Aragorn swoon thread!
 

Hello everyone, i'm new here. Hey is there no swooning threads on this site? All the other LOTR messageboard have swoon threads for us Ringers to drool over our favourite charactors. Mine is Aragorn and i think he is Pphwwoaarr!! yummy or what! How about any of you other girls, do you think Aragorn is gorgeous? :D

I hope i am allowed to swoon on here, i apologize if i can't, which would be a shame. :rolleyes:

Love from aragorns other half! :D

I believe there was an attempt some time back to establish a Swoon Room for the Mods and Admins. Or was it Balrogs?

Anyhow, when eyeliner became passé we all rather lost interest. Such is the fickle nature of swoondom.

In other words, it's our party and you can swoon elsewhere. SaucepanMan has better uses for his pans. :p :rolleyes: ;)

Hello Bethberry

Well i think there would be plenty out there who would like to let of steam and swoon over their favourite charactor. Who is your favourite? :rolleyes:

I also like Boromir and Eomer, after Aragorn of course! Most girls i know like Legolas but i think he is yuk!! :D

Hi, Araswoon, and welcome to the Downs! Various forums have different topics on which they focus; the Barrow-Downs' main emphasis is on the books, with movies included mainly in reference to the books. Those who want to concentrate on the LotR movie actors can find possibilities for that on movie sites and/or the actors' fan sites. Take a look around our site and see if there are topics that interest you; you're welcome to join in the discussions.

Thanks Estelyn

I've posted in the Book thread, so hopefully i'll get a response on there. Well i do go on other LOTR sites that have swoon threads so i'll just choose them when i like a good drool. I will pop on here when i want to discuss the books though! :p

I admit I haven't been up to date on the online Tolkien 'scene', but if it's true that all the other LotR boards have swoon threads, I guess the Downs community has yet another merit to be proud of.

Well, I'd just like to say that I've never heard of so-called "swoon-threads," and that such things are generally discouraged at all of the Tolkien fora of which I am a member. I'm afraid, Araswoon, that you won't find much swooning going on here at the Downs.

A philological confusion
 

My fellow linguistic, fantasy, and Tolkien enthusiasts,

It could well be that we have erred in our understanding of this term 'swoon tread.' If we excavate the etymology of 'swoon' we are left with a possible link to the most important act of Arwen in LOTR.

'swoon' is a modern form of the archaic 'swound' or, perhaps, s'wönd in Sindarin. Through the natural loss of sibilants at the end of words (commensurate with the Great Vowel Shift) , this could likely have been swûnds' the common interjection of "God's wounds". However, this raises the distinct possibility of a scribal transcription error from the Sindarin. Rather than God's wounds we more properly should have gon, S for 'commander,' wounds.

Here we clearly have a case wherebye the banner Arwen prepared for Aragorn was sewn with threads offering a talismanic protection against the commander's wounds.

Consequently, we must therefore have here irrefutable if not undeniable evidence for a banner thread.

banners and balrogs
 

Is it not therefore the height of irony that the hunky, sizzling Roggie never had anyone devoted enough to him to weave him a flameproof banner? The records are silent on whether he carried banners of a more incendiary nature (aside from his flaming mane which can hardly be construed as a gift of support and admiration.) Apparently his admirers had no access to asbestos fiber.

If they had, perhaps he would have rallied even to the point of withstanding Feanor-- after all, Roggie's eyeliner made him all but invinceable and his defeat was fatal to Feanor in the end. Imagine how the course of history would have been changed by a combination of makeup and the proper non-combustible fabric.

Exactly the point I was about to bring up, mark, as he was definitely the hottest creature in Middle Earth, apart from Denethor.
Love the linguistics lesson Bethberry, my favorite word is "etymology"...

But as for swooning, that's kind of only for movie-fans, and not really applicable to those who love the books in addition, i.e. everyone on Barrowdowns. And it wouldn't really be Aragorn we would swoon over, but Viggo, in which case, it would be better if done on his fan site. But if we were to swoon over Aragorn as the character in the book, I wonder if that would be different?

If I might try my hand at swooning complexities.

Webster's New Collegate Dictionary defines swoon;
1. Swoon: a) faint, b) to become enraptured, c) FLOAT, FADE
2. Swoon: a) A total or partial loss of consciousness, b) DAZE, RAPTURE, c) a languourous drift

Now then, to simplify matters, I am male. This excludes me from the common swooning circles of life, sadly. Now, fainting is an all too common occurence. I could understand fainting as a result of hearing the haphazardly dashing exploits of Elessar Telcontar, that certainly makes sense, even for us males, via technicality. I don't believe my gender would be 'enraptured' by Aragorn or any other warrior of Tolkeindom per se, but I could also understand floating or fading.

Of course, that seems a more common linking to Earendil or perhaps the floating Halls of Mandos. Are we talking about fading because of Aragorn? Maybe we are to place ourselves in the shoes of some darkened souls, fear I believe they are called, and thus fade from Arda's continuum. Maybe, like Curumo, we are now doomed to fade and float like the houseless. Is that what we're going for here? Also, languourous drift would seem to imply dangling in the emptyness of time.

So, in conclusion, I assume that swooning over Aragorn means that we are relating the point of view of a servant of the enemy, who has been banished by the righteous gem of Estel to fate, floate, and drift languourously.

In which case it would be easier to swoon over Leggy and Gimli, as they travel by ship to the Grey Havens? Oh wait, Aragorn took over the corsair ship. Is it safe to say that his companions were swooning? :D

okay, nevermind me...

Therein lies the secondary meaning, Either the swooning is very symbolic, ala references to houseless spirits, or it is blatant and obvious. Thus, swooning could be in fact a seward reference, in which case I finally understand your choosing of Aragorn, son of Arathorn. He was, at least somewhat, a man who had seafaring knowledge.

Honestly, I believe that the more likely swooning candidates are, as Lady Snickerdoodle said, Gimli and Legolas, who travelled across the sea. But, the ideal candidates are, in fact, Earendil the Mariner, noble sailor who slew Ancalagon, Cirdan the Bearded Elven Shipwright of the Grey Havens, or Isengrim the Mariner, the little known hobbit of seafaring fame.

There are a great many swooners known to us, in fact, among them Samwise and Frodo the hobbits, Galadriel, Lady of Lothlorien, Mithrandir, and Elrond Peredhil, to name but a few. All of these might be considered to have swooned if we assume that all who have travelled by sea have swooned indeed and left the world...... But in that case, we are taken again to the dilemma of houseless spirits, and our conundrum becomes ever more complicated. This question of meaning in context is rather more than one scholar can define.

Hello. Thanks for all who have put their contribution on here. When i refer to swooning i don't just mean drooling over how gorgeous Aragorn looks. I also swooned over Aragorn in the book. Tolkien wrote the charactor in order for him to be attractive to women in Middle Earth. Arwen, Eowyn and Galadriel to me found him to be attractive (correct me if i'm wrong).

Other sites that i'm a member of have swoon threads for all the charactors even the undesirable ones, they are threads for fans to drool over if they wish and for them to talk about their favourite charactor. One thread I always log on to is called the DSG Aragorn Haven, so it is for lighthearted swooning and to talk about the charactor and the Actor Viggo.

Surely on this site you could have seperate threads for each of the charactors and enemies etc. Even on a book site like this. When i read the books i wanted to talk about the charactors. :)

Worthy suggestions, I am sure; worthy suggestions. But if we are to talk about floating, fading, and daze, surely Roggie takes the prize. Those who have been torched are sure to fade first, then daze, then float. Besides, nobody with eyeliner like Roggie wears could possibly be overshadowed by any elf (elves being well-known for eschewing makeup of any kind.)

In fact I assert that had Feanor's opponents been wearing the proper eyeliner, even The Fiery Spirit Himself could not have prevailed. No, as Lush taught us all long ago, eyeliner is key. And Roggie Rules.

Roggie for Chief Balrog!
 

My friends, I present you with a quote from the Tale of Beren and Lúthien:

Here we must wonder at the contextual meaning of "swoon." Does this erefer to the nautical definition? If so, it may be supposed that Beren fell into a seafaring way of life, which may explain the later swooners of his line, Elrond and Aragorn among them. Earendil by marriage to Elwing completes this lineage of mariners. Where, then, does the "perilous Gate" come in? The quote is taken from the passages directly following Beren's unlucky confrontation of Caracaroth, so perhaps it is meant to mean the Gate between death and life. Thus Beren was on the brink of death, as is supported in the text. This brings us back to our other primary definition, that of unhoused spirits. So we could take the quotation to mean either that Beren became a voyager on sea-vessels, and was on the brink of death, or that he became as a swooning spirit and was about to die. This second option seems rather redundant, but both are plausible. There is, however, a third possibility, which we must not forget. It may be that the "swoon" refers indeed to such a banner as was given to Aragorn, in which case he lay within the Gate wrapped about in a banner.

One must also wonder about Roggie - if he had been gifted with a banner, seeing as "swoon" appears to be widely used in a watery sense, would it not have quenched his flame? This may have rendered him easily defeatable by Feanor, and things may indeed have run in quite a different course. And is it not fitting that Aragorn displayed at last his swoon while he swooned, or in this case, his banner gifted to him by Arwen throught Halbarad as he sailed in the fleet of Black Ships?

The quantity of water represented by a banner would have evaporated into steam. A more pertinent question, perhaps, is what if the battle itself had been a swoon battle, taking place in a seafaring atmosphere. For instance, what if the battle had taken place in a river? The heat of the balrog would have evaporated mass quantities into steam, and visibility would have been reduced to feet or inches. How would that have affected the outcome?

Or, in a true seafaring sense, what if the swoon battle had taken place on board a sailing vessel? The vessel would perforce have ignited on contact with the balrog, and the flames would no doubt have consumed the elf; Roggie could have merely played for time.

Of course, once the boat was consumed, we know that Roggie is still a formidable foe. And he can swim, too. But he would have created quite a fog on his initial immersion!

Perhaps these Balrogian powers of evaporation are the reason that swooning as applies to houseless spirits and those who have fallen unconscious is so often related to a misty or foggy state of being?

In which case, dearest Roggie would indeed be a very eligible swoon candidate, as not only would the steam be swooning about, but would create an optical illusion of him swooning.

Scene
 

So much swooning.

Anyway, to the part I just spotted and want to touch on; a minute of your time, please:

Since when was this part of a Tolkien "Scene" on the internet? When I first got started, back when Fellowship was barely opened in theaters and I had read the books only four times, Barrow Downs was part of the Tolkien Underground. Boom, one movie and a cult classic becomes a scene. It was this 'scene' that made swooning acceptable. Anyway, the Downs, as said somewhere earlier, is about the Lord of the Rings books by JRR Tolkien, and as far as I know, the books are still mostly an underground thing.

Of course, the movies served to turn on the masses to Tolkien's world . . . that's good I guess. It helped renew the popularity of the book, although the number of people absolutely obsessed with it doesn't seem to have jumped nearly as high as you'd think it would have. I'd guess quite a few people just read it as a companion to the film now, which is sad because of how much better the book is.

I just wish they'd cast ugly parts. Not movie ugly, not even tv ugly. Ugly ugly, as Moe Seizlak once said. Curse Hollywood. Why do PJ's movies have to be so awesome? Why?

Anyway, I'm glad the Downs have barely even permitted such things (except maybe the occasional instance of a crazed fan mentioning it). Our Downs, are clean of that fan-girl (mostly) filth. Haha! You don't see us nerds posting Miranda Otto or Liv Tyler swoon pages, now do you girls? I'd like to see some control shown by the Orlyboppers and the "Viggonites". (See, now the roles of guys and girls have been reversed, clever aye?).

As a matter of fact, the guys in one of my classes recently had a very heated discussion on who was hotter, Liv or Cate, which subsequently ended in the guys splitting into Arwen/Galadriel factions. Sad but all too true.
thats a score for us girls!

The problem, Snick, is the number of points against us. Example: I saw with my own eyes, not a week past, a girl who's never read the books, nor will she ever, specifically forbid her mother from changing the desktop on their family computer. It was a picture of MovieLegolas in I'm-about-to-shoot-something mode. But then again, that point can be cancelled out by the group of boys I saw, not a week past, argue about whether Liv Tyler is hotter than Keira Knightly... Sad, isn't it?


Fea

Ah, the wonders of Eyeliner!
 

On the subject of Eyeliner-What of the Easterlings? Might their most excellent Eyeliner possibly have defeated Roggie?

Once all the water had been evaporated by the balrog, swooning would be impossible. It would no longer be a swoon battle, and Roggie's eyeliner would prevail. Unless of course the battle involved Easterlings, they might have a chance. Or perhaps a certain pirate who is rather fond of rum...

*hastily tries to muffle Fea* Oh.. wait, you say it cancels out, nevermind. *lets go* :D

Swooning...
 

I swoon with Tar-Míriel, but that's just probably due to the Sundering Seas churning all around us.

Never mind... :rolleyes:

Well leave it to the Barrow-Downs to take a "Swoon" thread from someplace that is usually looked at as mindless to someplace where a person can actually learn something new :cool: (that is one reason why I like all you guys so much :D)

I am still very surprised that there are so many posts on this thread, and that it has not been closed. But this is very interesting because I had never before knew the true meaning of the word "swoon". I had always before thought of it meaning either fainting or falling deeply in love in a crush like way.

But we could always "swoon" over the book characters. That would most definitely fit in with the B-D's mindset.

Excellent discussion of the word 'swoon', you guys really make me think. However, I am more concerned with the use of the word 'drool'. If you were to drool every time Aragorn did something awesome (which is probably around 800 times in the book) then your lovingly created The Lord Of The Rings book would surely suffer considerable damage.

Now I am not at all materialistic, however, I do have a certain love and respect for my possessions, not least my copy of the Great Book, and I cannot see how it would be in anyone's best intentions to cover this book in lashings of saliva.

From at-sea warfare to saliva... how the mighty have fallen. No, I stand by "swoon". Banners! Banners! Who will find me an asbestos banner for Roggie?

*tsk*
All this talk of Earendil and no mention of one of the greatest swoons in Tolkien. If what Elwing did when she collapsed on the deck of the Vingilot wasn't a swoon, why I'll eat my brother's sword.

Yes Snick, cancels out, so I thank thee kindly for the removal of the gag. And I have a new point in our favor:

While watching The Two Towers (extended edition) in my Tril class the other day, I commented to a low-grade Viggonite that if people in the class would just listen to me and read the Silm, then they wouldn't be interrupting the movie with questions that can be easily answered. She asked if I had a copy of the Silm, which I procured for her just yesterday, and she is now in the midst of learning more about Elves, Maiar, Valar, etc. She also asked some questions about Arwen and Aragorn, so I kndly directed her to the Appendices of RotK. This Viggonite is not a hard-core movie fan, she is a book fan, and prefers the characters to the actors. She wants information directly from the source, not from an actor's portrayal. Not all character fans are swooners (in the fainting, drooling sense).

Point introduced... hopefully made.
Fea