Chapter 18.1
A Secret Gate continues…with Chapter 18.1.
This is another chapter, like “the 12s” that got too big for its britches and had to be broken in two. It’s a bit of a cliffhanger as a result, which I know is frustrating, but the good news is that a whole lot of 18.2 is already written!
This chapter has the distinction of being the only one thus far to be completely cast with Original Characters. Herein we meet Jamy’s father, Captain Mat Bucket, returning to the Shire from his “Rotation” on the Barway. We also get to know Reg, the Dockmaster at the Brandywine Bridge, and Tilman Rafter, the clan-leader who, some may remember from Chapter 9, strong-armed the Captain into going to the Barway in the first place. Other OCs are Mr. Forlong, the King’s Harbour Master on the Barway; a small group of river lads “sailing without a rudder” and two nameless but somewhat dubiously memorable members of the Southfarthing Headstrong family-landed gentry, perhaps, but “gentlehobbits” in name only.
There is one other character, not altogether original and still more impression than not, and that is the Brandywine River. I really enjoy writing the Brandywine. There’s something about it that really stirs my imagination and my emotions, as well. I read some years ago that Tolkien cartographers were pretty sure the Brandywine was as wide as the Upper Mississippi River, and never having seen that, I spent some time getting a sense of it online. You can as well, if you follow these links to pictures of places I imagine might be part of Middle-earth:
http://www.rushcreekrealty.com/962.htm
(A beautiful picture, somewhat south of Brandy Hall, I think; that way the watery distance could be the Marish!)
http://www.answers.com/topic/upper-mississippi-river
(Autumn: I imagine this is looking N-S, toward Sarn Ford!)
http://www.cclockwood.com/stockimages/uppermississippiriver.htm
(I especially connected to the center picture, center row [less the background mountain, which is a little high for Buck Hill]; and the far right picture in the last row showing fog on the river.)
http://kellscraft.com/MississippiValley/P3051039.JPG
(An old picture of a less stately place on the river; this is probably down past Haysend, haunted by the Withywindle.)
Where the Brandywine empties into the Sea is a kind of mystical place in my mind; if you study any map of Middle-earth, you will see that it is hidden, in a sense. It empties into a long, narrow inlet that takes it on to the sea; I imagine cliffs along the inlet and a bit of a bend at one point. The Barway-one of the “Secret Gates” of the title-is being built up at the far end of the inlet, beyond the bend, out of sight of passing ships. The “garrison” has been there for some time camped along the Eryn Vorn (see Chapter 9) but the King’s Navy is newly arrived upon the site, as are the river-hobbits.
I must thank Dreamflower for supplying on demand a fine list of titles and designations from which I eventually chose Harbour Master for the King’s chieftain on the Barway. The only other note I wanted to make was on the word embranglement. It’s an actual word, an archaic form of entangle that I found in the Thesaurus when I was looking up words that might suggest a trap. I’d never seen it before, but the minute I saw it, I thought, “That’s a hobbit word, and no mistake!” Hope you agree!
--
In other Hobbit news, if you’re like me, you have all kinds of books and toys and Hobbity, Elvish, Rohirric and Gondoran artifacts that really need a special place all their own. Browsing this week, I came upon the perfect place. We should all have one of these:
http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/how-to/articles/inside-hobbit-house.aspx
Hope the link works!
This is another chapter, like “the 12s” that got too big for its britches and had to be broken in two. It’s a bit of a cliffhanger as a result, which I know is frustrating, but the good news is that a whole lot of 18.2 is already written!
This chapter has the distinction of being the only one thus far to be completely cast with Original Characters. Herein we meet Jamy’s father, Captain Mat Bucket, returning to the Shire from his “Rotation” on the Barway. We also get to know Reg, the Dockmaster at the Brandywine Bridge, and Tilman Rafter, the clan-leader who, some may remember from Chapter 9, strong-armed the Captain into going to the Barway in the first place. Other OCs are Mr. Forlong, the King’s Harbour Master on the Barway; a small group of river lads “sailing without a rudder” and two nameless but somewhat dubiously memorable members of the Southfarthing Headstrong family-landed gentry, perhaps, but “gentlehobbits” in name only.
There is one other character, not altogether original and still more impression than not, and that is the Brandywine River. I really enjoy writing the Brandywine. There’s something about it that really stirs my imagination and my emotions, as well. I read some years ago that Tolkien cartographers were pretty sure the Brandywine was as wide as the Upper Mississippi River, and never having seen that, I spent some time getting a sense of it online. You can as well, if you follow these links to pictures of places I imagine might be part of Middle-earth:
http://www.rushcreekrealty.com/962.htm
(A beautiful picture, somewhat south of Brandy Hall, I think; that way the watery distance could be the Marish!)
http://www.answers.com/topic/upper-mississippi-river
(Autumn: I imagine this is looking N-S, toward Sarn Ford!)
http://www.cclockwood.com/stockimages/uppermississippiriver.htm
(I especially connected to the center picture, center row [less the background mountain, which is a little high for Buck Hill]; and the far right picture in the last row showing fog on the river.)
http://kellscraft.com/MississippiValley/P3051039.JPG
(An old picture of a less stately place on the river; this is probably down past Haysend, haunted by the Withywindle.)
Where the Brandywine empties into the Sea is a kind of mystical place in my mind; if you study any map of Middle-earth, you will see that it is hidden, in a sense. It empties into a long, narrow inlet that takes it on to the sea; I imagine cliffs along the inlet and a bit of a bend at one point. The Barway-one of the “Secret Gates” of the title-is being built up at the far end of the inlet, beyond the bend, out of sight of passing ships. The “garrison” has been there for some time camped along the Eryn Vorn (see Chapter 9) but the King’s Navy is newly arrived upon the site, as are the river-hobbits.
I must thank Dreamflower for supplying on demand a fine list of titles and designations from which I eventually chose Harbour Master for the King’s chieftain on the Barway. The only other note I wanted to make was on the word embranglement. It’s an actual word, an archaic form of entangle that I found in the Thesaurus when I was looking up words that might suggest a trap. I’d never seen it before, but the minute I saw it, I thought, “That’s a hobbit word, and no mistake!” Hope you agree!
--
In other Hobbit news, if you’re like me, you have all kinds of books and toys and Hobbity, Elvish, Rohirric and Gondoran artifacts that really need a special place all their own. Browsing this week, I came upon the perfect place. We should all have one of these:
http://www.taunton.com/finehomebuilding/how-to/articles/inside-hobbit-house.aspx
Hope the link works!