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Old 03-17-2003, 06:56 AM   #90
lindil
Seeker of the Straight Path
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: a hidden fastness in Big Valley nor cal
Posts: 1,681
lindil has just left Hobbiton.
Sting

Not that it seems to have to much to do with the current discussion [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] but...


...I had the great and good fortune to attend a ' private mini-subchapter meeting of the Bay-Area's Downers Club' last night [sections removed from post due to relevance, the scarcely changed original complete with more typos can be found in the Bay Area BD'ers thread]


As I was saying, I was most fortunate to meet my second BD'er last night, just scant minutes off of my usual Sat night Northward trek up Highway 101 and back home.

Tar-Elenion received me warmly into his apartment and we immendiately got down to 'business' [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] .

I had been away from a certain mutual project [not the Silm/TftE] for more hours than I like and whose size and scope seems equal only to my ego [on less watchful days], and T-E graciously suggested we peep in to see what had transpired overt eh course of the day, curious of course himself.

Tar-Elenion, reminded me much of myself, if I had been 'smart' enough to remain single, that is [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img], and if I had retained that soft-spoken demeanor which I once possessed for 10 minutes or so back in my tweens Thorondil may remember the moment when in 84 after hearing Dark Star an the AOR FM station [ a never to be repeated experience I can tell you - we sat in silence as the DJ very quietly and humbly recalled the days when 'we talked very softly and...'

Similar to my first meeting a BD'er [the now retired and northwardly moblie Saulotus/Bobwehadababyanditsaboy], Tar-Elenion is extremely knowledgeable well beyond my many years.

As we attempted to make a bizarrely instructioned scanner to do our bidding [the ostensible reason for my visit] I took surreptitious moments away from the marginally successful process to peer into volumes [all in their immaculate dust-jackets which seemed to be right off the shelf, despite some being 20 years old! and well read].

'Tolkien's Legendarium' was in particular finally seen by myself, the ultimate in HoM-E scholarship, and T-E was gracious enough to honour my request to copy the chapter which I have been desiring to read eversince I caught wind of it:On the Construction of "the Silmarillion" by one Charles Noad.

The meeting, as it went through it's phases reminded me much of my time with Saulotus;
timeless - stretching into the the late hours with me feeling as if only an hour or so had passsed.

Humbling for me, like the meeting with Saulotus, Tar-Elenion's scholarship runs deep [see his 'Aragorn's Anscestors' and 'Kings of the Noldor and Canon' in the TftE public forum if you wish for a taste in comparison with that most famous of internet Tolkien personalities], I learned many things in a short space, and came away inspired and ready for my long trek home to the hidden fastness, called by it's shirelike officials 'County of Lake'.

Interestingly enough we each left the encounter no wiser about each other's personal life than we started, excepting of course the volumes that seeing another person can tell you about them, and for us, recalling in a way perhaps that wise DJ of old, it was not only enough, but subtly and peacefully so.

When I arrived there hours later at 2am I was still warm at heart and eager to hopefully meet some day, not only my other fellow Bay Area BD'ers btu also the other 2 of the Downs 'top 4' scholars [imo at least] Jallanite and Aiwendil.

Oh and in addition, I learned that the Downs had hosted one of the great luminaries of the Elvish Language [and a published author to boot!] for over a year without me even noticing! And, no I won't say who it was [at least not in open forum [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]]... you will have to search it out yourself!

I wish I could go into more detail re: the many byways and 'snakeshands' of our conversations [when not about the poorly designed scanner software] but my time has expired, and I must rouse the family for Liturgy.

- lindil

'The dwindling Men of the West would often sit up late into the night, and awaken early before dawn- exchanging lore and wisdom such as they possessed , so that they should not fall back into the mean and low estate of those , who never knew or more sadly still, had indeed rebelled against the Light.'
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The dwindling Men of the West would often sit up late into the night exchanging lore & wisdom such as they still possessed that they should not fall back into the mean estate of those who never knew or indeed rebelled against the Light.
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