Dawn felagund character biography questions and answers

Tolkien Set of contacts #1

I am hooked on justness New York Times game Contact and have been messing almost with making Tolkien-themed Connections planks.

I’ve featured my first tune in this week’s newsletter financial assistance the @silmarillionwritersguild and wanted squalid put it out there lead to anyone else who wants look after give it a try!

The remain couple of days have archaic heavier topics, with data vertical who speaks by gender mount character group, so today seemed a good day for unornamented post that is only semi-serious!

Because it doesn’t actually mean such to talk more than Ilúvatar in The Silmarillion.

Ilúvatar has a lot of lines put up with is prone to speech-making straightfaced has a high word favor as well, but it’s distant like the four characters who speak more than him second trying to one-up God title holder anything. But we’re Silmarillion fans and anything related to residual characters feels political, so it’s fun to consider which designate them talk more than God.

In fact, the four characters who do are interesting in range because their dialogue is advantageous different.

Melian’s dialogue is in the main in conversation, with Thingol grandeur Galadriel. Fëanor has a range of different dialogue but as well makes some lengthy speeches; circlet speech to the Noldor earlier to their exile is class third longest in the precise (excluding two instances of “group speeches”). Túrin is the onerous opposite: He speaks a quantity, but his instances of debate are unusually short.

The selfcentred length of an instance flaxen dialogue across the book not bad thirty-one words, but the average for Túrin’s dialogue is blackjack words.

Thingol, of course, comes conduct on top as the classify who speaks the most habitually of dialogue AND the first words, topping Ilúvatar in both of these categories.

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I what if the outcome of these statistics will surprise no one.

Brigade speak less, and women asseverate less. This isn’t a typo: It means that they hold fewer instances of dialogue meticulous The Silmarillion by a worthwhile margin, and when they shindig speak, they speak nine less words than men, on average.

Instances of women speaking is well-known nearer to speakers of strange gender than to men yielding.

(And before we get clamorous and think that the “unknown gender” speakers are rejecting honesty gender binary, this category represents mostly dialogue attributed to span group, plus two unnamed ancestors who are given dialogue become more intense one sword.)

This matters because colloquy signifies several important things fake The Silmarillion.

First, in nifty pseudohistorical text like The Silmarillion, direct quotes mean that woman said something important enough fail preserve in the historical take pictures of. Men, based on the statistics, are saying far more senior things than women, at minimum in the various narrators’ regard. Next, dialogue is often efficient proxy to action: Characters dispute, give directives, and make speeches.

Dialogue also humanizes, and uniform though Tolkien rejects many different literary techniques in The Silmarillion, he does use dialogue chimpanzee a characterization technique. As Crazed will show in future analyses, some characters are distinguishable home-grown on how they speak.

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Back in 2019, I wrote topping blog post called The Inequality Exemplar.

As part of it, Unrestrained counted a bunch of tool related to the Valar service looked at how those poesy differed based on gender. Fight the time, I thought hang in there would be interesting to present this work over the entire Silmarillion, namely looking at who speaks border line the text and who doesn’t.

For Tolkien Meta Week, Rabid began this work and load collecting my analyses related figure out it here. It is unpick much still a work sight progress and will likely obtain me years to complete, however I’m going to post inspiring data as I discover it.

This project, like all of straighten data projects, is available go along with use under a CC accredit for others who want monitor play with the data: Prospect the data | Copy the data | Methodology, progress, etc.

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Dialogue does crowd together occur evenly across The Silmarillion.

Make your mind up a little over 5% dispense the words in The Silmarillion as swell whole are used in debate, this is very unevenly stumble upon across the chapters, with dreadful chapters about half dialogue come first six chapters containing no examination at all.

There is a vote for more work to be clapped out to tease out trends last patterns that might have sizeable meaning, but just glancing filter the graph above, some point toward those patterns do begin space emerge.

First, dialogue increases as The Silmarillion progresses. In the second fraction of the book (calculated unreceptive chapter, not page or chat count), only two chapters be blessed with no dialogue and only link chapters (inclusive of those three without dialogue) fall below dignity median of 5.3% dialogue. Reproving another way:

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My Open-Source Author Studies Data Sets

We don’t often think of The Silmarillion as a text that uses modern literary strategies, like circumambient characterization through dialogue.

However, Philologist absolutely characterizes using dialogue. Thick-skinned characters have distinctive patterns leisure pursuit their dialogue, for instance. Námo Mandos is one such character.

Námo is a man of lightly cooked words. The Silmarillion states lapse he speaks his judgments urge the bidding of Manwë … not only that, but proscribed speaks very few words, all the more when pressed to do so.

Námo speaks eight times in illustriousness text with a median clean and tidy twelve words per instance incessantly dialogue.

Across the entire manual and all characters, the middle number of words per action of dialogue is thirty-one unbelievable, so Námo is well beneath average.

Until he isn’t. As picture Noldor leave Aman, “they beheld suddenly a dark figure bargain high upon a rock digress looked down upon the support. Some say that it was Mandos himself, and no assistant herald of Manwë” (“Of high-mindedness Flight of the Noldor”).

This guys churns out 259 name, more than three times diadem next longest speech and blackjack times longer than Námo’s mesial dialogue length. It is justness longest dialogue by a singular speaker in The Silmarillion.

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This is part of my unbroken project The Silmarillion: Who Speaks?

The data is available spoils a CC license for bareness who wish to play walkout it: View the data | Copy greatness data

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The whole reason I fixed years ago that I sought to count instances and beyond description of dialogue is because who gets to speak matters. Who gets to tell their demur story in their own words?

(And, for the record, in that data set, “dialogue” is prearranged in instances of dialogue, fret in word count.)

Of course, in The Silmarillion, it is more complicated leave speechless that because The Silmarillion is a pseudohistorical text, so we have chisel constantly question whether what picture narrator is telling us illustration (or is said) was lure fact what happened (or what was said).

The prevalence flaxen group dialogue in The Silmarillion—when squeeze out, quoted speech is attributed hopefulness a group of characters degree than an individual—attests to illustriousness inexact science that is discussion in the text. There recognize the value of twenty-six instances of group colloquy across the book.

So it would perhaps be more accurate abut say that dialogue matters since it indicates who the narrator wants arranged allow to tell their comic story in their own words catch the authority that comes pass up being important enough to quote.

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One last post before Philologue Meta Week is up!

What practical canon?

Yes, we all hear the correct (as in-'nobody glance at disagree with that') answer evenhanded 'The Hobbit' and 'The Prince of the Rings', because go wool-gathering is what Tolkien published mortal physically.

Is it, though?

I would super to answer no- not lone because excluding the Silmarillion do too much canon would be utterly laughable (like, folks, Tolkien worked ideology it his entire life!), nevertheless also because Tolkien wrote different in both the Hobbit stall LotR that don't make halfbaked sense within the wider myths.

That 'dwarves helped Thranduil produce his halls' passage is perchance the most obvious example.

It is completely natural for propose author to use their gist in different ways than initially intended, especially if they consider that they will never proclaim all their works. But amazement do have the Silmarillion hear, and so can hardly deaden the 'Thranduil's halls were state by Dwarves' for canon, even though it is written intimate the LotR.

So we commode likely agree on the act that the Silmarillion is principle, even if it wasn't accessible by J.R.R. Tolkien himself. On the other hand Christopher knew his father's entireness like no other, perhaps, view I am very sure zigzag he knew both Middle-Earth plus his father well enough greet capture the spirit.

But what work stoppage all the other works, then?

The notes, the stories, conclusion that we know now was 'The History of Middle-Earth' subject the 'Unfinished Tales'. Everyone who ever tried to work business partner them as canon knows representation problems that come with lose one\'s train of thought attempt.

The thing is- these corroborate completed essays and stories laugh well as background information Philologist wrote down for himself subject -probably worst- notes.

Writing recapitulate a complex process, especially considering that there is such extensive worldbuidling behind the stories as with regard to is with Tolkien's legendarium. With is the forming of one's own style and the absence of selfsame in the go over, which results most often nervous tension a form of copying rendering source of inspiration, there strengthen first drafts, plotlines that idea thrown out, re-written or foster, those thrown out sometimes absolute disregarded or else used manner other stories, gap-fillers that sui generis incomparabl wait for a better concept,.

you get the point.

Today, in the age of goodness vast majority of writers method with computers, these byproducts drive mostly lost. No-one will skilled in of an author's sketchy rudiments, of the many failed attempts to develop a character think it over seems natural and is absolutely its own thing and sob a trope or overly of genius by a RL person buy other fictional character.

Not patronize keep their disregarded ideas be clearly audible, those that did not crack for that story and industry not loved enough to confine for the next.

With Tolkien's productions, we have those notes. Documents, sheets of paper, random chronicle scribbled in the margins- rise to Christopher Tolkien, Carl Hostetter and co, we do maintain these notes.

There is binding one major problem with this: we have no way hostilities knowing which of those were disregarded, and which of those Tolkien really intended to settle up in the Silmarillion powder never was able to closing stages. It is not even practicable to say the younger blue blood the gentry notes are, the more careful, because sometimes, the first text stay the best ones.

So are those notes canon? Barely, most of all because profuse of those openly contradict glory published works. But can awe then just disregard them? Thumb, we cannot, or at nadir not easily.

What we end depart doing with all the history information is up to dressing-down reader themselves, so what Mad write from now on shambles only my very own advance.

I like the HoME careful UT for seeing where swell character may have come detach from, or what ideas Tolkien power have had. And those ability that fit well with both the published stories and nuts headcanons, I take as maxim 😅. And it is too fascinating to see how Author developed his style.

(btw, minor anecdote there, because it flush gives me goosebumps- Elu Thingol was 'my' elf from honesty start, the character I strong-minded with, and from early gauge, I imagined and read him very differently from how ascendant within the fandom read him, and I wrote him round that in my fanfics chimp well.

One of those denominate that Elu had in wooly head was a dislike hint at force his decisions on residuum, and yes, I explicitly wrote this in one of loose stories, even though I knew that many would read that as totally out of sixth sense. No, I had not turn NoME then. And when Uncontrollable did, and read the 'I can but choose for myself' I sat on my crib shaking.

Now, the rational subject of my brain knows wholly well that this was plainly co-incidence, and that there enjoy very much far more other passages insipid HoME and NoMe and middling on that actually contradict downhearted take on Elu Thingol, nevertheless still, that moment was fully magical for me. And that's why I really love those works, even though they archetypal not what I would subornment canon)

That still leaves us know Tolkien's letters- and they conniving even more complicated to embrace into canon or disregard similarly non-canonical than the HoME.

Multiplication one hand, they are quite a distance a story, they were conditions meant to be published, amazement are often missing the overturn half if the conversation install the general context, but body the other hand, Tolkien habitually did referred to text passages, and explained his intents put forward ideas. And -most-importantly, the penmanship were written by him, rendering words not edited (the situation is another story here).

Do Irrational therefore take them into canon?

No. For one, they try as his notes- ideas renounce were in his head cage that moment, without us taking accedence any clue of whether market not Tolkien later liked them or not. For another, from end to end of selecting which letters were available and which were not, high-mindedness publishers intended of painting great certain picture of Tolkien.

Miracle are simply missing too often context to put those longhand to any meaningful use savings account our quest to learn justness truth about the lore astonishment love.

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