I have been trying very hard to present Ędegard as a true Rohirrim with Rohirric sensibilities. The Rohirrim were modeled after the Anglo-Saxons from the middle ages, before 1066 (the date of the Norman Conquest). Honor and blood loyalty were core beliefs.
Now, we moderns think like moderns. No duh, eh?
And therefore it comes as no surprise that Leafa and Liornung, especially, but also Bellyn, think like moderns instead of like Rohirrim and Gondorians of Middle Earth.
This is why I'm having Ędegard speak in the way he is to Leafa, who, for all her Rohirric looks and name, sounds to Ędegard nothing like what he would expect a Rohirric girl to sound like. To his mind, he half wonders if Leafa has been too much under the influence of the Easterlings, but he has to reject that notion, because it does not account for why Liornung and Bellyn think the same way. There is no such thing as a new fad or style in Gondor and Rohan - so he can't fathom that something has perhaps come down from the courts. The only conclusion that he might draw is that this new way of thinking comes from the Elves by way of the King in Minas Tirith, who had much to do with Elves.
Okay, yeah, I've had a lot of education to help me along, compared to some of you who aren't out of high school yet - and might I add that you're all doing quite admirably for all that and it ain't your fault that you don't have so many years under your - um - belt *ahem* (not to mention a few extra pounds) - but I'd like to encourage us toward one additional thing:
Immerse yourselves not only in your own characters and all the connections between characters, but into the culture of the time and place your characters inhabit.
It means forcing yourself to think in other ways than you're used to. And that's a really powerful tool for writing! Oh, and keep having fun with it, eh?
