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Old 01-18-2006, 05:08 PM   #32
narfforc
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
 
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Muddy-earth
Posts: 1,307
narfforc has been trapped in the Barrow!
What are you laughing at?

I'm sorry to drag this one out of retirement, but ESTY sent this thread to me some months ago, having read some of my work. Subsequently we met at The 50th Anniversary in Birmingham, and I believe that she read most of The Followship of the Ring and The Two Townies (In fact she hogged the MS, so DAVEM couldn't get his hands on it). I have just sent a part of The Lord of the Grins to an agent, in the hope he can find a publisher. Having read this thread (to the best of my ability), I find a lot to be positive about. My overiding fear is that Tolkien Scholars will see this as just another attempt to cash in on the name, I can honestly tell you that is not true. I have read Bored of the Rings, and although I find it funny, For I am old enough to understand most of the references to our world of the Sixties, many of todays readers have no idea of them. When I started the book I only really wanted to update the humour, however it has grown out of proportion.
Having read The Soddit, The Sellamillion and The Sillymarillion, I can only say in my mind, mine is as good as any of them. I think where mine differs, is that I love the works of Tolkien. I am a member of The Tolkien Society, and have been reading his works since the late sixties. I have a huge collection of his works (twenty different copies of The Lord of the Rings alone). I consider what I am doing no worse than Peter Jackson, in that LotR is a room full of doors, and we have both entered it through different ways. Parody is an ability to look at something in a different way. The english language can often be turned on its head. A great hero of mine was Ronnie Barker, he to me was a true wordsmith, anyone who has seen The Four Candles/Fork Handles sketch will know what I mean, he told this once:-

Man to young boy "Go over the road and see how Old Mrs Smith is"
Boy comes back and replies "She says her age has got nothing to do with you"

Try to imagine at the point where Celeborn says in Lothlorien, "One would say at the last Gandalf fell into folly", then Pippin saying, "No he fell into a big black hole"

The main thing is, I am one of you, and it is for us and only us that this book is aimed at. It will have no meaning to those who have only seen the films, or who have read the books only once, if you haven't read The Silmarillion or The Appendices, you will be in trouble also. The hardest parts of writing this book have been where LotR get really serious, and changing the names so they all match the new story and are not just silly. So I will leave you with the true version of The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen.

I know by rights this should be in The Middle-earth Mirth dept, but it is an attempt to show how parody works.


Benny son of Barry was a working class man who fell in love with a royal. She was the daughter of King Thingy and Mullien The May I, called Lillian Tinnitus which is Frighteningwail in The Spindrawlin language of the Elves. Thingy was King of the Elves and was known as Elude Singular, Greatmangle Lord of The Thousand Cafes of Manygrowth of Doorhehath. The King sent Benny on a quest, which included him getting past the whole host of Mortcough and into the Halls of Hangbad beneath the Towers of Thatgotridofhim. Benny Chameleon returned out of the darkness (The Lay of which was written by Roy Gorge The Rotund), and wed Lillian. Their child was Dear Helovachil, whose daughter Yelling married Herenditall the son of Chewer son of Hewer and Idiot Cerebellum daughter of King Turgid. The sons of Yelling and Herenditall were Elbow the Halfman and Elroy Tru-miniature the first king of Neomanor. So it was that the line was reunited when Paragon son of Paramount, Alesser Heir of Everdulls son Evenduller King of Gondour and Another(small insignificant place in the north), wed Olwen Undomesticated daughter of Elbow the Halfman.

P.S I was only joking ESTY, honest.
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