Eorling Mead Hall Planning/Discussion Thread

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Kath

Well we're out of the Hall now and on our way into town Form. But we have a slight problem in that I have no idea what is around the place that Kara can show you! Any ideas? What would Nain like to see?

Merry Christmas to everybody! Enjoy your days.

Náin would likely, shortly after first arriving in Edoras, have been to Meduseld to see the King (his presence being a boon from King Thorin III to King Eomer), but I doubt if he's seen much else of the town. Of course, all this does is comfortably eliminate the only landmark of which we are really familiar with in Edoras.

Hmm... I suppose there are the mounds of the Kings. Or maybe a graveyard area in general. As a stone-carver, Náin's professional interest would be anything that's stone, and a graveyard seems like the best place to look for stone carvings, though I don't know that headstones would have been the norm...

Other than that, what else might be stone in Edoras? Let's work with that as a basis, since Náin is both interested in stone, and anything with stone would most likely be the grandest place in town. What does one normally see when sight-seeing? Churches, palaces, natural vistas...

Well, Churches are out, this being Middle-Earth, and I'm not thinking of any real equivalent, other than the King's Hall, which Náin has already seen.

Palaces= Houses, manors, castles, villas, mansions... There might be one or two houses of note in Edoras, but how much sight-seeing could one really do, people living there and all?

And natural vistas...

I'm guessing that if one went out of the city, there could be all kinds of things here, this being right in the foothills of the mountains and all. There could be waterfalls, lakes, streams, caves. Is any of this really suitable for the sort of day we seem to have been leading up to though?

And that leaves... well, I'm thinking places of burial, be they mounds, graveyards, or whatnot... Could there be a town square in Edoras- possibly with some of the finest buildings in town around? Náin may be a stone carver, but wood-carving would interest him. Maybe a town fountain? Or is Edoras "green" enough to have parks/royal preserves/etc...?

I think the problem I'm encountering is that most of things one goes normally to "tour" are the sorts of things that only really appeared come the Renaissance... which is a bit post-Rohirric in nature. Could there be any old Gondorian ruins in the area? Gondor ruled Calenardhon for two and a half millennia. Maybe there was a big ranch house or something in the vale...

Lots of random speculations... note sure where we're going.

[littlemanpoet]

I would not protest if you use the movie as a guide to what might be found in Edoras, since I trust the two primary artists for their faithfulness to Tolkien's settings far more than I do the director's faithfulness to Tolkien's characters and themes. So if you have the movie, take a look at Edoras on that, and proceed accordingly.

Having said that, I tend to think that the Edoras of the movies is a rather spartan business, and does not account for the variety of trades that had to exist in the Third Age of Middle Earth in Rohan. Rex Anglorum may help in this regard.

Tanners
Wainwrights
Carpenters
Stone shapers
Goatherds
Horse breeders
sellers of various dry goods
fletchers
smiths
teamsters
the list goes on.....

[Lhunardawen]

I'm sorry for my long and sudden disappearance! And to prevent this from happening again, I'll say as early as now that I'll be gone from the 28th (wait...that's tomorrow!) until probably the 2nd of January. I'll run off to read the thread now and post while I may.

[Kath]

Well now if we combine these ideas we might be able to form some kind of tour for Nain and Kara.

We're going into town first so we could start with wandering that and looking at all the different trades going on. Nain is a craftsman (or dwarf) after all so might he be interested in that?

Then we could head out of town to some of these Gondorian ruins. Those would presumably be made of stone? Perhaps it could be like when you go to an old castle and all you can see of how it was is the small inch or so high remains of the walls.

By this time it would probably be lunch and so we could head to the more picturesque parts of Edoras with open plains and little waterfalls, and stop in some nice place for a bite to eat.

And then on the way home we could pass old burial mounds and Nain could have a wonderful time explaining the old customs and how tombs were shaped to Kara.

If this sounds like absolute rubbish please feel free to tell me.

[JennyHallu]

I'm back!

LMP, when is Eodwine going to address Marenil?

And what is the time of year, again? I'm lost, time wise.

[littlemanpoet]

I believe, without taking a close look, that it's late May. I'm going to have to start posting the date at the beginning of each new Day. I can see that now.

Jenny, since Eodwine is a rather unorganized chap, he does what comes into his head. If he happens to see Marenil about, he'll be sure to remember to talk to him. If he doesn't, he's apt to forget until something else reminds him. Every character has weaknesses, and absent mindedness is one of Eodwine's glaring ones.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Kath

If this sounds like absolute rubbish please feel free to tell me.

Not like rubbish at all. Sounds like a plan to me. Which means that either you need to post, or I do (well, I guess it's my turn...).

Assuming that I'm going next, look to the computer screen ere tomorrow night (or later, you being in England).

[littlemanpoet]

Originally Posted by Kath

Then we could head out of town to some of these Gondorian ruins. Those would presumably be made of stone? Perhaps it could be like when you go to an old castle and all you can see of how it was is the small inch or so high remains of the walls.

If this sounds like absolute rubbish please feel free to tell me.

Actually, just one piece of rubbish..... other than the rundown ruins themselves..... the ruins are Numenorean, not Gondorian. I imagine that this distinction might not be lost on the Dwarf.

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by littlemanpoet

Actually, just one piece of rubbish..... other than the rundown ruins themselves..... the ruins are Numenorean, not Gondorian. I imagine that this distinction might not be lost on the Dwarf.

No, the ruins are Gondorian.

And the distinction would most certainly not be lost on Náin.

Númenoreans started settling in Middle-Earth in the mid-Second Century, but it is quite clear from the Appendices and extra-LotR writings that they didn't settle much beyond the Anduin delta, around Pelargir, and in Eriador, near the realm of Gil-galad.

Neither area includes Calenardhon.

It is only after the fall of Númenor, and the establishment of the realms of Gondor and Arnor under Elendil and his sons that the Dúnedain settle further inland. The hundred years or so under Isildur and Anárion is a time of great expansion and fortress-building in Gondor. (The Argonath, Minas Anor, Minas Ithil, Osgiliath, the Stone of Erech-- for sure.) Undoubtedly, these earliest architectural structures would have been as Númenorean in style and design as any ediface lining the streets of Andúnië or Arminelos, but they were constructed under Gondorian rule.

Furthermore, Gondor continued to rule over Calenardhon for another 2500 years, until the arrival of the Éotheod half a millennium before the War of the Ring. And as Kath's castle examples from England will show, five hundred years is plenty of time for impressive stone edifices to become forlorn ruins. Thus, any time between the arrival of the Dúnedain (and the founding of the Kingdom of Gondor) and the arrival of the Eorlings (and the ceding of Calenardhon by the Gondorians) would be a candidate for the construction of any "ruins".

Additionally, since Calenardhon was never densely populated, a time somewhere in the middle of that time period (well past when "Númenorean" would have been an applicable term), after Gondor's population had reached its zenith, but before it began to wane, would be a sensible time for some moderately-sized ruins in the Edoras region to have been first planted. Let's give it an approximate date of... 1000 T.A., a full 1100 years after the fall of Númenor.

So it is Gondorian. Not rubbish at all.

And um... yeah... I should go direct my energy to something useful. Like a post. Or maybe a PM reply. Anyway, no personal animosity is intended or felt... I just haven't let my picky side out in a while.

[littlemanpoet]

Very well, I stand corrected. Carry on. And post to the rpg thread.