Friends of Nimrodel: Tapestry of Dreams - Discussion - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

mark12_30 · 09-26-2004, 09:19 PM

"Mewlips" is really rather a Hobbit poem. I love it, but it is awfully cute.

I have no problem whatsoever with having the source of that hobbit-legend spring to life-- or un-life-- in the swamp, but if we **call** them Mewlips, they become cute and comical and I'd rather dodge that.

We can always explain (after some good, slimy horror) that these creatures were the source of the Mewlips legend for the hobbits.

I'm leaning towards the Swamp-dead, as in the Dead Marshes (yes, yes, that is their name.) They can be as mewlipsy as we want-- but let's call them something else?

littlemanpoet · 09-27-2004, 02:19 PM

I can't see Tharonwe messing around with the undead. Don't know why. I see the mewlips or merlocks, whatever you want to call them, as some kind of night-wakeful cannibalistic humanoid that has developed excellent survival skills for swamp life. Sort of Gollumish without the ring-lust.

Wrong place for this, except that I brought it up in this context,

but it occurred to me that an invisible hobbit-eating Smeagol could possibly be the seed for the folklore behind the poem. Anyway....

By the by, I edited post # 484 to account for Gwyllion's nightmares of Aeron drowning.

mark12_30 · 09-27-2004, 02:24 PM

Eeeeew.

Okay.

Merlocks would be a good name; hints at Mewlips but not blatant.

I'd rather not get sunken into a swamp battle that lasts for months unending-- what kind of thing do you have in mind? Ten of them? Ten thousand?

09-26-2004, 09:19 PM	#1
mark12_30 Stormdancer of Doom Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Elvish singing is not a thing to miss, in June under the stars Posts: 4,349	"Mewlips" is really rather a Hobbit poem. I love it, but it is awfully cute. I have no problem whatsoever with having the source of that hobbit-legend spring to life-- or un-life-- in the swamp, but if we call them Mewlips, they become cute and comical and I'd rather dodge that. We can always explain (after some good, slimy horror) that these creatures were the source of the Mewlips legend for the hobbits. I'm leaning towards the Swamp-dead, as in the Dead Marshes (yes, yes, that is their name.) They can be as mewlipsy as we want-- but let's call them something else? __________________ ...down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer's eve.

09-27-2004, 02:19 PM	#2
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	Mewlips or whatever I can't see Tharonwe messing around with the undead. Don't know why. I see the mewlips or merlocks, whatever you want to call them, as some kind of night-wakeful cannibalistic humanoid that has developed excellent survival skills for swamp life. Sort of Gollumish without the ring-lust. Wrong place for this, except that I brought it up in this context, but it occurred to me that an invisible hobbit-eating Smeagol could possibly be the seed for the folklore behind the poem. Anyway.... By the by, I edited post # 484 to account for Gwyllion's nightmares of Aeron drowning. Last edited by littlemanpoet; 09-27-2004 at 02:23 PM.

09-27-2004, 02:24 PM	#3
mark12_30 Stormdancer of Doom Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Elvish singing is not a thing to miss, in June under the stars Posts: 4,349	Eeeeew. Okay. Merlocks would be a good name; hints at Mewlips but not blatant. I'd rather not get sunken into a swamp battle that lasts for months unending-- what kind of thing do you have in mind? Ten of them? Ten thousand? __________________ ...down to the water to see the elves dance and sing upon the midsummer's eve.

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