thanks gathering
Nov. 28th, 2014 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacThe family gathering, at a place named on no map, included a few I had not met before, including a tall bearded man introduced to me as a Tolkien fan. I have to go across three in-law connections to reach this fellow genealogically,* but we had an agreeable meeting of the minds.
When he learned that I am something of an expert on this Tolkien chap, he came up and said there was one question he'd always wondered about. "There's Gandalf the Grey and Radagast the Brown and Saruman the White," he said, "but were there other wizards and what colors were they?"
Well, yes, I could answer that question, adding that Tolkien began with Gandalf (and Radagast) long before he had any idea exactly what they were or what their relationship was.
Then we got from Tolkien's inspirations onto other fantasy books one might read, and upon learning that he was a fan of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire - that's OK; he acknowledged that it's quite different from Tolkien - I asked if he were familiar with GRRM's dark fantasies of the 1980s. He knew of Fevre Dream though he had not read it, but The Armageddon Rag was unknown to him. So I described it, briefly but slowly and with relish, watching his interest rise as I noted its rock music setting, and then bursting in anticipation as I reached the punchline: "... and the name of the band - get this - is The Nazgûl." Oh, he wants that.
*He's my wife's sister's husband's brother's daughter's husband, got it?
When he learned that I am something of an expert on this Tolkien chap, he came up and said there was one question he'd always wondered about. "There's Gandalf the Grey and Radagast the Brown and Saruman the White," he said, "but were there other wizards and what colors were they?"
Well, yes, I could answer that question, adding that Tolkien began with Gandalf (and Radagast) long before he had any idea exactly what they were or what their relationship was.
Then we got from Tolkien's inspirations onto other fantasy books one might read, and upon learning that he was a fan of George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire - that's OK; he acknowledged that it's quite different from Tolkien - I asked if he were familiar with GRRM's dark fantasies of the 1980s. He knew of Fevre Dream though he had not read it, but The Armageddon Rag was unknown to him. So I described it, briefly but slowly and with relish, watching his interest rise as I noted its rock music setting, and then bursting in anticipation as I reached the punchline: "... and the name of the band - get this - is The Nazgûl." Oh, he wants that.
*He's my wife's sister's husband's brother's daughter's husband, got it?
