The Revived Tolkien Trivia

[Grimward]

Aw, you're just stalling, HB!

Can't remember whether you'd read Ms. Wurts yet or not, but things that enter a Grimward don't easily come back out (typically requires a Fellowship Sorcerer or another mage/masterbard of considerable power within her story line). In my case, its also a nod to the meaning of the verse in "Heavy Metal: Black and Silver", not to a missing persons investigation...

 

[Clansman]

Got hit by a long weekend (Family Day in most provinces in Canada), and kids and stuff. Lots of fun really, but forgot to bring my copy of ____ to work today. Sorry for the raised expectations. Will try this evening.

And Marky? Up your nose with a rubber hose (courtesy: John Travolta, playing Vinny Barbarino)! Clammy indeed! We are freezing in Canada, but not clammy (except in the Maritimes, and only in season!).

 

[Clansman]

Would it be one Earendil (sorry, I can't do the two-dot thingy over the "a"), at the tender age of seven?

From The Silmarillion, Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin, page 242:

"At last, in the year when Earendil was seven years old..." (emphasis mine) and then Morgoth unleashes Angband through Maeglin's treachery, et cetera and so on, and Tuor, Idril and Earendil left Gondolin with the remnant thereof, and hiked down to Nan-tathren, waked Glorfindel and the fallen of Gondolin, and where, at page 244, Tuor began to sing of Ulmo:

"There Tuor made a song for Earendil his son, concerning the coming of Ulmo the Lord of Waters to the shores of Nevrast aforetime; and the sea-longing woke in his heart, and his son's also. Therefore, Idril and Tuor departed from Nan-tathren, and went southwards down the river to the sea; and they dwelt there by the mouths of Sirion, and joined their people to the company of Elwing Dior's daughter, that had fled thither but a little while before." (again, emphasis mine)

Then the peoples grew together, and young Earendil was influenced by Cirdan and his folk:

"Yet by Sirion and the sea there grew up an Elven-folk, the gleanings of Doriath and Gondolin; and from Balar the mariners of Cirdan came among them, and they took to the waves and the building of ships, dwelling ever nigh to the coasts of Avernien, under the shadow of Ulmo's hand." (yet again, emphasis mine)

Nautical career at age 7, I would suggest, is "ostensibly early."

Let me know if I am near the mark at all, Grim.

 

[Grimward]

Some decent digging Clanny but, alas, not the answer I'm looking for...

Since it could be argued to meet the requirements, however, I've a ship's bell for you IF (and only IF; got to watch my terms with you members of the Bar!) no one else comes up with the answer I have in mind.

Coming up with this challenge took no time at all.....

 

[Clansman]

Am I in the right book?

 

[Clansman]

How long are you going to give them? It's been a day, already, but you set no time limit.

In my respectful submission, your Grimwardship, 24 hours from your post should be sufficient if the answer is as easy as posing the question was.

 

[HareBrain]

With respect, Clanny, I submit that Earendil's sea-longing being awakened is not the same as his nautical career beginning; the passage you quote doesn't mention that he actually went out in boats till later. Also "ostensible" usually means that it seems, but is not actually so, as in a pretence. I think there's something less obvious going on here.*

Having said that, I got nuthin.


*Edit: not that your answer was obvious - I didn't get it!!

 

[Grimward]

Clue #2: Clanny, I'm afraid, was NOT in the right book....and to paraphrase Dain Ironfoot (who has absolutely nothing to do with this quote), "The time of my

is my own to spend." Until someone gets the answer or all give up, that is.....

*ducks as Marky tosses rotten vegetables*

And having something to fall back on is no excuse to stop looking...

ostensible - apparent, evident, conspicuous


hint: leave out the 2nd half of your definition, HB, or you're likely to go hopping down the wrong trail, 'cuz we'll never know in this case....

 

[Clansman]

With respect, Clanny, I submit that Earendil's sea-longing being awakened is not the same as his nautical career beginning;

Yes it does. I am a parent, and trying to keep a child from something they love (which I take the sea-longing to be), is either impossible, or causes permanent damage. If boats were being built around the 7 year-old Eärendil (yay! I did it!) and voyaging off the coast, he'd be in the midst of it, mark my words. And Tuor and Idril do not seem to be the type to keep him from something he loved.

Anyway, I am wrong about the quote, and the book, but I have another idea...back later.

 

[Clansman]

Okay, my last shot at this, particularly given Grim's clarification of definition.

Perhaps Sméagol, a.k.a. Gollum, is the answers presciouss iss looking for, iss it presciousss?

"Long after, but still very long ago, there lived by the banks of the Great River on the edge of Wilderland a clever-handed and quiet-footed little people. I guess they were of hobbit-kind; akin to the father of the fathers of the Stoors, for they loved the River, and often swam in it, or made little boats of reeds. There was among them a family of high repute, for it was large and wealthier than most...The most inquisitive and curious-minded of that family was called Sméagol." LOTR, FotR, Book I, Chapter 2: Shadows of the Past, p. 62.

Ostensibly Sméagol would have begun his nautical career on a boat of reeds as a child. As would have Déagol, ostensibly. Ostensibly, any child of this clever-handed and quiet-footed group of little people on the banks of Anduin would have begun life on the river early, and thus "a nautical career".

Aragorn said that "I have tried to catch him once or twice at night; but he is slier than a fox, and as slippery as a fish. I hoped that the river-voyage would beat him, but he is too clever a waterman." LOTR, FotR, Book II, Chapter 9: The Great River, p. 400. Ostensibly, this is as the result of his long association with water, whether it be the Great River or his pool beneath the mountain.

Ostensibly, this is the best that I can do on this question (though I still think that Eärendil was the better answer).

 

[Grimward]

It's a worthy effort, Clanny, and you have at least found the right species this time. Sméagol, however, must get the hook.....seek ye the rhyming words from my clues....

 

[Clansman]

What rhyming words? There weren't no verse in yonder clues.

 

[HareBrain]

Well, "book" and "hook" rhyme, which suggests "Took" - but that's gotten me nowhere.

 

[Grimward]

I think HB is onto something...have another look....

 

[Pyan]

Don't book and hook also rhyme with Brandybuck, as well...?

(They would where I grew up..!)

 

[HareBrain]

I'm not happy with this guess, but I can't think of anything else. Is the answer Frodo?

"And Mr. Drogo was staying at Brandy Hall with his father-in-law ... and he went out boating on the Brandywine River; and he and his wife were drownded, and poor Mr. Frodo only a child and all."

LOTR Book1, ch1: "A Long-Expected Party"

There's no hint, however, that Frodo himself was in the boat. It fits Grim's clue that it took him no time to set, as it's within the first few pages of the book; but there's no "Took", and I'm not sure whether to take Pyan's last post seriously.

Now, I can think of a place with both a Took and a Brandybuck, and another reason why Grim might have taken no time to set this chellange, but though I can find plenty of water there, to quote Nelson, "I see no ships ..."

 

[Grimward]

Stop considering how long it TOOK me to find it, already!

And no, Sir Pyan, regardless of regional differences in pronunciation of buck or buch, you'd still have the insurmountable (in this case) issue of Brandy to deal with (combined with buck gives 3 syllables instead of 1 says the *cough, cough* "purist"!). At the risk of robbing the Pythons blind, buck is right out........

 

[HareBrain]

Bingo! (Oh no, actually Bingo is on the preceding page )

The answer is Isengar Took

Isengar 1262-1360 (said to have "gone to sea" in his youth)

LOTR, Appendix C: Family Trees, "Took of Great Smials"

 

[Grimward]

That's the one, you wascally wabbit!

*Gives the Hare a very waterlogged bell with what looks like a family tree on it, then yields the floor*

Thank heavens! And you've spared us all from dreadful clues containing rook, crook, nook, and possibly other ooks besides....

 

[HareBrain]

Thanks Grim. Sneaky of you to use the family trees. (Flicks through Sunday Times review on the dust-jacket ...)

No, here is my question. And I thought for a change we should have an easy one. I fully expect to see this answered by the time I get up tomorrow. Fingers on buzzers ...

A vexed vulpes one can find
In Tolkien's literature
It has a rather advanced mind
For such a fleabag creature