Henneth Annûn Story Archive

Ah, Valentine's Day! Love and sweetness in the air, pink hearts and sugar galore... I'm getting diabetic just thinking about it. Hence the following squicky antidote, proposed below.

Would anyone here like to see a poetry challenge? And not just *any* poetry challenge:

Who would like to help write Gríma's love poetry? Disturbing thought, isn't it?

Alternate scary poetry producers could be:

A verse spoken by Gollum to his Precious
Fëanor's sonnets to Galadriel (all rejected, of course)
Something Túrin might have composed for Níniel
Something Maeglin might have composed for Idril (in his head)
Something Berúthiel might have composed about Tarannon, if she had a poetic bone in her body (she could've had one... a small one, maybe...)

Anyone willing to take a walk on the dark side of desire?

 

How about...

Morgoth to Ungoliant (or vice versa)
Feanor to the Silmarils (you are my starshine...)
Finduilas to Turin
Eol to Aredhel
Maeglin to Idril
Lobelia to Frodo (about her unrequited desire for Bag End)

Heh heh. Happy Valentine's Day.

Deborah

 

Maeglin's on there already, but the others... yessss...

Spread the word and spirit of my illegal CD, aptly entitled, "Bitter Valentine's Day"--call me weird, but I'd love to see people try these.

 

I'll play.

It can't be wise to actively try to channel Feanor, but, heck, I'm already bonkers anyway...

 

I may well just give one of these a go, Dwim...

 

Hmm, Feanor's love poetry to Galadriel ... *strokes chin thoughtfully* This could prove to be rather, how do you say ... interesting. Could this possibly be humor? Perhaps Feanor wasn't very poetic.

 

Now Dwim....

You've forgotten a few different prospects - namely all the slashy ones. Don't tempt me. I have both of the protagonists in "Star and Stone" swapping sonnets already, and I've been reading out Shakespeare's ones to them....

Are you frightened?



Meg
--

 

Who would like to help write Gríma's love poetry? Disturbing thought, isn't it?

Hmm Might just let this roll about in my mind for a little while and see whether anything worms its way to the surface.

 

Not nearly frightened enough. I blame it on illness and feeling too crappy to care about pain right now. Yes... that made sense. Bleh.

Ok, tentatively counting hands, here:
Stulti (I knew I could count on you)
Una (think of the potential for Faramir trauma concealed in this one. Could take place when Éowyn is working through the notion of going back to Faramir in "Chess"--I mean, isn't Faramir so much better than Gríma? Especially when she remembers some of the poetry he tried to woo her with a couple of times?)
Deborah (please??)
Meg (you know you'll get sucked in sooner or later)
Addicted (ooh, new name... hello, my precioussss)
possibly Andria [bats eyes]
Me, because by the time I get through midterms, I'll be in just the right mood.

Do respond "yay" or "nay" so I can get a firm count. Just need five, folks, just five volunteers....

Oh, and Meg: as ever, I attempt to stick to the canon side first when proposing a challenge. Helps keep things a bit more under control. However, I think you and I need to do something dangerous: we need to plot, you and I. I think we need a slash/gender-bending fic challenge for the group, yes, we do. But when I feel better. Right now, I'm prone to thinking it'd be therapeutic to write about being sick in the wilds of Eriador, but this doesn't really make for a great plot of any sort.

 

Hey, Denethor's the crappiest poet I know, other than me. Fire away. I think it'd be quite... oh... cosmically just (?) to find that for all his smithing genius, Fëanor can't put two romantic words together in a way that sounds romantic.

 

Do respond "yay" or "nay" so I can get a firm count. Just need five, folks, just five volunteers....

"Yay." I like your idea above, or else I may write that other spinoff to That Which Remains that I once threatened to do.

 

possibly Andria [bats eyes]

Still not committing, but this is just poetry, right? It doesn't have to have a fic wrapped round it?

P.S. Sorry you're not well Dwim, hope you feel better soon.

 

... but this is just poetry, right?

Yup. Just poetry, unless you feel the urge to do more with it than that. I was just trying to suck Una in, and lo! It has worked!

Sorry you're not well Dwim, hope you feel better soon

Thanks, I'll try not to sneeze on you guys.

 

I was just trying to suck Una in, and lo! It has worked!

You're not Vampire!Dwim, you're Hoover!Dwim!!

 

I'll say yay to this idea. I've already posted the first chapter of my beautiful work. It's poetry in a story. Are the poems allowed to be singing telegrams?

 

Dwim, as always, you have produced a clever, highly appealing challenge! ;) I am serious, how do you come up with all of these ideas?

Well, I have never written LotR poetry before... but, If I try, at least you all can get a good laugh out of my feeble attempts... Count me in!

P.S. Hope you are feeling better by now!

 

Not nearly frightened enough. I blame it on illness and feeling too crappy to care about pain right now.

[Meg squirrels the above away somewhere, out of the way, so that she can bring it out if Dwim complains about what she receives]

Okay, I'm in. Just give me another couple of weeks to boost the boys up on Shakespearian sonnets.

Meg (cursing the fool who invented most gynae procedures to having his gonads used as a bloody tennis trainer toy)

 

All right, we've got five! The Challenge is live. Three month time limit.

how do you come up with all of these ideas?

Insanity helps. Or maybe it is the advil cold and sinus.

[Meg squirrels the above away somewhere, out of the way, so that she can bring it out if Dwim complains about what she receives]

It can't be any worse than the Denethor rapefic I accidentally read.

Okay, I'm in. Just give me another couple of weeks to boost the boys up on Shakespearian sonnets.

Have fun!

Meg (cursing the fool who invented most gynae procedures to having his gonads used as a bloody tennis trainer toy)

Ow. :-( Sorry, Meg!

 

I have a question about the challenge.

Are we only only allowed to write the ones listed on the challenge?

Forgive me if this has been addressed before.

And are there specific forms required? For example, do we actually presume modern day formal forms count as M.E. formal, and have to be used or can we use our own, even free verse?

 

Are we only only allowed to write the ones listed on the challenge?

What unsuccessful romantic couple are you thinking of? If people have additions they'd like to see, post them here or e-mail me, and I'll get back to you.


And are there specific forms required? For example, do we actually presume modern day formal forms count as M.E. formal, and have to be used or can we use our own, even free verse?

At least as concerns Men and hobbits, their poetry seems to rhyme, and seems to be structured *in some way.* Gimli's song of Khazad-dûm also rhymes, so I'm inclined to say that if the poem is written/spoken in Westron, it's made to rhyme. Thus no free verse.

However, there may be ways of arguing around that. E.g., given the use of OE to stand in for Rohirric, Rohan might conceivably be read as valuing the alliterative aspect of poetry over and above any sort of rhyme scheme--we only get Aragorn's translations of Rohirrim poetry, and he does make it rhyme. He does the same with the Lay of Lúthien--whatever it originally sounded like/was structured like, he breaks it up into what looks like the following rhyme pattern:

abac
babc

I'm not sure what to make of Galadriel's poem in FoTR--anyone here want to do an analysis on that puppy? It doesn't follow a clear rhyme scheme, but I am not up to the task of trying to figure out if there's some other structure at work there. The "A Elbereth! Gilthoniel" poem does rhyme within the single preserved verse (assuming it's not done more fully elsewhere in, say, HOME):

aababcc

Anyhow... er... you were asking if free verse would work? Can I do the elven thing and point to the above, and say "both yes and no"?

 

unsuccessful romantic couples..

Here's a short list other than the one listed for the challenge(I hope):

Nellas to Turin (implied)
Gwindor to Finduilas
Morgoth to Varda
Hallacar to Ancalime
Erendis to Aldarion?(or vice versa)
Celebrimbor to Galadriel

I was thinking of doing Hallacar to Ancalime..though they married, they were not exactly a "successful" romantic couple I think. All depends, of course, on how you define successful. Somehow I don't believe marriage is the final verdict however..

Forget about free verse then, what would be a Numorean poetry form that is not a sonnet? I have issues with blank verse...

 

Hm. Should be more clear: 'romances' that never made it to consummation due to, shall we say, the 'less than shining'/obsessive personality of the pursuer; poetry prepared by the one doing the pursuing to the one who does end by rejecting him/her. Or, alternately, 'romantic' poetry addressed to a fetish object (Ring, Silmarils).

Does that help? As for Númenorean poetry... er... why not head over to the Poetry Forum and see if Stulti has any fun recommendations along those lines?

 

I'm still pondering this one. As much as I love the thought, I don't know if I'm up to writing structured poetry at the moment. Maybe a prose love letter?

But, this is a great challenge. For once I'm actually looking forward to Valentine's day!

Deborah

 

Or, alternately, 'romantic' poetry addressed to a fetish object (Ring, Silmarils).

Well, that certainly clears up.

But does Morgoth to Varda still count?

 

'romances' that never made it to consummation due to, shall we say, the 'less than shining'/obsessive personality of the pursuer; poetry prepared by the one doing the pursuing to the one who does end by rejecting him/her.

But I notice you have "Something Túrin might have composed for Níniel" as one of the options. That romance was "consummated" (unfortunately ). Does it still count?


Mouse

 

True, true. I think I'll have to nip off and kill that one...humanely, of course. Ooh, killing... Maybe switch it to 'a haiku to Anglachel.' (not our Tech Guru). What do you think? I'm basically trying to find some squick-worthy poetry situations to counter the Valentine's Day overload that I get every friggin' time I walk past the card section in my local grocery store. Túrin's spectacularly unhappy story just makes me go "ack!" every time, so of course, I'd toss it in without thinking.

 

Maybe switch it to 'a haiku to Anglachel.'

Perfect idea!

Maybe it could even be from Anglachel to Túrin or Beleg. Swords have feelings too.

 

Maybe it could even be from Anglachel to Túrin or Beleg. Swords have feelings too.

[Exit Stulti, whooping]

 

Of course I do. You just don't really want to know about them...

Toodles - Anglachel

 

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