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But I realised that today, this day we commemorate as Good Friday, is the one day of the year it’s really okay to feel like this.<br />
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About 2000 years ago, a small group of disciples of a revolutionary Jewish teacher spent this day in absolute despair and terror. The man they had been following, whom they thought was the promised Messiah, had just been betrayed by one of their own, falsely accused and sentenced to death by crucifixion. It had happened so fast they probably hadn’t even processed it properly. They were so afraid and disappointed that one of the bravest and most outspoken of them denied that he even knew Jesus out of fear he too would forfeit his life. Only one of them was even brave enough to attend the execution. The rest were probably in hiding.<br />
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None of it made sense. None of them could see what God was doing and how any good could possibly come of this. They were expecting the coming of the Kingdom of God and freedom from centuries of political oppression. And all those hopes had just been shattered.<br />
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The thing was, they could only see the terror and pain of the here and now. They didn’t see God’s bigger plan. They didn’t know that it was wasn’t a literal kingdom that Jesus had come to establish at that time. They didn’t realise that the oppressor he had come to free them from was not political or even physical but the slave-master of sin. It wasn’t the feared Romans Jesus was defeating but that more fearful emperor - Death itself.<br />
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It’s okay if this Good Friday feels like a bad Friday. It’s okay if we feel confused, fearful or lonely. God knows and he sees the bigger picture. The night before his crucifixion, Jesus was so afraid he begged the Father if there was any way he could avoid it. While dying on that cross, he experienced loneliness we can’t even imagine. He knows what we are feeling.<br />
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But he also knew that God knew what was happening. He knew that something better was on its way. And it was something that would change the world forever.<br />
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This isn’t the first Good Friday I’ve spent in tears. 9 years ago I had just received news that meant I probably couldn’t do my Master’s in Oxford. I was confused and dejected then as now, but there was light on the other side. God knew exactly what was happening, and the result was not what I expected.<br />
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There is light at the end of this. There always is.<br />
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<a href="https://hedgepickle.blogspot.com/2011/05/seeds-death-and-fruit.html">Reflections on that other difficult Easter</a>Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-44276885402955143272017-07-17T23:05:00.003+02:002017-07-17T23:05:50.295+02:00First thoughts on the Thirteenth DoctorI debated whether my compulsory comments on the new Doctor should be a Facebook post or a blog post but I wrote a blog post on Bill, so I figure it's only fair. (As a side note, I still haven't seen any of Bill's episodes but I think the DVDs for Series 10 Part II come out this week so I can order the series soon).<br />
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Firstly, to get the elephant out of the way, I will clarify that I don't like the idea of a female Doctor. (By which I mean, of course, having a female version of The Doctor. I don't have a problem with female doctors, as I hope to be one soon). But the Doctor is a person, not a position. And as a person I don't think his gender should be changed (more on that below for anyone that really wants to know).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Having said that, if we have to have a female Doctor, I am really glad with the choice of Jodie Whittaker. Here are my reasons:</span><br />
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1. <b>She's not Tilda Swinton.</b> (I was really worried earlier this year when I heard the bookies were putting good odds in favour of Tilda, especially because both Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie's castings were leaked to the bookies). I was kinda at a point where I would be happy with anyone that wasn't Tilda Swinton (who I like as an actress, but just can't see in the role of the Doctor).<br />
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2. <b>I really liked her in <i>Broadchurch</i>.</b> It was a very different role, but it was a tough part to play and she did a sterling job.<br />
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3. <b>She's relatively unknown (outside of the UK).</b> I like that Doctor Who takes little known actors and puts them in the spotlight.<br />
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4. <b>Her</b> <b>surname</b> <b>is</b> <b>Whittaker</b>. I grew up on <i>Adventures</i> <i>in</i> <i>Odyssey </i>audio<i> </i>dramas so anyone with the surname Whittaker is automatically awesome.<br />
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Finally, I kinda like the idea that if we have to have a female Doctor that it's <b>Thirteen</b>. There's something appropriate about that. (Yes, I know she's not really the thirteenth regeneration, but she'll still be known as "The Thirteenth Doctor").<br />
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Footnote on the elephant:<br />
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I like the idea of female leads and the idea of women breaking into positions traditionally reserved for men. I'm not displeased by the prospect of having our first female president in South Africa in two years time. (It's not a foregone conclusion, and I'm not sure how I feel about the leading woman candidate, but the possibility does make me cautiously optimistic). I'm often pleased when I hear that someone has become the first woman to achieve this or that, but with the Doctor it's different. It's not just a case of giving a woman the lead role in the story. It's changing the gender of an already existing character. And that I don't like. Not if you want continuity. If it was a parallel universe, I might be willing to accept it, but not this Doctor in this universe. I've always been uncomfortable with Time Lords changing gender in regenerations, but could let it pass when they were side characters and it could be considered an unusual characteristic. I wasn't happy when the Master shifted gender but could handle that because he/she has always been insane. Not so with the Doctor. With him, I find it a lot harder to swallow. He's been male for all of the however-many-thousand years he's lived now, and I feel like changing his gender changes something fundemental about his character, in a way that changing his hair colour and apparent age and dress sense does not. I realise not all people feel like that, but that's why I'm uncomfortable with a female Doctor.<br />
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Despite this, over the last few months, I have been slowly getting used to the idea that they might cast a woman in the role and by the time they get to filming and releasing (and I get to seeing) her first season, I'll probably be quite used to the idea and enjoy it none-the-less. And I have a whole season of Capaldi still to watch!!!Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-72913906194042726032016-04-24T18:12:00.000+02:002016-04-24T18:12:38.344+02:00My first thoughts on Bill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, yesterday the BBC announced the new <i>Doctor Who</i> companion. We still don't really know anything about her except that she's played by Pearl Mackie and her name is Bill. They announced the news by releasing one of their famous <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03rzc48">minisodes</a>, but all we really got to see was her arguing with the Doctor about why she should be scared of Daleks.<br />
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So here are my (not very serious) first thoughts.<br />
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<b>1. Is Bill named after Billie Piper? </b><i>(Clara was apparently named after Elizabeth Sladen, so it wouldn't be a stretch.)</i><br />
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<b>2. Is her real name Aubrey?<i> </i></b><i>(My grandfather's real name was Aubrey, but everyone called him Bill)</i><br />
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<b>3. What is her surname?</b><br />
<b>A) Jones-Smith?</b> <i>(I know she's a bit old to be Mickey and Martha's, but this is a show about time travel)</i><br />
<b>B) Pink?</b><br />
<b>C) Blue?</b><br />
<b>D) None-of-the-above</b><br />
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<i>Probably (D), but you never know</i><br />
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<b>5) Bill is going to be the first companion played by an actress who was born after me.</b><br />
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<b>4) Did we just see a new companion get killed by Daleks in her first episode? Again?</b><br />
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Here's a link to an interview with the actress. She's really excited.<br />
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<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03s10zt">http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03s10zt</a>Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-15165159191137108052014-11-26T19:42:00.000+02:002014-11-26T19:51:34.780+02:00When The Lion Called: Eight Years On<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Eight years ago, on 26 November 2006, I nervously clicked on the "register" button for the online forum of a website called <i><a href="http://www.thelionscall.com/forum/index.php" target="_blank">The Lion's Call</a></i>, little knowing that it would change my life. I was fairly new to the world of the internet, my family having only gotten a dial-up connection at home in the January of that year. This was before the days of Facebook (at least it hadn't yet become a "thing", although MySpace was popular with my friends) and I was highly suspicious of signing up to anything that required giving out email addresses and other details. But this website, which I had been browsing recently, seemed like a friendly and safe site and it made clear that it was a Christian site and there were strict rules about minors being allowed to join and what could and could not be posted. I decided to risk it. In retrospect, I was a bit like Lucy Pevensie, taking those first cautious steps through the wardrobe into a woodland of snow and a great adventure.</div>
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<a href="http://www.thelionscall.com/" target="_blank">The Lion's Call</a> website (TLC) was created by Kristi Simonson for fans of C.S. Lewis' <i>Chronicles of Narnia</i> series and, apart from the discussion forum (which was what I was signing up to join) it had other interesting features including a character builder, some simple games, and write-in threads like "you know you're addicted to Narnia when...". The forum in those days was small and mainly involved discussions relating directly to the <i>Chronicles of Narnia</i> books, <i>The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe</i> film (which had been released just less than a year before) and speculations about the <i>Prince Caspian</i> film that would follow it. I think the first thing I ever posted on the forum was a comment on a discussion about what became of Susan Pevensie after the events of <i>The Last Battle</i>, something I had been thinking about a bit in the last year. The ideas I had had about that became the germ of my (still ongoing) <a href="http://hedgepickle-susan.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/my-susan-fiction-page-contains-my.html" target="_blank">fan fiction story about Susan</a>, which one of the TLCers was to convince me to start four years later. After joining the forum, it became a regular ritual to visit the site when I got a chance and read and comment on the latest discussions.</div>
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In February of the following year, I started University and I would often visit TLC when I was dropped off early in the mornings before the library had opened and the computer LANs were not yet busy (few people had their own laptops in those days). As the years passed, the website grew, and the forum became larger and more active. We found that many members had more in common than just our interest in Narnia and we started discussions on other topics including other fantasy worlds (especially Tolkien and Middle Earth) and faith and religion. We also had many members who were budding writers of fiction or poetry and so forum threads started on discussing writing, and people would share whatever they were working on. The site developed well beyond Narnia and became a real community where people felt safe sharing even personal issues.</div>
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I had known from the start that the site also had a chat room, but I never went anywhere near that part of it. Chat rooms were dangerous and "evil"; my parents wouldn't approve and you weren't allowed visiting chat rooms on the university computers in any case.</div>
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But then in December 2010, four years after I joined, there were posts on the forum about a planned Day of Prayer to be held in the website's chat room. Enough things had changed by this point that I felt confident enough to venture into the chat room to join the prayer session: and by now I knew that I could trust the people on the site. Also, earlier that year we had finally upgraded to broadband internet at home and I now had my own netbook computer. I was also a whole lot older and (theoretically, at least) two degrees wiser.</div>
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Joining chat opened up a whole new chapter in my life. These people with whom I had only communicated remotely (by reading and responding to forum posts, often overnight, because of time differences) I could now "chat with" (using text) in real time. I also hadn't realised, but in the last year or so more and more of the discussions had moved over from the forum to the chat room (which would explain why the forum had become more quiet than it had been). More importantly, I got to know the other members on the site at a deeper level because we could ask and respond to more personal questions in a less formal and less public setting.</div>
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I joined TLC chat at a critical period of my life. I had been applying for scholarships to Oxford and the TLC community had played a large part in encouraging me through that process and praying for me (even before I joined chat). Being the shy, reserved person I am, this online community gave me a safe place to share my concerns and struggles (I had always been better at articulating my thoughts in writing than in speech).</div>
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In June 2011, I joined Facebook for the first time. By now, it had been confirmed that I was going to Oxford, and I wanted to be able to keep contact with my friends and family in South Africa. By this time, TLC, had developed something of a presence on Facebook as well and through that and private messages I became Facebook friends with some of the TLCers (cautiously, and only with those I trusted, because on TLC itself we were encouraged not to divulge private details). And for the first time the window was opened onto the "real lives" of many of my TLC friends - I got to learn their real names, see what they really looked like and learn a bit more about their lives outside of TLC.</div>
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When I moved to Oxford, I was privileged to meet two TLCers in real life: a British girl, and an American lady, who was visiting the UK with her husband. I got to stay at the home of the British girl on a number of occasions and we have since become good friends.</div>
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It's impossible to describe all the things that have happened in these past eight years, but I wouldn't have missed them for the world. I am now a staff member on the website and editor for our news team. The social, spiritual and intellectual blessings gained from being part of the TLC community is something that can't be measured. I am eternally grateful that I clicked on that "register button" all those years ago.</div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-64567952673348481722014-09-18T22:06:00.000+02:002014-09-20T21:51:52.370+02:00My Whovian Theory<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>With all the crazy way-out and wacky Doctor Who theories floating around, here's another to add to the mix. You can call it my "Missy Theory," but it's a bit more than that as it attempts to explain various odd things that have been going on. It's completely ridiculous and if Moffat dares anything remotely like this I will personally march the length of Africa and remaining distance to have words with him. But here it is:</i></div>
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In the cliff-hanger finale of <i>Series 7</i>, Clara enters the Doctor's time stream in order to reverse the harms caused by the Great Intelligence having done the same thing. Not content to leave Clara to her fate, the Doctor insists on going in himself to rescue her, despite the potentially devastating consequences of such an action. The Doctor finds Clara and we're all wondering just how they are going to get out of this one, when Moffat throws one of the greatest curve-balls of his career and introduces a never-before-seen regeneration of the Doctor played by John Hurt. This is a mysterious regeneration that the Doctor himself has chosen to forget/suppress and is described as "the one who broke the promise". We are so taken aback by this sudden revelation, and the intrigue it presents for the highly anticipated 50th Anniversary episode, that we forget to worry about how Clara and the Doctor are going to escape the Doctor's time stream. Several months later, the Anniversary episode arrives and a month after that, the Christmas Special and the climax of the Eleventh Doctor's tenure. All this excitement and build-up and the emotions of Eleven's passing mean that we don't have time to fuss over the technicality of how Clara and the Doctor escaped his time stream.</div>
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But that has passed, and we're up to the 12th Doctor's fourth episode. The dust has settled and we're adapting well to this very different and yet somehow familiar new Doctor. But just how did he and Clara escape? Will we ever know? Probably not. But what if....what if they didn't escape? Or rather, what if there was no possibility of them getting out on their own?</div>
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Moments before entering his time-stream, the Eleventh Doctor has an emotional heart-to-heart with his sometime wife, River Song. She is present on the scene only through a mental link with Clara resulting from an earlier dream-induced time-travel conference. Through the course of the episode, we learn that the version of River who is present is River from after the events of <i>Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead,</i> where she dies in order to rescue hundreds of people trapped inside The Library's computer's hard drive. The Doctor, in return, uploads her consciousness to the library's computer where she is destined to live out her days (or eternity?) with her crew of archaeologist friends.</div>
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The last words that River says to the Doctor before he enters his time stream (after begging him not to go at all) are:</div>
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<i><b>River</b>: Oh there's one more thing.</i></div>
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<i><b>The Doctor</b>: Isn't there always?</i></div>
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<i><b>River</b>: I was mentally linked with Clara. If she's really dead then how can I still be here?</i></div>
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<i><b>The Doctor</b>: Okay, How?</i></div>
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<i><b>River</b>: Spoilers. Goodbye. Sweetie.</i></div>
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What did she mean by this? Surely more than simply that Clara is still alive. The Doctor already believed as much so that's hardly a spoiler.</div>
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<b>Here's my theory.</b> What if, knowing that the Doctor would never be able to exit his time stream and rescue Clara, River found a way to rescue both of them by uploading them from his time stream onto The Library's database? I haven't worked out the details of how this would be possible but it's hardly more impossible than any other means of escape the Doctor might find.</div>
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What if, on being uploaded to The Library, instead of finding themselves in the parts of the library we recognise from <i>Silence/Forest</i>, they are uploaded into a kind of adventure room/simulation programme on the computer's hard drive. I get my inspiration for this from various science fiction sources that I grew up with as a child. I imagine it as something like the holodeck from <i>Star Trek</i>, but inside a computer. Or something like the Imagination Station from<i> Adventures in Odyssey</i> (which is pretty much the same principle). The living-inside-a-computer bit, takes inspiration from various places (including <i>Silence/Forest</i> themselves) although is probably largely influenced by one of my favourite television programmes as a kid, the little-known 90s Canadian CGI series, <i>Reboot</i>. My "holoroom" would be comparable to a "game" from Reboot, but with significant differences. Obviously there are parallels here with <i>The Matrix,</i> but since I have yet to actually watch any of <i>The Matrix</i> films (I know, I'm a bad person), I'll leave you to make your own comparisons to that.</div>
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Based on this theory, I hypothesise that everything that has happened since <i>Name of the Doctor</i> has actually been simulated adventures experienced in this holodeck-type-place. I realise that this has some serious problems and some even-more serious consequences for what has happened in recent episodes (which I'd rather not even think about), but let's gloss over those for the time being. This theory does explain a few oddities that have taken place recently: like the presence of three Doctors at the same place at the same time; like how the Doctor was able to change his actions to end the Time War on Gallifrey when the Time War ought to be time-locked and inaccessible; like how the Doctor was miraculously able to get himself another twelve regenerations, just as he was about to run out.</div>
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But, more significantly, it explains a few of the mysteries raised thus far in <i>Series 8</i>: Who is Missy, and what is The Promised Land? I suggest that whenever someone "dies" in the holodeck-world, (because this is all happening inside a computer database and they are all saved as data), instead of actually dying, their data-string consciousness is transported out of the holoroom into another, central part of the library's hard drive - the place we see River and her companions at the end of <i>Forest of the Dead</i>. This is "The Promised Land" also known as "Heaven".</div>
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And who is Missy? Well she's not actually Missy, her name is Miss E, short for "Miss Evangelista". Who? The pretty but ditsy girl who was on River's archaeological team when she met the Doctor in The Library. She was incorrectly uploaded to the library database the first time and as a result was able to see the falsehood of what was going on when others couldn't. Her face got fixed in the clean upload after River's death, but I'm not quite sure what that did for her intellect. Now, how and why Miss E has become the gatekeeper of The Library world (well the part where people go when they die in the holoroom) beats me; and I'm not sure exactly why she thinks that the Doctor is her boyfriend (when the Doctor's wife lives in the vicinity) but I'll leave it for someone else to figure that part out. :P</div>
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As I said at the start, this is a fairly horrible theory, and Moffat had better not be attempting anything of the kind. But I've had a bit of fun playing with it and wanted to be able to share it. It's already had some handy side effects. Since I originally came up with the theory we've had an episode with Robin Hood. Not only did Robin Hood turn out to be real, but but he was uncannily just a little too perfect - matching certain versions of the legend down to exact details. We've also had some other impossible stuff like good Daleks, and a town called Christmas (I'm just joking about that last one).</div>
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So that's my theory. I realise it has plotholes the size of the crack in Amy's room, but whenever were plotholes a problem for Whovian fan-theories?</div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-31306199932431709912014-08-24T21:16:00.000+02:002014-08-24T21:16:30.838+02:00Steven Moffat doesn't kill people<span style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
Warning: This post contains SPOILERS for <i>Doctor Who</i> Series 1-7. There are NO spoilers for Series 8 as I have not seen any of it yet :P</span><br />
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The current executive producer and lead show-runner of <i>Doctor Who</i>, Steven Moffat, is constantly accused of being a heartless, cruel writer who spends all his time ruthlessly killing off characters, especially main characters. I'd like to argue that whatever else you might say about Moffat, this particular accusation is unwarranted and in fact quite far from the truth.</div>
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Although he only took over the helm of <i>Doctor Who</i> in 2010, Moffat had been writing stories for the show from the start of its revival in 2005. For the first four seasons of what's become known as <i>NuWho</i> (during which Russel T Davies was running the show) Steven Moffat wrote one story for each series.<br />
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Characters dying in a show like <i>Doctor Who</i> is nothing unexpected. It's full of danger and aliens and monsters and fighting, so it's inevitable that characters will die. More often than not, these characters are unnamed bystanders, extras, but in <i>Doctor Who</i> they are frequently characters whose names we do learn and who do play a significant, though short-lived, role in the story (like the infamous <i>Star Trek</i> "red shirts"). If we go through the episodes of <i>Series 1</i>, we can see how this plays out.</div>
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In the first episode, after her initial encounter with the Doctor, Rose Tyler meets up with a conspiracy theorist called Clive Finch, who seems to know a whole lot about the Doctor and runs a website documenting various sightings of him that have been reported. Rewatching this episode on one occasion, I wondered what ever became of Clive; why he never showed up in any later episodes. As I kept watching, the question was shortly answered: he is among various unknown and unnamed characters who are killed by the auton invasion at a shopping mall. In the second episode, Rose and the Doctor meet a sentient tree alien, Jabe, who becomes very friendly with the Doctor. She sacrifices herself in order to help the Doctor save all the other people on board the satellite. In the third episode, a young serving girl with psychic powers named Gwyneth also sacrifices herself, this time to save the world. In other episodes we see the British Prime Minister and various government officials brutally killed by the Slitheen, Suki from Satellite Five among various employees who are frozen to death and turned into flesh machines, and, in the closing episodes, "Lynda with a Y" is among other characters who die defending themselves against the Daleks. There is one set of episodes, a two-parter, that are an exception to this pattern of tragic deaths of minor characters. In Steven Moffat's <i>The Empty Child</i> and <i>The Doctor Dances</i>, although it appears that characters are turned into monstrous zombie creatures with gas masks, the Doctor manages to save them all from this terrible fate by using nanogenes to renew their DNA. Towards the end of the second episode the Doctor makes his famous exclamation: "Just this once, everybody lives! Everybody lives!" And it seems that this statement is truer than he realises. This is the only episodes in <i>Series 1</i> and arguably the only episode of the entire Davies-era in which nobody dies at all.</div>
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But if we look at the other episodes that Moffat wrote for Davies, we see a distinct pattern emerging. In the episode he wrote for <i>Series 2</i>, <i>The Girl in the Fireplace</i>, the doctor successfully saves Madame Le Pompadour from manic maintenance droids who want to use her brain to fix their broken spaceship. He even succeeds in preventing them from killing anyone else in the process. This episode does have death but this is only because, when the Doctor returns to fetch Reinette so she can accompany them on the TARDIS, he arrives too late (some years later) and she has already died from illness. This scene is necessary to the plot since it would not have suited the overall storyline to have an 18th century French noblewoman join the TARDIS crew. It is therefore not an unnecessary tragic death like so many inthe other episodes. I should also note that before the Doctor arrives on the scene, various crew members of the space ship had already been killed by the manic droids, but both instances of death in this episode happen outside of the Doctor's (and audience's) immediate experience.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sBsixmLqqvA/U_icXGyunHI/AAAAAAAADEo/qJAq0bD8-sE/s1600/cry%2Band%2Bmoffat%2Bwins.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sBsixmLqqvA/U_icXGyunHI/AAAAAAAADEo/qJAq0bD8-sE/s1600/cry%2Band%2Bmoffat%2Bwins.png" height="119" width="200" /></a>For <i>Series 3</i>, Moffat wrote perhaps his most famous episode, <i>Blink</i>, in which he introduced one of the most terrifying <i>Doctor Who</i> monsters, the Weeping Angels. It seems that here at last we start to see the heartless Moffat that he is reputed to be. This episode is a thriller that has you at the edge of your seat throughout because all it takes is one blink for these monsters to claim their victims. At least that's how it comes across when watching. But when you think about it, it's not all quite so bad as it seems. One could almost argue that nobody dies in this episode at all. Or more accurately no one is killed in this episode. We do see the sad death of Inspector Shipton, but he dies of old age after the angels sent him back in time. He was still able to live a full life, just not at the right time. The same happens with Sally Sparrow's friend Kathy who is sent back to the 1920s and falls in love with the first guy she meets. Moffat actually hasn't created the worst monster of <i>Doctor Who</i>, he's created the one monster that doesn't kill its victims at all, and he admits this himself through the words he penned for the Doctor: "they are the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely". Moffat has in fact invented a killer that doesn't kill. It just displaces you from your current life and lets you "live to death" in an earlier time. Not so heartless after all?</div>
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Moffat's final episodes for the Davies-era see a continuation of this pattern. For <i>Series 4</i> he wrote the two-parter <i>Silence in the Library </i>and <i>The Forest of the Dead</i>. This story bears a resemblance to many of the other non-Moffat ones in which a crew of characters is slowly killed off one-by-one (in this case, by a flesh eating swarm of darkness), until almost none are left. And then the episode ends with the most tragic death (by self sacrifice) of a mysterious woman named River Song, who seems to know a lot about the Doctor from his future and to have been very close to him. You think the episode is going to end on this sad note and that yet another potential companion and friend of the Doctor is lost forever (like Jabe and Reinette and Lynda with a Y) but this time the Doctor realises that because he had known in his future that River would die, he had had time to come up with a plan to save her. He isn't able to bring her back physically, but he can upload her conscious into the library's massive computer database. And apparently, in the process, all the other crew members who were killed off throughout the episode have also been uploaded to the computer's dream world. So not only is River alive, but so are her friends; and they are together. We get a lovely monologue from River at this point in the episode:</div>
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<i>"Everybody knows that everybody dies and nobody knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies of all the worlds might just turn dark if he ever for one moment, accepts it. Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today. Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair, and the Doctor comes to call... everybody lives."</i></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UzAjFC0lEq0/U_icNsZj7SI/AAAAAAAADEI/injnZ_16e1o/s1600/guns%2Bdon't%2Bkill%2Bpeople.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UzAjFC0lEq0/U_icNsZj7SI/AAAAAAAADEI/injnZ_16e1o/s1600/guns%2Bdon't%2Bkill%2Bpeople.jpg" height="104" width="200" /></a>It looks to me that rather than exulting in killing off characters, Steven Moffat is constantly trying to find ways for his characters to escape death. If these examples aren't convincing enough, consider this: There is another episode in <i>Series 4</i> which was not written by Moffat, but which he did influence. It is <i>The Doctor's Daughter</i> written by Steven Greenhorn. In this episode, the Doctor's DNA is used to create a sort of clone of the doctor (though with the DNA altered in such a way to create a "daughter" rather than a duplicate copy). The episode ends with his genetically created daughter tragically dying (again mostly for plot reasons, because they did not at this point want to introduce a new character, especially one with Time Lord DNA). Originally that was to be it; Jenny was to die and for whatever reason, not regenerate. But apparently Steven Moffat on hearing about this, intervened and insisted that they bring her back to life (but without the Doctor's knowledge), leaving it open for her to return one day. She has not yet returned, mainly because that was never the intention. But is that enough to convince you that Moffat doesn't like characters dying?</div>
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I haven't even gotten to the point where Moffat took over the show and I shan't go into detail for all these episodes. But his tendency to avoid or overcome death, rather than actually kill off characters, continues to be a theme throughout. Although he is famous for killing off Rory Williams numerous times, only one, (perhaps two), of them are actually "real" deaths (not dreams or someone messing with Amy's head), and even after those, Moffat finds ways of bringing him back. Amy and Rory's exit of the show in <i>Angels Take Manhattan</i> does not see them dying as such (although we do see their gravestone), but once again Moffat uses his kindly psychopaths, the Weeping Angels, to send them back in time; away from the Doctor but with each other and able to live out their lives till old age.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_yZBVBAPRXc/U_icVJcHdiI/AAAAAAAADEg/iBKDEcdBQyM/s1600/steven-moffat-playing-with-dolls.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_yZBVBAPRXc/U_icVJcHdiI/AAAAAAAADEg/iBKDEcdBQyM/s1600/steven-moffat-playing-with-dolls.png" height="110" width="200" /></a>In Moffat's second series, <i>Series 6,</i> he begins the opening scene by killing off none other than the Doctor himself - completely dead; so that he cannot even regenerate. But this is immediately followed by a discovery that it is the Doctor in the future whose death we have witnessed and the remainder of the series is an exercise in showing how it is that in fact the Doctor did not die (which includes him being murdered again at the midpoint in the series - this time with poison and no ability to regenerate; but River Song steps in at the last moment and saves him. Again). In <i>Series 7</i>, the new companion Clara Oswin Oswald is the latest supposed target of Moffat's killing sprees. She manages to die twice in her first two episodes. But by now it's becoming increasingly difficult for anyone to believe that someone who dies will genuinely stay dead. And the speculations are all about how he's going to explain her not being dead.</div>
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Moffat isn't a murderer. He doesn't like killing characters. Sure, he likes to make us think that characters are dead, but far from the heartless person he is made out to be, it seems rather that he doesn't have the heart to let anyone stay dead. Of course, this is an oversimplification of matters and there are exceptions (note: Lorna from <i>A Good Man Goes to War</i>). Of course he is also not the only writer of <i>Doctor Who</i> stories to make us think a character (especially a companion or the Doctor himself) has died only to bring them back again (see: Jack Harkness, who as character may have been Moffat's creation, but whose immortality probably only came later; also see the partial regeneration of Ten in <i>Journey's End</i>). But I think there is enough evidence to argue that Moffat is not really the cruel-hearted killer of characters he is made out to be. On the contrary, he is constantly on the search for ways to ensure that "Everybody Lives!"<br />
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<i>Post script: You will notice that I haven't mentioned Moffat's other television series, Sherlock. I originally planned to include it, but I thought there was enough to talk about in Doctor Who and I haven't yet seen Sherlock Series 3. So I decided to leave it out. Maybe one day I'll write a follow-up.</i><br />
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<i>The illustrations are just for fun - I am aware that they contradict the point of the article. But they do illustrate the kind of reputation I am disputing.</i></div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-40329507719114633672014-06-04T22:38:00.002+02:002014-06-06T15:09:31.088+02:00Lessons from the TARDIS<style type="text/css">
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Warning</b>: Potential <b>spoilers </b>for all of <i>Doctor Who</i> post 2005 (especially 1.13 <i>The Parting of Ways</i>, 6.4 <i>The Doctor's Wife</i> and 7.13 <i>The Name of the Doctor</i>). This is written with the assumption that you are familiar with the stories.</span><br />
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I'm always a little hesitant to make spiritual applications to secular things. But here I am doing it again :-p And I suppose that it is something Jesus himself did in parables (taking the secular and using it to explain sacred lessons). Various people have pointed out the God-like characteristics of the Time Lord known as the Doctor in the popular British TV series <i>Doctor Who</i>. I did it myself some time ago in my post <i><a href="http://www.hedgepickle.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-doctor-and-jesus.html">The Doctor and Jesus</a>.</i> It tends to make me feel a little uncomfortable, although I have seen it done well and sensitively. I have no problem, for example, pointing out character traits of the Doctor that can demonstrate Christ-like behaviour (as one might do with biblical characters such as Noah and Joseph and David). It's when people start seeing him as a replacement for God or an incarnation of Jesus (problematic for various reasons, not the least of which are his many faults), that I feel they have gone too far. I suppose that it is the Doctor's super-human abilities (which enable him to save planets and races and overcome death), that lend to his being compared to God and/or Christ. But it recently occurred to me that there is another character in <i>Doctor Who</i> which can provide for us lessons or illustrations about God and his character and how he interacts with mankind. The Doctor's sentient space ship, the T.A.R.D.I.S, bears a number of similarities to the Christian concept of God. And so I present to you five "Lessons from the TARDIS".</div>
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<b>1. "I always took you where you needed to go"</b></h3>
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The TARDIS is notorious for messing up the Doctor's instructions and taking taking him and his companions everywhere but where they want to go. The Doctor plans to take Amy and Rory to sunny Rio,
but they end up in a cold rural Welsh village, just in time to rescue the earth from an invasion of <i>Homo Reptilia</i>. He tries to take Rose to a concert in Sheffield in 1979 but they end up
in Victorian Scotland a hundred years earlier (and help to save Queen Victoria's life – and the world). He promises to take Donna to Ancient Rome, but but they arrive in Pompeii just in time for Mt Vesuvius to erupt. Even in the Classic
era, he seldom ends up where he planned to take his companions –
regularly getting either the place or year (or both) wrong.</div>
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It is never entirely clear whether it's
the Doctor's lack of flying skill or the TARDIS' unreliability that
is at fault; perhaps it is a combination of both. We know the Doctor didn't
care much for following the TARDIS instruction manual, and that
River, who was taught by the TARDIS herself was much better at flying
than he was. But at the same time, the splinter-version of Clara that
visits the First Doctor, telling him which TARDIS he should steal, mentions
that her navigation system is “knackered”.</div>
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In the last episode of Series I, <i>The Parting of Ways</i>, it seems that there is even more going on
than the Doctor's flying skills or the TARDIS' navigation system
being unreliable. In this episode, we discover that the various occurrences of the words "<i>Bad Wolf" </i>throughout the series were not coincidental, but part of a greater plan which the TARDIS had some sort of control over.</div>
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In the episode from Series VI called <i>The Doctor's Wife</i>, the episode in
which we learn the most about the TARDIS (because it is the one time
she is given a voice), the Doctor openly questions her unreliability. Her
response is profound.</div>
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<i>I just want to say, you know, you have never been very reliable. </i></div>
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<i>And you have? </i><br />
<i>You didn't always take me where I wanted to go.</i></div>
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<i><b>No, but I always took you where you needed to go</b>.</i></div>
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The Doctor is stumped. He can't argue
back because he knows she is telling the truth. Every time he ended
up somewhere other than where he intended to go, it was for a good
reason. Usually she brings him to a place at a point in history just
in time to save the world (or universe) from a terrible
fate/destruction. Sometimes, it is for his own good or
character-building or that of his companion(s). Though he has many
narrow calls and sometimes he regrets (at least in part) the outcome,
I don't think he could ever say to the TARDIS, looking back, “Why
did you take me there?” There was always a reason for her taking
him off course and it was always for the good of him, his companions
and the universe as a whole.</div>
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It is in this respect, that the TARDIS
reminds us of the Lord. We often find ourselves in places where we
can't understand what is going on and why the Lord has let us end up
in that place. But without fail, whenever we look back, we can always
see how that was exactly where we needed to be at that point in time.
Whether for our own good, or for the good of others, all the things
in our lives that might look like accidents, really aren't. He always
takes us where we need to go.</div>
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<i>And we know that all things <b>work together for good </b>to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28)</i></div>
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<i><i>From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; <b>and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands</b>. (Acts 17:26)</i></i></div>
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<b>2. Outside of Time</b></h3>
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A second characteristic of the TARDIS
that reminds us of the nature of God, is the manner in which she
exists outside of time. I've never fully understood the mechanics of
TARDIS time travel (I don't think it's ever fully explained), but we
know she enters this tunnel that exists outside of time and space (the time vortex) and
from there she can take the doctor to any point in the universe and in history. We see this in <i>The Doctor's Wife</i> when Idris gets confused
about tenses and the past and present and starts talking about things
that haven't happened yet.</div>
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<i><i>The Doctor: Why am I a thief? What have I stolen?</i></i><br />
<i><i>Idris: Me. Are you going to steal me? You have stolen me. You are stealing me. Oh! <b>Tenses are difficult, aren't they?</b></i></i></div>
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We get an even more powerful idea of
this in <i>The Parting of Ways.</i> Rose, having absorbed the soul of the TARDIS makes the following famous speech:</div>
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<i><i>I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words...I scatter them, in time and space. A message, to lead myself here. You are tiny. <b>I can see the whole of time and space</b>, every single atom of your existence, and I divide them. Everything must come to dust. All things, everything dies. The time war ends. How can I let go of this? I bring life. The sun and the moon, the day and night. <b>I can see everything... all that is... all that was... all that ever could be.</b></i></i><br />
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The TARDIS herself can't usually create life, but in this particular situation (I'm never quite sure how much is TARDIS and how much is time vortex and what the actual difference is), we get the idea of how transcendent the TARDIS is with respect to our little closed sphere of time and space. Even the Doctor, who can travel in time, needs to physically travel backwards and forwards to experience different occurrences. The TARDIS on the other hand seems to exist outside of time and knows all things that have happened and will happen simultaneously. That, in fact, is how she was able to always take the Doctor where he needed to go.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
And so with God. He created time and
exists outside of it. To him tenses are meaningless (except in his
understanding of how they apply to us). He knows the beginning from
the end and has seen all the days of our lives before any has come to
be.</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<i>From everlasting to everlasting you are God.</i></div>
</div>
<i>A thousand years in your sight<br /> are like a day that has just gone by,<br /> or like a watch in the night. (Psalm 90:2b, 4)<br /><br />For thus says the High and Lofty One<br /><b>Who inhabits eternity</b>, whose name is Holy... (Isaiah 57:15a)<br /><br />Where can I go from your Spirit?<br /> Where can I flee from your presence?</i><div>
<i>If I go up to the heavens, you are there;<br /> if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.<br />If I rise on the wings of the dawn,<br /> if I settle on the far side of the sea,<br />even there your hand will guide me,<br /> your right hand will hold me fast. (Psalm 139:7-10)</i><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<h3>
<b>3. "This was when we talked"</b></h3>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_SORsAlDg6o/U4-DEM7btYI/AAAAAAAAC_s/8W8RF9dhirs/s1600/Idris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_SORsAlDg6o/U4-DEM7btYI/AAAAAAAAC_s/8W8RF9dhirs/s1600/Idris.jpg" height="161" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One peculiar characteristic of the
TARDIS is that although she is sentient and intelligent, she is not
usually able to communicate with the Doctor. There is no direct
interface between them and though the Doctor can speak to her (and it
seems she hears him), she does not speak back.</div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Except once. In <i>The Doctor's
Wife</i>, the soul of the TARDIS was removed from the machine and poured
into the body of a human woman, Idris. Suddenly she was given a
voice, and she could tell the Doctor things directly. They could
discuss past events (their running away together), their present
struggles, and even some hints about the future were given (“<i>the
only water in the forest is the river</i>”).</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While the circumstances are vastly
different, God too does not normally speak to us directly. His
communication with us, for the most part, is through what we can see
in the world he has created, from his revealed word (the bible), from the events that happen in our
lives, and sometimes through the mouths of others speaking on his
behalf. In Old Testament times, he revealed his Law to the patriarchs
and Moses and the prophets and for a long time that was all people had to go on as
direct communication from God. I suppose the Law might be compared to
the TARDIS instruction manual. Men in general had (and still have)
the same attitude to God's Law as the Doctor did to the manual: “<i>I
threw it into a supernova, because I disagreed with it.</i>”</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But once, just once, for a short
period, God, like the TARDIS, did communicate with us directly. This
was when he came to earth in the form of a human, Jesus Christ. As
Idris contained the soul of the TARDIS, so Jesus was the essence of
God poured into the body of a human. During this time, he explained
in person who God was, what he had done in the past and what would
happen in the future. Of course, Jesus did a lot more than this. In
the case of Idris, her “incarnation” was accidental (the work of
a hostile enemy), whereas Jesus' incarnation was intentional and
planned from before the beginning of time as the means by which God
would save humans from their sinful and doomed nature.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><i>In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word <b>became flesh and dwelt among us</b>, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1: 1; 14). </i></i></div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><i>God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days <b>spoken to us by His Son</b>, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the <b>express image of His person</b>, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Heb 1:1-3)</i></i></div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While the plan was different, and
Jesus' death was far more important to all people, there is one
similarity in their deaths. When Jesus was crucified, his enemies
thought they had won. They assumed that he was defeated once and for
all, but they were wrong. Jesus, because of his holiness and lack of
sin, could not remain dead, but was raised again to life triumphant.
So Idris, when House thought he had destroyed her, found that the
last laugh was not his. He made the mistake of trying to kill her in
her own TARDIS shell. He had placed her in a body that would not long
survive being inhabited by a TARDIS soul, but as the body decayed,
her soul was set free and able to return to it's true house.</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of the last things Idris says to the Doctor, before the soul of the TARDIS left her, was “<i>I'll always be here, <b>but this is when we talked</b></i>”. The TARDIS is still with
the Doctor, but they have reverted to the old manner of living. There
is no more direct communication, but they still live and travel
together. She is always with him and there for him, making sure he ends up exactly where he needs to be.</div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><i>Are you there? <b>Can you hear me?</b> Oh, I'm a silly old... Okay. The Eye of Orion, or wherever we need to go.</i></i><br />
<br />
So, when Jesus returned to heaven, the
time during which God lived on earth and communicated directly with
mankind was at an end. But we have the record of what he said and did
while he was here to encourage us and help us to understand better
what it is God wants from us as we live.</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<h3>
<b>4. "I stole you"</b></h3>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sb3AF0-ZMB0/U4-DEtlcLmI/AAAAAAAAC_w/Aco2TkWG7yc/s1600/clara+one.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sb3AF0-ZMB0/U4-DEtlcLmI/AAAAAAAAC_w/Aco2TkWG7yc/s1600/clara+one.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This has the potential for entering
muddy waters, but I don't think it needs to. Bear with me as I try to
make the point I have in mind. One of the most poignant (though also
humorous) moments in <i>The Doctor's Wife</i> is the following conversation:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><i>Idris: Do you ever wonder why <b>I chose you all those years ago?</b></i></i><br />
<i><i>The Doctor: I chose you. You were unlocked.</i></i></div>
<i>
</i>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><i>Idris: Of course I was. I wanted to see the Universe so I stole a Time Lord and I ran away. And you were the only one mad enough.</i></i></div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is a funny moment, but interesting
too. Which version of the story is true? Despite what she says, the
TARDIS does not hesitate to refer to the Doctor as “my thief”,
implying that she does not take full responsibility for their running
away together. I think the answer is that both versions are true. The TARDIS almost admits as much earlier on in the episode (when we still aren't entirely sure who she is): "<i>Then you stole me. And I stole you.</i>" The
Doctor wanted to run away, so he stole a TARDIS. The TARDIS wanted to see the universe, so she left her doors open for him to find her. The TARDIS
provided the means of escape, but there was also a desire on the part
of the Doctor to make use of those open doors and use the TARDIS as
his means of escape.</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is a terribly inadequate
description of what happens at salvation and I honestly don't want to
take it any further, but I like the idea of it as a springboard for
understanding the problem. I don't think we'll ever find the answer
to the question of how we come to salvation (of our own free will or by God's sovereign will) by asking which of the two options are the right one.
Like the question of whether the Doctor stole the TARDIS or the
TARDIS stole the Doctor, the answer isn't either/or. Both are
simultaneously true.</div>
<i></i><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i><i>If you <b>confess </b>with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10:9)</i></i><br />
<i><i><br /></i></i>
<i><i>For by <b>grace </b>you have been saved through <b>faith</b>, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Eph 2:8-9)</i></i></div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Also, this is probably taking things too far, but since I'm already here, one more point. The story of the Doctor's original departure from Gallifrey is a little bit more complex since
<i>The Name of the Doctor </i>aired. No longer is it simply a question of the Doctor or the TARDIS choosing each other. When I first watched the scene where Clara confronts the First Doctor, telling him to steal a different TARDIS to the one he was actually planning to take, I really liked the idea. But then I realised that it contradicted the TARDIS' version of the story from <i>The Doctor's Wife</i> where it is implied that he stole that particular TARDIS because she was the one with unlocked doors. We don't know anything about the other
TARDIS the Doctor was planning to steal before Clara intervened
(whether or not her – or his; do we have male TARDISes?) doors were
unlocked, or whether the Doctor was planning to break in somehow.
Whatever the story was, could I make a half-hearted suggestion that
Clara's role in this story was like that of an evangelist (by which I
mean any Christian sharing the Gospel with another person) who
pointed the Doctor to the right TARDIS?<br />
<br />
I'm gong to leave this issue here. (*hides from barrage of responses*)</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<h3>
<b>5. <i>The Doctor's Wife</i> (an unusual
marriage)</b></h3>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TKP6rOx8Gw4/U4-DHfoTflI/AAAAAAAADAA/KjxHYVUdVb4/s1600/tardis+work.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TKP6rOx8Gw4/U4-DHfoTflI/AAAAAAAADAA/KjxHYVUdVb4/s1600/tardis+work.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Finally, I always found the title of the episode <i>The Doctor's Wife</i> slightly confusing. I get the point
about the Doctor and the TARDIS being like an old married couple –
always together, often arguing, but sharing a deep respect, care and
love for each other. Amy put it best when she said <i>“Look at you pair. <b>It's always you and her isn't it? </b>Long after the rest of us have gone”.</i></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But at the same time, I found this
rather incongruous in the light of the Doctor's relationships with
his companions. If the Doctor was really, in some sense “married”
to the TARDIS, how dare he go about falling in love with Rose Tyler,
flirting with countless other women, and in the very same series in
which <i>The Doctor's Wife</i> takes place – marrying River Song?<br />
<br />
I should
probably put some context to my complaint. I read a review of <i>The
Doctor's Wife </i>before ever seeing an episode of<i> Doctor Who. </i>As a
result, I went into the first episode (and those subequent) with the
idea that the Doctor was in reality (secretly?) married to the
TARDIS. Remember, I had very little idea when I read the review of
who the Doctor was, what he was like and how his relationship with
the TARDIS and his companions worked. As I watched more and more
programmes, I realised where and how I had been mistaken in
understanding the Doctor's relationship with the TARDIS. But I still
felt slightly annoyed by the title <i>The Doctor's Wife</i>, if for no other
reason than that it had mislead and confused me.</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I get it now, of course. The
relationship with the Doctor and the TARDIS, while bearing some
resemblance to a marriage in its consistency, duration and their
care for each other is not in any sense a conventional marriage. As
discussed above, they can't even have direct conversations with each
other. It's a kind of transcendent marriage – they are soul-mates;
but in a very different way to how the Doctor and River could be called soul-mates.</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In fact, largely based on the
characteristics discussed in the previous points, the relationship
between the Doctor and the TARDIS is in some ways similar to that of
a Christian and Christ. We talk about “giving our lives” to him,
and much of the vocabulary of love and marriage can apply to a
Christian's relationship with Jesus. This does not mean that
Christians should all forego earthly relationships with other humans,
that we should dedicate our lives to him and never love or marry
a human being. On the contrary, he wants us to have relationships with other people as representative of the kind of relationship he has with us.<br />
<i><i><br /></i></i>
<i><i>Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body.... Husbands, love your wives,<b> just as Christ also loved the church</b> and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might <b>present her to Himself a glorious church,</b> not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. (Eph 5: 22-27)</i></i></div>
<i>
</i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The relationships between the Doctor and his
companions belong on a completely different
plane to his relationship with the TARDIS. They are not mutually
exclusive because they are not the same kind of thing. Just as we have
a love-relationship with Christ that does not contradict our
relationships with people. Of course, we need to be in relationships with people who will respect and understand our relationship with
Christ, in the same way the Doctor needs companions who respect the TARDIS and whom the TARDIS respects in return. The Church is described at
various points in the New Testament as being the Bride of Christ. We
can understand a little better how this works when we understand the
role of the Doctor as the husband of the TARDIS.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I hope by this post to have been able to share my thoughts on how we might be encouraged by characteristics of the TARDIS in understanding our relationship with God. You're welcome to disagree with any of my analogies because I'm sure they have problems.</div>
</div>
</div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-52824650608489019052014-01-17T17:51:00.000+02:002014-01-17T17:51:22.629+02:00Owl City and Doctor Who<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i><b>Spoiler Alert:</b> </i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><i>The following post contains various spoilers for different episodes from the new Doctor Who Series (1-7 and Day of the Doctor) and assumes a knowledge of the events in them. There is also reference to the 1996 Doctor Who film. I have tried to avoid spoilers for that, but have included some pictures from it.</i></span></span></div>
<br />
It's probably a good thing that I have no skill at making "fan videos", because if I did, I'd be really busy right now. I was given my second Owl City CD for my birthday last month (<i>All Things Bright and Beautiful</i>), and the more I listen to it, the more it seems to make a perfect soundtrack for montage videos of Doctor Who clips. I had already observed this tendency with my other Owl City CD (<i>Ocean Eyes</i>), but this one (probably because of it's implicit Space theme) seems even more conducive to the task. Since I'd rather not insult anyone with my poor video skills, I give you instead a written summary of how each song might be depicted using scenes, stories or characters from Doctor Who. (Any one who feels so inclined is welcome to attempt making these videos for themselves - just make sure I get to see them when they're done.)</div>
<br />
<h4>
The Real World</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It doesn't require much imagination to see how this song could be represented with Doctor Who imagery. The line "reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn't want to live there", could be applied to either the Doctor himself ("I've been running all my life"), or various of his companions trying to deal with the schism between the fast-paced adventure world of the Doctor and all of time and space, and the far more mundane, but in some sense "more real" world of their every day "doctorless" lives.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But I think the story best fitted to this song, is that depicted in the episodes <i>Family of Blood</i> and <i>Human Nature</i>. In this two-parter, the tenth Doctor makes himself human in order to escape a terrifying alien enemy family that are after him. In making himself human, he tricks even himself into believing a false backstory about his life (forgetting all his past life as the Doctor). As the disguised human John Smith, he falls in love with Joan Redfern, a nurse at the school where he teaches. When the deadly Family of Blood trace him down despite his disguise and attack the school, his companion Martha (who does remember when he was the Doctor) tries to get him to forsake his new-found human life and love and go back to being the Doctor so that he can defeat the enemy. It is an enormous struggle for John Smith to give up his imaginary life and return to (what seems to him a far less pleasant one, even if it is the real one).</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<h4>
Deer in the Headlights</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I confess I didn't really like this song at first. That is until I found a video someone had already made using (part of) the song to tell the story of the Doctor and River. I realised then that it describes her perfectly, although if I were to make a video, I would do it a little differently. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For the most part, a video to this song should contain scenes from <i>Let's Kill Hitler</i>. Selected scenes from <i>The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon</i>, would also be suitable. For the first verse, the bit in the parking lot would need to be of Mels driving through the corn field and the line that about "pepper spray" of her holding up the gun to the Doctor. The reference in the second verse to "black eyes and bloody nose" could be of River slapping the Doctor in <i>The Impossible Astronaut</i> or alternatively (and for greater emotional effect) her knocking him out in <i>Forest of the Dead</i> (just before she takes his place and sacrifices herself for him). In fact, there's probably time to fit both scenes in. The line "put your sunglasses on" would have to be the scene from <i>Time of Angels</i> where she jumps out of the Byzantium (wearing sunglasses) and is rescued by the Doctor. The line in the chorus "I never knew love could shine so bright" can make use of the scene where she saves him in <i>Let's Kill Hitler</i>, or the wedding kiss in <i>Wedding of River Song</i>.</div>
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<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Angels</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This one seems pretty obvious. In fact it was probably this song that gave me the idea of making Doctor Who comparisons in the first place. There are two obvious things you can do with this song: use footage from <i>Blink </i>and tell the story of Sally Sparrow, or do a piece on Amy: either using scenes from <i>Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone</i> or make a farewell piece for her and Rory using <i>Angels Take Manhattan</i>. A combination of scenes from some or all of these would also work, and in fact, this has been done to great effect if you search on youtube.</div>
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As I was thinking over it, and listening to the song, however, it occurred to me that we could take this in a completely different direction. The angels in the song are meant to be more like traditional angels (and therefore good) and I was thinking of Madame Le Pompadour's title for the Doctor, "my lonely angel". I think someone could make a good video using this song to tell the story of the Doctor and Reinette. The line "flicker in the fake fireplace" could be accompanied by one of various scenes involving Reinette's fireplace. The reference to a note on the rocking chair that says "I've been dreaming of the life I once loved" could show the Doctor reading Reinette's final letter to him. "I believe there are beautiful things seen by the astronauts" could show the scene where the doctor pulls of the droid's disguise and comments on how beautiful it is.</div>
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<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Dreams Don't Turn to Dust</h4>
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The obvious choice for this song, would be the episode "Amy's Choice". Not only is this episode about two different dream worlds (of which Amy thinks she has to choose which is the real one) but the decisive moment is when Rory is literally "turned to dust" by the creepy alien plants that have taken over the old people. Scenes in the sleepy countryside of Upper Leadworth, as well as of the freezing sun would fit in well with this song. The line "when diamonds boast that they can't be crushed" should show the doctor getting rid of the psychic pollen that caused the dreams in the first place. And the line "river blue", would have to have some sort of reference to River, even though she isn't in the episode.</div>
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<h4>
Kamikaze </h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This song makes a good soundtrack for River and the Doctor's crazy relationship. What it needs is lots of random fast-paced switches between various fun and crazy scenes of the two of them. Some lines/clips that could match up:</div>
<ul>
<li>"princess in her flower bed" - River as Cleopatra</li>
<li>"the jungle" - the Doctor and Amy reading River's rock inscription</li>
<li>"kamikaze over me" - River falling on top of the Doctor when he rescues her/River jumping off the building</li>
<li>"captain on a snowy horse" - the Doctor smashing the window on Arthur (okay, that's got nothing to do with River, but it's the right scene to use)</li>
<li>"not afraid to die alone" - River's death scene</li>
<li>"Midnight melody" - Well there are various options for that</li>
</ul>
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<h4>
</h4>
<h4>
Galaxies</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The title of this song is enough to warrant a Doctor Who video and there are numerous things we could do with it. While I was listening, however, to the bit where they repeat the word "galaxy" in the background, I thought it would be cool if someone rerecorded a parody of the song that used the word "Gallifrey" in place of "galaxy". With that (and even without it) it would make a fairly good backing track to <i>Day of the Doctor</i>, for obvious reasons. Lines that would be appropriate to the story-line are "tick off the time bomb" (showing the moment/bad wolf/Rose), "kiss the planet goodbye", "when the galaxies crossed and sun went dark" and "saving grace of the galaxies [or Gallifrey]". Since the song refers directly to God in some places, I wouldn't mind a few other words being changed to make it more appropriate, though for the most part I think the original words could be kept.</div>
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<h4>
Hospital Flowers</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
At first I couldn't think of anything for this song, and then I thought it might make a good soundtrack for the 1996 Doctor Who Movie with the (7th and) 8th Doctor and Grace. I know not everyone has seen the movie, so I won't go into specifics, but the fact that the line "Grace had finally found its way to me" appears in it makes it work well. And also, there just aren't enough 8/Grace videos out there.</div>
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<h4>
Alligator Sky</h4>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
There are two versions of this song (with and without a rap part). Either way, it needs to tell the story of someone "left behind" while another goes off on an adventure with the Doctor - "Where was I when the rockets came to life and carried you away into the alligator sky?"<br />
<br />
So I thought it would make a good video of Donna and the Doctor's adventures from the point of view of Wilf, her grandfather. "I used to catch a cab on a Monday now now the taxi's selling lights on the runway," could be accompanied by scenes of the Doctor trying to rescue Donna from the runaway taxi in the TARDIS from <i>Runaway Bride</i>. Another option for this song would be to tell Mickey and Rose's story from Mickey's point-of-view (something I haven't seen yet).</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
I've left a couple of songs from the CD out because I couldn't come up with really good "stories" for them. <i>The Honey and the Bee</i>, might make a good Donna/Doctor video showing various scenes from their adventures. <i>Plant Life</i> might be fun to use for a montage of all different scenes from different episodes (the Doctor and Rose waltzing from <i>The Doctor Dances</i>, scenes from <i>Hide </i>or <i>Army of Ghosts</i> for the ghost references and scenes from <i>The Runaway Bride</i> for the reference to spiderwebs). I've struggled to come up with anything good for <i>Yacht Club</i>.<br />
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If you aren't familiar with the songs, you should be able to find most of them on You Tube. If you aren't familiar with the episodes - what are you waiting for? ;-) </div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-27763488250313730002013-10-16T17:23:00.000+02:002013-10-16T17:23:55.185+02:00The Magician's Nephew: Photographs<h2>
Summer Challenge '13</h2>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5wYWTclUCSU/Ul6uYCYfTtI/AAAAAAAACqY/HK-STkziK5E/s400/Wood.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="300" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i7w1354a8qs/Ul6uZqDQRCI/AAAAAAAACqg/T0gE6tNGFzA/s1600/charn2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i7w1354a8qs/Ul6uZqDQRCI/AAAAAAAACqg/T0gE6tNGFzA/s400/charn2.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beaumaris Castle, Anglesey</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Worcester College, Oxford</td></tr>
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<br />Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-19422197562526845132013-10-16T17:13:00.000+02:002013-10-16T17:15:34.110+02:00The Magician's Nephew: Chapters 4-5<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<h2>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Summer Challenge '13: The Atlantis Connection</span></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As
I mentioned on the first day, I’ve always been fascinated by Atlantis
and its role in the Narnia universe. And one of the things that’s
puzzled me for a number of years is the fact that I’ve always associated
it with Charn. When I read the description of Charn – old ornate stone
buildings, terraces, the whole palace complex – it has the feel to it of
descriptions of the lost continent. It has the feel of a society highly
advanced, powerful and cruel. And then there’s the desolation. While
it’s true that from the earliest myths, Atlantis was lost by drowning,
the result is that most stories of its “discovery” involve the discovery
of an ancient and now crumbling city (sometimes underwater, sometimes
not) and Charn seems so accurately to mirror those depictions. After
Jadis is awakened, my sense of connection between Atlantis and Charn
grows, as we learn a little about the history and people and culture of
Charn. She refers to slaves, sacrificial drums and terrible battle. And
then there is Jadis’ story itself, so full of arrogance and the desire
for absolute power. It was arrogance of this sort that led to the
downfall and destruction of Atlantis in the old myths. The way Jadis’
ancestors are described as looking grimmer, prouder and crueller in the
Hall of Images as time wears on, points to an increasingly arrogant
society.<br /><br />Yet despite all these connections, I’ve never been able
to convince myself that there is any real link between Charn and
Atlantis. There’s nothing in the story that suggests that there should
be. The dust that Uncle Andrew uses to make the rings comes from
Atlantis, and the Atlanteans somehow got it from the Wood Between the
Worlds. The Wood has pools leading to all worlds, and Charn is just one
of those many worlds. Ours is another. Charn is the one Digory and Polly
arbitrarily pick to explore. There is no reason that Charn should be
related to Atlantis any more than our world or Narnia. For these reasons
I’ve never pursued the links that I noticed between the two.<br /><br />But
after reading the chapters that describe Charn, I’ve been thinking
about it some more. And there might be a way of accounting for the links
and attributing them to more than mere coincidence. I’ve often wondered
whether the Atlantis to which Uncle Andrew refers was really another
world; another world of which rumours had come to our world many years
ago; rumours which had been passed down in legend. That at any rate
would account for there not being any trace of it in our world today.
But that introduces other problems, and Uncle Andrew talks of it as a
civilisation in our world and by removing it from our world, we lose the
legends of its wars with Greece and many other accounts in which it is
really a civilisation of our own.<br /><br />But what if Atlantis was indeed
a civilisation in our world, but one that had links with another? A
colony from another world? We know that the Atlanteans must have had the
ability to travel between worlds (at least between our world and the
Wood) and so if the people who settled Atlantis were really from another
world that had the power of inter-world travel; could they not have set
up a colony in our world? That would account for the advanced
technology and skill that the Atlanteans possessed in so many versions
of the myth.<br /><br />And if Atlantis were a colony of another world, that
world might have been Charn. That way we have an explanation for the
similarities in architecture and culture and the apparent pride of the
race, but maintain the more traditional accounts of Atlantis as a place
in our world that was drowned when its people became too proud. In fact,
I’d even suggest that what caused the downfall of Atlantis was an
attempt by one among its people to use the Deplorable Word to gain a
victory. We know Charnian magic doesn’t work in our world the way it
does in Charn, so instead of destroying all living things, the uttering
of the word destroyed only the continent of Atlantis, drowning it in the
fury of the sea. <br /><br />One problem still remains. It is purely
coincidence that the world from which the Atlanteans originated was the
exact same one that Digory and Polly chose to explore; coincidence that
the society that had the dust from the Wood between the Worlds,
originated from the one world that our heroes chose to visit. We could
call it coincidence and leave it at that. Maybe it happened to be the
pool closest to our own. Or maybe there was more going on. We know that
Jadis set up the bell and hammer in the hopes that a magician would come
and awaken her from sleep and take her to a new place that she could
conquer. So perhaps her magic was at work beyond the realms of Charn
itself, working in the Wood to draw Digory and Polly towards it. It was
not coincidence, but Jadis’ spell that made them choose that pool. And
why not? If the dust from the Wood from which the rings were made had
belonged to those in Atlantis who were colonists from Charn, maybe magic
of Charn could work through the dust and the rings. After all, perhaps,
knowing something of the Colony of Atlantis, Jadis was hoping that it
would be someone from Atlantis itself, a relation with similar magic,
though one inferior to her, that would come and rescue her.
Unfortunately Jadis’ plan went a little awry, and it was the non-magical
nephew of a weak dabbler in magic, many generations since Atlantis
itself was destroyed purely on the search for an adventure that woke her
up instead.<br /><br />Finally, I’d like to suggest that there were some
survivors of Atlantis. Just a few. These, as suggested in Stephen
Lawhead’s Taliesin, escaped by boat and arrived at last on some shore,
perhaps England itself. These survivors, of a different race to ours,
kept to themselves and had strange practises, even “magic” of a sort.
They became the fair folk, or faerie of British legend. For the most
part, they died out, but a few fell in love with humans from our world
and married them. Generations later, the descendants of one of these
survivors was Uncle Andrew’s godmother, Mrs Lefay. She really did have
fairy blood in her, and it was by her connection with Atlantis that she
inherited the small chest of dust from the Wood Between the Worlds.</div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-59152268252500030182013-10-16T17:10:00.002+02:002013-10-16T17:15:11.438+02:00The Magician's Nephew: Chapters 3-4<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Summer Challenge '13: Digory Kirke</span></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I’ve always
thought of Edmund and Eustace as characters that start out quite nasty
and then, through their adventures and encounters with Aslan, they
develop and mature. I’ve never really thought of Digory as belonging to
the same category as these two boys, but when you think about some of
his actions in these two chapters, he has a good number of character
flaws and, as others have pointed out, is not unlike his uncle. Don’t
get me wrong, he’s much better than Uncle Andrew, seen clearly in the
fact that he is willing to go and rescue Polly, when Uncle Andrew won’t
even dream of going himself. But once he finds Polly, rather than
getting her safely back home, he bullies her into exploring a different
pool.<br /><br />After coming up with the idea of exploring another world,
he loses all sense of caution, and gets angry with Polly for resisting:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“Well even if you can-” began Polly, but Digory went on as if he hadn’t heard her.</span><br /><br />Later
he makes a fuss, even to agreeing to Polly’s plan to go halfway into
their own world before trying another pool. He’s so annoyed about the
delay, that he very nearly makes one of the most terrible mistakes of
his life, by running off without marking which pool leads to our world.
After this, he doesn’t apologise, but becomes all defensive arguing with
Polly which leads to a several minute long quarrel between the two.<br /><br />Once
they arrive in Charn, Polly does not like it from the start, but Digory
continues to ignore her feelings and cares only to satisfy his own
curiosity. When Polly suggests they go home, Digory accuses her of
cowardice to convince her into exploring with him.<br /><br />And then they
find the bell. It’s hard to know how much Digory is effected by the
magic of the place and how much he is using it as an excuse to indulge
his curiosity, but the following lines are telling.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“I
expect anyone who’s come as far as this is bound to go on wondering
until it sends him dotty. That’s the Magic of it, you see. I can feel it
beginning to work on me already.<br /><br />“Well I don’t, said Polly, crossly. “And I don’t believe you do either. You’re just putting it on.”</span><br /><br />To which Digory retorts that she knows nothing ’cause she’s a girl.<br /><br />Polly replies: <span style="font-style: italic;">“You looked exactly like your uncle when you said that,”</span><br /><br />To which he replies: <span style="font-style: italic;">“Why can’t you keep to the point?...what we’re talking is-”</span><br /><br />At
this moment, Digory does not only look like his uncle, but he sound
just like him. Remember Uncle Andrew used very similar phrases to Digory
during their conversation about the rings? Whenever Digory brought up
Polly’s safety, Uncle Andrew reprimanded him for going off topic, not
sticking to “the point”. And yet here Digory does the exact same thing.<br /><br />Another
heated argument ensues between the children, Digory calling Polly a kid
and Polly threatening to leave him behind. And then the crucial moment
follows:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“None of that!” said Digory in a voice even nastier than he meant it to be [again sounding very much like his uncle]…<br /><br />I can’t excuse what he did next except by saying he was very sorry for it afterwards (and so were a good many other people)…</span><br /><br />He grabs and twists her hand (which hurt her quite a bit) and reaches for the hammer, striking the bell.<br /><br />In
this moment, his growing selfishness and lack of concern for Polly,
reaches its climax, and he gives in to the temptation of the bell, which
results in a great deal of harm to many people. But that’s well,
another story (as a matter of fact a whole series of stories called <span style="font-style: italic;">The Chronicles of Narnia</span> ;-) ).<br /><br />Don’t
get me wrong, I don’t dislike Digory as a character. And like Edmund
and Eustace he grows through his adventures and encounter with Aslan.
While he doesn’t understand why Polly wants him to apologise on their
return to England, by the end of the book, I’m sure he looks back on
what he did and said to her in the Woods and Charn and regrets it very
much.<br /><br />But here I’ve highlighted some of his faults and the way
his poor character and attitude led up to the moment where he struck the
bell. There’s a thread on the forum about whether he sinned by striking
the bell. I’m not sure quite how I feel about that, but if we look at
his behaviour and attitude leading up to that moment, it seems that he
was already on his way down a selfish path before he ever saw the
tempting verse.</div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-21487817986850246162013-10-16T17:06:00.000+02:002013-10-16T17:15:46.422+02:00The Magician's Nephew: Chapters 1-2<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Summer Challenge '13: Questions </span></h2>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of the most
intriguing and endearing things about Lewis’ writing is that he so often
throws out random references to things he never elaborates on. Passing
references that have little to do with the story, but when you stop to
think about them, they point to countless other untold stories or
adventures. Stories we catch only that brief passing glimpse of and are
given nothing further; tantalising glimpses (in the literal meaning of
the word). It is these that can often lead to fan fiction or other types
of musings as people try to imagine what story might underlie that
briefest glimpse.<br /><br />There are a number of these in the first couple chapters of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Magicians Nephew</span>.
The first is Digory’s past. We learn that before coming to London,
Digory lived in the country, in a house with an apparently large
property with a river at the bottom of the garden and room for a pony
whom he loved. This is all we get of his childhood before moving to
London and yet it makes me wonder what amazing stories and adventures
the young Digory must have had before his real adventures even began.<br /><br />And
then there’s Polly. Her life is fascinating and yet we get to learn so
little about her family and background. It is only in these initial
chapters that we get told a tiny bit; especially, the fact that she was a
child with a vivid imagination and able to occupy herself during her
recreational time most pleasantly. She had built for herself a secret
“smugglers cave”; a place of retreat where she kept her treasures, and
would retire to to enjoy a quiet bottle of ginger beer and to work on
her story. Her story? Now how is that for tantalizing? Wouldn’t you,
like Digory, just love to know what it was that she was writing? I
wonder if she ever became a more accomplished writer; if in later life,
she ever published anything? After her adventures in The Wood between
the Worlds, Charn and Narnia itself, can you imagine the creative
stories she might have written? I can just see her writing out an
imaginary history of Charn.<br /><br />Another question is about Digory’s
dad. We know much about his mother, but very little about his father
except that he was called away to India. My first guess is that he was a
soldier called to serve in India which was still a British colony in
those days. I suppose he also might have been some kind of government
official or representative. Wouldn’t you just love to know what
adventures he got up to in India? And what stories he must have had to
tell his son coming back? I wonder if Digory was ever brave enough to
tell his father that he’d been to places even further away than India?<br /><br />Another
mystery I don’t believe is ever solved (unless it is later in the book
and I have simply forgotten) is what really lies in the empty house one
over from Digorys. After all the build-up in the first chapter, it is a
little bit disappointing that we never find out whether the house was
haunted, secretly inhabited by someone who only came out at night with a
dark lamp, if it was the den of a gang of criminals or if it really
just had bad drainage. On the other hand it’s almost like Lewis does
this on purpose. By keeping the empty house a mystery it remains
appealing. If we knew the truth, it might turn out to be one of the
uninteresting explanations grown-ups had and the story would lose some
of its charm.<br /><br />Another mystery is Uncle Andrew and his study.
Although we know much about Uncle Andrew’s awful character and
motivations, I’m really curious to know how he occupied his days before
Digory and Polly stumbled upon his office. What was in all those books?
He had a lot of them. We know a little, that he spent a lot of time and
effort discovering what was in the box from Atlantis and how to make the
rings, but what other tricks and experiments was he up to?<br /><br />And
probably the greatest and most tantalising question of all is who was
Mrs Lefay and what in the worlds did Atlantis have to do with it all?
I’ve loved the story of Atlantis for a long time, and especially since
doing a module on it in one of my university classics courses. But Lewis
tells us so very little. How did Atlanteans get dust from the Wood
between the Worlds? What did they do with it (they hadn’t made it into
rings)? How did it survive the downfall of Atlantis? How did Mrs Lefay
get hold of it? How did Uncle Andrew figure out that rings were the way
to make the dust work? How did he make the rings? So many questions
never answered and left up to our imagination. Oh Lewis!<br /><br />Mrs
Lefay is especially interesting in light of the fact that (as someone
years ago on TLC pointed out in a discussion thread) she shares her
surname with an enchantress of Arthurian legend, Morgan LeFay. Did Lewis
intend a direct connexion? We are told that she had fairy blood in her,
and in old British legends the women like Morgan Lefay were associated
with the faerie or fair folk (the “fay” part meaning something like
“fairy”). Interestingly, in Stephen Lawhead’s Arthurian <span style="font-style: italic;">Pendragon Cycle</span>,
he equates refugees who escaped the downfall of Atlantis to Britain
with the fair folk of such legends and people such as the Lady of the
Lake, Merlin and a character that bears some resemblance to Morgan LeFay
are Atlanteans and therefore faerie in his stories. I’m fascinated to
know whether this is purely coincidence or whether Lawhead was drawing
on a mythology that equated the faerie with Atlantis; a tradition Lewis
himself was a acquainted with. I’d like to do some more research into
this at some point, to see if there is anything to it. A last question
regarding Mrs Lefay. Wouldn’t you love to know what she was imprisoned
for?<br /><br />So there we have it. The story has barely started and
already Lewis has posed so many questions by hinting at elements of the
story we never get to learn more about. But as I’ve suggested above,
this is very much what makes Lewis such a good writer and this such a
good book. It is full of mystery and much of the mystery must remain
thus to add to the quality of the story. It is up to our imaginations
and our unfortunately poorer skill (on my part anyway) to come up with
our own answers to these questions and to explore these untold stories
in more detail.</div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-64032541262358842842013-02-05T01:56:00.000+02:002013-02-05T01:56:02.470+02:00Trotter: A description of the development of the character Aragorn <div class="WordSection2">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jyAYeE7HBrc/UMs6O19tXWI/AAAAAAAABpU/fbeYoNZ_rPc/s1600/Trotter.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jyAYeE7HBrc/UMs6O19tXWI/AAAAAAAABpU/fbeYoNZ_rPc/s200/Trotter.png" width="158" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Trotter</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> was the name
originally used for the character who would eventually become Strider (Aragorn)
in J. R. R. Tolkien's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lord of the
Rings</i>. This character underwent a series of developments and name changes
before reaching his final identity. One of the things which was consistent
throughout was the use of Trotter as his pseudonym. It was only after the story
was complete that Tolkien decided to change it to Strider. It is important to
note that Tolkien did not have the full plot of the story, or its background
planned-out when he started writing. Rather, he “discovered” it as he wrote.
This is the reason for the complex development of many of his characters.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Liberation Serif","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "DejaVu LGC Sans"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"></span><br />
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<h2 style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Trotter_the_Hobbit"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">Trotter the Hobbit</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-0"></a><span lang="EN-US">Trotter appears for the first time in the inn at Bree as a peculiar
hobbit of whom very little is known. Trotter is initially described as
"[A] queer-looking, brown-faced hobbit…He had an enormous mug…in front of
him and was smoking a broken-stemmed pipe right under his rather long nose. He
was dressed in dark rough brown cloth, and had a hood on in spite of the
warmth, − and very remarkably, he had wooden shoes!"<sup>1</sup> The
innkeeper, Barliman Butterbur also refers to him as a “Ranger<span style="color: black;">”</span> (which at that time meant nothing more than “one
of the wild folk”), who speaks little, but can tell fascinating stories. He is
a frequent visitor at Bree, but no-one knows his real name.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";">Despite being nothing more than an
outlandish hobbit, Trotter’s role in the early drafts concerning Bree is very
similar to that of Aragorn (Isildur's heir) in the final text of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lord of the Rings</i>. He manages to
persuade Bingo (which was the name given to Frodo at that stage of writing)
that he is a friend of Gandalf, and leads the hobbits on the perilous journey
from Bree to Rivendell.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";">Whilst writing, Tolkien was continually
plagued by the question, “Who is Trotter?” This character, who had appeared
from nowhere, had not been planned and yet he seemed to be someone of great
importance. It would take a very long time before the answer to this question
was settled in his mind.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-2"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-1"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">After
reaching the arrival at Rivendell for that first time, Tolkien got to a point
where he was unhappy with certain elements of the story. Before going back and
reworking the story from the beginning, he wrote down a series of notes
entitled "Queries and Alterations".<sup>2</sup> One of his notes
suggested that the Rangers should not be hobbits as originally planned. This
would mean that Trotter was not a hobbit either. He also suggested that if Trotter
was a hobbit [who associated himself with the Rangers] he must be someone that
is well known [to the other characters]. The latter suggestion was linked to an
early comment which Bingo had made in Rivendell, saying that there was
something familiar about Trotter. Tolkien made a proposal that he might be
Bilbo Baggins himself, but quickly rejected that idea. The reason that Bilbo
was not the main character in the sequel to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Hobbit</i> was that it had ended with the line “he lived happily ever after to
the end of his days…”.<sup>3</sup> On this basis,
Bilbo could not get involved in any further adventures.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-3"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">Another
suggestion was that Trotter was a hobbit named Fosco Took (later changed to
Fosco Boffin), a relation of Bilbo’s who had vanished from the Shire. This
suggestion was further considered the next time the question “Who is Trotter?”
arose. Then, in a collection of notes entitled “New Uncertainties and
Projections”, Tolkien wrote “Trotter turns out to be Peregrin, who had been to
Mordor”.<sup>4</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was not the Peregrin Took (Pippin) of the
final text, since the names of the hobbit companions were also undergoing
various changes. The reference was to Peregrin Boffin, a nephew of Bilbo, who
had mysteriously disappeared from the Shire when Frodo (now so called) was very
young. (Gandalf and Bilbo had been blamed for his disappearance.)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";">The idea of Trotter as Peregrin Boffin was
maintained for some time, making it into early drafts of Rivendell and beyond.
It is also in Rivendell, that we are given a hint as to why the hobbit,
Trotter, wore wooden shoes. While helping Gandalf hunt for Gollum, he had been
captured by the Dark Lord and tortured. The nature of the torture is never
revealed since, when he ceased to be a hobbit, the issue of the wooden shoes is
no longer present or in need of explaining. The only further hint that Tolkien
gives is a note in the margin which says that it would later be revealed that
Trotter had wooden feet. This, however, never happens and is the last we hear
of it.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";"></span></span></div>
<h2 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Trotter_the_Elf"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">Trotter the Elf</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-5"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-4"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">Tolkien
stopped working on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lord of the Rings</i>
for about a year. When he started again, he went back to the beginning, making
various changes. (Christopher Tolkien refers to this as the ‘’Fourth Stage’’ of
writing).<sup>5</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a note made before he continued, appears a
remarkable, but short-lived idea. It suggests that “Trotter is a disguised elf,
and friend of Bilbo’s”.<sup>5</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It then goes on further to propose that he is
a spy from Rivendell, sent out and pretending to be a Ranger. This idea,
however, was not taken very seriously.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Trotter_as_a_Man"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">Trotter as a Man</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-6"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">As has been
mentioned, Tolkien had from time to time had doubts about Trotter being a
hobbit and had even thought he might be a man. In a note, which may have been
written at the same time as the “elvish suggestion”, he considers this again.
Here, for the first time, Trotter is given the name Aragorn. He is also called
here “a man of Elrond's race”.<sup>7</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Elrond, of course, is not an elf, but one of
the Half-elven (or Peredhil), and is even described as such in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Hobbit</i>, which had been published at
that time. While the story of Númenor and the descendants of Elros (Elrond's
brother) was not fully developed, the germs of it were in existence, and would
come to be connected with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lord of the
Rings</i> as the character of Trotter developed. The story of the heirs of
Elendil, and Trotter’s connection with them, was still far from complete, but
this was the beginning of what would become a very important part of the story
and change the role of Trotter drastically.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";">The change did not come immediately,
though. Tolkien even left Trotter as Peregrin Boffin, the hobbit, at the
beginning of Stage Four. But not far into writing, he did change things and he
finally became a man.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-7"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">The next
important steps in Trotter’s development occurred in the subsequent drafts
concerning Bree. At first his physical description is the same as that given to
Trotter the Hobbit, except that he is a man, and his wooden shoes are omitted.
Gandalf’s letter which Frodo receives from Butterbur undergoes much
development. At one stage, Trotter even has an accompanying letter from Gandalf
to prove that he is who he says he is. In the first draft of his letter, he is
called “Aragorn, son of Celeborn, of the line of Isildur”.<sup>8</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
the first time his connection to Isildur is mentioned. (Isildur and his
association to the ring already existed, but his history and position were yet
to be explained.) A significant development in Gandalf’s letter is that of the
rhyme “All that is gold does not glitter.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";">There are numerous versions of the rhyme.
The first draft says:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="ListContents" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All
that is gold does not glitter;</i></span></span></div>
<div class="ListContents" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all
that is long does not last;</i></span></span></div>
<div class="ListContents" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All
that is old does not wither</i></span></span></div>
<div class="ListContents" style="margin-bottom: 14.4pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-8"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not all that is over is past.</i><sup>9</sup></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";">In the next draft a number of new lines
appear. The most significant are:</span></span></div>
<div class="ListContents" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Not
all that have fallen are vanquished,</i></span></span></div>
<div class="ListContents" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
king may yet be without crown</i></span></span></div>
<div class="ListContents" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
blade that was broken be brandished</i></span></span></div>
<div class="ListContents" style="margin-bottom: 14.4pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-9"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and towers that were strong may fall down.</i></span></span><sup>10</sup></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-10"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">The next
version is very similar to that given above, except that it has “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not only the crowned is a king”</i> and the
last line is “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And fire the doom of the
ring”</i>. Christopher Tolkien suggests that the reference to the crownless
king in these versions had nothing to do with Trotter at that stage. They were
simply a “further exemplification of the general moral”<sup>11</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the poem which was
that “things are not always as they seem”.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";">The broken sword, however, was
significant, as this was the first mention of the shards of Narsil. In the
final draft, Trotter would draw out the broken sword as proof of who he was.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-11"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">The sword was
to appear again at the council of Elrond (in the riddle of Boromir).<sup>12</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this
stage, Boromir’s city was called Ond (not Gondor). Here Tolkien considers, for
the first time, that Trotter’s fathers were kings there. But it would still be
a long time before he would develop the history of Gondor and Arnor, and
explain why the kings were now “exiles” in the North.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-13"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-12"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">The
development of Trotter’s connection to Ond was long and complex, as was his
association with Boromir, the man from Ond. The relationship between Boromir
(whose character was pretty much in the final form from the beginning) and
Trotter was uneasy from the start. As Tolkien wrote, ideas came to him and the
history of Trotter's ancestors developed. Much of this development took place
in drafts of "The Council of Elrond" as the history of the Ring was
being told.<sup>13</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Initially it is said that Trotter's fathers
were Númenórean kings who ruled over the non-Númenórean people of Ond. Sauron
raised a rebellion and the citizens drove their kings out of the land. It had
already been stated that Trotter was descended from Isildur, and Isildur was
already connected with the Ring. In subsequent drafts the story developed
further, till that of Elendil, his sons and the battle of the Last Alliance was
properly reached. At one time, Tolkien seems to have conceived only three
generation between Isildur and Trotter,<sup>14</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but this was not maintained as it contradicted
a number of previous statements implying that the battle of the Last Alliance
had been a very long time ago.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Names"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">Names</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-14"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">Tolkien had a
great deal of trouble deciding what Trotter’s “real” name was. Although Aragorn
was the first suggestion for his name as a man, it was changed a number of
times between Bree and Lothlórien. It was altered from “Aragorn son of
Celegorn” to “Elfstone son of Elfhelm” to “Ingold son of Ingrim”. Tolkien's
main problem with the name “Aragorn” was that it was an “elvish” name and that
would not do for Trotter who was a man.<sup>15</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was no longer a problem, however, when
the book was finished, since the Númeróreans could speak Elvish, and gave their
children elvish names. Surprisingly, Tolkien never explains the meaning of
Aragorn, though most of his other names are explained.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-16"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-15"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">When
Tolkien reached the initial texts concerning Lothlórien, he was using the name
Ingold for Trotter. But Galadriel's gifts would lead to another change.
Originally, it was Gimli the Dwarf who would receive the green emerald
(Elessar) from her. Gimli accepted the gift with the words “Elfstone shall be a
name of honour in my kin for ever”.<sup>16</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After writing this, Tolkien decided that he
would rather change Trotter’s name back to Elfstone and that he would be the
one to receive the emerald. On further revision, however, Tolkien decided to
change his name again to Aragorn. Elfstone (translated as Elessar) became an
assumed name, one which had been “foretold for him” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fellowship of <span style="color: maroon;">the</span> Ring</i>, p
391). The name of his father was changed from Keleborn to Eldakar to Valatar a<span style="color: red;">nd ..</span>.before reaching the final form, Arathorn.<span style="font-size: 7.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: 12.0pt; position: relative; top: -12.0pt;">17 </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">In the margin
of drafts of the chapter entitled “The Last Debate”, Christopher Tolkien notes
the presence of a remarkable passage. It is a conversation between Merry and
Gimli in which Gimli says that the folk of Lebenin have been calling Trotter
the “Lord of the Ring”.<sup>18</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Merry thinks it must be a trick, to make
Sauron think that Aragorn has and will use the One Ring. Gimli doubts this, saying
that Aragorn would never allow such a rumour to be spread, even to trick the
enemy, and that Elrond’s sons had also called him by that name. On another
scrap of paper, is a note that says that Galadriel must give her ring to
Trotter, but Tolkien immediately rejects this idea as it will leave Lothlórien
defenseless.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Further_Character_Developments"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">Further Character Developments</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK ";">From the time they left Lothlórien, the
role and character of Trotter had almost been fully realized. He was to do and
say much of the same things that Strider would in the final story; including
leading the company from Moria, and choosing not to follow Frodo to Mordor.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-19"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-18"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">One
significant feature which did not yet exist, though, was his relationship with
Elrond’s daughter, Arwen. This meant that when he first met Éowyn (Théoden's
niece), the interest which she showed towards him was not one-sided.<sup>19</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
notes, probably written after the first drafts of “King of the Golden Hall” <span style="color: black;">chapter, T</span>olkien even suggested that Aragorn would
marry Éowyn at the end of the story. He then had second thoughts, claiming that
Aragorn was “too old, lordly and grim.”<sup>20</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(He also makes an interesting comment here
that Éowyn would be Éomer’s twin sister, but this idea did not survive either.)
After this are other notes suggesting that Éowyn would die to save/avenge
Théoden, and that Aragorn did love her after all, and would never marry after
her death. This, however, was not the way things were to happen.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-23"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-22"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-21"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-20"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">The first
mention of Elrond's daughter is in reference javascript:;to the banner which she made for
Trotter that his fellow Rangers brought to him in Rohan.<sup>21</sup>span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her name is originally
Finduilas (The name of an elf in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Silmarillion</i>, and later that used for Boromir and Faramir's mother).
Tolkien does not give any hint here as to why she made it, and whether she had
any further part to play. The next mention of her is in a note (written during
the “Houses of Healing” chapter) concerning Tolkien's plans for the end of the
book. It says that Finduilas will come to Minas Tirith at the end.<sup>22</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the
note referred to in the section on <i>N</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ames</i>
(about Galadriel giving Trotter her ring) we find a suggestion that the reason
for this gift was that he was to marry Finduilas.<sup>23</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is only after the completion of the chapter
concerning “Mount Doom” (i.e. after the destruction of the One Ring) that we
hear of Finduilas again. In a sketch entitled “The Story Foreseen from
Kormallen(sic)” Tolkien again outlines his plans for the rest of the book. Here
it is said that Elrond, Celeborn and Galadriel will bring Finduilas to Minas
Tirith after Trotter's coronation.<sup>24</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There he and Finduilas will be married. The
next point in this note says “also Faramir and Éowyn”. This is the first hint
we have of their relationship, which may have simply developed out of their
being “stuck together” in the Houses of Healing.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-25"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-24"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">In
the first draft of the “Steward and the King” (at the end of which Trotter is
married) Elrond's daughter is still called Finduilas, and for the first time it
is explained that she is Galadriel's granddaughter.<sup>25</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a manuscript text which followed this
draft, her name is finally changed to Arwen. It is only in his working on the
appendices of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lord of the Rings</i>
that Tolkien records the full tale of Aragorn and Arwen to explain the events
of the book.<sup>26</sup></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Why_Strider.3F"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">Why Strider?</span></span></h2>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_ref-26"></a><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-field-code: " HYPERLINK \0022\0022";">Originally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lord of the Rings</i> was to have an
epilogue, a final chapter in which Sam tells his children stories of his
adventure.<sup>27</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the initial texts of this the king is still
called “Trotter”, showing that the pseudonym was maintained right till the end.
It was only on revision that Tolkien decided to change it to Strider. Why this
decision was made is never explained. One can only guess that Tolkien realised
Trotter had outgrown his name. What worked for an obscure hobbit with wooden
shoes, did not quite work for the heir to the throne of Gondor, even if he was
secretly living in exile.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h2 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="All_Trotter.E2.80.99s_Names"></a><span lang="EN-US">All
Trotter’s Names</span></h2>
<h3 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Hobbits"></a><span lang="EN-US">Hobbits</span></h3>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">Bilbo Baggins (short-lived idea)</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">Fosco Took/Boffin</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">Peregrin Boffin</span></div>
<h3 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Elvish"></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span></h3>
<h3 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">Elvish</span></h3>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Translations of the Elvish
form of Trotter, used by Glorfindel:</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span lang="EN-US">Padathir<br />
Rimbedir<br />
Duffinion</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span lang="EN-US">Ethellion <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Used by Bilbo, being the translation of “Peregrin”</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-US">Tarkil <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Used by Bilbo, meaning “Númenórean”</i><br />
This was changed to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dúnadan</b> in the
final version</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">Tarakil <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Used by
Trotter himself, being the Quenyan translation of “Trotter”</i><br />
This was changed to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Telcontar</b> for
“Strider” in the final version</span></div>
<h3 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Manish"></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span></h3>
<h3 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">Manish</span></h3>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Succession
of names:</span></i><span lang="EN-US"><br />
Aragorn → Elfstone → Ingold → Elfstone → <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Aragorn</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Alternate
versions of “Elfstone”:</span></i><span lang="EN-US"><br />
Erkenbrand, Elf-friend, Elfmere, Elfspear, Elfwold</span></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Alternate
translations for “Elfstone”:</span></i><span lang="EN-US"><br />
Eladamir → Eldavel → Eledon → Quendemir → <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Elessar</b></span></div>
<h3 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Rejected_Title"></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span></h3>
<h3 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">Rejected Title</span></h3>
<div class="MsoBodyText">
<span lang="EN-US">“Lord of the Ring”</span></div>
<h2 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="References"></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span></h2>
<h2 style="margin-left: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: 0cm; text-indent: 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">References</span></h2>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.35pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: 35.35pt; text-indent: -14.15pt;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="References1"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="Return_of_the_Shadow"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6131044708309645719" name="_note-0"></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">1. RS: 137-138. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">2. RS </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">3. RS: ??.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">4. RSw: 369-387. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">5. TI: 18. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">6. TI: 6. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">7. TI: 6-8. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">8. TI: 50. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">9. TI: 76. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">10. TI: 80. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">11. TI: 171. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">12. TI: 116 & 128. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">13. TI: 110-160. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">14. TI: 360-361. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">15. TI: 277-278. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">16. TI: 275 . </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">17. TI: ??. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">18. WR: 425-426. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">19. TI: p 445. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> 20. TI: p 448. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">21. WR: 307. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">22. WR: 386. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">23. WR: 425. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">24. SD: 52. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">25. SD: 58. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">26. PME: 262-270. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">27. SD: 114-135. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">References</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">RS: The Return
of the Shadow<span class="Quotation">,</span></span></i></b><span class="Quotation"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">J. R. R. Tolkien<span class="Quotation"> (1988), </span>Christopher
Tolkien<span class="Quotation">, (ed.), Boston: </span>Houghton Mifflin<span class="Quotation">. </span></span><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">TI: The
Treason of Isengard<span class="Quotation">,</span></span></i></b><span class="Quotation"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">J. R. R. Tolkien<span class="Quotation"> (1989), </span>Christopher
Tolkien<span class="Quotation">, (ed.), Boston: </span>Houghton Mifflin<span class="Quotation">.</span></span><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">WR: The War of
the Ring<span class="Quotation">,</span></span></i></b><span class="Quotation"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">J. R. R.
Tolkien<span class="Quotation"> (1990), </span>Christopher Tolkien<span class="Quotation">, (ed.), Boston: </span>Houghton Mifflin<span class="Quotation">.</span></span><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">SD: Sauron Defeated<span class="Quotation">,</span></span></i></b><span class="Quotation"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">J. R. R. Tolkien<span class="Quotation"> (1992), </span>Christopher
Tolkien<span class="Quotation">, (ed.), Boston: </span>Houghton Mifflin<span class="Quotation">.</span></span><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">PME: The Peoples of Middle Earth<span class="Quotation">,</span></span></i></b><span class="Quotation"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">J. R. R. Tol<i>kien<span class="Quotation"> (1988), </span></i>Christopher Tolkien<span class="Quotation">,
(ed.), Boston: </span>Houghton Mifflin<span class="Quotation">. </span></span></span></div>
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Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-88936433969341493412013-01-12T21:13:00.001+02:002013-01-12T21:13:36.455+02:00Birthday and Christmas Photos (2012)<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>This post contains photos of my Christmas and birthday presents mainly for the benefit of my family back home so they can see what I got. I've also included the birthday cake Averil made for me and a photo of my nissermen (Danish Christmas elves) </i></div>
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Christmas: Cross-stitch from Averil and Louis, Christmas Cake from Averil, Reindeer choc from Louis, Hobbit mug, alarm clock and string bookmark from Myriam, Hedgie-thimble from home</div>
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Birthday: Hand-cream from Averil and Louis (top left), card wallet from Myriam (bottom right), hedgie scarf, hair things, jewellery and face-cloth from home</div>
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Averil's cake and cross-stitch close-up</div>
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Close-up of Hobbit mug</div>
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Back of Hobbit mug</div>
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Close-up of thimble</div>
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From Kristi (owner of TLC): Hedgehog finger puppet from Las Vegas, Echidna 5c coin from Australia, Hobbit stamp from New Zealand and home-made moulded chocolates</div>
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Close-up of finger puppet, coin and stamp</div>
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Detail on coin</div>
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Moulded chocolate - Lucy of Narnia's magic cordial</div>
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Moulded chocolate - Hobbit acorn buttons</div>
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Birthday cake made by Averil </div>
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Home-made nissermen (traced on red card from computer print-out)</div>
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Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-32960836380618000152013-01-11T20:11:00.000+02:002013-01-11T20:11:43.763+02:00Post House Party: On the Mountain Top and in the Low Country<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i></i></span></span><br />
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Earlier this week, we had the annual OICCU (Oxford Inter-Colligiate Christian Union) retreat or "House Party". We had an awesome time spent in worship and prayer and hearing from God's word as we prepared for the term ahead and sought his will for how we should be serving him in Oxford as we planned for the mission week that will be held later this term. The post below is an edited version of something I wrote a few months ago on a passage from one of <i>The Chronicles of Narnia. </i>I hope it will be an encouragement to my brothers and sisters who were on House Party. The message and challenge is for me as much as anyone else.<i> </i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">“</span></b>Remember, remember, remember the signs. Say them to yourself when you wake in the morning and when you lie down at night, and when you wake in the middle of the night … <b>Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia. Here on the mountain, the air is clear and your mind is clear; as you drop down into Narnia, the air will thicken. Take care it does not confuse your mind. </b>And the signs which you have learned here will not look at all as you expect them to look when you meet them there. That is why it is important to know them by heart and pay no attention to appearances. Remember the signs and believe the signs. Nothing else matters.<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">”</span> </b>- </i>Aslan in<i> The Silver Chair </i>by CS Lewis</span></span></span></span><i> </i></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gppzfsr1rIc/UB-WbDBXFTI/AAAAAAAABd4/PzHFBprHv3U/s1600/eng_SC_lions_1990_box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gppzfsr1rIc/UB-WbDBXFTI/AAAAAAAABd4/PzHFBprHv3U/s200/eng_SC_lions_1990_box.jpg" width="200" /></a> The passage above comes from the beginning of the <i>The Silver Chair. </i>Jill Pole has followed her classmate Eustace Scrubb into Narnia. Eustace had been there before and after telling her about it the two hoped to get back into the magical world and thus escape from school bullies. Their "wish" is granted, though they later learn that it was not their desire to come so much as Aslan's need of them which brought them to Narnia. Instead of arriving in Narnia proper, they actually find themselves on a high mountain top which turns out to be part of Aslan's country (a place symbolic of heaven though with a more real physical presence in that world than heaven has in ours). Jill (partly though accident and partly through her own fault) finds herself alone in Aslan's country and has to face Aslan, the ruler and Christ-figure of Narnia on her own. He gives her instructions for a mission by which she and Eustace must search for and rescue Narnia's lost prince and heir. He tells her four signs which she must memorise that will guide them to the prince. After making her repeat them till she knows them off-by-heart, he gives her the warning above.<br />
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The most obvious "lesson" in this passage is that we should constantly immerse ourself in God's word and commands (pointing also to the importance of memorising scripture by heart), lest we forget what we know and believe about life and faith. But I think there is a secondary important point that Lewis teaches us here. Many of you will be familiar with the metaphor of “a mountain-top experience.” This refers to a point in time where everything is going well and we feel like we are “on top of the world.” In the Christian life, we use the phrase to describe times when we feel as though God has spoken to us clearly (not necessarily audibly, but in a manner which is unmistakeable). This very often happens on Christian camps or retreats, or in our case, House Parties. The sense of purpose, God’s purpose in our lives, is strong, and we feel like we could never doubt. We recommit our whole lives to God and vow to live wholly for him from now on.<br />
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But House Party is over, and as we find ourselves thrust back into the reality that is Oxford life, the "spiritual high" is likely to fade and all our convictions and resolutions with it. I’ve experienced it enough times to know this is inevitable. Someone wise once pointed out to me that this is both normal and healthy. We would not be able to function in everyday life if we were continually on a spiritual high. It would drain us and be unhelpful to both us and our service for God.<br />
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When I read the passage above a few months ago, where Aslan speaks to Jill on the high mountains of his own country, I couldn't help but see it as symbolic of the kind of mountain-top experiences we have from time to time, especially on occasions like House Party. I don't know if Lewis intended that metaphor but I do believe he was trying to impart an important lesson - especially when we read Aslan's warning to Jill:<br />
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<i>"Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia." </i><br />
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Isn't that true of the spiritual life? When we find ourselves in "the mountain tops" we hear God speaking to us clearly - but that is unusual and for most of life it is in more subtle ways that God communicates with and guides us. I think this is probably both part of his method of dealing with us, and because we let the business of life, like the "thickness of the air", confuse our minds.<br />
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Aslan’s warning to Jill was prophetic. Though he gave her every warning he could, when she got to Narnia she did allow the thick air to confuse her mind. The message and warnings of Aslan were not clear any more, and she allowed the cares of the road and their travel to distract her from “the only thing that mattered”.<br />
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By the time Jill and her companions (with whom she is tasked with sharing Aslan's message) find themselves at their first destination in the North, they have all but forgotten the signs that Aslan had given Jill for their mission. She had given up repeating them and they find themselves walking through the very place they are searching for completely unaware that they have found it. They are so taken up by rumours of a warm place to spend the night and hot baths and food that they not only miss the sign, but walk into what is almost a death trap. They had allowed their physical desires to interfere with remembering why they were there.<br />
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I think we are all aware of the danger as we get wrapped up in the stress of Oxford to forget the mission we felt God giving to us at House Party. But we are not without hope. As the antidote for Jill and her friends forgetting their mission was to repeat the signs daily, so we can remind ourselves of what God has called us to do by daily spending time in his word and prayer. I think another mistake that Jill and her friends made was that she tried to remember the signs on her own. While it is true that she had a better chance of remembering them well, as Aslan spent a good deal of time making her recite them over and over, had she only gotten her companions to join her in reciting daily, they might have stood a much better chance of remembering the signs together. And that is why Christian community is a good way of reminding ourselves of God's call on our lives. As we meet in college CUs and prayer meetings and take part in church activities, we are able to encourage one another and less likely to forget the clear calling we felt before.<br />
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This is also the reason we we need mountain top experiences (times when God speaks clearly to us) every now and again. But he does not do so all the time. The rest of the time it is our responsibility to make habits of spending time in God’s word, talking and praying to him, and reminding ourselves of his promises and commands. Or else the thickness of the air in the “low country” will confuse our minds and we will forget.<br />
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Thank God that in his grace, even when we are forgetful, he is still faithful and will nudge us back in the right direction. Aslan says to Jill, “Here on the mountain I have spoken to you clearly: I will not often do so down in Narnia,” and he keeps his word. Just when all hope is lost and the children have completely “muffed” the signs, Aslan appears to Jill in a dream to nudge her back in the right direction. In the same way, God does not always speak to us clearly as he does in “mountain top experiences”, but he will still speak to us in subtler ways, reminding us of what we have forgotten.<br />
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And so the lesson we can learn is this: God gives us moments of clarity when he speaks to us in an unmistakeable way. But for most of life, we live by faith and it is, in part, our responsibility to remember what he revealed on those mountain-tops by reminding ourselves daily. At the same time, God, in his grace, also speaks to us subtly. As a gentle father, he gives us hints to put us back on track when we have strayed. As you begin the term ahead with the memories of House Party still there but fading, do not despair. The emotional clarity might fade, but we have much opportunity to remind ourselves and be reminded by God and others of the mission he has given us.</div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-54826046600983503402012-09-22T19:13:00.000+02:002012-09-22T19:14:17.963+02:00The Doctor and Jesus<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>To many of my friends this will probably seem like a pretty crazy piece. It is pretty absurd, but it combines the two stories that I've been immersed in this week - Doctor Who, and The Life of Jesus as told in the Gospel of Mark. They don't really go together. I don't pretend they do. But having both in my head at the same time meant I couldn't help but make comparisons. Don't worry, I'm not going to say The Doctor is God incarnate or a type of Christ or anything like that. That would just be silly. And probably blasphemous. So...well you can read it if you feel so inclined and see what you think. </i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><span class="text Mark-2-17" id="en-NIV-24278">On hearing this, Jesus said to them, <span class="woj">“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17</span></span></span><span class="text Mark-2-17" id="en-NIV-24278"><span class="woj"><br /></span></span></i></blockquote>
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It's <i>Doctor Who</i> season. I had never seen an episode of <i>Doctor Who</i> before December last year, but I had a bunch of friends on TLC who used to talk about it all the time. So when I moved to the UK, it was inevitable that I'd get to watching it. Through the course of last year, I managed to watch many of the reruns of the new series on BBC and had seen up to the third episode of the Sixth Series when I went back home. Since the Seventh Series is now showing, I decided on returning to the UK to buy Series Six so I could watch the rest of it. I spent Monday and Tuesday catching up and was then left with a bit of that empty feeling you have when you've finished a good book or movie or TV series and there's no more. In the case of <i>Doctor Who</i> there is more - the currently airing Seventh Series but that means waiting a week for each episode. Which is fine - but it did mean I had a few days to stew over some of the mind-boggling events of the Sixth Series. And it was pretty mind-boggling.</div>
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Those who are fans will understand this. Those who haven't watched it or haven't been gripped by it won't. But there's something appealing and endearing about the Doctor and his adventures. Some of them - many of them - are seriously creepy, but his character and the friendships and the relationships he builds and the way he deals with impossible dangers, makes the story rise beyond the creepiness and get into your heart.</div>
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I don't know exactly what it is. Maybe it's his love for humanity, loyalty for his companions and the incredible way in which he continually saves the world/universe/individuals whom he cares about. Then there's stuff like his awesome wacky character, his sometimes flippant attitude in the most dangerous situations. Those who are fans, and have been for a long time, can probably express it better than me.</div>
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I guess in sum, the Doctor is just a really cool and likeable character and his adventures take you momentarily out of troubles of this world. I'm sure there are many who wish he was really real and envy those who travel with him wishing they too could have such adventures.</div>
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Unfortunately he isn't. And neither are his adventures. But there is some pretty awesome stuff going on in the real world that we should not let things like <i>Doctor Who</i> take our eyes off of.</div>
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A couple days after finishing Series Six, with all these things still in my head, I found myself trying to break free of the fantasy world and back to the reality that is analysing Greek texts for my thesis. Struggling to get back into the Greek, I had a sudden inspiration to read some of the New Testament (i.e. texts I know really well) in Greek. I have an interlinear Greek Bible (which means it has English translations of words under the Greek words. I know it seems like cheating, but for the sake of easing myself in, I felt it would be more beneficial than sitting doing nothing or struggling so much looking every word up that I gave up after a couple pages). I was going to go through Acts, but had a sudden inclination to tackle a Gospel instead. I picked Mark (it's the shortest). I've read Mark many times - studied it three times in about three years at Church/Youth. So I know it pretty well. My intention in reading this was for the sake of the Greek - not to get anything significant out of it. But sometimes God has other plans.</div>
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I have the distinct disadvantage of having been brought up on the Bible from a very young age. There are massive advantages in this too - and I am eternally grateful to my parents for this. But the disadvantage is that the accounts in the Bible are so familiar to me, it's difficult not to take them for granted. The amazing aspects of Jesus' life, the miracles he performed, the message he preached, the way he was treated by his enemies and responded to them, his death and resurrection, are all so well known in my head they often cease to amaze. I believe them to be true (a decision I made) and the truth does not change. But their impact is not usually very great.</div>
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One way I've found that helps me overcome my familiarity with the Bible is reading it in different translations. We are lucky in the English speaking world that we have so many different translations and "versions". And while the fundamental message does not change, reading it in different wording often brings to light things you may have ceased to notice in a more familiar version. The <i>Amplified Bible,</i> I think, is particularly good at this (not that it's my favourite translation - I don't even own a copy of it - but from hearing it quoted I think it would be good for this despite it's other faults).</div>
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You can probably guess where this is going. Reading Mark in Greek was reading it in a new version for me and, as a result, had the unanticipated effect of bringing the story to life in a new way. I know some people think the New Testament in Greek, since it is the original, must be the purist/most accurate form and are perhaps thinking that it was the fact it was Greek that it brought new meaning. I don't think that's true. Greek is not a super holy language and though there may be aspects of its vocabulary and grammar that bring a clarity of meaning which it is hard to convey in translation, it's by no means a perfect language and suffers from ambiguity as much as the next language. Maybe if my Greek was better it would be different, but the clarity and understanding you get from the Greek bible is only as good as your Greek allows it to be. Anyway, as I was partially relying on the English translated words in the interlinear form, some of the effect was completely lost.</div>
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But what did happen is that I read the text more slowly than usual - sometimes having to reread over parts. And I was reading it in unfamiliar terms. And these two things together contributed to the what happened while I was reading.</div>
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I wasn't far into the text (Mark makes the story move very quickly) before I was hit with a revelation I know to be true, but needed to be reminded of. With <i>Doctor Who</i> still in my mind, as I read about the amazing authority and power Jesus had in words and actions, and the way people were completely astounded by what he did, I was reminded just what an amazing person Jesus was. I say "was", though he still is amazing, because I'm referring to his human life on Earth. If I thought the Doctor was cool, well Jesus was off the charts.</div>
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The Doctor looks human, and often acts human, though he isn't really. He can do things that the humans he interacts with can't and that's one of the things that makes him special. As is his love for humans and our world. Jesus was human. Completely. But he is more than human and comes from beyond and before our world. Although much of his Godly power was veiled while he was on earth, little bits of it seeped through. As we read the Gospels, we see he has power over demons, over sickness, over deafness and blindness, over the elements, over food quantities, even over death. The people he interacts with recognise his unusual power and authority immediately. And the response is either to follow him (in different degrees - many followed him just because they wanted to witness more miracles, while others gave up their way of life to become his companions) or to fear (and try to get rid of) him.</div>
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When I read of Jesus' interactions with demons (there are quite a few accounts in Mark), I was put in mind a little of the Doctor's interaction with certain aliens. It doesn't work for all, but there are some to whom he just needs to say his name and they immediately fear him. In this case it's pretty easy for him to tell them to leave Earth alone and go back to wherever they came from. Of course this doesn't happen all that much, or the stories would be kind of boring. But with Jesus, the demons are so terrified they do exactly what he says. They just see him coming and beg for mercy.</div>
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I want to reiterate that these <i>Doctor Who</i> analogies are only coming up because I had them in my head. I'm not in the least inferring that the Doctor is some kind of Christ-figure or supposed to represent him or anything. They are so completely different and the concept of the Doctor was created without any religious connotations anticipated (if anything the complete opposite). But since I had "the Doctor is cool" in my mind when reading about Jesus, it was amazing to be reminded "so was Jesus - in fact he was cooler".</div>
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Something that comes out very strongly in Mark is that Jesus is being very careful about his popularity. The reason for this is explained more in the other gospels (I think John in particular): he is following a precise timetable. If he were to become too well known too soon, the plan would be jeopardised. Jesus' mission was to preach about repentance and the Kingdom of Heaven. And to train up his disciples to continue his message and mission after he was gone. Although he performed many miracles, his priority was always to preach. He healed the sick and demon-possessed as they were brought to him out of compassion. And the miracles confirmed to those who watched that he truly had authority from God, but they were secondary. His aim was not to heal physical ills but to heal people's spirits. For that, preaching his message and the culmination of his task (dying for the sins of all humans and rising again) were far more important than giving people temporary physical healing.</div>
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Continually, throughout Mark, we see him trying to downplay his miracles. When he cast demons out of people, he would forbid them from shouting out who he was (they recognised him as the Son of God) and he would tell those he healed or who witnessed a healing not to tell anyone else what he had done. This is not more clear than in the passage where he raises Jaris' daughter from the dead and tells those around him that "she's not dead but just sleeping". Only a few are allowed to witness the miracle, since raising someone from the dead is kind of a biggie. In fact the next time he does this - with Lazarus - it's not kept secret. And it pretty much seals his death warrant. </div>
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This playing down his miracles was strategic. If people realised his full power and who he was the two parties (those for and against him) would become too radical too soon. Those who believed in him would want to make him King and use him as a political figure to overthrow the Roman oppression (which they actually tried at one point - he conveniently disappeared at the time). Those who hated him would do everything in their power to make sure that never happened and have him killed (which would be easy for them if he was being advocated as an opponent to Rome's authority). As it was, he only had three years of ministry before things escalated to this point. But three years was enough. Less time would have been a problem.</div>
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And I believe that is why he was so protective of people knowing who he was. It's a little bit like the way the Doctor lives a precarious life because of his abilities, becoming easily surrounded by both those who love and practically worship him and those who hate and fear and want to destroy him. In Series 6, this reaches a crux. He becomes too big, so big in fact that a war pretty much breaks out around him. And plans are put in place to remove him from the equation. As this becomes known to him, he realises just how powerful he has become and accepts his fate that he will be killed. Of course, at first he tries to escape it, but in the end, knowing he cannot stop it, he accepts that it will be better for the world if he is no longer there to cause such division. In the end, a series of events spiral into place and it does not end in the way he anticipated. But at least he is off the radar for now and the world can forget about him for a while.</div>
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Okay, so Jesus' story is so completely different, and I'll get to that. But I think the way the Doctor realises he is too big and needs to die is a nice illustration of why Jesus didn't want everyone knowing who he was or what he could do too soon. Of course, Jesus story deviates completely at this point. He knew he had to die all along, but the reason was completely different. The very reason he came to earth in the first place and was born a human was so that he could die. His death was a sacrifice. Not for peace in a world aligned or opposed to him. If anything his death caused the opposite, as his new followers were continually persecuted for their faith in him (and the battle between those for and against him has never really ended). His death was the sacrifice for humanity that the punishment for mankind's sins could be taken on one man and mankind could receive forgiveness and redemption and be reunited with the God we forsook at the creation of the world.</div>
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The Doctor was prepared to die because he felt it would be better for the world/universe if he wasn't around. Jesus went to die because he knew it would be better for the world if sin were conquered and a way made for man to renew his relationship with God. And a significant difference was that Jesus knew he would rise again. He wasn't getting out of the picture - he was becoming the centre of it. Jesus' death wasn't about dying and ceasing to exist, it was about death (and the spiritual agony of a condemned man being forsaken by God) being the punishment for sin. Death wasn't the end because he was sinless and death could not hold a man punished for sins he did not commit.</div>
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The Doctor is such a likeable person and his imagined reality so attractive it's easy to wish it was real. But there was (I believe) a man who lived the most incredible life, had the most incredible power and saved the world in a way the Doctor would not even realise it needed saving. Not everyone believes Jesus is real, or he really did the things the Gospels tell us he did. But I believe them and that makes me so excited. And he loves our world more than the Doctor ever could. And he wants a relationship with each and every one who is willing. He wants us to be his companions and to go on adventures with him that would boggle the imagination of even the writers of <i>Doctor Who</i>.</div>
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Not everyone accepts this adventure. Like those the Doctor meets on his travels, some say "No thanks, I like my life, I couldn't travel with you." But for those that accept it, we're stuck on the adventure of a lifetime. And it never ends. No teary goodbyes. No moving on. Just a lifetime and then eternity with him.</div>
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We live in a pretty awesome world and serve a pretty awesome God.</div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-26893056071022657132012-09-04T20:48:00.000+02:002012-09-23T17:03:14.380+02:00Remembering You<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The following came about as a spin-off of my Susan Fiction, <a href="http://hedgepickle-susan.blogspot.co.uk/">The Lost Seed</a>. We know what Aslan said to Lucy and Edmund at the end of their last trip to Narnia - described in one of the most beautiful sections of the Chronicles. We are not, however, privy to the similar conversation which he had with Peter and Susan at the end of their last trip. We'll never know what transpired. But this is my imaginative attempt at describing how the conversation might have gone. The Chronicles of Narnia, land of Narnia and characters are not my own but the inventions of CS Lewis. As is the setting for this piece. BookVerse Only.</i></div>
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It was a beautiful morning. The early sun poured into the clearing as though all were newly made and fresh. The feast last night seemed far away, like some distant but pleasant memory. Peter and Susan sat together, deep in conversation. They discussed all that had happened, considered the merits of Narnia’s new young King, and wondered over what it was that Aslan planned to do with the prisoners and Telmarines who had been summoned to appear before him that day.</div>
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“All will be revealed in due course,” said a deep but beautiful voice, interrupting their discussion. “But that is for later. For now, will you walk with me son of Adam and daughter of Eve? There are some more pressing matters we must speak of first.” The two elder Pevensie children got up quickly and followed the Lion without a question. </div>
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For a while the three walked in silence, one child on either side of the Lion. Aslan told them then that he would soon send them back to their own world. They were not surprised at this, as they knew that they had accomplished what they came to do. Unlike last time, Narnia had a capable ruler, and their time in Narnia would be brief. Aslan ordered Susan to bring the children’s school clothes to the gathering later that day so they could change before he sent them back. They walked on a bit longer in silence, before Aslan stopped and spoke again.</div>
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“And now, son of Adam, Ddaughter of Eve, it is time we said our proper good-byes, before rejoining the others.”</div>
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The children turned to face him, taken aback by this. Why couldn’t he wait until they all bade their farewells together, with Caspian and the Narnians present, and Edmund and Lucy? Why this private parting? Susan felt the hairs on her neck stand up with a sense of foreboding.</div>
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“But we shall see you again soon, shan’t we?” asked Susan, voicing their surprise. As she looked into his beautiful deep eyes, so full of both the joy and pains that the weight of this world brought him, she thought she could see something almost akin to sorrow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though this seemed like far less painful a sorrow than before, it reminded Susan of another day, so very long ago, when she and Lucy had walked with him by night.</div>
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“Oh Aslan, what’s wrong?” she asked.</div>
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Aslan seemed then to smile, a kind of wistful smile. “Nothing at all is wrong, dear,” he replied “All is just as it should be. But this will be the last time you and your brother come to Narnia and the last time you see me like this. You are growing up, my children. Again. And this time it must be in your world.”</div>
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“Oh Aslan,” said Susan, burying her arms in his soft hair. Peter too, hugged his mane, but with less obvious emotion. It seemed almost as though he had expected that this day would come.</div>
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The Lion continued then, explaining why it must be so. “You children have been called to Narnia, twice now, for two reasons: for the sake of Narnia and for your own sakes. For the Narnians, that you might bring them hope and freedom. And for yourselves, that you might learn to have faith.”</div>
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After a short silence, Peter spoke up. “Faith in what, Aslan?”</div>
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Aslan looked into his eyes, as though baring into his very soul. “Not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in what</i>, son of Adam, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">faith in whom</i>? You have both served me well in this world. But now you must learn to serve me in yours.”</div>
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Peter and Susan looked at one another. They knew what he meant. They had often spoken before with each other about the unusual characteristics of Aslan, and they knew the similarities were not accidental. But Susan felt she had to ask the question.</div>
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“Aslan, does that mean…”</div>
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“I Am. You know, Susan, that I Am. You have always known this. And this is why I need both of you there now more than here. Your world is going through dark days. Some of the worst are yet to come, though a period of relief is not far off. I need men and women, boys and girls, who can stand for me in the days ahead. Narnia has been restored again, and the truth will be made known throughout the land. But in your world there is dire need of people to stand for what is right, just and true. I need you there.”</div>
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The children were silent again for a while. Peter spoke up first. “We will serve you with our utmost, as we have here. I will dedicate my life to studying your truth. And when I am a grown man, I will use the talents you have given me to make your truth known to our world as it is here.”</div>
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Aslan looked on him with pride mixed with something deeper, almost pity. “You speak well, son of Adam, and your motives are noble as they have always been. But be not too eager to grow up, and plan not too far ahead. Do what you can to serve me each day as it comes into your power.”</div>
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There again, was a hint of sorrow in Aslan’s voice, as if there were something he knew but could not speak of.</div>
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Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by a different voice calling out.</div>
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“Peter, there you are! Caspian is looking for you!” It was Edmund. Peter turned to Aslan questioning what he should do, and the Lion nodded.</div>
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“Go, son of Adam. Use these few remaining hours to share your wisdom with the new King of Narnia. And remember your resolution to serve me. Your sister will keep me company a little longer.”</div>
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As the two brothers walked off, Aslan turned back to Susan.</div>
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“I know I’m not as good as Peter, but I will try my best when I get back to our world,” the girl ventured, not sure exactly what to say.</div>
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“Susan,” he spoke gravely, “I do not doubt that you will try your best. But know that it’s not goodness I want from you, but faithfulness. And the power to stay firm will come from me, not your own resolve. Don’t forget that, Susan. Don’t forget me.”</div>
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“How could I ever forget you?” she asked, indignant.</div>
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“You will not see me in your world as you do here. I operate differently there, and the days of men seeing me in person came to an end at the fulfilled time. You know this, but you don’t realise how it can make the temptation to forget easier. Remember in the woods when Lucy could see me but the rest of you could not? Remember how easy you found it to dismiss her words as those of a child with a wild imagination?”</div>
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Susan nodded, tears beginning to well up. She felt rebuke and shame although she knew she’d been forgiven.</div>
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“Take that experience as a warning, Susan. For that is how it will be in your world.” Susan buried her head again in the Lion’s mane and he let her stay there for some time.</div>
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“Come, daughter of Eve,” said at last. “Let me breathe on you one last time and fill you again with courage. Your spirit is willing, but your will weak.”</div>
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As he breathed on her, his sweet breath, she felt his strength enter her mind one last time. But would it be enough?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-30198732054859600332012-08-16T15:49:00.000+02:002012-08-16T15:49:26.419+02:00In Defence of Language Study: What is Linguistics?<div style="text-align: justify;"><i> A little blurb on Linguistics for those of you wondering what on earth it is that I study...</i><br />
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Most people who have heard of Linguistics before know that it has something to do with languages. But beyond that, the general understanding of the subject becomes somewhat murky. As a relatively "new" and somewhat specialised subject, there is a lot of confusion around what it is all about and what linguists are actually interested in. The purpose of this post is to share a rough outline of what Linguistics is really about, at least in the understanding I have developed after studying it for the last five years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br />
</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>What is Linguistics:</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Traditionally we refer to it as "the science of language" but that is a slightly confusing and not very enlightening description. It is a science, but not a "hard science", and therefore belongs to the Humanities or Arts. Some might prefer to call it a Human Science, or even a Social Science, but not even these boxes are quite where it fits. It draws inspiration from a range of fields including: language teaching, literature studies, the classics, maths, the social sciences, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, geography, computer science, neuroscience, anatomy, medicine, acoustics, biology, genetics...the list could go on. In a way, it is one of the truly multi-disciplinary subjects. And yet it requires its own specialisation and jargon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>What Linguistics is not:</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are two common misconceptions regarding what Linguistics is about. Firstly, Linguistics is <i>not</i> about learning lots of languages. It is not about learning any languages. It is about understanding the phenomenon that is Language. A linguist does not need to be fluent in many languages. A person who is so would more appropriately be referred to as a Language Scholar, Language Expert or a <i>Polyglot</i>. Some linguists are polyglots. Some polyglots are linguists. The two are neither mutually exclusive nor mutually inclusive. Knowing many languages - especially different kinds of languages - will naturally contribute to understanding more about Language. But it is not a pre-requisite. If you are, like me, not a natural polyglot (you don't pick up languages easily or naturally) you can still do well in linguistics. Of course, as linguists, we deal with many different languages in trying to grapple with the phenomenon of Language. And to be a good linguist, it helps if you have had lessons in different languages and know things about the rules of their grammar. But learning <i>about </i>a language and its rules is not the same as being fluent in that language. And while fluency in many languages is preferable, it's not necessary. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The second misconception is that Linguistics is about "rules of grammar" - grammatical and linguistic "correctness". Most linguists are not "grammar police". Our job is not to go around telling people how to speak and why they are speaking wrong. It is not to bemoan the decline in grammatical/language aptitude of our current generation, to preserve the perfection that is a language and to go around correcting and teaching those that can't speak properly. And even if we were interested in that, it is most definitely not about neat writing, correct spelling and punctuation. Writing, spelling and punctuation (in particular) are not Language. They are a means of expressing language but are largely human constructs. There are, of course, reasons why uniformity in these areas is important and useful to society (especially for clarity of expression and avoiding misunderstandings) but that is not the interest of the linguist.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The linguist is interested primarily in Language. That is our concern. What is Language and how does it work? That probably sums up the best what Linguistics is about.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Linguistics is the study of <i>how language works</i></span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If we take the statement above as our starting point, all the sub-fields that make up the science of Linguistics fall nicely into place. Linguistics needs to be thought of as a super-discipline: an over-arching term that covers a whole range of sub-fields, some of which are and operate very differently from each other. In the same way the (hard) sciences may be divided up into chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology etc. so does Linguistics have many sub-fields. Unlike experts in the hard sciences, linguists are generally expected to have expertise in a few different (even seemingly unrelated) sub-fields of Linguistics. In part this is because it is still a relatively new discipline (in its current form, that is) and hasn't reached the level of specialisation some of the hard sciences have, and in part because the various disciplines, though different and able to be treated in isolation, do in fact influence each other.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So what are these sub-disciplines? Well they all address the question of<b> how the phenomenon that is language works</b>. But they do so in different ways. <i> </i><br />
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<i>Sociolinguistics </i>looks at how language works in society. It addresses issues such as dialect variation, identity, and bilingualism within communities, at the level of small social groups and at national level. It examines the role and interaction of different languages within a society and how power-relations are played out through those languages.<br />
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<i>Psycholinguistics</i> looks at how language works in the human mind. How are individual languages acquired and learnt by children and adults? How are mental thoughts converted into spoken language and how is spoken language understood and de-constructed back into mental thoughts by those who hear or read it? The related field of <i>Neurolinguistics </i>looks at how language is physically processed by the brain. Which parts of the brain are responsible for processing language, what kinds of language formations are more difficult for the brain to process and why, and how are brain defects related to language defects?<br />
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<i>Historical Linguistics</i> looks at how languages are related to one another. What "genetic" connections are there between the different languages of the world and how and why do languages change over time (why do dialects, and eventually different languages, develop)? It looks at trying to understand, through reconstruction, rules of sound and grammatical change within the history of language groups.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then there is a group of sub-fields within linguistics that may be grouped together under the heading <i>Formal Linguistics</i>. These fields look at how Language works internally by analysing the different building blocks that make up Language. These sub-fields, in particular, can use very formal methods derived from mathematics and logic. <i>Phonetics </i>and <i>Phonology </i>look at the underlying sounds used by humans to string together words and sentences. They examine particular rules that govern how these sounds are combined to derive different meanings. <i>Semantics </i>and <i>Pragmatics </i>look at the meaning behind individual words, how these words are combined to convey larger amounts of information, and how meaning is related and conveyed by different contexts. <i>Morphology </i>looks at how individual words are formed in different languages and made more precise by combining root meanings with semantically meaningful or grammatical forms like prefixes and suffixes. <i>Syntax </i>examines sentence structure and the way words of different types (nouns, verbs, adjectives, function words etc.) are combined according to particular rules in different languages to convey meaning.<br />
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The last two fields make up what you may more generally know as "grammar". But again, what we are interested in as linguists is not whether grammar is used "correctly" or not, so much as what the "natural" rules underlying the grammars of different languages are, why they work like that and why there are differences in different languages.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I've tried to keep this description simple, but it is hard to convey accurately what Linguistics is about without getting into technical terms. This, in a nutshell, sums up the basic ideas behind Linguistics and the focus of the different sub-fields. It is not an exhaustive description, and perhaps not even fully accurate. But the idea was to convey the gist of it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many of these fields are still in early stages of development and there is a lot of contention and debate within each field. Although language is something every human being is familiar with, it is also abstract and intangible; especially when one is trying to work out how language works in the mind or how the internal structure of a language is built up. No one can physically see or measure these things and so we are working with many theories and conjectures. Like with other sciences that deal with the intangible, it means there are disputes. But we are not simply grasping at straws. We use scientific methods to test our theories and have some evidence for their correctness. But we still have a long way to go.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And that, in part, is why I study Linguistics. There is still so much to learn about how language works. This amazing ability which we use almost every day of our lives and which almost every linguist will tell you is unique to humans is so very little understood. In the same way a biologist studies a life form to try and learn better what beautiful creatures exist in our world and what makes up this complex thing called life; in the same way an astronomer studies cosmic phenomena to better understand what is out there in the universe, and perhaps through that seeks for understanding in how our universe is made up; so the linguist wishes to study this beautiful and complex ability called Language.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Not all linguistics would feel the same, but for me, as a Christian who believes language was created and built into our genetic make-up by God, as a means of communicating with one another and hence enriching our lives, I can think of few better things to do than study this amazing ability with which he has blessed us. And in understanding these things, to gain a better appreciation for the great God whose imagination and power brought such a great phenomenon to be.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>So that is what Linguistics is all about and why I study it. I hope it has shed some light on what I spend my time doing. I plan a follow-up post looking into more detail about why Linguistics is important to me, the Descriptive versus Prescriptive debate (which relates to the issue of grammatical correctness) and what that means to me as a Christian.</i></div>Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-38947727137619741882012-07-25T17:25:00.003+02:002013-10-01T16:24:42.095+02:00The Silver Chair: Chapter 16<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Ending</b></span><br />
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The last chapters of so many of the Chronicles are so packed with truths and pieces of brilliance, it’s near impossible to comment on them. Like the end of <i>The Voyage of the Dawn Treader</i> and <i>The Last Battle</i>, this chapter reveals so much of what makes Lewis such a brilliant author, I don’t know where to start with the comments: We see the beauty of Narnia for the first time in the book; the sorrow of a son reunited with his father only to lose him again; a return to the splendour of Aslan’s Country; the rejuvenation of the old dead king in a scene that once again comes rather close to allegory; the granting of Caspian’s wish to see our world, for just five minutes; bullies being taught their lesson; a poorly run school being investigated and put right; and social and political comments made on education, feminism (?), leadership and politics. Lewis crams all of this into just one chapter so smoothly and adeptly that we hardly notice the transitions.<br />
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I’ve said many times before that Lewis is such a good writer, he’s really hard to paraphrase. It’s better to quote him directly. So below are a few of my favourite quotes from the last chapters (the first from the second last):<br />
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<i>…tears came to Jill’s eyes. Their quest had been worth all the pains it cost.</i><br />
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<i>“Puddleglum,” said Jill, “You’re a regular old humbug. You sound as doleful as a funeral and I believe you’re perfectly happy. And you talk as if you were afraid of everything, when you’re really as brave as - as a lion”. <br />
“Now speaking of funerals,” began Puddleglum, but Jill, who heard the centaurs tapping with their hooves behind her, surprised him very much by flinging her arms around his thin neck and kissing his muddy-looking face, while Eustace wrung his hand…<br />
The marshwiggle, sinking back on his bed, remarked to himself, “Well I wouldn’t have dreamt of her doing that. Even though I am a good-looking chap.”</i><br />
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<i>“I have come,” said a deep voice behind them…<br />
And she wanted to say, “I’m sorry,” but she could not speak…</i><br />
<i>“Think of that no more. I will not always be scolding. You have done the work for which I sent you into Narnia.”</i><br />
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<i>Even the Lion wept: great Lion-tears, each tear more precious than the Earth would be if it was a single solid diamond.</i><br />
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<i>After that, the Head’s friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn’t much good even at that, they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after.</i><br />
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Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-75805047852058937572012-07-25T16:55:00.001+02:002012-08-17T17:48:21.441+02:00The Silver Chair: Chapter 15<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>T</b><b>he Great Snow Dance</b></span><br />
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When first o’ the season’s snow starts to fall<br />
And lies fresh on the ground<br />
We hear the wak’ning winter’s call<br />
Summons us to gather ’round<br />
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Fauns with groom’d flanks and hooves that shine<br />
Begin to gallop and prance<br />
While their dearest dryads, leafy hair divine<br />
Glide swiftly in to dance<br />
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Dwarfs dressed in their finest gear -<br />
Golden tassels, scarlet hoods<br />
Join th’ mythic creatures once a year<br />
In a clearing in the snowy woods<br />
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And so begins the Great Snow Dance<br />
Intricate weavings, practised moves<br />
Music sweet, but with eerie stance<br />
Guides floral feet and caprine hooves<br />
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And the dwarfs stand forming a secondary ring<br />
Tossing spheres of compact snow<br />
While feet make a drum beat and sweet fiddles sing<br />
In a rhythm neither too fast nor too slow<br />
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But lo’ what commotion disturbs our rite?<br />
A voice calling from the hill?<br />
We spot the source, but what a sight!<br />
A girl emerges - her name is “Jill”<br />
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She says she needs help, she’s not alone<br />
There’re others trapped as well<br />
So lost and far from kin or home<br />
With such a tale to tell<br />
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The dwarfs stop their game, and gather their tools<br />
To rescue those trapped in the mound<br />
The moles join the cause, as though mining for jewels<br />
No match for their skill is the ground<br />
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At last they break through, and all is made clear<br />
A wiggle, two horses, a man -<br />
But he’s no mere man, but someone more dear<br />
Can it be? By the Lion, it can!<br />
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It’s our Prince who was lost, for so many a year<br />
Our Prince whom we’d giv’n up for dead<br />
He’s returned, yes he has, he really is here<br />
He’s been saved, bless his dear royal head<br />
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Though the snow dance was brought to an untimely end<br />
We’ve something far greater to cheer us<br />
Our Prince has returned, yes, we have hope again<br />
And again will our enemies fear us.<br />
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But come children dear, be warmed, sup and rest<br />
For your journey was tiring and long<br />
But you’re heroes; we’ll praise you along with the best<br />
Our minstrels shall laud you in song.Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-18643855665311527562012-07-24T16:51:00.000+02:002012-08-17T17:48:21.442+02:00The Silver Chair: Chapters 13-14<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Things are not always as they seem</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v40WjrDxegE/UC5Y1GY35-I/AAAAAAAABfA/saAK8XfcKd8/s1600/eng_SC_collins_colour_1998_box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v40WjrDxegE/UC5Y1GY35-I/AAAAAAAABfA/saAK8XfcKd8/s1600/eng_SC_collins_colour_1998_box.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This tale is full of mistaken identities and misconceptions. “<i>Pay no attention to appearances</i>” says Aslan to Jill of the signs. And it’s true of more than just the signs.<br />
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Right from the outset, things are not always as they seem. When she first meets him, Jill doesn’t trust Aslan. She is afraid of him, for the completely wrong reasons. When she realises who he is and he tells her that he has called them to Narnia, she assumes he has made a mistake - they are not the ones for the task. Mistaken identity. Aslan corrects her.<br />
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When she arrives in Narnia at the sailing of the King, Jill asks Eustace if he sees a friend. He doesn’t recognise that he is staring at Caspian because he makes the assumption that he would not look that much older than last time. Mistaken identity.<br />
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Eustace suspects the owls of plotting against the king, because they are meeting in dark in the night. Meanwhile they are simply used to meeting at night because they are owls. There is nothing sinister about their dealings. Mistaken identity.<br />
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Jill and Eustace are wary of Puddleglum at the beginning because he is so negative. They don’t see that there is sense, faith and dedication lying at the heart of his pessimism - just what they need as a guide. Mistaken identity.<br />
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When Jill first sees the giants lining the gorge, she assumes they are simply piles of rock. Until they start to hurl stones around them. Mistaken identity.<br />
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When they meet the Lady of the Green Kirtle, they think her kind, sweet and helpful. Mistaken identity.<br />
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When they come to the ruined city and the writing, they think it is merely a strange wilderness of ledges, dykes and trenches. Mistaken identity.<br />
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When they arrive at Harfang, they think the giants are friendly and that they want to have the children and Puddleglum take part in the autumn feast with them. Not that they will be the main dish at the feast. Mistaken identity.<br />
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When the three meet Rilian, they think he is nasty and not to be trusted. They don’t realise he is the one they have come to rescue. Mistaken identity.<br />
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When the mudmen come to themselves and realise what spell the witch has had them under, they prepare to fight for their freedom, unaware that the one who had them under their spell is dead. Rather than celebrate, they prepare for war. When they see Rilian and the others on horseback, they prepare to defend themselves against the onslaught by the witch’s people. They haven’t the slightest idea that these people were also subject to her lies and sorcery and that it is they who have killed the witch and freed them from her spell. Mistaken identity.<br />
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When the children, Puddleglum and Rillian see the mudmen letting off rockets and marching as to war, they assume that they are their enemy and that the rockets are warnings. They don’t realise it is their way of celebrating their liberation from the spell, and at the same time a taking to arms should the queen or her subjects try to stop them. Mistaken identity.<br />
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These last two points, which are the subject of chapters 13 and 14 bring about an almost fatal ending to the story. The earthmen think the heroes are their enemy and the heroes fear the earthmen. Both assume the other group are working for the witch.<br />
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Thankfully, the truth comes out quickly and the situation is ratified. Mistaken identities and misconceptions are brought to light, and both sets of people are able to make their way home and leave the cursed shallowlands of the underworld. The heroes head for the overworld, the earthmen for Bism.<br />
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There’s a lesson in all this. Things are not always as they seem. We need to be aware of this in faith as in life. Sometimes things look hopeless and as though there is no way out. But there is a bigger picture we can’t see. Just as the heroes and the earthmen did not realise that the other group was equally the enemy of the witch, and so feared them, what might be looking to us like a hopeless situation might just be a small bit of the picture.<br />
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I’m sure as the characters looked back on the story afterwards, they realised how they had missed the (sometimes almost obvious) cases of mistaken identity in their adventures. And so we can look back on events in life and realise that what looked like a bad job, was actually for the best.<br />
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When Jesus was arrested and crucified, it looked to the disciples as though everything was lost. All their dreams and plans for the Messianic kingdom with Jesus as the ruler were shattered. They couldn’t make sense of it, and feared they had been wrong. Jesus was not the messiah. It was a case of mistaken identity. Mistaken identity, yes, but not in the way they thought. Three days later he rose again. Jesus had a bigger plan at work, a bigger, more important kingdom to win. Once the disciples came to realise this, they could look back and see clearly what God had been doing and knew that what looked like defeat was the greatest victory of all - the victory over sin and death. Things are not always as they seem.<br />
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I can testify to this in my own life, when I was distraught last year over thinking I did not have a scholarship to study in Oxford. I couldn’t see any light or make any sense of it. When, after two weeks in this state, the unthinkable happened and I was awarded the scholarship, it seemed like the whole situation had been pointless. Why go through those two weeks of sadness? But as the truth sunk in, I realised all the good that came out of it. I had learnt to surrender to God and grown so much closer to him. I knew I was doing what he wanted me to do. And other girls’ lives were blessed because they were given the scholarship as well as me (something that might not have happened had I been awarded it first time).<br />
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Things are not always as they seem. But that’s okay. We have a God who sees the whole picture; who knows what is best. And he is the one who is in control.</div>Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-27996115099161176452012-07-23T16:38:00.000+02:002013-10-01T16:41:07.613+02:00The Silver Chair: Chapter 12<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Good Old Puddleglum</b></span><br />
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A lot could be, and has in the past been, said of the witch’s attempt at making our heroes forget Narnia and Aslan, and of Puddleglum’s heroic refusal to be beguiled.</div>
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I wrote a while back on the thread: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.thelionscall.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=134&t=2855">Conquering Lies - Lessons from Narnia</a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;">Ajnos wrote:</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Another well-known passage where the antagonist tries to trick the heroes with lies it LotGK's speech in which she tries to convince them that Narnia is a figment of our imagination.<br />
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<i>"I see...that we should do no better with your lion, as you call it, than we did with your sun. You have seen lamps, and so you imagined a bigger and better lamp and called it the sun. You've seen cats, and now you want a bigger and better cat, and it's to be called a lion. Well, 'tis pretty make-believe, though...it would suit you all better if you were younger. And look at how you put nothing into you make believe world without copying it from the real world of mine, which is the only world...Come, all of you. Put away these childish tricks...There is no Narnia, no Overworld, no sky, no sun, no Aslan..."</i></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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This lie, together with her enchanting music and powder almost takes them all in. In a place so far away from the Narnia they remember, they begin to think, that perhaps they did just imagine it. Our enemies try to make us doubt our own beliefs in a similar way. They try to reduce our experiences of God - experiences which we knew were real at the time - to figments of our imagination. They make us wonder whether what we thought was a word from God, was not just wishful thinking, or something we imagined. And when that moment has passed, sometimes we do start to doubt, whether it was real. Human memory is a strange thing, and becomes increasingly unreliable as time passes from when the even occurred. When we find people (or even ourselves) questioning the reality of our experiences, we need to respond like Puddleglum:</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<i>"One word, Ma'am... All you've been saying is quite right, I shouldn't wonder. I'm a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put but the best face I can on it. So I won't deny any of what you've said. But there's one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things...Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones... We're just babies making up game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia." </i><br />
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Good Old Puddleglum!</span></div>
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In my Day Two post on <i>Puddleglum and Paxford</i>, I quoted Douglas Gresham as saying of Fred Paxford, on whom Puddleglum was modelled, <i>“Fred was the ever cheerful eternal pessimist.”</i></div>
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When we first meet Puddleglum, that doesn’t seem like a fully accurate description. Pessimist, yes. Comical, perhaps. But ever-cheerful? Hardly. When he tells us that the other Marshwiggles think he’s quite bouncy and upbeat, we are inclined to disbelieve him. Could they possibly be worse than him?</div>
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But as the story goes on, we see what he means. Although Puddleglum always sees the worst side of things and always expects the worst, he is still cheerful despite this. He thinks things will be bad, but then imagines something worse and concludes that actually the bad things aren’t quite as bad as they could be.</div>
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Right at the beginning he tells them not to worry about the weather, because they’ll be so distracted by enemies, mountains, rivers, losing their way, almost nothing to eat and sore feet.</div>
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Later, when they are trying to find their way across the river gorge (before they spot the bridge) he says, <i>“The bright side of this is, if we break our necks getting down the cliff, then we’re safe from being drowned in the river.”</i></div>
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It is Puddleglum who points out that if they had been paying attention to the signs, Aslan would have shown them away underground. <i>“Aslan’s instructions always work: there are no exceptions”</i>.</div>
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This is the first hint we get of his faith. He’s not only a cheerful pessimist. Behind (and despite) his eternal pessimism, he has an unrelenting faith in the supremacy of Aslan. Perhaps part of the reason he can be so gloomy, is that he knows Aslan is in control. He doesn’t even seem to fear death, and occasionally sees it as a better alternative (<i>at least if we break our necks, we needn’t suffer drowning</i>, and later, <i> maybe we should go back to give the giants a feast rather than being lost in the depths of the earth and suffer threat of dragons and other dangers</i>). He knows death isn’t the end.</div>
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When they are faced with the dreadful decision of whether to release Rilian or not, his cheerful pessimism comes to play again. He doesn’t sugar coat things by suggesting everything will turn out alright if they obey the sign, but says:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>“Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do. That fellow will be the death of us, I shouldn’t wonder. But that doesn’t let us off following the sign.”</i></div>
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Because of his pessimism, he is able to bear the fact that they might die if they release the prince. But he recognises that Aslan’s orders come from a higher place. Doing right is more important than being safe. Even more important than living. Puddleglum has the heart of a matyr. And in part it is his pessimism that gives him that.</div>
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Finally, when it comes to the crunch, his pessimism saves that day. He is aware of the enchantment working on them and sees a way out (extinguishing the fire, the source of the enchantment). He knows it will hurt, but he’s okay with that. Things could and would be worse if he wasn’t willing to face that pain - so he embraces it.</div>
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And then in his speech, he expresses the true faith behind his pessimism. His pessimism lets him grant that perhaps the overworld, the sun, and Aslan are all imaginary. Perhaps none of what they seem to remember is true. But there is a worse alternative. That the world underground is all there is. And he will not accept that. He would rather embrace an untrue dream, than suffer the fate of one who has no hope. His hope at this point is fragile - he is full of doubt in what he believes. But he knows he would rather embrace that, and be proved wrong, than live in a world of such dreariness.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Puddleglum’s pessimism lets him see what is bad, and then imagine something worse. By doing this, the bad suddenly becomes bearable. It is this which saves him and his friends.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I’m not saying we should all be Puddleglums. His pessimism is draining, and leads to arguments and the children not always trusting his better judgement. But there is something in his mindset we can imitate. Not full pessimism, but a trust in God that means if we do God’s will, if we trust in him, even bad things will look bright and be bearable in the light of what could be so much worse - a life without him.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The apostle Paul comes close to saying what Puddleglum tells the witch. He acknowledges that she may be right, and they might have imagined Narnia and the sun and Aslan. But he’d rather chance that they be wrong than live without hope. Paul imagines for a second what would be the case if what we believe and what he preached was not true; if Jesus did not die and rise from the dead:</div>
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<i>But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 1 Cor 15: 13-19</i></div>
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As Puddleglum and his friends soon learn - they were right. Their faith is rewarded because it turns out to be real. They find Narnia and see the sun and Aslan again. Their hope was not in vain. Paul, who had seen the risen saviour, knows the same is true of what we believe.</div>
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<i>But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 Cor 15: 12-19</i></div>
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<i></i><br /></div>
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<b><i>I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia! </i></b></div>
Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-46237276987373475942012-07-23T15:50:00.001+02:002012-08-17T17:48:21.443+02:00The Silver Chair: Chapter 11<div style="text-align: justify;"><b></b><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Silver Chair</b></span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--YLsOoH2-9c/UCz86rMCa7I/AAAAAAAABes/S5ewQXUTih0/s1600/eng_SC_trophy_collins_1994_box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--YLsOoH2-9c/UCz86rMCa7I/AAAAAAAABes/S5ewQXUTih0/s1600/eng_SC_trophy_collins_1994_box.jpg" /></a><i>Reading chapters 11 and 12 got me thinking a lot about the witch’s motives and plans. What was she really after? And how did she expect to succeed?</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I know a number of people, including me, have discussed before why Lewis chose the title he did for this book. The Silver Chair is seemingly one of the least significant things in the book and there are a number of other titles he could have used (including <i>Night Under Narnia</i> and <i>Wild Waste Lands</i>). But after reading these chapters, it’s made me wonder again. I think the Silver Chair is far more significant than we realise.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Rilian refers to it as <i>“a vile engine of sorcery,”</i> which is about the most information we are given on it. We don’t even know what it looks like, apart from it being silver. At a set time every night, Rilian is made to sit on it and tied up to it. He is told this is because of the fit of rage which comes upon him for that hour every night. He is tied to the chair because he becomes violent and it is a means of keeping him from harming anyone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet we know that in actual fact, it is only during that hour every night that he is completely sane. Which made me wonder what kind of enchantment the witch had cast upon him? Usually, when people are bewitched to forget who they are, it is permanent; where does this one hour of sanity come from?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I’ve always thought it was the chair itself that made him sane - like some side effect of its working. While the witch used the chair to re-enforce the enchantment, it also meant that he would be sane while it happened. But thinking about it now, it makes more sense that the spell only lasts a day at a time. Every night it wears off, and has to be re-administered - by the chair itself. After an hour in the chair, the spell is restored and he forgets again who he is. A more basic spell by the witch (such as she tries to use on Puddleglum and the children), would not have been powerful or practical enough to keep Rillian under her authority all that time. The son of the King of Narnia, and someone known to Aslan would, sooner or later, have seen through her bewitchment and turned on her. Doubtless she could kill him should that happen, but she wants him alive.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And so somehow, she had made (or acquired) the chair. He needed to be kept in the chair for an hour every night for the curse to remain on him (it was like he needed a new dose of it every night to keep it in his system - like some kind of poison). Once the hour had passed, and the chair done its work, he had forgotten again and continued the next day under the witch’s spell.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I noticed something particularly interesting about when Rilian was in the chair (which I hadn’t thought of before). Although he claims to be <i>“sane now”</i>, he does not seem to remember everything of his past life. He does not even remember who he is. He knows only that</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>“Every night I am sane. If only I could get out of this enchanted chair it would last. I should be a man again. But every night they bind me, and so every night my chance is gone.”</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In all his imploring that the companions release him, he doesn’t once claim that he is Rilian. This can only mean that he has not fully remembered his life before his enchantment, as those words, if any, would encourage them to release him if they were friends. Bu he doesn’t. Instead he continues to shout at them, even threaten them. His voice rises <i>“to a shriek”</i> and Eustace describes his behaviour as a <i>“frenzy”</i>. Perhaps this is partly because he is so desperate, but I think there is more to it. He threatens them and tells them if they do not release them they will make him their <i>“mortal enemy”</i>. These don’t sound like the words of a perfectly sane Prince Rilian. Despite having some degree of sanity, the chair is still working on him so that he only remembers something of who and what he is. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Thankfully, he remembers one of the most important things. Somehow, subconsciously, he remembers Aslan. He might not remember fully who Aslan is (for he does not call on him directly to save him), but in a last desperate attempt, he calls on the greatest powers he knows of to implore them to free him: <i>“all fears and loves…the bright skies of overland, [and] the great Lion, Aslan himself”</i>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">These are, as Eustace says, <i>“the words of the sign”</i>. Had Rilian been saner, and spoken to them more clearly, the decision to follow the sign would have been easier. But as Aslan had told Jill, <i>“the signs… will not look at all as you expect them to look…pay no attention to appearances.”</i> Thanks to Puddleglum’s wisdom, they choose to follow the sign no matter the consequences, <i>“That fellow will be the death of us, I shouldn’t wonder. But that doesn’t let us off following the sign.”</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Only once they have released the prince, does he become fully sane and remember who he is. He starts by rushing on the chair with his sword and destroying it <i>“lest your mistress should ever use you for another victim”</i>. He knows more than the others how important the chair was in the witch’s scheme. I think we can be sure here that the chair was made of real silver, since a stronger metal would not have been so easily rent (even by a very good sword with the strength of revenge behind it). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next he recognises Puddleglum as a Marshwiggle and tells them that he is Rilian, the son of Caspian X, King of Narnia. There are no further threats, or anger. His complete sanity is evidenced by the words:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>“And the something wrong, whatever it was, had vanished from his face.”</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Coming back to the witch’s scheme, I still wonder what she was up to. We know that she wanted Narnia and her kidnapping of Rilian was part of the plan. But how was it really to work? Surely once they broke through into Narnia he would be recognised as the lost prince. Unless the silver chair was taken with, she could not keep him under the spell forever. Rilian says that he would be freed from his “enchantment” once he was made king, but the witch could only have meant by this that he would be forever under her enchantment and there’d be no further use of the silver chair. But that seems to me like nonsense - why would her enchantment suddenly become permanent just because he was above the earth?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Did she plan to kill him once the kingdom was won? If so, why bother capturing him in the first place? Her plan was to marry him so she’d be queen, but Caspian was not quite dead yet. The Narnians would never allow it, and either rescue Rilian from her clutches or brand him as a traitor and usurper (since his father was still alive). Of course, the witch had all the earthmen on her side, so perhaps she would have succeeded in defeating the Narnians in battle (many of their best warriors were lost looking for the prince), but if she could win it by force, why did she need Rilian? I doubt her being married to him would make the surviving Narnians any more accepting of her authority. She would have been better off convincing Rilian to marry her and returning with him as his bride (peacefully) on the news of Caspian’s death. Why did she plan to make him take take by force what would one day be his by right?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps I’ve missed something; perhaps there are more clues as to her schemes later in the book that I have forgotten. Regardless, the witch’s plans seem rather strange to me.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the end, she failed. Her silver chair, whatever its full purpose, was destroyed, as was she along with her plans. We’ll never know, thankfully, exactly what she was up to. But reading it this time round, I couldn’t help but be curious.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is clear, though, that the silver chair was indeed important to her schemes. In destroying the chair, Rilian broke her spell. I find it interesting that she returns (unexpectedly early) almost as soon as it is destroyed, as if she instinctively knew something had gone wrong. Her response on seeing Rilian free and the chair destroyed is telling:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>“She turned very white; but Jill thought it was the sort of whiteness that comes over some people’s faces not when they are frightened, but when they are angry. For a moment the witch fixed her eyes on the Prince. And there was murder in them.”</i></div>Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-28053244953192537682012-07-21T12:37:00.000+02:002012-08-17T17:48:21.444+02:00The Silver Chair: Chapter 10<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Underlands</b></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wf5sgD33xXE/UB-dSKXhi4I/AAAAAAAABeY/6RoevTNk7wc/s1600/eng_SC_collins_colour_2001_box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wf5sgD33xXE/UB-dSKXhi4I/AAAAAAAABeY/6RoevTNk7wc/s200/eng_SC_collins_colour_2001_box.jpg" width="175" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b></span>When my siblings and I were young, we used to play a game which we called “Worlds”. What we referred to as “worlds”, were imaginary underground layers of Earth that we found “by accident” one day while playing in the garden with our cousin. Of course, none of our adventures really happened underground – children have the most amazing imagination – but we pretended that we could get to these “underground worlds” by special doorways (the stairs down the bank from the swimming pool to the lower front yard made a good entryway) . Each world/layer had a similar layout to the one above, explaining why each looked identical to the other (which, incidentally, looked identical to the layout of our garden). The underground worlds/layers had fake skies, which explained the presence of sunlight and blue sky in what was supposed to be Underground. <br />
<br />
We had all sorts of amazing adventures in these worlds, which were ruled over by a number of spikey plants in our garden (cycads) who were given Greek names: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Sir. Sir was the first one we met on our adventures, and the leader of all the worlds – we hadn't come up with the Greek names when we met him. Oh, and then there was Omnicron (yes, mispronounced as it's misspelt). He was the evil cycad whom we defeated and got replaced by a cool cycad named Jack, who had an Australian accent. Our long concrete driveway which runs up behind our house was the underground river, which opened into a concrete lake in front of our garage. It all sounds a little extreme now, but we had so much fun with it.<br />
<br />
So you can only imagine my excitement when, a few years after we'd outgrown playing “Worlds”, I read <i>The Silver Chair</i> for the first time, and found a story of some children having their own adventures underground.<br />
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What is under the miles and miles that lie below the crust of the earth has always fascinated mankind – it has fuelled the imaginations of children and writers throughout the ages. What if we should find cities or civilisations of people or other creatures living in the depths of our planet? While voyages into outer space are far more widespread and popular, there has always been an allure of stories about “inner space”. Jules Verne addresses this question in one of his 19th century science fiction works, <i>A Journey to the Centre of the Earth</i>. It was the first of his books I read (some years after reading <i>The Silver Chair</i>), and has therefore had a special place in my mind, though I really need to reread it, as my memory of the story has been horribly warped by poor TV and movie adaptations. <br />
<br />
One part I do remember about the story, is when the adventurers have a voyage across an underground sea. I was pretty sure Lewis, who was a fan of Verne, had had this in mind when he wrote <i>The Silver Chair</i> almost a hundred years later. After looking up a summary of the story, I've realised that that was not the only part that inspired Lewis. Verne's underground world also had giant mushroom-like trees, although in his world the light comes from the ceiling of the caverns rather than the plants themselves. Verne's characters also encounter prehistoric dinosaur-type creatures, which may have inspired Lewis' cavern of dragon-like beasts. A striking difference between the two accounts though, is that Lewis has a civilised and bustling city in his story whereas Verne's characters only encounter hints of intelligent life. I think it is fair to say, however, that Verne's account inspired Lewis' story. But like the good writer he was, he used only basic ideas but created the setting to fit his own story.<br />
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Another fifty years after Lewis' work, stories continue of underground civilisations in works such as Eoin Colfer's <i>Artemis Fowl</i> series, which has a modern thriving underground technologically-advanced “fairyland”. In the <i>Doctor Who</i> episodes “The Hungry Earth” and “Cold blood”, the characters stumble upon an underground dwelling by a race of terrestrial hominids, the reptilian Silurians, who have made a place of refuge that they built ages ago to ride out the effects of Earth's capture of the moon. They are still hibernating there, for the most part, waiting for a time when they can return to the surface and live peaceably with humans.<br />
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A decade or so before this, a family of kids in South Africa played a continuous game of adventures in “underground” worlds. The allure and mystery of what lies under the world, albeit imaginary, has gripped the imagination of mankind for many years and will doubtless continue to do so. Despite this, I don't think any of us would really want a life underground. <br />
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<i>Many sink down to the Underworld...and few return to the sunlit lands</i><br />
<br />
Ironically, I was reading this passage sitting out in bright South African sunshine on one of the warmest days we've had this winter. I've come to appreciate the sun a great deal after spending the last few months in a very (even more than usual) rainy Britain. I learnt there how much I take the warm and cheery sun for granted, to the point that whenever the sun peeped out (which it did more often than I probably make it sound) I could feel the lift in my spirits. I'm not entirely surprised the Earthmen were so morbid as they were (even making Puddleglum seem cheerful). As much as an underground world seems fascinating or enticing, as much as I enjoyed playing and pretending as a kid, I think, like Jill, I would have not enjoyed a real underground adventure. And I'm truly grateful that I live in the sunlit realms.</div>Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6131044708309645719.post-9838836162307877422012-07-21T12:21:00.000+02:002012-08-17T17:48:21.444+02:00The Silver Chair: Chapter 9<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Food fit for a feast</b></span></div><ul><i>"But more than thirty champions...have at one time or another set out to look for the lost Prince, and none of them have ever come back..."</i></ul><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bnNFnmSPWcY/UB-ZpC2xg-I/AAAAAAAABeI/5Ok0fW9W61A/s1600/eng_SC_3rd_ed_set_hc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bnNFnmSPWcY/UB-ZpC2xg-I/AAAAAAAABeI/5Ok0fW9W61A/s200/eng_SC_3rd_ed_set_hc.jpg" width="197" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Not bad for a day's hunting,” sighed the young giant Rufflemutton as he surveyed the day's haul. “I've seen better, but then I've seen worse.” He glanced over at the pile of deer, boar and fowl carcasses that lay not far from where they rested. They would return early today, as preparations for the feast began in earnest.<br />
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“No talkin' beasts this year,” sighed his companion Wafflepotter. “This early cold snap, 'as chased them down south it 'as,” he continued.<br />
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“Aye,” nodded Rufflemutton, “At least we will have man pies this year. It's never a proper feast without them.” His friend nodded.<br />
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“Unusual for her ladyship to send children, though,” put in Wafflepotter after a moment's thought.<br />
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“Better than no men, as we've had these last three years,” countered the first, “I was expecting a'nothing again. Unusual for them to arrive so late too.”<br />
<br />
“Indeed,” said his friend, “And that creature with them. Never seen th' likes of 'im before.”<br />
<br />
The first shook his head, “Mollywater tells me it's called a 'waggle' or some such. Says they're not known to be tasty, but she's found a recipe that will make him quite a pleasant treat. Said she'll save a mouthful for me, since first choice goes to the royals.” He lowered his voice as he said the last, so as not to be overheard by the royals in question.<br />
<br />
“Aah, 'tis an advantage ye be friends with the cook then,” said Wafflepotter with a smile.<br />
<br />
“I remembers a time when we'd have man pie every year. And a plenty to go around. The green lady seems to have lost her touch these last years.”<br />
<br />
“Aye, that or the menfolk 'ave become more cautious,” added the second.<br />
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“Remember that great year, must be near on ten years ago, she sent so many men to our doorstep, we had man pie not only for the harvest festival, but well into the winter too. That was a good year.” <br />
<br />
Wafflepotter nodded as he remembered.<br />
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“We'd 'ave plenty a' talkin' beasts too, back then,” he added, “And not just the usual game: badgers, bears, mice and squirrels. A couple o' fauns too. They was tasty. Apparently there was a centaur once. Would 'ave made a rare treat, but alas 'e got away.”<br />
<br />
“Although...we had to fight for the pleasure back then,” remembered said Rufflemutton, “Those men came armed and dangerous. Me old man still has a scar on his calf from the wound one made as he tried t' bring him down. Succeeded in the end, he did, but that wound plagued him for a long time after.”<br />
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“More strange that this year, the lady did send us mere children, and a girl too. 'Twere not many women-folk among those who came in the past.”<br />
<br />
“No not many. It's made it easier though. They seem to suspect nothing. That frog-creature, the waggle, is more dangerous I do think. Good thing we got him drunk last night, or he might've been on to us. Strange as he is, I think he could be dangerous.”<br />
<br />
“Not once 'e's boiling in Mollywater's pot,” added Wafflepotter. And both giants began to gufaw. Some of the other hunters looked over to them for a while, then lost interest and resumed their own conversation.<br />
<br />
“Ya know,” said Rufflemutton then. “I remember a time b'fore it was custom to eat man pies at the feast. Giants are forgetful, we are, but I could've sworn when I was younger man pies were as rare then as they're becoming now. We'd have them as a treat should any wonder onto our doorstep, but they werin't so big a part of the festival as they are now. I spoke once to me older brother about it, and he says 'twas the green lady who introduced them as part of the feast about the same time they suddenly became plentiful in the area.<br />
<br />
I believe you're right, though I'd about forgotten. Why, we was almost still kids aback then. I've always wondered why she's so interested in us and so keen to send us men. I wonder what she 'as t' gain from it?”<br />
<br />
“Does make one wonder, eh...”<br />
<br />
At this moment, their speech was disturbed as boy giant, who had not been on the hunt, came crashing through the bushes nearby. He was panting from a hard run. He announced that while he was polishing his weapons in his room, he had glanced out his window and seen the children and frog-creature going for a stroll in broad daylight. It might just be an innocent stroll, but he was worried they might have figured out what was to become of them, and were making an escape.<br />
<br />
Best to be safe, agreed the king on this news. Their rest was cut short as they rounded up the dogs and returned to the castle with haste.</div>Ajnos Gamgeehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14847479825646638118noreply@blogger.com0