April 28, 2003

A Few Things
Everett

First of all, Lilly, regarding the pronunciation of Earendil, it says in the Silmarillion's Note on Pronunciation that "EA EO are not run together, but constitute two separate syllables; these combinations are wriiten ea and eo [with umlauts over the e's] (or, when they begin names, Ea and Eo [umlauts over the a and o]: Earendil and Eonwe)." This leads me to believe that your pronunication is correct, even if it does differ from my pronunciation of it (I pronounce the Ea as a falling dipthong, rather than a rising one.).

Secondly, Janessa, you're certainly not the only one who had a problem with Faramir. Probably most, if not all of the people who post to this site either have or had a problem with his portrayal in the movie though several people have posted pieces attempting to explain why Faramir was portrayed the way he was. I suspect most people have come to accept it even if they don't like it.*

Thirdly, I don't know how tenable this is, but I think it would be great if there was a weblog that would be linked to on the main page. For those who are registered, they can directly post to it, and anyone can read the posts. It would allow people to post scattered thoughts or small items, reserving the forum for longer pieces. As a matter of precaution, the moderator would be able to remove any obscene posts. Again, I don't know how tenable this is, and I certainly wouldn't have the time nor the access to a computer that would be necessary to run it myself, let alone the know-how (Though I suspect I could learn quickly enough.).

Fourthly, I'm going to agree with Brett C. (sort of like adding my accordion to Brett's hunting gear) on the reproduction of orcs, both regarding the means of reproduction and, with respect to the Uruk-Hai, the assertion that they are half-man, half-orc. Though there is little textual evidence to support them (Brett found three more than I did for the first), given the knowledge of genetics and reproductive science and technology at the time LotR, let alone The Hobbit, was written. I also agree with him regarding the imprisonment of female orcs for the same reason the Mithril Miner disagrees with him. Morgoth, and later Sauron, needed all of the orcs they could get, especially since orcs tended to be slaughtered in large numbers, and it would not do to have the vessels of reproduction being slaughtered on the battlefield (Would they have regarded orc women any differently?). Morgoth and Sauron could maintain their level of orc reproduction with relatively few male orcs, but the more female orcs able to reproduce, the more orcs that can be born in a given period of time.

Finally, a brief point about Kazaa. It's evil. Sure it provides insane access to movies, music, etc., it also insatlls a lot of spyware on your computer, allowing your activities to be observed by whoever has access to these programs (most likely Kazaa administrators) who then do what they will with the information (Most likely they give this information to advertisers who use this imformation to target their porducts to poeple most likely to buy them.).

*For an argument on why the changes to Faramir don't work, see my April 14 piece: 'The Extended Edition and Alternate Faramir'."